I am still feeling lazy about posting something. So just thought I would prove that I could skate. This was taken just before I fell for the ... 3rd time. Watch this space for a special anouncement!!!  

What about Easter?

The legal case of Terri Schiavo is over but the political and moral debate is just starting. Almost all pro-life proponent has taken this case as a personal cause. But the majority of the people have felt that the rhetoric has gone overboard more so the political establishment which went to great pains to have the feeding tube reinserted.

In all this the person Terri Schiavo has been forgotten, and she has been used by a lot of vested groups. I do agree that there are really concerned people who want the feeding tube reinserted but the fact remains that this case has become a political side show. Though after the time poll was released the government decided to stay out of the family business. Now it is the time for self appointed protectors of the Christian faith to protest strong enough so as to closed down the neighboring school.

I have been sounding like a cynic in quite a few of the lost posts beating up on some groups without offering any solution. So, I stop ranting on the Terri Schiavo case by just asking, the parents who are deeply religious and cite it as a reason for them not allowing the tube to be removed, wouldn't everlasting glory be better than this short stay on earth? I will not pretend that I feel what they feel, because I haven't lost anybody that close to me yet. So I just pray that they can find peace.

This brings me to the question about how much power the media really has? If they has given the people dying in Sudan or lots of other places as much coverage as Terri Schiavo, wouldn't it have made a difference in a thousands of people's life? Its a question we will never know an answer to till we stop just thinking about our immediate surroundings and start thinking about everybody!

I know that I mentioned that I am going to be posting a discussing I had with a few people over a Chief Minister from India being denied Visa to the US. But I was kind of tied up this weekend. Had a few friends visit me from Ohio so had to show them around St. Louis. Also I had to see the city for myself. The main accomplishment was ice skating, pictures of which I shall post here soon.

Hope everyone had a good Easter ...

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."

" PULITZER PRIZE " winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan famine.
The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards an United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away.
The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat it. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.
Three months later he committed suicide due to depression. 

I don't want to trivialise Terri's life but at the same time, I personally believe that enough effort must be spent in saving the living as much as the unborn embryo.

I know I have been promising to write about the death penalty, but I haven't had time to get some facts so I have postponed it. Watch this space for some political shoot out coming the next couple of days. Its not just me but a few other people too ...

"The living need charity more than the dead."

Dead or alive .... 2

The Terri Schiavo is still dragging throught the courts. Her feeding tube has been removed for the last 5 days and according to the doctors she can only survive for a week or two after the feeding tube has been removed. There have been many dramatic twists and turns in the last few days. The US congress and the state legislature have tried all they could while the courts (both state and federal) have refused to budge from their position. It has become a very emotive issue with the parents and the pro life lobby claiming that the doctors are wrong and the Terri could recover from her brain dead state, while the husband the pro choice supporters (with the courts) claiming that she would not want to be kept artificially alive. I personally don't know which side to choose. I do believe in the sanctity of life but at the same time would I like to be kept artificially alive? Absolutely not, allow me to meet my maker. And since I do not want to take sides I would ask the reader to form his own opinion.

The only foot note I would like to add to this is if the starving deaths that are occurring be given the same amount of TV time so we could save some naturally alive people. Maybe the government that made such an exception for Terri would do something for the hundreds of Sudanese or we would have 1994 be repeated again ...

continued ...

Sending out a happy birthday to my grand mom who is turning 73 today!!!! You rock 

Dead or Alive ...

That seems to be the question on everyone's mind about the Terri Schiavo case going on in Florida. This case has been generating heat for quite sometime. And for those of you not following it or those not in this continent here is the gist ...

