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“I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.” –Mark Twain

I was so happy to find this article in “Foreign Policy.” It nicely summarizes and helps diagnose the neo-liberal displacement of the true values of the left.

“Are you a liberal imperialist? Liberal imperialists are like kinder, gentler neoconservatives: Like neocons, they believe it’s America’s responsibility to right political and humanitarian wrongs around the world, and they’re comfortable with the idea of the United States deciding who will run countries such as Libya, Syria, or Afghanistan.” -Steven M. Walt

In the article, “10 Warning Signs that You Are a Liberal Imperialist.” Steven M. Walt begins a much needed discussion among liberals about why they/we have fallen into many of the same bad foreign policies as the Bush administration. The answer, in my opinion, is that conservative and liberal ideologies can both serve as mere window dressings on the real divide which is and always has been between the “haves” and the “have nots.” When most Americans believe they are better than other nations, and that we have a right to intervene in the affairs of other nations, it does not matter so much to the people of the world whether they live under our left boot or our right.

So, you may be a liberal imperialist if:

#1: You frequently find yourself advocating that the United States send troops, drones, weapons, Special Forces, or combat air patrols to some country that you have never visited, whose language(s) you don’t speak, and that you never paid much attention to until bad things started happening there.

#2: You tend to argue that the United States is morally obligated to “do something” rather than just stay out of nasty internecine quarrels in faraway lands. In the global classroom that is our digitized current world, you believe that being a bystander — even thousands of miles away — is as bad as being the bully. So you hardly ever find yourself saying that “we should sit this one out.”

#3: You think globally and speak, um, globally. You are quick to condemn human rights violations by other governments, but American abuses (e.g., torture, rendition, targeted assassinations, Guantánamo, etc.) and those of America’s allies get a pass. You worry privately (and correctly) that aiming your critique homeward might get in the way of a future job.

#4: You are a strong proponent of international law, except when it gets in the way of Doing the Right Thing. Then you emphasize its limitations and explain why the United States doesn’t need to be bound by it in this case.

#5: You belong to the respectful chorus of those who publicly praise the service of anyone in the U.S. military, but you would probably discourage your own progeny from pursuing a military career.

#6. Even if you don’t know very much about military history, logistics, or modern military operations, you are still convinced that military power can achieve complex political objectives at relatively low cost.

#7: To your credit, you have powerful sympathies for anyone opposing a tyrant. Unfortunately, you tend not to ask whether rebels, exiles, and other anti-regime forces are trying to enlist your support by telling you what they think you want to hear. (Two words: Ahmed Chalabi.)

#8. You are convinced that the desire for freedom is hard-wired into human DNA and that Western-style liberal democracy is the only legitimate form of government. Accordingly, you believe that democracy can triumph anywhere — even in deeply divided societies that have never been democratic before — if outsiders provide enough help.

#9. You respect the arguments of those who are skeptical about intervening, but you secretly believe that they don’t really care about saving human lives.

#10. You believe that if the United States does not try to stop a humanitarian outrage, its credibility as an ally will collapse and its moral authority as a defender of human rights will be tarnished, even if there are no vital strategic interests at stake.

I am grateful to Stephen M Walt for opening this discussion. The lives of our brothers and sisters all over the world depend on Americans resigning both of our self-appointed identities: our conservative role as world sheriff, and our liberal role as global messiah.

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/20/top_ten_warning_signs_of_liberal_imperialism

This viral video belongs on the top of any list on any bad arguments against evolution. This is the classic video of a creationist arguing that the fact a banana perfectly fits into a human hand is proof that the world was designed for us. But the fact that a stone perfectly fits into the dirt around it does not necessarily prove that someone dug it a hole. It is incredibly ironic to use our hand’s affinity for bananas to try to prove we didn’t evolve from monkey-like relatives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4

This video is an example of a creationist attempting to turn the tables and challenge evolutionists to disprove creationism, whereas the burden of proof should always rest on those making the hypothesis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmKVLqHuxBA

A creationist opens a jar of peanut butter to show that new life forms do not emerge out of former life forms. Maybe if he used living peanuts and extended his experiment over millions of years of replication he might get a very different result.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZFG5PKw504

Although I identify as a person of faith, I am very aware and respectful of those who do not identify themselves that way. I used to be asked, on occasion, to do prayers before the Texas Senate and Legislature until I decided, instead of prayers, to do devotionals that would be inclusive of all religions, and also of those people in the room who would be agnostic or atheist.

