Whitney Houston, Celebrity Culture, and Setting Life’s Best Examples

Whitney Houston, an extraordinary entertainer, honored as if she had an exemplary life even though wasted on alcohol and drugs. A role model for many children who through her example now believe their feelings of inferiority can be remedied with drugs.

Family, friends, celebrities, and fans gathered to commemorate Whitney Houston’s life at her “home going” service in Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church where she once attended and sang in the choir.

For better than five hours, her “home going” service was televised and streamed on the web. CNN devoted a large part of their day to covering the services and other aspects of Houston’s life.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie issued an executive order to lower the American flag to half-staff. Criticisms abound over his decision. He defended his action by saying, “I am disturbed by people who believe that because her ultimate demise – and we don’t know what is the cause of her death yet – but because of her history of substance abuse that somehow she’s forfeited the good things that she did in her life. I just reject that on a human level.”

We all should as well. But Houston’s death should not be ranked at a level that America usually reserves for such an honor.

Read article here: Whitney Houston, Celebrity Culture, and Setting Life’s Best Examples – Yahoo! Voices – voices.yahoo.com.

Obama’s New Defense Strategy Simply Indicates Unending Wars are Alive and Well

President Obama stated the Department of Defense budget would continue to grow “because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership.” Its true meaning: unending wars are alive and well.

On January 5, President Obama announced a new defense strategy. It’s titled “Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense.” It’s a plan that accommodates a leaner military. The plan is necessary in order to accomplish $487 billion in defense budget cuts over the next decade.

However, Obama stated that the defense budget would continue to grow “because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership.”

What does Obama mean when he says we have responsibilities that demand America’s leadership?

What he essentially means is …

Read full article here: Obama’s New Defense Strategy Simply Indicates Unending Wars are Alive and Well

Americans are among the World’s Poorest

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s comment that he was not concerned about the very poor is not surprising. Republicans are not concerned. After all, essentially, Republicans’ believe that unless you’re rich you’re worthless.

What is surprising and disappointing is that Americans are split on their concern for the very poor. But, today, they also carry a heavy load. Their overriding concern is for their own here and now.

Nonetheless, facts simply cannot be denied: …

Read entire article here: Americans are among the World’s Poorest

There Is Something More Wrong in Our Country than Just Politics

President Obama declared, “There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics.” He is right! “There is something wrong with our politics,” but there is something more wrong in our country than just politics.

Something is wrong when conservatives speak of the importance of family values on the one hand and on the other hand support systems that undermine those values. They support a system of economics and government that sets forth career goals, materialism, and wealth creation as essential to establishing family values, the pursuit of an education for its financial rewards, and social values that in essence say if you are not wealthy, you are worthless.

It’s a system that requires both a mother and father to work in order for their family to survive. Every day in America, the system necessitates millions of parents to deliver their children to a relative, babysitter, or a day care center. Some of these children are newborns, no more than 6 weeks old. It requires a parent in many instances to awaken children who should continue to sleep, but instead strap them in car seats. Sometimes this is necessary in the worst of weather, which puts their children at risk. The emotional cost is high. For all those who need to work to make ends meet, the financial cost is unacceptable.

It’s a system that increasingly separates …

Read article here: There Is Something Wrong With Our Country

A Reckless Foreign Policy; a New Way of Thinking Required

Republicans embrace Bush’s foreign policy and Reagan’s principle of peace through strength; Obama and Congress are apparently on the same page; Admiral Mullen, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are sounding the alarm against such a reckless foreign policy.

President George W. Bush’s foreign policy can only be described as one that embraced lying to America and her friends, militaristic belligerence and arrogantly embracing American exceptionalism in order to achieve the goals of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). PNAC’s goal was that “American leadership is both good for America and good for the world.” PNAC supported Ronald Reagan’s principle of “peace through strength” and embraced the notion of moral clarity.

