When city officials and heads of state bid for global sporting events, it seems the desire of winning titles such as “home of the 2010 World Cup”, becomes the priority over the welfare of the public who live and work in the shadows of the sporting venues. With the kickoff of the World Cup 2010 today in South Africa, the news coming from the country that has been socially, politically, and economically ravaged for many years is that this trend of popularity over human dignity continues to thrive.

The inhabitants of Mataffin – a district of shanties in the northeastern town of Nelspruit, with many who live everyday without electricity, running water, and who use any hollow vessel they might have to scoop water from mud puddles, watched on helplessly as their two primary schools were closed to their children, and taken over by construction engineers for the zoning of a 46,000 seat soccer stadium. Decked in safari flare with zebra striped seating, and being suspended by 18 metal structures stretched to resemble giraffes, the nearly $150 million Mbombela Stadium will be host to 4 cup matches totaling 6 hours of soccer. Without a national team of their own to use the stadium once the games have ended, the townspeople will be left with a monstrous reminder of an unattainable life of opportunity, and waste; a hollow super-structure born from hollow promises.

When the land owners sold the grounds, the people in Mataffin were told they would be given improved infrastructure, with new roads, electricity, plumbing, and new schools for their children. Instead they spent three years learning in boxes like trailers made of tin before a new school was built. The roads were never built, and the electricity and plumbing were never installed.

James Maseko, deputy chairman of the ward committee for Mataffin, said, “The authorities still say they will keep their promises, but the community is not sure it’s going to happen. When tourists visit, I think they will try to keep them away from the poor. I feel bad about that because this situation needs to be improved. The only way to improve it is to let others in the world see the situation.”

The situation worsened, however, when the people started holding public protests. One instance, in which the police interfered, turned violent as the protesters burned tires and a police car was torched. The police fired rubber bullets into the crowd, wounding many elderly and children who mingled amongst the protesters. Nhlesiphi Mathebula, an elderly woman whose only crime was to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, was beaten with the butt of a police officer’s rifle, as she stood at her front gate concerned and only trying to spot her grandchildren. And as if this wasn’t ugly enough, the violence spiraled further as a string of murders of people related to the situation were later uncovered.

Sadly for the hopes of Mr. Maseko the world is largely unaware of the situation, because the news that came from the host nation as they prepared for the World Cup 2010 was hardly reported upon. Besides, most people have grown so accustomed to the inhumanity that seems to plague the African continent that most reports pass right through our consciousness like water through a sieve. And many of the neighborhoods that lie adjacent to the other stadiums hosting World Cup matches scattered across South Africa were by no means immune to the pre-games strife.

Just outside of Cape Town is a shanty-town called Blikkiesdorp – the “tin can town”, to where thousands of the urban poor are being forcefully relocated so as to avoid being a blight on the landscape en route to Cape Town Stadium, where 9 cup matches are scheduled. Four families must share one toilet and a water tap in Blikkiesdorp, and those who refuse to move there are under the threat of imprisonment. Though ensured by the authorities that the relocation would only be temporary, many of the inhabitants have been there for years now, without any sign they’ll be able to return from where they came.

The practice of disguising reality is common amongst nations holding sporting events that will be broadcast worldwide. Who could forget the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, when the authorities grew embarrassed by the homeless people living in the vicinity of the event-grounds, and so used some of their budget money to purchase suits and ties in which to disguise them. If only the officials in South Africa could be as peacefully humiliating.

Many Christians believe that morality is born from the 10 Commandments, and that those who do not have a personal relationship with their God cannot possibly be moral individuals. This might be the reason that members of the Texas School Board feel it’s perfectly acceptable to indoctrinate their children into the school of fear and superstition; ultimately training their minds to be void of reason.

Thanks to global information being available with the click of a finger, the issue of “fear”, that is the driving force behind the search for an individual’s spiritual connection to the almighty unknown, is dissolving further each day. This comes even as the fear of our disruptive planet is growing with every natural and man-made disaster that is brought into our living rooms by way of the television each night.

Most people who hold faith in gods will argue against the notion that they harbor any “fear”; they know what they believe in, and that actually provides comfort for them rather than fear. But if it’s not from fear, then why believe in gods; why not let curiosity thrive and allow the search for truth to continue? With this question we are brought right back to “fear”, for those who use “God” as their answer to what is still a mystery to us, either fears the unknown, or fears science finding another instance where God is not the answer. The thought of dying without fulfilling a life’s purpose is a monumental fear of many. Likewise, dying without having someplace to go is as equally significant. Without the careful, and directing hand of a god these things are simply unattainable.

