Connecting the Dots: Oil Slick Leads Straight to Dick Cheney

When George W. Bush made his first run for President he raised more money faster than any candidate in history.  Where do you suppose all that money came from and how do you suppose a guy who had failed at virtually everything he’d ever done managed to pull that off?  I’ll give you a hint: it was not in small donations from “real Americans” like the Obama campaign.  It was oil money. 

With Bush, it’s always been oil money.  Big oil bought and paid for the US Government and they even put their own watchdog in office to look after things in one Dick Cheney.  Big oil certainly got their money’s worth with Cheney.

In just his second week in office, Bush formed the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), commonly referred to as the Energy Task Force.  Cheney chaired the task force, which was made up of energy company executives.  We may never know exactly what the NEPDG did because Cheney has actively worked to keep their activities a secret. 

In 2003 the Supreme Court ruled that all NEPDG documents be released that contained references to any companies that had made agreements with the previous Iraqi government regarding the extraction of Iraqi oil.  

Coincidentally, 2003 was also the year that Cheney decided not to file NEPDG reports with the National Archives and Records Administration, as required by law.  The NARA is the organization charged with protecting classified information coming from the Executive Branch, so it’s a tough stretch to claim that it was done for reasons of national security.  The NEPDG also refused to allow the NARA to inspect their record keeping. 

What specifically was going on at the NEPDG may never be known since Cheney has cited executive privilege in denying congressional information requests.  Simply put, records of their activities have never seen the light of day and likely never will, despite this little thing called the Freedom of Information Act.  We can connect the dots, however, by taking a look at who the NEPDG met with.

In 2007, the Washington Post reported that the NEPDG had at least 40 meetings with energy companies and special interests groups from energy producing industries.  They had one (1) meeting with representatives of 13 environmental groups, who speculated that the meeting was merely an attempt at appeasement, since a draft paper had already been produced by this time and more than half the meeting was spent on introductions.

So what does all of this have to do with the oil slick that is now threatening our entire eastern seaboard?  On April 28, 2010 the Wall Street Journal reported that the leaking well lacked a safeguard device called an acoustic switch that may well have prevented this catastrophe.  The acoustic control is a backup device that is triggered by acoustic pulses and triggers the blowout preventer, a large valve that shuts down the flow of oil in an emergency. Norway and Brazil, which are major oil producing countries, both require the device.  They have been on virtually every rig in Norway since 1993.

An acoustic trigger would have been a 3rd line of defense against a blowout.  Anyone who has ever worked in the aircraft industry can tell you that redundancy is the key to safety systems whose failure could cause catastrophic consequences. 

An acoustic trigger costs about a $500,000, so why didn’t BP use one on the Deepwater Horizon rig?  After all, the rig replacement costs are about $560 million, and BP claimed to be spending about $6 million per day to battle the oil spill.  It certainly looks like there is a pretty good cost to benefit ratio.

Some have speculated that an acoustic trigger would not have prevented the spill due to the magnitude of the explosion but that is precisely why it is located off the rig.  The people who died in the explosion are the very people who would have trigger the existing shutoff valve, which may explain why it didn’t close.  We’ll never know if an acoustic trigger would have worked or not since it didn’t have one.

According to the same WSJ article, “U.S. regulators have considered mandating the use of remote-control acoustic switches or other back-up equipment at least since 2000. After a drilling ship accidentally released oil, the Minerals Management Service issued a safety notice that said a back-up system is "an essential component of a deepwater drilling system."
Nevertheless, US regulators decided against requiring it because they felt it was too expensive.

Brazil begin requiring the use of acoustic valves in 2007 after an incident that was eerily similar to the Deepwater Horizon accident yet US regulators called for more study before requiring implementation.

Bottom line?  They didn’t use it because they didn’t have to. 

Did I mention that the “special interest groups” that Cheney and the NEPDG met with in 2003 included  “James J. Rouse, then vice president of Exxon Mobil and a major donor to the Bush inauguration; Kenneth L. Lay, then head of Enron Corp.; Jack N. Gerard, then with the National Mining Association; Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute; and Eli Bebout, an old friend of Cheney's from Wyoming who serves in the state Senate and owns an oil and drilling company.” (from Wikipedia article linked above)

Cheney met personally with the Chief Executive Officer of British Petroleum during the time of the NEPDG’s activities. 

