The More I Learn About God, The More I Love My Dog

I’ve always loved animals. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I used to rescue every critter that crossed my path, trying to save them from the cruel world. I was successful at bringing back to health some of them; but more often than not they died while in my care… I cried for every single one of the animals I was not able to “save” but that didn’t deterred me in my efforts to help them. I was born that way.

I was raised a Catholic, but my family didn’t go to church too often. My grandfather was a socialist atheist who offered me a different perspective from what was being hammered into my brain while I was attending catechism. My grandfather was very wise and didn’t push me into believing what he believed in; he subtlety gave me a different point of view.

My mother also played an important role in my upbringing; she allowed me to be myself even when she didn’t understand half of the things I was doing. Not once did she tried to deter me from my quest of saving every creature I thought need saving, including humans.

When I was about 10 years old or less, I found a mother and three little kids that were begging on the steps of the church I used to attend. I used to go alone, as my family didn’t enjoy attending church as I previously mentioned. Seeing this mother and her little kids, dirty, dressed in rags broke my heart. I couldn’t understand how people were walking out of church pass them as if they were invisible. This mother was asking for money to feed her kids so I went up to her and brought the whole family home for lunch. I asked my mother to sit them at our table, share our food with them and using our china and silverware. My mother did as I asked her, without a frown and with a big smile on her face. She made them feel welcomed and this poor mother was so grateful that to this day I remember her gratitude. After they left, my mother did reprimanded me, not for offered them food but because I sat them at our table and they – according to my mother – could have germs and she said she was sure they had lice and I could get “infected.” But she didn’t mind my altruistic inclinations; actually she was proud of them.

My stepfather loved to enrich my brain with books. He bought me every book he could find and loved to see me devouring the books he so happily found for me. I read every single one, from Sci-Fi to history books. I’m very thankful that he not only helped developed my brain, but he encouraged my appetite for learning.

When my grandfather passed away I was heartbroken as he and I were very close. But the thought of him going to hell tormented me. I went to see my priest and shared those dark and fearful thoughts with him, I was hoping he could comfort me and tell me that my grandfather was a good man and therefore, regardless of his religious views, he was going to go to heaven. To my surprise, he told me that unless he had accepted Jesus in his heart before he died, he was condemned for eternity to hell. I rejected this; I couldn’t accept that a good man, a righteous man was going to burn in hell for eternity. What type of arrogant, narcissist God was this that a good man was sent to hell while a criminal or murderer that “accepted Jesus in his heart” before dying was welcomed in heaven? So my search to prove the priest wrong began at the tender age of 11.

I read every theology book I could get my hands on, which was a difficult task since I lived in a Communist country… but I found them, hidden in some libraries or in my stepfather’s book collection. I read them all. The more I read, the more convinced I became that God was just a figment of the imagination; a reason to justify terrible things and a way to manipulate the weak and a method to control the masses.

I do believe in a force, a universal energy force; an energy that we all have within us. But the concept of a god that is there, judging everything, choosing and picking who is good and who is not, based on how much they adore him is nonsense.

Today, so many years later, I am agnostic tending into atheism. When I see what the religious right is doing to this country, when I see how hateful and pompous the religious institutions are and how they manipulate their congregation into crushing other’s rights, the more I am leaning into atheism… Throughout history many crimes against humanity have taken place and most, if not all, were inflicted on humanity in the name of God. It is happening to this day.

This is why after so much reading and after so many years have gone by, the more I learn about god... the more I love my dog.

   

The Truth about Mitt Romney

The elections are less than six months away. Everything seems to indicate that Mitt Romney will be the Republican Presidential Nominee, and after several failed attempts the presidency finally is within his reach. It must be really exciting for Romney, after all, he doesn't care how he gets what he wants as long as he gets it, whatever means necessary.

Mitt Romney has changed his views and opinions about everything, and not throughout the years as many of us do, but from one event to another. It's the "etch a sketch" strategy we have heard so much about.  It is obvious that this man is not campaigning on his values or principles, rather he is telling the American people whatever is necessary and suitable at the time in order to get their vote.

