Jacki’s whereIstand Blog

So Karl thought the whole ordeal would be over after he testified before the grand jury this week.  Tie up loose ends, right Karl.  Well it seems Fitzgerald does not see it that way.

From the NYT:

Lawyers in the case said Mr. Fitzgerald would spend the coming days reviewing the transcript of Mr. Rove’s three hours of testimony on Wednesday and weigh it against his previous statements to the grand jury as well as the testimony of others, including a sworn statement that Mr. Rove’s lawyer gave to the prosecutor earlier this year.

Rove’s explanation that he simply "forgot" about his conversation with Matthew Cooper does not pass the laugh test with Fitzgerald.  If Fitzgerald seeks an indictment against Rove for perjury and obstruction of justice, I’m not convinced that  Rove’s explanation will pass the laugh test with a grand jury either. 

whereIstand Tags

• Will Karl Rove be forced to step down over his role in the Plame leak?

I’m not sure that even those who believe in God can tell me why they believe.  How do they know, really know?  No one can definitively "know" why they do anything - especially something as complex as a belief in a higher being. 

Is it that they need to believe in god and obey him in order to live peacefully among their neighbors?

I used to believe in god.  I used to talk to him, (yes, i said him).  And I used to feel guilty after leaving church because I behaved like a louse that week.  What’s odd is that I cannot recall a single instance in which I behaved in a more civilized manner because of god.  Even when I was a believer, I always behaved in a manner that felt right to me at that moment, irrespective of my belief in god.

Now that I no longer believe in god, I find I behave in an even more civilized manner than ever before.  I am my only judge.  I feel I owe myself more than I ever felt that I owed to god.  Now, I actually think about how my actions reflect upon humanity, something I never considered when I was spiritual.

With this comes responsibility and accountability.  I am accountable to no one but myself (and in some limited fashion my loved ones) and I have to live with myself and my actions.  I find this more burdensome than I found believing in god and his almighty forgiveness. 

Is it that they have to believe in god so that they are not afraid of death?

I recognize that no longer believing in god has left me much more afraid of death.  I believe this fear of death is what motivates many people to believe in god.  It softens the blow.  You have an afterlife and you have an eternal protector.  This is why religion is ingenious.  Its leaders recognize that the belief in god quells the fear of the masses.

I believe this fear of death motivates people in ways that we do not yet comprehend.  Believing in a peaceful afterlife graced by god’s blessing makes death more bearable.  Less frightening, right?  What greater motivation to believe in god than to quell your own fear?

Just a little musing on fear, death and god.

whereIstand Tags

• Are religious beliefs vital to society?

Poor delusional Karl.  As he endures his fifth appearance before the grand jury friends say he hopes after today’s testimony he can put this all behind him.

From CNN via TPM:

[T]he Karl Rove side believes that after this testimony today there could be a quick resolution to this. I should note, though, they have voiced such confidence before, the Special Prosecutor has said he wanted to keep a grand jury in place to try to get new evidence, but sources sympathetic to Karl Rove say that they believe if he cleans up the loose ends as they say, the few remaining questions they say the prosecutor has, that this soon could be put behind him.

I’m not sure that Fitzgerald can get anything greather than an indictment for obstruction against Rove, but i’ll take it …

whereIstand Tags

• Will Karl Rove be forced to step down over his role in the Plame leak?

whereIstand Tags

• Should the federal tax cuts be made permanent?

After a day of violence in N’djamena, Chad, President Idriss Deby claims that a group of Sudanese fighters attempted to overthrow the Chadian government. In response, Deby cut off ties with Sudan and threatened to evacuate 200,000 Sudanese refugees.

The government reports that 350 people were killed in the assault on N’djamena.

This is the U.N.’s response to the violence and to Deby’s threat to remove the Sudanese refugees:

"I think it’s something said in the heat of the moment," Matthew Conway, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, said in a telephone interview from the eastern town of Abeche. "When tensions calm, reason will prevail."