Terri Schiavo has been brain dead for the last fifteen years, she can breath on her own but she gets food through a tube. Her husband wants this tube removed so she can die with dignity, he claims that she had mentioned to him that she would never want to be kept alive artificially. While her parents want her to be artificially kept alive hoping that someday there would be a cure for her. The courts have ordered the tubes removed thrice, the latest was last week. The government doesn't want to do that, they have brought in laws and used other tactics to reinstate the tube and keep Terri alive. The doctors meanwhile claim that she is in a "persistent vegetative state" with no hope for recovery

The politicians aren't wanting to keep the feeding out of concern for Terri but more to pander to their electorate. There have been lots of bizarre twists in this case, the Florida law that was passed last time by Jeb Bush was deemed illegal by the state's supreme court. And a few people had also offered Terri's husband upto 10 million to let go of his rights and divorce her. Right now there are candle light prayers being conducted outside the hospital and the governor's mansion. The irony of this situation is that most people who want Terri to be kept alive artificially would also support the death penalty, which is claimed by some to be state sponsored murder.

What it all ultimately comes down to between the "right to die cases", death penalty and abortion, is who decides on what is murder and what is not. It many not be all black and white, actually its grey mostly. Take for instance the death penalty, I personally think that its a good deterrence, heck as the women's organization in India want, we need to hang all rapists. And I think most of the religious right would agree with me. The Catholic church is one of the strongest opponents of the death penalty i.e they don't want anybody hanged unless they have been charged with heresy or during the process of inquisition(Joking about the later part).

Joking apart, this is a real ethical issue. You want to keep a person alive in a vegetative state and want to save the unborn embryo but at the same time hang criminals (That after keeping them alive at considerable cost to the tax payer). As this statement applies mostly to the religious right (to which I belong some of the times) in most countries, I wonder whether God has given them (I am also included in 'them') a special right to decide on when a person is fit to live. The previous statement does not apply to the catholic denomination of Christians as they oppose the death penalty. But their support needs to be taken with a pinch of salt as the church has been on of the strongest and most wide users of the death penalty during the middle ages. The politicians do not lag behind, even their stand has been dependent on the mood of the nation, pandering to the electorate. They want to keep alive a person who is in a vegetative state with their 'righteous indignation' while half of them support abortion (Killing of embryos) and the other half support the death penalty.

to be continued ...

Fish Count for the day - 12/20 - Day 7

"The death penalty can be tolerated only by extreme statist reactionaries, who demand a state that is so powerful that it has the right to kill."
Noam Chomsky

MSNBC - Serial rapist and killer lashed, hanged in Iran

MSNBC - Serial rapist and killer lashed, hanged in Iran

Today's blog is short and sweet, I had come across this news story on MSNBC as was just hinking about the hue and cry over the validity and effectiveness of the death penalty. But unfortunately most of the evening was spent with some rambuctous kids and setting up a network at home. Just installed Red Hat on a P III machine costing 50$s. So I guess the death penalty debate has to wait a couple of days.

The fish count 17/20 - Day 3

"Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives."

Uly's got a gun!

This might be a repost ... Just to remind people that I do know how to handle a gun 

The fish count 19/20 ---> 19 alive - Day2

"Are you part of the majority? If you say yes, then you are of the minority"

Question for the Day

If you were traveling at the speed of sound and you turned on your
radio would you be able to hear it?

Janie's got a gun...

The gun culture seems to be getting younger by the day. Before I continue believe you me, I love guns ... a lot. Though this love of mine does not condone the misuse or the non regulation of gun owning. Now not only need I be scared of a mugger or being shot in a back alley but am also afraid of going to church.

When I was in school(Which wasn't very long ago) I wasn't scared of getting shot by a classmate. Neither was I scared of traveling in the school bus. I have long heard the quote that "Guns don't kill people but people kill people". But that does not negate the fact that guns make killing easier and cause more accidental damage. I don't think that if there were knives instead of guns we would have to see the two year toddler die. Knives and other objects don't cause as much panic as guns do. I would rather see my friend showing off his pocket knife than his gun.

