Ava's Army

Ava Lowery, the creator of the popular anti-war organization Peace Takes Courage, has created a new site called Ava's Army. This site is directed toward politically active young people, regardless of political leanings, I advise all readers to at least check it out at the link on the side bar or here.

I post under the user name- Spiny Norman

The site goes live on the 11th but feel free to register and start posting.

Now there's a wide stance!

Now… I’ve tried to stay away from this topic but I suppose I would have to come around to it eventually. In the past I’ve kept sex scandals and the right-leaning portion of our populous as separated to criticism as possible, but come on guys! You keep giving me material that I didn’t want to use.

But this latest incident just made it ridiculous. Read it here.

But that was just the beginning…

When further researching this topic I found that there seems to be more of a trend than I thought.

(WARNING: Some of the following is quite graphic, younger readers beware.)

Adelphia Communications Corp.: Donated large sums of money to some of the most conservative members of Congress. They are also the first cable company to offer hard-core adult movies to subscribers. Article here.

Randal David Ankeney, A Republican activist, arrested on suspicion of sexual assault on a child with force. He faces 6 charges related to getting a 13-year-old girl stoned on pot and then having sex with her. Article here. He was also accused of sexually assaulting another girl. Article here.

Merrill Robert Barter, Republican County Commissioner, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy. Article here.

Robert Bauman, Republican congressman and anti-gay activist, was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar. (Source blocked)

Parker J. Bena, Republican activist and Bush Elector, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography (including children as young as 3 years old) on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000. Article here.

Louis Beres, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon. 3 of his family members accuse him of molesting them when they were pre-teens. In August 06, Beres confessed. Article here.

Howard L. Brooks, Republican legislative aide and advisor to a California assemblyman, was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography. Article here.

Andrew Buhr, Republican politician, former committeeman for Hadley Township Missouri, was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy. Article here.

John Allen Burt, Republican anti-abortion activist, convicted of sexually molesting a 15 year old girl at the home for troubled girls that he ran. Article here.

Keola Childs, Republican County Councilman, pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the first degree for molesting a male child. Article here.

Kevin Coan, Republican St. Louis Election Board official, arrested and charged with trying to buy sex from a 14-year-old girl whom he met on the Internet. Article here.

Richard A. Dasen Sr., Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, convicted of sexual abuse of children, promotion of prostitution and several counts of solicitation, enough to add up to a sentence of 126 years in prison. Investigators estimated that he spent up to $5,000,000 on prostitutes. Article here.

Nicholas Elizondo, Director of the Young Republican Federation molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison. Article here.

Richard A. Delgaudio, Republican fundraiser and Bush pioneer, was found guilty of child porn charges. Article here.

Larry Dale Floyd, Republican Constable in Denton County, Texas Precinct Two. Arrested for allegedly crossing state lines to have sex with an 8-year old child and was charged with 7 related offenses. Age 62 at time of arrest. Article here.

Mark Foley, Republican Representative, Florida Sixteenth Congressional District. Resigned after trying to solicit sex from male congressional pages via an instant messenger program. The conversations included his asking a sixteen-year-old "stud" whether his penis was erect and requesting that he take out and measure his penis. The cover-up involved Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner, Ohio Eighth Congressional District and Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Illinois Fourteenth District.

John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal, a prominent anti-abortion columnist and GOP fund raiser. He lost his position after it was revealed that he impregnated the daughter of an old girlfriend and then encouraged her to abort his child. Article here.

Jack W. Gardner, Republican Councilman, had been convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl. when the Republican Party, knowing of these crimes, put him on the ballot. Article here.

Richard Gardner, a Nevada State Representative (R), admitted to molesting his two daughters. Article here.

Philip Giordano, Republican mayor sentenced to 37 years for forcing two 8 and 10 year old girls to perform oral sex on him in his City Hall office. Article here.

Matthew Glavin, president and CEO of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, big player in the Clinton Impeachment, and many anti-gay jihads, has been arrested multiple times for public indeceny, one time fondling the crotch of the officer who was arresting him. Article here.

