What more needs be said?  For the same reasons you shower and gargle mouthwash, you should be as happy as you can for the sake of those around you.  Its a moral obligation.

Once in a great while I get to laud even the NY Times for an article which reveals truth.  In this case, they put it on the front page and unabashedly report that Hamas is hiding behind civilians.  1/9/9 a reporter is doing a story on the emergency room in the Gaza hospital when a doctor is rushed in with a head wound and reporting that Hamas had set up a rocket launcher next to his apartment building and when the Israeli's returned fire in a surgical strike which struck the apartment building, his wife was cut in half and his one year old son was blown to bits.  While he is recording this another patient starts raising a ruckus demanding that he be treated ahead of the more serious injuries.  It turns out the 'vicitim' is a Hamas fighter and wants to get back into the battle and when pressed, says these people should be happy that they have been martyred.  Click on the following title to read the full story.

Fighter Sees His Paradise in Gaza’s Pain

The more normal behavior of the NY Times is represented in this story.  I was thrust into the international limelight when The New York Times and other major media outlets published a photo of me -- bloodied and battered -- crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified me as a Palestinian victim of the new intifada. In fact, however, I am a 20-year-old Jewish student from Chicago, studying at a yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Scroll down to get right to today's topic.

What do I focus on today?  There is so much going on this week, I don't know how to proceed.  Unwed pregnant mother taking office with pride in her unwed status.  State fascism on e-Harmony's business.  Islamic piracy on the high seas missing the Islamic tag in all the news report headlines, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Christian justification of sexual impurity.  A constitutional crisis being ignored by all forms of media save blogs like mine.  Enough nuclear fuel for Iran's first nuclear bomb.  Robert Spencer discussed his new book today, Stealth Jihad.  Sarkozy Pushes for Abandonment of Dollar as World Reserve Currency.  Michael Jackson former king of pop has converted to Islam. 

I've had this sitting on my browser for more than a day intending to get it online but so much else has needed attending.  This is 23 years old and is still applicable today because the Liberal doctrinistas have not updated their playbook in that length of time.

Thomas Sowell published this Dec, 31, 1985 in National Review: 

An English Primer
A glossary translating political rhetoric into plain English

Crisis:  Any situation you want to change.

Bilingual:  Unable to speak English.

Equal Opportunity:  Preferential Treatment.

Non-Judgmental:  Blaming Society.

Simplistic:  An argument you disagree with but can't answer.

Rehabilitation:  Magic word used before releasing criminals.

Demonstration:  A riot by people you agree with.

Mob Violence:  A riot by people you disagree with.

A Matter of Principal:  A political controversy involving the convictions of Liberals.

An Emotional Issue:  A political controversy involving the convictions of conservatives.

People's Republic:  A place where you do what you are told or get shot.

National Liberation Movements:  Organizations trying to create People's Republics.

Competency:  Competence as described by the incompetent.

Stereotypes:  Behavior patterns you don't want to think about.

Reaganomics:  Media explanation of downturns in the economy.

Robust Economy:  Media explanation of upturns in the economy.

Constitutional Interpretation:  Judges reading their own views into the Constitution.

Politicizing the Courts:  Criticizing judges for reading their own views into the Constitution.

A Proud People:  Chauvinists you like.

Bigots:  Chauvinists you don't like.

Innovation:  Something new.

New Innovation:  Something new by someone who doesn't understand English.

Private Greed:  Making money selling people what they want.

Public Service:  Gaining power to make people do what you want them to.

Moderate Arabs:  Mythical beings to whom State Dept. officials make sacrificial offerings.

Special Interest Lobby:  Politically organized conservatives.

Political Interest Group:  Politically organized Liberals.

Accountability:  Holding teachers, public officials, and private businesses responsible for their misdeeds.

Chilling Effect:  Holding journalists accountable for their misdeeds.

Portable TV.