But then the crux of the matter is better gun control, not necessarily by the government but also by the supporters of the second amendment. I don't personally care much about the gun lobby or the lack thereof, but we do need a solution to this pressing problem unless the US is proud of this heritage

In other news I have bought 10 pairs of fishes just to see how long they could survive. (Check my february posting for it). The score after 24 hours - 1 dead/19 alive.

The question for today

If all the nations in the world are in debt, where did all the money go?

'Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
- Samuel Johnson

Women and some ... contd.

... It sucked that I lost the previous posting and have to write it again. So continuing on the topic of women that I had started on the previous post. The real reason that I wanted to discuss about this was the topic of abortion that has been raging on. The Beijing conference on women's right this past month was made into a farce because of this topic. Grand old Uncle Sam refused to allow the resolution, which grants equal rights to women all over the world, to pass without some technical jargon against abortion. I know in the US this is a major cause of rift between the left supported pro-choice lobby and the right supported pro-life lobby.

I am not into the debate on pro-life or pro-choice. As a "Christian" I am supposed to be blindly pro-choice. The topic of abortion has taken on a very religious colour instead of being a social issue. You have the really fundamental Christians who condemn all women and doctors who have taken part in abortion to hell while on the other side of the spectrum you have the feminists have used this issue to blanketed attack anything religious. And nobody seems to be interested in finding a middle ground.

The first issue here is about how the whole conference of more than 6000 delegates was stuck with the US and few other countries' demand to specifically state that abortion is not a women's right. This maybe due to their conviction and the conviction of their constituents but that does not give them the right to force it on the rest of the world. You have so many women's rights issues going on in the world and according to me abortion is least of the worries in the rest of the world. It may be good to harp on anti-abortion bandwagon in the US but the same ground realities don't hold in the rest of the world. Instead of finding ways to tackle more pressing issues like the right to vote ... to be considered an equal to men in improvised nations the conference was almost lost on the issue of abortion. I say almost because there was a resolution (with a reference to abortion in it) at the end of conference but no real headway.

Abortion may be a emotive and major issue in developed and slightly conservation country like the US but its not of equal importance in the rest of the world. This may be due to the cultural differences and the differences in the priority of the masses. In a country like the US a person does not become a social outcast if you are single mom, while in most other countries like India, middle east, etc that is not the case. The person would be subject to such an intense scrutiny that she would prefer death to life. I know that the times are changing but it has not fully changed for women with kids before marriage.

From what I gather the main grouse against abortion is that it maybe used by unscrupulous people for their sexual pleasure, but come on that does not give us the right to ban abortion in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother's life. I am a catholic and been always told by the church that abortion in any case is sin. Pro-life is one of the few topics on which most churches agree (suprisingly without wanting to kill each other). But it has taken an ugly form in recent years. Bombing of abortion clinics and intimidation of the doctors and the women ... sometimes I wonder what these so called Christians are trying to do ?? Didn't Jesus say he who is without sin cast the first stone ? I can agree if they preach that its wrong and try to talk to people out of it with love. What would you prefer, somebody condemning you to hell or somebody showing their Love to help you out of the mess you are in?

I am no doctor to know when a embryo becomes a human being neither am I a theologian (Some of them seem to know more about the process of birth than the doctors). But what I do know is that I cannot support a ban on abortions until I can promise the affected women a society free of prejudice that would accept them, not just in the developed countries but also in the developing nations. Especially in cases of rape and incest. The act itself has already made them a victim, I am not in support of punishing them again by asking them to carry the scare throughout their life.

Its easy to condemn women who have aborted, until it strikes close to home. Its very easy to show the way than to walk it. I once had an argument with a teacher of mine on this subject. He told me that the catholic rule book or whatever its called says that abortion was a sin and so he as a practicing Christian can't condone it even if the women's life was on the line. I wondered if he would have said that if his wife's life was on the line. Its not that they want abort their child but the circumstances force them through. There is no greater love than a mom's love, so they would be the ones crying over it not the pro-life lobby who spend their time planting ceremonial crosses to protest it. My argument is simple ... create an environment which is not pre-judiced against the kids born out of wed lock and due to incest or rape and then you talk of banning abortion, but until such an utopian situation occurs try to focus on the problem rather than on your prejudiced beliefs!!!