Jon Grunseth, Republican businessman and candidate for Minnesota governor, withdrew his candidacy after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter, and tried to grope one. "I've made some mistakes" he said. Article here

Dr. W. David Hager Bush appointee, member of Focus on the Family's Physician Resource Council, player in movement to ban the morning-after-pill. Had an adulterous affair, before divorcing his wife he sexually abused her, including sodomizing her in her sleep. Article here.

Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, introduced by Bush on the campaign trail, and promoted his policies. Says he supports Bush's values. Two months later, this married father of four turned himself into police, charged with the sexual exploitation of a child. Article here.

Donald Lukens, Republican Congressman, was found guilty of having sex with a minor - a girl he was accused of sleeping with since she was 13. Article here.

Nicholas Morency, Republican anti-abortion activist, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor. Article here.

And that’s all I’m going to write for now, with just the list I found- this isn’t even 2/3 of it. So I’ll get back to you with the rest of it but I don’t want to vomit right now.

Have a pleasant day.

Frontline: Cheney's Law

This is a very interesting Frontline piece about Cheney's efforts and the efforts of the administration to give more power to the Executive branch, to the point where congress has no decisive power in a time of war.

Watch it here.

Pathetic Punditry

Bill O’Reilly

Popular right-wing pundit, Bill O’Reilly, has come under an awful lot of fire recently for comments made about a Harlem restaurant.

Quoted:

“I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship. It was the same, and that's really what this society's all about now here in the USA. There's no difference……

There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer,' " I think you know what that probably means, " 'I want more iced tea.' You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all.”

Now I can understand that the remarks made were not intentionally racist and I’m not calling him such, but frankly the fact that he was surprised that black people weren’t going around yelling “(Place swear-word here), get me more iced tea.” is a little ridiculous.

The remarks should have never been made on the air, that’s a given. But after making such statements he refused to take responsibility and apologize, instead he chose to attack organizations like Media Matter for America saying that they took his statements out of context and that it was a personal attack.

Rush Limbaugh

Unlike the above, this is in no way understandable or excusable.

LIMBAUGH: There's a lot more than that that they don't understand. They can't even -- if -- the next guy that calls here, I'm gonna ask him: Why should we pull -- what is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They can't -- I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we just gotta bring the troops home."

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what --

LIMBAUGH: "Save the -- keep the troops safe" or whatever. I -- it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.

Those who are serving the country but don’t support the war because they’d rather live in peace, are NOT phony soldiers.

Your own record is hardly reputable. You never took a draft physical; instead you informed the military of a physically disqualifying condition, either a football knee injury or a pilonidal cyst (either one, his story keeps changing).

Letter to the World

I live in a country that polices the world while I sit safely inside its borders and do nothing to change it.

So the least I can do is apologize to the people we’ve affected.

I apologize to the Palestinians for my tax dollars that paid for the bullets that ripped through your homes and bodies. I’m sorry for my country’s blocking of over 50 UN peace treaties between yourselves and the Israelis. I’m sorry that I helped to pay for the tanks that roam your streets.

I apologize to the Kurdish people of Iraq, for the chemical weapons and machine gun bullets that were bought with $500,000,000 in subsidies given by my government to Saddam Hussein and used to systematically slaughter your people. I also apologize to you because even after this happened we doubled those subsidies to $1,000,000,000

Yeah, sorry about that.

I apologize to the Japanese people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the use of Nuclear weapons on your population, even when your military was already planning to surrender.

I apologize to the German people of Dresden and other various cities that we’ve fire-bombed that were made up of almost purely civilians.

I apologize to the people of Latin America for the decades of Dictators and Despots put in place by CIA-backed coups. I’m sorry we’ve branded you incapable of Democracy.

My personal apology to the people of Chile, for my government’s assistance of the military junta headed by General Pinochet who tortured and killed thousands of your countrymen.

I apologize to the various peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m sorry that our smart-bombs weren’t smart enough to distinguish between a militia member and a child walking to school. I’m sorry that although we invaded your countries, Americans seem to have no interest in your culture. I’m sorry that we use ammunition containing depleted uranium that irradiates the ground and well-water and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. I’m sorry that we’ve seem to have inherited the European trait of being completely heartless.