Now, that's done:  Its times like this that I back up and start looking at happy news.  I really like the topic of happiness.  So much has been written on the topic and a myriad of studies have been done in pursuit of understanding how to achieve it.  Rarely do any of these works have any real valuable input.  As a liberal, the more ignorant I was the happier I was and the more I strove for wisdom the more frustrated I was for the effort.  It wasn't until my world view suffered a seachange when I became a Christian and began studying the Bible that I knew any real wisdom/insight or real control of my happiness level.

Eyetop TV

Today in the NY Times a story was released that I actually agree with.  A side note: Whenever a paper or other news venue does a good job I want to be sure to laud that agency.  I want to encourage good work even among the worst businesses.  It is such a rare event they do a good job that I am able to laud the NY Times I do not want to miss this opportunity.  Well done Roni Caryn Rabin of the NY Times.  I do not have the letters next to my name which give me credibility among the modern Liberal elites.  Therefor I rely on the authority of studies and principled PhD's to gain cred with them.  Not that PhD's knowledge ensure wisdom, they don't.  Nor do studies actually carry any authority of wisdom with me, they don't.  In fact, all studies do is either verify our common sense or they dis-inform.  There may be the rare exception which demonstrates counter-intuitive information, but overall, they are a huge waste of taxpayer money.  For example, just look at the giant federal funding motivated global warming scam and the multitude of dis-information that has produced.  However, the modern Liberal elite place a great deal of value with them, so I'll make use of them where I can.   uh... Pardon my rabbit trail.

TV while you pee.

So now we have a study to prove what I've been saying about the detrimental effect of watching TV and the beneficial effect of going to church and sacrificing some of your time and wealth to benefit others.  YEEHAW!  I'm giddy with excitement.  One more tool in my psychological black bag to whip out in conversation with the victims of the mental illness of political Liberalism.

TV while you flee.

see full article
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/health/research/20happy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

What Happy People Don’t Do

Happy people spend a lot of time socializing, going to church and reading newspapers — but they don’t spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds.

That’s what unhappy people do.

Although people who describe themselves as happy enjoy watching television, it turns out to be the single activity they engage in less often than unhappy people, said John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and the author of the study, which appeared in the journal Social Indicators Research.

One of the biggest problems with our ability to be happy is the lack of understanding that our happiness is a personal responsibility in two ways.  1st  You cannot rely on outside influences to determine whether or not you are happy, otherwise we would be continually swinging from extreme highs to extreme lows fully dependent on whether we get our way.  This is profound immaturity.  Think of a baby.  If he wants food, he cries and if his desire is not met, he will throw a fit.  If he wants a toy, whatever his desire, he will throw a fit if he does not get his way.  Seemingly, his life's purpose is to make his parents' lives miserable.  2nd We have a responsibility to be happy for the sake of others.  Consider what its like being around a moody person.  Their foul mood is a drag on the effectiveness of our efforts to be happy.  As Dennis Prager is fond of saying, "Your mood is like your breath.  You brush your teeth daily (aside from preventing them from rotting) and use mouthwash and breath mints so others don't have to endure a foul odor as you relate with them."  Similarly, a bad mood is unattractive and encourages others to find somebody with clean, fresh smelling breath to relate with.

We can observe in the people around us that there are many people in terrible circumstances who are happy in spite of those circumstances and there are many people in wonderful circumstances who are miserable in spite of them.  Obviously there are many people in wonderful circumstances who are happy and many people in terrible circumstances who are miserable and obviously we are not completely emotionally independent of our circumstances.  If I am physically or even verbally attacked, my happiness is affected negatively, but in the main, our condition of happiness is a decision rather than a result of circumstances. 

