The Wrong Color to be in Iraq

White. Of the 14 people captured in the recent raid on a convoy in Iraq, only the white ones were "kidnapped," 4 Americans and an Austrian; the 9 Asian drivers were released. Seems that we are getting a taste of our own medicine. Arabs in our country have to beware, and in our dealings with them in their own country (in this case Iraq) they are even more subject to terror. They can be taken and held indefinitely without probable cause. They can be stopped and searched in airports just because they look a certain way. I think it is a tragedy that these American contractors in Iraq have been captured, and that they may die when they were only over there trying to make a buck, and maybe even thinking that they were doing some good. But they were in Iraq profiting off an illegitimate war, and we are at home and abroad treating free human beings with no regard for the laws of men [and women]. This is another case where we must first find fault with our own ways. To just jump to blaming the Iraqis who have kidnapped these men, is to ignore our own role in their behavior. Maybe they are trying to show us something. They released all the contractors but the white ones. I wonder how many white American prisoners there are in Guantanamo? I'm not saying the kidnappers are right, they aren't, but neither are we. WE ARE MANIFESTING NEGATIVE OUTCOMES WITH NEGATIVE ACTION. That whole reap what you sow thing comes to mind....

Is president Bush an idiot?

Can you believe this was on MSNBC? WOW... Can't really imagine this on FOX news, but it's entertaining, that's for sure. Entertaining like a horror movie.

Here are members of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs this morning, praying during a service in which the founder of their church, who had just been fired, admitted, from the pulpit, that he was guilty of sexual immorality, and that he was a "deciever and a liar." So he's human. What a surprise?

If I had never seen the inside of a church before, or seen how people behave in there, I might look at this picture and think these people are on drugs. I've seen people behaving more "normally" at raves and Grateful Dead concerts. I'm not saying that people should act "normal" in life, I mean all the touching and singing and holding the hands up and stuff is probably the best thing about church, if you ask me. The bummer part is that these human beings end up fighting against themselves needlessly. This guy Ted Haggard was the head pastor, and also, it seems, a part time Meth-head and fan of gay sex. The poor guy describes his other life though, as "so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life." Poor guy. What a waste of energy. (Well OK resisting doing drugs which are made from household cleaning products and over-the-counter cough medicine is probably time well spent), but man, there is nothing wrong with being gay. Yet, according to a Denver Post article, the head of the oversight commitee, a pastor Larry Stockstill, said "he is confident Haggard would regard homosexuality not as a predisposition, but as a temptation to be fought." JESUS! Then he went on to say that "Haggard is not in touch with truth and reality." So this pastor, who thinks that one's "god-given" (if you will) sexual tastes are sinful and should be fought against, especially such simple proclivities as adult, consensual, homosexual sex, which has been observed in numerous animal species, and in other mammals also, this guy is in touch with reality? I don't think so. Whatever this God is, if It is all powerful, then I think if It didn't want homosexual sex to happen, it probably wouldn't. These are the problems one starts running into when they take a book likethe Bible as "scripture." We have to remember that it was just people who wrote that book, people just like Ted Haggard, people who had plenty of misconceptions about what was right and wrong, but plenty of them were probably having a little gay sex on the side as well, and probably feeling guilty about it. I mean come on people let's move on.

I feel bad for Ted. I think he probably chose the wrong profession. But i'd venture to bet that the poor guy was raised to feel guilty about his "urges." Maybe he thought that if he really just kept praying, stayed close to the church, and preached "God's word," then he'd get "better." Doesn't seem to have worked out that way. He just ended up looking like a hypocrite, which he is. As are most of the people in the picture up top I bet. Some of them are probably gay, mostly in the closet probably, some probably do drugs, (that guy standing a few rows back with his arms in the big V, I'm thinking he's smoked a little bit of the funny stuff), most of them probably masturbate and are either having or looking forward to having pre-marital sex. I say right on. Sex is great. In fact that big church is probably a great place to meet girls, if the people on the pulpit weren't so consistently (as Pastor Larry Stockhill would put it) "not in touch with truth and reality," I'd probably go there to meet some. Maybe when they toss the Bibles in the bin, a little bit of balance and reality can begin.

Another fine day on google news

Today is an especially down day in the world of news. It all started this morning at my German Girlfriends house. She has cable. Which means CNN and FOX News (in English). CNN is nothing great, but it's not nothing, nor is it as entertaining, or addictive as FOX. Watching FOX News is like looking at a horribly disfigured, leg-less, wheel-chair bound, cross-eyed, stump-armed, burn victim. It makes you cringe, feel shame, get a sickly ache in your stomach, doesn't compute, and yet you can't look away; then you look away, but seconds later you sneak another look, seconds later you're changing the channel back to the torture chamber that is FOX news. So this was the start of my day. Listening to John Kerry clips over and over and over again. As if showing John Kerry saying something stupid is going to keep the republicans from losing the House, and maybe even the Senate. Not likely. Then they show clips of Bush trying to fumble out a criticism of Kerry's speach. As Bush lumbers forward, he is just able to articulate that: "words are important." Thanks buddy.

On FOX they just keep talking, but then you try to remember what they were saying, and you realize that they don't really say anything. They had some guy on to talk about the same old line, Democrats are weak on defence. Blah Blah Blah. I can't stop watching this stuff. And I totally disagree with all of it. I'm not sure if there are like subliminal pictures of paradise being broadcast beneath the facade of meaningless right-wing blather. The newscasters all seem like middle-aged kindergartners, whenever they try to articulate their own ideas, it comes out jumbled and sort-of dumb, almost as if they are all trying to emulate the President's speech. Then when they get something out without a hitch, they have that Bush smile, which says proudly: "that's right, I can talk."

Well that was all depressing, and then on, to news.google.com when I arrived home to the internet connection. OH MY GOD. It's almost as if the Economist and Business Week articles i've been reading the last two weeks have been filtering up. The economy is slowing. America is in trouble. I predict that the two articles in last weeks Economist and International Herald Tribune will come along as well, by tomorrow tops on google news the masses will be reading how London is the new financial capital of the world. The Federal Government has taken too many bites out of the Big Apple. Too many regulations. International business leaders have a difficult time even entering the United States through our handicapped TSA run airports. Who wants to fly in a country where you can't bring a damn bottle of wine on the plane anyway? Let alone invest in that country. Welcome to news.google.com, welcome to America. Bad news, more bad news, and politics, yucky politics. But some good stories to look into are the story about Diebold, the maker of the paper trail lacking, hackable voting machines which about a third of Americans will be using this year to vote in the mid-term elections. There is also a fantastic opinion letter by Karen Finley: http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20061102/cm_huffpost/033060