Miss-enlightened!

Religious leaders attack politicians every week; they cite the bible as a source for why our elected officials are not doing a good job. Politicians use their "faith" to promote their own opinions on everything; race, education, global warming, taxes, the war on "terror"- the list goes on and on, and nothing is exempt from religious scrutiny.

Religion, in a lot of cases, seems to be just a way for people to promote their agenda without giving a logical reason. It also serves as a way for people to remove themselves from any personal responsibility (i.e. "it's in God's hands" and "God told me to.").

The bible is an easy tool to use if you want to prove a point because it says contradicting things about pretty much everything. If you want to retaliate against someone you can use the doctrine "an eye for an eye." If you want to preach forgiveness you can tell people to "turn the other cheek." These two statements give people carte blanche to do whatever they please when confronting someone in a disagreement. If the bible is really the answer to everything, then how can such discrepancies exist? Whether you believe in God and Jesus, they did not write the bible, man did (and we all know how corrupt man can be).

Many people feel like politics should not be influenced by religion, but unfortunately that constantly are. Our country was built by people who wanted to escape religious persecution, how have we strayed so far from that?

Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president and the cocreator of many of our founding documents, was skeptical of what we gain by following religion. Some of the things he was quoted saying include:

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of
Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not
advanced one inch towards uniformity. "

"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. "

"The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills. "

"Priests...dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live. "

Another American founder that disapproved of religion influencing politics was Benjamin Franklin. Some of Franklin's quotes include:

"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."

"The way to see by Faith is to shut the eye of Reason."

When people talk about returning to "good old fashioned values," why does it never include the sentiments of the men who built this country? I firmly believe that religion has no place in the political arena. For more information check out Religulous, it is a great documentary with a lot of information and interviews relevant to the topic.

I am a little disappointed with our politicians this week. Here are a handful of things that would warrant most toddlers a time out.

Vice President Joe Biden and Bush adviser Karl Rove are engaging in a passive aggressive name calling match. It doesn't have anything to do with the present, the future, or the Obama administration at all. It's all about George W. Bush and things that allegedly happened between him and Biden, and none of it has any hope of EVER being proved or disproved.

Next is the Gary Locke controversy. President Obama has promised up and down the street to keep big business, 3rd parties, and lobbyists out of the Whitehouse. Unfortunately, Obama recently appointed Locke to head the dept. of commerce. The problem with this is that Locke has received a ridiculous amount of campaign contributions from all sorts of major corporations, and he also owns an estimated 1/4 million dollars of Microsoft stock. The fact that he is a major investor in a company that he will definitely be dealing with in the commerce dept. seems a little unethical, and he has accepted so much money from other businesses that he undoubtedly has become too biased towards them to make the right decisions in his new position. I love Obama, and I was a big supporter of his presidential campaign, but this new development feels a little bit like the first time your child says "I hate you Mom!" You'd think it would make you feel angry, but in the end all you feel is sadness and disappointment.

This week congressmen continue to publicly pick apart Obama's budget proposal. I know that this is a "democracy," and we all have freedom of speech, and so many people want to know every centimeter of what the government does... but that being said, sometimes I wish that Congress would just STFU. Why can't they work together as a team, and then show a united front when they present us their final product? Do we really need to hear propaganda and minor nit picking that is deliberately done to stir up controversy?

If you have degrees from prestigious universities, have heavily coveted political positions, and are way past the point in your life when it is "acceptable" to have a midlife crisis; and you still haven't mastered the basic principles that most 5 year olds have (play nice with others, e.t.c.), then you need to grow up or get out of Washington! We elected you (or at least elected the people that appointed you), and you owe us more than petty bullshit.

• Pros: They tend to target specific interests, and most are free.


• Cons: Content may only be updated monthly, and is not very broad.


• Suggested Site: Time Magazine: Has the same great content as the print version, plus many cool interactive features, and an archive!

• Pros: Most are updated daily, or at least several times a week. Many are free and have established reputations as reliable news sources.


• Cons: Many run the same story over and over again, only changing slight details as new information comes in, which can make it time consuming to find stuff you haven't already read if you have been following a story for awhile


• Suggested Site: The New York Times: Very comprehensive, and easy to search.

8) Search Engine: We use them for just about everything, why not news?

• Pros: It's easy to get a lot of results if you have specific search terms to look for.


• Cons: If you don't know exactly what you want the results can be frustrating and hard to sift through. Some of the search results may direct you to very unreliable content.


• Suggested Site: Google.com: If you search through their news section you are only directed to well known news sources; it is a great way to see what all the popular channels are saying about a certain topic.
  

• Pros: You can check the news from the same sites where you get email, music, and countless other things.
  
• Cons: Because the sites don't specialize in news, some may be very lacking in content. Some also redirect you to other sites, which is annoying!


• Suggested Site: Yahoo! News: You can search by key terms within this section of yahoo. They also are well organized, and easy to browse. Yahoo mostly uses AP News stories which is great because they tend to be pretty unbiased.

• Pros: They can be great if you are trying to follow a specific topic, and it is nice to be able to store and read it from your inbox.


• Cons: Some are infrequent, and it's hard to find a good one that has broad content. RSS feeds also do pretty much the same thing, but better!


