HISTORY EDUCATION: Why are we so dumb?

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Watching the political news on TV, I was amazed, as I always am, at how “stupid” Sarah Palin is and how much media attention she garners by doing “stupid” things. When I say “stupid”, I mean she does not know shit about anything and especially history.

Her latest gaff was while visiting Boston and the Paul Revere house there and saying how he rode out to warn the British? I think and I hope, every kid in America knows the famous midnight ride by Paul Revere warning the Americans that “…the British are coming…” So how did Sarah Palin miss out on that lesson in grade school?

This was not her first historical error and she had the nerve to defend her error on national TV. She obviously is not the first historical dummy in the political world; Michele Bachmann from Minnesota is another one (not picking on women).

My point and Leonard Pitts, Jr. (Free Press) was also bothered by this, is that history as a subject, does not seem important anymore and we are becoming a nation of history dumbbells.

History has been my passion from day one, even in grade school. I had actually many passions but history remained my passion to this very day and I feel strongly, that a sound knowledge of history is absolutely necessary for anyone wishing to intellectually participate in the world around him or her.

One good reason to know your history is that you cannot be fooled by jack asses like Sarah Palin who can say anything and you and millions of others, believe since she is on TV so she cannot be wrong.

Knowledge of history enables you to challenge many that try to push revisionist history on a dumbed - down public which, believe it or not, happens all the time. One example is the right-wind religious nuts trying to say we have always been a Christian nation and our Founding Fathers intended that from the beginning…FALSE and there are many, many so called facts believed by many people that are utterly FALSE.

Even some of our textbooks used in class have falsely slanted information because the content is controlled by some Texas School Board that is rabidly Christian and want the textbooks to reflect their way of thinking instead of the TRUTH.

Well, this is a subject that I am very passionate about and I hope there are others like me that will keep the fires burning on this issue…remember Fahrenheit 451?

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IRISH CATHOLIC CHURCH: Still in denial...

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In the spirit of the American Catholic Council meeting this weekend in Cobo Hall, I would like to comment on an article in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd, June 5^th, titled: An Archbishop Burns While Rome Fiddles.

It talks about Irish Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin who is reaching out to victims of priestly abuse in Ireland where one in four people have been affected by the sexual scandal. The cover-up in Ireland, supported by the Vatican, was horrendous and went on for many years.

Martin’s reaching out to the victims through various special Church programs like the “Liturgy of Lament and Repentance” where he asked for forgiveness from God and the victims have been met by scorn from the Vatican and his fellow Irish bishops; he has been ostracized, passed over for cardinal and snubbed by the Church.

The article points out that Pope Benedict refused to accept the resignation of Irish bishops that were complicit in the great cover-up and should probably have been jailed. Also other protectors of pedophiles like Cardinal Bernard Law have been called to Rome for cushy Vatican jobs and escape from possible prosecution in their homeland.

Archbishop Martin is responding to the unspeakable sexual molestation scandal in the Church in the correct manner; asking for forgiveness and making sure this horror does not happen again BUT he is a tiny minority.

The Church, as described above, is in denial, stonewalling at all turns and minimizing what happened to the point of ignoring what happened and Catholics are either allowing this to continue or as in Ireland, just walking away from the Church.

The American Catholic Council meeting in Detroit today, wants to keep Catholics in church by changing the Church…good luck but I think your mission is hopeless as long as other Catholics remain silent and keeping putting their dollars in the collection basket.

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• Op-Ed Columnist: An Archbishop Burns While Rome Fiddles (nytimes.com)
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• English cardinal urges prayers for Irish Catholic Church (onecatholicorg.wordpress.com)

AMERICAN CATHOLIC COUNCIL: Meeting at COBO this weekend...

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I have been talking about a meeting being held in our Cobo Hall starting tomorrow by the AMERICAN CATHOLIC COUNCIL; some 1,500 people are to attend.

The Council is a group of maybe 30 smaller groups that want the Catholic Church to expand Vatican II enlightenment and become more progressive and (bite your tongue) democratic and transparent; all this coming on the heels of the devastating and embarrassing priestly sexual scandal.

The group wants the Church to allow women priests and more married priests. The group is diametrically opposed (I think) to what Pope Benedict is trying to do which is reverse Vatican II and take the Church backwards into the Dark Ages or at least Medieval times. Benedict wants to maintain the dictatorship of the Vatican and Catholics in positions of obeying sheep with not a peep out of them.

