Monday, September 12, 2011

Why Liberals Should Support the Right To Keep and Bear Arms

I consider myself pretty liberal as well as a socialist. One item I have largely been ambivalent about was gun rights till recently. Democrats largely shot themselves in the foot in the 90's by insisting on gun control. Since them most of them have learned and won't go near the issue with a ten foot pole except for a few California and New York liberals. Guns can be a dangerous tool and should be used with care. There is no doubt about that. However, the right to bear arms is sometimes what enables the oppressed to throw off their oppressors. This was the case in Libya most recently. This is also something that is well understood by the Black Panthers as well. During the civil rights era, they took a stand against gun control because they knew how the right to bear arms empowered an oppressed people.


The case of Libya left me thinking recently that those of us who are liberal and support gun rights should let our views be known. Guns have often empowered workers in many places where they were being exploited such as in Chile till Allende's government had them disarm which made it that much easier for Pinochet to begin his reign of terror. Here in the US, we see an increasing infringement upon the rights of the working class by the corporate elites as well as an increasing police state where people are forced out of their homes by banks who can't even pay their bills without help from the government and where workers are intimidated by large corporations to prevent them from organizing into unions. Guns are a great equalizer though and they can enable the powerless to have some defense against this form of economic bullying by the plutocrats.


I would suggest that it is a good thing as well for working class people in the US to organize into armed militias. That shouldn't be left to just the hate mongers and the crazy right wing idiots who subscribe to every conspiracy theory known to man. For further reading, check this article out:



Gun-Control & Workers' Militias: How Socialists View the Issues:

'via Blog this'

Saturday, September 10, 2011

I'm No Expert

I will begin by stating that my posts here are likely to become less frequent though I shall endeavor to post something once a week.  Today I wanted to discuss my desire to attain more knowledge of some subjects before I post my opinions on them.  It seems everyone has an opinion and there are many great articles written by many different bloggers on the web.  Having an advanced degree helps though it is not necessary.  I will give one example of what I am referring to.  It is in the area of Biblical Criticism.  While I have read several versions of the Bible as well as books on the Bible and Biblical Criticism over my lifetime, I believe that I should limit what I say in regards to that subject.  Reason being there are obviously more learned people who post online in that subject area and I believe that they contribute much more than what I usually can.  There are plenty of resources for atheists to reference online when it comes to the Bible.  The Skeptic's Annotated Bible(http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/) is one great resource as is http://jesusneverexisted.com.  The Freethought and Rationalism Discussion board(http://www.freeratio.org/forumdisplay.php?f=60) is another.

I decided this after realizing that there are those who set themselves up as experts pontificating to everyone else what they think.  I don't want to be one of those.


Sunday, September 4, 2011

And Your Point Is?

Have you ever sat in an evangelical church and heard a pastor say something to the effect of Jesus was tortured and died for you so you should believe in him?  I have and it is ludicrous on its face.  For one that assumes there was a Jesus.  I don't think the evidence is conclusive that he even existed.  Secondly, there are millions of people who have died for this or that cause, so should we believe in every one of those causes?  Some of those died like the Branch Davidians.  Should we believe in David Koresh simply because he and his followers chose to die in a fire?  Should we believe in a radical suicide bomber's religion simply because he blows himself and several others up?  I don't think so.  However, this same motivation seemingly inspired the movie, The Passion of the Christ, which had Christians ejaculating praise left and right for it because it showed Jesus being tortured and killed supposedly on their behalf.

What does that say about the Christian god other than that he would evidently be a manipulative sadist?  The love of money may or may not be the root of all evil, but religion is definitely the root of a bunch of nonsense.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Atheist Blogroll

My blog has been added to The Atheist BlogrollYou can see the blogroll in my sidebar.  The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.