At a time when Americans are paying in excess of $3.00 per gallon for gasoline while oil companies consistently make the largest profits in the history of the world quarter after quarter; when BP itself made a profit in excess of $4 billion in the 4th quarter of 2009, it is nothing short of criminal that they couldn’t spend a paltry $500,000 on a safeguard than might have prevented this disaster. 

It’s simply not that hard to connect the dots from the takeover of our government by big oil and big business in 2001, to the NEPDG’s nefarious and secretive activities, to drill baby drill, to what may well turn out to be the worst environmental disaster of all time in the Deepwater Horizon explosion. 

Smack in the middle of it all?  The treasonous traitor, one Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney.

Zen and Stephen Hawking

First of all, let me thank anyone who took the trouble to come over here after my exodus from OS. I really do appreciate it.

This past weekend I went on an awesome ride to the Oregon Coast. I’ve been on a lot of awesome rides in my day but there was something different this time; something else.

I had an interesting discussion with several of my group at the bar in Pacific City at the end of Day One. One of our fastest riders said that he does it for the adrenalin. I hope you don’t mind me being immodest for a minute, but I consider myself to be pretty damned fast too; just as fast as Mr. Adrenalin or anyone else I’ve ever ridden with, but for me, it’s not about adrenalin. It’s something deeper and more spiritual and that is what made this weekend  different from past rides

Maybe I’m a simpleton because reading Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” is about as deep into physics as my limited intellect will take me. Ever since I read it years ago, I have pondered the relationship between speed and space and time.  I will admit that my understanding is rudimentary at best.

Recently I have been studying a book called "Total Control" by Lee Parks, the guru of high performance motorcycle riding.   I like things in bite sizes so my intent is to learn about one technique at a time, practice it until I really get it, and then move on to the next, so I have only studied the very first technique in the book.

I practiced that technique on the ride and once I got into the swing of it, I was absolutely amazed at what a difference it made. I was faster and more relaxed than I’ve ever been at speed yet more in control.   I can’t even imagine what else I’ll learn that could impact my riding as much as this has.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s great Cap’n but what does that have to do with Stephen Hawking? Keep your shirt on, mateys, I’m about to tell ya.

Riding fast in the twisties brings an unexplainable Zenlike connection to the universe. I have learned that some of the other fast riders feel the same way. As you lean and turn and twist and read the road and pick your line and really get your groove going, there is a oneness with the Universe that must be experienced to be believed.

Somehow, perhaps because I’m more relaxed, the Lee Parks technique took that oneness to a level I’ve never experienced before. As usual, there were three of us out in front of the pack and when we stopped, I could see in their faces that they felt the same way. I don’t know how the connection between speed and space and time works but I can tell you without any doubt that getting a fast groove going through the twisties is tied to it. Somehow.

People have tried to understand our universe for as long as there have been people. I certainly don’t know the answers and I’m quite sure that I never will.  I am also quite sure that what I sometimes experience on the motorcycle is related a part of it.

That is why I simply can’t not do this.

Flouncing to Singapore

From Wikipedia: Universal health care is implemented in all but one of the wealthy, industrialized countries, with the exception being the United States. It is also provided in many developing countries and is the trend worldwide.

John Stossel, writing at Independence Institute, states that the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ranking of the USA as 37^th in the world in health care is misleading. He said that ” The WHO judged countries not on the absolute quality of health care, but on how “fairly” health care of any quality is “distributed.” I respond by stipulating that Mr. Stossel is indeed correct. Anyone who can afford it can get top quality health care in the USA. The issue, John, is fair distribution. Whatever the solution to revamping our beleaguered health care system is, it will involve fairly distributing access to basic health care for all of us. The issue then, is the classic have’s vs. have not’s.

An ideal solution, one that would be acceptable to both the left and the right, would be one in which personal responsibility plays a role, while assuring access to all. That sounds nearly impossible until you consider that such a solution has been working in Singapore for over 20 years.

The Government in Singapore knew that they needed to revise their health care system so they did what many of us would do. They studied health care systems around the world and learned what was working and what was not. Then they implemented a system that put together the best elements from the various systems that they studied. Seems kinda logical, doesn’t it?

The aim was to give maximum responsibility and choice to patients, requiring them to spend their own money rather than that of government or insurers. At the same time, they needed to ensure that nobody faced catastrophic medical bills and that even the poor had enough money to buy medical care.

