May 4th, 2009: "It's Torture I Tell Ya!"

[Citi]

Have we said a thousand dollars wasn't enough money for a battalion size barbecue yet? I think I may be belaboring the point a bit. Sorry about that; we're a small operation here and we just don't have the budget for an editorial staff.

Malik certainly seems willing to make a deal. That's one thing I've never really understood about folks from the Middle East (not that I'm lumping them all together mind you). The ones I've met, both here and in their native lands have been just as cravenly capitalistic as the average American businessman. Piracy was rampant (I mean software and music piracy not the "Yarr, blow me down" eye patch crap from Somalia that kept the media fear machine churning until "Swine Flu" kicked it to the curb) in my experience and I never met an Arab businessman that wasn't willing to do business. So that begs the question; why are they so pissed at us all the time?

Is it because we let our women drive? Because I think we could reach a compromise on that. Anyone who's been on I-95 between the hours of 8-9:30 am on a weekday knows we could definitely do with a few gazillion less soccer moms doing 57 in the passing lane in their gigantic soccer mom SUV's.

Ok, I'm going to pay for that later I'm sure. But the question remains; I understand the commies who want to take everything and divide it up (the main problem with that being that the ones doing the dividing keep all the best stuff for themselves). I understand the socialists who want a representative government that controls business (which works marginally better but suffers from the same "well if I can't get rewarded for working harder than the guy who's taking naps under the stairs half the day than screw it" syndrome as communism). I understand the capitalist extremists who believe that a fair market economy is the beacon of light on a hill, perfect system and that; left unchecked will govern itself as the consumer rejects inferior products and chooses superior ones (meanwhile companies poison the environment, randomly kill a small number of consumers and distort mass media to sway public opinion; can you say "Cigarettes?" Hell, can you say "Mortgage Futures Bonds?"). And I understand the Capitalistic liberals who seem to want us to be able to sell whatever we want; as long as a billion dollars in testing and fifty government agencies all sign off on the product first.

But I've never understood the Arab society. I don't understand how folks who seem to love to sell stuff so much can have such a big problem with a country that just loves to buy stuff. It's like, one of our favoritest things EVAR!

Is it really the religious differences? Is that all? I mean, 2,500 years ago the Greeks had us all believing that some dude on a mountaintop was throwing lightning bolts at us, had kids that generally made life miserable for us all and when he was feeling really saucy, he'd turn into an animal come down off his mountain and have his way with our women. Even further back the Egyptians had us worshipping cats; which considering I have to clean out the litter box tomorrow we're kinda still doing (but I'm lapsed and only observe at feeding times and when the litter really starts to get funky). Most Christians place their faith in one all powerful God and his son, a carpenter who could walk on water and opened the first fish and chips franchise. Muslims (and I haven't read the Qur'an so forgive me if I'm off a bit here) believe a forty year old guy who spent a few weeks each year meditating in a cave suddenly started receiving messages from Allah and subsequently went on to convert or conquer most of the Middle East through divine guidance; while extolling the virtues that form the Islamic religion.

When I was a kid one of my parents told me that thunder was just God; bowling. A friend once told me to hold my breath when driving past a graveyard or the dead would haunt me.

To be blunt, humans, alone, afraid, perhaps ignorant, almost always arrogant are willing to believe some pretty crazy shit if it explains away their fear. I'm not saying that there is no Zeus, Bast, Christ or Allah, what I am saying is that until God, any God, shows up and proves him, her, or itselfs existence to every man, woman and child on the planet the real relationship with whatever deity you worship will always be that little voice inside us all that guides us through the cold dark night. Like Robert A. Heinlien wrote in "Stranger In A Strange Land," "Thou Art God." That God, even the belief in the absence of God, is in all of us. That is where he, she or it lives. And until that day when you either kick the bucket and stand before him, her or it, or until the day he, she or it decides to reveal himself, herself or itself to humanity; it would be appropriate, no it would be downright wise, to perhaps keep a bit of an open mind on the subject.

