Posted by
MouthyGirl on 04/13/2009 |
2 comments
The news has leaked: The Whitehouse has its puppy. His name is Bo and is a purebred Portuguese Waterdog. It is apparently a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy. The media is in an uproar! But Obama you PROMISED you would get a shelter dog! Actually, what he said was “There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic, but on the other hand our preference is to get a shelter dog, but obviously, a lot of the shelter dogs are mutts like me. So, whether we are going to be able to balance those two things I think is a pressing issue on the Obama household.”
In another interview, Barbara Walters suggested a Havanese, a small terrier breed. And Obama said, “It sounds like a girly dog….We’re going to have a big rambunctious dog, of some sort. “ Let’s face it, of the big rambunctious breeds; few are hypoallergenic and difficult or impossible to find in a shelter.
So no, he didn’t adopt one from a shelter and he never “promised” to. But from what I understand, he did make a donation to the Humane Society, which is in dire need right now due to all the “foreclosure” dogs. My hope is that those who do not have allergies and can do so will adopt from your local shelter.
Now, the media can direct its attention to the things that are really pressing: the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan and pirates.
Wait, pirates?
Maybe the reason for the big coverage of non-consequential items such as the Obama puppy is just more evidence that the world has gone crazy. The media can’t even handle it. They need a break from the craziness, and they sense that we do too. A controversy over a puppy is easy for us to wrap our minds around. We can understand that. That kind of controversy is more “comfortable”.
We can’t understand what brought a man to storm a community center and kill 13 people and then kill himself in New York. We can’t understand how 600,000 Americans are losing their jobs each month, while we gave billions to some of the corporations that employed them. We can’t understand how growing deficit is going to help things at all. We all feel a little helpless in the craziness.
A puppy we understand. Even if the puppy is “controversial”.
Tags: Afghanistan, economy, foreclosure, interview, iraq, job, news, obama
Posted by
Wendy on 04/06/2009 |
9 comments
The US Constitution was ratified by the 13 states in 1789. Realizing the original Constitution failed to protect individual liberties, the Bill of Rights, or the first ten Amendments, were introduced to Congress in the same year, and came into effect on December 15, 1791. The first Amendment, as Thomas Jefferson described it, built a “wall of separation between Church and State” (Letter to the Danbury Baptists, 1802).
Even so, many fundamental Christians feel that the United States is a Christian nation and prayer should be mandated in public schools; creationism should be taught to children; and the 10 commandments should adorn public buildings. And they have taken over the Republican Party. That gives the Fundamentalist power to pursue their agenda: to rid the country of secularism.
We only need to look at the legislation passed in previous eight last years to know that this is true. George Bush won the war on the very unbiblical taxes by cutting taxes on the wealthy, which passed in the House at 1:56 am on a Friday in May, under the cloak of darkness. Those proponents of the flat tax—they are proponents of the Biblical tax, the only tax mentioned in the Bible. To fundamentalists, the free market rewards good Christian behavior and punishes the unrepentant. And so the Republicans did their bidding and cut regulations on corporations. Then of course, George Bush’s abstinence only sex education program, where lots of government funds were given to faith-based programs. Also there were multiple calls for an Amendment to the Constitution making marriage only between “one man and one woman”, to keep the Biblical definition of marriage law of the land.
The past eight years clearly chipped away at the wall between church and state. Even for the most devout Christian, this should be alarming. We only need to look at theocracies like Iran and Afghanistan under Taliban rule to see what we could become. The most literal interpretations of our Bible would put our society backwards 2000 years. Women, Jews, gays, Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists would all become second class citizens. Science would not have the place it does in our society today. We must remember that this country was founded by men and women escaping the tyranny of the Church of England; and Nazi Germany was led by a very religious man wishing to rid its country of moral decay.
We need to rebuild the wall. As a nation, we need to understand that a marriage under the law is not the same as a marriage in the Church. We need to understand that faith-based programs have their place, but not in government. We need to understand that science does not necessarily preclude the supernatural. We should know that someone else’s beliefs, or lack thereof, do not in any way diminish our own beliefs. Most of all, we should know that our salvation can not be legislated or coerced.
But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. In neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. – Thomas Jefferson
Tags: Afghanistan, belief, bible, biblical, Bill of Rights, country, creationism, education, first amendment, flat tax, friday, fundamental christian, god, marriage, republican, republican party, separation of church and state, Sex, ten amendments, thomas jefferson, US Constitution
Posted by
MouthyGirl on 03/30/2009 |
One comment
Last week, President Obama laid out his plan for Afghanistan. His plan calls for committing 21,000 more troops and providing Pakistan 1.5 billion per year in non-military aid. To Al-Qaeda he says, “We will defeat you”. Many critics say that he is only widening a war in a region that history has shown to be impossible to claim victory. The Russians tried in the 80’s and ended up with egg on their faces.
From what I know about the area, it seems to me that 21,000 troops won’t do the trick, if we are talking about conventional warfare. I hope our president isn’t thinking in conventional terms, here. But of the small details he’s given, I have hope that he’s thinking outside the box, or at least moving away from the “with us or against us” mentality that has only created more enemies than allies.
The majority of the people in that region just want to live in peace. By indiscriminately bombing towns and villages killing many to root out a few terrorists, we create more terrorists. The war will not be won with unmanned predator drones. The war will not be won with shock and awe. It just won’t be won that way.
So how do we win the war? We win the war by creating peace. I know it sounds so cliché. But really, many of the men who joined the fight over there have nothing to lose. When there is despair, anger is sure to follow.
President Obama’s plan for Afghanistan recognizes that this war can’t be won by bombing these people to kingdom come. You have to give the people a reason to stop the fighting. The plan calls for training Afghan police and military. It gives Pakistan money to build schools and infrastructure in the regions along the border of Afghanistan where the Taliban and terrorists have found safe haven. It is a plan to give the people hope for the future. In turn, they will go about trying to live their lives instead of strapping bombs on their backs.
That’s how Al Qaeda will be defeated. They will lose their foot soldiers and won’t have the army to fight.
At least, that’s how I hope things work out. Maybe I’m just making eggs into omelets. What do you thin
Tags: Afghanistan, followers, infrastructure, money, obama, peace, soldier, want