I’m sorry that our CIA has made Hussein and bin Laden as powerful as they are.

But, I hope you understand, we had to defeat Communism. Oh yes, and Iran, we had to stick it to Iran. Sorry.

I apologize to the few peoples of the East Indies who, because of our nuclear testing, became sick.

I understand if you don’t forgive us. And I hope you survive us.

I say to the people of the United States in the most gentle, human way. Welcome to the world.
-Arundhati Roy

When I Rule

I am the Dictator,

Your Benevolent Despot.

I’m in your classroom.

I’m in your home.

I love you all

You all love me.

I serve you all,

And you serve me.

A handgun is my tool of education.

A tank leads my parades.

I am the most handsome

I am the best artist

Everyone is happy

My generals know my genius

All Hail the Great Leader!

Fair-weather friends

It’s been an interesting summer, politically speaking. The latest incident involving Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) resigning over an illicit scandal involving him trying to have sexual relations with a male undercover police officer in an airport bathroom. His political party, the Republican Party, is not at issue here. Except the behavior, not of him, but his fellow party members in that as soon as the proverbial feces hit the fan, they immediately alienated him. We saw the same thing happen with the Mark Foley- Dennis Hastert incident. Though what Sen. Craig may have, or may have not done, nor had the intention of doing is beyond what I can judge (He originally pleaded guilty but than said that he didn’t really do anything). The rabbit hole goes much deeper than what we are seeing here, it seems to be that the party is purging itself of all that doesn’t fit its’ moral code. And this could even be parallel to the openly gay Arabic translators who were fired purely because of their sexual orientation, even when Linguists (especially Arabic) are in dire need.

I’m sorry, but when a person wants to serve their country, or has been a public servant for 30 years. You would think that their personal lives or acts (illegal or not) would not be of concern to anybody else.

Reverend of Hate.

So our beloved friend Reverend Jerry Falwell died on Tuesday. He was a role model for conservatives, extreme-Christians, and homophobes everywhere.

Here were some of his more memorable quotes.
“The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.” In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.” In a sermon.

“Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.” On an episode of Crossfire.

“God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.” As quoted in "God Gave US 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says" by John F Harris, in The Washington Post (14 September 2001).

“His message of peace and reconciliation under almost all circumstances is simply incompatible with Christian teachings as I interpret them. This 'turn the other cheek' business is all well and good but it's not what Jesus fought and died for. What we need to do is take the battle to the Muslim heathens and do unto them before they do unto us.”
His opinion on Jimmy Carter.

“You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops and I am for the President — chase them all over the world, if it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” In a CNN debate with Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“The fact that Marc Cherry’s a gay Republican means he should join the Democratic Party.” On Meeting The Press.

Those are just a few. The funny thing is that I don’t have to write anything bad about him, his quotes are self-incriminating.

If you want to read more, here you go.

I Still Have Questions

Marching Christian soldiers
Making war for God
War on God
Brutal Crusade

Crusade…

He is on our side
After all…

Leave me alone. Why must people who call themselves Christian feel like they’re forced to take sides? I’m not a crusader, and I won’t give the church credit for my actions: good or bad.
I find myself struggling to find faith without falling into the blind following that I scorn so often. If violence is wrong than why is this war excusable among the “good Christian folk” in the GOP? Pro-life and Pro-death penalty, contradictory?

I’m lost…

I’m apparently supposed to demean Muslims, Homosexuals, Atheists, Occult, and those who question it. WELL, I QUESTION IT!!! If the path to eternal bliss consists of this, than I don’t want it.

I want nothing from this.

I have to be a good person for Christianity. I’d rather be a good person for myself, and not out of fear of divine retribution.

The Ten Commandments are urged to be posted everywhere, yet these people ignore the Beatitudes; you know:

The meek shall "inherit the earth".
The merciful shall "obtain mercy".
The pure of heart shall "see God".
The peacemakers shall be "the children of God".
Very few “good Christian folk” that I know can claim these titles. Why? Because the message has been lost, and forever shall be.
OK, I’m done.

Please do your best to help me out here.

