I've been asked on a few different occasions why I don't blog, the main reason I gave as to why I don't blog was that I won't think about updating it, and will in turn forget about it. This may hold true, so this might be the only time I ever write a blog here, so get your fill all you no one that will read this.
Lately there has been a lot of things bothering me, the current state of affairs of the United States involvement in the middle east, the oil spill in the gulf, and gay rights to name a few, world wise at least, personal issues aside. To elaborate; there was recently an announcement made by President Obama that the US "will" start pulling troops from Afghanistan as early as July-June 2011. I for one do not believe this in the least, the current state that Afghanistan is in, is to put it nicely chaotic, there is no real framework for government, military, or police. Largely the country is ruled by the factions of extremists and or so-called "insergants" which are really disenfranchised soldiers who were displaced by the US during the invasion. And yes that is what is was, an invasion of a sovereign nation because we did not like their leader and wanted their oil, read deeper and that is the truth you find. I do not believe for a second that we will be pulling all troops from Afghanistan or Iraq in the near future, if anything we will be sending more. This is not a war, it is imperialism make no mistake, and imperialists do not pull back, they settle in, deploy control etc.
The BP oil spill aka Deep Water Horizon spill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill), where to start. The entire ordeal started due to BP's abuse of the deregulation of the oil industry on US based offshore rig's put in place by no other than Dick Chaney. This was no accident, Cheney's direct involvement with the Oil industry via Haliburton Oil (http://www.halliburton.com/) and his position in government allowed him to synthesize the deregulation in favor of a company he is heavily involved in. Ultimately the spill was actually a cause of increased revenue for BP and affiliates. Yes destroying natural sea life, contaminating ocean and wetlands with millions of gallons of oil MADE them money. This is due largely to the fact that the company BP employed to 'clean' the oil up Nalco (http://www.nalco.com/) is owned in part by BP and several other oil companies. Thereby they purchase the chemical Corexit EC9527A from Nalco and in turn make money. This is incredibly insidious, the very people who are responsible for the collective destruction of the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Louisiana wetlands and even the white beaches of Florida are making money not losing it. There was also further suspicious activity not even three weeks prior to the spill, multi-billion dollar bank and investing firm Goldman Sachs sold over $250,000,000 in BP stock (can be viewed here http://moneycentral.msn.com/ownership?Holding=Institutional+Ownership&symbol=BP) just before BP stock plummeted. This may be just speculation and GS dumping the stock due to poor performance over the past fiscal year, however it begs the question; why would company heavily vested in the fourth largest company in the world suddenly dump millions in stock then shortly after a massive "accidental spill" happens?
Further, Gay Rights has been an increasingly large issue in the United States, both gay's fighting for their rights and those who oppose them. Although I am straight I think it's incredibly important that equality exists in today's society. If you knew me growing up this is far from my point of view at that time, but in maturing I've found that the reason I thought that way was actually largely due to my surroundings; a small town full of rednecks who are very closed minded and fear anything different than they are. After moving to California and working with and knowing people who are openly gay I can honestly say I have no problem with them, they are normal people just like anyone else they just happen to love the same sex, but it is love just the same. It seems to me that this country in particular has some kind of witch hunt out for gays and lesbians, condemning them for their lifestyle, telling them they are wrong and need to conform to the straight paradigm. This is at the very core completely and utterly wrong. Someone who is gay did not, believe it or not 'choose' to be gay, do you really think for one second that someone would deliberately choose to be something which is still considered taboo, gross, wrong, sinful? Insert whatever adjective you need, they all lead to the same answer, no, no one would choose that for themselves. Granted there are those who like to do things for attention like girls kissing girls at parties, its an attention act they aren't actually lesbians. But for those who truly are and have always known they were gay since childhood have dealt with the scorn of society for a very long time. And now in the new millennium they are fighting for things like the ability to have same sex marriages (Prop 8) the same way that women had to fight to get voting rights. This is incredibly hard taking into account that government is largely republican, which are also largely Christian and Roman Catholic, two sects of religion that use the bible to say that homosexuality is a sin and an 'abomination before god'-Lev. 18:22,, this is a travesty. Using a 2000+ year old book to dictate something which has existed possibly since man had comprehensive thought is just over simplifying and irrelevant. Recently some things have happened which just show the overall intolerance toward gay's throughout the United States. Such as Tyler Clementi, (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/30/eveningnews/main6916119.shtml) a gay student who jumped to his death after his room mate hid a webcam in his room and streamed live his sexual encounter with another male. This was a form of bullying which after his room mate exposed his secret to those who knew him and consequently due to the internet, the world, ultimately pushed him toward suicide. Now take that into consideration, he would rather kill himself than live with everyone who knew him knowing he was gay, thats just..fucking awful.
I would like to believe that we live in a progressive society, one that breeds new ideas, thoughts, art, music, movies, events, that accepts people for who they are. But we don't. Not even close, especially in the United States intolerance is probably one of the largest unifying concepts we have as country and its one of the things that is fundamentally wrong with society as a whole. Most ordinary people don't accept those around them, they judge them, pick on them, tear them down to a simple stereotype. And especially behind a computer screen people can be or say whatever they want when in real life they would never say even half the stuff they post online. That's why in comments on facebook, youtube, twitter, dailybooth, ustream, stickam, tumblr etc you see so much racism and hate, because these people are too afraid to say these things to anyone's face.So it would seem that until we can abandon judgement and stereotypes that things will not change. But it doesn't have to be that way, we can teach tolerance to our children and family and friends and maybe have some impact on those around us.
If anyone actually read through all of that, I commend you, it was a long rant. I hope it made some sense. There might be more to come in the future, read or not, its good to express whats on your mind and in these long lonely nights of unemployment it might just help to keep me sane...or..something.
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