What good is a big stick, if you can’t speak softly?

Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican president, famously said “speak softly and carry a big stick.”  If the United States had a foreign policy mantra, I think that would have been it.  We spend more on military than any other country.  According to the Stockholm Institute Peace Research Institute, we account for 41% of the world’s total military spending.  Our spending is as much as the next top spending countries combined!  In short, we have the biggest stick in the world.  In fact, our stick is so big, it could very easily be considered a tree compared to the sticks of other countries. 

When your stick is that big, you can really say or do anything and not appear to be weak.  Our leaders could get up in front of Nato, dressed like little girls and have a tea party with their stuffed animals and still no one would dare to call them weak.  Why?  Because they’ve seen our stick and know that the reality is that we are not weak.  They know we can decimate their countries in the blink of an eye. 

Mitt Romney blasted President Obama for apologizing to the people of Libya in the wake of that You Tube hate video last month, saying that it made us look weak on the world stage.   This is truly one of the most telling statements about this man and how out of touch with reality he is.  First off, apologizing for anything takes strength, not weakness.  It shows intelligence and compassion.  That Mitt Romney, a supposed Christian- the main tenet of which is forgiveness- would shun the asking of forgiveness is yet another sign of this man’s lack of sincerity.   Second, and perhaps more important, it shows that Mr. Romney doubts the strength of our military. 

We have the biggest arsenal on the planet.  Everyone knows that- except, it seems, the conservatives of our own country.  They have some sort of patriotic, self-loathing that appears to be manifested in a twisted form of arsenal envy.  If they were a girl on diet, they’d be anorexic, so extreme is their perception of our military dysmorphia.  Mitt Romney has proposed increasing the military budget by an additional $2 billion- that the Pentagon has NOT asked for!!  These conservatives are like the parents who force their morbidly obese children to eat because they are afraid of them starving to death.  We could spend every penny on this planet on our military, and it would not be enough to make these conservatives feel safe. 

To say that we could ever look weak on the world stage with a military as strong as ours shows a level of either ignorance about the facts or complete and total mental disconnect from reality.  After spending as much as we have on our military, when politicians and pundits say we appear “weak” on the world stage, they are essentially telling the American people that all the military spending has been nothing but one big rip-off.  Have all those bombs and “security” we’ve paid for been a farce?  Is ”military” is some covert term for massively extravagant Pizza and Porn parties in the Pentagon that have cost the tax payers trillions of dollars? ( Actually, that would explain why all the major pizza restaurants back the Republicans.)  Of course I am being facetious here.

 The fact is we don’t need to worry about looking weak, because we aren’t.  And we never will be, provided we can keep things in perspective.  Speaking softly is the other part of the equation.  Having the strongest military will not necessarily keep any of us safe, without diplomacy.  We’re the biggest kid on the block.  If we act like the big bully, we will be hated and eventually get our ass kicked when we aren’t looking.  But if we treat all the smaller guys with dignity and respect and protect them from the smaller bullies on the block, then they will come to our aid if we ever need them. 

There are many things that we could say on the world stage that would make us look bad for one reason or another.  But there is nothing we could ever say or do, which would make us appear weak to sane people.  As for the insane people, globally, we need to deal with them first with diplomacy and if that doesn’t work, then we need to wield our stick.  We can handle the foreign nutcases.  They are no threat to us.  However, here at home: until we get a comprehensive mental health policy in this country, they are perhaps our biggest threat to democracy.  In the meantime, we really need to work to vote them out of congress. 

Free Speech Vs. Hate Speech

The topic on this morning’s edition of “World Have Your Say” on NPR was the debate between freedom of speech and religious hate speech.   Many Muslims feel that there is an overwhelming air of Islamaphobia around the world that has occurred in various democratic societies, and they are right.  There is definitely an epidemic of Islamaphobia in the world today.  Even though I’m an atheist, I never think it’s okay to be disrespectful to attack a person for their religious beliefs alone.    And realize here, I said “beliefs.”  I can disagree with your beliefs and still be respectful, but I can and will attack your behavior and the gloves come off.  I haven’t seen the video that is causing such a stir in the Muslim world and I refuse- out of respect to my Muslim friends.   Many non-Muslims agree that it is truly insulting, and I refuse to give it anymore play time, since that is exactly what the losers who made it are hoping will happen. 