The meeting hit the local media when the Archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron cautioned Catholics to stay away. He said that the meeting is somehow against Canon Law while the meeting organizers have maintained that they are following and in compliance with Church laws.

I think the real problem is that there will be a Sunday Mass at Cobo Hall and the Archbishop has already threatened that any clergy attending the mass will be DEFROCKED!!! Just to point out the huge irony in this, most of the priests that molested children were NOT DEFROCKED; shows you how fucking stupid the Church can be.

I got a kick out of some of the quotes in the paper with one lady saying that the Church treats us like children, saying we can’t discuss things; that things are off-limits BUT we are adults and we need to discuss EVERYTHING…something I have been saying all along.

The problem as I see it is that the Church will not change unless we get an enlightened pope like John XXIII and that seems very unlikely since all the cardinals spots have been filled by John Paul and Benedict which guarantees regression and not a hint of progression for years if not decades to come.

The liberal Catholics have a snow balls chance in hell to reform the Church, at this time, but in history, the Church has reformed itself so it is not an impossibility.

Are the liberal Catholics willing to wait for generations or do they break off and form an American Catholic Church?

The problem is that these liberal Catholics are REAL Catholics and want to belong to the one TRUE Church they were raised in and there lies the rub…

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BIRTHDAY PRESENT: A ride on a B-17...

I forgot to mention what I received for a present for my birthday in May. My daughter and son-in-law gave me a ticket for a ride in a WWII B-17 Heavy Bomber in July. It flies out of Willow Run during the big air show they have there.

The bomber is called “Yankee Lady” and I will get to sit in all the positions (except the pilot’s I presume). We will fly at 3,000 to 5,000 feet and will fly up the Detroit River with Detroit to the left and Windsor to the right.

I have to decide which camera to take since maneuvering around the aircraft will be tricky, hmmmmm…

My son-in-law is coming with me since he is an aircraft nut just like me.

I will have pictures in July…

SOCIETY: Weiner man...

I was just talking about the Time Magazine front page: Sex. Lies. Arrogance. What Makes Powerful Men Act Like Pigs”, May 30^th and here we go again with Representative from New York, Anthony Weiner.

I will admit this one baffles me a little but it was THE subject at the water cooler at work. I realize that our new technology allows us to send pictures of your private parts to whomever you want to and high school kids have been caught doing that and maybe people older than that too but be serious, this is a Congressman, with a powerful position, a family and a constituency…what was he thinking.

Actually, this morning’s Free Press had a front page spread with pictures of the now many male “pigs” in power that were caught doing something sexually untoward.

I guess this has always been happening, especially in Congress and in the president’s office too but now there seems to be a flood of these men in the news.

Anthony Weiner was, I think, our first “Twitter” miscreant. He twitted his private parts to a bevy of young ladies but pressed the wrong button and everybody got a look at his part. He denied this for a week until he could not deny it anymore and then made a tearful apology which we have seen virtually hundreds of times to his wife, kids, family, and constituents BUT would not resign his elected post because he did not break the law; and he is correct.

Some people at work were saying that the new technology that we now posses brings out in men (and probably women) something that was always there, just waiting for the right technology to be invented? Well, I think that the internet has created or brought out many of people’s hidden desires, some morally questionable and we see evidence of that almost daily…but is this the new society…is this the new norm?

Are we using an old society’s moral parameters in judging these people? Is there a new developing paradigm in town?

Breaking the law is one thing but this new social interaction made possible by new technology is definitely a game changer…

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CATHOLICISM: Benedict's new, old plan...

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Pope Benedict has not hidden the fact that he wants to reverse some of Vatican II and the meatless Fridays and Latin Mass is just some of the things he wants to bring back.

He has stated on many occasions that he would rather have a smaller Catholic population but a stronger one which I took to mean, a population that does not make any waves, no hard questions only blind obedience.

Educated Catholics are embarrassed by this trend that they see as going back to the dark ages where superstition was rampant. Be as it may, I think Benedict has hit on something here.

The article I quoted in my last blog on this subject also states that the veneration of relics has made a comeback; this is where the question of superstition comes in.

If you remember, the sale of relics and indulgences in the past brought on the Protestant revolution.

