Err on the Side of the Abused
Its clear that the Iranian government is willing to commit violence against their people to prevent voices from being herd. In the absence of evidence in the previous election I think its safe to err on the side of those on the underside of power– the unjustly abused and the improperly detained. The behavior of the Iranian government is evidence in itself. And so, I feel compelled to make this caveat after my last post that more or less tried to view the two sides objectively.
Conflicitng Testimonies of the Truth
In news reports coming out of Iran two competing versions of reality are being presented. One is propagated exclusively by state media in Iran. And the other is broadcast in the international media. The individual observer doesn’t have enough information to conclusively determine which version is true. Either Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won or Mir Hossein Mousavi won, both can’t be true. But no one knows for sure. In the absence of the clear evidence, I would like to present the competing claims and discuss the implications of each.
1. The Iranian Government is wrong.
The US media has generally adopted this conclusion. It means that the leading national politicians and the Supreme Religious leader are either misinformed themselves or they are intentionally participating in an act of deception. Deception of this magnitude, displayed through a worldwide broadcast of a forgery, would show that that government officials and leaders of Iran are maliciously protecting their own interests at the expense of the truth. They have very little respect for the people’s right to know the truth.
Such a blatant lie could only be justified with the belief, common among dictators, that a human beings are no higher than an animals and they must be ruled over in the same way that a Shepard herds his sheep. Sheep don’t need to know the truth because what is in the best interest is making sure their physical needs are met–food and shelter (economic wellbeing and national security). If people of Iran are nothing more than sheep then all they need to know is what their benevolent Islamic shepards tell them.
2. The Iran Government is right.
This would mean that the western media has failed. And if they failed, we have failed. It would mean that our western perception world events is deeply flawed. It means that somewhere along the line we have either chosen to ignore the facts or we have been too weak to discern them. All the frenzy that we have stired in minds and hearts of the people is based on a lie, made worse by our appetite for sensational news. A misreading of this magnitute would strike a nasty blow to the hope of seeing eye to eye with the Iranian government. In the event that we are wrong, it will take us a long time to realize our mistake. We will go on talking the cruelty and injustice the Islamic Republic of Iran for the next 10 years regardless.
Conclusion:
The truth can be discovered through a simple process of aritmatic. The paper ballots exist, human beings are capable of counting them. One guy recieved more votes then the other. Its a black and white matter, that sadly, might never be exposed to the light. The tragedy is the darkness that has been created. No one can be sure who to trust or what to think. We are forced to either vilify the regime in Iran or vilify the international media.
Many have already formed judgments. Some reading this will think I’m doing a disservice for not falling in step behind the popular beliefs communicated in the International media. I do lean heavily to the side of those that accuse vote rigging. I find it difficult to see it any other way. However, its sad when people are driven to such extremely divergent views, regardless of who is right.
Someone is doing massive harm by lying. The Iran people suffer. And the prospects for improved relations between the US and Iran are seriously diminished. I hope that someday someone will write a book on the facts of what transpired in the election of 1388 in Iran. Until then, the unrest will continue…
Mason Jennings: Blood of Man
One of my favorite artists, Mason Jennings, is coming out with a new album at the end of the summer called Blood of Man. I can’t find much news of it on the internet other than a few youtube clips. I can’t find an official list of songs but it should contain: “The Field”, “The Tourist”, “Black” and “So Many Ways to Die”
The Field and The Tourist will definitely be on it. “Black” and “So Many Ways to Die” are just speculation.
I’m anxious for some more news. Posted below are clips of Mason Jennings performing two of the new songs in an office somewhere. Some might say that it spoils the songs to raw acustic versions, as the first listen. If you’re not already a fan, I’d agree. But if you ARE a fan, and you’re impatient like me…. then you’ll probably like these, if only to get you excited for the studio versions.
Genesis 1-35
For the past 18 days I’ve been reading Genesis as a part of a 40 day project to read a chapter of the Bible per day. I’m starting with Genesis because…. well, thats where the Bible starts…. “In the Begining….”etc etc.
I would like to share with you, the blog reading public (mostly Miguel, Sandy, Nick, Bepa and various other family and friends), my thoughts as I’ve tackled these age-old stories. So here we go…
1. Did you know that Jesus’ linage can be traced back to Adam? Everyone knows that it can be traced to Abraham that much is obvious from the first book of the New Testament because its written. But Abraham can be traced directly to Noah (Genesis 10 and Genesis 11: 10-26). And Noah can be traced directly to Adam (Genesis 5). So there you go. You can find father, son, father, father son, all the way from Adam to Jesus. So if Jesus was around the time of year 0 on our calender, tack on a few thousand years after that and then you have the age of the human race, according to the Bible. I didn’t actually know this until I read Genesis myself. I figured there were large gaps in genealogies between Adam and Noah and Noah and Abraham. Not so.
