Say Anything Blog

If one tries to understand why a person would take his own life willingly, he would think that either a major negative life experience or mental illness or both were the problem,
They range from extreme depression to losing a spouse or child to having a depilating disease and many other sad and painful events.

Man needs to justify this act and put it in a logical conclusion to live with himself, but what if the person was a seven year old second grader? How can we wrap our minds around something that horrible? People, like me, who are parents, tend to be more effected than others, as they experienced the joy and hardships of parenthood.

Sadly a seven year old New Jersey boy was found hanged in his room. No sign of foul play was found. It was assumed the boy took his own life. The other shocker is that suicide is the 5th leading cause of death in children 5- to 14-year-olds in the United States.

The American Journal of Psychiatry reported in September that suicide among young people under age 19 rose 14 per cent in 2004.

I’m deeply saddened by this event. It just breaks my heart. 

The report was carried by reuters

If we were to be able to travel in time to just before the fall of Rome, I believe that little notice would be given to the subtle, but obvious, telltale signs that the end was near.

Nor did the people of the U.S.S.R. foresee the breakup of that country in such a short time.

In both cases the huge burdens of debt were too much for those countries to bear and remain as one. Now we are told by the chief of the IMF that a sudden collapse of the U.S. Dollar is very much probable.

What would you think would result in this collapse? Huge losses of savings and whole economies bankrupt. Possible military actions of one party or another. But ultimately the inevitable break up of the U.S. into groups. California alone is considered in the 10 or 20 top economies of the world. With a population of about 90 million people, it, with some northern states like Oregon can create a more stable country on its own than with the burden of the poorer states.

Emotions and national pride may result in prolonging the issue. With less and less income from poor states more burdens will be laid on richer ones to take the slack.

This will result in reduced reinvestment in rich states to provide basic human needs in the poor ones, which in turn will result in possible reduction in the income generated from rich states.  This is actually going on right now, but in a much reduced rate.

Infrastructures, police, hospitals etc are being neglected more and more due to economic restraints. 

It’s not a matter of if but when. 

I would appreciate your comments and dialogue on this issue.

Mr. Abdullah AlAteeh,The Qatari minister of energy and industry, stated that the fair price of one barrel of oil should exceed $100 and possibly $125 if inflation is taken into account.

Energy production is only a fraction of what oil and gas (fossil fuels) provides the world. Did you know that Urea (Fertilizer) is made out of fossil fuels? So are many products like plastics, medicines, roads, wire insulation, feed stock, fabric, tables and much more.

It’s ridiculous to assume that it can be replaced. In reality nothing can replace it as we stand today. Funding is needed for R&D to look for logical and economical replacements for it.

What fossil fuels we have has to be used scarcely. Immediate action is needed to avert global catastrophe when its production dips below the world demand. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

There is not enough natural fertilizer in the world to keep everybody fed. Countries are not going to go away and die peacefully. Wars are inevitable. He who controls fossil fuels controls the future.

This mediocre attempt to use corn or soy beans is a farce. There are studies that estimate that the amount of energy put into producing a gallon of ethanol is almost as equal if not more than the gallon can produce.

A hydrogen cell is another farce. As anyone who worked near an MRI can tell you, Hydrogen molecules are the smallest and can actually squeeze out thru metal and tanks leak all the time. Additionally you would require a huge tank for the same task and is susceptical to explosions during an accident as it is under extreme pressure.

Real and scientific research is needed and needed NOW. We don’t need to be pacified.

I believe that this is the most important issue facing all of humanity.

Found this on Irregular Times interesting, thought you would like to read

Back in 1991, Christian fundamentalists remained happily silent when Canada passed a law allowing religions to engage in voluntary remediation of legal disputes under their own religious laws. They were content to watch this happen because Jewish and Catholic groups were the ones to place their subjects under religious law, and that

was apparently OK.

It was only in 2005 that Christian Fundamentalists howled their opposition, when a former Canadian Attorney General proposed that

Muslim religious organizations be able to enforce Islamic sharia law in matters concerning Muslim families, such as divorce, child custody

and the division of assets.

All of a sudden, the Christian fundamentalists came out of the woodwork denouncing the proposal (which was rejected by the Canadian government, by the way). The fundamentalists’ problem wasn’t with theocracy — it was with Islamic theocracy.

Fast forward to the summer of 2007, when the Texas Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit of Peggy Lee Penley against Pastor and licensed

professional counselor Buddy Westbrook. Penley had approached Westbrook for marital counseling, and in that counseling session told

Westbrook she’d had an extramarital affair. Licensed professional counselors are legally obliged to maintain confidentiality, and in its

ruling the Supreme Court of Texas accepted Penley’s claim that her disclosure occurred within the context of Westbrook’s non-religious

professional counseling. And yet the Supreme

Court of Texas wrote in its ruling:

Even so, we cannot ignore Westbrook’s role as Penley’s pastor. In his dual capacity, Westbrook owed Penley conflicting duties; as Penley’s counselor he owed her a duty of confidentiality, and as her pastor he owed Penley and the church an obligation to disclose her conduct. We conclude that parsing those roles for purposes of determining civil liability in this case, where health or safety are not at issue, would unconstitutionally entangle the court in matters of church governance and impinge on the core religious function of church discipline. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and dismiss the case for want of jurisdiction.

In other words, when a person’s secular obligation conflicts with church law, church law wins.

The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that once a person willingly joins a religious institution, the prerogatives of that religious institution to implement and enforce its religious law upon its members supercedes and overrules the right of individual members to be protected by secular laws. This is an implementation of American theocracy, placing religious law above secular law. But you won’t find Christian fundamentalists crying foul over this instance of theocracy; indeed, Christian fundamentalists funded Westbrook’s legal defense. That’s because, as was showing in the case of Canada, Christian fundamentalists don’t have a problem with theocracy — as long as it’s

their religion that gets the power. Theocracy is only objectionable to the Christian fundamentalist movement if it is the theocracy of a competitor religion.

http://muslimchronicle.blogspot.com/2005/01/toronto-star-story-on-marion-boyds.html

http://moonbatcentral.com/wordpress/?p=272

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/09/09/sharia-protests-20050909.html

http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/historical/2007/jun/040838.htm

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/22004b.asp