Look, I know perfectly sane people that bury a statue of St. Joseph (I think), upside down in their yard in a belief that their house will sell faster. What about all those people that drive long distances to see a statue of the Virgin Mary shed tears or bleed. How about a piece of pizza that looks like Jesus? These are the Catholics Benedict wants…

I think it is inevitable that Catholicism as a religion must differentiate itself from other Christianities and the best way is to go back to what identified people as Catholics. On the other hand, this may alienate Catholics that are more progressive and see some of the old practices as regressive…but those Catholics are already leaving the Church so…?

Bring it all back…jump back to the dark ages…if that is what the people want give it to them…after all its all about marketing – making the religion more attractive to more people so they will join and pay.

Let’s see if Benedict’s plan works…

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CATHOLICISM: Meatless Fridays are here again...

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Here is a good Catholic story I spotted in the Wall Street Journal of all places. The story was titled: “The Return of Meatless Friday” by Francis X. Rocca, a Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service. The subtitle read: Bishops in Britain call on Catholics to abstain year-round, not only during Lent. Interesting ha?

Now it just so happens that I must be a creature of habit because I have fish every Friday and have been doing that all my life. I happen to like fish especially “fish and chips” and area restaurants have “fish specials” every Friday because they know there are many people like me that just continue the habit learned in childhood.

Now, I never really knew why we could eat meat on Friday and I don’t think my parents did either but boy did they observe it; it was hell to pay if you touched meat on Friday! Cooking fish in those days was a real pain since it stunk up the place for days.

I even remember an incident in the grade school I was attending in England where meat was served on a particular Friday. I and the rest of the Polish Catholic boys and girls refused to take the meat from the cafeteria line…all hell broke loose. Parents were called and the principal got involved and so did our local priest.

Obviously the Brits were not Catholic and did not observe meatless Fridays but we, on the other hand, were taught not to touch meat on Fridays under penalty of eternal damnation. Some compromise was reached as I remember but we were hailed as Catholic martyrs or at least the persecuted when we stood up for our faith.

As it turns out, the original purpose of meatless Fridays was an act of penance. Like I said, I don’t understand that since in the old days, meat was a luxury so many did not have it every day anyway so you see where not eating meat for a day as a penance makes little sense to me.

Anyway, that whole thing about meatless Fridays went by the wayside after Vatican II (1965) but like I mentioned, many Catholics still follow the precept to this day out of habit.

So why the hell are meatless Fridays returning (only in England and Wales so far)? Well that crafty old Benedict is at it again; he wants to bring back the old and reverse Vatican II enlightenment.

Why is he doing this? Well Benedict has always said that people are drifting away from the Church and many do not identify themselves as Catholic but still maintain their religiosity but with a more Universalist bend. Benedict wants the Catholic brand to stand out and once again show the world that Catholics are different from all those other Christians.

Everybody knows Catholics don’t eat meat on Fridays (or used to) so why not bring it back and who cares what the reasons are…its Catholic. Benedict is also bringing back the Latin Mass..

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• Penance on Friday (cehwiedel.com)
• WDTPRS KUDOS to the Bishops of England and Wales: meatless Fridays re-established (wdtprs.com)
• Black Friday for Catholics | Annalisa Barbieri (guardian.co.uk)

DETROIT: Is Bing capable of sweeping the "Detroit Culture" out the door?

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I have been very vocal in my praise of Dave Bing, the former Piston star, as mayor of Detroit. In my mind, he was what the city needed after the reign of corrupt and incompetent Kwame Kilpatrick. He was the one that would put an end to the culture of corruption and incompetence that Detroit has been mired in for decades. Well…I am having some doubts…

I have no doubts about Bing’s honesty and desire to turn the city around but I feel he may have bitten off more than he can chew or in other words, he may not be up for the huge task in front of him.

Recently, the local newspapers have been filled with stories about how Bing’s administration cannot keep people; they seem to quit after a few months. To me a CEO is only as strong and smart as the people he surrounds himself with; a good CEO knows how to pick good people.

When asked about this problem, Bing has turned testy and has blamed Michigan business leaders and the governor for not helping him find the competent staff that he desperately needs which to me, is admitting that he cannot seem to hire competent help on his own.

Bing did have a steel business but unfortunately, it went bankrupt which does not bode well for his CEO skills.

This is why Mayor Bing needs an absolutely competent second in command (deputy mayor) to fill some of the inadequacies that he may have as a CEO.

The problem, I think, is that he is going to the same corrupt or incompetent pool of employees that have worked for the city before; he needs to expand his search to outside the city or even the state.

