Human Rights & the TP

Democratic legislators in Wisconsin are not in Wisconsin this week. They have been on the run from a Republican majority intent on stripping state workers of their right to collective bargaining. Tea-party-fueled Republican majorities in other Midwestern states have similar union-busting bills in the works. It is easy to dismiss the collective bargaining rights of state workers as someone else’s problem, but it is anything but someone else’s problem.

Why the Pro-Life/Pro-Choice Debate Never Ends

The United States is tremendously rich in resources and short on history. Because parts of it were sparsely populated when the first Europeans arrived and because the indigenous population was susceptible to diseases like smallpox, it was relatively easy to conquer. 

 

God or the Beast

Imagine, for a minute, the following scenario:

God gets up one morning and decides that good and evil don't matter anymore. The only thing that matters is that people worship God. The more people worship God, the happier God becomes. If God wants to be even happier, what is the logical thing for God to do? God could get people to worship more, but there are only so many hours in the day. The best way for God to get more happiness is to get more people.

Right-Sizing Texas

Suppose for a minute, that the radical right is correct in assuming that the government needs to be small enough to drown in a bathtub.  The state of Texas has taken that leap of faith and is now “right-sizing” government in its current budget. Education took the biggest hit, and Texans are still thanking God for Mississippi, which continues to spend less and get even worse results in education. What else did Texans not need?

Abstinence Ain't All of It

Bristol Palin came to Bryan, Texas this weekend to help a local charity raise funds. The name of the charity is the Central Texas Orphans' Mission Alliance (CTOMA). It ought to be the Central Texas Orphan Making Alliance, since one of its main tenets is that abstinence works as birth control.

Texas Budget: What Shortfall?

The too-cheap-to-pay-my-fair-share people have gotten to the top of the heap in Texas government. They have decided that a country with 300 million people can get by with a government that apparently does only three things: defends against foreign invasion, locks up criminals, and defends corporations from lawsuits.

As a result, the too-cheap people are telling lawmakers to “examine the basic functions of government.” In case you don’t know the code, I’ll translate: quit educating those peons.

Arizona Shootings Foreseeable

The shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona on Saturday has energized two interconnected national debates.

The first issue is gun control. Arizona may have the least-restrictive gun ownership laws in the country. This event may be a catalyst for changing that fact, but already the second-amendment camp is setting up a hue and cry that someone is going to take their guns away. Americans love their guns, and few are willing to give up their second amendment right to keep and bear arms. This fact seems not to register on a large segment of society, typically associated with the radical right, which brings up the second debate.

Let's Talk About Government Waste

There are some new kids in town, and they are all about cleaning up the governmental act. They have positions of power and plan to use them. They cannot wait to show you how much better off you will be when there are beggars on the streets and infrastructure is a mere memory. The big prediction is that the new kids, in the name of “tax relief” will gut Social Security. They have not said it out loud yet, but the operative word is yet. Here is a look at two of the shining stars of the Republican majority, and what they plan to do to (or for) you.

Keeping America Great

In 1987, a book called The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by historian Paul Kennedy accurately predicted the demise of the Soviet Union and the coming decline of the United States. Kennedy explained very succinctly that the rise of any power depends on the balance between economic and military strength. According to Kennedy, nothing good comes of a country bankrupting itself to finance military adventures.

In a few weeks, a new congress will assemble in Washington DC, and take up the people’s business. 

What Peak Oil Means for World Peace

"Peak Oil" refers to the fact that worldwide, per capita petroleum production peaked in 1979. Owing to population growth, even though we continue to pump more actual barrels of oil per day, the amount of oil pumped per person continues to drop.

Why Illegal Immigrants Come

A great article about the United States' lack of accommodation for new parents and my recent trip to Mexico have given me an insight about why illegal immigrants come here. It just suddenly added up, like a column of numbers. The clouds opened up, and the curtain parted, and I finally understood why all those people come here.

The Israeli Irony: Darfur

Israel says it will no longer accept refugees from the Sudan who sneak across the border into that country from Egypt. The refugees will be returned to Egypt. The Israelis claim that country has agreed not to deport them, but Egypt says it will deport the refugees to the Sudan. The refugees in question are fleeing Darfur, and deporting them to the Sudan is a death sentence.

An Eerie Parallel. . .

Back in 1938, the German people were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They had had their traditional monarchical government forcibly removed and replaced with what appeared to them to be an impractical, inefficient, and cumbersome joke: the Weimar Republic. They had endured the Great Depression and economically stifling war reparations payments. They had also listened for years to the rhetoric of politicians who pledged to end the republic and bring back the glory days of Germany.

It's About the Coffins

I am sick and tired of hearing about illegal immigrants. Not that there is no problem; there are millions of people in this country who don't belong here. Unfortunately, someone has spread the vicious rumor that most of them are of Hispanic extraction. The real problem is not illegal immigrants; it's dead Americans.

An Alternate Path for Iraq

Two recent editorials in the Washington Post explored alternative roles for the United States in Iraq. Both Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Julia Taft made important points in their desire for a change in U.S. policy.

Joe Lieberman's Criminal Irresponsibility

An article in the Jerusalem Post states that U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) is calling for the United States to attack Iran immediately. According to the Post, in an interview with CBS, Lieberman said that "Military action will accomplish two goals: The destruction of Iran's nuclear plans and an end to terror attacks against US soldiers in Iraq."

Get Yer Illegal T-shirts Heah!

CarryaBigSticker.com is selling a shirt that has been outlawed in several states, including Oklahoma and Arizona. The shirt is an anti-war protest that contains the names of over three thousand fallen service men and women who have given their lives in the so-called War on Terror. Such laws are bald-faced attempts to curb the First Amendment right of free speech. Because I believe that obedience to such laws gives the government permission to revoke my right of free speech, I ordered one of these shirts today, and will cheerfully go to jail for wearing it, if need be.

At any rate, for those of you who wish to voice your support of our remaining troops by bringing them home alive, I thought I'd give you a heads-up.

Forgiveness, Fallwell, and Me

My reading today in A Course in Miracles tells me that I need to understand that forgiveness is not overlooking someone's sin, but rather acknowledging the fact that if God created a world as perfect as He is, nothing in that world is out of place. The reading advises me to try to understand that things that seem to need forgiving are really as they should be, and the problem I'm having with them is mine.

Disabled Child has no Right to Life Support

Here is one of those questions I'll have to put in the "Glad I don't have to answer it" column, but I can't get it off my mind for other reasons.

Emilio Gonzalez is a terminally ill 17-month-old boy who "lives" on a hospital ward in Austin, Texas. There is no chance that Emilio will ever get well. His court appointed attorney/guardian ad litem has filed a legal brief in which he asserts that "there is no constitutional right to medical treatment and Emilio does not have a fundamental right to life-sustaining treatment."

Irked by Iraq

I hate this war.

I thought at first it was a knee-jerk reaction because I was a teenager during the worst of the Viet Nam tragedy. It's not. I hate this war.

I hate it because from the very beginning, I was branded and labeled for opposing it. Before the first soldier set foot in Iraq, people were flipping me the bird because I had an anti-war bumper sticker on my car. Every time I spoke out against the war, I was told that I was unpatriotic, inappropriate, or hateful. My pastor refused to pray for peace during Sunday services, even though there is a perfectly good prayer for peace in our prayerbook. My relationship with the church was the first casualty of the war for me.