On this Guy Fawks Day I am in Culture Shock, I want my Motherland.
As I stood solemnly by our bonfire, and watched fireworks above a burning effigy of Parent. I was in culture shock, it was the 4th of July, but it wasn’t. As some of you know I have a mixed feeling about the 4th but tonight none of that was important. All I could think about was home. I said allowed, in distant wonder, "man, it looks like when the British burnt the first White House," before I realized it was not a particularly tactful thing to say surrounded by the attacker’s ancestors. As the bombs burst in air I thought about my American brothers and sisters in Iraq, under bombardment. And as the effigy burnt down the skeletal leavings reaching up like the remains of the World Trade Center quiet hidden tears came. Basic raw patriotism bubbled up in me.
I could go off on a rant about the threat of China and the ineffectiveness of the EU and the UN, but I’m not sure how genuine that would be. Long short its been a night of emotions.
Good night.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Just read "The Journey to the East" by Hesse
It was fun, and a short read. It metephorically talks about the journey of life, and how you only begin being more than an innitiate after you have suffered. It also has a Christ figure Leo who is a servant, but actualy the president of the "League" and eventually the main character realizes he is simply a candle that must decrease and Leo must increase. Yet, the currious thing about that is that he also suggests Leo is just a character, and Hesse himself is alive, but in giving life to the character he is then becoming less alive. Not entirely sure what to make of it right now. It will take some meditation.
Peace,
Chris
Peace,
Chris
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Things are changing!!!
My faithful readers may have thought I have slowed down. The LutherMatrix has become a storing sight for spam, and I've not posted in 9 days. Fear not! This has happened only because I've been working on something new. I have decided to stretch the power of the internet. I have created two blogozines edited by yours truely. Blogozines are self-perpetuating online magazines. I got the idea from Daniel's Lutheran Carnivals. Basicly the reader and the writer become one. The readers supply content for other readers. Universal Bones is my literary magazine, and The Foundation is a political magazine trying to get to the bottom of arguments, and foster healthy debate. If you feel like contributing to either of these publications email The.foundation@hotmail.com or universalbones@hotmail.com .
Peace,
Chris
Peace,
Chris
Sunday, October 16, 2005
I've been thinking about governing today
I thought about the direction I'd like America to go. I ended up choosing this for my idea for SEIU. Its not as well thought out as it should be, but such is life.
Here are some other thoughts that came to mind:
Pass the Equal Rights amendment- After all isn't it about time?
Achieve Energy Independence- Make a big push for alternative energy technology!
Completely forgive 3rd world debt to the US- If I remember correctly it would cost a very small amount (I know in britian if every citizen paid 1% of their income for a year the 3rd world's debt to the UK would be paid off)
Paying down the national debt- It might involve raising taxes a little, but let's be independent. Avoid entangling alliances.
Election day holidays- Voting is what makes democracy work, but working is what feeds the family. If you had the day off to vote you could do both with ease!
Remove the government's control of marriage- Basicly the government could hand out Civil Unions to anyone they want, but only the church could pronounce someone married.
Establish a new SEATO- Basicly a NATO for Asia. It would stop India and Pakistan from killing one another, it could help in the war vs. Islamic extremism (Pakistan and the Philipines would have new allies to fight the Jihadists) and it would keep China from sole economic/military hegemony of the continent. (by the way I realize this would be an entangling alliance, I'm kind of inconsistant)
Offensive/Defensive weapons ratio- For every dollar we spend on offensive weapons we need to spend 10 cents on defensive things, like vehicle armor and kevlar and such.
Raise the Minimum wage- It seems to make the economy go up, and it helps the poorest out there!
Buy up Russia's excess plutonium- There is lots of it just sitting around. I don't want a dirty bomb anywhere, or a Nuke for that matter.
Here are some other thoughts that came to mind:
Pass the Equal Rights amendment- After all isn't it about time?
Achieve Energy Independence- Make a big push for alternative energy technology!
Completely forgive 3rd world debt to the US- If I remember correctly it would cost a very small amount (I know in britian if every citizen paid 1% of their income for a year the 3rd world's debt to the UK would be paid off)
Paying down the national debt- It might involve raising taxes a little, but let's be independent. Avoid entangling alliances.
