What am I? What are you?

You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (20% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Cost of War Counter

I just added a counter for the cost of war in Iraq. Now, it’s not that my big concern is money, but I think it’s sick that that money is used for this criminal act instead of something more productive and helpful. Do you know how many people could be helped with that money? Do you know how many other urgent situations could be taken care of? All this is just sick.

Pat, Pat, Pat

I couldn’t help it; I had to write about Pat Robertson again. I don’t want to become http://www.ihatepatrobertson.com/ for two reasons: First, somebody already is doing that noble job (I love that website). Second, that’s not what I meant to do with my blog.Besides all this, there are some things that I just can’t let go.I’m going to cut and paste some quotes I read by Robertson. I don’t understand how a person like this still has a TV show, and so many followers. Some of them are taken from “I hate Pat Robertson”. I’m only going to make comments on a few of them. I don’t think it’s really necessary to say much when you read this kind of thing.

"The strategy against the American radical left should be the same as General Douglas MacArthur employed against the Japanese in the Pacific . . . blast the individuals out of their power bunkers with hand-to-hand combat. The battle to regain the soul of America won't be pleasant, but we will win it."

"Government was instituted by God to bring His laws to people and to carry out His will and purposes."

"Whenever the civil government forbids the practice of things that God has commanded us to do, or tells us to do things He has commanded us not to do, then we are on solid ground in disobeying the government and rebelling against it."

"When any civil government steps outside the mandate authorized by God Almighty, then that government does not have any further claim over its citizens."

"There will never be world peace until God's house and God's people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world. How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy moneychangers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?"

I don’t get how your sexual orientation, your political ideas fall under the same category as an assassin (don’t forget that he called for the assassination of Chavez, an elected president) or an adulterer. I’m kind of confused. People, help me out!


"Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

Ok, this one’s just hilarious. I don’t think I need to say much about it, but everybody should read it. This shows exactly the kind of person Robertson is. And if a single person believes him, that alone makes him dangerous.


"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period."

God's pattern is for men to be the leaders, both in the church and in the family... "Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them."

I kind of agree with the last two ones. Just kidding!


“Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals – the two things seem to go together.”

Hmm, I thought that Hitler killed lots of gays. Pat confused me again.


“I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags [gay pride flags] in God’s face if I were you.” “Homosexuals want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers.”

Damn, those gays are evil. Thanks Pat for opening my eyes.



This is what was said in “The 700 Club” about 9/11:

Falwell: “What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.”Robertson: “Well, Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror, we haven’t begun to see what they can do to the major population.”Falwell: “The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this. And I know I’ll hear from them for this, but throwing God…successfully with the help of the federal court system…throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad…I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America…I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen.”Robertson: “I totally concur, and the problem is we’ve adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government, and so we’re responsible as a free society for what the top people do, and the top people, of course, is the court system.”
-The 700 Club, 9/14/05

You have to have a huge imagination to make that kind of connection. The way I see it, it’s just stupid. There’s nothing to even take under consideration in that reasoning. But there are some people that might buy all this, and that idea is what worries me. You just CAN’T create hatred like that. That’s an invitation to persecution, discrimination and intolerance; and if you have those things, then you have an unstable country under democracy. The best thing about democracy is that you get to say what’s on your mind, but you have to be careful. By saying those things, he’s jeopardizing the very system he supposedly stands for. I come from a country where the last dictatorship left 30,000 people disappeared. Those people even today aren’t officially dead; they’re just disappeared. That’s a horrible thing! We still have mothers in Argentina looking for their kids 30 years later. Because you know that a mother won’t give up if her son disappears; she won’t give up until she’s sure that her kid is alive, or dead; but never disappeared. What I’m trying to say here is that democracy is valuable, and needs care and responsibility. Those comments made by Pat Robertson are dangerous. I don’t want to shut him up, because that would go against his freedom of speech. But I do think that not listening to him should be common knowledge. A true “Operation Blessing” will be the one that can bring his viewers from 1,000,000 to 0.

Burning Man

I don’t know how many burners are going to read this, but I had to write about Burning Man. I had heard about this place 5 years ago, and I’ve been dying to go since then. This year I finally got to go, and I have to say that it totally blew my mind! I had very high expectations, but man, I never thought it would be so good.
The place is surreal from the very first moment you arrive. It’s not common to drive into the desert, 30,000 people camping, and when they say: “Welcome home” you just believe it. I know I did, even though I hadn’t been there before.
From the moment you drive in, you can tell that you’re in for a different experience. I don’t know how to describe the way that people treat you out there (but I’ll give it a shot); it’s just amazing. We got there kind of late, so we had to set the tent in the dark. We weren’t even done with that, when a girl came to us and offered us dinner. That’s just the way people are out there. That’s an example of the way that everybody treats each other. It’s part of the whole experience. The best part about it is that you treat people the same way; and you don’t even have to try. It comes out naturally. This is a place where sharing is 100% selfless. You don’t do it to get anything back; you just do it.
It’s kind of hard to believe at first when you walk into those theme camps and you get free drinks, or even food. Some theme camps don’t give away stuff, but you can’t help thinking all the time and work that those people put into them just to have fun and help other people have a better time out there.
What’s really hard is to get used to the extreme weather and the dust. You have to drink around a gallon of water per day. If you don’t, you just dehydrate. It’s that simple. It’s not easy to take care of yourself. You have to remind yourself to eat, drink water and sleep. There’s so much to do that you simply forget about taking care.
Even though the weather is so harsh on you, Burning Man couldn’t be set in a different environment. I know I may sound a little crazy when I say this, but it’s true. Most of the theme camps, the art cars would be lost. That’s not all that would be lost; the landscape just fits perfectly. This probably doesn’t sound all that important, but once you’re there you automatically understand.
I could go on and on for hours, but I think I made a little summary that sort of gives you the idea of what can be found there. One thing, though: if you don’t like any of the things I just told here, don’t go. If don’t feel comfortable in this kind of situations, you can have a horrible time. This is a place that you either love or hate. As you can see, I LOVED IT.

Pictures

These are some pictures that I took. Let me know what you guys think!

Katrina

Disasters will happen. That’s something that we just can’t change. The only difference that can be made is the way we respond to them. We can’t make the catastrophes smaller, but we can make the consequences less terrible.
In Argentina we’ve had some natural disasters. They weren’t as big as this one going on right now in the Gulf area, but they were pretty big. The last one was in Santa Fe, a beautiful and important province. The thing about that situation was that the same critics, the same (valid) complaints took place. And it turned out that the whole country, and the world showed their solidarity. The same thing happened, the biggest help came from people and their time and donations. I’m not saying that the authorities didn’t help, but they were late, too late (and not enough?)
This situation made me realize something: the response, the chaos, everything is the same no matter where the disasters happen. They can take place in a third world country, or a first world country, but the images are awfully similar. Therefore, the questions arise, is anybody really ready for something like this? Are we prepared to respond? Should we be surprised that this is the way things turn out? What can be done to be better prepared?