In America, we find many things truly offensive.  The Civil Rights movement in the 60’s was a prime example of how we had to shift attitudes.  There was a growing awareness that certain types of speech were not okay, because they led to a tolerance of certain types of behaviors.  Today, we are very aware of what is acceptable and what is not.  I like to point out the Civil Rights movement because for the most part, African Americans changed attitudes peacefully.  Had they responded to the violence with violence, I think they would have defeated the movement completely.  Instead, by being peaceful- yet insistent- in their demonstrations and actions, they proved not only that they were stronger, but that they were right. 

So here are a few things that we in our free speech society realize about the right to say and publish anything we want:

1.  Idiots exist.  You can’t get away from them.  They are everywhere and you can’t escape them.  They say and do stupid things, and if you aren’t strong enough to withstand their onslaught of babbling bovine dung, then you are one too. 

2.  Freedom of Speech cuts both ways.  The same right I have to write something that, hopefully, some of you find intelligent is the same right Harry the Hater has to sling his particular brand of verbal detritus.  But here’s the beautiful thing about communication:  it has to make sense to be effective.  In other words, logic and intelligence will always triumph over stupidity and hatred.  But they can only do that when people are free to exchange ideas.  It helps when the people who are communicating have open minds, but I refer you to number 1 above:  Idiots exist. 

3.  No one has ever died by being insulted to death.  And this is the cornerstone of a free speech society.  As long as your speech doesn’t call for or demand, out and out violence, then really you have nothing to fear from anything anyone says.  Someone can say something truly offensive, and while we in America will demonstrate, protest and even force someone to resign a high profile position, but only those who fit number 1 above will resort to violence. 

Now getting back to Muslims and the movie- the violent reactions are not okay.  And I know most Muslims agree and have denounced those actions.   However, there is still a fatwa for Salmon Rushdie just because he wrote a book some 20 years ago (or was it 30 years ago?) that the Ayatollah Khomeni found offensive.  And it very well may have been, but Rushdie is now a bestselling author, most likely because the boost in his popularity following the call for his death.  In fact, it’s very hard to defend people who call for violence when words have been the only weapons lobbed.  It’s hard to have sympathy too. 

So let me explain logically why violence in the name of religion is perhaps the stupidest thing one can ever espouse.  The argument goes like this:  you believe your God is omnipotent.  However, when S/He’s insulted, S/He needs you to go fight His/Her battles and kill the person who insulted the all-powerful and almighty one, because S/He is unable to do it for Him/Herself.  Seriously?  Do you see how absurd that is?  Not just absurd, but I would argue that in itself, a call for violence on behalf of a deity is blasphemy.  If you believe that your deity can be insulted (which I have an entire argument about that itself- but that’s not the point here) and yet cannot fight His/Her own battles, then you are actually saying that you doubt the strength of that deity.  By definition, God is omnipotent.  Doubting His omnipotence doubts His existence. 

To my Muslim friends, I love you and respect your right to believe.  And I will defend your right to be insulted on behalf of Allah, up to the point that you advocate violence.  At that point you cease being a victim and end up justifying the very Islamaphobia that you are rallying against.  It’s just a lose/lose situation. 

A Public Letter to Darrell Issa

Dear Congressman Issa:

In light of the recent Department of Justice findings that neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor President Obama had any culpability in the Fast and Furious debacle, and given your tireless pursuit of the wrong people, I, one of your constituents in the 49^th District of California, am demanding that you issue a public apology to both men immediately. In addition, given that your party espouses that it's the party which demands personal responsibility, I think you should also payback all the tax payer dollars you wasted chasing after this wild goose!! After all, you are the wealthiest man in congress and had you made such a big mistake in your own business, you would have had to pay back the money or resign. Actually, either of those solutions works for me as well. If you are a true Republican, and not a RINO, you will walk the walk of your party.

