A Quick Note on Changed Views.

The last 6 months have almost been life-changing, I've discovered a new view on the world that I never had before. In changing my major from Nursing to International Studies I have a whole new interest in politics, international development, the UN, current wars, natural disasters and diplomacy. The complexity of this tangled web of world affairs has indeed served a challenge for me to understand, not only that, but to form my on liberal opinions on such matters. I have not only changed in this sense, but a religious sense as well. With the influence of great and brilliant friends, I have come to learn that there is no God. No Allah, no Absolute Being,  no Divine Creator, no Yahweh or Lord. There is just the bright and brilliant universe that has evolved over the billions of years. I put it in the sense of, why would a God, make the wonders and the complexity of the universe, to just pay attention to us? To listen to our prayers? To take some people to the great beyond which is heaven and not others? Why do we look to the bible, a 2000 year old book, that contains so many contradictions to live our lives off of? It doesn't make sense. The entire philosophy of life is so much bigger than that, so much more amazing. The evolution and concept of time and what it has accomplished is so perplex that it cannot even be fathomed by the human mind. And now that I have come to realize this, this burdensome weight of God has come off my shoulders, it's a breath of fresh air. I no longer worry about if God will be mad at me if I sin, or if the eternity of my afterlife will be spent in Heaven or Hell. There is no such thing, no such evidence. Because now that I have shed this weight I can focus on the true philosophy of life taught by our great leaders, scientists, geniuses, and Buddha. All atheists. 

"Thus I came...to a deep religiosity, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached a conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true....Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience...an attitude which has never left me." -Albert Einstien

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." - Albert Einstein

"The first requisite of the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion." -Karl Marx

 "Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense."
– Chapman Cohen

"The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window."  

-Stephen King

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." - Seneca 
“Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual; and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.” -Albert Einstein

Its been a little long overdue to stop believing at the ripe age of 20. Especially versus Einstein who figured it out at 12, but it's better late than never. I am about to divulge myself into my area of study, and figure out what to specialize in, and what I want to accomplish in life. Everything, what I will learn, study, explore, dissect, seems so much bigger now than it was before, so much more important. In the absence of a God, life has such a greater meaning. I have lost friends from this, but I try not to look back. I have really meditated on the fact that such things as lost friendships, lost relationships, lost material items and a wonderful childhood that is never coming back really bothered me in the past. I was always trying to make people happy, trying to fix things that were never meant to be fixed. But now I move past it, and think that I was grateful to have such an experience. And as fast as it came, it left just as fast. Nevertheless I am still faced with a lifetime of learning, and at the end of it all, I just want wisdom and a great sense of accomplished knowledge.

How the Stimulus Package Works: Some good examples.

A good example on how the Stimulus Package works. In the economist view of politics, I am still a beginner and still learning. And examples like this and the video I put up gives me and I hope everyone a clearer view of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0lc1dg8MVg

The Situation Room

Can I just express how intense this picture is? The Situation room holds the few that knew about the spring on Osama bin Laden, and here, they wait to here how the Navy SEALS carried out there job. Awesome.

Final Thoughts by Michael Moore:

This is what Moore had to say on his Twitter:

" I want to point out that Barack Obama took two years to do what Bush couldn't do in over seven. That's the difference between STUPID in charge and SMART in charge. STUPID pursues two reckless wars, lets OBL escape from Tora Bora, keeps looking for him in caves and invades the wrong country. He bankrupts us to the tune of $1.2 trillion for the Iraq War (it will eventually actually be over $3 trillion), and worse, he cost us the lives of almost 5,000 of our troops, not to mention hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan – and, after all that, he STILL couldn't bring the perp to justice. In fact, in 2005, Bush closed down the CIA station that was devoted to looking for bin Laden! What does SMART do? He sends in a small elite strike force, no troops are killed, and the perpetrator is stopped for good."

Michael Moore has pointed out that it's true Obama did what Bush certainly couldn't do. This is certainly an advantage to Obama for his upcoming 2012 campaign. But as for other subjects such as healthcare and the trillion dollar deficit, well, that's another story. Let's hope Obama can succeed in these like he has on the war. I have an immense amount of hope in Obama, and I feel like he really hasn't done what he could do. Let's just hope this will change.

Osama bin Laden is dead... now what?

Back to the question, what will now happen politically, economically, and internationally now that Osama bin Laden is dead? We should first focus on al Qaeda and it's intentions. From the looks of it, we will continue to have a war with al Qaeda, whether bin Laden is dead or alive. He was the founder, and a great leader, but was not the main coordinator for al Qaeda. In recent years, bin Laden is thought to have had little control of the group he founded. Instead, much of the original group's core operations are through to have been run by Ayman al-Zawahri, who is also thought to be hiding in Pakistan.  There are numerous leaders now, that will take the reigns and almost certainly continue a war with the United States. That is, as long as the U.S. remains in the Middle East. By the end of July, President Obama is said to be pulling and unknown amount of the soldiers out of Afganistan. It's definitely a start, and people (especially some of the ignorant all out Americans) need to realize that there cannot be an immediate withdraw of all U.S. conventional forces from the Middle East now that bin Laden is dead. We will, and will probably always be at war with Islamic terrorists, but does that mean we will continue to stay where we are not welcome? Continue war with al-Qaeda as long as they exist? No, we can't, and Obama as well as the rest of the world, knows we can't.

Robert H. Reid: Huffington Post on American involvement.

"Al-Qaida's attacks in the U.S. on 9-11 plunged America into war – first in Afghanistan where the terror movement was headquartered and later in Iraq, which President George W. Bush described as the "central front in the war on terror." Ironically, however, the death of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is expected to have little immediate effect on either conflict.
The war in Iraq, which cost more than 4,450 American lives, was winding down long before elite Navy SEALs gunned down bin Laden in his Pakistan hideout. Unless the Iraqi government changes its mind and asks the Americans to stay longer, the last 50,000 U.S. troops will be gone by the end of this year. Even if they stay, the U.S. role has changed from active combat to training and supporting the Iraqi armed force, which still faces diminished threat from al-Qaida and other insurgent groups, some of which are backed by Iran."

Yes! Let's agree that this is not a war we want to be in. An excellent strategy would be for immense support of the Iraqi armed forces, to train them and to have them as a strong ally with NATO and U.S. forces. This is what American forces need to do: Implementing SOFT POWER! Matter is all in the mind, but in a religious cult such as al-Qaeda, where there religious views are seen as absolute truth, this breaking of there psychological mindset is proven to be a challenge.

What will happen now Osama bin Laden is dead...

I am so glad that I am alive for a special moment in history like this. I don't take great pride as an American, nor glorify bin Laden's brutal downfall, but because this epic historic moment will lead to branches of ideas and opinions from the politcal and international world. It all goes back to why we are in war in the first place, because of bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda. What will happen now? Will we pull troops out? Will we always be at war with al Qaeda?

So many questions to answer, but we must wait to gather more opinions.

But first to address the ignorance of people with Obama taking credit for the death of Osama bin Laden. In his speech on May 1, 2011, he was briefed a couple weeks back about the whereabouts of bin Laden, that he was hiding in a mansion 40 miles outside the capital of Pakistan. The Navy Seals involved were under a  covert operation and keeping close watch on the mansion. After weeks of briefing, they Seals found the perfect opportunity to capture and kill bin Laden: Operation Geronimo. As a commander-of-chief, President Obama gave the go ahead to kill bin Laden. He took no more credit than that, and as the commander-of-chief, he did his job, just like any president would. Let me repeat, as the commander-of-chief of all U.S. conventional armies, President Obama did his job.

Will write later..