The Atheist and the Priest

I've long had different religious beliefs than I was raised with. I was raised in a Catholic household and tried to be one, but it just never took. I used to say "I'm Agnostic at best or an Atheist at worst", but even that was to soften what I am for my family.

Today I'm basically coming all the way out of the religious closet. I am an Atheist. I've mentioned it to a few people recently, who seem to think that because of the way some Atheists try to constantly disprove religion that my brother and I would constantly be at odds. (For those who don't know my brother is studying to be a Catholic Priest, read his blog here.) I am nothing but proud of Adam. I don't agree with his beliefs, but I am exceptionally proud of the humanitarian things he's done, and the people he will help in his calling.

Just like the vast minority of Priests would never dream of abusing children, the Atheists that are obnoxious about proving everything religions do wrong are in my opinion a minority, and certainly do not represent all of us.

I will certainly continue going to church with Heather, for her and for Alex. I will go to services for Adam if I'm invited. I'm still debating how much I'll participate in the service however. I have had a brief talk with Adam, and as an Atheist my understanding is even though I took First Communion as a child, I am no longer supposed to take it. However, I worry about Alex when he reaches a point to notice that I'm not taking it. Is it better to then explain to him that I believe in other things and therefore choose not to to take communion, or should I "play the part" until he's old enough to have a serious discussion and make up his old mind?

Why I post

I made one of those vague, dramatic Facebook posts that we all see occasionally. I've never minded them because I figure the person posting them needed an outlet for venting and rather than screaming on the streets they decided to scream into cyberspace.

I didn't realize that there's a sub-set of the on-line population who apparently has to know the meaning behind every single post that scrolls across their twitter feed, or their facebook wall. Here's a hint, if you're one of those people, unfollow me. I don't post for anyones benefit but my own.

Just like the guy that first finds out he's going to be a new dad, when I'm happy I want to tell everyone my good news and may spout randomly to the world about my good fortune.

On the other hand, when a demon from my past that I thought I had, if not outright destroyed, at least beaten into submission and locked away for good is revealed to be on the lose then I'm going to bellow in rage at the world.

Some people will likely see this post targeting them because of the responses made on facebook. While it is asking them to reconsider how that person views vague posts, it's really pointed at everyone who THOUGHT how much they hate those vague posts. The vague post may not be a call for attention, it might simply be an outlet to rage at the world rather than screaming in the streets at 3 o'clock in the morning and getting arrested.

Are we there yet?

I recently read an article that set my mind reeling. I encourage you to go read the article and think for yourself, but basically it says that the US is in either a pre-fascist or all out fascist state right now.

The term fascist is thrown around a lot. There is even Godwin's law on debate circles of the internet that states the first person who compares the other debater to Hitler, a Nazi or a fascist automatically loses the argument because it is such an easy cop out.

That said fascism is more than a boogie-man. It is something to be guarded against and the previously mentioned article got me thinking, are we really on that slippery slope? Here's why I think we truly might be:

1. We are a country "by the people, for the people" in two wars the people don't want. I feel the war in Afghanistan was justified, and perhaps the Iraq war was at the time, however the Defector who convinced the White House of the WMD's has admitted he lied. I feel that if the people don't want a war, even if it is justified, then the politicians should follow the will of the people.

2. Our country is now locking people up for months on end without any form of trial.

3. Our elected officials have decided to attempt to remove civil liberties in some instances "for the good of the state"

Fascism is difficult to quantify because it is neither strictly Right or Left. It is first and foremost an authoritarian form of government. Fascism is usually seen as far right, but the economics are far left to create a large government that the citizens come to depend upon for everything.

A much better description of fascism is at Wikipedia and the more I read it the more I wonder, are we there yet, and if not, can we change course?

The one ring

There's a piece of jewelery that to me is a sign of my love for Heather more than any other. Most people would logically assume it was my wedding band. While that band is very important to me and is a sign of our love and commitment, it was “expected,” that is to say I picked the wedding band, I knew it was going to be given, and I knew when. This in no way diminishes the importance of my wedding band, but it was “proper” that I receive it when and how I did.

The most important jewelery to me is Heather's high school class ring that hangs on a simple 14 k gold chain around my neck where it's been ever since she gave it to me the summer after we started dating. This ring has only spent 1 night that I can recall off my neck, and that was when I had spinal surgery and due to blood lose couldn't ask for it.

Heather gave me her ring on a piece of string (that I wore it on until the string broke) when she was staying at UWL for upward bound over the summer. To me that was a sign that she felt about me the same way I felt about her.

Whenever I have to take off my jewelery (for x-rays or at the airport) this ring and chain are always the last thing I take off and the first I put back on. Whenever I feel lonely or am missing Heather I hold (and sometimes kiss) that ring and hope that somehow she knows I'm thinking about her at that moment.

Heather probably doesn't know that I'm writing this, and a few will think it's sappy, or not “manly” but my response is screw them. This is how I feel and I wanted to share it with the world.

