Why Send Foreign Aid When We Are Hurting At Home?

Its' a sentiment I hear often, if our economy is so bad right now, why should we send any money overseas for people in other countries?  It's time to take care of our own...

First of all, I agree that our own citizens need care, a safety net, as it were.  Often the people who are decrying foreign aid do not really want to take the money we would save and apply it to helping our own poor and disenfranchised.  I'm not sure what they DO want to do with those "huge" savings, perhaps create some more subsidies for large, profitable corporations?

Second, are we not our brother's keeper? If my child had his ribs sticking out and his arms looking like toothpicks because of a huge drought that killed all the crops in my area, I would pray down on my knees that someone would send me a bag of rice.  When an entire population is starving, or being exterminated, are we truly suggesting that as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, we have no moral obligation to help?

Third, we don't really spend much money on foreign aid.  The savings if we quit would be negligible.  As a country our foreign aid is about .1 % of our annual national income. We would not in any way sacrifice our own citizens if we reached out beyond our borders to our brothers and sisters abroad.  We are lead to believe that we are a hugely generous nation when it comes to foreign aid, but in truth over 20 countries spend more of their Gross Domestic Product per capita on foreign aid than we do.

I'm not sure what prompts this call to cut off foreign aid.  Fear that we don't have enough for ourselves, concern that the money is mismanaged, prejudice against foreigners?  I am a proud American and do believe in putting America and Americans first, but that doesn't mean that I believe in America Only.  We live in a country, but that country is on a planet--a planet inhabited by other people with whom we must trade, negotiate and learn.  These people are not separate from us in anything except an invisible national border.  Their pain should be our pain, their hunger should be our hunger, their rape should be our rape, their suffering IS our suffering.  We cannot live without them and in many cases, they literally cannot live without us.

Does "Good" Have to Be "God-ly"

     I used to own and operate a little junk shop in a suburb of Washington,  D.C., 

and one of the reasons I opened it was to indulge my urge to meet new people 

and to indulge my two very favorite pastimes, junk collecting and talking!

     Deep into a long conversation with a favorite repeat customers, I decided 

it was safe to divulge what I have come to consider my dirty little secret...I am 

an atheist. 

     I wasn't making a big deal about it, just mentioning it in passing as part of a 

broader conversation.  We finished that bit of banter, and then she returned to 

my comment.  "An atheist."  Said in a tone that indicated she wasn't and 

couldn't believe I'd admit to it in public. 

     "Yep."   "Hmmm."  The conversation veered, the awkward moment passed, 

and then I said something that visibly startled her, and I can't even remember 

why I mentioned it now.  I said something about "my church."

     "Why do you go to church if you're an atheist?" she interrupted, almost 

shouting at me.  I laughed and countered with, "I not only go, I teach Sunday 

School, too!"   "What could you possibly teach in Sunday School if you don't 

believe in God?"

     And there you have it in a nutshell.  The reason that I have to pick and 

chose carefully who I tell I'm an atheist.  This woman was wonderful, open-

minded, and willing to engage in an inquiry into what it means to be an 

atheist, and in my case a member of a Unitarian Universalist (UU) 

Congregation.  But the knee-jerk reaction that an atheist would have 

nothing to teach young children of spiritual value on a Sunday morning 

was present none-the-less.  Many people never move past that level of 

thinking. 

     It is an amazingly common belief among followers of religions that 

place God at the center of the religious practice, that atheists are evil or, 

at least, amoral.   Since all of their moral teaching has been centered 

on rules handed out by God, and their final, eternal disposition is 

determined by how well God assesses their adherence to these rules, 

then, I guess it would be natural to assume that someone operating 

outside of God's rules would be behaving "badly", or at least randomly. 

     It just never occurs to many people that values, morals, and standards 

of ethical behavior could be derived from a non-God-imposed source, 

and yet provide a sound basis for a "good" life!

     I explained to her that UU congregations have no creed that all 

members must believe in order to belong.  We gather together to support 

one another on our spiritual journeys, wherever those journeys may lead.  

We have many married couples of mixed faiths who feel comfortable 

celebrating all their families' traditional holidays with us. 

     We have numerous gay and lesbian members who are encouraged to 

be as open about their sexuality as they wish, for they are welcome among us.

     We do charitable work, provide adult education classes, have choirs and 

handbell groups, and do all the other fun and useful things a church does.  

We just don't require folks to have particular belief system in order to join the 

party.  Our guiding principal, but not creed, is to respect the worth and dignity 

of each and every human being.  That's all.  And you don't even have to 

promise to do that.