Now, in the age of hyper-information, we are given the opportunity to learn what the world outside the small town is all about. We no longer have to be led by spiritual guides as we learn that morals are not god’s gift, but purely instinctual. The global movement of Humanists is a perfect example of people living perfectly moral lives without gods. Of course, there will always be those who have chemical imbalances, and who might very well have an altered view of the right and wrong ways to treat all things great and small. And those effected by these imbalances are woven throughout every belief system, since they are essentially woven throughout the genes of the individual.

In some unfortunate parts of our nation, these people who have a great fear of science’s ever-progression toward truth, are fighting back tooth and nail. The really don’t want to know that their lives are without purpose, and that everything they’ve always held as truth was entirely false. They don’t want to learn that it’s a fact that we share a common ancestry with monkeys, and sure don’t want to  learn that the more liberally-minded Americans were right all along. They are so fearful of what they may learn that they chose to break commandment by lying to their own children, so they’ll remain fearfully ignorant to reality.

Just last week we watched the Texas School Board - mostly made up of people whose experience as historians is zilch - reform our children’s history books so their kids will be kept from learning factual information. They have the Separation of Church and State – specifically implied within our First Amendment rights so as to keep government out of churches, and churches out of government – nagging at their beliefs, because they want to instill only their religion into our laws. They want nothing more than to close off everyone’s mind to everything but their own beliefs, and influence a nation to be as lost on the road of progress as they are. 

Our forefathers knew one thing; they would form our government to be free of religious preference. Now they’re being demonized by “educators” of our nation’s history. To keep people of a specific religion from having the same access to “All men are created equal,” the Christian right would gladly rewrite the Constitution, as we saw in their support for George W. Bush’s pen when it struck Habeas Corpus from the writ.

If the Texas School Board members held no fear of the legitimacy of their beliefs, they would not fight back so hard against knowledge, and would simply instill God into their children by taking them to Sunday School, as opposed to creating laws that force their dogma into the Public School.

Of course, members of the Tea Party movement throughout America could never connect their views and desires to the support of Venezuela’s own Hugo Chavez. To reach that conclusion it takes thinking through a short series of steps and the utilization of common sense.

The anti-Democratic crowd of Tea Partiers share in common the anti-government regulation, pro free-market sentiment that has spread throughout this nation like an infestation of Kudzu. They believe that anything the government touches dissolves into corruption, and though they will never cease to vote for “new” government officials – as if the new breed of politicians who hold a disdain for all things Washington will make Washington disappear by disbanding the house and senate, before heading home to collect unemployment… or something. They hold the “right to free operation” for corporations very dear to their heart. Essentially, they give full support to foreign corporations running our country – British Petroleum, Spanish owned highways and tolls, Chinese owned ports, Chavez’s Citgo….

Though Wall Street banks were mostly responsible for crashing our economy, and sending it into the toilet-flush like a bunch of Scrubbing Bubbles, Tea Partiers believe the same bankers should be free to operate as they choose to, and mostly rail against the recently passed regulations set for our financial institutions. They protest the regulation of the healthcare industry who charge so high a fee for their services that people are literally left homeless in order to afford to stay alive. Likewise, the Tea Party members believe in leaving the oil industry alone to operate as freely as they want to. The Tea Party hero of Kentucky, Rand Paul, stated that President Obama is un-American because he chastised BP for causing a global crisis.  They essentially believe in allowing the free-market to operate away from the prying eyes of the Federal Government, thinking that once the Feds move in all will go awry.

Tea Party supporters seem to be blind to the reality in front of their eyes – the true workings of the unregulated free market as their own shorelines become drenched in BP’s product. Of course, it isn’t BP’s fault because BP executives told us it wasn’t. They blamed it on Transocean – the rig’s operators. Transocean blamed it on Halliburton for installing faulty parts, who blamed it on BP, and just when we thought the round-robin of fingerpointing was over, we come to find out that BP flatly lied to the public with their original estimation of 5,000 barrels flowing from the Gulf of Mexico daily by over 8 times the amount. America is left with a saturated shoreline – decimated wetlands, and tributaries, and a hope that “…maybe by August,” BP will have the leak capped. They’re unregulated free-market giants who are without enough integrity to accept responsibility. Since they have the ability to push blame elsewhere, even the individuals at fault will never be held accountable for their actions, as that would indicate an admittance to internal failure. Why would they want to hold anyone accountable anyway? Why should they? They’re backed by a large body of politicians and their tea-bag adorned constituents.