Bittersweet Equality

“A lot of people on wrecked planet were Communists. They had a theory that what was left of the planet should be shared more or less equally among all the people, who hadn’t asked to come to this wrecked planet in the first place…

Dwayne Hoover’s and Kilgore Trout’s country, where there was still plenty of everything, was opposed to Communism. It didn’t believe that earthlings who had a lot should share it with others unless they really wanted to, most of them didn’t want to.

So they didn’t have to.”

‘Breakfast of Champions’, 1973 By Kurt Vonnegut

Communists don’t like pie.

When I attended the High School I was often hushed by people like my guidance counselor because my views on Communism were ‘unpopular’. I saw the use of this system differently, not pictures of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Josef Stalin, and even Hugo Chavez standing above huge military rallies while preaching a message of “Love the cause, fight for the cause, or else”. No, I saw a solution away from corruption, away from oppression, away from all that I despised about our spoiled-brat lifestyle. A theory where you work for the system to benefit from said system, nothing is given to you. The western perception of this system is flawed and that because now China essentially owns us, we hold a temper to those that have invaded us through an open wallet.

When someone argues that Communism is, in fact, ‘evil’ I don’t mind. Just do so with facts, when someone goes about it without facts then I lose my patience. Our perception of Communism is rarely without genocide.

But one must remember, Hitler was democratically elected. So that system is also not without error.

Something was, and still is, fundamentally wrong with Communism: Greed. Too much power in the hands of too few people and we see the same thing happening in the United States, not with Communism, but with a super-capitalist, corporate imperialist oligarchy. That was a mouthful.

Please share your views on this form of economic bliss.

(P.S. Though this is only a myth, Communists may in-fact like pie, contrary to the previous statement.)

In Regards To...

Good morning everyone, or good afternoon if it just so happens you’re reading this in the afternoon. Well I figure I’d better post about something.

I suppose you may be wondering why I didn’t post on the VT tragedy, one reason: this blog is either about politics or social irreverence, to associate the tragedy with such would be degrading the value of those poor lives lost. This is not a political issue nor should it ever be and I condemn anyone who uses it as such. So any debate about the 2^nd amendment or “zero tolerance policies”, I think should be done without reference to this.

Comments on Universal Satire have been unfortunately scarce, please don’t be hesitant to share your opinion, just be respectful and play nice for Christ’s sake. And if any one has a topic that they would like to discuss, please E-mail me or post it yourself.

If anyone is also offended by “Conservative Jake” or any of my posts, please let me know.

Thank you.

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut.

My favorite author died last night. Mr. Kurt Vonnegut jr. died as a result of a brain injury sustained during a fall several weeks ago. He was 84.

A WWII veteran, a former POW of a Dresden slaughterhouse, and an anti-war activist.

He wrote many great novels such as “The Slaughterhouse Five” (based on his own experiences), “Breakfast of Champions”, “The Cat’s Cradle”, and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater”. He was possibly the funniest writer I’ve ever read and made me think of things in a way that I never had before. He had the most amazing to take both complicated and provocative philosophies and break them down so simply that it made you reexamine the way humanity works and he did so with quirky, entertaining stories and colorful characters.

I think that everyone who reads this should look into his works because no matter what your background, you’ll relate to something he has to say and he’ll really make you think.

Wiki him or something.

Here's a better article about him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/books/11cnd-vonnegut.html?ex=1334030400&en=c44942aa6c6fb22f&ei=5124&partner=digg&exprod=digg

Divine Patience

Now here's something that's really cool, it's called Buddhist Sand Art, and what they do is make an entire mural out of individual grains of sand.

This is a small one.

This is constructed grain by dyed grain.














Then when they're done the simply sweep it up.

















And ceremoniously dump it in a river.
I think that the amount of patience that this requires is amazing, and watching things like this only cause me to have more respect for other cultures. I had the privilege of watching an extremely large one be constructed in Minneapolis.

Land of the Free

Gitmo makes me frustrated. This administration makes me frustrated. The American people, whom are allowing this to happen, make me frustrated. How can we be considered a free country and be seen as which by the rest of the world if places like this exist. There are 385 detainees being held in Guantanimo bay, only 10 of whom have been accused of an actual crime, and they have no chance of asking for an appeal or questioning their imprisonment as the Supreme Court has just ruled. That means 375 people have been kidnapped and imprisoned and tortured for no reason known to them or to us for that matter, for five years. Now I honestly want to know what someone on the other side of the debate feels about this, how can the apparent “Land of the Free” do this to other human beings, is it simply out of paranoia?

