Colin Powell: Coward

I was really disappointed watching Colin Powell on Rachel Maddow.

I understand that Powell is trying to protect his image here, but it's disappointing nonetheless. I really want to respect Powell. I think he has more integrity than anyone else from Bush's cabinet. But his refusal to come clean on torture makes it difficult for me to maintain a high opinion of him. What the Bush administration orchestrated is one of the greatest moral blights on America in our history. For Colin Powell to not stand up and accept some responsibility, to not come clean, is cowardice pure and simple. And if he doesn't want to fess up, then he shouldn't be doing interviews at all. He should just stay home and shut up and think about what went on and why he didn't do more to stop it.

Economy Got You Down? Get a Vasectomy

Vasectomies are up in our troubled times.

"My staff came to me and said, what's happening?" said Jones, the chairman of the Department of Regional Urology of Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. "Why are we suddenly having an explosion in guys asking for vasectomies?"

They looked at their statistics and realized the uptick started around November as the economic crisis deepened. October went down in the history books as one of Wall Street's worst months.

Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman's fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy.

There's a joke in here somewhere, but I can't quite get a grip on it.

Weekly Music Video

This is a great song about longing and despair from a prog metal band that usually writes songs about mythology.

Symphony X - "Candlelight Fantasia"

Those Damn Dressed Up Dogs

A guy I know, Abram Hagstrom, wrote an article for our local paper recently about needing to focus less on ourselves and more on helping others.

We are controlled by fear - the self-perpetuating fear that comes from believing the lies of individualism and consumerism. Being so controlled, we have each exchanged loving our neighbors for honoring ourselves.

This exchange has failed to yield any real value because it violates a deep truth that we have long kept hidden.

This truth is what Jesus alluded to when he said, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

He wants us to grasp that, as members of one body, namely, the human race, our neighbors' relation to us is such that when we actively love them, we are loving ourselves. Likewise, when we mistreat (or disregard) them, we end up doing the same to ourselves.

You see, while the worldly economy of competition is win-lose, Jesus' economy of community is win-win. He wants us to adopt a lifestyle that resounds with the reality "I am you."

The main thrust of Hagstom's article is a good one and a point I have tried to make manifest in my life and to instill in my daughters. That's why I was disappointed that Hagstrom diluted his point by beginning his article mocking people who dress their dogs up.

We are controlled by fear - the self-perpetuating fear that comes from believing the lies of individualism and consumerism. Being so controlled, we have each exchanged loving our neighbors for honoring ourselves.

This exchange has failed to yield any real value because it violates a deep truth that we have long kept hidden.

This truth is what Jesus alluded to when he said, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

He wants us to grasp that, as members of one body, namely, the human race, our neighbors' relation to us is such that when we actively love them, we are loving ourselves. Likewise, when we mistreat (or disregard) them, we end up doing the same to ourselves.

You see, while the worldly economy of competition is win-lose, Jesus' economy of community is win-win. He wants us to adopt a lifestyle that resounds with the reality "I am you."

Both beasts sported thick, elegant, turtleneck sweaters - the kind that Paris Hilton would wear if she were a dog.

In contrast, today in Thailand a 12-year-old girl will be rented to and raped by 12 different men. Today in Zimbabwe, a family will die from cholera because its members could no longer keep from drinking the only water available.

Today, in India, Samir will toil as a third-generation slave to repay his grandfather's $10 debt.

Today in America, you will have a choice.

Please understand me. I have no interest in taking shots at people who love their pets.

Dapper dogs are just one of many signs of our time. The question we need to ask is: What is the ethos of a world where hundreds of thousands of innocent adults and children are systematically enslaved, starved, raped and murdered while others primp their pets (or play pro sports, race jet boats, buy second homes, etc.)?

He tries to step back from this with his line, "I have no interest in taking shots at people who love their pets," but it ends coming off more as, "I'm not racist, but..." Hagstrom knows nothing about the people who owned those dogs. Perhaps their pets are their one hobby. Perhaps they donate large amounts of time and money to charity. Perhaps they don't, but the point is that Hagstrom has no clue and it is unfair to use someone to make a point when he knows nothing about them.

The attacks against people who "play pro sports" and "race jet boats" are strange, as well. So everyone who participates in these activities is a selfish prick who only thinks of themselves and never lifts a finger to help others? Really?

This attitude is, I believe, one of the reasons Christianity can turn off people. Instead of coming across with a humble attitude, Hagstrom, like so many other Christians, has a holier-than-thou attitude. I have my own strongly held personal beliefs, but if I didn't people like this would certainly not turn me into a believer.

If Christians want to spread their faith they would do well to keep in mind the words of Mohandas Gandhi: "It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err."

UPDATE: I suppose I should make it clear that I do know Abram and I do not think he is arrogant. I just think that's how his article comes off.

Weekly Secret

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