Who hasn't considered winning the lottery and assumed that would make them happy?  Yet the promotional TV program the lotto companies initiated when the lotto was first started here in California to increase their sales was canceled because the follow up stories were depressing.  Case after case of average people were made millionaires overnight and in 6 months or 6 years they were not only broke, but in deep debt and their extended families hated them and all their former friends we estranged from them and in many cases the recipients were in trouble with the law, all because of the money.  We read story after story of rich, famous and successful people committing suicide in their profound misery or overdosing on drugs trying to find some route to happiness that their fame, success and wealth did not accomplish.  So we can conclude that happiness is not determined by our circumstances.  It must be from within.  A happy poor person will be even happier as a rich person.  An unhappy poor person will be even unhappier as a rich person.  Why?  Because they were under the impression that the reason they were unhappy was because they could not have what they wanted.  When they got what they wanted, their joy was short lived until they realized the next thing they wanted but could not have.

click this picture

Given that happiness is from some source within us, we must necessarily assume responsibility for our own happiness.  A road block to happiness is observed in our ignorance of our own inner conditions.  If I have never considered my happiness in a practical way, how do I know if I have reason to be happy or even whether or not I am happy, it is simply a guess and that person who is dependent on the sensation of joy or excitement rather than the evaluation of their well being exists in a powerless constant state of dependence and/or victimhood.  Feeling powerless to control whether or not we're happy adds to the drag on your ability to acheive happiness.

In order to assess our emotional condition, let us first define happiness.  I will start by stating what it isn't.  First, happiness is not being excited.  Most of our youth and many adult

Designing a happy life entails finding purpose for your existence.  Devote your life to a great cause.  A family is a great cause.  You may not want kids when you're 12 or 16 but you certainly will when you reach 20 or 30.  Some adults may not realize this desire well into their 40's, but it will come.  So start planning for that goal as young as is possible for you.  A caveat here:  Natural desires can be overcome.  Some have decided at some point that they will devote their lives to some other great cause in which they find as much self worth and social value.  It is difficult for me to imagine anything which would beat the enriching of life that children bring, but some few people might find teaching or life saving work as fulfilling.  So, you can experience the value and self worth without producing children, but it requires every bit as much sacrifice and investment of time and effort as do children.  The point is, though you are required to expend great amounts of energy and have your patience tested way beyond its limits, value and worth are the rewards for the investment and sacrifice with its inherent risk.  One more thing, you can be devoted to more than one great cause.  It is not impossible to have a family and win championships or invent life saving devices.

Designing a happy life entails maintaining same sex friendships.  A man who has no same sex friendships is a man wrapped up in his own desires.  It is another sign of immaturity.  He is often unable to maintain those relationships because he is closed off, emotionally reclusive and therefore unable to get feedback on his behavior and thought pocesses.  Women, pay attention to this part of a man's makeup.  If a man is unable to demonstrate close relationships with another man, it is a foreboding sign that he is unable to relate to you emotionally or conversely, that he can only relate to the opposite sex.  Either way, his mental health is not sufficient to maintain good intimacy.  The same is true of women.  There are times when a spouse needs to disucss something with someone other than their spouse.  I could not take my struggles with attraction to a female coworker to my wife.  The news would be devastating to her, but the friend, if he is a friend can steer me right.  This is a critical aspect of healthy social constructs.  Obviously, you have to be concerned with the quality of the character of their friends.  Its no good that they are in relationships with people who encourage them to do drugs or alcohol, steal, lie, cheat, or are prone to violent behavior.

Designing a happy life entails expressing grattitude.  This is a topic of which it is difficult to express the importance.  Let's say your dad gives you a fancy car.  You are excited to have your first car and you are grateful to your dad for such a wonderful gift.  However, if he bought you a broken down bucket of bolts and worked with you since your 14th birthday to re-build it from the ground up, after all that work by you and he working together, you know the effort that went into that car and value it much more than the one that came off the showroom floor.  Though he put just as much effort into earning the money that bought the new car, you didn't see it.  All you saw was the shiny new car and a stern "Take care of it!" from him.  Whereas, with the car that was built from the ground sat in the garage for years and you saw his legs sticking out from underneath and you listened to his instruction as he taught you how to put it together.  The car's value has appreciated in your eyes.  Put another way, when you express grattitude, you increase the value of those with whom you have relationship.  You literally build a wealth of emotional value for someone by expressing grattitude to them.

