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Sept. 30, 2005 I'm back for my second round of venting my feelings and opinions on this website. Thanks for the “welcome back” emails, and thanks especially to Brian for a column just about me. I've had other columns just about me, but his was positive ;) A few of the UK conservatives pooled their money and sent me a toy stuffed elephant dressed in religious garb – thanks guys. This is a continuation of my Nuggets series of columns. Sections are bolded, scroll to interesting sounding sections: UK politics, a clarification, the Right-wing non lie, “Balanced News”, and quotes. My last Nuggets column is here. UK Politics I haven't read all of the articles that I missed while I was away, but I skimmed a good deal of them and superficially plucked a few here or there for closer scrutiny. There are a few writer vs. writer battles that are new to me. There are the same columns from the conservatives, which reign supreme at UK, many columns about the Christian God (yeah, I hear he's great!), and a rather good collection of atheist articles. And of course we have the general mix of articles of every other type that make UK fun and unpredictable and art-see and even a place to learn something factual. I also found more examples of otherwise liberal folk afraid to call themselves liberal. What a shame this is. Liberal policies have allowed mankind to reach never before seen standards of living both here and abroad; the modern rich nation strategy of “mixed economies”, combinations of profit-seeking corporations controlled and heavily regulated by a generally benevolent and caring populace, works. People all too often buy into slippery slope arguments, and I admit I'm no exception. We've heard the arguments from the Right: “once we get over gay men having sex, morality will decline, everyone will have sex with farm animals, and it will be the end of civilization!”, or, “If we regulate guns at all, then you will be unable to defend yourself from a hypothetical, future, bastard, government! First they will take your guns and then, your children!” Here are some slippery-slope arguments that I actually believe. My belief in them is rooted in history; this is no promise that they will happen again, but the possibility is enough to scare me: “A widening gap between the rich and the poor leads to many bad things, from general civil-unrest, to aristocracy”, or, “Government getting in bed with religion leads to oppression and stagnation at best and theocracy at worst”. I'm sorry folks, but now is the time to be more partisan, more cynical, more questioning, and more loud (grammar?). Don't be mousy with your point of view. Why more partisan? Some of you may have noticed that we have only two parties in this country. Supporting Nader might have been the “right” thing to do for some, but it actually helped the other side, which is why the other side helped to fund Nader. Relative morality is a bitch, I admit. Republicans that I respect and admit would make good leaders, should not be supported by liberals at this time. McCain or Rudy for example. Rudy is really moderate on social issues, but he supported Bush with everything he was worth. Why? Because neither can succeed without their party and, remember, there are only two parties. Is my point becoming more clear? When Congress is almost split down the middle, or when generation-spanning issues come up, Supreme Court nominations for example, it's time to get with the party that best represents you and pick a side. It may be the opposite of what you were taught in Kindergarten about getting along, but it is reality. You can be an idealist – hell, I am! Just be a realistic-idealist. I do blame the Right for the current batch of partisanship: I never knew Jesus was a free-market radical, or that God was a Republican. Americans apparently bought those ideas. This process has all but made it impossible for me to support the Republican party for the foreseeable future. In this ugly battle, my fellow liberals, which we lose by default if we don't participate, only support Republican moderates when it weakens that party – support McCain when he counters Bush, for example. A Clarification Re-reading this column I wrote, I find myself needing to clarify something. Why I didn't notice it when I proofread it 17 times is beyond me. Anyway, I said:
And, why can't we get a good to answer to the
blatantly obvious question which follows, “Ok, then
where did that creature come from?” Religion may find
such a question offensive, but keep in mind that
Intelligent Design is passed off as “science”, so it's
the next logical question.
I also said that the Big Bang theory is valid even if it doesn't address where the initial super-dense dot that exploded into the universe came from. It seems as if I expect the creationist folks to answer this, but give the science of the Big Bang a free pass. Here is the difference. The Big Bang folks will answer - they say they don't know. Or, they point to other cosmologists working on the problem now, like the string folks that think everything might be made of incredibly small vibrating string like structures. The string people want to finish Einsteins work (in principle), and unify all of physics under one central theory, but I digress... The creationist response is either non-science philosophy or religious, “It doesn't matter what came before!”, “We don't ask where God came from!”, “Creation is the first cause – there is nothing prior to inquire about”, and so on. The entire conjecture of Intelligent Design is centered around a creator creating. Using IDs own language, we must conclude that a creator created the creator that created, and so on [to my way of thinking, giving “evidence” for polytheism, not monotheism]. The Big Bang doesn't presume to explain it all, ID does. The Right-wing non-lie of this issue “Congress isn’t supposed to be a high school debating exorcize.” – Ken Hughes, from this piece. That was the Right-wing non-lie of this issue! “Balanced” News – a local effort on my part to bring balance to my local media, which is of course liberal In this segment I will talk about trees! All around my house and this area are trees. From the top of our tallest buildings (which really aren't all that high, though they are taller than the Tower of Babel) the trees almost hide the town – it almost looks like a trash littered forest, with bits of white roof tops poking out here and there. Anyway, right now, they are all standing. I am the first to cover this amazing story, folks. In the spring, when the bad weather comes, the local liberal media will cover the tornadoes and severe thunderstorms that will knock some down. Oh, they won't cover the trees that still stand! Oh, they won't cover tree removal! They won't use their liberal footage to show good men and women cleaning up, but they will show the tree cutting someone's living room in half, or bringing down power lines. Should anyone die by touching downed power lines, those sensationalist pigs will no doubt cover that as well. Perhaps in the future I will cover all of the folks that stay away from downed power lines and don't fry to death – another topic the liberal media in these parts blatantly ignores. Finally, do not listen to the dooms-day-liberal types that warn that the odd large tree branch will fall from the weight of snow and ice – most trees will be just fine! Quotes ”We have designed our civilization based on
science and technology and at the same time arranged
things so that almost no one understands anything at
all about science and technology. This is a clear
prescription for disaster.”
-- Carl Sagan ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. This is my second foray into the UK writing discordia. This time around, I want to be a tad more raw - maybe a bit edgier (does that sound "art-see"?) Maybe I'll address even more issues that most Americans consider taboo... About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write – something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Like so many these days, I too have a blog! But, I haven't updated it since the day after I signed up for it, so I won't bother to give out the link. I tend to make the same silly grammatical errors over and over again, and my many many attempts at proofreading often fail, so if you find anything wrong, send me some hate mail; I do love to get hate mail! Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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