Election day holidays- Voting is what makes democracy work, but working is what feeds the family. If you had the day off to vote you could do both with ease!
Remove the government's control of marriage- Basicly the government could hand out Civil Unions to anyone they want, but only the church could pronounce someone married.
Establish a new SEATO- Basicly a NATO for Asia. It would stop India and Pakistan from killing one another, it could help in the war vs. Islamic extremism (Pakistan and the Philipines would have new allies to fight the Jihadists) and it would keep China from sole economic/military hegemony of the continent. (by the way I realize this would be an entangling alliance, I'm kind of inconsistant)
Offensive/Defensive weapons ratio- For every dollar we spend on offensive weapons we need to spend 10 cents on defensive things, like vehicle armor and kevlar and such.
Raise the Minimum wage- It seems to make the economy go up, and it helps the poorest out there!
Buy up Russia's excess plutonium- There is lots of it just sitting around. I don't want a dirty bomb anywhere, or a Nuke for that matter.
Sliced Bread Contest, enter, its cool!
Got an idea that could change the world, well, here is your chance to make it real!
http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/
http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
A book review of “No Man is an Island” by Thomas Merton/musings about alternative Christianities
First things first I want to thank Kevin for buying me this book as a going away present.
"No Man is an Island" is a very well thought out book. It consists of 16 essays about various concepts involved in the spiritual contemplative life. I will draw out the overall logic that runs through all of his essays, then I’ll mention a few thoughts about ethics that this book invoked, his view of pre-destination and free-will, and finally speculate about the philosophical underpinnings of his argument (I warn you I’m not a philosopher in any sense of the word).
I want to give a brief caveat about Merton’s worldview. At various points he writes some things that made me as a Lutheran/protestant cringe. For example "I exist to save my soul" and "God’s will for me is that I should shape my own destiny, work out my own salvation." Yeah, its that Faith/Works thing.
Merton’s basic framework that is found throughout the various essays goes something like this. Most of life’s anxiety and strain comes from dependence on self. But once we start to shake off the blinders of huberious we recognizes that we are all human, all fallible, all fall short. Therefore we need to love one another in spite of our shortfalls. If we don’t, no one will love us. If we are going to love others we needs to love them well.
To love someone well we need to first know ourselves. Merton admonishes us that we should not self examine too much (think of Luther’s thoughts about "bellybutton gazing") because we start to question everything and at its extreme "disfigure our whole personality."
We must not see ourselves totally in our actions, as they are often not our actions, but the actions of our unconscious or of societal compulsions.
To find ourselves we need to "take up our cross" and not the cross we want (for example who wouldn’t want to be beat up defending a higher truth, boatloads of starving refugees, etc [or maybe that’s just me] but who would want to suffer ailment or illness or a dead end job?), but the cross destined for us. Suffering is the most personal act that exists. It asks us "who are you?" It asks what were we, what have we become, what do we want to be. And in this suffering we will realize the contradictions in our answers. We will give up the idea that we are objective, as we often twist facts and information to fit what we know. We need to be humble and accept ourselves for who we are, because if we are not at peace with ourselves all our interactions with others will be rooted in falsity and only spread our internal conflicts into external ones.
Once we know ourselves we must be honest and truthful to the other, we will wear no masks, and be humble. And then we can enter into relationship accepting the other for who they are. We can, to quote Merton "respect their solitude." The other becomes more than a mirror of our own soul. Our love is no longer narcissistic; it isn’t simply creating people in our own image. We are no longer a painter creating a self-portrait out of the other. At base we are recognizing the right of the other to be an autonomous person; we allow the other to have secrets.
Now here is the kicker, apply all that I wrote about the other to God as well as our neighbor. We need to be honest with Him, as He knows us better than ourselves and before we were formed in the womb. Approach God, but allow God to be God,
"If I find Him with great ease, perhaps He is not my God./ If I cannot hope to find Him at all, is He my God?/ If I find Him wherever I wish, have I found him?/ If He can find me whenever He wishes, and tells me Who He is and who I am, and if I then know that He Whom I could not find has found me: then I know He is the Lord, my God: He has touched me with the finger that made me out of nothing."