Religion is one of those controversial topics, but in my mind, designing a happy life entails maintaining a relationship with God.  The traditions and social boundaries that religion constructs around an individual on a practical level, provide a structure for creating behavior patterns that promote healthy social relationships with society at large and more importantly, with God.  My personal experience in this relationship is such that I know God exists and has in His grace and mercy toward us, set these boundaries up for both, my personal well being and the well being of all of mankind.  More, He desires to be in relationship with me.  Talk about feeling valued and having worth, when I consider that Jesus the Maker of heaven and earth sacrificed His perfect relationship with the Father for even a moment so I could regain right standing with the Father....  It is in this relationship that I have had one of only two experiences with bliss or a 10 on the happiness scale.  The Bible refers to this experience as "Joy inexpressable." 1st Peter 1:8.  It is accomplished by knowing Him, (studying His Word to us to know what He tells us about Himself) believing in Him, loving Him, submitting to His will, likening yourself to a bride submitted to her husband voluntarily and offering Him the praise He is due.  I delight in His presence, His nearness to me and desire for me.  The word 'worship' is difficult to translate into English, but the concept is to 'kiss toward.'  Essentially, it means to display affection toward God.

I have not yet addressed the issue of overcoming circumstances.  For there are certainly circumstances for which we should grieve.  I could not expect anybody to be eternally at the state of joy unless they never again experienced loss and suffering and continually experienced an improving life.  Just slightly impossible.  Grieving is a necessary part of our mental health.  We don't have to lose a loved one to require grieving either.  The death of a dream would necessitate a grieving process.  So, what is that point where we need to process losses and go through the grief cycle?  I have set my expectations to such a low state that insults are ineffective.  It would take a physical attack or similar to cause me to experience a sense of loss great enough to send me into the cycle of grief processing.  I might have to adjust that setting if the insults become injurious to my reputation, but thus far this is working pretty well.

A caller into the Dennis Prager show related that she had been raped at college and for two years carried a burden of victimhood.  She avoided telling her father of the attack fearing, since he was a Marine, that he'd go kill the attacker.  She was surprised that his fatherly love empowered him to give her this advice.  "Sweetheart, you have a choice.  This can be a fork in the road or this can be a bump in the road."  In other words, you can allow this experience to change your life or you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go on living the life you choose.  Armed with that information, she'd chosen to go back to making her own decisions, not based on fear, but based on her knowledge that the possibility for attacks exist and to use common sense, but to live the life that pleased her, to continue on the path she'd been on before the attack.  You may experience bumps in the road, sometimes very serious bumps, bumps big enough to overturn your life, but it is up to you if those bumps change your direction.

I was raised in a very disturbed and turbulent home, so I sought solitude early in life.  I established behavior patterns and learned to enjoy being alone.  With my propensity toward solitude coupled with high expectations of Miss Right, I too have had difficulty establishing long term eros relationships.  I married much later than most and that marriage failed after 3 years partly due to these facts.  So, I can certainly identify with that single mother who authored the article I referred to earlier.  Aside from siblings and nephews and nieces and more distant family and a few close friends, I am perfectly contented, even joyful to live this single life and dedicate it to writing these blogs to pass my experience down to the next generation.  I would have preferred to raise my own kids to teach these things to, but it is my hope some youth read this and take it to heart for the enrichment of their lives to be as full and complete as they can possibly make them.  These are the basics of judging your own well being to make that consistent enrichment, joy and happiness possible.  Welcome to the world of self empowerment.

Summary
To acheive a high, stable level of happiness in no order of importance;

keep expectations low
have a near impossible dream or dreams and strive to acheive them
take or reinitiate a hobby
maintain a life purpose
maintian open and honest friendships
start and regularly update a grattitude journal
know and trust God

Now, go out and use your God given responsibility to judge people by the quality of their character, but not by their appearance.

What follows is a web page transcribed to make a available for thoughtful study, the wisdom one man thought to ask old people reputed to have lived happy lives.  Each of these five points of wisdom for living a full and happy life I have found in my studies of the Bible and in my commitment to my God.  It is good to have them laid out in such a concise and relevant way, but how much easier it is to apply this wisdom when you know you are aligning your life with the will of the Author of your life, indeed of all creation.