He sounds like he is talking about school kids in a fight at recess.  The problem in Sudan is not going away; it’s spreading. 

whereIstand Tags

• Should the U.S. send military forces to Sudan?

From the NYT today:

[T]he autopsy report of a retired New York City detective that was released this week, there were words that thousands of New Yorkers have come to anticipate and to fear.

"It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," stated the report from the medical examiner’s office in Ocean County, N.J.

After 9/11, the asbestos levels were raised by the thousands around the site.  Rescue workers clothing revealed chilling numbers - something in the neighborhood of 93,000 times the "normal" levels of asbestos.

The concern is whether we will continue to see deaths caused by the toxicity levels in the air around the site.  How many miles away from the site was the air affected?  I was at Wall Street and we were unable to see through the black smoke and debris in the air.  What about D.C.?

whereIstand Tags

• [open thread]

Severe drought has affected roughly 11 million people across East Africa and killed large numbers of livestock.  Today, the Washington Post reported that hundreds of Somalians have died over "well wars."  Rival groups fighting over water supply have left over 250 people dead in Somalia.  Now, warlords control most of the wells in the nation.  Families are under constant threat of having their water and food supply stolen.  With no stable government, Somalia has been unable to suppress the violence over water.

The U.N. has asked the U.S. government for $327 million to fund food and water supply programs in Somalia.

One mother’s story in Somalia:

Isha Aden Hussein, 38, whose husband was killed in the War of the Well in Rabdore, walked more than 100 miles to reach this town. She and her husband once had a farm and spacious huts for their 10 children. Now she lives in a shelter made of thin, oily kitchen rags.

She described her life as "miserable" and said she just hoped to survive the drought. In the slightly cooler mornings and evenings, she collects firewood and tries to sell it. But the temperature rises to 115 degrees during the day, so she spends most of her time in her shelter.

"I just sit in there. I pray to God and wait for my paradise to come. In paradise, I’ll be shading under a thick mango tree. I will be fat. My children will be dressed in smart uniforms for school. They will be reading me very nice stories," she said. "The most important is that they won’t have thirst. Our mouths will always be wet. We’ll drink in peace. "

The violence in Somalia threatens humanitarian efforts as well.  U.N. convoys are threatened by the warlords in the region stunting relief efforts. Absent a stable government, the nation has no chance for peace. 

whereIstand Tags

• Should additional aid be provided to African countries?

The federal government has yet to allocate funds to repair the levees in lower Plaquemines Parish.  It seems that the community will not survive unless the levees are repaired.  From the WP:

On one side are levees about 20 feet high holding out the Gulf; on the other side of the town, within view just a few hundred yards away, are similar earthen mounds holding out the Mississippi River.

Those levees will continue to provide some protection, but not enough to meet the flood insurance standards, which call for levees that would hold out water in a flood that has only a 1 percent chance of happening any given year. The Plaquemines Parish levees are as much as eight feet too low in places, officials said.

Some scientists believe that roughly 20 square miles of Louisiana’s coast is lost annually as the result of erosion.  This with the looming threat of floodwaters and hurricanes threatens these and many other small communities in Plaquemines Parish. 

The federal government has not revealed an official stance on whether repairing the levees in Plaquemines Parish is worth the estimated $1.6 billion. 

whereIstand Tags

• Is global warming a problem that humans must take actions to address?

The NIC does not believe Iran will have the uranium necessary for a bomb within a year.  Let’s keep track of what the U.S. "believes" when it comes to Iran’s capabilities.  I’ll keep a look out for conflicting intelligence reports on Iran’s nuclear advancement. 

whereIstand Tags

• Should the U.S. go to war with Iran if it does not end its nuclear weapons program?

I changed my mind as I began writing this entry.  Concluding that science created life means that you do not believe that god created life.  I do not know of any belief system that does not believe a higher power(s) created life.  Granted, polytheists do not believe in "God" per se but they do believe in higher powers.

Revision for Clark: Belief system in this context means a religion that believes in a god or gods. 

whereIstand Tags

• Does acceptance of evolution deny a belief in God?