One of these giants in the American oil industry is Citgo. The oil company that could be likened to being the Wal-Mart of gas stations is owned by the Venezuelan government, namely Hugo Chavez. Being the dictator that he is, Chavez is despised by the portion of the American poplulation who thinks we have a right in telling other nations how to operate. If a nation’s people are content enough to live beneath the rule of a monarch, Tea Partiers freely speak out against it – whether or not the people there are happy. If a person’s religious rites require they wear a garment that is alien to us, and we find that there are laws in their nation that enforce those religious rules, the right wing portion of America feels they have a right to condemn it. Just last year we watched the upheaval of the Iranian citizens finally take to the streets to speak out against what they deemed as a fraudulent election. The right-wing of America – the “let them take care of themselves” crowd – thought it would’ve been better if Barack Obama joined in, and voiced his opinion in support of the people.  

With Hugo Chavez, it isn’t difficult to spur a fight with a member of the Tea Party, simply by mentioning the dictators name with even a hint of favorable tonality. They’ll tell you in a breath that they’d never stop to refuel at a Citgo, yet they rail against President Obama for even mentioning a word about any free-market operation such as Citgo. They see it as the Feds inching toward the thought of free-market regulations. In the way many liberals wanted to see every one of Bush Jr.’s policies fail, so too would the Tea Party members back a corporation’s right to free operation over any federal decision if for only to see the president fail in his endeavors. Unwittingly, this brings them to directly support the Venezuelan dictator and his wholly owned Citgo.

I wonder, if Obama decided that Citgo was no longer allowed to operate in the United States, would the Tea Partiers cry out against forced removal of free enterprise? In the way that we’ve seen the conservatives try and guard the financial industries that drove our economy into the sewer, we could only guess they would.

A team of American scientists, led by Dr. Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland and California, have successfully developed the first synthetic “living” cell, and have set what many are calling a “scientific landmark”.

By injecting what the scientists referred to as synthetic “software” into a host cell, the cell’s qualities take on the role of whatever the software is commanding. Because the cell is self-replicating copies are innumerable; eventually becoming programmable bacteria. The bacteria can be programmed to suck Carbon Dioxide from our air, or to turn into a biological agent to be used in a bomb. It could be fashioned to become fuel, and we can imagine that it won’t take long before they formulate cancer-cell seeking creatures.   

As expected, the news immediately released a backlash from the “bioethics” community, and rightfully so. Not for any reason that “ethics” can even come into play – it shouldn’t be about duelling morality, but about the many instances where we’ve seen scientific means used to quell natural problems fail miserably.

France once introduced foreign plants called Spartina Alterniflora to strengthen their shorelines and protect them from erosion, only to see them flourish to an unmanageable amount. The plants decimated the marine life, and they have been struggling to find a solution to the problem ever since. Many people have a valid argument against vaccinations, for the fear that injecting our children with Polio does nothing more than keep Polio around, and those vaccines that contain mercury, and its potential relation to Autism. There’s the Cane Toad in Australia, and the Tall Fescue. The introduction of invasive species was never the intention. But the intentional introduction of invasive species is exactly the end result.   

Have scientists taken one step closer to inventing computerized worker bugs, or Dr. Frankenstein’s monster? The answer to that is yet to be realized. In the meantime, we should probably demand the invention of the Off switch.

Photo Courtesy of Marcel Marchon

Phil Pagano, the Chief Executive of Chicago’s rail system, Metra, committed suicide this morning when he stepped in front of one of his company’s own commuter trains.

Only one week after the start of an investigation into a $56,000 bonus he received on top of his $260,000 salary, the executive director for 20 years took his life in a manner that would make Franz Kafka’s Officer in his classic “In the Penal Colony” smirk.

Friday morning’s “emergency meeting”, in which his investigation was to be discussed, was cancelled by Metra executives shortly after his body was identified.

On this “National Day of Prayer”, I wonder exactly what so many people pray for. World Peace, or perhaps a sick loved one to finally find comfort in healing? Is some child praying for a new doll, while across the nation another is praying for a new bike? I can only imagine that the focus of these prayers are as numerous and vastly different from one another as the people doing the praying.