Have you ever wondered why some people find more happiness than others?  Why some people live well and die happy, while others die with regret?  I asked people to tell me the one person they knew who had found true happiness and had something to teach us.  Hundreds of people, with 18,000 years of experience, aged 60-106 shared their secrets.  I asked them to tell me in one sentence or less what brought you happiness, what they wished they'd learned sooner, what they regretted, for the secret to life.  They told me the five secrets we must discover before we die.

The first secret they told me "Be true to yourself."  Constantly ask, "Is this the life I want to be living?"  They said, "You have to follow your heart.  You have to know who you are.  You have to know what matters to you."  That there is an inner voice inside of us that tells us what we want, but we must have the discipline to listen and the courage to follow.  They told me to let go of what society and people think of you.  Look inside yourself, find out what matters most to you and pursue it.

The second secret "Leave no regrets"  When I asked them what they regretted, they did not regret their failures.  They wished they had risked more.  The greatest fear at the end of life is not death or failure but that our last words will be, "I wish I had..."  We can't guarantee success.  If we love, there is always the risk of rejection.  If we follow a dream, we may fall short.  But we can guarantee failure merely by choosing not to try at all.  They said, "Don't live your life on the side of the dance floor, step out and take a chance."

The third secret "Become Love"  Remember that love is the one thing that matters most.  Make friends, take time for those you love.  Don't get angry about things that in the end, don't matter.  If there is something you have to say, say it sooner, even if you don't feel ready.  They told me, "Love was the greatest source of meaning and the source of most regret."  One of them told me, "Your BMW won't visit you in the nursing home."  The secret, they said is not to get love, but to be a loving person.  If you love it will come back to you many times.

The fourth secret "Live the moment"  They told me it all goes by so fast.  Before you know it, you will be old.  See each day as a gift, choose not to waste it.  Wherever you are, really be there.  Life is not a contest so don't compare yourself to others.  Comparison is the thief of joy.  We can't change the past so forgive yourself, and make a different choice.  Don't live in the future, it may never come.  So live each day, as if it could be your last.  Be grateful, focus on what you have, not what you don't.  Remember, happiness is not out there anywhere, in anything.  It is inside of you.  And they told me, "Stop judging (condemning) and start living.  Live more and keep score less.

The final secret they said, "Give more than you take."  When I asked, "What has given your life meaning?"  They said that the things we take from the world have no meaning, but we remember what we left behind.  Find something that matters to you and give all your heart to it.  A cause, a child, a dream.  They said happiness cannot be sought, it is a byproduct of serving.  If you are unhappy, get busy doing something for someone else.

I asked them about dying.  They told me, "If you really live, if you discover the five secrets, you won't be afraid to die.  As you contemplate the five secrets, resist the temptation to "judge" (condemn) your life.  Instead, ask:  How can I embrace and live the five secrets more deeply?  The judging (condemning) mind paralyzes us.  Whatever mistakes you have made, no matter how many regrets you have, plant a new tree today.  This is what the wise elders wanted me to know.

Be true to yourself
Leave no regrets
Become love
Live the moment
and Give more than you take

They said we should discover these things long before we die.  Pass this on, share the secrets, and remember these words:  "I always used to tell my students, "Don't count on cramming."  The same is true in life, don't wait until the end to do what matters to you.  George Beer, 73
There are ten minute funeral lines and ten hour funeral lines.  "Live your life so that when you die people will want to come and tell stories about the kind of life you lived and how you touched them."  Ken Krambeer, town barber, 64

John Izzo Ph.D.  the five secrets you must discover before you die

I have to confess, I modified for clarity the topic of self condemnation.  Dr. Izzo used the improper and inaccurate term of judging.  I am highly sensitive to the topic so I hope he'll forgive my intrusion but entirely too many people are confused by the term today and I wanted to be sure the application was unmistakeable. 