2. Its sad to me that Lot was saved from Sodom only to have his wife turned into salt and his daugters con him into sleeping with them. He might have been better off had he just gotten burned up in Sodom. The ironic part is that God’s opinion on this matter isn’t clearly stated. In fact, God’s judgement is mostly left up to the reader to decide because after he sleeps with his daughters we don’t hear very much from Lot after that. We don’t know what becomes of him. I think the account of Lot’s life in the Quran paints a much rosier picture. At least thats the impression I get from the sundry Islamic sources I’ve herd on TV, Movies, Documentaries etc.
3. Obvious question, how did Noah fit all the animals (two each) in the Ark. The boat wasn’t big enough according to the specs given. How large would a boat have to be to fit all the different types of animals in the world? I actually had a dream about this after I read the story. I dreamt that God shrank all the animals in order to fit them on the ark. He is God, so he is all powerful, this wouldn’t be beyond the scope of his powers. What other explanation is there?
4. Its deeply troubling to me that God lamented ever having created the human race Genesis 6:5-8. The impression I get from this verse is that if it hadn’t been for Noah, he would have completely destroyed his creation. And before this point we don’t receive qualifications for righteousness. Noah was different. He behaved righteously, but before this point the differentiation between righteous and unrighteous the abstention of Rape and Murder. The evil people mentioned are mostly murders and rapists. How could a All-Powerful creator of the universe not foresee such occurrences? Was he surprised that human beings acted the way they did? How do you surprise omniscient, all powerful, all knowledgable, God?
Imagine for a second that you have a science project with ants. You place a bunch of ants in a fish tank and they wind up eating each other. And then you say to yourself, it would have been better for the ants if I had never put them in this tank to begin with. Whose fault would it have been for the ants for eating each other? You for for creating the conditions inside the tank? Or the ants for succumbing to their hunger?
Also, would God be showing the world mercy by killing the human race? Or would he be exercising wrath?
5. Why did he chose Abraham? What did Abraham do to deserve favor from God? And another thing, who would want God’s favor when he asks you to do things like murder your son? And live hundreds of years with a wife that can’t give birth (apparently these Ancient Jews really cared about having kids, it was super important). Abraham was favored, but he didn’t receive any of the benefits of that favor in his lifetime. He didn’t receive the inheritance of billions of children and the promised land. I guess he’ll have to watch his children obtain it from heaven.
6. All the men seem to have multiple wives, yet such behavior would be condemned by Jews and Christians today. Men considered to be in good standing before God had children with as many as 4 (if not more) women (see Jacob, Genesis 35:22-26)
Thats all for now.
Here is YouTube clip produced by Jonathan Goldstein entitled “BibleTap.” I got a laugh out of it. Enjoy.
Heres another… “Bible In a Minute” by Barats and Bereta
God as Perfect (random thoughts I’m thinking currently)
It always bothers me when people go on and on about how perfect God is morally. I don’t think I am in a position to judge God. I’m just a speak of his creation. What does it matter what I think, he created the brain that I think it with. That said, if you want to know my opinion about the moral perfection of the God as described in the old testament, I have some question.
Speaking about the Old Testament account, it reminds me of a line in a song by the Hold Steady called The Cattle and the Creeping things… It goes like this….”I guess I herd about original sin. I herd the dude blames the chick. And the chick blames the snake. And I herd they were naked when they got busted. And I herd things ain’t been the same since.”
So, doesn’t God bear some responsibility for putting the snake in the garden with Adam and Eve. Also, isn’t it funny how quickly we go from peace, love and harmony in Eden…. to totally debaucery of Sodom…. just a few chapters.
God creates the universe and it goes to crap after a few hundred years. How is that my fault?
Anyway, I’m not mad at God so long as he doesn’t banish the majority of his creation to eternal suffering. How fair would it be if he created a situation where there is a propensity to sin and then immediately follows with the radically severe punishment? I would say he made us faultily and then punishes us for faulting.
But supposing he offers help…. or provides a way out…. or just kills us off so as to prevent us from screwing everything up. Is eternal suffering the proper punishment for a crime we have no help but comitting?
Hopefully, those in Sodom aren’t in hell, maybe God ended their lives so that they evil would stop but there is still a way out if they accept it. Like a parent telling a kid they can’t watch TV anymore because its rotting their brain. Now they are gonna spend 40 Million years paying off their debts to the people they murdered and raped…. and then God will have some kinda plan from that point on… but eternal punishment…. come’on does that sound morally perfect to you?
