These Things I Believe

I believe in the intrinsic worth of all human beings, even if they don't deserve it.

I believe there are no such things as "inalienable rights."  Our rights are very alienable and the government has been trying to alienate them ever since we gained them.  Our rights were hard one and hard kept through blood and sweat and pain, and it is incumbent upon all of us to keep an eye on those that would strip them from us.

I believe the question of God is moot.  Any God that is so petty that It would condemn me for my lack of faith is not a God I can believe in anyway.

I believe in the Bible, Torah, Bhagavad Gita, Koran, and Tao.  They all seek perfection, and while they fail individually, taken together they come pretty close.

I believe that if you think your faith is in danger from external forces, you really have no faith at all.

I believe that war is a last resort.  Scratch that; I know war is a last resort.  I've seen what war does to people first hand, and those things happen whether the war is justified or not.  War destroys a whole or a part of everyone it touches, which is why it should only be entered into in order to defend our way of life when all other options have been exhausted.  If everyone believed what I believed, there would be no war.

I believe that if life hands you a lemon, don't make lemonade.  Just eat the lemon, because when life eventually hands you an orange, it will taste that much sweeter by comparison.

I believe that death is not something to be afraid of.  It's just the ultimate side effect of living.

I believe that unless you've had occasion to stare your own mortality in the face, you probably don't really appreciate what a gift life is.

I believe every breath is precious, because the next one could be your last.

I believe in a woman's right to choose.  Ladies, feel free to choose me.

I believe that if you picked up The Simpsons reference in this diary's title, you and I will probably get along.

I believe that if Jesus returned today, his most ardent followers would crucify him again within a week.

I believe if you can't find something funny in most situations, you probably aren't looking hard enough.

I believe there if I didn't laugh so much, I would have gone insane a long time ago.

I believe in solidarity.  Go writers.

I believe that there are small instances of beauty all around us, and they make the whole enterprise of life worth it.

I believe that happiness actually is a warm puppy.

I believe in being thankful.  As long as my heart still beats, I have something to be thankful for.

I believe any society that thinks it is superior to every other has already engineered its own downfall.

I believe Utopia is impossible, and more importantly, boring.  It's the struggle to institute Utopia that life is all about.

I can believe it's not butter.

Finally, I believe conservatism is a flawed ideology at its core.  Conservatives, since the dawn of time, have argued that our best days are behind us and that we should recapture the values of a time gone by.  I believe that the first conservatives probably thought fire was evil and warned other cavemen not to go anywhere near it.  The conservative would like to hold onto the past, but it is gone, and never coming back.  The conservative will try to clutch moments and keep them, which is insane.  Before you even try to hang onto the present, it has already slipped away.