Many will claim this is politics as usual, and up to a point I agree. However, every candidate has an opinion that he or she will defend and not change, but not Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney is spending his time accusing President Obama of not knowing how to deal with current issues such as unemployment, energy, education, budget, government and any other issue you can think of. Every candidate employs these tactics and it shouldn't surprise anyone that Mitt Romney does the same. What it is surprising is that when he is asked what are his plans to solve any of these issues, what strategy he will use to fix the problems he claims President Obama is not handling correctly, Romney will not answer.  It is at moments like this that a candidate will take the opportunity to show the American people that they have a viable plan or idea and in the process show their platform hoping it will appeal to as many people as possible.  Instead,  Romney shifts the discussion to economics and how brilliant he is at it, never replying to the question he was asked. Invariably, he mentions how many jobs he saved and created over the years, how many companies he helped create or advance.  On the 2007 elections the GOP mantra was "Drill, baby, Drill" it seems that today's mantra is "Economics, baby, Economics."  We all agree that there is a global economic crises, however, there are other equally important issues that are in desperate need of attention and that are equally important to the quickly disappearing middle class.  Mitt Romney doesn't care about those, all that he is willing to talk about is economics because that is the only thing he thinks he knows and gives him the setting to glorify himself.  The only thing he hasn't said, so far, is that he has the Midas touch... but give him time, the elections are still a few months away!

I decided to write this post after watching the video I attached below. It is a forceful video that shows you exactly how Mitt Romney "saved" jobs. The caring that Mitt Romney has for the average American worker is the same a hungry shark would have for a lion seal. We are insignificant for him, spendable and the only thing that matters for Romney is the mighty dollar.  Now that he has amassed enough of it, he wants to buy a place in history by becoming the President of the United States.  What inspired him was not saving this country and certainly not saving our way of life and the middle class, to obtain what thus far has been unattainable:  to be the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world, the United States of America.

Obama-Biden 2012!

The Invasion of Privacy

This is an attempt to clarify, scientifically not religiously, the subject of contraceptives and abortion. 

First we must understand the difference between an embryo, a fetus and a baby. It really bothers me to hear people calling an embryo or a fetus by the term baby, probably that is the reason why we are still debating this subject up to this day.

When a woman’s ovum (egg) drops from the fallopian tubes and, if she is lucky enough to have a man and enjoyed intercourse (or not) at the correct moment without protection or, as in many cases, the protection fails to do its job, that ovum will get fertilized by the man’s spermatozoa if they are not lazy or if the men is not, as commonly known, “shooting blanks”. I hope that up to this point everyone reading this will agree or at least have some concept of this stage of fertilization/conception.

If the ovum gets fertilized, it will drop to the uterus (located inside the woman and as of now that we are debating this issue, an uterus that belongs only to that woman) and attach itself to the walls of the uterus to start developing into an EMBRYO. At this time, basically, is a single cell that has been invaded by another single cell, isn’t it funny how even then, men are invading women? Anyway, not always a fertilized ovum will attach itself to the walls of the uterus or, even if attached will develop into an embryo, resulting in a miscarriage without the woman ever knowing that she was pregnant.

This is how the ovum looks like after the lucky spermatozoan got its way, it is at this moment that it is scientifically called an embryo and it shall remain with that name until the end of the 8th week from fertilization.

It almost looks like a black and white fried egg… doesn’t it? The human embryo differs little from the embryos of almost every other species. At the end of this article I will provide you with a link to various pictures of embryos and early stage fetuses for you to decide to which species the pictures belong to. Kind of a quiz to test your knowledge on the subject, it would be fun to see how many of you that believe that it is a baby since the moment of conception will be able to recognize the human embryo or fetus. 

The ovum, once fertilized, will begin splitting into multiple cells, at the second split we can start to recognize some features. As you can see, even at this early stage we can begin to find a resemblance to the procreator… At this stage, they look just like their "daddy"! Don’t they? So sweet!!! If you can’t see the resemblance, ask your husband to bend and look as his testicles, they look very similar!

During the first 4 weeks, the embryo is the size of a sesame seed (approximately 1/8 of an inch) or smaller, it doesn’t have a heartbeat, it doesn’t have limbs, it doesn't have a brain or even a spinal cord. This is the way the embryo looks towards the end of that stage, can you tell what sex is it, what the color of the hair or eyes will be? Can you tell if it will be a normal child or if it will have some anomalies at this point? I seriously doubt it, because at this stage you couldn’t differentiate between a human embryo and that of a dog, a cat, a horse, an elephant or a rat, among others. At this stage, having no brain or spinal cord, the embryo can’t have sensory nerves, in other words, it can’t feel pain. Alright, it is noticeable that it looks almost like a shrimp but not nearly that size, not even half the size of a small shrimp.

