It must be silly season

Well for we citizens of the GWN (Great White North) looking at American politics is always an interesting and rather humorous exercise as well as being somewhat frightening.

First of all you have Michele Bachmann who said during the Republican debates that the countries that the US "liberated" should pay for their "liberation". I'm sure that the Iraqis really appreciated being liberated (read invaded) after 100000 civilians dead and four million displaced, as well as having their infrastructure destroyed and their standard of living crushed. First of all they never asked to be invaded and then occupied for the next nine years and I'm sure a lot of them that lost family and friends would love to payback the US although I'm not sure the US would like the payback. Now Ms. Bachman has a right to her opinion but there really should be an intelligence test to become President of t he United States.

The next person that caught my attention was Rick Perry who believes that it is the United Sates' god given right to rule the world. He also believes that the economic recession was god's punishment for not being good christians. He also doesn't believe in evolution and really believes that god talks to him. Here in the GWN we have special places for people who hear voices telling them to do weird things. What really boggles the mind is that he was elected governor, but then again Texas also elected George W. Bush. (Who, by the way, seems a real genius beside this yahoo)

Here in the GWN, we are also not exempt from political weirdness. We have the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Labour, who wants to change the labour code so that the economy becomes an essential service, which would in effect take away pretty much everyone's right to strike, letting companies pretty much do what they want…. Somehow coming from the conservatives this doesn't surprise me, but what does surprise me is that the same workers elected them in the first place.

 

Atheists arise

Have you ever been faced with an ad for religion while riding the bus or the metro? I'm sure we all have at one time or other, well the atheists (in the interest of full disclosure I must say that I am a long time atheist) are finally standing up and telling their side of the story. This has certainly ruffled more than a few feathers in the religious community.
In Ottawa the Ottawa Transpo originally refused to run the ads because it would be too controversial, yet it ran Christian ads all the time. It finally went to city hall where an acrimonious debate took place between councillors who were insulted by the supposedly anti-religious message and those who supported free speech. I'm glad to say that free speech finally won out.
Did you ever notice that for religion what is good for the gander is not necessarily good for the goose. The religious community can condemn the non believers to everlasting hell but if a non believer says anything against religion it raises a furor worthy of a global calamity. I have been accused of being immoral, of having no values and of being a terrible human being. Why is it that most of the atheists I know are much more tolerant and open minded than those who are fervid believers in a religion? It seems to me that what most religions preach is love thy neighbour, not love thy neighbour if he believes like you and hate the others. I have, despite being an atheist, read the Christian Bible from cover to cover, as well as the Koran, and Buddhist teachings (If I had to be religious I'd probably be Buddhist I must say.) and I have yet to find the kind of hate and intolerance that is shown by a good part of the religious community. I know that there are good people who believe in religion and some of them have done much for the community, but I think that there is also a certain amount of hypocrisy when your religion preaches love and your actions speak of intolerance. Maybe someone out there can explain it to me?