More Wikileaks

In my last post I talked about WikiLeaks while the case was still rather new, and very fluid. Since then a lot has changed (however not my opinion) and in discussing it with people I’ve come to realize that while many people know the name WikiLeaks, they don’t understand what it is or how it works. In the 1970’s the media did a good job of understanding and explaining what Watergate was and how it worked. In 2010 the mainstream media seems to be just as clueless as the politicians who are trying to shut down what is basically a new form of press.
Also Julian Assange has been accused of “rape” (I’ll get to why that’s in quotes in a moment) which is obviously a serious crime.
I’m going to try to do the media’s job for them and explain some of the facts in this case and let anyone who reads this form their own opinions. Lets start with the rape accusation.
The crime that WikiLeaks founder is accused of isn’t rape in the traditional sense that we have here in the US. In fact as far as I know Sweden is the ONLY country where what he is being accused of is a crime. Basically if a couple has consensual relations but the man does not use some form of barrier protection (i.e. a condom) the woman has up to 72 hours to claim rape, even if at the time of intercourse she agreed to the lack of protection (as she admitted happened in this case.) The woman who accused Assange of this case brought the charges, dropped them, then talked to a number of politicians and brought them a second time, all within that 72 hour period. I’m not going to claim it was a setup, but there are a number of people who would.
Now as for what WikiLeaks is. People seem to have this image of the staff of WikiLeaks poking around in the Pentagon digging through their desk drawers for things to release. They’re not. Basically it’s a website where anyone can anonymously upload/”leak” documents that the uploader has access to for whatever reason. It would be the same as if I created a fake Facebook account and released my companies secrets there, it may be a crime for me to steal that company info, but Facebook didn’t do anything wrong.
WikiLeaks specifically, and the internet in general is the future of the press. To censor or block them is to deny that the citizens have a right to information (again we get back to those pesky amendments to the Constitution about freedom of speech and freedom of the press.) Other than one being on the screen and one being on paper how is a website different from a newspaper? What is the definition of a journalist? Am I one for keeping a blog or do I need X amount of readers? If it’s a matter of the number of readers what is that number? Are small community newspapers that don’t reach that number then not covered by freedom of the press?
Also ask yourself, if the information published by WikiLeaks wasn’t from the US, but from China or Iran would you have as big a problem? If a country is doing something wrong, even if it’s your country, shouldn’t we know about it? In 2009 WikiLeaks was the first to report about a serious nuclear accident in Iran, which was then picked up by major news outlets, similar to the way the Monica Lewinski case was first released by Matt Drudge on the internet and then only later picked up by news outlets. This is the future, and while WikiLeaks may have an anti-US agenda, they also have a right to free speech and since there is no law against publishing classified materials, only in leaking them in the first place, they are not guilty of any crime and have not been accused of any at this time.

WIKILeaks

I'm torn over Wikileaks. I don't like that they may have compromised this countries reputation, and possibly even hurt it at the negotiating table. HOWEVER, I fully support them in their pursuit of the truth wherever it leads. Reporters (in the classic, Radio, TV, Newspaper sense) used to do that. Lately I see mouthpieces for both sides of the political agenda and very little investigative reporting being done by the "professionals."

"The freedom of the press" isn't just a catchy slogan, what is being done to shut down a whole website because of what amounts to a series of articles being released is equal to if Nixon tried to shut down every newspaper that reported on Watergate. Investigate the leaker, not the messenger. Ask yourself, how would Stalin, Hitler, Castro, or Napolean have responded to someone printing something that reflected their governments in a poor light, do we really want to emulate them?

The Spec 4 that released this current bout of information could have gone to a newspaper, started his own website, written a book, or taken it directly to a foreign government. He would have gotten in trouble if caught, but only the website would have been shut down or stopped.

Months after the first round of leaks (remember we've been here before and survived?) Defense Secretary Gates, who originally said informants were being killed in Afganistan, stated "There has not been a single case of Afghans needing protection or to be moved because of the leak."

So can we all please calm down with wanting the government to violate that whole pesky first amendment thing for a website and maybe remember that we are paying good money to go to the airport and get our fourth amendment violated? The latest there is agents are now being told to tell kids that the groping is a "game"

Loving Unemployment

This isn't intended as a brag post, but parts of it may read that way, I'm sorry and hope you're not offended.

I've been unemployed since August of 2009. This isn't that rare, millions of American's are like me. What is different is unlike most American families in this situation my family isn't in a financial crisis and worried each month that we are going to lose a car, the house, or not have enough food to eat.

Yes I do draw unemployment, but it is less than half of what I made before I lost my job. However we have never lived above our means, we don't have any credit cards or bills that come with them. Between my unemployment and what Heather makes doing daycare at home we can pay all our bills each month and have also been able to completely pay off a rather large outstanding balance to a local hospital.

During this time Heather has had a major surgery with a week off work and a miscarriage that made her miss a cumulative 2 weeks of daycare and yet we are still current on all our bills, and have credits on a few.

We've been able to do this mostly by being smart, but we've also become big fans of Dave Ramsey who advocates being debt free and how to get there. We haven't followed his plan exactly, we've bought Alex a new bike, we go out to eat occasionally, etc but between him and advice our parents gave growing up we're actually SHRINKING our debt while I'm spending time with my family and waiting for the right job.

Please don't misread that last line, I'm still working hard for work. However I'm presently looking almost exclusively in my chosen profession rather than having to take the first paycheck someone dangles in front of me simply to make ends meet. I have a deadline of 2 months before my unemployment runs out that I will then open myself wide up to any job I'm qualified for that will allow me to provide for my family. In the mean time I've been able to be home and shoulder the household tasks during Heather's two medical problems, I've spent lots of time playing with and enjoying my son, and I've gotten a lot done around the house (and thought of a lot more I'd like to do.) I'm enjoying my unemployment, however I'm ready to work if anyone has a job in my field.