I know I would have ruffled quite a number of my friends belief, but hey that's the point I am trying to make ;)

My dear sisters this is why I am smart

I thought these happened only in far away remote places of the world without a doctor.

When do you know a person is dead?

You call this luck ?

"If you look at the issue, you'll see that this isn't about the children. There are children starving in the sewers of Persia. There are babies in the AIDS wards, chucked out into the streets like … cabbage. If this were really about the children, they'd be doing something about the children that are already here. I don't play that game."
- Tori Amos

"... abortion opponents love little babies as long as they are in someone else's uterus."
- Joycelyn Elders, circa. 1990

"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."
- Florynce Kennedy

P.S: Personally I do not support abortion other than for rape, incest and danger to the mother's health.

Women and some!!

Can't live with them, Can't live without them ... I started this blog two days back on what was the International women's day but due to unforeseen circumstances I will have to complete it today. What you may ask was the unforeseen circumstance that forced me to postpone writing on such a hot topic. It was the gym you see ... By obsession with buffing up saw me go to a couple of body workout classes at YMCA (Another motivation was that it was free with the membership). There the youthful hot bloodedness in me caused me to use heavier weights than required to impress people I didn't have to and forced me to walk with a limp afterwards. It was one of those do it now and regret later things. I have been sore for the past two days, but being the strong man I am (lol) I am going to go back and do it today.

Now that I got done wining about my broken body, I can go back to the topic at hand. The thing that really struck me to write abt women was not that it was the International women's day (As a principle I don't subscribe to such days) but the 10 plus after Beijing conference

Sorry to say that due to some computer glitches I just lost the rest of the blog ... and it was quite big and time consuming! Now I got to write a whole new one tomorrow !!! :((

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher, and the lows more frequent." - Friedrich Nietzsche

The word of God ???

I was just browsing the net the other day and came across some holy bloopers!!!

In a 1631 edition of the King James Bible, in Exodus 20 verse 14, the word "not" was left out. This changed the 7th commandment to read, "Thou shalt commit adultery." Most of the copies were recalled immediately and destroyed on the orders of Charles I. But there are 11 copies still remaining. They are known as the "Wicked Bible." (The Bible museum in Branson, Missouri has one on display.) The printer was fined the equivalent of $400.

The word "not" was also left out in the 1653 edition. In 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9 it was printed: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God" - instead of ""Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Again it was recalled immediately (- dashing the hopes of many!). It is known as the "Unrighteous Bible."

The Murderer's Bible, printed in 1801, declared: "these are murderers" (instead of murmurers) and continued, "let the children first be killed" (instead of "filled.")
Perhaps the error in Psalm 119 verse 161 in a 1702 version summed it all up: instead of "princes" it read, "printers have persecuted me." It is known as the Printer's Bible.

The first book that Johannes Gutenberg printed in 1454 was the Bible. It is thought that he printed about 180 copies, known as the 42-line Bible, of which significant parts of 48 copies still survive. Gutenberg did not make any printing errors.

Makes us wonder if it was a thou shalt not or a thou shalt !!! :) (Evil grin)

Today I had my body broken in a one hour workout sculpting class at the gym. I guess it serves me right for trying to act off by using heavier weights. Now I have profound respect for all the people who work out at the gym especially the women. And may I add I have successfully continued to go to the gym for the second month in a row.

Some updates from the Falcon foundation in India. As a pilot project before starting a full blown orphanage, evening after school programs have been started for kids in the slums since last week. The response so far has been unbelievable. We have had to turn back some children, as our budget right now is only able to support around 40 to 50 kids. We are hoping that we would be able to increase it soon.