It is a bit awkward to be asked to pray at a rally or public gathering when my faith demands that I respect those for whom such an approach would be a barrier. So I was delighted to read the story of Arizona State Rep. Juan Mendez, who is an atheist, but was asked to pray before the group. Rep. Mendez showed respect for people of faith and for his own atheism by standing before the group and sharing his “faith,”

“Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads, I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.”

“Carl Sagan once wrote, ‘For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love,'”

Can I get an “amen” for brother Mendez and his beautiful atheist prayer?

Mark Pendergast has written a history of Coca-Cola as an American icon. For God, Country, and Coca-Cola studies not only facts about the actual drink, but also the image it wove as representing our good times, and even representing America itself.

The book seems to be a case study of capitalism. Coke poses as the national drink of America, but is happy to sell to America’s enemies as well. If South American Tyrants increase business, then Coke is happy to ignore their death squads and to do business.

The success of Coke is not about its taste, but what it symbolizes as a token:

“The New Coke failure punctuates this strange phenomenon – that the world loves and guzzles an unhealthy beverage, but not for its good taste. Pepsi showed that in blind taste tests, more people prefer Pepsi over Coke. New Coke was tastier than both Coke and Pepsi in blind taste tests. Surely consumers would love it. Except, they didn’t. They wanted fun, hope, patriotism, and everything else they associated with good, old-fashioned Coca-Cola, not some new, better-tasting concoction.” -Jill Richardson, Alternet

In a capitalist culture we come to chose the tokens of value over that to which  the token originally referred. Colored sugar water becomes a symbol of health because we see athletes drinking it in commercials. Athleticism becomes a quality we can purchase with our shoes and attire, and by purchasing the same products the real athletes do. We chose the product not for what it is, but what it represents- those aspects of life often made impossible by our tokenized lifestyle.

We can come to think of products as our friends, but this is a serious mistake.

“This is a company devoted to, above all else, making as much money as possible and selling as much Coca-Cola as possible. Period. Nazis get thirsty, too, you know. In almost every case, the company tried to please everyone and sell to everyone, without taking sides, unless it had no choice.

It’s no good that Coca-Cola did business with a Guatemalan bottler who allegedly hired death squads to murder employees trying to unionize. But that is all part of a larger pattern, a larger scandal – although there’s no conspiracy at all. The drive to increase profits and sales and market share at all cost is the company’s story, plain and simple. It took us from a 6.5-ounce drink only available at soda fountains to one available everywhere in sizes as large as 64 ounces.” -Jill Richardson, Alternet

In other words, in order to make as much money as possible, advertizers condition us to choose what they want us to want. From there is it simple to get us to choose what we want over what we need.

http://www.alternet.org/food/how-coca-colas-ruthless-business-tactics-created-despicable-global-powerhouse

The thunderstorm was over. Texas Buddha and Reverend Clovis Jones sat looking at a beautiful rainbow. “How can you not worship the God who made that rainbow?” Rev. Jones inquired.

“I worship God within the rainbow.” Returned TB.

Tilting his head incredulously, the Reverend said, “Please go on.”

“When we look at a rainbow, our eyes see distinct strips of color, but we know from science that behind that broken appearance is actually one smooth continuum of light. Our eyes and mind break that one unity into what we experience as distinct colors. If I do not remember the invisible ground of the rainbow, I will think the colors are separate and distinct things. And, if I do not remember that the colors are happening in me, I may go looking for the rainbow as if it were outside myself.

“I believe all of nature is like the rainbow. It is one organic whole that we perceive as endlessly separate objects and beings. In truth, all the plants and all the animals weave in and out of one another. All the objects interact. Even life and death weaves in and out of an invisible loom.

“In the rainbow, distinctions result when light passes through a drop of mist at a certain angle and hits a fully functioning human eye. The rainbow isn’t exactly inside me or outside. There is something bigger and deeper happening. I do not believe that someone outside of nature made the rainbow, or made nature for that matter. But I do believe in remembering that just as the rainbow is my experience of a transcendent energy, nature is the manifold experience of an invisible source to which I owe my very being.

