The audacity of hope

Lest anyone accuse me of plagiarism, I am borrowing the title of this post from Barack Obama's book. Watching the campaign closely I have seen a trend in Hillary's attacks steadily downward. Most recently she has stooped to the new low of childishly parodying his soaring rhetoric, calling it in essence naive. She scoffs at his lofty goals of reaching across the isle, working past the gridlock, and finding real answers. Is it true? Is it his lack of experience that makes his aims so high? Or is it a vision of a better tomorrow that makes his goals so lofty?

What is so wrong with giving the American people hope? Why is it we must settle for politics as usual? Why admit defeat before beginning to fight? It is this very attitude that has created the political climate in which we live. Why not aim higher? Why not strive for great things? A wise man once told me, "It is better to aim for the stars and land in the trees than aim for the trees and land in the mud." To quote another wise man, "In the unlikely story that is America, there is never anything false about hope."

Witnessing History

Friday I went to the Barack Obama Rally for Change in Corpus Christi. My super cool photographer friend Connie, also known as Mini Mija (because she is who I would be if I were a 5'2" hispanic girl), and I went down with our awesome cameras to document the time when the first black man with a real shot at the presidency came to Corpus Christi. Here was our journey.

The crowd lining up was so huge there was no good way to really reflect that in a single photo. Imagine a crowd 6-7 times what you see here. It was absolutely crazy.

There were people from every walk of life, including the obligatory protestors.

Seriously, I remember 9/11. I remember it was led by a Saudi man and pulled off by a mix of Saudis, Syrians, and Afghanistani terrorists. Not one Iraqi. Not one. There were no terrorists in Iraq until we overturned the dictator that was keeping them out. Are the Iraqis better off for our overturning their dictator? Only time will tell. Even a homicidal dictator is better than Sharia Law.

Seriously, no matter what your stance on abortion, I am pro-choice, there is NEVER going to be a Supreme Court that would overturn it. Period. Move on.

The Rally itself was worth the few hours waiting outside and standing around. Barack was in top form. I will leave you with a couple of the best photos of the day.

Raging against injustice

Today, as I watch CNN, I saw a story that I had to record and watch twice just to make sure I heard it correctly. I then searched online to find an article with more detail. On the BBC website was where I found the most detailed story. There is a woman in Saudi Arabia. A poor illiterate woman who has been the victim of abuse, torture, and will soon be executed by beheading. Her crime? Witchcraft. This in the 21st century in one of the most advanced and wealthy nations in the Middle East. She was detained in 2005 by religious police. These are the same police who arrested a married American business woman for sitting in a Starbucks with a male co-worker.

These people have all the technology in the world available to them, every piece of information in the human understanding at their fingertips and yet they live like they did in the 1400's. Sharia law is the culprit. Every year, millions of innocent women are beaten, raped, and killed under Sharia law. While mainstream Islam is at least progressing towards women's rights, under Sharia law women are seen as unclean pieces of property. A woman getting raped can land her, not her attacker, in prison. School girls were left to burn alive in a school by the religious police because they weren't dressed to be in public. We in the civilized world must speak up. We must not allow Sharia law or any Wahhabist interpretation of Islam to spread further.

As a society we must not allow the shield of faith to stand. Simply because it masquerades as religion should not make it untouchable. This particular religion could very well get us all killed.

Inspiration

Watch this and if your aren't inspired by this man, you need your head examined:

Exposing a lie

There have been some emails floating around for a few months now about Barack Obama being an anti-American Muslim who refuses to say the pledge and put his hand over his heart for the pledge. Here he is addressing these lies directly.



Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Petersburg Times, Slate, The L.A. Times, and a myriad of other news sources have all referred to these emails as "scurrilous lies" and "false and vile". Before you believe another email sent about Barrack, or any other candidate, consider the source and do some research. Most of the time these lies are generated by the supporters of opponents. Huckabee supporters pulled the same dirty tricks with Romney, phoning potential voters and spreading insane lies about Mormonism. To see other myths about Obama exposed go to http://factcheck.barackobama.com/

Backing a candidate

I have watched this race for a while now, listened to the candidates and for the first time in my voting life, I have found a politician that isn't just settling for the lesser of 2 evils.  Barack Obama is the first politician ever to truly inspire me.  He is the only one talking about reaching across the isle and forging a coalition for change.  Too long have those who label themselves "conservative" or "liberal" fought it out, never enacting change.  We need a leader who can reach across borders, a leader who can bridge divides and enact change.  Watch the videos at his website.  If you aren't inspired by this man, check your pulse, you are probably dead.

Barack Obama TV

Helping save the world, one cycle at a time...