Really. Honestly. Tell me, do you really want to be safe if these are the methods used to make you so? Is this justified?

Spreken ze whatever.

I love trying to learn a language. The sense of listening to English and automatically knowing, without having to translate from a basic, a medium; but when your learning another language you struggle to translate from English as others try to translate from their basic, their medium. It’s like dunking your head in water, passing into something else, something foreign and you know that others are doing the same thing when they try to talk to you in something other than their native language. It’s annoying when the other speaks so quickly that you struggle to pick up the translations and miss the proverbial or literal boat but it’s worth it to know that now you possess the ability to speak to an entirely new culture of people, people that can educate you in things that you may want or need to know.

And there’s that little bit about speaking in another language to a person that doesn’t understand it.

But mostly the culture thing.

Support Our Troops! They will need it.

Dear God this is terrible. Injured troops in Fort Benning, Georgia deemed unfit for combat are being sent to Iraq to fill the gaps in the regiment. Men and women with medical problems have had their profiles examined and changed by a medical team commissioned by Lt. Col. George Appenzeller and downplayed the soldiers injuries without any physical examinations or extensive view of medical records so that they could be sent overseas. One soldier, Master Sgt. Jenkins, is 42 years old and has had surgery to fix back problem he acquired overseas in which they fused three vertebras in his neck and the regular doctor has said that he is not allowed to wear heavy Kevlar or carry ordinance is being sent overseas where he would be required to do this.

When the Appenzeller, the CO, was asked about this he said that they had changed some of the files to keep soldier home which was contradictory to what the soldiers and the files themselves say. He said in response that our soldiers are and quote, “ our most important resource, perhaps the most important resource we have in this country.” PEOPLE ARE NOT RESOURSES AND SHOULD NOT BE TREATED AS SO! THEY ARE NOT EXPENDABLE; THEY CANNOT BE CAST ASIDE! These brave men and women served their country and were injured doing so, you have to take care of them not push them back into battle. The guidelines for not being sent over were not being able to fire a weapon or not being able to dive and roll for cover. I’m once again disappointed, oh well.

Opinion: Structured

So yesterday I was sitting and watching the news with my grandfather. We ended up watching ABC because there was nothing good on PBS (which is weird because there usually is) and on came a segment about atheists “attacking” the American religious complex. Though I saw the point of view of the atheists that were presented to be almost as extreme as the fundamentalists themselves, I.E.- blatantly referring to religion as superstition, I could understand where they’re coming from. The separation between church and state is needed in order to have not just a balanced judicial system but also a fair executive branch. Well, back to what I was talking about before. I lost some respect for ABC on this report because of their sloppy polling, like placing atheists in the same margin as agnostics when they differ greatly. An agnostic isn’t sure what to believe, whether or not there is a higher power or deity, or if they do believe in such a thing it doesn’t follow the mold of major religion and highly respect that because it takes a lot more thought and self-analysis to come up with your own philosophy than to regurgitate what someone else told you and no matter what you believe or think, so long as you came about these beliefs this way nobody can rightly call you wrong or ignorant.


“Religion is the opium of the masses.”
-Karl Marx

24! Everybody loves it.

I followed the first season of Fox’s hit show 24. I thought the concept was interesting and that the drama was appropriate and well played out, I also, being a fan of Kiefer Sutherland, approved of the acting. The following seasons left me in the dust and after the 4th season (I believe it’s the fourth season, I’m not sure) I am completely lost but to no avail, a recent viewing of the episode disappointed me: obviously Islamic men (TERRORISTS!!) playing the antagonists and a poorly aimed gunfight at every climax. Now in the first season you didn’t know who the bad guy/girl was, probably in the cubical next to you; that’s drama. One more amazing thing is that the show didn’t need violence to be good, just the anticipation of violence, running up stairs two at a time, flinging the door open and proclaiming “Ha Ha, caught you Mildred!” But the show has become what every other Fox viewer wants: a bad Steven Segal-esque propaganda movie with another one-man army.