     And as for what I teach in Sunday School, or as we refer to it, Religious 

Exploration?  I've taught the kids about the various religions of the world and 

what holy days they celebrate, as well as the stories of the Old and New 

Testament so they would be familiar with and appreciate the life lessons 

in the Bible.  I've introduced the ideas of friendship, love, sharing, caring for 

the less fortunate, telling the truth, respecting people of every hue and religious 

belief, and protecting the earth's resources.  I've hugged them, praised them, 

given them time-outs to think about better ways of handling a situation.  I've 

prepared hundreds of craft projects for them to do, and cleaned up afterwards!

     Most of all, I've let them know that it's important to do right, because that's the 

right thing to do.  To do what works, because life flows along when we do what 

works.  To follow your conscience, because living with guilt and worry and shame

will kill the joy that it is possible to feel in this world.  That you must search your 

heart to find out what is true for you, and respect the beliefs that others have 

found to be true for them.

     I didn't get quite this poetic talking to my customer at the shop the other day, 

but close to it, and she nodded her head in appreciation and acknowledged,

that, yes, there might be good reasons for an atheist to go to church, and that I 

might indeed have something to say to kids on a Sunday morning.  I thanked 

her sincerely for asking and for listening.  We parted better friends.

     Maybe there is now one less person in this world that thinks that in order to 

be a "good" person, you must be a "god-ly" person.

Are Video Games Too Violent?

Yes, they are definitely too violent for my taste, and I enforced the M rating for my boy when he wanted to get M games in his young teen years. And there are a few titles I told him I would get rid of if I found them in my house, not matter how old he got. 


But I also agree with the Supreme Court ruling. While I might not like these games or think they are appropriate for my child, I think government censorship is worse. 


When I hear that kids can't read "Huckleberry Finn" in school because of the "racist language," my blood boils. What a great book to show what the south was like in the days of slavery AND how one person could see beyond another person's enslaved status to his underlying humanity. What are regulators thinking???? 


Are Video Games Too Violent? See the DailyBeast Article.

The Green Home of the Future - You Can Help Design It

I want to introduce you to a dream of mine and, more specifically, my group on
Facebook that you can join and participate in. The group is called “The Green
Home of the Future” and a link to it is available on the right side-bar of this blog.

A little background first ... I'm Judy, an environmental scientist, retired for health
reasons and living in suburban Northern Virginia. My husband, Joe, is a
computer wizard currently working as an independent contractor. A few years ago,

I inherited 160 acres of cactus-covered sand in central New Mexico from my

father.  This land was homesteaded in 1906 by my great-grandfather and was 

re-inhabited by my father over the last 30 years. 

Joe and I are planning to retire in about 10 years to this “ranch” and attempt to 

build the “Home of the Future.” We want to incorporate sustainable materials and 

building methods, used materials, passive and active solar energy collection, 

wind-power, gray-water reclamation, xeroscaping, etc. 

 Beyond these typical green features, we want to also create a “Smart Home.” 

Joe is an expert in wireless technology. We are planning to use whatever 

10 more years of innovation brings to the field to help us control the thermostat, 

security, and other electronic devices in the home. 

 We also want to incorporate "Universal Design," make the home universally 

accessible to the handicapped and more practical for everyone's use. We are
planning to include safety rails next to all toilets and in all tubs and showers. 

All doorways will be wide enough for a wheelchair and the approach to the 

house and exterior walkways will have no steps. We may need these features 

ourselves as we age, and our guestsmay need them at any time. 

We want YOUR input for our home. We want to do as many things as we can 

to make this home safe, easy, comfortable, sustainable, and enjoyable to live in. 

Our goalis to start with a website / Facebook Group, and end up with a lovely 

compound of buildings where we can run a Bed and Breakfast, lead seminars 

for others interested in building similar homes, and lead tours of scenic New 

Mexico. 

 On the macro-level, we as a population of thinking people inhabiting this earth
need to start sooner rather than later figuring out how we are going to house the 

swelling population of this earth. We must start learning how to use and promote
the use of sustainable materials such as rammed earth, adobe and straw. Wind 

and solar energy costs must be brought down to the affordable range of the 

common man.

And here in America, if we can start building sustainable “smart” homes that look 

and feel as nice as our current wasteful homes, we will have solved a huge 

problem here locally.

So please join me and Joe at the very beginning of our journey 

... our journey home.

Ron Paul Has the Right Idea - But He Doesn't Go Far Enough - Let's Legalize ALL Drugs

So Ron Paul is proposing a bill to decriminalize marajuana.  I'm glad to see someone is keeping this issue alive.

Decriminalizing marijuana would be a great first step, but it's actually time to decriminalize all the illegal drugs.

Fears that decriminalization would lead to radically increased drug use in our population are largely unfounded.  There just aren't that many people not using drugs because they are currently illegal.  Most people who want to use drugs do, criminal penalties be damned.  And those who are afraid of the addiction and health effects don't pursue drugs.

