Decisions, decisions, decisions...

You wanna know what the toughest part of writing my blog is? Choosing what to write about. I mean, amid all the corruption, all the injustice, all the back-door dealing, all the hypocrisy, all the crap that defines our crazy world, and the even crazier country we live in, how does one choose? There is always so much crap that I could write about every single day.

Take today, for example. Do I write about the Afghan citizen who faces the death penalty for converting to Christianity? Or how about the administration’s use of millions of tax dollars to fund “Faith-based” anti-abortion work? Or maybe I should write about the “rescue” of three western hostages in Iraq. Or perhaps I’ll discuss the Pentagon’s consideration of a WRITTEN policy barring the use of evidence obtained through the use of torture – well, duh! What to do, what to do…

I’ve got it… I’ll touch on all four items. When in doubt, be an equal-opportunity offender, that’s my motto!

1. Abdul Rahman, a 41 yr. old Afghan citizen, is on trial for the heinous crime of… converting from Islam to Christianity. (insert loud gasp here) Apparently, in Afghanistan it is a crime to practice anything but the state-sanctioned religion. And who sanctioned this state? Well, that would be us, the good old U.S. of A. Yep, we decided to prop-up a farce of a government, which bases its Constitution on Islamic law, not the rule of law. Freedom of religion? Forget it. Freedom of speech? Scratch that. Freedom of the press? Not in Mohammed’s house.

Gee, I’m sure glad we brought so much “freedom” to the Afghan people. I wonder… if converting from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death, then gosh, converting from Islam to Judaism must be punishable by a fate worse than death. I wonder what they do with those people… I’ve got it! They ship them over to Gitmo!

2. Thus far, this administration has funneled approximately $157 million to organizations sharing similar anti-abortion, anti-stem cell research, anti-gay, and other anti-American values as the President. All this, under the auspices of “Faith-based initiatives” and other ideological nonsense sponsored by Bush & Co. BTW, If he’s so g-damned faith-based, why do so few people (36% at last count) have any faith in him?

Those on the right would argue that during Democratic administrations, money was funded to organizations that supported things like promoting birth control (Planned Parenthood) and worker training programs (The AFL-CIO). My response to the righties: And your point is?? There is a clear distinction between supporting a religion, any religion, and supporting social programs that are truly secular. For information on the potential pitfalls of state-sponsored religion, please see item 1 above.

3. Today we hear that three western hostages were “rescued” from their captors in Iraq. The three men were peace workers Norman Kember, a British citizen, and Canadians James Loney, and Harmeet Singh Sooden. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am tickled pink that these men are free. I think that the work that these men, and their organization does in Iraq is vitally important, and I applaud their efforts. But I’ve seen some stories that suggest there was some extraordinary rescue mission that went on here. Nothing could be further from the truth. The captors were nowhere to be seen, and not a shot was fired when freeing these men.

And I loved the statement that was made by the workers organization, Christian Peacemaker Teams: "We believe that the illegal occupation of Iraq by Multinational Forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq… The occupation must end." Amen, brother.

4. Has Donald Rumsfeld grown a conscience? I highly doubt it. All the same, the Pentagon is now considering a written policy that would prevent the use of any evidence obtained by means of torture. This is being floated with regard to the detainees being held at the black hole known as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The treatment of detainees being held in this location is apparently governed by the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which does more to protect the government and the military than it does to protect the detainees.

Here’s my question… If, as Rummy, Condy, and Bushy have suggested, “we don’t torture”, then why is this proposed rule necessary? Are we covering our collective ass? Are we thinking of torturing just of the sake of torture? Or does someone have a guilty conscience? Oh, that’s right, they don’t have a conscience.

BTW, I’d like to personally and publicly thank President George Bush and Co. for providing me with such good and abundant material. If it weren’t for these clowns, this blog would not have been possible. Thanks guys! Keep up the good work!