After the end of the 8th week is when the embryo starts developing into a FETUS. It still doesn’t look human, but you can begin to see the limbs, it has a heartbeat, a brain and a spinal cord. Having already a brain we can assume that at this stage the fetus might feel pain. The picture on the right is how it will look, more or less, by the 9th week. Now we can perceive limbs, eyes, and is quickly changing into a recognizable human… but its not there yet, at this point there are other species that still resembles ours, but there is no denying that at this point we can recognize a life.

From the end of the 8th week until the fetus passes through the birth canal, it will assume and retain the name of fetus. It is not a baby, just like an egg is not a chicken or a chick… it is an egg until the shell breaks and the chick breathes and in humans, it is a fetus until the water breaks and that fetus takes its first breath of air, not a millisecond before, it is then and only then it  can be called a baby. So, to all those people that are pro-life and keep saying that an abortion kills babies are not saying the truth, just twisting the words to inflict pity, guilt and rage among people, after all, no one but a sick person would ever want to kill a baby!

This brings me to the subject of abortion and contraceptives. Every woman, absolutely every single one of them is pro-life; no one gets pregnant because they think "so what? if I do get pregnant I’ll simply have an abortion!" – That is not what happens. It is an extremely difficult decision that every woman, God fearing or atheist, doesn’t make lightly and a decision she wishes she would never have to make. There are different reasons, all valid, and which I am not going to enumerate, for a woman to come to that conclusion. After seriously thinking and debating with herself about the choices to make, agonizing about it, when a woman makes the decision to terminate a pregnancy – that by no stretch of the imagination is ‘killing a baby’, especially during the first trimester – that woman has seriously thought about it and felt guilty about it and decided that it was her only choice. There is no need to make her "listen to the heartbeat", see pictures of gorgeous and happy 4 month old babies in the doctor’s office,  no need to make her wait 24 hours and no need to make her feel worse than she already feels! 

This is not a religious matter, it is not a moral matter, it is not a civil matter, it is not a government matter, this is not a men's matter… it is a woman’s personal matter! 

All these fierce religious far right extremists that today are calling for the elimination of abortions and contraceptives for every single woman across in this country, because it goes against their religious beliefs but, that at the same time they also oppose for women to be on welfare; these same religious men and women who do not go and adopt all the children that are loveless in orphanages or going from foster home to foster home until they reach the age of 18 and are on their own or children that will never know what love is because they were born with deformities or HIV and abandoned by their mothers… Unless these people that are blocking every effort to provide women the alternative of not getting pregnant or, in some cases blocking the access to terminate a pregnancy, until these people pick up the tab for the children that are born and were unwanted, from the embryonic stage to the ripe age of 18, unless they’re willing to do that, they have absolutely no right to tell a woman what to do with her uterus or the embryo that she is carrying. It is up to that woman, her conscience and her physician to determine if there is a need to end a pregnancy or, preferably, take the precautions in the form of contraceptives to avoid getting pregnant and therefore, preventing the so hated abortion. 

To all the pro-life women: Get pregnant all you want, do with YOUR uterus whatever you please, but who gave you the right to invade other women’s uterus? Do the other women have the right to force you to take contraceptives or have an abortion? If they don’t have the right to inflict upon you their opinions and religious beliefs, how dare you force yours onto them? If you think you do have the right because of your religious beliefs, you don’t. If you believe in God, then you believe He gave mankind  free-will to make his/her own decisions, whether the decisions are good or bad it doesn’t matter, it is an individual’s decision, not yours... not even God’s.

I might understand (not accept) your opposition to abortion, but give me a break! Opposing contraceptives means that you are protecting a single cell… After all, an ovum that hasn’t been fertilized by a sperm because it was protected by a contraceptive it is not a baby, it is not an embryo, and it is not a fetus… It is a damn cell that will come out in the next menstrual cycle and which will be tossed away, whether in a tampon, a sanitary napkin or in the toilet! 

The Ugly Face of the Conservative Future

I am beginning to notice what is that the extreme right is envisioning. It is a scary thought but the only thing that makes sense. The extreme right and so-called conservatives are proposing changes that will affect everyone living in America and the thing is, most people are not noticing what their true agenda is. We are all fighting on separate issues and not connecting the dots. Today, by mere coincidence, all the dots became clear to me, as if an epiphany had taken place and I am for sure sharing it with the world because it is of extreme importance that we fight their plans with all our might.

