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.

Video Link



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

Politics and 2008

The year 2008 was all about change no matter how you look at it politically. We started the year off wondering how to gas up our cars and looking at green energy with a new perspective and ended up with gas at more than half the price. I mention gasoline because the political world revolves around energy and energy is money and the politics of it all comes down to the almighty dollar. About eight or nine months ago I predicted the crash of oil prices here on this site just prior to George W Bush leaving office and oops… I was right. The scary thing to think about is that Bush could have gone down in history as the defender of America against terrorism but he succumbed to political pressure of the have too much and want more of too much. While he may have kept our nation safe from terrorist attacks he will be remembered as the President that let Wall Street kill Main Street. Then Elm Street, then Oak Street, then South and West Main Street and the list goes on.

Then we had the meltdown of politicians mostly from the right side of the aisle that seemed to exit stage right in disgrace and you can check the list at Republican Offenders website. Speaker of the House resigned, Senate President resigned, and a slew of congressmen and senators left because the picking were not looking so good with the Justice Department fast on their heals.

Out of almost nowhere comes this Senator from Illinois that speaks from his heart, talks common sense, and his mission is change. It doesn’t matter to the voters what his nationality is, his background and experience is or even if he smokes. He churns up the young people of America to get involved in politics and they do so for the first time in many generations. Much like FDR he promises hope, change, and a new beginning and it sold well at the polls. It wasn’t an easy win for Barack Obama but he did it with the help of many people that thought their voice should be heard too.

Anywho… I found this video for ya on politics and 2008 that I thought you might enjoy from You Tube…

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2009 should be interesting to say the least. We can look forward to many changes courtesy of the exiting President and insisted on by the new President. How it will all work out is anyone’s guess but I’m leaning to the positive side of life.

I filled the wife’s mini van from a quarter tank of gas for just under $22 today and just a couple of months ago it cost me over $60. I like that kind of change so far and Obama has not even been sworn in yet. How much more change are we going to be able to keep in our pockets once he is sworn in?

Papamoka

Right Wing Spin Gone Mad

David Brooks of the New York Times has an opinion piece up and I’m here to tell you he is full of bull. Mr. Brooks opinion is biased in his lack of hope not for just America but the world when it comes to Barack Obama and his world tour. Apparently, Mr. Brooks life is fat and happy and he is not part of the population that worries about paying the bills from week to week and good for him. I have no ill will toward anyone able to make a good life for themselves. All the power to Mr. Brooks in the super disgusting paycheck he receives for writing drivel and condescending opinion on what a hack Barack Obama supposedly is.

Below is just a clip of his biased opinion and slamming of the Obama campaign for President…

July 25, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Playing Innocent Abroad
By DAVID BROOKS

Radical optimism is America’s contribution to the world. The early settlers thought America’s founding would bring God’s kingdom to earth. John Adams thought America would emancipate “the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush preached their own gospels of world democracy.

Barack Obama is certainly a true American. In the first major foreign policy speech of his campaign, delivered in Chicago last year, he vowed a comprehensive initiative to “ensure that every child, everywhere, is taught to build and not to destroy.” America, he said, must promote dignity across the world, not just democracy. It must “lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good.”

In Berlin on Thursday, it was more of the same. Speaking before a vast throng (and a surprising number of Yankees hats), he vowed to help “remake the world.” He offered hope that a history-drenched European continent could “choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday.” He envisioned “a new dawn in the Middle East.”

Obama’s tone was serious. But he pulled out his “this is our moment” rhetoric and offered visions of a world transformed. Obama speeches almost always have the same narrative arc. Some problem threatens. The odds are against the forces of righteousness. But then people of good faith unite and walls come tumbling down. Obama used the word “walls” 16 times in the Berlin speech, and in 11 of those cases, he was talking about walls coming down. - New York Times

Mr. Brooks points out that there is in fact two America’s and the haves want to keep the status quo and the have not’s just want a step up. In that step up is the message that Obama is selling far better than the doom and gloom of Senator McCain’s message. One hundred years more of war in the Middle East and nation building in that region. One of the few Republican’s I do respect is Former Secretary of State Collin Powell, and one of his greatest quotes was that of America intent on nation building. Collin Powell was asked about America and nation building and his reply was that America has been in many wars in defense of freedom and the only land we asked for was enough to bury our dead. That quote is out of context but the end message is the same.

Senator Obama gave a speech in Berlin that will be marked in history as the change in not just America’s opinion on mankind but the worlds. There is nothing wrong with speaking of hope and all people coming together to solve many of our worlds problems. We are no longer a nation of one people but a member of the world community. Hate and anger have never solved anything but hope and discussions on issues with realistic goals can. Barack Obama is not telling the world or the American People that he can end global warming, the tragedy that is Darfur, our global energy concerns, or even racism of one people of one religion against the other. What Obama is offering is hope and discussion to change the status quo of us versus them that the Bush Presidency perfected.

This world is messed up and change is needed and in some peoples thoughts, we have been handed in this election the mind of Lincoln on a united people, the thoughts of Teddy Roosevelt on seeing a corporate America amok, the determination of FDR to never give up on the American People, and JFK on human rights not just here in America but all over the world. Like him or hate him, Barack Obama brings the message of hope and that is not far from what many of our greatest Presidents have given us throughout history.