Reading this got me thinking about ethics. Merton wrote, "We obey people not for their sake, but because we believe their will is the will of God." This kind of blew me away, what does that say about voting, about having bosses, about… everything! I think, I could be wrong, but I think, it means we have to ask ourselves "If Jesus was me, how would he act?"
Merton’s take on the conflict between predestination and free will is all wound up in the idea of Hope. (warning I may butcher his thinking) They are both brought together with the idea of Hope. By our hoping that we are predestinated for salvation we freely choose our salvation.
Finally, I noticed constant sideways references to Plato in Merton’s work. For example, our actions are a shadow of us, but we need to focus on the light that created the shadow, and of course his view of heaven, much like C.S. Lewis’ espoused in the Narnia Chronicles, is that of us (and all of creation) moving from the state of being Emanations to being Form. In heaven a horse will become the perfect Horse, a man will become Man. Nietzsche calls Christianity Plato for the masses, I think this is why. It makes me think. What is Hell then? The first thought of course is Sheol, "the grave", becomes "the Cave" of Plato’s Republic. Another thought I had was that we become the totality of a corrupt and imperfect emanation of ourselves.
A larger question this brings up is what if Christianity had a different philosophical tradition as the background to its history (baring the argument that all philosophy is simply a critique or counter critique of Plato)? I think we can see some generations of this in some present presentations of Christianity.
For example Liberation Theology does in some ways points toward an engendering of Christianity that takes Marxist thought rather seriously. At base it says that God has a preferential view of the poor. There are also Post-Modern Christians that I’ve read about some. The solution to the problem of "a lack of connection between things" is that we need to weave snippets of scripture into a quilt of new thoughts that fit into new contexts. We also need to further democratize theology. How to do this is rather nebulous.
What about a very Eastern Christianity? (I am thinking a little of Borg’s view of a sage-like Jesus) Perhaps like Buddhism there would be a recognition of suffering throughout the Bible (eg Cain, the exile, the destruction of the Temple) culminating in the crucifixion of Jesus. Then there would be an end to the cycle of suffering through the teachings and re-birth of Jesus in… the pure land.
Of course this is REALLY academic. Still, its interesting, I remember a while back there was a historical fiction series where Christianity was spliced with Norse religion and Scandinavia took over Europe… Uffdah!
Peace,
Chris
"No Man is an Island" is a very well thought out book. It consists of 16 essays about various concepts involved in the spiritual contemplative life. I will draw out the overall logic that runs through all of his essays, then I’ll mention a few thoughts about ethics that this book invoked, his view of pre-destination and free-will, and finally speculate about the philosophical underpinnings of his argument (I warn you I’m not a philosopher in any sense of the word).
I want to give a brief caveat about Merton’s worldview. At various points he writes some things that made me as a Lutheran/protestant cringe. For example "I exist to save my soul" and "God’s will for me is that I should shape my own destiny, work out my own salvation." Yeah, its that Faith/Works thing.
Merton’s basic framework that is found throughout the various essays goes something like this. Most of life’s anxiety and strain comes from dependence on self. But once we start to shake off the blinders of huberious we recognizes that we are all human, all fallible, all fall short. Therefore we need to love one another in spite of our shortfalls. If we don’t, no one will love us. If we are going to love others we needs to love them well.
To love someone well we need to first know ourselves. Merton admonishes us that we should not self examine too much (think of Luther’s thoughts about "bellybutton gazing") because we start to question everything and at its extreme "disfigure our whole personality."
We must not see ourselves totally in our actions, as they are often not our actions, but the actions of our unconscious or of societal compulsions.
To find ourselves we need to "take up our cross" and not the cross we want (for example who wouldn’t want to be beat up defending a higher truth, boatloads of starving refugees, etc [or maybe that’s just me] but who would want to suffer ailment or illness or a dead end job?), but the cross destined for us. Suffering is the most personal act that exists. It asks us "who are you?" It asks what were we, what have we become, what do we want to be. And in this suffering we will realize the contradictions in our answers. We will give up the idea that we are objective, as we often twist facts and information to fit what we know. We need to be humble and accept ourselves for who we are, because if we are not at peace with ourselves all our interactions with others will be rooted in falsity and only spread our internal conflicts into external ones.
