DeGeneres To Palin On Gay Marriage Ban

Although I see her as one of those "centrist" liberals, I fully agree with Ellen DeGeneres on this subject.



If there are still conservatives who will debate with me that the right-wing is the enemy of freedom in the United States, I would love to hear your comments on this...

Conservatives Still Deny Global Warming

I could be paddling a rowboat down Market Street in San Francisco after the poles have melted, and there will still be conservative fanatics who deny that humans are responsible for Global Warming or that it is even real.



Why this stubborn refusal to acknowledge the most respected scientists on the planet in favor of studies funded by lobbyists and political organizations with obvious ties to corporate interests? I see four possible reasons:

1. They believe it, but don't care: These people are so attached to the wealth created by their surreptitious business holdings that they are incapable of concern for their less fortunate peers, other species, or future generations of humans. This would be very disturbing, because it would mean that a huge portion of our population is actually evil.

2. They are simply to afraid to face the truth: Like ostriches who hide their heads in the sand when there is danger present, their fear doesn't allow them to admit their impending doom.

3. They are racked with guilt: Perhaps they just cannot face the guilt associated with their participation in the destruction of thousands of species of plants and animals; the possible extermination of the human race (or at least our civilization); and the destruction of an ecosystem which is the legacy of every person alive as well as those not yet born.

4. They are just ignorant: This is not very likely, but maybe they simply lack the intellect required to process the information available and come to the obvious conclusion that most intelligent people came to, back in the early seventies.

Such foolishness reminds me of the catholic church's pathetic attempts at stifling any theories that threatened their geocentric model of the universe. Whatever the reason for this self induced ignorance, we must try to educate them of the truth however difficult that may seem. The next time you hear some uneducated hick exclaim, "Global Warming? What global warming? This was the coldest winter I can remember, so how can the planet be warming up?" or, "These are just natural fluctuations in the Earth's climate." Please speak up and explain to them that only religious fanatics who cling to the notion of creationism and a flat Earth still doubt the unfortunate reality of global warming.



I liken our current situation to that faced by the inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) before western explorers arrived to find them eating each other just to stay alive. The island was rich in resources, but its superstitious inhabitants squandered those resources trying to outdo each other by carving and erecting enormous stone monoliths which were meant to bring luck to their individual clans. Had they used those resources to build ships instead of statues, their culture may have survived and even flourished. Earth is also a remote island with finite resources. Our skyscrapers are our monoliths, our nations are our clans. If we don't stop our petty clan squabbles and get busy building space ships and space colonies, we may lose the opportunity altogether. Humanity may revert to an agrarian society only to be wiped out eventually when the Sun or a nearby star goes supernova; we are struck by an asteroid; or some other global catastrophe wipes us out. We cannot continue to allow the greedy, ignorant, and/or incompetent to exploit and squander the Earth's resources, which are the legacy of all life on Earth.

Democrats v. Republicans

There is not enough difference between the Democrats and Republicans. Both parties have been ripping off the general public, since way before I was born.
Because I lived in very blue voting district during the last presidential election, for the first time in my life I had the luxury of "voting my conscience," instead of voting for "the lesser of two evils."
I voted for the Green Party candidate...not because I thought she would make a great president, but because I really agree with the Green Party agenda, and I wanted to send a message to the Democrats.
I agree that Obama was a better choice than McCain, but only by a small margin. The thing that worried me about Obama right from the beginning was his warlike and hawkish attitudes. We need to stop giving money to the military, and Obama never talked about that.

Mao Dollar

In order to pay for Bush and Cheney's illegal and immoral war, the United States borrowed trillions of dollars from the industrialized nations of the world (most notably, China). In essence, China (and the other industrialized nations) now own most of the United States' assets.

Thanks to neo-conservative policies the world's economy is in ruins; the reputation of the US has been seriously damaged all over the world (especially in Muslim nations); millions of US citizens are out of work; millions of innocent people are dead and things may still get worse before they get better. Now conservatives are complaining that President Obama hasn't "fixed the economy" yet!

I hate to say it, but it will take more than six-months to fix the mess the conservatives have created since Bush took office nearly nine years ago. To those critics of Obama, I say this: You had your chance and you were wrong. Now shut the hell up, while we try to clean up your mess.

Is Waterboarding Torture?

I my opinion, waterboarding is torture. Check out this video and see how long this guy lasts:

via videosift.com

There is a big difference between what this guy is enduring and what a suspected "terrorist" would be enduring, because he had the option of ending the experiment at any time. The person being "interrogated" doesn't have the ability to stop the procedure and therefore is enduring an excruciating  experience that can and has led to death.

The ACLU has posted the secret memos which they forced the Bush administration to release with a lawsuit; see them here: http://www.aclu.org/accountability/olc.html