When I kiss my daughters goodnight, I hope and pray that the next day and their future will be brighter than my own. That is the beginning of hope, it isn’t anything new to any parent but it is reality. There is nothing wrong with believing in hope. America needs to be cautious and careful when there is only one political party that is selling fear and doomsday scenarios to sell patriotism. Ask any Veteran if the nightmares they suffer and the thoughts of military action and what they have done to them as a person. War is hell and hell lives in the minds of all of the Veterans coming back from the war in Iraq. We as a people can not fix the Vet’s already damaged but we can end the war in Iraq based on the lies from President Bush. A war John McCain wants to continue. What is wrong with putting a little hope in the minds of our military sons and daughters? The end of this war in Iraq is foremost in most voters and Obama is talking about diplomacy to end it. And he is starting the end of the war with actually talking about diplomacy from America. That is hope, something to pray for and dream of.

What bothers me about this opinion article in the New York Times is that my children’s future was right back to the 1950’s. Fear sells well over on the right wing political ideology. I and my family would rather live in a world of hope and diplomacy where people talk out their differences and come to a resolution. Something that has been lacking for the last eight years of the Bush Presidency. I feel bad for David Brooks, somewhere along the way he lost his way and forgot his roots. I think he forgot what hope is because he just doesn’t get it or live it. Maybe Mr. Brooks parents made sure he lived a better life than they ever dreamed possible. Good for him but that isn’t the reality of the average American family.

Don’t ever give up on hope. In your efforts to make a better life for you and your family there is always hope and results from your hard work and just striving for the American dream are never unpaid. I’m all for hope and Obama is not wrong in selling hope. The alternative is not or should not be acceptable to you as an American.

Papamoka

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McCain Oxymoron

This next Presidential election can make or break this country when you really think about it. America is about looking forward, it isn’t about looking back other than learning from our mistakes. John McCain is running for President based on his life experience and not on the possibility of what we can be as a people. I have enormous respect for Senator McCain but his vision of the future of America scares the hell out of me. Where he sees progress in Iraq, I see a quagmire that could never end if he is elected and then 100 years of American troops dying in Iraq would in fact be a reality.

Is that a promise of change or is that a guarantee of more of the same in thinking that the body bag factory will be in the black for another hundred years? Red state or Blue state, your children are in our military and that is just to high a price to pay for a war that was a lie to begin with. Afghanistan, hell yes! That is where the Taliban and the scum bag Osama Bin Laden were in co-hoots. One hundred years more in Afghanistan, no! Just like Iraq, Afghanistan must stand on its own and defend itself against scum like Al-Quaida and any other terrorist threat. Our nation can not be the police for the world. If that is what the world expects of us then the United Nations needs to fork over a check for one trillion dollars every year to the U.S. Treasury.

Getting past all of that war crap and the lies that go with it, our nation is broken, busted, out of sink, and on a downward spiral. The damage of W is done and it will take a decade to recover from it. While our government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to defend a people that really don’t want freedom, our own people are falling by the wayside. Do you think that the billions of dollars allocated for the war in Iraq could have paid for a national health care plan times five?

How about making higher education free for all children in America? How far would a hundred billion tax dollars go to pay for that and actually for the American people every three months? How about taking care of our elderly that need nursing home care? How far would a couple hundred billion every three months go to pay for that? What about our infrastructure and roads and bridges that are in serious disrepair? What about putting one hundred billion into Social Security to make sure it is funded past the year 2100? This list could go on and on but McBush is more of the same and I can’t honestly see even one reason to vote for him for President. George Bush is all about spending billions of our tax dollars overseas and claiming to be a conservative when it comes to any spending bill when it comes to real life Americans. John McCain has voted in favor of every Bush intitiative for spending more overseas and against anything for American's including Veteran benefits and care. Billions for Iraq, nothing for Americans?

Hope, change, and a different perspective is coming from a new generation of Americans and if the message of Obama is change then his plans to make it happen can be a reality if he is elected President. Hope is a funny word, it means that better days are ahead and better times are coming. Isn’t that what all parents want for their children and their future? Given what President Bush has done to this economy, John McCain pointing his campaign of four more years of the same just isn’t selling well. Or he just can’t sell it as a candidate for President.

Many folks in the Libertarian and Conservative movement are abandoning McCain because his message is just weak. You can’t sell a policy of more of the same that busts the treasury and still claim to be a conservative. That is an oxymoron and you just can't sell a message that busts the federal budget when you claim to be a budget hawk.

Papamoka

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Yes We Can

In the world of post 9/11 we have lived in the shadow of fear and the never ending threat of possible future terrorist attacks. As a parent of five daughters I am fearful of the future they will have to live in if this mindset continues. Our world has changed but the possibilities that they should have as American’s should never be less than what I have had.

America has never been about what we should be afraid of as much as it is has always been about what we can all do together. We as a people will not prosper if we are forever looking ahead of us with a sense of dread and danger with every step. Our world has never been perfect and yet the future is only bright if we look at the future as a new adventure with unknown surprises that together we can all overcome. We can not overcome our fears of the probabilities if the messengers of our government are burning the olive branches offered as kindling to heat the cold halls of our government. Our nation was not built on fear but on determination to secure a brighter and better future for the next generation to come.

We need change and we need inspiration from our leaders. Separation of the people to achieve political objectives is over and the time for new ideas, new dreams, and hope is upon us. Together we can make a difference. “Yes we can” is an American right of passage and yes we can make America a better place together.

This little video from Black Eyed Peas is simply inspirational and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.



Papamoka

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