Once we know ourselves we must be honest and truthful to the other, we will wear no masks, and be humble. And then we can enter into relationship accepting the other for who they are. We can, to quote Merton "respect their solitude." The other becomes more than a mirror of our own soul. Our love is no longer narcissistic; it isn’t simply creating people in our own image. We are no longer a painter creating a self-portrait out of the other. At base we are recognizing the right of the other to be an autonomous person; we allow the other to have secrets.
Now here is the kicker, apply all that I wrote about the other to God as well as our neighbor. We need to be honest with Him, as He knows us better than ourselves and before we were formed in the womb. Approach God, but allow God to be God,
"If I find Him with great ease, perhaps He is not my God./ If I cannot hope to find Him at all, is He my God?/ If I find Him wherever I wish, have I found him?/ If He can find me whenever He wishes, and tells me Who He is and who I am, and if I then know that He Whom I could not find has found me: then I know He is the Lord, my God: He has touched me with the finger that made me out of nothing."
Reading this got me thinking about ethics. Merton wrote, "We obey people not for their sake, but because we believe their will is the will of God." This kind of blew me away, what does that say about voting, about having bosses, about… everything! I think, I could be wrong, but I think, it means we have to ask ourselves "If Jesus was me, how would he act?"
Merton’s take on the conflict between predestination and free will is all wound up in the idea of Hope. (warning I may butcher his thinking) They are both brought together with the idea of Hope. By our hoping that we are predestinated for salvation we freely choose our salvation.
Finally, I noticed constant sideways references to Plato in Merton’s work. For example, our actions are a shadow of us, but we need to focus on the light that created the shadow, and of course his view of heaven, much like C.S. Lewis’ espoused in the Narnia Chronicles, is that of us (and all of creation) moving from the state of being Emanations to being Form. In heaven a horse will become the perfect Horse, a man will become Man. Nietzsche calls Christianity Plato for the masses, I think this is why. It makes me think. What is Hell then? The first thought of course is Sheol, "the grave", becomes "the Cave" of Plato’s Republic. Another thought I had was that we become the totality of a corrupt and imperfect emanation of ourselves.
A larger question this brings up is what if Christianity had a different philosophical tradition as the background to its history (baring the argument that all philosophy is simply a critique or counter critique of Plato)? I think we can see some generations of this in some present presentations of Christianity.
For example Liberation Theology does in some ways points toward an engendering of Christianity that takes Marxist thought rather seriously. At base it says that God has a preferential view of the poor. There are also Post-Modern Christians that I’ve read about some. The solution to the problem of "a lack of connection between things" is that we need to weave snippets of scripture into a quilt of new thoughts that fit into new contexts. We also need to further democratize theology. How to do this is rather nebulous.
What about a very Eastern Christianity? (I am thinking a little of Borg’s view of a sage-like Jesus) Perhaps like Buddhism there would be a recognition of suffering throughout the Bible (eg Cain, the exile, the destruction of the Temple) culminating in the crucifixion of Jesus. Then there would be an end to the cycle of suffering through the teachings and re-birth of Jesus in… the pure land.
Of course this is REALLY academic. Still, its interesting, I remember a while back there was a historical fiction series where Christianity was spliced with Norse religion and Scandinavia took over Europe… Uffdah!
Peace,
Chris
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Prayer request from fellow missionary in Guatemala
Maggie sent me this. Sounds like things are a little ugly right now.
"Hi Friends!
I hope all is well with you guys! It sounds like everyone is having a great time at their various sites.
I have another prayer request - Guatemala is in bad shape right now. I wish this were an email filled with funny stories, but alas.....
We finished language school this past Wednesday and it has been a bit of an adventure ever since, actually our last day was kind of non-existent due to what I thought was only the usual massive amounts of rain that rainy season brings - I don't know if you have heard about it but Guatemala has been ravaged by Hurricane Stan.
I am perfectly safe, as are the other volunteers but the majority of the country is not. Locals here are saying that this hurricane has been more devastating for the country than Mitch back in 1998.
It rained here for 3 or 4 days and has caused massive amounts of flooding and countless landslides. From what I understand from radio reports and newspapers, it seems that almost all the bridges on the Pacific lowlands have been destroyed by the overflowing rivers. There are a lot of people taking refuge on their roofs. In Xela (where I am currently living), the water in Zone 2 was six and a half feet deep. There's no transportation from Xela to much of anywhere.
