Rick Raw: Taliban Cut Off Fingers of Afghan Voters–Religious Fanatics Gone Mad

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

The Taliban are examples of a group of fanatics whose religious beliefs turned to hysteria, allowing this twisted gaggle of ignorant peasants to use their warped religious dogma as an excuse to commit atrocities. When anyone accepts religious dogma as gospel, it limits their thinking.

The Taliban have degenerated way beyond their dogma’s limitations. They have established a dark evil cult of incredible restrictions imposed on those unfortunate enough to fall under their rule. They want to send the world back to medieval times–an unenlightened world in which they tell everyone what to do, imprison women in their houses, and not allow them to seek education. It’s like Charles Manson took over a region of the Mideast.

After 9/11, the United States sent its special forces into Afghanistan to direct the ensuing bombing campaign. Along with a devastating smart bomb initiative, we practically wiped out these rag-tag insurgents known as the Taliban. However, the Bush administration invaded Iraq, leaving Afghanistan to fend for itself. Over that interim, the Taliban regrouped in the lawless land just over the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Now we are paying the price of neglecting Afghanistan for the takeover of Iraq. Recently, U.S. forces have gained ground on the Taliban strongholds, causing significant enemy casualties. However, the Taliban linked up with al Qaeda to present a formidable force to challenge our troops in the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan. Every gain comes at the price of heavy U.S. casualties.

This evil cabal needs killing with extreme prejudice. The Taliban along with al Qaeda will not be allowed to take over any part of the globe. Sadly, though, the youth of these backward countries are being brainwashed into a fanatical Jihad with the West by Mullahs who distort the teaching of Mohammad to justify their cause.

These mind control experts entice the boys with visions of 72 virgins when they get to paradise and other ridiculous incentives. Of course, for these improvished youth, dying and having sex with 72 virgins seems more fun than living in an ox-cart society with no hope for the future.

The Taliban’s level of religious fanaticism reached critical mass when they chopped off the index fingers of Afghan voters. This incident exemplifies how a group of deadheads, who accept a distorted form of dogma, can drive them into complete insanity.

These louts injected their sick beliefs into their interpretation of the Qur’an, which could be any twisted idea that pops into their empty heads. The say, "Oh yeah, women should never speak, lest they cause horney Arabs get sexually excited. Cover them up, make them stay in their homes, and beat them if they break any of the rules. Yeah, that’s makes perfect sense–it’s in the Qur’an!"

For the sake of the civilized world, killing them all is the only answer to the problem. The U.S. Marines are working hard to do just that–terminate these dim-witted barbarians as soon as possible. Set their beards on fire, and cut off their index fingers before killing them. Better yet, cut off their penises so they have nothing to offer the 72 virgins in paradise.

Rick Raw: Poverty is The Root of All Social Ills–Economic Collapse Created a New Class of Poor

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

In a Chicago hospital, the head doctor of Emergency Medicine said that all their gun shot wounds and people without insurance coming into the ER for help come from the poorest neighborhood in Chicago. Multiply this statement by every major city in America and there is no doubt that poverty breeds all social ills. The statistics show that African-Americans and Hispanics make up the largest group of impoverished Americans.

There are over 3 million people incarcerated in American prisons–the largest group of imprisoned people in the world. The majority of these people are black or Hispanic. Not surprisingly, this group came from poverty, that led them into gangs, murder, and crime. Thus, common sense tells us that solving the poverty problem in America will help solve its bastard children–crime, sickness, drug addiction, gangs, and hopelessness.

Greatly exacerbating the problem of poverty in America is the rise of the new poor, who used to be middle class but were swept up in the economic apocalypse. They lost their homes and suddenly found themselves living among the long term poor in apartment complexes and trailer parks.

For these newly impoverished, adjusting to this new reality was a traumatic occurrence. They’re comfortable middle class existence suddenly ended and they were forced to face a day-to-day existence trying to make ends meet with very little money. For the first time in their lives, they could empathize and understand the underclass. It was a rude awakening.