For the boxer who thanks God for helping him knockout his opponent, and the basketball player who is praying for a playoff victory, I have to wonder why many aren’t praying to give thanks to this god – granter of all touchdown passes, and bulls-eyes. I wonder how many are praying to be sent home alive from the middle-east, and how many have been praying endlessly for the miracle of a limb to regrow in place of the one that was blown off along some roadside in Iraq. Likewise, I wonder how many are praying for a plague to afflict those of a different religion, or of no religion at all.

In recent news we’ve heard of a new War on Religion, when a court in Wisconsin deemed the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional. Those most upset by the news often complain about their rival religions, and show tremendous fear and uncertainty over the future of their faith. It is understood that many of them believe the National Day of Prayer to be more exclusive to their own religion, especially when directly faced with the prospect of praying along side of someone with opposing views on the subject.

In 2003 the American Humanist Association along with the Washington Area Secular Humanists co-sponsored the National Day of Reason, and set the celebratory date for May 6th – right in the face of those seeking national recognition for praying to omnipotent beings. Though many might see this as a petty act of defiance, some of us view it as more of an instructional alternative. Truly the Day of Reason should be recognized moreso, if only because there are more people in this nation than there are religious people. Since freethinkers generally hold the “come one come all” stance, and openly invite all walks of earthly life, this is a celebration for all as opposed to some. It is a day to recognize the power of humanity when it works toward a common goal, as opposed to breaking off into exclusive groups and worshipping god(s) that are only your own.

There’s nothing that business-folk love more than a thoughtless, or half-witted consumer. Now, I will freely admit to be somewhat ignorant when it comes to oil drilling and the process that crude goes through to where it becomes pumpable gasoline for my car. I’m no oil magnate, and any stock that I might own in oil companies is so few that I’m never even regarded when it comes to proxy voting. And though my status in the industry is reduced to being not much more than that of your ordinary guzzler, there’s an element of common sense I seem to own that has seemingly gone by the wayside within the community of average Joes, and that leaves us constantly bent over the barrels and being pumped by the energy giants.

When news first spread of the Transocean oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, the echoes of “There go gas prices”, reverberated throughout the comment sections of nearly every online article about the incident. The question I asked, “Why?” was largely ignored, and those who did respond did so with little enlightenment – “Cause they’ve got us bent over the barrel, that’s why!”

None of these bloggers seemed to ask that very question, “Why will prices throughout the industry increase, when only one company, BP, who was contracting the Deepwater Horizon rig at the time of the explosion, would suffer from production costs?” None of them even questioned why they don’t question.

The oil industry has rules that we consumers drink up like refined Kool-Aid. One of those rules is that which states that prices increase during the driving-season, namely the summer months. We simply graze on whatever excuse they feed us, and bleat and scratch our heads when we hear of their annual “record-breaking profits”.

Since the most recent oil crisis - when most Americans had either cut their driving to an “as-needed” basis, or took up the art of drafting behind 18-Wheelers on an open highway, we have watched the prices at the pump balloon all over again. We saw that an oil company can lower prices to $2.60 per gallon and still reap billions in annual profits. We learned that when the cost of production for one company increases, others in the same industry will hop on their back and ride the wave of profit right up to shore where the sheep are needy, and too tired to question anymore.

The answer to “Why?” is not because they can, but it’s because we let them.

Since President Obama took office, we’ve been inundated with Tea Party Activists screaming “Where’s my bailout?” in reference to the stimulus money paid to rescue the banks and auto industry, and which was used to successfully reverse the downward slide of the nation’s economy. Well, they finally got what they begged for as they were among the 95% of American citizens who were beneficiaries of some 25 tax cuts enacted by President Barack Obama and the Democratic led Congress, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Out of the 535 members that make up both the House and Senate only 3 Republicans voted in favor of the tax cuts. Yes, 3.

Click here to read how Barack Obama’s continuing efforts to bring America back from the brink of financial disaster equates to Americans paying the second lowest amount in federal taxes since 1955. It’s only too bad these same Tea Partiers now have to believe tax cuts are un-American.

photo courtesy of dogreat.com

After spending a multitude of millions on bussing semi-educated Americans around the country to disrupt town-hall meetings, and on lobbyists to workover our “representatives”, the free market health insurers do nothing to hide their corrupt practices.

Click here to read up on how those “innocent capitalists” are twisting the books to prevent lowering costs, and from spending your money on your healthcare.