Another way of viewing this, as mentioned in a paper linked below, is to consider the current health crises in our country of obesity.  People cannot resist the temptation of poor nutritional choices that they are surrounded by every minute of every day.  Their health suffers, their ability to participate fully in their lives is restricted.  As a nation, how should we deal with this problem?  How about making obesity illegal, or, more applicably, making fattening foods illegal?  That would solve everything, right?   Sure it would, in the same way that making drugs illegal has solved everything.

Despite its apparent lack of success, we continue to fill our prisons and waste the time of police in pursuit of a hopeless "War on Drugs."   Despite punishing drug users with jail time and probation, drugs continue to be used.  If illegal drugs are unavailable, legal drugs are abused.  There are far too few openings in rehabilitation facilities to accommodate those who want help, and the vicious practice of punish instead of heal continues.

There is a broader societal impact of our failed drug policy.  First, keeping drugs illegal provides employment and industry to gangs and cartels here and abroad.  If drugs were legally available at an affordable price from any U.S. pharmacy, the international drug trade would collapse and the major funding source for gangs here at home would disappear.  Added to this, the quality of the drugs could be monitored for strength and additives, reducing the incidence of overdose and death associated with street drugs.

Another societal issue that would be improved would be the problem of drug users and drug sellers being taken out of the community and away from their families.  While this may reduce drug related crimes, such as theft and burglery, it also takes workers out of the legitimate work force and separates parents from children.  With drug users out of the jails and able to either buy legal drugs or receive treatment,  they could apply themselves to normal societal functions.

Another reason that legallizing drugs would be beneficial would be the tax revenues that could be raised through the sale of currently illegal, black market products.  The taxes raised could be substantial.  The increased income could be used for expanded rehabilitation efforts, mental health treatment, job training and funding of other beneficial programs.

I haven't read the entire paper, but this link will take you to a very comprehensive look into the causes of the
criminalization of drugs and what would happen if we reversed that policy.

http://books.google.com/bookshl=en&lr=&id=aUiJDBEo0OIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR6&dq=decriminalizing+drugs+effect&ots=Zda5P-cS3A&sig=9zJhK1ZSREjejr8ExqAjXkdiD4E#v=onepage&q&f=false

Where Did My Cheese Go? A Short Lesson in Rat, and Human, Behavior...Or, Rats Are WAY Smarter than Humans!

Try this description of human behavior on for size...

If you put a rat in a maze and put the cheese in the same place every day, it will 

quickly learn where the cheese is and go right to it. But if you then move the

cheese, it might go back to the old cheese spot a time or two, but once it 

figures out that the old spot is cheese-less, it never goes there again ... 

the rat starts hunting for the new cheese spot.

Humans, on the the the other hand, will (almost) never abandon the old 

cheese spot (metaphorically speaking.) They will return to the cheese-less 

spot (unproductive way of doing things, bad type of relationship, etc.) over 

and over and over and over...forever. Going to that one particular cheese

spot was once a successful strategy for finding cheese, therefore it must 

continue to be one forever after. 

The human will make all sorts of excuses for why the cheese is gone, 

explanations for when it will return. The human will blame others for the lack 

of cheese, blame itself for the cheese abandoning it. But the human it will 

almost never leave the cheese-less spot and go elsewhere looking for 

cheese. Our brains are hardwired to continue to pursue a once-successful

strategy FOREVER, whether it is ever successful again or not. 

Awareness of this deep psychological drive to pursue the same course of 

action over and over is a great first step in being able to actually try something

new!

New Product "Mio" Drops - Bad Chemicals? or Great Taste and Convenience?

I for one am thrilled with these new Mio drops that recently hit the market.  They come in a firm, small, plastic bottle that measures out a serving by how hard you can squeeze the bottle.  The drops are designed to flavor water as much or a little as you like.  The result is similar to the taste of Propel without the electrolytes and other supplements Propel contains.  I've seen some reviews that take issue with the amount of dyes and artificial ingredients in Mio, and I agree that less is more in this regard, still...

I take meds that make my mouth dry and I am always looking for drinks that are 0 calories but have some tartness or sweetness that make my mouth stay moist longer than plain water.  I am also sensitive to aspartame, so I am limited to using products without it.  I have been using the Mio drops for a month now and have no problems with reactions.  They are convenient.  They stay sealed well enough for me to carry them in my purse.  I can even add them to the carbonated water I make with my home soda system to increase the variety of soda flavors I can make.   They also save money while eating out.  Substituting water at a restaurant twice and using the drops will pay for the entire bottle.  

I tried the sweetened flavor drops made by another company that sweetens with Steevia, and while that is more natural, I, for one, cannot stand the taste of Steevia.  Just a personal quirk, I'm sure some people like it.
I suggest that if the notion of this product appeals to you, try one bottle and see for yourself.  It might just be your cup of...water?