The show has come under fire recently by non-other than the US military for 24’s casual use of torture to gain information for the show’s antagonists. Luckily the show’s star: Kiefer Sutherland denoted the show’s use of torture saying that it is both unethical and ineffective. My opinion is that sue of torture is wrong in any situation no matter what the situation and every man/woman/undecided that gets arrested and accused in this war or any war has a right to a fair and ethical trail and places like Guantanimo bay should be outlawed (even though they technically are already). The way I see it is that Timothy McVey got a fair trail, perhaps because he was white, Christian, and right-wing ExtremoFascist. And he targeted a DAY-CARE CENTER!! That’s what I have to say so now I’m gonna put my two cents in.

Saving Bush's Legacy.... With Reading!

And no, It's not My Pet Goat.
Presidential libraries have provided magnificent, informative, and well-biased information ever since F.D. Roosevelt started the first one back in the day. In an effort to save his supposed legacy, Mr. Bush has proposed to have his library at the Southern Methodist University. Protesting has kept this project at bay because nobody apparently wants to be associated with such a legacy, this makes sense because even though all the presidential documents being held in these other libraries is free to be viewed by anyone, George is restricting access to many of the files labeling them top-secret yet still putting them in the library. Why would you create a library where many of the papers are not allowed to be read, built on a legacy that mislead into a war with no end, ruined our world image, and destroyed our economy. But oh well, I’m just gonna sit back, put my feet up, watch how this turns out. I’ve got plenty of time.

Corporate Greed

Now this is amazing.

Bad amazing.

Guess what! Cure for cancer! But not for you, why? Because there’s no one to sell it to you. The drug is called dichloroacetate and it is able to distinguish between normal and cancerous cells by whether or not the cell’s mitochondrion is functioning. When a cell mutates and becomes cancerous the mitochondria stop working and shift the job of producing energy to glycolysis, which is less effective and has more waste. The drug stimulates the dormant mitochondria and the cell bursts causing tumors to shrink and die.

Why isn’t this in front page news? The Canadian-found drug has no patent and is so cheap and effective that drug companies refuse to sell it because they wont turn a profit. This is ridiculous, more ridiculous than nearly everything I’ve ranted about before and it’s why I find people disgusting. Greed, greed, greed, money, money, money. If Kenneth Lay were still alive even he’d be in disgust, maybe Dennis Koslowski too. (For those that don’t know they were the CEO’s of Enron and Tyco) Well, I hope the money they saved is well spent because the amount of effort it must of took to fight their conscience sure earned it. Save millions of lives with a cure for cancer and you pass it up to keep your pockets full. Good job.

http://www.studentprintz.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=c7794f20-dfb1-4494-892d-b529895da103

Why haven't I made up my mind?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, it was sprung by a conversation that I had with Mr. Geiwitz and Elizabeth a while back about the actions we will be willing to take in certain situations. We spoke of the sanctity of human life and willingness to use violence to protect oneself and the people one cares about, so I decided to put my beliefs out there. I personally don’t like violence as an alternative; violence springs from anger and anger inhibits the ability to think rationally which is necessary in quelling any type of problem. In that I could not bring myself to kill in self-defense because such is selfish but when it comes to defending to the people I care about, such may be necessary. I am also a hunter so why I hold animal life below a human’s I’m still not sure, I’ve thought about it a lot but I can never figure why I warranted it, but I do. I’m still not exactly sure where I stand on abortion which is probably why I don’t use as an issue but I guess what I think is that abortion, the death of an innocent living being (but then again how do I define innocence) is wrong but I’m not high enough on the moral ladder to be able to tell people what’s right and what’s wrong although I’m sure I do often. There are things on the pro-life bill that I don’t agree with such as banning stem cell research because this has so much potential. The reason it’s a controversy is because a lot of people don’t fully understand the point, it’s for human cloning but rather just the cloning of individual organs which could end the organ waiting list and save many lives and the cells can be safely extracted from the remains of the umbilical chord without ever harming the baby. There, I’m done ranting on that, on to something else.