A good recent example of his administration’s seeming incompetence is the Human Services scandal. This department handles over $50 million in federal money to help the poor who need jobs, transportation, home improvements, education and food.

The local papers have uncovered that the department is staffed by totally incompetent people that use federal dollars to buy new furniture for their offices and give themselves raises and award contracts to their friends.

Bing reacted immediately and fired the head and promised an investigation BUT this should not have happened in the first place. He has to review all departments and make sure they are run competently and honestly…who knows how other departments are doing since it seems no one is watching…no oversight!

This culture of corruption and incompetence appears to be very hard to dislodge and it might necessitate a state take-over to sweep it clean.

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SOCIETY: Ladies' man or rapist...

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Another issue that drew my attention was the case of DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KHAN, the president of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and potentially, the next president of France.

The case involved Mr. Khan, in the buff, allegedly surprising a hotel room cleaning lady, chasing her down, locking the hotel room door and forcing her to perform oral sex on him and attempting to rape her. She broke free and ran, he cleaned up and boarded a plane to Paris. One fortunate mistake was him calling the hotel and asking for his cell phone that he left behind…that was all the cops needed to catch him.

My interest is not another famous person being caught in another sex scandal, that happens nearly every week, no it is the FRENCH reaction to the whole thing…

France was aghast! How dare we treat Khan as a common criminal? How dare we put him in hand-cuffs and allow him to be seen by the media? How dare we put his arraignment on TV?

It appears that the rich, famous and powerful do not get treated like common criminals in France.

I won’t go into all the legal differences between France and the U.S. but suffice it to say that in France Mr. Khan would probably not be facing 25 years in the slammer.

Time Magazine’s May 30^th cover asks “What Makes Powerful Men Act like Pigs” and the magazine delved into all the possible answers. In the U.S., we have a slew of the rich and famous behaving like sexual pigs (Schwarzenegger, Clinton, Gingrich and many more) but Khan went a little further, he forced himself on a woman whereas the Americans merely dallied.

Khan has a history of sexual improprieties where he was the predator; a forceful predator but he was never charged with a crime… but he did apologize.

As the media digs deeper into the affair, we are becoming more aware how different American society is from French society when it comes to sexual behavior. It seems that French society is more tolerant of sexual abuse or misconduct or harassment by men towards women; Khan’s wife said she was proud of her husband as a “seducer”?

There is a huge difference between what is a “ladies’ man” and a rapist and sexual predator.

France has always prided itself as a country of liberated women but maybe now the ugly truth is coming out that they are not as enlightened as they think they are; maybe French men have been allowed to sexually harass women because it was accepted as a part of their culture…

This should be a very, very interesting g case.

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THE END OF DAYS: Maybe not...

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One of the stories making the news while I was in Yellowstone was a prediction of the “End of Days” on Saturday, 21^st of May by some old religious crackpot (Harold Camping) with money to burn.

Since Yellowstone is a volcano that spews steam and stuff constantly, this would be a great place to start the end of days but alas, these predictions never come to fruition and there have been many, many predictions and predictors throughout our history.

This one was a little different because there was money behind the prediction so full page ads were taken out in all major papers so everyone was aware of the prediction. Now that the day has passed quietly, Camping says what all those who predict the end, say; I miscalculated.

The problem with Christian Eschatology is that it is somewhat based on the Bible which is very problematic. Jesus predicted the coming of the kingdom of God upon his death. When that did not happen, St. Paul tried to say that it will happen a little later and that is where we get all that “Rapture” nonsense.

I was pleased to read about reactions to this prediction stunt by Christian pastors around the country. I have been talking about a “turn” in Christian thinking where the literal Bible is not being taken literally to the absurd degree.

These new Christian leaders downplay the “second coming, heaven & hell and judgment day” and urge their followers to focus on what Jesus did and what he said. They even go so far as to say that all people have a chance to be saved and not just Christians.

That is a mighty big “turn” in Christian thinking because for all these centuries, Christians said that unless you accept Christ (Christianity) you are automatically doomed no matter how good of a person you are.

The new thinking is that Jesus wanted a heaven on earth and that is what he meant about the Kingdom of God is upon us. Well we will never know what Jesus meant or even said because there were no tape recorders then and no one in Jesus’ party knew how to write either BUT:

 I must admit I like this new “turn” in Christian thinking because it is more beneficial to people, bringing them together in shared humanity instead of pitting people against each other because of their competing religious beliefs.

