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I think it is probably time I stopped watching the news.  Every time I watch I re-affirm the knowledge that the human race is doomed to extinction.  In the movie Men In Black there is a quote that goes something like this.  “A person is smart, People are stupid”  I’m sure I butchered the quote, but its close enough to get my point across.  Watching the news just makes me realize how little the collective human intelligence amounts to.  The strength of a chain is no stronger than its weakest link.  Likewise the cumulative intellegence of the human race is only equal to the stupidest person.

Through most of last week the news was going on about some polygamist compound the police broke up.  Apparently they got a phone tip from some little underage girl who was forced to “get married” so some bastard could rape her under the guise of his religeous beliefs.  The very concept baffles my mind.  I remember a similar story in the news where some mormon kids from B.Y.U. were expelled.  They were going to Nevada to get married so they could have sex without breaking thier religeon’s rules, and then having the marrige anulled the next day. 

The whole concept of a religeous belief is supposed to help guide people who may have trouble making the right decisions without guidance.  There really isn’t much point to it if you decide to do what any intelligent person can obviously tell is wrong and then obfuscate the religeous rules until you justify what you are doing.  I guess I’m just old fashioned, but I believe that you either choose to do good or do evil.  The choice you make doesn’t change if you wrap up what you are doing with a bunch of religeous crap.  Its still either good or its evil.

What upset me enough to take the time to write this post on my blog wasn’t the whole polygamist thing.  They’ve been caught and stopped.  One can only hope that sufficient punishment is dealt out.  The thing that got under my skin is the stupid lawyer who was on the news trying to say they needed to throw out all the evidence because the “rape” took place in a temple.  Some Legal mumbo jumbo that could have a misconstrued legal basis.  I’ll go back to my statement before.  Either you chose to do good or you choose to do evil.  I don’t care where there is a loophole in the law anyone with even an ounce of self respect would have realized that the argument was just plain wrong, and would never have uttered a word. 

For this and this alone I belive the Skumbag lawyer should be tried as an accessory to rape.  If he is honestly low enough to actually make that argument knowing full well that the police had a warrent and had found evidence within the temple, he truly is an accessory to rape.  Truthfully I know they wouldn’t be able to convict him.  In all reality the law only really fits in about 95% of the cases.  There is always some a-hole who figures out to do something so stupid that the law just can’t have enough caveats to cover it.  I used to belive it was the judges job to fill in for that other 5% with common sense.  After the McDonalds coffie cup incident I can’t even belive in that. 

The only way I’ll ever find peace with this is if some kind soul decides to handle the situation Al capone style.  The Skumbag lawyer can take a dirt nap along with all his bastard rapist buddies.  Then maybe someone who chooses to do good can find a loophole in the law to let good old Al off the hook since he would be the only one doing the right thing.  At the end of all this, All I can say is Thank GOD I am an Atheist.  My mind just can’t handle all the backward religeous rules that make right wrong and vise versa whenever the situation demands. 

For the record: At no point does forcing a fourteen year old girl to have sex with you ever become right no matter how many bibles you bend her over!

Generally in the mornings I watch a part of the news to see how the traffic and weather are going to treat me.  I commute for over an hour each day and I like to be prepared for what is to come.  Usually this ammounts to me listening to the reports while I get dressed with the television in the background.  During this past week I caught a comment about Fidel Castro resigning in the scrolling text across the bottom of the screen.  I think the name Castro probably drums up different feelings in me than it does to most americans.  I decided he would be a good topic for my latest blog.

It would be in poor taste for me to stand up and declare whether I think Fidel Castro was a good person or a bad one.  History shows that he has done many things that a god may condemn him for.  The very thought of guerilla warfare brings ideas of bombings, murders, torture.  You get the idea.  However if you stand back and look at his life he has always done what he belives is right.  As a young man he rebelled against and eventualy overthrew the leadership of his country.  He didn’t do this out of a viscious desire for power, but rather out of a bitter distaste for the current regime. 

Once in power Castro made policy to make Cuba better.  He started importing oil from the soviet union to improve the economy of his country.  He may not have thought this one through entirely as the oil refinerys in cuba were built and owned by the United States.  When they refused to process the oil that he was importing because it was coming from a communist country, Castro found himself in the middle of an international affair.  Again, to the dismay of practically everyone in the USA, he made the decision to do what he felt was best for Cuba.  He appropriated the oil processing plants.  This was done in much the same way as the government here would take your house or land if they needed to build a highway.  You would get a check for how much they figured it was worth and you would be thrown out. 

The decision for Cuba to become a communist country really didn’t have much to do with communist beliefs.  Rather the United Stated Presidency forced Fidel Castro into it by pressuring him to do things that were in the best interest of the USA instead of the best interest of Cuba.  By siding with the soviet union, Castro gained the external financial support Cuba needed and avoided the fine print that would have come along with US Support. 

 A while back I watched a documentary about the Cuban trade embargo.  The whole thing was supposed to make you think about how the embargo has made life terrible in cuba because trade is restricted.  The point the director was trying to make was obvious.  However after watching the show I walked away with a different feeling.  To me Cuba looked to be a paradise free from the financial enslavement that the big cities offer us.  The people of Cuba embody the spirit that once made us great. 

I would like to site an example from the documentary.  The name escapes me at the moment.  If I needed someone to weld something and there was a welding wire shortage we as americans would go to great lengths to import welding wire.  My project would wait until the wire became available.  If it never came available my project would probably never be finished.  In this documentary there was a man in this situation who did bodywork on cars.  He took apart a chainlink fence and straightened the wire to use for welding.  In all my years I’ve never met even one person who had that kind of spirit.  I know that strength resides in me, but I feel life wither away at it.  This strength that made us great in the 1940’s and 1950’s has long since died for the average american.  Any employer can attest to what I’m saying here.  When is the last time you found an employee who just finds a way to get a job done even when it seems impossible?  I’m not talking about a business owner who is doing it because of the financial incentive, but an employee who is doing it just because they know it needs to be done.

One thing that I and Fidel Castro have in common is that we were both  born into religeous families and grew to be devout atheists.  I think this perspective has shaped the way I see things.  Instead of viewing his leadership with fear and hate as most americans do I can see the reasoning behind the way he ruled.  The trade embargo set against Cuba has over the years put cuba out of the minds of the average joe.  Most would only think of cuba as the place that exports those illegal cigars.   I won’t stand up and say that Castro was a good man.  I won’t even say he was a brilliant dictator, as a true genius would have found a way to avoid things getting bad.  The Cuban missle crisis, the Trade embargo,  The assasination Attempts.  In fact most of his dealings were like the thoughts of a child.  The usa won’t play with me, fine I’ll go play with russia, na na na…  What I will say is that I respect him.  To stand up against the big bully known as the United States for his entire life through multiple assasination attempts and rule in a manner that he believed in takes guts.  He must have a set of cajones that any man would be proud of.