They are now reporting 250 deaths - I think it may be more by now. I read in an internet article that 30,000 people have been evacuated to shelters from 270 communities.
This is a event with long-term impact. Crops everywhere have been ruined. Most of the Occidente and Sur regions of the country are dramatically affected - this is the area where I was supposed to move on Sunday.
Right now the immediate need is for food and water, but those won't be deliverable until the roads are cleared and bridges repaired/constructed. They are saying it may be two weeks until the roads from here to the Coastal region are cleared and at least 4 days until we can reach the capital city. Marcia thinks it will be longer.
Furthermore, yesterday El Salvador, who was also hit hard by Stan, experienced a large earthquake (I've heard a range on the rictor scale from 5.8-6.5), it was also felt in the Northern regions of Guatemala and in Nicaragua. This is in addition to the volcanic eruption earlier this week in El Salvador and the prediction of another eruption this coming week.
All things considered, we are in high spirits. We are patiently awaiting what we can do to help - attentively observing and taking in all that we can. Please keep us in your prayers.
Peace,
Mags"
"Hi Friends!
I hope all is well with you guys! It sounds like everyone is having a great time at their various sites.
I have another prayer request - Guatemala is in bad shape right now. I wish this were an email filled with funny stories, but alas.....
We finished language school this past Wednesday and it has been a bit of an adventure ever since, actually our last day was kind of non-existent due to what I thought was only the usual massive amounts of rain that rainy season brings - I don't know if you have heard about it but Guatemala has been ravaged by Hurricane Stan.
I am perfectly safe, as are the other volunteers but the majority of the country is not. Locals here are saying that this hurricane has been more devastating for the country than Mitch back in 1998.
It rained here for 3 or 4 days and has caused massive amounts of flooding and countless landslides. From what I understand from radio reports and newspapers, it seems that almost all the bridges on the Pacific lowlands have been destroyed by the overflowing rivers. There are a lot of people taking refuge on their roofs. In Xela (where I am currently living), the water in Zone 2 was six and a half feet deep. There's no transportation from Xela to much of anywhere.
They are now reporting 250 deaths - I think it may be more by now. I read in an internet article that 30,000 people have been evacuated to shelters from 270 communities.
This is a event with long-term impact. Crops everywhere have been ruined. Most of the Occidente and Sur regions of the country are dramatically affected - this is the area where I was supposed to move on Sunday.
Right now the immediate need is for food and water, but those won't be deliverable until the roads are cleared and bridges repaired/constructed. They are saying it may be two weeks until the roads from here to the Coastal region are cleared and at least 4 days until we can reach the capital city. Marcia thinks it will be longer.
Furthermore, yesterday El Salvador, who was also hit hard by Stan, experienced a large earthquake (I've heard a range on the rictor scale from 5.8-6.5), it was also felt in the Northern regions of Guatemala and in Nicaragua. This is in addition to the volcanic eruption earlier this week in El Salvador and the prediction of another eruption this coming week.
All things considered, we are in high spirits. We are patiently awaiting what we can do to help - attentively observing and taking in all that we can. Please keep us in your prayers.
Peace,
Mags"
Friday, October 07, 2005
Al Gore's BEAUTIFUL critique of Television!!!
Calls it re-feudalization.
Gore is a brain. Mmmm.
Peace,
Chris
Gore is a brain. Mmmm.
Peace,
Chris
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Recreation: The Salvation History of God
I have 2 days worth of presentations for the kids from St. Edwards to get ready. The first theme is Caring, the second is Recreation. Here is my attempt at a recreation play.
Characters: God, Narrator, Human
Act 1 The Flood
God: Look at them. I gave them Earth. I gave them utter perfection, yet they turn it into perdition; their wickedness is so great. They are corrupt and do much violence, so I will flood the earth, blotting out their transgressions.
Narrator: Thus the rain began, the waters were shed upon the earth, and the flood came. Yet God’s creation is good, loved by God, and redeemable. So God found a man, the best man of his generation, Noah, and said to him.
God: Noah, Child of God!
