September 07, 2005

Coffee a top source of healthy antioxidants - More Health News - MSNBC.com

Having lived in Salt Lake City for several years, one is always confronted with the majority religion: The LDS Church. Reading articles about the health benefits of coffee and prior articles about the health advantages of a glass of wine each day, I have to wonder: Are certain religions that demand abstinence from certain types of foods keeipng people from being as healthy as they could be? Surely, if it is proven that these things do have a long-term health benefit, then God would not choose to deprive anyone of this health benefit. Then again, that may be the plan. Perhaps, the original plan was a world where these things did not exist, and now someone gets a reprieve for awhile. Obviously, these are rhetorical questions.

Items like this continue to give us pause as we try to reconcile our definition of God with what we now know to be true through experience and science. 500 years ago if I had anyone of a dozen dieses, I would cetainly die. The locals would expain it away as they do now as its God's will. But, if I get that same ailment that can be cured easily today, I will live. If we use the logic that it is God's will that I live now, then why give me the ailment that can easily be cured? I fail to see how the death 500 years ago can be God's will, but today it can be God just wanting me to get sick? FOr if that cure didn't exist, we would say it is God's will.

I know, I know...the central issue is that these are man's saying and our way to try and understand and cope with things. I do not have a problem with that. As long as the next time I go to a funeral or listen to the reports from New Orleans, no one uses the trite excuse that God has a plan for each of us and that is why 10,000 men women and children deserved to die. In my book, that is simply the workings of a feckless thug.

This all goes back to my theory that God designed the universe and stated it off. The way it evolved and became what it is today, is entirely the implementation of the plan. I cannot believe that God has a hand in our day-to-day lives because if he did, then New Orleans would not have happened. BTW, I do know the arguments of if Hurricanes did not happen then much more damage would have happened, and God sparred New Orleans by making the storm swerve at the last minute -- those seem a little contrived and too simplistic, no? Nope, I believe that we are basically on our own and that society and our fellow man is the higher power we all share. I certainly have a higher power, but I refuse to believe a diety could look down and decide to change something in my life. Because if he could change something in my life, how in the world could he kill so many innocent people? If this sounds familiar, it is indeed the "Oh, God" school of religion. In the movie, George Burns' God says he created the worl, what we did with it was up to us. Free will it a bitch (to quote the devil from another movie). As the debacle in New Orleans shows, when you leave any enterprise up to the free will of man, his pety intellect and massive shortcomings will always get in the way. But, I will save that for another time.

September 05, 2005

Bush makes second trip to battered Gulf Coast - Hurricane Katrina - MSNBC.com

President Bush has sealed his legacy. While the White House enters a game of blaming the locals (as if these people need more beating than they have already received), his legacy will now be of the MBA President that is far more theory than execution. The President that dictated he would not be a man of the polls. A President that feigns compassion based on what his handlers tell him. President Bush lacks compassion, sincerity and clearly judegment in the people he chooses to surround himself with in his administration.

Now, I am not going to say this is fair. I know the detractors are saying it takes time to mobilize the Federal government. Working in a government agency, I know this to be true. Many people are doing their level best to get the help to where it belongs. Unfortunately for the President, politics -- and more so -- history are NOT fair. We could chalk this up to bad luck. To lost a major part of New York to 9/11 and not to lose an entire city on your watch can be thought of as nothing less than bad luck. Clearly, more preparation is necessary in preparing responses. Perhaps we all lauded the entry of the non-professionals arrival in Washington. Appointing friends and political cronies to positions in DHS and FEMA may not have been the best of ideas. Then again, as I said before; the only thing history will judge is the response. Does anyone believe President Clinton would not have been a far more compassionate human being in response to this tragedy? Do you doubt it for a minute? President Bush may be the most compassionate person in the world, but I feel his handlers will simply not let him be. Then again, maybe the demon inside him keeps him from truly feeling for these people. Hey, I guess the slacker President was not such a good idea afterall. God Bless the people of New Orleans and the rest of the states. Hopefully, history is kinder to President Bush than it has been to New Orleans. And finally, I sincerely hope this President that seems to publicly favor accountability will stand up, take responsibility and do what is right to restore confidence in our Federal Government.