First some amusement. I was shown this link a day or two ago… and while it’s an old news story it’s definitely worth looking at; News report out of New Zealand regarding a goof on the national news.

Basically, the upshot is that some technician obviously playing around with the systems put in that George W Bush was a “Professional Fascist”. Unfortunately, for some reason that to my knowledge has not been found or advertised, this was put up on the screens of New Zealanders. I have to admit, I was more than a little amused.

I myself am pretty neutral in the whole political game here in the US. I can’t vote anyway, but I do have opinions. While I have distinctly liberal leanings (perhaps due to my upbringing in the UK in the 70’s and 80’s under a rather tyrannical Conservative rule), I do appreciate the Republican ideal of smaller government and more power to the people. Many of my friends are republican… some staunch republican. By come on, people… if George W Bush is the best representative of the Republican ideal you can find to put up there as our president, there’s either something irrevocably broken in the system or the Republican party itself is severely broken.

The current administration shows almost no signs of being truly Republican. They’re an extremely right-wing religious faction of the Republican party at best. They’re not reducing government… the additions to the weight of government in this country during their tenure has been incredible, including the creation of not one but two entire government controlled police departments (the TSA and Dept. of Homeland Security… though the TSA is effectively a subset of the latter though operating independently). This is a new government bureaucracy that is costing the government a fortune and as near as I can tell delivering on very little. What’s scary is that they get away with it solely because the Religious Right who felt disenfranchised by Bill Clinton’s administration and actions appreciate the fact that GW cites God in almost every speech he gives and action he performs.

WTH? I’m of a slightly agnostic bent (not atheist… I don’t have the conviction required for that!) and I believe that generally God is not involved in the day to day activities of human kind. My viewpoint is that he / she / it / they created man and sort of sent us on our merry way. They check in on us, but we can’t cite God as a factor in our lives because said entity is not directly involved. Anyone who claims to act for God is therefore trying to absolve themselves of blame when the proverbial crap hits the spinny thing.

I also believe absolutely in evolution… rather than claim that it replaces God (which is a ridiculous notion and quite the opposite of what Darwin intended… anyone who claims that is no better than those who claim the Bible creation story is the absolute truth). I believe instead that evolution is the process by which God created… and is in fact still creating us as well as every other species on Earth. Perhaps it is true that God created us in his image… but who’s to say that he’s done yet? When building something we don’t create something spontaneously; it must be designed, constructed and perfected. That takes time… who’s to say God is done yet.

Note that I use God here as a catch-all term… whether you’re a believer in a single God or a pantheist… as I said I have an open mind so I won’t judge either way. It’s not that I’m afraid to decide; rather I just feel that we should not assign arbitrary labels to something that we cannot by default understand. Calling it he, she, they, or even it does not adequately convey what God may be; rather God is beyond our current level of understanding and therefore defies labeling.

Sorry… just got a little off on a rant today. I’ve just had a couple of days where I’ve been talking about these subjects with friends so I find myself wanting to post. Comments and feedback welcome!