Noah: (small and frightened) Yes?
God: Build me a boat to carry the animals of the earth, that my creation may be spared. With it I will create a new world.
Noah: Oh… okay.
Narrator: And so Noah made the Arc, and with his family and the animals of Earth God’s creation was spared.
Act 2 Abraham
God: Oy Vey, they create towers, idolatrous things to make themselves gods. Even after the flood humans are still wicked.
Narrator: And so God thought and thought about what he may do to recreate his creation. He would bless one family, one line of people, so that his blessing of them would spill out to all of creation.
God: Abraham, Child of God.
Abraham: Hu?
God: Go from your country and your kindred, and your fathe’rs house to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and by that blessing all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
Abraham: I shall go LORD.
Act 3 Jesus
God: I’ve lived with my people. I have died for them. And now I rise from the dead, in glory, that they may be glorified through me!
People at tomb: You have risen!
God: All of you, Children of God, Go, make disciples of everyone, baptize them, teach them to observe my commandments. I am with you, my new creation.
Act 4 Paul
Narrator: Jesus’ disciples had went out and proclaimed the good news of His resurrection, and the new creation that was taking place. There was a man named Saul who threatened the disciples with death.
God: Saul, Child of God, why do you persecute me?
Paul: Who said that?
God: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Paul: Forgive me Lord.
God: You are my chosen instrument. You will tell of my new creation to the non-Jews who do not know of my life, death, and resurrection.
Act 4
All: Now, all of you, Children of God, you have been redeemed by Jesus. Go, work within God’s creation towards “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Characters: God, Narrator, Human
Act 1 The Flood
God: Look at them. I gave them Earth. I gave them utter perfection, yet they turn it into perdition; their wickedness is so great. They are corrupt and do much violence, so I will flood the earth, blotting out their transgressions.
Narrator: Thus the rain began, the waters were shed upon the earth, and the flood came. Yet God’s creation is good, loved by God, and redeemable. So God found a man, the best man of his generation, Noah, and said to him.
God: Noah, Child of God!
Noah: (small and frightened) Yes?
God: Build me a boat to carry the animals of the earth, that my creation may be spared. With it I will create a new world.
Noah: Oh… okay.
Narrator: And so Noah made the Arc, and with his family and the animals of Earth God’s creation was spared.
Act 2 Abraham
God: Oy Vey, they create towers, idolatrous things to make themselves gods. Even after the flood humans are still wicked.
Narrator: And so God thought and thought about what he may do to recreate his creation. He would bless one family, one line of people, so that his blessing of them would spill out to all of creation.
God: Abraham, Child of God.
Abraham: Hu?
God: Go from your country and your kindred, and your fathe’rs house to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and by that blessing all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
Abraham: I shall go LORD.
Act 3 Jesus
God: I’ve lived with my people. I have died for them. And now I rise from the dead, in glory, that they may be glorified through me!
People at tomb: You have risen!
God: All of you, Children of God, Go, make disciples of everyone, baptize them, teach them to observe my commandments. I am with you, my new creation.
Act 4 Paul
Narrator: Jesus’ disciples had went out and proclaimed the good news of His resurrection, and the new creation that was taking place. There was a man named Saul who threatened the disciples with death.
God: Saul, Child of God, why do you persecute me?
Paul: Who said that?
God: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Paul: Forgive me Lord.
God: You are my chosen instrument. You will tell of my new creation to the non-Jews who do not know of my life, death, and resurrection.
Act 4
All: Now, all of you, Children of God, you have been redeemed by Jesus. Go, work within God’s creation towards “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Friday, September 30, 2005
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Harry Reid's new website
I have to say I kind of like Harry Reid. I think he doesn't just want to win elections in blue states, but also in red ones. Not only that but I think him being a Straight talking Nevada Mormon who once choked Latoya Jackson's husband because he tried to bribe Reid he can actually win them!
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
"I told you not to tell me that"
Goodbye to shoe phones, 99, CHAOS/CONTROL, and the infintile joy of watching "Get Smart" on Nick at Night.