“It is wise to remember the rainbow is a projection, but it is enlightened to remember that we are too.”

It is truly amazing how hard it is for a religion or nation to weigh itself on the same scale it uses for everyone else. John Kerry is going around the world preaching democracy to some of the very nations who’s democracies we have undermined.

The State Department has released a report indicating that religious intolerance is on the rise globally. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in much of the Arab world, and anti-Islamic prejudice can be found increasing in Europe and Asia.

The report did a good job at condemning anti-Semitism. It made mention of:

An incident on 19 October when Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said “amen” to a religious leader’s call upon Allah to “destroy the Jews and their supporters”.

Government-controlled media in Venezuela, meanwhile, had published numerous anti-Semitic statements, including in opposition to a Catholic presidential candidate with Jewish ancestors.

The report also noted the Iranian government’s frequent denunciations of Judaism.

“Even well into the 21st Century, traditional forms of anti-Semitism, such as conspiracy theories, use of the discredited myth of ‘blood libel’ and cartoons demonizing Jews continued to flourish,” the report said.

The report also did a good job of pointing out intolerance by majority Muslim groups toward minority Muslim groups.  Where the report did not do so well is in holding America and Israel to task. For example, it did not mention the actual bombing of Islamic countries by Israel and the US, or the stereotyping of Muslims in both countries as “terrorists.” Instead, Mr. Kerry ignored anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic attitudes in the US:

As he unveiled the report in Washington DC, Mr Kerry acknowledged that America’s own record was not perfect, but said religious freedom was a “universal value”.

“The freedom to profess and practise one’s faith – to believe or not to believe, or to change one’s beliefs – that is a birthright of every human being,” he said.

“I urge all countries, especially those identified in this report, to take action now to safeguard this fundamental freedom.”

For those willing to take off the rose colored glasses, Humboldt University has constructed a “Hate Map” of homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamist or other forms of hateful speech made in the USA and sent out on Twitter. (link below)

Whatever the actual demographics of hate, our only sane response seems clear enough. Those of us who are serious about lessening hate in the world can only begin with our own hearts and minds. We must purge our thoughts of that idea that we can solve this problem through violence. Violence is what has caused this insanity. Instead, we must redefine courage as the willingness to risk danger in order to establish communication with those who are different. Every person of every nation and every religion must stop believing the propaganda of its own group. We must trust that behind the frightening images our culture paints of our enemies, that underneath the differences beat human hearts just like ours.

Report by State Department

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22601881

Hate Map:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/20/the-geography-of-u-s-hate-mapped-using-twitter/?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29

The Reverend Clovis Jones, Texas Buddha and Professor Sarah Jacobs were playing guitar together when a sand storm blew in. TB and the others rushed outside to secure the frightened animals.

Later, back inside the house, Professor Jacobs, an atheist, decided to take a humorous jab at her religious friends. “Next time that happens, why don’t you two just pray to end the storm the way Jesus did?”

Reverend Clovis Jones was not happy with the joke and soon left.

Sarah Jacobs felt terrible, but she also realized that she felt some frustration with what she took to be magical thinking by her friends.  Later that evening, she respectfully asked TB, “So, why do you pray?”

TB had not been the least bit upset with her joke, but wanted to respond to her sincere inquiry. “Why do you tune your instrument?” he finally asked.

“Pardon?” She asked.

“Do you remember when the storm hit, amid all the chaos, my little wind chime was singing furiously.”

Thinking back, Sarah remembered the sound and smiled.

TB continued. “When an instrument is not in tune, almost any effort to make music is futile. When an instrument is in perfect pitch, even random winds produce music. The heart is the same way. For me, the heart of prayer is listening. I am not speaking to an imaginary person as you suppose. I am getting very still until I have tuned my heart to life.”

It is strange to hear some people talk about science as if it were a liberal conspiracy. I have conservative friends who seem to think that the scientific community is a lobby group secretly concocted by by leftist fanatics, and their consensus on climate change as a ploy to make good old boys drive smaller trucks.

Louis Black says it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXRNogFkM8k