Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Wise beyond Years

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson
 
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Thomas Jefferson
 
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson

Friday, September 12, 2008

Socialism 101

As many of you probably know Obama is being called a socialist ... a marxist. After reading the definition I must admit, the claims are not unfounded.

What is socialism?

Socialism is an economic system characterized by public ownership and centralized planning of all major industries (manufacturing, services, and energy), banks and insurance companies, agribusiness, transportation, the media, and medical facilities. Under capitalism, these giant enterprises dominate the economy but are privately owned and operated for the purpose of generating wealth for their owners by extracting it from working people who are paid only a small fraction of what their labor produces. Socialism turns this around so that the class that produces the wealth can collectively decide how it will be used for the benefit of all.

As African American poet and communist Langston Hughes wrote in "Good Morning, Revolution":

…Together,
We can take everything:
Factories, arsenals, houses, ships,
Railroads, forests, fields, orchards…
And turn 'em over to the people who work.
Rule 'em and run 'em for us people who work.

Real socialism is, by definition, democratic. It is economic as well as political democracy. Many capitalist countries boast of their democratic institutions, but this is an illusion because all the political power is in the hands of those who hold the wealth. Socialism prioritizes human needs and eliminates the profit motive that drives war, ecological destruction, and inequalities based on gender, race, nationality and sexuality.

Like capitalism, socialism must be international so that global resources can be shared. No country can be truly independent of the global economy because until capitalism is defeated internationally it will continue to sabotage efforts to build socialism. Achieving socialism in the United States, the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, is necessary to any country being able to determine its own destiny.

Types of socialism

Most socialists identify themselvesas Marxists in recognition of Karl Marx, who discovered the economic laws underlying capitalism. Marx and his lifelong collaborator Frederick Engels laid the foundation of Marxist economics, the philosophical concept of dialectical materialism, and the method of social analysis known as historical materialism.


Leninism denotes the concepts of a disciplined, revolutionary party and the principled, intransigent vision of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, key leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution. Lenin's works on imperialism, the nature of the state, and the rights of national minorities are essential components of the socialist tradition.


Trotskyism is the continuation of the Marxist and Leninist current led by Leon Trotsky, co-leader with Lenin of the Russian Revolution. When the Stalinist bureaucracy rose to power in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s, Trotsky rallied an international Left Opposition against the betrayal of the revolution's goals. Trotskyism stands for Permanent Revolution, internationalism, and the strategy of the united front against fascism. Trotsky was murdered by a Stalinist assassin in 1940.


Socialist feminism was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by founders of the
Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. It is a Marxist, Leninist, and Trotskyist tendency that acknowledges that the most oppressed sector of the modern working class is composed of women, particularly women of color, whose life experience of exploitation gives them the strength and determination to carry through a revolution against all forms of oppression. Socialist feminists recognize the revolutionary leadership of workingclass women, people of color, and queers, and others multiply afflicted by capitalism. Socialist feminists orient to grassroots, rank-and-file women and men rather than to the predominantly white male aristocrats of labor who make up the union bureaucracy.


Several currents that emerged from the socialist and communist movements have lost their revolutionary character and misstate the basic principles of socialism's founders. These include: social-democrats, socialist reformers who support mere electoral revision of the capitalist system; Stalinists, who arose out of the Soviet bureaucracy as supporters of Stalin's brutal dictatorship and who advocate peaceful co-existence with capitalism and immersion in bourgeois parties; and Maoists, China-oriented Stalinists, who frequently describe themselves as Marxist-Leninists.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

9/11 Tribute

If you can watch this video and it not move you, then I guess you have a legitimate reason why we should not be fighting terrorism ... maybe you are the problem! I know people are saying America deserved the attacks but the truth is we did not deserve the attack ... no country deserves to be attacked no country deserves to have innocent people die for no reason. This was a senseless attack by terrorist whose only goal in life is to kill all Americans ... not just some ... ALL!

Some will argue that we are in Iraq killing innocents so my statements aren't valid ... I say they are. We weren't out looking for this war, it was brought to us. Our soldiers are fighting for our right to remain a free nation & after the hell terrorist have put Americans through I say HELL NO to any suggestion of sitting down & having a peaceful talk. The time for talk has come & gone. This retired soldiers wife will never forget the intrusions that hateful radicals have brought into my life ... all  American lives!

You can't be against terror then prematurely pull our troops out before their job is complete. Remember Clinton pulled out to early & the terrorist came back stronger & meaner than ever. No one wants a war but sometimes it is necessary to not only keep our nation free but to keep the evil hatred from stepping on our soil again.

I'm sure people reading this who are supporting Obama are saying he is right, we should pull out! Well, to you I say this; the surge wasn't supposed to be successful but OMG ... it is. We're winning the war on terror thus making more than just our nation a better place to live. No one wants to live in fear ... not even the people who were under the rule of Saddam Hussein. People seem to forget why we went there in the first place ... it wasn't originally because of WMD, it was because he was suspected of harboring terrorist.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Human Digestive System

In the digestive system, undigested food is converted into a form that can be absorbed into the circulatory system for distribution and utilization by the various tissues of the body. This is accomplished, physically, by the mouth chewing and the stomach churning, and mentally by secretions and enzymes of the gastrointestinal tract. Beginning at the mouth, all food passes through the alimentary canal, which includes the, pharynx, stomach, intestines and esophagus, before it reaches the anus, where the remaining undigested food passes to be removed as waste. The outer walls of the digestive tract are composed of layers of muscles and tissues. The inner lining holds glands that secrete enzymes that are necessary to break down food.