THE WAR IS OVER...

Or at least, it will be. Soon, I hope. The Democrats know that this is what the American people voted them in to do. I hope they get it right or the ca-ca will really hit the fan in 2008.

The past 6 years have left me agog. If it wasn't for The Daily Show, Bill Maher, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Al Franken, Michael Moore, and others, I swear I would have gone nuts! Is it just me?? I remember telling the people I worked with in a credit union back in 2003 that the war was a lie and unjustifiable -- I was the only one taking that stand and they ridiculed me for it! Today, the worm has turned. All that flag-waving and patriotic gibberish that was being spouted as some sort of litmus test as to if you were a real patriot or not -- those days are over. Some patriots! They lined their pockets with our savings while they stole our rights and waged war in our name. Shame. Historians will judge these dark years harshly as some of the worst in American history.

And all in the name of God! The Christian God versus the Islamic Allah versus the Judaic Yahweh. Fighting in the name of God! It sickens me to think of the twisting of a beautiful message of love and brotherhood into a justification for going to war. But it's always been that way, hasn't it? Always one group pitted against another. Forget about trying to understand and get along and compromise and compare how really alike we are in so many ways instead of looking for insurmountable differences.

Bush & his ilk are so wound up with all this "rapture" nonsense that you have the Evangelical Christians from the far right trying to send help to & buy up land in Israel so as to speed along the destruction of Jerusalem that's supposed to usher in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Wow! Do these people believe in fairies, too, I wonder?

I used to teach on the college level before I became sick and I often had Moslem students and became close with a few. I became interested in Islam and as I taught the Humanities (& art history) and I came to understand the essential beauty of this religion -- just like all religions on the surface stand for love and the desire to live a just life. Of course, in practice, things get jarbled. But like so much in life, the good of the majority becomes tainted by the bad of the very few. Just today I heard how the conference of U.S. Catholic bishops in Baltimore decided that as a Catholic, one should not use birth control (don't even THINK of abortion!), being gay is just "disordered" and not a sin unless you act on your impulses, and if you don't buy their whole program hook, line & sinker, don't bother taking communion. Nice. Still, 96% of American Catholics just ignore this, so I see that as some hope. Still, I have tried to come back to the Church, but with such big gaps with my beliefs and their fundamental teachings, I don't think I will ever be able to do so.

I'm so bad at arguing "constructively" with conservatives -- I tend to insult when I should be able to dazzle 'em with some cold hard facts that completely blows their arguments to hell. But that's hard to do, at least for me. So much to remember. I get the general outline down, alright, but I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

More later...