I highly recommend any book or tape or movie or whatever resource to learn how to live a happy life.  My personal favorite is the Bible itself but I also recommend Dennis Prager's book, Happiness is a Serious Problem, subtitled, The Human Repair Manual, but if Dr. Izzo's work serves you better then by all means get that one.   Whatever you use, find something to help you understand the keys to happiness.  You will bless our entire country and quite possibly the entire world if you can contribute your own joy to our society.

I was talking to my neighbor tonight about politics and the value of human life.  She posited in so many words, that life is not worth suffering.  In her mind, war is so evil it would be better for humanity to stop having children, to discontinue the species. 

How can humanity be served by obliterating humanity?  The kid in this video illustrates my point.  Success and happiness in life is all about the attitude we approach it with and has very little to do with how much we suffer.  Happy people are found in all walks of life the same as unhappy people.  Many who suffer terrible setbacks are well adjusted, contributing members of society.  Others in the very same circumstances would rather not have been born and some few would go so far as to end their lives because of their suffering disabilities.

I would find my neighbor's opinion about the value of human life appalling if it weren't for the fact that literally half of our culture believes in some variant the same as she does.  That "Since we mercy kill animals that are suffering, why won't we offer the same 'service' to our loved ones?"  There are elements of this mindset who believe wholeheartedly that this kid should have been killed when he lost his sight at the age of two to prevent his 'suffering' through life sightless.  Granted, there are people suffering from terminal illnesses, in pain, and have no known chance of any recovery.  So why not just let them die as they want to?  I don't have all the answers to these terrible choices, but I do have huge concerns about 1. moving the line of decency. and 2. cutting short any opportunity to find that miracle cure for that person, or at least stabilizing their condition so that they don't continue to decline.  The first concern is the biggest because it is detrimental to all of society.  This week or this month or this decade, most of our culture would agree that a terminal illness is the point where we should draw that line.  I don't happen to agree but the majority would.

Taking the evidence of abortion.  For the sake of convenience, and personal choice, unborn babies are being killed every day and this practice is sponsored by the state.  Fifty years ago any mother and her 'doctor' would have been jailed by the state for the very same thing.  So if we move this line of holding hope till death, fifty years into the future, will the state sanction killing two year olds because their mother didn't want them to suffer through blindness, or for themselves to have to raise a blind child?  Will it be a viable choice for the parents of a mentally handicapped teenager?  What about retirees without pensions who can't pay for their health care?  What about homeless people?  When we take upon ourselves the authority of God and start moving the line of decency, there is no authority left to correct, to say this far and no farther.  No reason is required for abortions any longer because that line was moved by man.  It went from 'only in the first trimester,' to 'in the first and second trimester,' and now at birth, the babies' brains are being sucked out while only the head remains in the birth canal, and some are arguing that the option should remain open into the first year of life.  If we move the line on other issues (mercy killing) in the future, no reason will be required for someone to decide who lives and who dies.  Only that it falls within the parameters of what is best for.... who? the chooser?, the state?  (gay marriage) will we be marrying two men and a chicken?  two men and a six year old child?  two brothers and their sister?  a mother and her two sons?  We scoff at the idea now, but we were scoffing at the idea of infanticide in the 1950's and 60's.

This isn't new, neither is abortion new to humanity.  It was practiced as part of pagan religions during Biblical times and so was child sacrifice.  One of their gods was a bronze statue with his arms held out in front of him.  The statue was heated to glowing red and the mother or father would take their infant and set him or her in the arms of this glowing red statue and watch while their own child fried to death.  Hitler and his Nazi's took the mentally challenged and had them gassed or shot.  Other cultures killed the homeless.  Without God, the line, the standard of conduct is as malleable as air.  You can find some way to justify anything you want to do.  We've already justified the murder of unborn children in our 'sophisticated' culture.

Back to my neighbor's mindset on life and suffering.  All of life entails some measure of suffering.  Birth is probably one of the most traumatic experiences of life.  We struggle to learn to walk, falling often, and often experiencing pain in the process.  Since it is painful to start life, to achieve the most basic of abilities, should we all stop trying, suicide because suffering is involved.  Suffering is not pleasant, but it is one of the means by which we grow personally.  Death and failure is much worse than suffering.

