Life is Good

three ways of saying it

1)Pro-life
2)Thou shalt not kill
3)Consistent life ethic

first refers usually to abortion
second to manslaughter (I read somewhere)
third to the 4+ realms of (opposition to): abortion, capital punishment, war, and meat

1)I'm pro-life because I'm adopted, and I believe/think adoption is the only humane choice.

2)I oppose capital punishment, in all cases, because nothing rights the original wrong, and prisoners lives can have value, without resorting to the base motive of revenge as supposed justice.
I am opposed to hell, in all its forms, such as torture or psy war against/by inmates.  Prisoners can do science, earn degrees, read books on to tape, live in a healthy community, get married and have children, and otherwise live fulfilling lives, which should be our goal, in my view, as opposed to dismal, bullied, raped, insecure, and pathetic lives of incarcerated punishment.  As Kaiser says, "thrive" (vs. endure).

3)War, ugh.  There's apparently a doctrine of "just" war, but I think always and everywhere, we should engage in diplomacy, and look to creating separate states for every community that desires alternate governance.   I believe in peace through "just do it", instead of peace through strength, which usually seems to be peace through dominance, coercion, and submission.

4)Humans are animals, too.  If we eat other animals, as those on the top of the food chain, we contribute to moral decay, physical unhealth, environmental degradation, and untold suffering.   Thought experiment: if superior beings conquered earth, would we humans like to be processed into their food?

I admit I love to eat meat.  Ribs, burgers, steaks, roast beef sandwiches, skirt steak, thanksgiving turkey, beef jerky, veal, kung pao, kfc, it's all so delicious.   We carnivores, anticipating our own bodies being consumed by cemetary worms, take revenge on unkind fate's oblivion by devouring every kind of life.  I think it's a sin.  I think all life is sacred.   Even bugs.   I'm going with the assumption that plants aren't conscious.  I'm going to stop buying meat, but I'll eat whatever's offered me, and not be a missionary towards vegetarianism, other than these comments here in my blog.  Everyone has a right to life, literally.   Even the death-eaters, to use a harry potter term.

Hunting, I would like to add, is abhorrent.  It may seem laudable to kill your own food, but society and civilization are no longer reliant on hunting and gathering, and it is no longer necessary to kill to eat.  The culture of death (and guns) in America stops with vegetarianism.

No murder, no war (ever), no induced abortion, no capital punishment, no hunting, and no meat.  Just happily alive, celebrating life. 

U.S. stay out of Syria

If I had my druthers, the U.S. wouldn't even have a military

In my fantasy world of the US of the W, a world police force would enforce international law, and every language would have it's own state (with sovereignty, in all areas outside of the universally agreed upon international norms), and each state would have it's own government, in a rich ferment of ideas, with multiple political experiments running simultaneously, with the goal of maximizing the personal happiness of every individual.

hm, maybe that's what the world already is.  (semantics?)

War, besides being hell, can also contribute to happiness.  Camaraderie, the development of new technology, jobs for soldiers, a safer world, and maybe even the elimination of evil people all must be why the bible says God is a man of war, despite Thou shalt not kill being one of the 10 commandments.  Vengeance is mine, sayeth the lord.  There is a time to kill.  

I don't really believe there are evil people,  though.  There are criminals and psychopaths and gangsters and bloodthirsty murderers, who maybe enjoy splattering the brains of enemies, like a good video game, or in a horror movie, but these people HAVE demons, not ARE demons.

So what I'm saying is there are those who are Good at being Evil, and they play a role in the proper functioning of society like a dentist or a shopkeeper or attorney or what have you... If you ARE God, then you can kill, I guess, but if you submit to God (Islam means submission), well I guess the Koran says you can kill the infidels, too.    This is not going where I intended it to.  But maybe soldiers killing each other off, for whatever reason, can be good for the planet, for its resources, for lowering the burden of the earth to support a growing population.  I, however, like soldiers, and people in general, and don't want them to die.  But war is good for the economy, too.

This does not strike me as a healthy moral calculus.  There must be another way to make the globe a better place than war and killing and destruction.  The negatives of war seem to far outweigh whatever benefits it may bestow, the misery eclipses the joy of thrillkill,  the suffering and death overpower the blessings of love from an unseen, mysterious God.   Indeed God is dead when war takes away a loved one.   The yin and yang, the good and evil, what a mess.  We make do.  But no one should have to endure it, a lasting peace should always and everywhere be our goal.  Once created, it must be maintained. 

