Atheist and God

I’m confused about the understanding of what a true Atheist is. An Atheist is someone that does not believe in God and that life is just a biological experiment. We are all test tube babies made from another test tube baby and there is no significance to our lives other than to be a larger part of the living world that we exist in.

I disagree with the theory that there is no God. I bare no ill will to my friends that partake in the theory that God does not exist. For the most part I congratulate them on thinking out what is a very difficult theory. The end of that theory is that we are here now and worm food in the end. It does have one simple flaw.

Hope.

Hope is an amazing virtue of the human race. We can have hope that our children will grow up to be better than we as their parents could ever be. We can have hope that our parents will live longer than the average expectancy for a human being. We can have hope for numerous reasons and inside that envelope of the definition of hope is the thought process of prayer and guidance from God.

Many times in my life I have asked God for help to understand the things going on in my life. It is when I am at my weakest point that I need my faith the most because that is the last point of hope for me. I would like to think that I promote my sense of hope on others but I may be lacking the skills to do so. I’m not a preacher but I am someone that tries to make a difference in every life I touch. No matter how small a difference

I’m not a bible thumper and never want to be one. I just come to odds when someone that once believed in God is suddenly detriment to the theory that I can still have my faith in God.

The saving grace in this whole dilemma is that I am thankful that I live in a country where I can not be prosecuted for my religious beliefs and neither can my friends for their lack of belief. That is the beauty of America.

God Bless America!!!!

Papamoka

Pay it Forward

Life gives some of us many blessings. It isn’t always monetary blessings where you can have a nice home and ample income to live comfortable. Life lessons are important also to pay it forward to someone else and change what seemed impossible. Sometimes, your act of paying it forward will make a big difference in somebody’s life and other times it just might be planting a seed. You never know.

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It doesn’t matter what you pay forward, it’s the simple ability to reach out and touch someone and make a difference in their life that is important. Life is simple if you just reach out and touch someone‘s heart. Ask them to pay it forward. Then they begin the cycle of change, and so does the next person, and so does the next…

Papamoka

Time to Step Up

Times are tough all around for everyone and if you ask the folks that own a small business then they see it every single day. And yet the tide of gouging the people in the middle and lower class is at the beginning of the end. No more is America held ransom by the whims of Exxon and other oil conglomerates that had a free ride under Dubya. Hundreds of millions in tax cuts for big oil and billions of profit every single quarter screamed across all of the media while you and I wondered how to pay the bills to just survive. No more is America at the mercy of banks that think they owned democracy and could do as they damn well pleased. No more is America under the threat from hostile nations because we choose the big stick first with every conversation over diplomacy for every interaction with nations of the world that don’t think like we do on every issue. Times they are a changing and we have a hero in our midst and that hero is you the people. It is the change of political thought that is breaking the backs of those that would keep all of us little people down.

President Obama is on the fast track to fix as much of the past mistakes of his predecessor and the amount of CHANGE is evident with every passing day. Isn’t it nice to see that you don’t have to take out a loan to fill your gas tank anymore? Isn’t it nice to see that the Robber Barons of Wall Street are finally being called to task for corruption in the manipulative scams they ran for the past eight plus years? Isn’t it nice to see millionaire bankers balk at taking taxpayer bailout money but having stock holders screaming for their heads to be cut off. Is it not nice to see that corporate America needs to follow the same rules and laws that those of us that work for them or with them have to follow? Those laws would be the law of decency and fairness.

Change is here and you can thank the hero within America for it. President Obama gets some credit for the change in the future of America but he is just the messenger. And he continues on the positive message and that is what he was elected to do. Our government now answers to all of the people and not just the folks with the big bucks that can or try to influence policy. We have a long way to go, but change is happening and it happens one day at a time.

To the hero’s within that fought for what is right in America I give you the ultimate tribute from the best of America in our music industry…

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Now more than ever we need to all step up to the plate and back what we voted for. Change was what we wanted, we have to support the best our people can offer now more than ever before.

Papamoka

McCain to Americans… “My fellow Prisoners”

I wish that I was making this stuff up but I don’t have too! Did you know that you are a prisoner here in America? I never got the memo but John McCain thinks we are all PRISONERS?

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I’m speechless!

Papamoka

It’s the Economy Stupid… Again!

Now that reality and what it means to be an actual American is in the head lights of the politicians running for President maybe they will all see that it is the economy that is the heartbeat of America. With the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing out of America to pay for an endless war it is finally hitting home in the nations capitol.

We have had eight years of a President that simply can not stand Americans but loves to only show up at military bases and closed public meetings that are invitation only events. It has been a late revelation to me but something I have slowly put together over the last few days but I’m sure others have conceived the thought before I. George Bush is terrified to be President.