This is just as true culturally, should we not resist evil people who want to kill us?  That would stop the war, that would stop our suffering, but it wouldn't stop the killing and the suffering of Muslims.  They stone people to death, they kill each other in tribal and feudal wars.

'End all suffering' is the most foolish idea to come down the pike and it has saturated our culture.  Of course there is suffering in life, and of course there is war.  There will be war until God comes to take us out of here.  Its in our nature.  We have to fight our nature to achieve civilization, to have a community, to even have a family.  It is in our nature to force our will on others.  It is only by the understanding of every individual in a community, that we fight our natures to compete against other communities for survival.  Through this achievement we have come to understand that cooperation is far more beneficial to everyone in a community than allowing our natures to rule us.  We've learned when communities cooperate with each other to withstand bigger communities wills, cooperating communities benefit.  The more people you have cooperating, the better the benefit.  Finally, there are still communities in the world that still operate from the mentality of the stone age and would rather kill us or force us into their failing community structure via their religion. 

We've come to regard this mindset as evil.  Evil is as evil does.  Killing and terrorizing to force your will on others is evil and that is exactly what the Islamo-Nazis are doing.  Western culture did not first enter the Middle East with the idea that we are going to militarily change their culture and force our ways on them.  We went over there as private citizens to do business in there culture.  We were so successful at business that their culture began to change by virtue of their own success in that business environment.  Some of them saw their own culture's change with successful trade as evil and violently opposed it.  Threatening their own into submission, threatening the business people until they abandoned their trade markets, killing all business within their culture, they forced their will on their countrymen.  Then, seeing all the other cultures growing and succeeding they decided all their failures were the fault of the West.  Now, the ignorant people of the West are siding with the stone age people, believing every lie they tell.  Our own media is an active party in the enemy's agenda to rule the world with this evil religion.  Their holy book instructs them to lie to the infidel if that will empower them.  I'm going to repost my article, "In Their Own Words" so you have easy access to the video of their most popular leaders speaking the truth about their intentions toward Western culture.  They literally want to rule the world with their stone age power structure based on this evil, murdering religion.

If that's offensive to your politically correct indoctrination, consider this.  In seven years and two wars, how many times have you heard moderate Muslims confess that global jihad is wrong?  How many people of that faith stood behind the one making the confession?  What percentage of the Muslim faith has spoken out against global jihad?  I can tell you, because I've been listening and watching.  If ten percent are actively involved with global jihad, not even 1/10 of one percent are saying a word against global jihad.  Most speakers for Islam are excusing the jihadi actions or at best calling them mis-guided and acting against Western influence because it is corrupting their culture.  I happen to agree that porn peddlers and homosexual activists are corrupting Muslims, they're corrupting Christians too.   But Muslims aren't attacking porn peddlers or homosexuals.  They name the corrupting influence as Christian Crusaders, hearkening back 700 years to a period of retaliation for Muslim invasion into Europe.  So the very things Christians are fighting in our own culture through reason and debate are the reasons this nation is being attacked by violent Muslims, not because of what Christians do or did.  The abortions, the gay agenda, the porn peddling and on, and on      So why does the Christian Right get the bad rap in this country?  Because the liberal left doesn't want to admit their own responsibility for the mess we're in.  They'd rather blame the military industrial complex, the oil industry, the stupid president who pulled off the biggest conspiracy ever by blowing up the World Trade Center, or Goldie Locks.  I'm not sure how Goldie fits in the grand scheme of things but somehow, she is just as legitimate a target for blame as George Bush and the Christian Coalition.

The left no longer desire to obtain reason.  The wisdom they seek is self serving.  If knowledge requires that they accept blame, then knowledge is wrong.  (revisionist history) If knowledge requires suffering and sacrifice to face threats, it isn't worth doing.  If knowledge is offensive, it is evil.  And if knowledge of decency limits their desires, they aren't wrong, the limits are wrong.