THE WIKILEAKS CONTROVERSY

This Thanksgiving weekend, the website Wikileaks released eighty thousand documents regarding the U.S State Departments policies to foreign nations across the world. The release of the documents have brought about deep embarrassment to the U.S State Department. Various Politicians/pundits have called for the source of the leak to be investigated and the leaker charged with treason and executed. Some pundits also admonished news organizations who published the information leaked on their websites/newspapers/news channel.

I am of the opinion that the leaks deserve to be published and newspapers/website owners should not be prosecuted for publishing information that was leaked to them. The New York Times was one of the newspapers which published information contained in the leaks and the constitution makes safe guarantees for the press and I believe that the New York Times as a newspaper falls under the protection of those guarantees.
As long as what the newspaper publishes is the truth, the information no matter how damaging to the government should never be censored. It may be put on hold or postponed but it should never be censored in my opinion.

The Wikileaks website has been able to maneuver  the situation to their advantage as the documents released has piqued the interest of many Americans regarding the policies employed by their government.

THE UPROAR OVER TSA SCREENINGS

I have found it amusing that the some of the same people who are so quick to accuse the federal government for playing 'catch up' to terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda are firmly against the new installed screeners at major airports across the U.S.  The Transportation Security Administration have installed new screeners at airports to counter potential terrorists such as the under wear bomber last December who bypassed air port security in Amsterdam and almost succeeded in blowing up a plane destined to U.S shores.

Opponents of the new full body scanners have cited invasion of privacy as one of the reasons why they are against the installment of the scanners.

I personally have no problem with the Full Body Scanners as I believe that they are put there solely for the purpose of protecting Americans from potential terrorists. It is only a minor inconvenience I feel that Americans all over should be willing to bear just to guarantee flight safety.

Some opponents of the Full Body Scanners claim that America should not be "cowering" to the fear brought about by potential terrorist attacks. The TSA should ignore the criticisms of those who are opposed to the Full Body Scanners, afterall the very same people are quick to label the TSA as lacklustre in their approach to air port security whenever an aspiring terrorist gets through air port security.

HOW TO BE A GOOD HOUSEWIFE..

I came across this American High School Home Economics textbook written in the 1950s. It advised younger women on how to be a good wife. It reads in part:

Taken from a 1950's American High School Home Economics textbook, the essay is entitled "How to be a Good Wife." It reads in part:
Have dinner ready. Prepare yourself. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. Clear away the clutter -- run a dust cloth over the tables.
Prepare the children: Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces, comb their hair, and if necessary change their clothes. They are God's creatures and he would like to see them playing the part.
Minimize all noise…eliminate the noise of the washer, dryer, dishwasher or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.
Some Don'ts: Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he is late for dinner. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice.
Listen to him: You may have dozens of things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first. Make the evening his. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or other pleasant entertainments.


Reading this amused me to no end because it reminded me of how far we had come as a culture. Most women in America today would rather be caught dead than to adhere to all of these rules, and it made me ponder on whether our cultural values have diminished with time or whether we have changed for the better.

GEORGE W. BUSH ON OPRAH

I watched former President George Bush get interviewed on Oprah today at 4pm. Oprah quizzed Bush about certain decisions he had made during his eight year presidency.
Bush noted that he was really hurt when some people accused him of being a racist and not caring about 'black people' during the New Orleans/Katrina disaster. Musical Hip-Hop artiste Kanye West famously accused George Bush of not 'caring about black people' on MTV's fund-raising telethon for Katrina.

Watching the Interview, allowed me to view the former President in a new light as I came to realize that most people are wont to judge a man in his position without truly knowing the burdens that the job places on a man.

Bush also admitted that he never lost his soul to the politics in Washington. He emphasized that he did not give in to the polls and the popularity contests being conducted within the Washington political circle. Bush stated "Many people chase popularity not realizing that it's a fleeting moment. Popularity does not last forever, but your principles do. I didn't sell my soul for the sake of politics or popularity."
That quote by the President really spoke to me as a person who plans to enter politics sometime in the future, most of the people who do enter politics lose their souls and are never the same. I never want to be the person who loses his soul just to attain power.

HUMAN COMPASSION IS A JOKE

So I just finished watching Blood Diamonds again, and well at the end of the movie they said only 40 countries signed an accord that would stop the illegal sale of diamonds, and that saddened me. There are 200 countries in the world, how can only 40 countries sign an accord that stopped the illegal sale of diamonds. Diamonds production puts a lot of people in third world countries in misery. 