So I stumbled across a great way to help save the world with spare processor cycles on your computer. Anyone with an internet connection can do it and it doesn't cost a penny. All you need to do is visit the World Community Grid website. Sign up for an account and install the software. It does the rest. You can open the window and see which project your cycles are going to at the moment and even see the results of projects computed by the grid. Most importantly, you are helping speed the calculation of problems that could save millions of lives. Every cycle given puts us that much closer to curing cancer, aids, and millions of genetic disorders.

Every second your computer is capable of using millions of processor cycles. Most people never push the limits of their processor leaving hundreds of thousands of spare cycles. With the world community grid, you are giving some of those spare processor cycles to calculate complex problems like the human genome or cures for cancer. It never slows your computer down because the software is written to never preempt any task you are doing. Your computer will become part of the largest computer grid on earth, dedicated solely to the betterment of humanity. Do your part and join today.

State of the Union

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Ben Franklin

I am watching CNN this morning and have been reading the Reuters coverage of the State of the Union Address. I am disturbed that not one news agency is covering the chunk at the middle of the address where he urged Congress to vote to extend the domestic spying program as well as legal protections for communications companies that aided in this direct violation of the Constitution. He then spent a couple of minutes wallowing in fear mongering, essentially telling Congress that not voting for these domestic spying programs makes the country unsafe.

Using the logic that, "you shouldn't mind if you have nothing to hide" is just ludicrous. Freedom for all is destroyed when liberty for some is infringed upon. Did we learn nothing from the Japanese internment camps of WWII? Giving the government freedom to violate our Constitutional rights, we spit on the graves of the men and women who died founding this great nation.

We must stand up as a nation and bring this violation of our rights to an end. If our founding fathers had believed dissent was wrong, we would have no nation to begin with. There is nothing less patriotic than blindly supporting a government that tramples on liberty.

Airport blogging

I am blogging from my new 15" MacBook Pro from the Houston IAH as I await a flight back. I just finished some user creation tasks, site updates for a client, caught up on my email, and now I am writing this all with nearly the same speeds I pull from the bonded T1 at the office. How freaking cool is that? Oh, yeah, NO WIRES...I love technology. How did I live without this...

God, thy name is Steve Jobs...

Picking a president

As I sit here in a hotel room in Houston I find myself with nothing better to do than watch the New Hampshire primary results on CNN. I have been listening to candidate speeches, watching poll results, and reading up on the histories of the candidates. It is time to contribute my thoughts on this election.

For the sake of disclosure, I have voted Republican in every election since the year I turned 18. I hated that vote the last two times but I could not in good conscience vote for Al Gore or John Kerry. I loathe George Bush but he is the evil we know. Al Gore and John Kerry were unpredictable evils. With that out of the way, lets start on the Republicans.

John McCain: This former P.O.W. has seen better days. I respect his service but I just can't see this man leading us into a new era that is any different from his predecessors.

Mitt Romney: He seems socially pretty moderate, has a great understanding of business, and while I am a good bit left of him, I like the idea of knowing where a man is coming from on a personal level. I was once Mormon and while I disagree with them, I have a great deal of respect for the way they lead their lives. I would actually list him as my second choice for president.

Mike Huckabee: This vile hate mongering bastard needs to be pulled from every ticket. First, he has engaged in a "my God is better than your God" game that has no place in a civilized society. He has lied about Mormon Doctrine to draw doubt to Mitt Romney. He has supported nothing short of lying to our children in the form of teaching Intelligent design in science class. He isn't even a real conservative, just a Jesus loving big government liberal.

Rudy Giuliani: This guy is a 1 hit wonder. I don't give a shit that he was mayor when the planes hit. His policies suck. Enough said.

Ron Paul: This is the only guy in this election I despise more than Huckabee. He has a large following of 9/11 truth proponents, KKK members, and conspiracy theorists. If you pull up the archives of his old newsletters you will discover he is a racist, xenophobic, homophobic, paranoid, vermin worthy of nothing.

The rest of the Republicans are just a waste of my time. Now to the Dems.

Hillary Clinton: This vile snake will say and do anything to get elected. If she gets nominated I might have to hold my nose and vote Republican. It has nothing to do with her being a woman or even former first lady. She can't pick a position. She has been preaching to end the war but voted every time to back the president.

John Edwards: I sort of like him but he is too extreme to actually get anything done in the White House.

Barack Obama: I heard him speak tonight and for the first time in years, I was inspired by the words of a politician. I see a great president in him. I hope the final elections are between Obama and Huckabee. Huckabee is un-electable. Obama is inspirational. He speaks of changes that can actually be made and understands that to truly govern one must not divide but instead build a coalition.