The far right is pushing for changes in our society that will only benefit the large corporations they so intensely protect, the ones that they so valiantly gave the title of personhood. Let me begin opening your eyes:

The conservatives in this country are pushing for the abolition not only of abortion, which depending on your personal religious belief they may be right or wrong; but they are also eradicating contraceptives, abortions even if to save the life of the mother, they are trying to make illegal any means that will prevent any woman from getting pregnant, until she reaches the menopause age. That will make a woman a birth machine, with the possibility of giving birth to 10 or more children in her lifetime.

Then, they are trying very hard to make education a luxury by getting rid of public schools and make them private. This will mean that while the poor keeps giving birth, it will be impossible to send not even one of their children to a school to receive an education. Only the wealthiest will be able to afford it and get an upper education at any given University. Only the wealthy will be able to obtain a professional career, only the wealthy will be able to own their own companies or hold executive positions.

Furthermore, there are those conservatives that are already considering lowering the working age, in other words, legalizing child labor, with me so far?

Connect the dots. It is clear that they are looking at a very near future, anywhere from 15 to 20 years from now, and they have a plan, a macabre plan.  At this rate, they will have in less than a quarter of a century an immense workforce, and a cheap labor. Imagine, so many uneducated people seeking work! They will have to work for barely anything and a new form of slavery will have been created with no way to get around being poor, with no means to improve the situation. The poor will be poorer, if that is even possible and the rich will be even richer since they will have an endless workforce that will work for pennies!

It must be our moral, civil and human obligation to stop them and stop them now. The future of this country, the world and our own depend on it.  

Not another Bush!

Now, after having fun writing the previous blog, let’s talk about a serious political subject: Jeb Bush.

Rumor has it that the RNC is seriously thinking in introducing Jeb Bush in the primaries. I hear many Democrats are excited about this because they think this will translate into a sure win for Obama. I have my doubts. Democrats seem to forget that for the far right, for those that are always blaming Obama for the state in which the country finds itself today, the Bush family is the best that has happened to them since their private "holy grail": Reagan. We have all heard and read their comments about how great Bush was and how everything that is happening today is President Obama's fault, they tend to suffer from a chronic dementia that includes a serious case of amnesia. As the story goes, they cannot recall any wrongdoing from the previous administration. We all have seen the posters of “Miss me yet?” they so flagrantly show everywhere.

So, we must not take this rumor lightly. Jeb Bush has a Mexican wife, which the GOP will try to use to get the so desirable Latino Vote. Jeb Bush is far more intelligent than his brother, granted even a chimp is more intelligent than GWB, but the guy is not an idiot like his brother is. Jeb speaks perfect Spanish, with almost no accent, and he is well liked among many Hispanics. Regardless of Bush’s previous history, they will love Jeb, remember, for the far right nothing that took place 24 hours ago is to be held against any of their candidates!

We must begin a strong campaign against Jeb Bush, we can’t sit on our laurels and trust that people will remember how disastrous that last name has been for our country. The campaign against another Bush in the White House must start now and must not let our guard down.

The Religious Right

Let me begin by saying that I grew up Catholic. Ever since I was a little girl, I was an avid reader, I would read anything that was intellectually nourishing and in particular I loved philosophy. Many things happened in my life by the time I turned 11 that made me reject Catholicism and almost all form of organized religion, to the astonishment of my family, whom to this day are deeply concerned that I will burn in hell for all eternity.

For the last 10 years or so, I’ve been appalled at the extremist religious people that you read about in the news. Religious people that is willing to kill and “burn in hell for all eternity” in order to prevent another person from killing an unborn child. I wonder many times, if “murdering” a fetus is so bad… Why is it that for them murdering a family man or woman, who has a spouse, children, who is a doctor and a useful member of society isn’t just as bad? Oh yes, in their minds, they’re doing God’s work!  

The religious right wants the rest of America to practice their religion, to worship their God and pray to Jesus. They want to make it mandatory for public schools to pray, of course, their prayers God forbid if the school decides to consent to prayers and allows for a prayer from other religions to be taught and prayed a different one each day so kids can learn from others, then we will be stepping over our boundaries and their religious views deserve respect! 

The religious right of this country and those that proudly represent the Bible belt are extremists. They are the most hateful group of people that you can find in this great country; they are the ones that keep the breaks in any scientific advances, social advances, technological advances and even moral advances. Always shielding themselves by claiming that it’s God’s will, as if they have a direct line to that God! 