The Catholics, on the other hand, still maintain that only Catholics will be saved…hmmm…

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DR. JACK KEVORKIAN: A Great Humanitarian...

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Well I have a lot of comments on issues since I have been gone but the death of Dr. Jack Kevorkian last night jumps to the top of the list.

I never knew Dr. Kevorkian but I do know his partner and side-kick, NEAL NICHOL who has been featured repeatedly as part of the Kevorkian story.

I am in the LAB business and clinical labs have, in the past, been run by PATHOLOGISTS. These are doctors who perform autopsies and know a lot about histology and clinical laboratory tests and procedures; something like CSI and what they do after the person has died to determine what killed him.

Neal Nichol was a distributor of ours who sold our products as well as many other manufacturers’ products to clinical labs which include the pathology department.

I did not know that Neal has a very long history with Dr. Kevorkian and supplied the good doctor with all the equipment needed to perform his assisted suicide procedures.

I also just learned that Neal and Kevorkian experimented on themselves trying to see if cadaver blood could be used for living people. The story 2 days ago showed how both contracted hepatitis C from the experiments and how Neal was cured by an experimental drug (just released for general use) but Kevorkian was too old to participate in the study and was left with the disease…Kevorkian died of a pulmonary embolism (according to the first reports).

I have always admired Dr. Kevorkian for what he was trying to do; he wanted our society to address the need for “assisted suicide” because there was/ is a strong need for the procedure and yes, he assisted patients to commit suicide.

He was tried and imprisoned when a patient could not press the button to start the fatal chemicals flowing because he was a paraplegic and Kevorkian had to do it for him which means that HE actually did the deed and not the patient; he was convicted of second degree murder.

I have always believed strongly that NO ONE has the right to tell you what to do with your body and this applies to abortion and assisted suicide. I don’t care what you think your god’s opinion on issues is because your god does not exist so you have no idea what your god thinks so you make it all up and apply that bullshit to perfect strangers that just want to do with their bodies what they want.

Kevorkian wanted to bring “regulation” to assisted suicide and that has happened in Oregon with great results and no problems; the Netherlands have had assisted suicide for years with no problems.

Assisted suicide is needed because many suffering patients cannot do it themselves or do not know how to do it in a quiet “medical” manner; not everyone can just shoot themselves or hand themselves…they want it done by a doctor that will do it correctly and without pain…is that too much to ask for?

I know I will hear all that “pro-life” shit and that is only god that can take a life…well fuck that…we will all die but some of us will not have a nice, quiet, painless death after many years of good living…some of us will contract a debilitating disease that will not only take our normal existence away from us but will subject us to excruciating pain.

Not only that, but while taking this hard road to death, we watch our family suffer also so to any reasonable person, prolonging a hopeless situation is absurd and if the person wants to leave this earth in a dignified manner, when they are pre-vegetable, what the hell is wrong with that.

I remembered when my father-in-law looked at me and said I need to go; I do not want to live this miserable life not being able to take care of myself. I am a man and I want to leave like a man.

I said, Dad, I cannot do anything because it is against the law but I will not do anything to prolong your suffering.

Death with dignity is a worthy cause and Doctor Kevorkian will go down in history as someone that cared about humanity enough to try to get our religiously anal society to think about the needs of the dying human instead of our society’s bullshit sense of what is right and what is wrong.

I salute Dr. Jack Kevorkian as a great humanist and medical ethics pioneer.

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VACATION and Incommunicado too!

When we were traveling in Yellowstone National Park in a large loop from area to area and cabin to cabin, we were, for all intents and purposes, incommunicado. That means in most of the park, there was no television, internet or cell phone service; this is a little strange for people like me that usually are in total communication with basically the world.

There were “land-line phones”, yes- the old pay phones that are no longer seen in many cities. Some young people were asking at the service desk how those things worked since they have NEVER used one before.

I did manage to get an occasional USA Today paper which I guess, makes its way to every corner of the world no matter how desolate or out of reach and that, at least, gave me some idea about what was going on.

We managed quite nicely. Yes, we went to bed early but that was because we were tired and not that there was no TV to watch. We read our books and all the literature about the park and we marveled at the natural beauty around us and just let it sink in.

I am happy to be back and in the know because there are so many things happening around the world and I want to make sure I don’t miss any of them…so back into the swing of things…

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MEMORIAL DAY 2011

Returned from Yellowstone Park just in time for Memorial Day but boy was it hot. As a matter of fact it was too hot for Luke (see red face) and we had to take him inside into the AC; guess he must be just too fat to stand the heat.