Today, except for Ron Paul, every Republican presidential candidate embraces Reagan’s principles and the notion of “My Country, Right or Wrong.” They call Ron Paul’s approach to foreign policy dangerous.

Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations at Boston University, certainly does not agree …

Read article here: A Reckless Foreign Policy; a New Way of Thinking Required

Totalitarian Systems of Power: The Psychological Weapon of Fear

Government feeds on America’s obsession with patriotism and fears of terrorism. In doing so, they abandon constitutionally protected rights and freedoms. NDAA’s section on counterterrorism does just that. But there are challenges to that law.

On New Year’s Eve, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 (NDAA).

It is important legislation. But sections 1021 and 1022, titled “Counterterrorism,” gives the government frightening powers that are unconstitutional, outrageous, and dangerous. The Act appropriates Pentagon spending for 2012 that includes a pay raise for the Armed Forces. However, Congress amended the legislation to include changes in the law that leaders felt were necessary to combat counterterrorism. Those changes ominously allow military detention of American citizens without trial and the use of military force on U.S. soil.

Read article here: Totalitarian Systems of Power: The Psychological Weapon of Fear

A Revolution of Values, the Fierce Urgency of Now

Americans should not be silent when the war drums beat and imperialistic goals mean more to leaders than the wellbeing of ordinary Americans. That is the essential message from Martin Luther King in his Beyond Vietnam speech. It is all up to you and me

Monday, January 16, was Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. A day America celebrates Dr. King’s selfless and courageous non-violent struggle for social change.

Of all Dr. King’s oratory accomplishments, the best known is his 1963 “I have a Dream” speech. However, “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence,” delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, is equally as significant.

The speech addressed poverty, racism, and militarism at a time in our country when the Vietnam War and racism deeply polarized America. It was a time …

Read full article here: A Revolution of Values, the Fierce Urgency of Now

The Republican View of Small Government and Freedom Contradict Their Record

Republicans pontificate the efficiencies of a limited federal government. They preach on how freedom needs to be restored after the attack on it by Barack Obama. However, in light of their congressional record, their words are not to be believed.

The starkest contrast between today’s Republicans and Democrats is their different positions regarding a limited federal government.

Republican presidential candidates, like all republicans, preach the efficiencies of a limited government. They believe the creation of wealth and supporting economic wellbeing for a few will trickle down to be the rising tide that lifts all boats and that that will bring everyone else, including those in poverty, to realize the “American Dream” and reduce the need for entitlements. Republicans believe in strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution. They believe that only within the structure of a limited federal government and a free market economy greater individual freedom is achieved.

Republicans say the way to a limited federal government is for individual states to take on powers not specifically delineated in the Constitution to the federal government.

They believe the private sector would be more efficient if they took up some of the services now provided by the federal government.

So that means state governments …

Read full article here: The Republican View of Small Government and Freedom Contradict Their Record

A Belief in Human Values and Love, Not Religion or God

News of eminent atheist Christopher Hitchens’ death triggered a revisit to days when my life was simple, believed that the bible was the word of God, and when religious faith was a part of my life.

The passing of Christopher Hitchens, who recently died of pneumonia, a complication of esophageal cancer, triggered a revisit to those days when life was so simple. It was a time when I attended church, believed that the bible was the word of God, and a time when religion was very much a part of my life.

Christopher Hitchens was an intellectual, author, a provocative essayist, and formidable polemicist. Like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, he too was an avowed atheist and champion of the New Atheism movement.

Like Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins, now, I too believe time has come to cast out religious ideology. I no longer believe in an anthropomorphic Personal God, God of the Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, who are and have been the reason for so much suffering and misery in this world.

The transformation from youthful credulity …

Read article here: A Belief in Human Values and Love, Not Religion or God

America’s New Totalitarianism

Fear of terrorism and obsessive patriotism created an America at war with itself; a totalitarian threat perpetrated by a Congress who have betrayed citizens, subverted the Constitution, and made an unacceptable allegiance with the military.

 Read article here: America’s New Totalitarianism