Peace,
Chris
Peace,
Chris
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Clinton’s book
Well, 5 weeks, 969 pages, and a continent ago I started reading Bill Clinton’s “My Life.” I finished it today. I would say anyone who is curious about the politics of the close of the millennium should read this book. Those that want a story that tells you that the American Dream is still alive, read this book. Anyone who wants a nice short read, this book is not for you. “My Life” does get tedious at times, as it is long; Clinton drops names and remembers events like no other. He also occasionally repeats himself. The majors points of interest, at least for me, that “My Life” emphasized were as follows.
Clinton’s Vision:
Clinton viewed his 8 years as president as dedicated to transferring the world from a Cold War mentality to a world founded on global interconnectivity. This transition meant America had to focus less on traditional conflict and out spending the enemy, and more on dealing with Narco-trafficers and terrorists, building global consensus, paying down the debt, and re-investing in America through a focus on education and employment. He saw his domestic job as forging a more prefect union by expanding opportunity for all through common sense programs that gave people a hand, not a handout.
Politics versus Policy:
I guess it may be due to my own ignorance, or perhaps because I have grown up in these particularly political times, but I didn’t have a firm grasp between the difference between politics and policy. Policy is the actual law/act that happens, politics is more the wrangling and showboating to get the policy done. A major problem is that quite often politics takes precedence over policy. Politics should never replace policy, when that happens government becomes nothing more than empty words “full of sound and fury signifying nothing” to quote a different William.
The Ugly Stuff:
Starr was neither independent nor impartial. Independence should mean that Starr was not biased either for or against Clinton. The Republicans in Congress were able to spin it so the original counsel was supposed to be hostile to Clinton, and in fact the original Independent Counsel, Robert B. Fiske Jr, was kicked out
because he was appointed, rightly, by Reno. Starr spent 70 million dollars of America’s tax dollars, and 5 years of investigation. He was originally supposed to investigate Clinton’s business deals. When that turned up nothing he kept going, hounding people who knew Clinton, even imprisoning Susan McDougal for 18 months, trying to get her to falsely testify against the Clintons. Starr also was in cahoots with the right wing lawyers who had taken over the Paula Jones case. He was looking for ANYTHING to trap Clinton. It was not about Justice and rule of law, but about humiliating and emasculating the President of the United States. It was about power and politics, plain and simple.
The first year or so of Clinton’s presidency is pretty telling, in that he bungled dealing with the media and Washington’s Punditocracy pretty badly.
His “Legacy”:
Bill isn’t really worried about his legacy, he says it won’t be fully understood until after he’s dead. Here are the things I thought will be remembered:
1. Globalization. Clinton was pro-globalization, and made no qualms about it. He saw the only way to live in a post-Cold War world was to integrate economies across the globe, to spread and create wealth for everyone. His micro-loan program created indigenous controlled businesses that helped local communities buy and sell goods in a global market. Clinton wasn’t for strengthening faceless multi-national companies, but bringing everyone onto an equal playing field, where healthy competition could happen. Globalization would also tear down walls of oppression, as globalization is not just a force for internationalizing good, but also for internationalizing information. Whether NAFTA, China’s entry into the WTO, etc did this is still up in the air, but I think his high ideals when it came to the benefits of globalization have effected globalization, and the world can never go back to how it was before.
2. His work on the Good Friday Accord. He made some pretty gutsy moves, including giving a former IRA terrorist a Visa to the US, putting him at odds with the UK. He worked to give both sides a voice, and brought many people into the peace process, changing violent malcontents into vocal dreamers. His policy decisions brought peace to Northern Ireland.
3. His commitment to peace in the Middle East. The best chance for real and lasting peace in a long time happened under Clinton’s watch, and if Issac Rabin had not been murdered I think there might be a more peaceful situation in Israel right now. That said Arafat screwed up big time when he didn’t work with Clinton’s later proposal.
4. He gave Democrats an answer to the Republican charge that the Democratic Party can’t govern. Lets face it the Dems had a long drought of controlling the Executive branch. It was easy enough for the Republicans to say “my opponent can’t govern,” when there was little empirical proof to the contrary. But now Democrats can say under Clinton/Gore we paid down the national debt, reduced welfare roles by creating new jobs, cut the crime rate, created better schools, lessened the number of abortions, and made the government smaller… In short, “to live like a Republican you need to vote for a Democrat.”
That’s about all I have for you.