The evening proved very comfortable so we ventured outside again.

I brought my mother along since she has been cooped up in her apartment for some time while we were gone.

Memorial Day is a great day to honor Veteran’s of our many wars but I am getting a little annoyed that the line between soldiers that died and were drafted (Vietnam) and soldiers that died but volunteered to serve in the military, has been blurred or eliminated.

I feel the difference is huge and even though soldiers died either way, the drafted soldier was “forced” to go and in essence, forced to die against his will.

I think that point has to be remembered even though it is never mentioned in the media.

SPRING VACATION: Yellowstone National Park

We came back late Saturday from an extended visit to Yellowstone National Park; what a trip.

We usually go on one of our “hard” meaning “physical” vacations in early spring (May) to beat the crowds and the kids but maybe we were a little too early but as it turned out; it was a perfect time.

Yellowstone opened a week before we arrived. The winter there was the worst on record with some areas getting over 25 FEET of snow and some of that snow was still there when we entered but the roads were clear.

We made a loop in the park, staying at three (3) locations: Old Faithfull, Mammoth Springs and Lake Village in individual cabins, each area quite different from each other.

I didn’t know that the whole park is basically a volcano with hot, spewing geysers all over the place. The last time the volcano blew was 640,000 years ago so I guess it can blow at any time. The smoking geysers made the place look like Mars.

But we really came here to see the animals. Early spring was birthing time and most of the animals had young ones with them. We saw bears with cubs and buffalo and calves. The valleys were lush and green and the animals finally had some grass to eat. The mountain melting snow also produced many rivers and rivulets all over the place.

We took nearly a thousand (1,000) pictures; we both had cameras and have many stories to tell. It was quite an experience.

RELIGION: Egyptian democracy and religious clashes...

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In my last blog, I was talking about the growth in secularization and gave as one reason, the growing realization that many religion(s) have a dark and harmful side.

Take the case of Egypt’s Muslims and Coptic Christians. Coptic Christians are a minority in Egypt but they number in the millions (15%).

A rumor was spread that a Christian woman married to a Muslim man was abducted ostensibly because she wanted to convert to Islam?

Gangs of Muslim youth, after being incited by ultraconservative Muslims, went out to torch Christian churches and kill Christians. When the dust settled, 12 people were dead and hundreds injured on both sides. The Christians can also be instigated and rampage through the streets looking for Muslims to kill.

Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian dictator did not stand for sectarian violence but since he was deposed, the ugly head of religious intolerance has risen again.

How many thousands have died in the name of religion in our history and continue to die as we speak and it does not have to be clashes between different religions (Christian vs. Muslim) but can occur between Muslims (Shiite vs. Sunni). It does not take much to incite a crowd over perceived slights to their religion.

I am always amazed that people would justify killing a fellow human in the name of their religion / god.

True, many of those rioting are youth from the slums which probably makes them poor, ignorant and easily incited but they are incited by adults with an agenda and that agenda is usually to gain power and control through religion; remember bin Laden?

Religions in the United States can peacefully co-exist and have for hundreds of years but it was not easy to reach that state and still requires a lot of work today as many Christian conservatives try to dominate our government and impose their religious ideology on the rest of us; at least we are not killing ourselves over religious issues.

We are the best example of religious tolerance in our world today albeit not a perfect example.

With the advent of what is being called the “Democratic Spring” in the Middle East, religion will play a huge role and if not controlled by a democratic but strong government, will end up like the murderous theocracy in Iran.

I guess I should be happy that a revolt by regular citizens in the Middle East is at least happening and that those people have had enough and want to try a little freedom and with that, hopefully some prosperity after all these years.

The people in the Middle East deserve a new life, a life with a future, so I hope they will resist and not allow religion to doom them once again to a dark reality with no hopes for a better future.

Related articles

• Egypt cracks down on Muslim-Christian clashes (ctv.ca)
• You: Religious conflict becomes the biggest enemy of Egypt's revolution (latimes.com)
• Muslim mobs attack Christian churches (moretinythoughts.wordpress.com)
• EGYPT: Religious conflict becomes the revolution's biggest enemy - Los Angeles Times (news.google.com)
• Egypt: the two women at the centre of the clashes (telegraph.co.uk)
• Muslim extremists burn down another Coptic Christian church in Egypt (cifwatch.com)
• Christians, Muslims clash in Cairo (edition.cnn.com)

RELIGION: Major in secular studies?

