Right and Wrong
Sleep won't come easy tonight. Not sure why, maybe the heat, or the food. Who knows. But thus, I type. I love this laptop, I must say. It's a wonderful device, and I wish I had more of a use for it. Alas, my desktop is just more appropriate for most things. But that aside, I noticed a bunch of things about the world I wanted to comment on.
First of all, what's with all the news coverage of kids getting shot in school? I mean, is there really anything anyone can do to prevent a random person from deciding to kill another random person, regardless of their age? Focusing on it is futile, and will only bring about pointless laws and limitless restrictions on our freedom. All in the name of "protecting our children". Let's just stop, okay? Sometimes, kids die and we need to accept the fact that it doesn't occur that often, and that you have no reason to believe that it will occur to your kid. You may as well worry about him getting struck by lightning on a sunny day, or getting hit by falling debris from outer space. Or contracting some incureable genetic or environmental disease. These are all things out of your control though, and aren't worth a moment's thought. So please, let's stop.
Next, notice how touchy the Arabs have gotten? What's up with that? I guess fanatical religious people have always been...well, fanatical....but when did it become a bad idea to make fun of them? We've been making fun of evangelicals for ages now, and they haven't done shit about it, so why are we suddenly afraid of making fun of Arabs? Because they blew up our World Trade Center? You think that's a demonstration of how powerful they are? If anything, all that showed us is how weak we are, that we reacted so cowardly afterward. That we attacked our own people for not being patriotic enough, that we did everything in our power to protect "innocent civilians" who were, in all likelihood, supporting our enemies if not materially, at very least spiritually (either directly, or by not condemning them). And we protected these people at the cost of our own lives. That we didn't go after the worst countries of all. That we allow our enemies to develop weapons to destroy us and our allies, boldly and without fear.
This really isn't a time for us to be showing the world how afraid we are of a guy in his basement with some homegrown exposives or a shotgun. We need to show our enemies that we aren't afraid and that we are better than them. That we will kill them without flinching and continue to fight for justice at home. We shouldn't compromise our freedoms for any reason, and worst of all, we shouldn't compromise them because we're scared. And we should crush our enemies, without worrying what other countries think and what "innocent" people might get hurt.
I guess I'm asking for a lot here, and I know that I myself haven't always been able to live up to these ideals. But I think it's a bad idea to be afraid of someone who's threatening your way of life. Deal with them coldly and rationally, and know that we will win because we don't live by the sword. If we wanted to, we could bury other nations within minutes. We don't because we don't need their resources to survive. We aren't parasites, unlike them.
I don't think we're gonna be taken down by a couple guys with bombs. Really, the only thing that can destroy us is our fear...that fear which prevents us from doing what's necessary, and that same fear which compels us to do immoral things in the name of what's right. I hope we can sort out right and wrong before we lose those concepts completely, because right and wrong is what seperates us from them. And I hope that people have the courage to stop listening to people on the news telling us how scary the world is.
First of all, what's with all the news coverage of kids getting shot in school? I mean, is there really anything anyone can do to prevent a random person from deciding to kill another random person, regardless of their age? Focusing on it is futile, and will only bring about pointless laws and limitless restrictions on our freedom. All in the name of "protecting our children". Let's just stop, okay? Sometimes, kids die and we need to accept the fact that it doesn't occur that often, and that you have no reason to believe that it will occur to your kid. You may as well worry about him getting struck by lightning on a sunny day, or getting hit by falling debris from outer space. Or contracting some incureable genetic or environmental disease. These are all things out of your control though, and aren't worth a moment's thought. So please, let's stop.
Next, notice how touchy the Arabs have gotten? What's up with that? I guess fanatical religious people have always been...well, fanatical....but when did it become a bad idea to make fun of them? We've been making fun of evangelicals for ages now, and they haven't done shit about it, so why are we suddenly afraid of making fun of Arabs? Because they blew up our World Trade Center? You think that's a demonstration of how powerful they are? If anything, all that showed us is how weak we are, that we reacted so cowardly afterward. That we attacked our own people for not being patriotic enough, that we did everything in our power to protect "innocent civilians" who were, in all likelihood, supporting our enemies if not materially, at very least spiritually (either directly, or by not condemning them). And we protected these people at the cost of our own lives. That we didn't go after the worst countries of all. That we allow our enemies to develop weapons to destroy us and our allies, boldly and without fear.
This really isn't a time for us to be showing the world how afraid we are of a guy in his basement with some homegrown exposives or a shotgun. We need to show our enemies that we aren't afraid and that we are better than them. That we will kill them without flinching and continue to fight for justice at home. We shouldn't compromise our freedoms for any reason, and worst of all, we shouldn't compromise them because we're scared. And we should crush our enemies, without worrying what other countries think and what "innocent" people might get hurt.
I guess I'm asking for a lot here, and I know that I myself haven't always been able to live up to these ideals. But I think it's a bad idea to be afraid of someone who's threatening your way of life. Deal with them coldly and rationally, and know that we will win because we don't live by the sword. If we wanted to, we could bury other nations within minutes. We don't because we don't need their resources to survive. We aren't parasites, unlike them.
I don't think we're gonna be taken down by a couple guys with bombs. Really, the only thing that can destroy us is our fear...that fear which prevents us from doing what's necessary, and that same fear which compels us to do immoral things in the name of what's right. I hope we can sort out right and wrong before we lose those concepts completely, because right and wrong is what seperates us from them. And I hope that people have the courage to stop listening to people on the news telling us how scary the world is.