Indeed, the long term underclass has for decades been neglected and chastised by the smug middle and upper classes as slackers and moochers, living off the welfare system. They were criticized as unambitious and a drain on productive society.

Of course, now that these same people are walking a mile in the underclass’ shoes, they see that poverty traps people into a black hole, especially now that the opportunities for the new poor to pull themselves out of their poverty are nonexistent. In fact, companies are still laying people off and the job market is abysmal.

Poverty is a virus, it multiplies and weakens the individual. The young people see no opportunities and drift into crime. Their music feeds their paranoia with angry gansta rap, giving them a modicum of hope that they might be able to start a rap group as a way out of the poverty trap. They see Jay-Z and other rap stars living the high life and they want to join that club. But, the genre is overcrowded with wannabes. So, they drop out of school and turn to crime.

Influential blacks and Hispanics are starting special programs in the ghettos across America to help young people learn trades like welding, helping them to get jobs and start productive lives. There are government sponsored programs for the new poor to learn green trades like building wind turbines. However, these programs have only scratched the surface of the problem.

For the long suffering underclass and the new poor alike, any solution will not happen soon enough. The burgeoning new underclass face enormous challenges to pull themselves out of this post-apocalyptic world. Finding a path to prosperity again involves each individual keeping a positive attitude and thinking creatively. The biggest obstacle is not getting discouraged or depressed.

Being broke kills ones’ self esteem and pride. For the victims of the financial apocalypse, there is always hope in the future. Perhaps the solutions that ultimately help the new poor will give the long term underclass new inspiration to change their lives. Poverty is curable.

Rick Raw: Coping with Death in Unconventional Ways

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Recently a close friend of mine, Teddy Washington, died at 80 years old. Instead of feeling sad, I wrote a laudatory piece celebrating his life. As I’ve gotten older, many of my friends and loved ones have passed away.

Over this grief stricken interim, I developed unconventional ways of coping with death. Of course, I realize that everyone handles the passing of a friend or loved one in different ways. There is no right or wrong way to grieve.

However, I’ve tried to lessen the devastating sorrow and sadness from the grieving process. It has worked for me, so perhaps, it might be of value to my readers. Thus, I will share what I’ve learned.

In the early 1980s, my son was killed in a terrible motorcycle accident, a few years later my mom died. Three years after that my father left the earth. During that decade, I learned about the five stages of grief, which left me depressed and seeking grief counseling.

Since I do not believe any the religious dogma of any church, I’m not bound by any tradition. I avoid funerals because they are about the death itself. I prefer to celebrate the person’s life and his or her accomplishments. The dead have left the earth and exist on the other side in a non-physical reality.

Much to my Catholic relatives chagrin, (who are now all dead) I believe in cremation and getting the actual mechanics of death out of the way as soon as possible. Then, instead of a funeral, a celebration party for the deceased is a more uplifting way of sending them off.

The Irish wake is a great tradition. The sooner the person is cremated and in an urn, the better, with no viewing or other time and money wasting symbolic rituals. The soul is gone, leaving an empty decaying heap of cells behind. Burn it to ashes.

When my son, Jimmy died, he was just 17 years old. He had many friends in high school. So, I invited his friends out to the St. Augustine beach where they surfed and we had a little celebration of life party. We then spread his ashes in the ocean. His young friends were thankful and felt it was what he would have wanted.

Don’t get me wrong, just because I don’t believe in the limiting dogma of religion, it doesn’t mean I’m not a spiritual person. I believe in a higher power–the force, as it were-- and the afterlife, without all the symbolism of religions.

Yes, and I believe in good and dark forces. More significantly, I believe that hate can turn into evil and destroy a person’s life. Twisted killer teenagers, Klebold and Harris, who committed the Columbine massacre, let their teen angst and hatred turn into pure evil. Indeed, evil stalks the earth in the bodies of serial killers, rapists, and pedophiles.

