Rant of the Day

I saw some interesting items on the news last night. The first was a report that apparently, global terrorism may be on the rise. The recent attacks in London and Egypt point to a possible resurgence in Al Qaida. It made me wonder how successful our “War on Terrorism” really is. We’ve been fighting this “war” for several years now. What are the results? Plenty of dead civilians, soldiers, and suicide bombers. Problem is, there are plenty more suicide bombers out there.

It seems that this “war” is only escalating instead of us winding down or getting resolved. Everything we’ve spent in dollars and lives, and the problem is getting worse, not better. I don’t know, but it seems to me we’re doing something wrong here. Of course, the administration will advise us to “stay the course”, even though the course is taking us in the wrong direction. But of course, this happens when you treat symptoms and not causes. Have we tried to actually determine what makes someone become a suicide bomber and maybe take away the reason to become one? It’s hard to be a terrorist if you’re not pissed about something. But what do I know? I’m just some schmuck, with a computer and an opinion. I don’t have several intelligence services and the smartest people in the country at my disposal to advise me.

Then again, if I was Karl Roves’ puppet, perhaps I would do the same thing. But I digress.

The other thing I saw that was kind of sad in a way, was a story on an organization called Christian Exodus. I won’t link their website, you can find it if you like. I’d heard of them before but I can’t believe they’ve made the national news. Basically, it’s an organization that wants to turn a state into a “Christian” state, one based on the laws of the Bible. They believe in Conservative Christian values, like loving your neighbor. I didn’t realize that since I’m a Liberal Christian, I must hate my neighbor. Because you know, we don’t hold any of the values the conservatives do.

They believe that the Christian/Conservative right is not conservative enough. They’ve begun moving to South Carolina, where they believe they have the best chance of changing the laws. However, they’ve stated that if they get control of the government of South Carolina, then they are willing to SECEDE FROM THE UNION. So far the have all of 80 MEMBERS.

These guys are a fringe group that make your typical Conservative Christians look like a bleeding heart commie. What I really don’t understand is why they’re getting air time at all. These people are living in some sort of fantasy world. They’re dreaming of some sort of “utopia” that doesn’t exist. It’s sad in a way. All I can say is thank God I don’t live in South Carolina.

The last bit was on our local news. In a tragic story, a 5 year old boy died, possibly due to abuse by his mother. If that isn’t sad enough, the report mentions that the family probably had a social worker. The president of the local social worker’s union then has the gall to get on TV and say that if they had better funding, this wouldn’t have happened. What angered me was his blatant use of the situation to make a political statement. It’s cheap and dirty. This guy gives social workers a bad name. I just wanted to reach through the screen and smack the guy.