I came across a quote that says "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound"?  When did Human Life become so unprecious? Why has it lost so much value? I discovered thatbefore governments decide whether to go in and stop a genocide, they crunch numbers and see how much money it would cost to go in and end a massacre. Such coldheartedness, how the hell does money compare to Human Life? This is a classic case of "what will it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his/her soul". Honestly, humanity has lost it's soul. Human Compassion is now a joke, just because you say "Aww" and "Wow" after hearing about suffering does not mean that you are a compassionate person. 


When I was a christian, I use to honestly get depressed when I taught about why God would let children die in Africa from every sort of thing. I asked myself, why would a God who's supposed to be loving and good let innocent good people die? Why would he let women in Congo get raped repeatedly on a daily basis. And I came across this verse in Roman's 9:15 and I swear that verse changed my outlook on life forever. The verse says "15For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 
16So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy"


This verse really struck me as frigging cold, so as I dey like this the only reason am doing well is because God decided to have mercy on me, he showed compassion to me and that is why I am able to jolly. But for the loser woman/child/man in Uganda, Somalia, indonesia, pakistan, Sudan etc obviously their own luck has run out. Our heavenly father, has chosen to not show mercy/compassion on them, and well I guess that is their lot in life. This is basically my attitude right now, there is no need to be having pity on such people anymore because they are obviously losers. If God in all his wisdom, could not see it within himself to have mercy on kids such as this child who was stalked by the vulture, why should I a mere human being now have mercy/pity on such a kid? I mean God is wiser than me isn't he? He has already showed that the boy below is not worthy of his mercy. I wonder what I have that that little boy does not have, that the almighty would choose to show mercy/compassion on lil ole me and then neglect to show the same mercy on this boy being stalked by a vulture waiting for it to die. 
If you were God for a day, would you have mercy on this kid? 

  
In conclusion, most of you might not agree with my analysis of this. But more than one of you have wondered about why God would let kids suffer in Africa, Asia etc. Why woulld a loving God let kids live in such misery? I hope that I have clearly proven to you all why such things happen under the almighty's watchful eye. Because he alone decides who he'll show mercy to and who he won't show mercy to.

WHAT MAKES A MAN GOD??

What makes a man God?? Permit me to qualify that question, I mean to ask what qualifications must a man have in order to be considered a God.  

1.
Someone told me that Jesus was obviously a God because he performed miracles. 


But according to the bible,  Jesus was not the only person to perform miracles, Paul, Peter, Prophet Samuel  Moses, Paul, Peter, Jeremiah, Isiah, Ezra etc performed miracles. So obviously if it takes performing miracles for one to be called a God, now all these other people would fall under that category. 

2. Jesus was a God because he 'rose' from the dead. 


If it takes 'rising from the dead' for a man to be considered a God then Lazarus would be considered a God as well. Now some of you will say well, Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus and I will say that Jesus was raised from the dead by God. 


3. Jesus was a God because he died on the cross and 'atoned' for our sins.


The fact that a man is crucified and allegedly dies for the sins of other men is not proof enough that the man is a God.


In conclusion, the crux of the matter is that I believe it is impossible to state categorically without proof that the above qualifications made Jesus a God. 

RESPECT THE BELIEVER NOT THE BELIEF.

What kind of world we would have if everybody went around respecting each other's views? What if everybody had decided to respect "Hitler's beliefs" concerning the extermination of the Jews? There wuld be no Jews left. Or maybe if the slave abolitionists had respected the slave owners "beliefs" in owning slaves? There would surely be so many slaves around today. My point is this, everybody and everyone is entitled to his/her beliefs, but not every belief is entitled to my "respect".  I honestly do not get how people can get by in this world perfectly fine without knowing anything. 

Ask the average born again christian or muslim about how they came to trust somuch in their faith, they'll probably start by saying "If you know what God/Allah/Jesus has done for me you would understand why I believe in him somuch", now this is all fair and all but try getting them to share what God did for them and they will narrate a story of how they were in desperate strides and a miracle happened and something good happened to them, the 'something good' that happened is now translated as coming from "God". 
First, this style of argument is an informal fallacy and it falls under False Cause Fallacy. 


Christians "illegitimately assume that one possible cause of a phenomenon is the cause although reasons are lacking for excluding other possible causes" and they do this time and time again, you get a new promotion at work, you get an A on a test, you get a new car you and attribute all this good things to God when it could possibly be other things or even other "supernatural beings" like the devil doing all this good things for you.  A whole lot of us commit informal fallacies almost everytime when trying to prove why something good has happened to us, we immediately assume that it must be God responsible for the good in our lives, but we never attribute the bad things to God, we prefer to blame that on the devil but the almighty never gets any blame.

Now to be fair to both sides, when you meet an atheist who tries to say "God does not exist because he cannot be seen", then that also is a fallacy. Just because you cannot see God, does not mean that he does not exist.