Welcome to a brand new editorial site. I'm HBB (hi Juice), and I'm pissed off at the world. I was just listening to "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction, nd it got me to thinking about all the classic heist movies I've seen ("Die Hard" and "Ocean's Eleven" most notable, I'm a big-time Alan Rickman and Brad Pitt fan). Immediately afterward, I began to think about money, and how it represents man's productive ability and his desire to exchange that product with other men. Money is the contract which binds value to the products of our labor, and the moment you lay hands upon money which you have not rightfully earned, you break that contract. Why steal money? To buy things. To continue fulfilling that monetary contract. But money you've stolen is meaningless, valueless, out of contract. Why not just steal what you want and bypass the whole money thing? It doesn't take a genius to figure out where this is going, does it? One word: apocalypse.
Dying to Worship
posted by HBB
I'm really pissed off about Abdul Rahman. As I understand the story, this devout Muslim from Afghanistan was working with a Christian aid organization and, somewhere in the process, converted to Christianity. Muslim clerics back home frowned upon this, and the poor sap was consequently put on trial and sentenced to death as a traitor to Islam. WTF?
Now, I'm not one to advocate that Rahman or anyone else adhere to either Islam or Christianity, as I consider religion to be bunk, but whatever happened to free will? Whatever happened to a man's right to choose what he believes? I wasn't able to track down any extant sources, but I'm reminded of a story from a while ago where an atheist student was persecuted by his Baptist classmates. A few quick searches on Google turned up a plethora of Christian sites advocating murder of gays, atheists, and other "godless" individuals. I'm reminded of the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the sectarian violence in Iraq, etc., etc., ad nauseum. My favorite quote of all time comes from a devout Roman Catholic, maybe you recognize it:
So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. -- John F. Kennedy
We are all human. We all have hopes, dreams, and desires. Those desires vary widely, and often are found in conflict with the desires of others, but Ayn Rand said, "there are no conflicts of interests among rational men." So, that begs the question: where are the rational men? Hopefully, you're reading this right now.