• Suggested Site: Page One: A great way to keep up with what's going on in the literature community (if you can get past their awkward formatting).
  

• Pros: There are so MANY of them, and they cover pretty much every topic! The good ones are easy to read, provide a lot of information, and are cleverly written.


• Cons: Some don't verify their content, and can have unreliable information, or are mostly opinion (opinion isn't always a bad thing though). Some are very infrequently updated.


• Suggested Site: Radical Middle: The author tries to be unbiased (though it is obvious that he leans a little liberal), the topics are interesting, and he very dependably updates it once a month.

4) Online TV: this is the greatest internet trend ever!

• Pros: Commercial breaks are much shorter than on an actual tv (average is 30 seconds), you can watch specific programs whenever you want regardless of your schedule, some shows even provide extra content that they don't release to cable/satellite, and most are free!


• Cons: If you don't have a fast internet connection you might have loading difficulties. Some require you to download media players which isn't convenient if you aren't using the site frequently, and some won't run on things like cellphones or PS3 internet browsers.
  
• Suggested Site: Hulu: They stream live presidential addresses and legally show new episodes of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" as well as some other popular talk shows. You can also catch up on your favorite sitcoms from almost any tv channel.

3) Discussion Boards: do more with your news than just absorb it!

• Pros: You can put your two cents in about pretty much any topic you choose, and you can have a back and forth converstaion with many people who all have a different and interesting take on things.
  
• Cons: A lot of what people say is propaganda, not based on any facts, and not backed up by any source or reason. Also some boards might not be well moderated, and occasionally on some forums people resort to personal attacks. Most sites also require that you create an account to participate which might be a nuisance if you don't plan on frequenting the site.


• Suggested Site: US Politics Online: This is a great site if you like debate and you don't get offended easily.

• Pros: You get a lot of information packed into a small amount of time, most are free, and they are a great alternative for people who like to listen to someone talk instead of reading text.


• Cons: You have to shop around a lot to find one that is interesting AND also has reliable information. If you have a slow internet connection you may experience loading issues, and the podcast you like might not run in a supportable mode for you mobile device.


• Suggested Site: Sxephil: He crams a lot of cool news into podcasts that are normally less than 5 minutes. He is also very funny, and talks about stuff that you don't readily find in other news forums.

1) Audio Podcast: News you can take with you- ANYWHERE!

• Pros: Most of these are compatible with just about any mobile device imaginable, which gives you the ultimate "on the go" experience. You can also find them on many different topics. You can also listen to podcasts with more than one host, and it is common to have group podcasts, so you might get more dimensions to a story.

• Cons: Some of the hosts are "just along for the ride" and don't have much to offer, and "like minded" people tend to hang out together so you might get people just agreeing with each other on issues. Podcasts also tend to be very opinion based, and can suffer from the Bill O'Reilly "loudest voice wins" problem.

• Suggested Site: This one I do not have a suggestion for, look around and find one that is right for you :)

The one thing that all these sources have in common is that they are not killing trees in order to be produced. If you care about the environment, switching to online media is a great way to live in a way that supports your beliefs.

If you enjoy the news you should also learn about RSS feeds, they make it easy to be up to date.

With all these wonderful options, there is no reason for anyone to not stay informed!

It seems like in this country everyone has gotten way too comfortable with being oblivious. Yes, we are all busy, overworked, and underpaid. Yes, we all have kids, jobs, school, and mortgages. There are a thousand reasons why people don't stay informed, but the one I find to be the most prominent is fear.

Lets face it, our last leader led through fear. Fox news trys to make us afraid of everything including the water we drink! All around us we are being told to be afraid!

In times like these we need to remember the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Well, that's true, and then again, it's not true. Fear is a property of a much bigger culprit called ignorance, and you should be afraid of that.

Right now our economy is in shambles, yet most people don't care until they lose their job or their house is foreclosed on. They are either too afraid to look at the big picture, too oblivious to know that anything is wrong, or too ignorant to acknowledge that there is a problem.

Every person in this country has something called spending power. Where we spend our money shapes the economy and United States business in general. When you spend half your paycheck on products that are not made in the United States you are hurting the economy and ultimately you are hurting yourself.

In an effort to circumvent labor laws most companies have sent their factories overseas where they can pay workers pennies an hour. This was so successful that companies decided to send other jobs overseas to save money. So back here in America we keep losing jobs.

The companies that have their products made overseas save a lot of money by not having to pay the American minimum wage, because of this they can sell their products for much less than companies that manufacture in the USA.

When you go to Walmart, or anywhere else, and you buy these cheap products you are supporting the loss of American jobs. You are making China and other foreign countries rich while our own country struggles with a 13 billion dollar deficit.

Do you want more proof that where you spend money makes a difference? Remember those economic stimulus checks we got last year? They were the Bush Administration's idea on how to fix the economy. Do you know why we aren't getting them this year? Because they didn't work, the majority of Americans chose to spend them on electronics that were made overseas. The only economy we stimulated was China's; we borrowed the money from them in the first place, and then we sent it right back to them when we bought our new tv, cellphone, and the like. And we still have to pay it back!

Another reason our economy is crap: war profiteering. Want another one? Read the news, stay informed, and don't complain about the economy if you are going to be a passive sheep. Our economy sucks, and it's our own fault.

More about the economy...