In my life, coping with the loss of my son was the hardest thing I’ve had to get over. The grief almost destroyed me. But, I got help and became much more philosophical about death.

We live, we die, and our death can happen any time. The clock is ticking. Just the other day, celebrated filmmaker, John Hughes was taking a stroll in NYC and just dropped dead.

Death is part of life and we must come to terms with it. As I live into my old age, death gets closer. But, I don’t dwell on it. I live in the moment, trying to be as productive as I can and "shower the people I love with love."

Every day I spread my joy of living and my burning love to my wife, my dogs, and others I meet. If people need religion, its fine with me. Whatever gets one through the day is okay. It all gets us to the same place–faith in a higher power and the afterlife, however we symbolize it.

It is possible to channel grief into positive energy, reducing the time it holds us down. But, like I said, there is no right or wrong way to grieve. I do recommend that people who are grieving seek professional help. It made all the difference for me. Now, I look at death more positively. After all, it’s everyone’s destiny.

Rick Raw: Moon or Mars Debate Underscores NASA’s Impotence–The Space Race Drove the Moon Landing Initiative 40 Years Ago

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

During the 1960s, America’s space program was propelled by the fear that Russia would get to the moon first or establish satellites with nuclear missiles pointing down on America. President Kennedy resolved that would never happen.

Thus, the "Space Race" began. America was willing and able to spend any amount of money to beat the Russians in technology and to the moon by 1969. This fear driven space race initiative fueled the entire space program.

Thousands of engineers and scientists were hired by aerospace companies nationwide, including me. The brightest minds in America were concentrated on achieving a manned space mission to the moon, as Kennedy said, "Not because it was easy, but because it was hard." But he didn’t say was," we’ll beat those godless Russians to the moon no matter what we have to do."

The cold war paranoia of Soviet aggression created the motivatioin to advance technology in that short span of time to achieve our moon mission. Incredibly, that was 40 years ago, and the best we could do since then was build the lumbering beast called the Space Shuttle–a big rocket truck to haul supplies to the International Space Station. We could have skipped that whole program and launched the Mars initiative with the money spent on the Space Shuttle program.

However, now there is no driving force to get the money from our lawmakers on the Hill. We are drowning in red ink funding the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our national debt is over 11 trillion dollars. More importantly, there is no strong will to have a big thriving space program, given all our other domestic problems demanding our time and money.

Imagine if alien beings landed across the globe in their giant starships and made demands on our freedoms, you can bet that our government would be throwing money at every new technology to fight them.

Ah yes, astronauts who were involved with Project Apollo (the moon landing initiative) are nostalgic about the cold war, which enabled them to go into space. We need an enemy to justify spending large amounts of money on space exploration.

Today, there is a debate among NASA officials over whether we should go back to the moon or mars? The first man on the moon, Neil Amstrong and his partner Buzz Aldrin (the second man on the moon) are advising NASA to nix the moon mission and concentrate on a manned Mars mission.

Aldrin said that we’ve been to the moon 40 years ago, (been there, done that). it’s time to explore Mars. Aldrin has been an especially outspoken supporter of following "Star Trek’s" motto: "To boldy go where no man has gone before."

Yes, "space is the final frontier" and NASA is weak and impotent since its funding has slowly dried up over the years. But it’s important to move forward with exciting new adventures into space.

The research into these high-tech adventures leads to new scientific discoveries that ultimately enhance our lives here on earth. In a few years, the Shuttle Program will end and new technologies like the Space Plane, which uses a new form of propulsion called the pulse jet can take off fly outside the Earth’s atmosphere then land under power back at Cape Kennedy.

The International Space Station can be used as a launching base for future space missions to Mars and beyond. Ah yes, but who will pay for it. America is broke and deeply in debt. But we can still dream. Perhaps we can encourage Russia to rise up to its old Cold War glory and once again threaten our freedom, thus driving us to beat them at all costs.

Our new motto: Bring back the Cold War and the Soviet threat. Then the old phrase: We must beat the Russians into deep space would inspire a new space race. It’s our only chance.