We have had eight years of a President that does not see the tasks of lenders that would lead to a housing market and ownership collapse. One thing that all economist know as the standard bar to base our economy on is the housing market. Right now and for a long time now the housing market has been in a free fall. And just not the President but the entire Congress has looked the other way from the millionaire club seats that most of them come from. None of them have lost their homes and most likely not one soul that they are familiar with has lost their home. While President Bush is on the road to the Middle East all you have to do is watch his body language to see that the suit does not fit. He is no more comfortable with that situation as much as he is facing the fact that he and our government can no longer fix the housing market free fall.

Some Fear Economic Stimulus Is Already Too Late

By PETER S. GOODMAN and FLOYD NORRIS
Published: January 13, 2008

As leaders in Washington turn their attention to efforts to avert a looming downturn, many economists suggest that it may already be too late to change the course of the economy over the first half of the year, if not longer.

With a wave of negative signs gathering force, economists, policy makers and investors are debating just how much the economy could be damaged in 2008. Huge and complex, the American economy has in recent years been aided by a global web of finance so elaborate that no one seems capable of fully comprehending it. That makes it all but impossible to predict how much the economy can be expected to fall before it stabilizes.

The answer could be a defining factor in the outcome of the fiercely contested presidential election. Not long ago, the race centered on the war in Iraq.

But now, as candidates fan out across the country, visiting places as varied as the factory towns of Michigan and streets lined with unsold condominiums in Las Vegas, voters are increasingly demanding that they focus on the best way to keep the economy from slipping off the tracks. - New York Times

Americans need to face the facts and know that the government is no longer there to help you. That is till you stop paying taxes and feeding the machine with a bottomless appetite. Then they really care about you as an individual. So much so they will provide you with three square meals a day, a bed and a room mate to talk to in your prison cell.

Some how it was decided that everyone needs to stand on their own two feet. Be you man, woman or beast you must stand on your own two feet! Then the Republicans gutted the Veterans Administration that treated all the so called leaches needing medical help that fought for the nation they love. That is the true difference between a Democrat and a Republican, Democrats will recognize a veteran that was disabled in service to their nation, Republicans look at them as an expense on the backs of hard working people. One of them is wrong.

I know what the loss of hope is. I’ve lived it, I’ve fought it and still fight it every single day. So does every single American under the screw you and do it your damn self policies of the Republican Party. That is why change is so critical in our nation right now in this point in time. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama can bitch and moan who moved or advanced civil rights to the center stage of American politics and it wasn’t John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson or even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was people that were sick and tired of the loss of hope. People like you, your neighbor and people that knew America could be better. People in mass made the difference by seeking change in their elected leaders.

A good friend reminded me that some people believe that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves but it was not only his actions and words that eventually lead to that freedom existing in this nation. It was the actions of many willing to fight for that freedom and die for it. Not just white men but black men as well. Words are easy, fighting for what you believe in and putting your life on the line for it are true forms of courage that few politicians have the stomach for.

When Barack and Hillary figure out who is a racist and who is a bitch then somebody please pass a note or tell them that “It’s the damn economy!” Vote for change or fight for your bread in the next economy.

Maybe the problem we as Americans have is we keep electing millionaires as President that have forgotten what it is truly like to be hungry. Not politically hungry, stomach pain, have not eaten hungry.

Papamoka
Feel free to link to this post…

Gun Toting Liberal has linked to this post.... (My friend and brother from another mother)

Cross posted to Michael Linn Jones.com & Bring IT ON!

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David Hazinski aka Real Reporter

All over the blogoshpere the weapon of choice is the keyboard on a personal PC in order to slay the mighty professor of “real journalism”. Somebody regarding this whole issue has a very high opinion of himself and frankly he just might have the credentials to speak. Dictators and Professors are like that. My way or the highway.

According to Professor Hazinski, we (Bloggers) are all hackers of the English language and we imagine facts and figures and propagate lies. When we are wrong, we never post a correction. Bloggers have a private agenda that needs to be regulated according to the distinguished Professor.


Having just anyone produce widely distributed stories without control can have the reverse effect from what advocates intend. It's just a matter of time before something like a faked Rodney King beating video appears on the air somewhere.

Journalism organizations should head that off. Citizen reports can be a valuable addition to news and information flow with some protections:

• Major news organizations must create standards to substantiate citizen-contributed information and video, and ensure its accuracy and authenticity.

• They should clarify and reinforce their own standards and work through trade organizations to enforce national standards so they have real meaning.

• Journalism schools such as mine at the University of Georgia should create mini-courses to certify citizen journalists in proper ethics and procedures, much as volunteer teachers, paramedics and sheriff's auxiliaries are trained and certified.

Journalists generally don't like any kind of standards or regulation. Many argue that standards could infringe on freedom of the press and journalism shouldn't be regulated.
But we have already seen the line between news and entertainment blur enough to destroy significant credibility. Continuing to do nothing as information flow changes will further erode it. Journalism organizations who choose to do nothing may soon find the line between professional and citizen journalism gone as well as the trust of their audiences. -AJC.com

Not long ago I was honored to be a contributing writer for one of the most realistic “Blog’s” on the entire internet. During my time writing there I got to know the owner of the site and frankly, I consider him to be my close friend and a brother. I’m talking about the site called Gun Toting Liberal. Where facts and opinions are drawn from and debated by many well written articles in the Main Stream Media (MSM). Many of the comments on the site are from very well versed readers and combined they debate the issues on their merits. Something you can not do with a television broadcast, newspaper or news magazine.

