Go Big Or Go Home

Oh, why hello there. How was your Christmas? And New Year's? That's good. Yeah, it was great for me too. I got a Zune and a rice cooker.

I'm just kidding, I'm not actually having a conversation.

So our Readership (her name is Michelle) brought it to my attention today that we haven't updated our blog in awhile. Which is true, I guess. This blog ostensibly deals with atheism and atheism related issues, but really, that quickly degenerates into a Liberal and a Conservative going 'Wauuugh nobody trusts usssss!' As great a blog as that would be, it's time for us to diversify.

Yes, you heard me right: Left Atheist Right Atheist is no longer a religion only blog. It now deals with the opinions of a nonreligious Conservative and a nonreligious Liberal on world events, so many of which are rooted in or complicated by religious faith. So then! Let's get started, shall we?

Oh Snap! It's Iraq Time!

So today President Bush made an announcement: He's sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq with no specific timetable for their withdrawal.

Only, it wasn't so much him that made the announcement as it was a chairman on the Senate Armed Services Committee, a gentleman by the name of Carl Levin. And he didn't even really announce it so much as he said he expects President Bush to make the announcement tomorrow.

For the purposes of the blog, we'll trust Carl Levin and assume that this is all the real deal.

I hate the War in Iraq, and I hate the fat, greedy, stupid, prejudiced men who blindly ignored all reason and got it started. Oh, and we can't forget the women, either (Condoleeza gets so pissy when she's left out, I swear). The entire war is a disgrace to our country and a reckless endangerment of our soldiers, and don't even get me started on what it's done to Iraq. Yes, we've deposed a ruthless dictator, but we've also deposed Law and Order.

That being said, I approve of the decision to send 20,000 more troops there. Woah, that's mind blowingly ker-azy, isn't it?

There's a saying, 'Go big or go home'. Interestingly enough, those are also our present options: Reinforce our troops and finish the job (Go big), or pack it in and leave it to the Iraqi government (Go home). We've had these choices for couple of years now - just the two of them, mind you - and so far the Bush Administration has been living by its own credo, 'Go big or go home or don't do anything at all, and fuck over the environment and gay rights while you're at it'. And yes, you damn bet they picked the third option, much to the consternation of trees, gay people, and the folks who have to contend with 115 degree weather and roadside bombs on a daily basis (the military).

We have about 132,000 troops in Iraq right now, which is not enough. Why do I, an 18 year old with no military experience, say that 132,000 isn't enough? I say that because we can't even control Baghdad, which is one of the strongest concentrations of the US forces in Iraq. If 132,000 troops are in the country and we can't even control the city where we're keeping our central base of operations, how the hell are we supposed to win? We're not doing anything especially beneficial when we can't even keep the streets safe at night. Yes, it's wonderful that we're building schools. Yes, it's wonderful that Saddam is out of power. But if you gave somebody a choice between a free, state of the art school and not having to contend with daily carbombings killing dozens (if not hundreds) of people, I'm pretty sure they're going to go with the latter option!

Long story short: We need the 20,000 extra troops so we can make Iraq secure. That way our troops are safer (larger force), the Iraqis are safer (more patrols), and we might actually make some progress (more boots on the ground gets things done faster). Kudos to the Bush Administration for making the decision. May they never be forgiven for taking so long to do it.


Article: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070109/D8MI1E480.html

Bad Atheist! Sit! Roll Over!

I'm Truman, the Left Atheist. I could introduce myself by giving a long list of hot button political issues and my stance on them, but that'd probably alienate a lot of people - assuming we ever get any readers here in this shady corner of the Interwebs. Just know that I'm Liberal, I don't believe in God, I have incredible hair, and I'm not a robot nor a zombie.