Syria, case in point.  The goal should be an immediate cease-fire, a truce -not escalation.  Assad should rule over those who desire his rule, and those who don't should have a separate country, just like the Palestinians should have their own territory, homeland, separate from the Jewish state.   If Jews want to live in Palestine, fine, and vice versa, Palestinians in Israel, that should of course be permitted.  The U.S. is a melting pot hodge podge, and I like my country that way.  But to each his own.

So just stop fighting, everyone.  Children, get along or go to your rooms.

I have to say I don't see what makes chemical weapons a "red line" that stands as a criterion for U.S. military action.  A death is a death is a death.   A bullet does the same thing, in the end.   So if we haven't acted already, we should just stay out.  We don't want to be in another proxy war with Russia, or mired in the senseless brutality of another war, just on general principle.  We should be spending our money on happiness, not perpetuating or escalating misery.  And I don't think the U.S. really cares one way or the other about Sunni vs. Shia vs. Alawite vs. Hezbollah, unless it's everyone vs. al Qaeda.   Unless we want Christianity to spread at the cost of an imploding, factionalized Islam.   Chess is war, and I suspect religious motivation behind a lot of behavior and policy.  (and demographics, too, with copious angry youth)

Of course, the pres has a lot more information than I do,  and I think  his heart is in the right place, so maybe action against Assad is the right thing to do, I don't know, I defer to him- but I am skeptical, and think the military is mostly boys playing with (expensive) toys.

also, now that I've learned congressional approval for U.S. military involvement has been sought, this is what i'd like to see addressed by the debate:
1) what the U.S. interests are.
2) would a "limited, surgical" strike include killing Assad
3) if not, why
4) which option reduces net suffering
5) cost, which option is cheapest
6) how would diplomacy be affected

My Life, Lately

what I think, say, and do

I read

books (Goal: b.a.d. : book-a-day)
22 volumes World Book,  then-
30 volumes of 2010 Encyc. Britannica (library reference section),
daily hour with atlas
and 1001 books 'you must read before you die",
then True Crime encyclopedia

news
daily NY Times
weekly Economist, Christian Science Monitor
Foreign Affairs (every other month)

online: Huffington Post, Yahoo, CNN

book larnin': martial arts/self-defense
languages (review spanish, learn french, etc.),
new words (slang dictionary, OED)
occasional children's book 

self-assigned homework:
(daily fiction book, hour atlas review, 100 pp. encyclopedia, new word)
currently-
Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan.
'A' volume, WB '12.

sleep
early to bed, early to rise (7 hours sleep, 10p -5a)

exercise
daily run, push-ups, situps
Y -daily cardio, and alternating swim/ weightlifting
yoga

meditate
20 minutes, every morning
weekly, BSC (berkeley shambhala center, wednesdays)

online routine: e-mail, okcupid, blog, J! archive, onion

eat: $10/day limit,
MWF McGee lunches, monthly BFP (food pantry)
R taco and horchata, occasional froyo/papa john's pizza slice
cook pasta, beans, meat at Sara's (tupperware)

social life:
okcupid dates
W kaiser group, 10:30a
lunch with Walter
billiards w/ Caitlyn
tennis w/ Mesfin
meetup groups
-go camping, hiking
-volunteer

write:
blog
journal
notebooks

entertainment:
kalx entertainment calendar, read thrice daily
california academy of sciences, rialto cinema (free passes)
occasional theater movie
netflix, ted, youtube, library movie rental
weekly philosophy talk (sundays at 10a, KALW)
weekly Joe Frank, on kdvs
daily music (library cd, weekly hearts of space, morning radio)
(whrb, wmbr, kalx, kzsu, gdradio, kcpr, ksdt, kdvs, kzsc, npr)
people magazine, mad magazine, national geographic
jokes.com (comedy central archive)
arts/craft in oakland (rps collective), w/ walter
weekly Ca lottery

 travel
Auburn, visit T and Bruce
Burlingame, lunch w/dad
SF, lunch w/ mom
San Rafael, coffee w/ Aimee
Oakland, meals with Sara and Pierre, walk Marcel
San Leandro, walk Fido and Taco
Concord, meal w/ the Schaefers

good news and bad news

what do you want to hear, first?

a 283 million dollar B-1 aircraft just crashed.  that's alot of money up in smoke.

the rate of suicide bombings in iraq has gone from 5-10 per month, to 30.
that's one idiot blowing himself up Every Single Day.  Argh.  craziness.
and they call ME crazy.  Geezus.

my friend bruce is in the hospital, in Auburn.

on the other  hand,
-my mom and dad both/each had birthdays recently, which were kinda fun.
-My birthday is next month.  gonna eat burmese food for the first time.
-i've got a date on Saturday