There are many interesting ideas in this world. This blog is dedicated to pursuing them wherever they go. Politics, philosophy, religion, environment, and anything else that captures imaginations and leads to healthy discussions. Never take the world for what it is, there's always a better way to do something.
It should come as no surprise to the regular followers of this blog when I say that I believe President Obama is making a great mistake by sending more troops to Afghanistan. I don’t know what he has been told at the war meetings, but I hope I can never agree with his decision.
However, as it appears that war will continue to drag on (some Senator mentioned that 5 more years is as long as American will tolerate), perhaps we need to start to think how we will remember this conflict. What kind of Memorial is going to be built in Washington to grieve for the loss of life sustained over these years?
A few weeks ago, Noam Chomsky’s article was posted In These Times. This isn’t the first time, or the last time time for matter, that I mention Chomsky. I think United States, and the world, need more people like him. He presents his ideas and viewpoints clearly and always bases them in facts and history. He does not resort to cleverly spun statements or rhetoric, and doesn’t try to scare or frighten people to his viewpoints, or at least thats how I feel listening to him.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with me on Chomsky, the fact remains that he presents our political world and American foreign policy in ways that are very, very different from others. While his speeches are always jammed packed, he unfortunately receives very little attention from the mainstream media. As a result, we are all unfortunately all missing out. And anyone who believes that media is liberal.. well then read Chomsky’s article, a transcript of which is below, and see for yourself just how liberal our media is, if they fail to report on the things that don’t escape Chomsky’s attention. I’ll leave it up to you to make your final decision on Noam Chomsky, however, I do recommend everyone at least exposes themselves to his work.
According to an AP article yesterday, almost 50 million Americans are going hungry. I guess that’s one way to deal with the obesity problem within the United States. Although the article didn’t mention the amount of lbs lost among the participants, I’m assuming the executives behind The Biggest Loser are watching. This is definitively a startling number, almost 15% of American households.
Although the 3.5% increase from 2007, labeled ‘unsettling’ by President Obama, is mostly blamed on the recent economic hiccup, I am wondering a little bit on why the number is so high. I don’t think it surprises anyone when the news of another famine, I’m sure there are a few, in Africa. Stories like that don’t gather enough attention (that means high enough ratings) for our big news channels to devote too much time to them. I’d be unsettled if I heard that’s the number of hungry families in an Easter European or South American country. But United States? That number is much, much too high to be in the United States. Obama misspoke, that news isn’t ‘unsettling’ it’s downright ’shocking’.
I voted for Obama in the last election. I’ll honestly admit that I fell in love with the idealistic qualities of his campaign. How you choose to interpret that is up to you, but I felt much more optimistic about him then about McCain and Pail. They scared me. I felt that if they were elected I’d be exposed to four more years of constant fear of terrorism, a threat of war, threat of Iran, threat of Korea. I was tired of being told to be afraid. That was primary reason for why I voted for Obama, I wanted a change in attitude.
However, now that a year has passed, I have definitely re-evaluated my outlook on him. I still support him, I think if given proper support he will accomplish great things for this country. You have to admit, America is struggling, she’s hurting, and we need someone to do something to heal hear, bring her together, bring the people together and stop the fighting. I think Obama, given a chance, will do that.
I must admit, up to this point I’ve been guilty of this myself too. We align much too quickly to political parties. That unfortunately not only hinders our objectivity and the development of our ideas, but it lets us fall in love with our politicians. This past year Obama was definitively the popular choice among the college age kids. Sarah Palin has herself infatuated a particular segment of the conservative America. There were strong grassroots movements for both during the election. And yet, while I voted for Obama and still believe he will do a great amount of good, I do not believe we should unify in full support behind him. While we should definitively maintain that movement and cooperation that elected him, we should not throw that support behind him blindly. I think it is our responsibility to question all our politicians, regardless of whether or not you voted for them, regardless of whether or not they adhere to your party, as long as they are in office they should face constant pressure.
The politicians do not get enough of that pressure to do whats right these days. I’m not referring to just criticism. They get plenty of that. Unfortunately, that criticism is unorganized and usually very decisive. If someone calls Obama a Nazi or a Communist, one of his supporters will get angry, and they’ll spend the rest of their time fighting each other instead of keeping their pressure on Obama. We need organized, united public pressure on ALL politicians, not just the ones from the opposing party. That’s how the lobbyists do it. While obviously the two parties are friendlier to some groups than others, when it comes to major issues, the special interests do not discriminate. …