In watching this election, I am excited by the record turnouts of young voters. It is my hope that my generation is able to break through the haze MTV and Playstation has left it in and speak out. We must rise and pry the reigns from the aging hands of the fools who have put this country where it is now. To my young readers, get out and vote. Your vote is your voice. If you don't stand and fight you will be trampled.

Stand Up

Last night I won the open mic night competition at the Crazy Times Comedy Club and came out $25 richer than when I came in. My wife has said I am funny for years but looks aren't everything...

It felt good to just get up there and ramble for 5 minutes and actually have people laugh at it. Like I've said before and I'll say again, I am an attention whore.

Unintelligent Design

I just saw the preview for Ben Stein's new movie "Expelled" and I have to say, I am annoyed. This film is a documentary of sorts on how the proponents of "Intelligent Design" are being kicked out of the science classrooms. In the preview I saw a long string of these "scientists" whining that they couldn't get published, had lost tenure, or were unable to get grant money. Seriously?

Let me break down why this truly annoys me. Science searches for answers through a method as follows:

1. Ask a question.
2. Do background research.
3. Construct a testable hypothesis.
4. Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment.
5. If the hypothesis fails, construct a new hypothesis based on the failure and test again.
6. Analyze your data and draw a conclusion.
7. Communicate your results.

Intelligent Design fails to properly follow this as the hypothesis they form has the inherent flaw of being untestable. When you are forced to fiat a premise, you have already lost the debate. It isn't science because there is no way to test all of the tenants of the hypothesis. Proponents use the claim, "well you can't disprove an intelligent designer." They conveniently forget that it is the responsibility of the one making the claim to substantiate it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. So far Intelligent Design supporters have presented no evidence that wasn't based on flawed reasoning. To prove an intelligent designer one must prove its existence.

I would like to challenge any intelligent design proponent to scientifically back their claim of a designer by proving its existence. Until then, it is categorically NOT science.

Brainstorming

Last night at our weekly gathering of the Corpus Christi Atheists we were brainstorming ideas on how to bring more activity to our group. One thought we came to was the name of the group itself. Atheist simply denotes a lack of belief in God and that is barely scratching the surface of our group. Too many people see the word Atheist and think of the kid who ran around the schoolyard telling the younger kids there was no Santa Claus. Our goal is not to kill faith in God, although in some we will have that side effect,but instead to get people off their knees and into action. To do that we can't have people turn off their ears before we have said anything. To that end, we are trying to come up with a better name for the group that indicates our secular humanist goals. If any of you have ideas, please feel free to send them to me.

On the topic of secular humanist goals, we have been looking for a local cause to champion and I think we have found one, the Corpus Christi Food Bank. The warehouses are nearly empty and the holidays are coming. I am working this week to put together something to assist the Food Bank in providing for those who would otherwise go without. To have anyone go hungry in a town where people can afford to drive BMW, Mercedes, and Hummer is inexcusable. In my next post I hope to have a plan laid out and info on how you can help. Stay tuned...

World on Fire

I've been listening to the news of late about the fires in California. Thankfully people have acted fast enough to keep the death toll down to one so far. Now there is the problem of thousands of people who have lost everything. Some of the more brash pundits have been saying these people had it coming living in an area prone to fires. You know, just like people on the coast deserve hurricanes, people in the Midwest deserve tornadoes, and people in cities deserve crime. Fucking idiots. These are fellow Americans in need of help, not bullshit rhetoric so either help or shut up.

I am going to do what I can and donate to the Red Cross. I ask that everyone who sees this do the same. You can donate online at http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html.

Your fellow Americans need you. Every donation, even the tiny ones, counts. If you can do more, contact your local Red Cross office to ask how you can help. Arrange for your office or church group to put together food and water shipments. Some employers could even start a donation matching program. This nation has more resources than any other so we have no excuse for not helping these victims of disaster. Thank you.

Proud Father

I am so proud of my little girl. Last week we were watching Cartoon Network together and an ad for the "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" came on. Jasmine asked me what that was and I explained to her that it was a program where kids would go trick-or-treat but instead of asking for candy they would ask for donations to UNICEF. I then explained how UNICEF helps poor children all over the world with food, shelter, education, and medical care.

She has obviously had that on her mind because this morning as we got in the car she looked at me with a very serious face and said, "Daddy, I thought about it and I want to trick-or-treat for UNICEF, at least at some of the houses." My little girl, part of the "ME, ME, ME generation", wants to give up on part of what promises to be a huge haul of candy to help poor kids have food to eat. Moments like this give me hope for the world.

I am going tonight to the Hallmark Gold Crown store to pick up the donation box. It helps children all over the world and won't cost you a penny in dental bills.