LL's Thoughts by Twilight

Is it me, or does Blogger suck? Sure, it's free, but I've used it for about an hour, and I'm ready to move on after just a couple of posts. I'm now at http://www.livejournal.com/~lliu. Please go there for more of LL's Thoughts by Twilight.

A couple of very interesting recent events:

• Mysterious signals from lights years away detected by astronomers involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) project: http://www.newscientist.com/news/nographic.jsp?id=ns99996341. Go to http://setiathome.berkeley.edu and use your machine's idle time to help with the search!
• Researchers’ latest findings closing in on the missing link between homo sapien and chimpanzee, which would ultimately prove Darwin’s Theory of Evolution: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996353.

Caught on Film: The Bush Credibility Gap
The Photographic History of the Bush Administration Putting Its Mouth Where Its Money Isn’t

Moreover, after watching the presidential debates and the very enlightening (as usual) and heated (even more so than usual) post-debate episodes of Real-Time with Bill Maher (transcripts), I must say that I’m now even more anti-Bush and pro-Kerry than ever before. I’m a registered Independent, but come Nov 2nd, I’ll be voting for Kerry for sure. The thing about Bush that worries me the most is that he so strongly believes in his faith (he’s a born-again Christian) that he has become dependent on it to make presidential decisions! He has even gone as far as making a video about “how the power of faith can change a life, build a family and shape the destiny of a nation.” Hey, I don’t have any issues with people of faith, but relying on it to run a country of 250 million people? C’mon!

Bush wants to impose the Ten Commandments on the citizens of the United States when we already have a much better set of commandments – yes, they are called the Bill of Rights! And just how extremely hypocritical is Bush (as well as many other Republicans) when it comes to adhering to the Ten Commandments? Well, check this out -- what a disgrace!

The Freedom of Religion (or from Religion) is very important to me. It happens to be the very first right (i.e. the First Amendment) in the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, as described in a 1992 article,

“Ironically, it is the very religious that are leading the campaign to deprive us of freedom of religion. Every time they get the government to support and promote their churches and doctrines our freedom of religion is reduced. With tax-exempt funding they lobby the government, claiming the right to do so under the Free-speech and Free-exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. Powerful and ambitious, they have been increasingly successful at persuading government to impose religion and religious ideas on us.”

These lobbying efforts were not significant/successful enough to be concerned about in 1992, but now, we have a President doing this! See the problem?

No? How about this thought: If the Fundamentalist Christians (and I would characterize Bush as one) had their way, there would be only one religion in America .. and ultimately in the world. The right to Freedom of/from Religion will be the very first that they’ll abolish if they had the power. And what constitutes power in a democracy like the United States? Simple: Majority rules. Fortunately, in the American brand of democracy, the government guarantees and protects the civil rights of the minorities as defined by the Bill of Rights, even if a majority are not willing to do so. In a Supreme Court ruling in 1943,

"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections."

Now, do you see why it’s a good idea to separate church from state? And why it’s dangerous to have a President of the United States, who does not have the mental capacity to do so?

We need to stop the Bush regime from “four more years” because Bush supporters like these will continue to strengthen their agenda. In the meantime, to defend yourself against the Religious Right, following the insightful guidance from here.