When it comes to political opinion, the GTL and I do not see eye to eye on all issues but that is half the fun of debating real issues. Has he changed my opinion on some issues, yes he has. Have I changed his opinion on some issues, yes, I like to think that I have.

Over at the Gun Toting Liberal he clearly states what he thinks about the Professors comments and I happen to agree with him…

We ARE the “Press” they spoke of, Mr. Hazinski — NOT you and your biased mainstream media. The town criers. The suspicious Citizens with a pen, sneaking around, playing “gotchya” with our government leaders — THAT’S what a “journalist” does, sir. When you and your multi-national, huge, biased corporations failed to do this, you not only forced our Founding Fathers to roll in their graves, you lost your status as the “Press” and “journalists” and the respect of the American People. You don’t like it, I’m sure. After all, your so-called “profession” is a shrinking and outdated one and your livelihood is in jeapordy. Why? Because the “Press” our Founding Fathers protected in the Constitution had little to do with the concept of people becoming fat, lazy, rich and biased while sitting on their pasty rear ends with a pen. - Gun Toting Liberal

Based on how I write here at Papamoka Straight Talk and from what I have learned from other great “Blog’s”, David Hazinski has probably only visited angry bloggers afflicted with anger management issues. Sites where opposing opinions are met with personal attacks and name calling.

Maybe he needs to visit reality and understand that the American people no longer trust the MSM because they are all biased and rightfully so. They are running a business and making a living from the written word they produce. That is where the difference becomes known between the MSM and bloggers like GTL and myslef. Most bloggers write and report as opinion journalist and never receive a dime for it. Raising my hand here. Three plus years of writing online and still no checks in my mail box.

While the revenue generating machines that are the MSM play to the advertisers and report accordingly they are swayed to slant the stories they provide. Fox swings from its side of the batters box and NBC swings from its. Somewhere in the middle is the general truth and that is what we as bloggers debate on a daily basis.

Sit down Professor, you my friend are yesterdays news and we will leave it at that.

Papamoka

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Religion and Politics is Not like Honey and Bees

Picture courtesy of the White House

No matter who you think you are backing for President of the United States of America you really never know whom the real person is. Running for the highest office in the land is supposed to be of high morals and even higher expectations. I’m beginning to think that that is the problem with the current process. Is it not ironic to think that a candidate for President should mirror the values of all of the people and all of our faiths?

In the upcoming election for President there has been placed an abundance of attention on the candidates religion or practice there of. We even have a Reverend running for President in this latest round of political showmanship and who’s who on the Marquee of politics today that we call a ballot. Who is going to question a Reverend’s faith in God and weekly participation in a religious service? You should and that is who!

Over at the Pew Forum they have an interesting little piece on politics and religion and this little paragraph has my noggin a rocking…

The United States has a long tradition of separating church from state, but an equally powerful inclination to mix religion and politics. Throughout our nation's history, great political and social movements – from abolition to women's suffrage to civil rights to today's struggles over abortion and gay marriage – have drawn upon religious institutions for moral authority, inspirational leadership and organizational muscle. But for the past generation, religion has been woven more deeply into the fabric of partisan politics than ever before. - The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

In politics and in the main stream media they keep bringing up the question of religion when it comes to our election process for President. It confuses me as to why they do that. If you were to walk up to anyone on the street and ask what that persons religion and practices are you better duck fast because either a shopping bag or a fist is coming your way. Why should it be any different for someone running for President?

We are a nation of many religions and many political factions and ideologies that would make a Suduko champion give up. In the cloth and puzzle that is America there is all of our religions and all of our political belief’s. Looking at any individual thread under a microscope only shows you the make up of that one strand that really isn’t America. Back away from the microscope and sit about twenty rows back on the fifty yard line and right in front of your eyes is the giant quilt that is America. All the faiths, belief, politics, ethnicity and personal choices are melded together to form something beautiful and a pleasure to the spirit of its people.

If our government is based on freedom of religion, freedom of speech and separation of Church and State, then why do people insist that religion should be a top priority for selecting our President today. If our Presidency is to govern to the Constitution as intended, but given the current religious litmus test to do so, then most of our past President’s would never have passed that test. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have been just a blip in our nations history as just a General that won a war and Jefferson was just an innovative thinker that lived and dreamed beyond his years.

Religion and politics do not mix for a reason. In one venue the ultimate truth is the ultimate truth and in the other is the combined agreement of man choosing the lesser of two evils that becomes the law of man. It isn’t perfect but it is what we call democracy.

Big difference, HUGE!

We should not vote based on our faith but vote our continued experience that is the American experiment. Faith in change is part of the never ending cycle of politics in America and that you can count on.

Papamoka

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