They hate anything, everything and any one that do not profess the same views as them, all of America have to accept everything they do, in return, they will not allow you the same respect. I am not talking about Christians, don’t get me wrong, I am just referring to the extreme religious right. Those that believe that evolution isn’t real, many of whom have claimed that the prehistoric bones of dinosaurs from million of years ago are fake and refuse for evolution to be taught in school. I am talking about those that still to this day, block scientific advances such as stem cell research because it uses discarded fetuses in their experiments… they prefer for those fetuses to be thrown away, making their ‘death’ a complete waste – they seem to forget that the soul, what is supposed to be precious, is no longer in those fetuses; they’re just a carcass who no one wants or is going to give them ‘proper burial’ such is their selfishness and irrationality! 

Then, the subject has to be mentioned about the sanctity of marriage. While more and more religious right leaders are being caught practicing extramarital affairs, and not always with the opposite sex, they are relentless in their fight against same sex marriages, even when these marriages are not to be ‘blessed’ by a church but strictly through a civil ceremony. It is as if they don’t want others to experience any type of happiness since their own lives are so full of misery. They use every trick to block any advances in society to finally accept and institute throughout this land gay marriage. So far, they’ve succeeded. 

Race is another issue. While the ‘righteous right’ claim to be followers of Jesus, they have learned to tolerate other races, but only superficially and it doesn’t take much for them to show the ugly face of racism. We all saw it when Obama was elected. Up to a point, it’s understandable. It wasn’t long ago when the Ku Klux Klan terrorized the non-white South, cowardly hiding under sheets bearing crosses near their heart. The KKK was so “Christian” that they murdered hundreds if not thousands of people – mostly blacks. So when Obama was elected, it was really no surprise to see the religious right go into the streets carrying signs depicting the President of the United States of America as a witch doctor, a monkey or the Joker from Batman. I must admit, the signs showing Obama resembling Hitler, it was a bit confusing, I never knew if they were praising him or bashing him after all most Neo-nazis belong to the KKK. 

Now this same religious right is once more confabulating against Obama. They represent a serious threat to Democracy and most of all a huge threat to Liberals and Progressives. They will not back up Obama, that is well known and Mitt Romney for sure is not getting their endorsement, after all, he is a Mormon. They have offered their support to one of the most retrograde candidates running in this election, Ron Paul. Ron Paul is against everything a true Democracy stands for. Help is only for those who can afford it, so is education, health care, love and everything else. It’s no wonder why the religious right is endorsing him they’re a perfect match! 

Today more than ever, it's imperative that we show support for our president.  We must show up in masses to help him win, without a doubt, a second term.  The religious right will take this country back to the days were racism was acceptable, where there was 'second class' citizens, where the right to pursue happiness was only for those lucky enough to be wealthy.  In today's economy, with Corporations being considered 'persons' it is easy to see who will have the exclusive right to that happiness, the sad thing is, the religious right is not a corporation and they're so stupid they don't know it!

The Left Must Unite or We Will Lose our Country

I keep hearing that Obama must start working for "WE the people" and how he hasn't done all he has promised, believe me, I have been one of those too... until I stopped and analyzed the situation he finds himself in. First, and this is important, he is the President of the United States of America, he is not the President of the United Democrats of America or the President of the Liberals of America, or whatever party you may choose to insert in substitution for a political ideology. Yes, it was us who put him there but, he said it clearly during his campaign and we must admit it, we loved it when he said it: "Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America." - I remember wanting to cry when I heard him say this. Now, 3 years later, we criticize him for listening to all sides.

Then, there has to be a super majority of votes to pass anything through Congress and the Republican's, whose #1 objective, openly admitted, is for Obama to be a one term president and in order to achieve their goals, they vote NAY on everything that might be beneficial to this country and therefore, for Obama. And we blame Obama. We blame Obama because we want him to break the rules to do what we want - and need too, don't get me wrong - but according to the rules of Congress, he can't. And now, how are we reacting? By splitting the liberals and democrats, as if we will gain something by it. If we keep doing this, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when a Newt, Romney, Paul or any other nut in the GOP walks into the Oval office and take charge of this country, taking it back to before the '60s. I know a lot of you will blame Obama, it is always easier to blame someone else for our own demise. I hear people saying that they will either not vote or vote for a 'green' candidate or anyone else, even if that candidate has no chance in winning; the results? We're split, but not the far right. Way to go!! We might as well place the White House on a silver platter and hand it to the next son of a bitch from the GOP that will make our lives a living hell. You think we have it bad now? Allow this to happen and you will really learn what hell is all about!

(the picture depicted in this article has been copyrighted and is the property of this author - not for distribution unless authorized)