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

Yo Whit!! Here are some picture blogs for you. This one is at West Palm Beach. Lesson you learn from the picture ... never turn your back when you have two guys with you!! 

Much ado about nothing

I don't know how many of you have been following the cases going on in the US supreme court about the display of the ten commandments. Sometimes I think that some people have a compulsive obsessive need to file a court case on anything that they can find a case on. This case follows in the footsteps of the case against using under god in the pledge. Some people call this a left wing liberal conspiracy, to undermine the freedom of the right.

I know that in a secular democracy everybody has the right to believe in what he/she believes, but that does not give you the right to make a asinine claims and waste the countries money on court costs. In the case for removing "under god" in the pledge, who in their right minds would have a religious conversion by hearing those two words??? Heck in the Indian pledge there is a sentence about respecting our elders and parents, if it were Uncle Sam I guess there would be somebody suing about it.

I believe that church/religion and the state should be separate in any democracy (allowing the church or any other religion to play a part in politics is asking for trouble - another post for me ;-) ), but that does not give cause for such frivolous suits just so one person's ego is satisfied at the cost of the rest of the country. The only other country and culture that I can contrast with this my own India. India too is a secular country with religious(atheistic) freedom and separation from the state. But if you go to any school you would see students have morning prayers, weather it be Christian, Hindu or Muslim. But you don't see anybody making anything about it(I am making a general assertion). Lots of people I speak to in the US talk to me about the lack of culture here and wonder why. Research shows that people with some sort of belief system in their family and self handle stress better and are more likely to be happy in adverse situation.

Some calling themselves liberals or broadminded secularist label all people with a religious belief as ignorant fools and narrowminded. What they show is that they are no better and are hypocritically narrowminded, because they don't want to extend the same freedom that they have (to not believe in anything) to those who believe. To me personally this is bunch of BS. Why should voluntary prayer be banned from school? The person who wants to learn his heritage with religion in it, has every right and freedom as the one who doesn't.

"An atheist is a person with no invisible means of support"

The middle of the week

Its the middle of a crazy week so I am going to be lazy today and post something that my friend Guru had sent me. I found it amusing, interesting and true!!

"I am God. Today I will be handling
all of your problems. Please
remember that I do not need your help.
If life happens to deliver a
situation to you that you cannot handle,
do not attempt to resolve it.
Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for
God to do) box. It will be
addressed in My time, not yours.
Once the matter is placed into the box,
do not hold on to it or remove it.
Holding on or removal will delay the
resolution of your problem. If it is
a situation that you think you are
capable of handling, please consult
me in prayer to be sure that it is
the proper resolution.

Because I do not sleep nor do I slumber,
there is no need for you to
lose any sleep. Rest my child. If you
need to contact me, I am only
a prayer away."

Be happy with what you have: Should
you find it hard to get to sleep
tonight; Just remember the homeless
family who has no bed to lie in.

Should you find yourself stuck in traffic;
Don't despair. There are people in
this world for whom driving is an
unheard of privilege.
Should you have a bad day at work;
Think of the man who has been
out of work for years.

Should you despair over a relationship
gone bad; Think of the person
who has never known what it's like
to love and be loved in return.

Should you grieve the passing of
another weekend; Think of the woman
in dire straits, working twelve hours
a day, seven days a week
to feed her children.

Should your car break down, leaving
you miles away from assistance;
Think of the paraplegic who would love
the opportunity to take that walk.

Should you notice a new gray hair
in the mirror; Think of the cancer
patient in chemo who wishes she
had hair to examine.

Should you find yourself at a loss
and pondering what is life all
about, asking "what is my purpose?";
Be thankful. There are those who
didn't live long enough to
get that opportunity.

Should you find yourself the victim
of other people's bitterness,
ignorance, smallness or insecurities;
Remember, things could be worse.
You could be them!!!!

"Life isn't about finding yourself; Life is about creating yourself."