Peace,
Chris
Clinton’s Vision:
Clinton viewed his 8 years as president as dedicated to transferring the world from a Cold War mentality to a world founded on global interconnectivity. This transition meant America had to focus less on traditional conflict and out spending the enemy, and more on dealing with Narco-trafficers and terrorists, building global consensus, paying down the debt, and re-investing in America through a focus on education and employment. He saw his domestic job as forging a more prefect union by expanding opportunity for all through common sense programs that gave people a hand, not a handout.
Politics versus Policy:
I guess it may be due to my own ignorance, or perhaps because I have grown up in these particularly political times, but I didn’t have a firm grasp between the difference between politics and policy. Policy is the actual law/act that happens, politics is more the wrangling and showboating to get the policy done. A major problem is that quite often politics takes precedence over policy. Politics should never replace policy, when that happens government becomes nothing more than empty words “full of sound and fury signifying nothing” to quote a different William.
The Ugly Stuff:
Starr was neither independent nor impartial. Independence should mean that Starr was not biased either for or against Clinton. The Republicans in Congress were able to spin it so the original counsel was supposed to be hostile to Clinton, and in fact the original Independent Counsel, Robert B. Fiske Jr, was kicked out
because he was appointed, rightly, by Reno. Starr spent 70 million dollars of America’s tax dollars, and 5 years of investigation. He was originally supposed to investigate Clinton’s business deals. When that turned up nothing he kept going, hounding people who knew Clinton, even imprisoning Susan McDougal for 18 months, trying to get her to falsely testify against the Clintons. Starr also was in cahoots with the right wing lawyers who had taken over the Paula Jones case. He was looking for ANYTHING to trap Clinton. It was not about Justice and rule of law, but about humiliating and emasculating the President of the United States. It was about power and politics, plain and simple.
The first year or so of Clinton’s presidency is pretty telling, in that he bungled dealing with the media and Washington’s Punditocracy pretty badly.
His “Legacy”:
Bill isn’t really worried about his legacy, he says it won’t be fully understood until after he’s dead. Here are the things I thought will be remembered:
1. Globalization. Clinton was pro-globalization, and made no qualms about it. He saw the only way to live in a post-Cold War world was to integrate economies across the globe, to spread and create wealth for everyone. His micro-loan program created indigenous controlled businesses that helped local communities buy and sell goods in a global market. Clinton wasn’t for strengthening faceless multi-national companies, but bringing everyone onto an equal playing field, where healthy competition could happen. Globalization would also tear down walls of oppression, as globalization is not just a force for internationalizing good, but also for internationalizing information. Whether NAFTA, China’s entry into the WTO, etc did this is still up in the air, but I think his high ideals when it came to the benefits of globalization have effected globalization, and the world can never go back to how it was before.
2. His work on the Good Friday Accord. He made some pretty gutsy moves, including giving a former IRA terrorist a Visa to the US, putting him at odds with the UK. He worked to give both sides a voice, and brought many people into the peace process, changing violent malcontents into vocal dreamers. His policy decisions brought peace to Northern Ireland.
3. His commitment to peace in the Middle East. The best chance for real and lasting peace in a long time happened under Clinton’s watch, and if Issac Rabin had not been murdered I think there might be a more peaceful situation in Israel right now. That said Arafat screwed up big time when he didn’t work with Clinton’s later proposal.
4. He gave Democrats an answer to the Republican charge that the Democratic Party can’t govern. Lets face it the Dems had a long drought of controlling the Executive branch. It was easy enough for the Republicans to say “my opponent can’t govern,” when there was little empirical proof to the contrary. But now Democrats can say under Clinton/Gore we paid down the national debt, reduced welfare roles by creating new jobs, cut the crime rate, created better schools, lessened the number of abortions, and made the government smaller… In short, “to live like a Republican you need to vote for a Democrat.”
That’s about all I have for you.
Peace,
Chris
Friday, September 16, 2005
I've been thinking about Creationism being taught in schools
I've concluded Intelligent Design should not be taught in Biology classes, because biology seems to have as its foundation Evolution. Maybe though in Physics classes Intelligent Design should be taught. For more on this read this LC article.
Peace,
Chris
Peace,
Chris
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)