I don't know of any religion formed by and practiced by man that actively advocates the destruction of your fellow man and no one is going to convince me that Islam does (advocate the destruction of your fellow man) any more than anyone will convince me that the Jews, as a race, murdered Jesus; or that Prometheus gave fire to mankind. Because religions are a man made invention and as mankind is inherently good no religion advocating the destruction of fellow human beings would ever gain mass appeal. I'll say it again; religion is a man made institution, perhaps delivered by a deity certainly filtered through the imperfect vessel that is man. You have got to allow a little room for allegory and interpretation.

Is it possible that the one true deity wants all men to get circumcised? Sure. Is it possible that some village wise man or witch doctor figured out that the male babies in his tribe were dying from infections because they weren't bathing properly and after circumcision it happened less and eventually became a tradition that passed on to other cultures? Well, I hope you think that might be possible too.

Do you really think Jesus gives a shit if you eat steak or fish on Friday? Is Yahweh so concerned about that soft shell crab you ate at your friends bachellor party that he's willing to send an otherwise good person to the fiery dooms over it?

My point in all of this, is that no matter how set you are in your faith, a good person should allow for differing opinions. Not the entertainment that you may be wrong, that would alter your faith and would be unfair to ask of you; but the mere tolerance of those who believe differently.

It's humanity, we're all in it together and nobody gets out alive. Why not try and enjoy it while you have the chance?

And speaking of moral quagmire's. Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" had a rousing debate with a fellow named Cliff May who is the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The debate focused on the use of torture and the recently released torture memos.

I have to say, I was impressed with Jon. I've been impressed by Jon for a long time but this was the first time I ever heard ANYONE on television say what I've been saying for years. Freedom has a price that we all must pay; and I'm not talking about taxes or the cost to our veterans and their families. I'm talking about risk.

We all love the movies and TV shows where the hero gets rough with the bad guy and beats a little vital info out of him so he can save the day. Ok, maybe not all of us, but most of us. But we as a civilized society have chosen to rise above that behavior, to be better than those who brutalize their prisoners and treat people, no matter how evil, no matter how dangerous, corrupt or destructive with the dignity that we believe all human beings have an inalienable right to. We've even signed treaties on the subject: Geneva Convention anyone?

I could go on and on about the interview but Jon said it just as well as I could and with the exception of calling former president Truman a war criminal (which he later completely recanted and made fun of himself for saying; but honestly I don't know enough about history to say whether or not Truman committed a war crime... he did attack a largely civilian population, I guess my feelings on the use of the atomic bombs at the end of World War II have always been the same and in many ways, unanswerable; if the Japanese were ready to surrender and the bombs were dropped solely to show the Russians who da man was then it was definitely a crime; if they were dropped to shorten a war against an entrenched enemy willing to fight to the last man instead of wasting thousands if not millions of American lives to achieve the same result then the decision was not only moral but a no brainer) I completely agree with everything he said.

Everyone wants to live without fear. Everyone wants to be safe. But you cannot trade freedom for safety. It's a suckers trade. Risk is the price we all pay for living in a free society. War against the baddest mothers in the world is the price you pay for reminding us of that cost through the bloodshed of our countrymen.

Yeah Bin Laden's still alive. Maybe. In a cave that smells like goat shit, eating whatever the hell they can smuggle to him and making sure he doesn't look up whenever he pops out of his hole to take a piss because if the satellites see his face, military CSI agents will be scraping his DNA off some rocks in a smoking crater faster than you can say Tomahawk Missile. And it will be like that, he will be hunted like that, for the remainder of his life. I almost feel sorry for the crazy bastard. Almost.

I've linked you to part one of the interview above in The Daily Show link. The entire interview is about 18 minutes long in three parts and well worth the time. See you next week.

[Rob]

God this guy loves the sound of his own voice doesn't he? What a blowhard.  >:(

[Citi]

That was indeed a wall o'text.

[Rob]

That was indeed a wall o'text.

It got more comments than the last three posts though. 2 so far. Maybe I should get on my soap box more often.  ::)

[Citi]

Do you have any spares? Imagine how many comments you could get with 2 soap boxes!