Bumper Sticker
Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and atheism exist. They coexist. That is a given. Its not a goal to be achieved. It already is. So, done, we have reached the promised land of diversity.
Is the status quo a goal? Is to simply not assimilate one group into another what we must achieve? To, in effect, do nothing. Because we already coexist. Don’t kill each other, don’t assimilate, don’t say one is better than the other….don’t do, or say anything…. and walla, we coexist. Isn’t COEXISTENCE a weak goal. Why not have a bumper sticker that says LOVE ALL RELIGIONS (and of course surround it with a bunch of religious symbols). Existence is passive. Love is active. You don’t see a bumper sticker like that because its too hard to love different beliefs. Some religious beliefs are repugnant. Its much easier to passively allow their existence in some far off corner of the world than to actively love what they believe. The more I think about it, loving something you disagree with is impossible!
I have no problem with coexistence because it is a natural fact of life. You believe one thing, I believe another and we both occupy the same space. You believe on thing about Christianity I believe another and we coexist. There is no unity inside each religion much less outside. So even if we all lived under the banner of one religion there would be the coexistence of diverse beliefs. Even if a supposed Christian nation killed off all the supposed Islamic nations there would still never ever be full unity of belief in the world. Because the Christian nation wouldn’t be full of only Christians.
Fine, let’s coexist. But we can’t say its all the same–that essentially there is no difference. Because if we do, we lose equilibrium. We lose all basis for conversation. The conversation stops because we have decided that blue is green that 4 is 5 and I am you—and that is mental oblivion. If we say that a car is the same as a boat we can no longer talk about water or land travel with any credibility. If we say that hatred is the same as love then we don’t know the right way to treat each other.
I’m more comfortable saying that ALL RELIGIONS fail to capture the entirety of the TRUTH Christianity included, than I am saying ALL RELIGIONS are TRUE.
Avett Brothers
I have a couple of things to say about this video… first, look at size of those beards! Second, I have a capo exactly like the one shown on the guitar.
Enjoy (if you can get past the beards)
Google Monster Sighting
The American public should be aware that there is a monster roaming the streets of middle America. Its called the Google monster and he is taking pictures of your neighborhood. I have been lucky enough to capture a picture of him which you can see below. He is a greedy monster who lives off all source media. His ravenous appetite will not be satisfied till all the pictures, videos and word the world over can be captured and made available via the Internet.
I haven’t seen him in real life so I’m not sure weather I should be scared or not…
Speicher, The Man Behind the Name
Military bases in Iraq generally have one of four types of names: a name honoring a fallen soldier, a name glorifying the fighting spirit (Warrior, Warhorse, Danger), a name expounding American values (Liberty, Freedom) or the name of the city in which its in (Taji, Ramadi). One base I was on, FOB Brassfield-Mora is a combination of two names, Spc Artimus D. Brassfield and Jose L. Mora (5 different Moras have died in Iraq) who both died in during mortar attacks in October 2003. Its happens to be only name which I can associate with an eye witness’ account. My old sergeant major was the eye witness. He told our entire Brigade what happened that day to get us mentally prepared for our second tour. Hearing him speak humanized the names. I might have known that it represent fallen soldiers but a memorial doesn’t embed the story into your head like a real life survivor’s tale. Now, every time I hear the name “Brassfield-Mora” I recall my sergeant major’s story. Before, I just thought of an Army-run chow hall and giant mounds of rotting corn. People who’ve been there know what I’m talking about.
During the same tour of duty that I lived on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Brassfield-Mora, I also lived on FOB Speicher. But I never knew the story behind the name. It sounded more like something involving a Spike than someone’s name. No one every explained it to me. And I never encountered a memorial.
A week and a half ago, I learned about the man behind the name. The informant was the Foreign Policy Magazine blog post. Turns out, Michael “Scott” Speicher was the first official casualty of the gulf war. He was a F/A-18 Hornet pilot who was shot down over Iraqi airspace. The FP post explains, along with accompanying news articles (here, here) that Speicher was declared killed in action by the DoD but the decision was recently reversed by a Naval Review board. The articles mention Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, as the decider of for the classification.
The story bothers me because I was indoctrinated as a soldier to believe that you “never leave a fallen comrade.” Its embedded into the Soldiers Creed. I don’t understand why the DOD didn’t spent more time looking for the downed aircraft. I don’t believe that our United States Air Force and Navy would have failed to find it, if it were given the proper priority in the immediate aftermath. And if the real reason is due to lack of any type of search as the articles suggest then the story of Michael “Scott” Speicher represents a regretful failure of our military leaders. Read the story, tell me what you think.
Its spooky to think about the possibility of Michael Speicher, the man to which the base owes its name, surviving this long in a hostile Iraq. Its enough to keep Naval Commanders up at night.