Very Sincerely,

Rena Marrocco
The Liberal Diva

An Open Letter to Mitt Romney

Dear Mitt Romney:

I am one of the 47% of Americans who will never vote for you no matter what and three days ago, I mailed my quarterly tax payment to the Federal Government. What you call "entitlement" mentality, I call a bargained for exchange for my tax dollars. You see, I remember the America of my youth. It was an America where veterans came back from wars and had services provided to them so they didn't have to live on the streets, holding signs that say "Will work for food." It was an America where no expense was spared for schools and our children got a top notch education- the best in the world, in fact. It was an America where we learned our lesson from Vietnam and peace was prized above all else. It was an America where there was such a thing as "job security" and our economy flourished. And if you look at history you will see that what our government was doing back then to get it right. They imposed strict regulations on financial institutions. Back then the top 1% was taxed at 75%. And our unions were protected by the government. These are the very thing you and your party vehemently fight against.

If anyone has "entitlement" mentality, Mr. Romney, it's YOU. You want to live in a country that has been very good to you and your family, yet you want to pay less in taxes than the average American. You look at our homeless with disdain and call them "bums" without understanding that these men and women have mental illnesses that prevent them from working an honest job. And you'd rather step over these people than put into place programs that would help them. Well Mr. Romney, when I see a homeless person on the street, I feel like my country is shitting where it eats. I feel an obligation to do something to help- and homeless shelters do not have the proper facilities to help the mentally ill. This is the obligation of our government in exchange for our tax dollars. It is also an obligation we owe to our veterans.

And don't think for one minute that we 47% don't see through the farce of "smaller government." We know that "smaller government" is just a euphemism for "privatization." And "privatization" is just a manipulative term to award big fat government contracts to your corporate cronies. We see what "privatization" has done to with our prisons and to our population. The statistic is that while the overall inmate population has grown exponentially in the past 30 years, the violent offender population has gone down from 34% to 7%. And you want to spread more of that kind of "freedom"? The idea that "privatization" somehow saves tax payer dollars is truly laughable. We, Mr. Romney, remember the billions of dollars wasted by Halliburton and Blackwater during the Iraq war. Government may be inefficient, but I don't think I've ever seen any government entity waste as much tax payer dollars as these corporations.

Contrary to what your tirade in May espoused, we 47% believe that everyone has the right to earn a living. That's why we support a public healthcare option- so that everyone will be healthy enough to work. We're not asking for handout. We want to work and pay our taxes for this. As a capitalist who would rely upon these people as your workforce, I would think you would support having the healthiest workers possible so that you could increase productivity. Oh but I forgot! Your personal trickle down experience trickled all the way down to India and China. You seem to espouse trickle outsourced economics.
Mr. Romney, the middle class does not earn $250,000 per year. They don't even earn half of that. You just don't seem to be able to relate to the rest of us, and I think that goes much deeper than a political ideology. On a very human level, you seem to lack the compassion necessary to function in a diverse society. And to tell you the truth, that's your loss- just as it will be your loss this November.

Very Sincerely,

Rena Marrocco
The Liberal Diva

America's True Enemy

I just received word that the U.S. is moving 2 warships toward the Libyan coast following the uprising and murder of Americans at the Consulate there.  Can this situation get anymore absurd?  Please, can we just take a second to look sanely at this entire ordeal?  First of all, a film was made that some Libyan and Egyptian Muslims perceived as being disrespectful of Islam.  They then blamed the U.S. for it and attacked the Consulate as a result.  Now our government is preparing a show of force. 

I haven’t seen this film and I’ve heard that the nutjob pastor, Terry Jones, was involved in its promotion.  And the Islamic nutjobs are the ones who stormed the American Consulate.  So it’s the battle of the insane and the rest of us are the victims.  Now as I said, I haven’t seen the film, but if any Muslims were offended by it I want to offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of the American people.  In the United States, we value religious freedom above anything else.  And even though I don’t believe in a god, I respect people who find that their religion makes it easier for them to promote peace, love and harmony.  I offer my sincerest support to people who find enough strength in their faith to choose peace or peaceful means of voicing their displeasure.