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Reading my New York Times on this fine, sunny Mother’s Day, I come to an article written by Laurie Goodstein entitled: PITZER COLLEGE IN CALIFORNIA ADDS MAJOR IN SECULARISM, May 8, 2011.

Now we all know that the United States is very, very religious but I have been hearing more and more about people saying “they have no religion”.  In fact, that number has doubled in the last 20 years to about 15% of the population, still small but growing.

It appears that Pitzer will be the first school in the country to offer a major in secular studies. They have to quickly underline that this will not be an “anti-religious” course as any religious course should not be thought of as against non-believers; studying belief is just as valid as studying non-belief.

The designer of the curriculum, Phil Zuckerman, is very interested in knowing why some people are non-religious and I am too. He said that in some countries huge amounts of people call themselves just atheists (Czech Republic, Scandinavia, etc.) why?

He also said that Canada is undergoing a huge wave of secularization, why?

I have always maintained that humans have a religious gene in their DNA so the invention of religion was predestined from the very beginning; we need religion to explain what we cannot explain.

Maybe now some people are seeing how much damage religions can do (seeing the bad side of religion) and maybe they are intellectually insulted by the premise of religion and would rather explore the universe on their own, just using the facts available?

Is this the beginning of a new era of human history? Gee, I hope so…

Related articles

• Misinformation and Facts about Secularism and Religion (secularnewsdaily.com)
• The Death of American Civil Religion (And why it's a good thing) (livegenerously.wordpress.com)
• Religion in America. (jwitness.wordpress.com)
• Author Interview: Breaking their Will (new.exchristian.net)
• Secularism & Religionism (socyberty.com)
• Religion continues to impact voter decision, MU study finds (eurekalert.org)
• Should the Devout Be Excluded from Politics? -- Sightings (pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com)

OSAMA bin-LADEN IS DEAD... Hallelujah!

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What a surprise this morning as I awakened; Osama bin Laden was finally killed.

We could have killed him a long time ago when we had him corned in Bora Bora, Afghanistan but alas our brilliant President Bush decided to call our troops away from capturing or killing Osama to go invade Iraq for whatever reason.

This brainless move on the part of Bush allowed bin Laden to escape our grasp and strengthen his al-Qaida organization and kill a bunch more innocent people; I hope Bush can sleep at night.

Anyway, today the world is a better place without bin Laden. Some say he was no longer an active leader in al-Qaida and was only a symbol and I disagree with that and judging by how big the compound was where he was hiding, how well defended and all those computers there, I think he had a huge role in the terrorist organization; too bad that bin Laden had time to destroy all the hard drives in the computers because they were probably laden with names and places we could have used to wipe out the organization.

Maybe some of our computer whizzes can still get some names off those drives.

Puzzling and potentially problematic is that bin-Laden’s compound was only 2 hours from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad; one would think that someone should have noticed him that close to the capital…hmmmmmm.

Glad we did not bungle the operation by getting others involved. One helicopter was lost which reminded me of Carter’s failed attempt at rescuing the hostages in Iran; can’t wait for the details to come out.

I do know they dumped him into an ocean somewhere which is very smart just hope they got all the evidence they needed to prove to the world that it was really him and that he was really dead.

The fact that the Navy Seal Team Six went into a foreign country to kill Osama signals to the world and other bad guys, that we are willing to go anywhere at anytime to kill terrorists; you cannot hide forever.

What impact will Osama’s death have? Well, it can only make President Obama look better in the eyes of Americans make the CIA look half-way competent, makes Republicans like Palin and others, who did not mention the president’s role in this affair, even more stupid than they are already and maybe, just maybe it will demoralize al-Qaida operatives and the whole organization to get sloppy and therefore more vulnerable.

Some are already bracing for the “revenge” attacks on us but I am skeptical many will occur.

I think Osama’s death is good for Islam and all the Muslims trying to distance their religion and themselves from what the world calls “Islamic Terrorism”.

For now, let’s just be happy we got him.

Related articles

• Osama Bin Laden dead: How dangerous is Al-Qaida without him? (slate.com)
• Al-Qaida head Osama bin Laden is killed (The Newsroom) (worldscientists.wordpress.com)
• U.S. Kills bin Laden in Intelligence-driven Operation (yubanet.com)
• Osama bin Laden operation was joint American, Pakistani effort (nj.com)