Despite not having any religious faith, I do celebrate Christmas. And, according to a hardcore conservative Christian (I guess you could call her Right Christian, but that's sort of a blanket statement for a lot of the church), I'm a bad atheist because of it. Confused? Well, frankly, so am I. The conversation went something like this:

Right Christian: What, you celebrate Christmas?
Left Atheist: Yeah.
Right Christian: But... You're an atheist!
Left Atheist: That doesn't mean I can't celebrate Christmas.
Right Christian: But Christmas is a Christian holiday!
Left Atheist: Thanks for telling me, I never would've figured that out on my own, what with the name and all.
Right Christian: You're an atheist but you celebrate a Christian holiday... You're a bad atheist! BAD ATHEIST!
[She continues to chant this at me until I pull out my lightsaber and teach her why she should never mess with the person who doesn't have to turn the other cheek]

I have a message for Christians: Don't be so damn greedy. There's enough Christmas for all of us. Why can't we share it? Don't get all up in my nontheistic Kool-Aid about me celebrating Christmas - what does it matter to you? It's not like there's a set quota of Christmas laid out every year, and that my celebrating it is depriving some more deserving Christian family of their share.

Furthermore, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ (even though, yes, apparently Christ was born sometime in the Spring, but I don't see anybody rushing to change the holiday - we'd have to rewrite all the Christmas songs! "Walkin' in a Spring Wonderland"? That's stupid! The words don't even line up with the tune of the original song! And in A Christmas Story it'd be too warm out for the kid to get his tongue stuck to the pole, and... Oh, man, let's just keep Christmas in late December, okay? We owe pop culture that much.). Maybe I don't speak for all atheists here, but I certainly believe that Christ did exist. Frankly, I think Christ was a pretty cool guy, if what I know of his teachings is correct. I don't think he was the son of God, and I'm not exactly crazy about the stuff that his followers have done in his name over the past 2000 years, but that's not what Christmas is about, is it? Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ, something that I believe happened, albeit not on exactly that day. Am I not allowed to celebrate the birth of a truly advanced person simply because I'm not a follower of the religion he went on to create?

Well, actually, I can celebrate pretty much whatever I want. United States, y'see. Freedom of Religion. Woohoo!

But then you may ask, "Say Truman, why don't you celebrate May 4th, Audrey Hepburn's birthday? You do love Audrey Hepburn. You think she was a model of beauty, grace, and conduct." Well, there's two reasons for that. The first is that I'd look damn silly prancing around in Spring saying "Merry Audreymas!" to everyone - I mean, hell, if I'm going to do that, why not just start celebrating Christmas in Spring, and we've already been over why that's a bad idea! The second reason, much more pertinent than the first, is that Christmas is a day of love and cheer throughout the western world. For one day, friends and family meet and share in the collective happiness of December 25th. Gifts are exchanged, food is consumed, and people get a chance to see other people they don't see very often and remember just why they love those people so much in the first place. Who are you, Right Christian, to judge me a Bad Atheist for wanting to take part in this daylong festival of love and good cheer?

People say that Christmas has become too commercialized, and to an extent I guess it has. Go to a department store today. Yeah, you'll get it. Critics claim that because there's so much buying and selling going on, people are forgetting the true meaning of Christmas - Christ and Mary and the Three Wise men, etc. I think what these critics are missing is that while there's a lot of buying and selling at Christmas, there's also a nearly equal amount of giving and receiving. Those gifts are being bought by people as tokens of affection for other people. I bought an apron and a spatula for my girlfriend (relax, she wanted them, I'm not trying to send some message about women and the cult of domesticity), and when she opened the box (early - she talked me into it) and saw what I'd bought her, we had one hell of a Christmas moment. I knew she loved cooking, so I bought her things that would help her do what she loved to do. Also, she knows that I love cookies, so I'm also enabling her to reward me with a cornucopia of delicacies. Score!

What I'm getting at is that Christmas is so much bigger than any one religion. Christmas has become a less a time of Christian celebration and more a time of personal celebration. We unearth fond memories around the dinner table, we watch the same movies that hold the same significance time after time, we're more forgiving, we're more charitable, we're less vengeful, we're less greedy. Christmas started out as a strictly Christian holiday, but now I think that trying to pigeonhole it as a day reserved exclusively for people of one religion is contrary to what the holiday is actually about. Christmas is a day for all of us to reunite with our loved ones, no matter what we believe. Many people include church services and nativity plays in their celebration of the day, just as many others don't. The love and cheer is still there, no matter how the celebration goes.

Right Christian continued to tell me I was a bad atheist, so I told her "Judge not, lest ye be judged." She just pointed and shouted "BAD ATHEIST! BAD ATHEIST!" So right now, I could judge the stuffing out of her and have the Bible on my side the whole time.

But it's Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Right Christian.