For all the others, I would like to offer you this food for thought:  if you find that you must go out and perpetrate violence in order to defend your god, or incite others to violence, then what you are really saying is that you don’t really believe that your god is strong enough to defend him/herself.   You don’t have enough faith to trust that your deity will punish the wrongdoers adequately.  In short- you really don’t have faith.  You really don’t believe in this god you profess to love so much, because the cornerstone of love, is trust.  The cornerstone of faith, is trust.  If you don’t trust your god, then you really don’t believe in your god.

Now a message to my U.S. brothers and sisters who are calling for a show of force against Libya:  it's important to remember that MOST Libyans as well as the vast majority of Muslims do NOT condone the attacks on the Americans any more than Americans condoned the attacks on the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin.  These are a bunch of religious nutcases with a whole bunch of ignorance and very little faith.  Period.  They do not represent Islam.  They do not represent Libya any more than Wade Michael Page (the Sikh Temple shooter) represents the United States or Christianity. 

How about this for a change:  instead of going into a country with military action, why don’t we try peaceful means first?  Why not allow the Libyan authorities to find these people and bring them to justice?  What if, instead of going into countries with bombs, we went in with books and built schools and roads and bridges?  If we Americans want to point our fingers at bogeymen, those bogeymen are not Islam, or religious extremists per se.  They are ignorance and poverty.  As soon as we get rid of those two things, we will be able to know peace on a global scale.   

An Atheist's view of the 10 Commandments (Part 2)

This is a continuation of my earlier blog post.  Find it here.

 

6. Thou shall not kill.

Ironically, it doesn’t say “thou shall not murder.”  I think it’s important to understand that this commandment does not limit killing to human life.  In addition, for people who put god first- above the Constitution, they need to realize that owning a gun- an item intended to kill- is a sin.  As is eating meat.  But I digress.  Most atheists would agree with this to the point of murder.  Many more would go for the whole thing: practicing vegetarianism and pacifism.  Because we atheists don’t believe in an afterlife, we take life on this earth very seriously.  It is all we have.  Therefore, it is our purpose in life to make this experience as valuable for as many living beings as possible, mainly because it is so fleeting.   This is why we tend to be so passionate about the environment and welfare of other people.  A word about abortion here:  no wherein this mandate does it define life as beginning before the viability of the mother.  I’m crazy about abortion, but there are women who should not be mothers.  And those women almost never put their children up for adoption.  If a woman has made up her mind to have an abortion, she will have an abortion- legal or not.  If we really want to stop abortion, which I wouldn’t be against at all, then we must put into place the programs which will prevent them.  Programs like healthcare, education and birth control.  And we must keep abortion legal in order to gauge the efficacy of these programs.  Planned Parenthood does all of these things and as a result has prevented more abortions than any other organization in the world.  So called “pro-life” people who are trying to kill planned parenthood are actually doing more to promote abortion than to stop it.

7. Thou shall not commit adultery

In an earlier blog, I talked about the Morality of Sex.  The gist is that sex itself is not a moral issue.  And there’s nothing in this Commandment that would indicate otherwise.  This Commandment is about keeping one’s commitment to one’s spouse to not have sex with another person.  Therefore it’s more about honesty than it is about sex.  I don’t think I know of any atheist who could disagree with this.  Good people keep their word because that is one of the building blocks of a good society.

8. Thou shall not steal

Again, I think this is a no brainer.  If we want a fair, efficient society, we must agree to treat each other honestly and with respect.  That respect includes not stealing what someone else owns.  However, I think it’s important to remember that this mandate can only be enforced if we do everything within our power to make sure that everyone’s basic needs are met.  I can fault someone for stealing an iPod.  It’s much different when someone is stealing food for their child.  After all, it’s a biological need.  It’s still not right to steal, but if I also do nothing to prevent this situation, then I do have some responsibility in this as well.

9. Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

This is about more than just lying.  It’s about making up stuff and spreading it about someone else.  So there are two parts to this.  The first is lying.  Lying is one of the most subjective ethical principles.  It’s really not always bad to lie.  For example, there’s the old adage about living in Nazi Germany and hiding a Jewish family.  Then an SS officer comes knocking at your door, asking if you’ve seen them.  If you commit to honesty then you must tell him and send the family to their death.  I don’t think anyone, theist or atheist, would say that lying in this situation wasn’t a good thing.  And who hasn’t embellished a story by exaggerating a detail.  Is that really such a bad thing?  I think the biggest thing about lying is that when it’s bad, it’s usually bad because of some other action.  To put it into Christian terms: it’s a gateway sin.  Bad lies are usually to cover up or plan something bad like stealing or adultery.  So in a way, lying isn’t necessarily bad, it’s what the lie is about that’s bad.

However, there is one instance when lying in and of itself is bad, and this Commandment hits the nail on the head.  Just making stuff up about someone, for the only purpose of ruining their good name is evil.  I have relatives who tried to start a rumor about a mutual friend being a pedophile.  Now I was present at the “event” that they pointed to as their proof and saw the whole thing with my own eyes.  It was nonsense, but they kept insisting that he had molested that child at that event.  When I asked them why they didn’t call the police they hemmed and hawed and finally one of them said it wasn’t their place to call the police.  I knew then and there that they were lying about the person, and worse yet, they knew that they were lying, but to this day have refused to own up to it or apologize to the man for it.  That one lie told me so much about these people, not the least of which is that they wanted this to be true.  They wanted a child to have been molested just so that they could talk about this person.  As a result, I have chosen not to have anything to do with them.  In fact, I have decided to keep my distance from anyone who still remains friends with them.  I feel the greater degrees of separation, the better.  I don’t think you have to believe or not believe in God (and for the record, those people are Catholics whose lives revolve around the Church) to gain insight to how evil this is.   None of us would want that done to us, nor would we want these kind of lies to be widespread. 

10. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house (wife).

The word covet implies an extreme desire for something.  I think for the most part, this is one of those church preserving mandates, in that the church doesn’t want you to desire material goods too much (so that you will give them all of your extra money).  Nevertheless, I could see some wisdom in this from a pragmatic standpoint.  I think this could be about obsession and making material things more important than people and principles.  When referring to coveting the wife, I would like to think it meant not to objectify another human being by desiring them like a possession.  But knowing the history of the Bible as I do, wives were just “possessions” and therefore “things.” 

The Golden Rule: Love your neighbor as yourself

The one thing I find about most western atheists is that they are very well versed in the Bible and Christianity.  I have never met any atheist that said the Golden rule is wrong.  In fact, most atheists I know agree that Jesus, if he existed, was a pretty cool dude.  Like me, he was a political liberal and therefore a personal hero of mine and I do try to live by principles that Christians call “Christlike.”  But I don’t need for him to be deity to see the value in living that way.  The Golden Rule is awesome and a very good principle to live one’s life by.  But it was awesome 500 years before Jesus was attributed with saying it, when Confucius said it.  I think it fosters compassion which is a necessary part of a moral and ethical life and society.

The bottom line is:  People are either good or bad.  And this is true whether or not they believe in a god.  I find that for good people of faith, their religion makes it easier for them to be good.  I’m all for that and think if that’s the case, by all means, please continue to believe (and please, be my friend- I love people like you).  My problem with religions and religious people is a direct result of people who go to churches and espouse beliefs, but then act directly the opposite of those beliefs.  They like the aspect of religion that allows them to dupe others into believing they are good people, but then they behave in some of the most immoral ways ever.  You know these people because they are the ones who espouse hatred of other groups.  They point out the sins of others and tell you who is and isn’t going to hell.  They espouse “righteous indignation” and always seem to be looking for a reason to get pissed off about something.  Instead of making them stronger (as with the people who espouse love and tolerance) they seem to hide behind the veil of their religion, thereby justifying their fear and anger (although anger comes from fear-so that is a bit redundant).  I’m not sure what is the answer for those people, but religion certainly isn’t it.