Essay: The End of the World, Or Not"

Essay: "The End of the World, Or Not"

Harold Camping, an octegenarian radio preacher for decades has used his supposedly thorough knowledge of the Bible to predict that the apocalypse will occur via earthquake at 6 o'clock p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday May 21, 2011. Before you go out in a frenzied panic, be aware that the eighty-plus year old Camping made a similar prediction in the nineties and it didn't come to pass. A lot of people have made predictions over the years, decades, centuries and eons that the world would end at a certain time and we are still here. for instance, the story of Noah in the Bible. I haven't followed Nostradamis' writings lately, but I'm sure he alluded to the end of the world. The Book of Revelations is perhaps the most well-known description of the apocalypse or so-called 'Judgment Day'. According to many people, the Mayan civilization predicted 2012 as the end of the world. I think we will survive well beyond 2012, unless pollution and Global Warming make the planet uninhabitable or the sun goes supernova millions of years from now. I'm not worried at all about a prediction by a religious fanatic, and neither should you.

Essay: "Should We Have Zero Tolerance For Zero Tolerance?"

Essay: "Should We Have Zero Tolerance For Zero Tolerance?"

In certain school systems the administration and teachers run schools as if they were minimum security prisons rather than a place where learning can be a pleasant experience.

According to the May 14 to May 15 Weekend Edition of the Quincy Patriot Ledger, in Palmer, Massachusetts, a child at the young age of nine years old was called to a "Juvenile Court" for the supposed 'crime' of bringing a toy gun to school. Under a Zero Tolerance policy at the school, bringing a weapon to school is a crime. Since a toy gun looks similar to a real gun, under this callous and absurd Zero Tolerance policy, a fake gun (perhaps even a squirt gun) is considered a weapon. Perhaps it wasn't the brightest idea to bring a toy gun to school, but what sense does it make to perhaps ruin a nine year old child's future with a 'juvie' criminal record over something any immature pre-teen boy might be inclined to do?

Essay: "Osama Can Rot in Hell"

Essay: "Osama bin Laden Can Rot in Hell"

Osama bin Laden was born into wealth, but he became so religious that he chose to live as if he was from the Middle Ages. When our government funded Afghan rebels (including bin Laden) against the Soviet Union during the 1980s the Mujahadeen warriors and Osama used those weapons and training against us in various terrorist attacks. Osama was a millionaire who apparently lived like a pauper. He was a man of great wealth who used his riches for destruction and murder rather than to make the world a better place. He was allegedly religious but he used his belief in an invisible friend in the sky as a justification to wage war, influencing thousands to become suicide bombers and terrorists, and to kill several thousand innocent Americans and Moslems alike. In the Moslem world he is practically worshipped as a hero the way Americans hero-worship professional athletes and celebrities. No matter how evil he is, for some reason many Moslems think he is a great man rather than the vermin that he actually was. He was a murderous madman. a terrorist, and the human equivalent of a tornado, tsunami, or similar natural disaster. The world is better off without people like Osama bin Laden, including fundamentalist Christians who have similar views.

Essay: "The Devout Have Faith in the Tea Party, while Atheists and Agnostics Do Not"

Essay: "The Devout Have Faith in the Tea Party, Atheists and Agnostics Do Not"

According to statistics in an article in the Saturday April 30th to May 1st weekend edition of the Patriot Ledger, so-called 'born again' and devout white Christians are most apt to buy into the extremist Tea party malarkey, while atheists and agnostics are least likely to agree with the position of low taxes for the wealthy along with minimal services for the poor, needy and vulnerable. Christians are supposed to be a charitable lot, but when it comes to political views they are quite hypocritical. At least those who are in the extreme Christian right and the Tea Party. It is a shame that due to a horrible economy and other disasters, the Tea Party and those on the right who largely caused or enabled this huge financial mess to happen have an opportunity to make things much worse; especially for those who are poor. I'm sure those at the top will do just fine and get even richer at the rest of our expense.

Essay: "Dump Trump"

Essay: "Dump Trump"

Apparently, the wealthy and arrogant egomaniac Donald Trump (aka "the Donald") is preparing to enter the Presidential election as a Republican candidate. His selling points are the following: he is a well-known billionaire and a real estate mogul. For people who don't follow politics, it wouldn't surprise me that the uninformed might vote for him based on his new role as a reality show star on "The Apprentice". Trump is coming across as brash and he is setting an early ugly tone to the upcoming race to try to defeat Obama by the Republicans who largely caused this huge economic mess with tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, cuts to needed programs for the poor and vulnerable, largely unnecessary endless wars, etc. The worse thing so far about Trump's potential candidacy is that he is perpetuating the paranoid and racist Birther lie initiated by the fringes of the extreme right-wing of the Republican party and the so-called TEA partiers. For those who might be inclined to support Trump, do they really think a guy who has so much wealth can possibly empathize with the concerns of the average person? If he gets in I'd be willing to bet that most of his policies and all of his Supreme and other court nominees would benefit Big Business to the detriment of the Common Man.