“There are some advantages to experience, and knowledge, and judgment,” John McCain said at the first presidential debate. He went on to say, “I honestly don’t believe that Senator Obama has the knowledge or experience and has made the wrong judgments in a number of areas.” In retaliation to Barack Obama’s attack on his judgment, McCain sought to drill the issue again when he stated, “But, also, I have the ability, and the knowledge, and the background to make the right judgments, to keep this country safe and secure.” The truth is that John McCain seldom shows America that he understands the definition of having a good sense of judgment. Judgment is a prerequisite to action, and McCain’s flailing, and flip-flopping actions over the past few months speak far more loudly than his words.

Recently we’ve heard a lot coming from the McCain campaign about how he is not afraid to gamble. They say it as if gambling is one of his assets. But as any professional gambler can tell you, it takes a good sense of judgment to stay in the game. A gambler has to know when to hold ‘em, and when to fold ‘em. John McCain’s Vice Presidential pick in Sarah Palin is only one in the stack of chips he has laid out on his roulette table recently, and it seems apparent that his judgment failed as he forgot to cover his bet.

The Republican Party, that only weeks ago regarded Sarah Palin as their messiah, now is reeling in fear for the next time the American press opens her closet, or for the next time she has to open her mouth to answer a question. Since the day she came into the limelight on the stage of American politics, the voters have watched her status plummet into the depths of comedic fodder, since her views seem to be uneducated, misguided, and based off of that Bush-like swaggering ignorance toward both domestic and worldly issues. In short, John McCain showed poor judgment in the highest sense when choosing his running mate, and it is turning out to be another drop in the bucket for McCain’s run of bad luck when gambling.

When a person gambles they first think their way through the game of which they are gambling. If they see that black has come up four consecutive times, there’s a good chance they’ll play the odds and place their chips on red. When sitting at a blackjack table, and after being dealt a face card and a 9, the “gambler” will think to stop instead of taking the stupid risk of getting either an ace or a two. Thought goes into gambling, and those who could see past John McCain’s rhetoric have a clear understanding that he doesn’t “gamble” at all, but only gives a sudden reaction, as if his judgment comes from a nervous twitch as opposed to being born from any cognitive processes.

Recently, John McCain reacted to our economic crisis and told the nation, and the world for that matter, that the fundamentals of our economy were strong, just as we watched Wall Street drag our economy through the floor. If given the benefit of the doubt, we can say that he was “advised” to spout the misinformation by the corporate lobbyists backing his campaign, to which he, in his poor judgment, acted upon. It was a reaction to a crisis, which then became a gamble. If he would have thought through the situation he faced prior to mouthing such an obvious lie, he wouldn’t have had to recant his comment only hours later, when in a second speech said, “I know Americans are hurting, and the fundamentals of our economy are at risk. They’re at risk… Our economy is at risk today.”

Throughout his political career John McCain has flip-flopped on issues to where he now resembles the proverbial fish-out-of-water. Fully admitting to this “gambler” image he has affixed to his “Maverick” persona, who stubbornly supports unpopular issues, and who is ready and willing to take full blame if the issue turns out to be a failure, McCain is proving time and time again that his judgment is far from sound, and often finds himself with no other choice than to flop after he’s flipped. This happens too often to the 72 year old senator, because he, like George W. Bush, is far too stubborn to rethink a bad idea until it’s too late. We have witnessed over the past 8 years how inefficient and dangerous stubborn support over partially examined issues can be, as George W. Bush’s reign in our nation’s highest seat was wrought with them. McCain, like Bush, reacts to issues without ever thinking them through, as he did when he told the press that he wouldn’t sit down to speak to the Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Now having to backpedal, and try to convince Americans that he is the only candidate that could work to regain trust from our allies, McCain has this bruise shining boldly beneath his eye at the pawn shop window, where he’s trying desperately to convince the man behind the counter that it is indeed a Rolex, and that he needs to try and win his money back. It’s hardly a crisis-issue at the moment, but is truly another instance where McCain has proved himself to lack a sense of good judgment.

Perhaps John McCain’s worst judgment call, his biggest gamble, has come through his repeated confession, “We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.” As if he’s trying to play the victim because he’s some new kid on the block. With his initial appointment to change Washington coming 26 years ago, it’s safe to assume that he never had any intention of changing Washington until now: Now during the run up to November 4th, when we will not only vote on the candidate’s policies, but also on their sense of judgment. When you’ve been implanted in Washington D.C. for 26 years you are Washington D.C., and it isn’t so easy to shed yourself of the uniform. And when you make those types of confessions – where you attempt to place the blame on the opposing party, but essentially blame yourself, you can hardly turn it around and expect the masses to place their trust in you, and the strategy that wreaks of poor judgment.