The solution was to require all citizens to maintain a savings account that can be used only for medical expenses. Achieving this savings was no problem, they simply reduced each person’s tax bill by $1,500 a year. This is roughly the cost, in taxes, of both the UK and the US public health systems. For people that pay less than $1,500 in a tax year, the government would contribute money to make up the shortfall. Since the system is compulsory, no adverse selection takes place, such as you and I face when we apply for insurance with private insurance companies.

The government then created cheap catastrophe insurance, which pays out only when a particular course of treatment is very expensive. You spend your money, from your compulsory savings account for your health care. You make your own decision about that health care, rather than having an insurance company or government agency make those decisions for you.

Your health-care savings would automatically go into a high interest bank account that would build up gradually throughout your life. For most people, medical bills are low in their younger years, so you could expect to have thirty thousand dollars in your account when you turn forty; more, if you’ve managed to keep your spending low and watched the money earn interest.

Thirty thousand dollars buys a lot of medical care, unless of course, you required a single, expensive procedure. In that case, the catastrophe insurance would restrict your expenses.

If you reach retirement age with money still in your medical savings account beyond some minimum, you can put the excess toward your pension. When you die, you can pass the savings along to your heirs. If you have a relative with ongoing medical problems, you can donate part of your savings to them.

At every point in your life you have an incentive to spend money only on health care that you feel is absolutely necessary. If you felt that the right treatment for you was a bit of preventative maintenance, that that would be your choice.

Clearly, with some imagination we can step back from out current failed system and think about how to fix it. The system I’ve just sketched out has been successful in Singapore for two decades. The typical Singaporean lives to the age of eighty and the cost of the system (both the public an private portions) is about a thousand dollars per person. That is less that just the cost of the bureaucracy alone in the United States.

Annually, the typical Singaporean pays about seven hundred dollars privately, compared to twenty-five hundred dollars for Americans. The government spends about three hundred dollars per person (mostly for the catastrophe insurance). This is about five times less than the British government and seven times less than the American government.

The debate in America seems to be stuck on a choice between government or market. As was mentioned in part one, both have their limitations. Fairness is not a function of the market, any market. The Singaporean solution recognizes the shortfalls of each. Their answer lies in a combination of the two working together to put the consumer in ultimate control of their own healthcare.

Singapore is ranked 7^th by WHO. Yes, John, it’s very likely that distribution was a huge factor in that ranking. Do I care that the Mayo Clinic may be the best in the world if I don’t have access to it? No, I don’t. I doubt that you do either.

You Mean... ME?

Anyone who has been reading my blog posts, all one of you, knows that I’m certainly not angry about anything. As hard as it is to believe, my other reader called a recent post “so angry”? Can you imagine? Where do they come up with this stuff?

I guess they think I’m angry because the soon-to-be-former Administration, fueled by fanatical right-wing zeal, has run our country into the ground with a needless war, over a Trillion dollar projected budget deficit, hateful anti-gay referendums, trashed our economy, trampled our right to privacy and taken away our freedoms in the name of freedom (huh?), placed themselves above the Geneva Convention by torturing prisoners and going to the mat to defend that “right”, maniacally supporting Israel no matter what they do, failing to get Bin Laden, radicalizing more Muslims toward terror and last but certainly not least, doing everything they can think of to lead us toward self-fulfilling their dangerous apocalyptic prophecies/fantasies. Angry? What’s to be angry about?

Case in point; I am no longer angry about the tithing I was forced to pay to the Mormon Church when I was nine. It was pointed out that nine year olds don’t really have anything that doesn’t actually belong to their parents. The same person said that they teach their children to give some of their money to charity to learn the joy of unselfishness.

So if, as was just pointed out, it isn’t really theirs anyway, what did they learn? Ignoring the arrogant assumption in that statement that if the money doesn’t go to the Mormon Church, then it isn't charity, I'll point out that I do give to charity. I also did when I was nine, but I’m not asking for any of that back, since I did it that with my own free will. It’s interesting that they jumped on the tithing comment when the point of the post was really that we need to start taxing churches.

Then I’m told that I need to meet some of the true Holy Men, the ones who believe in the one true God, then all will become right in my Universe. Interestingly, not ALL are Mormons, though the teller has never met one who wasn’t Mormon, but he’s told they exist. I quote, “If you'd take the time to know these people too, you'd quit debating the morality of this that and the other and join their cause.”

Holy cow, why do I even bother with people who think like this? First, I’m not debating the morality of anything. My moral compass is very clear, no need to debate that. Of course, this comes from the assumption that we cannot have a moral compass without God or some “holy man” to give it to us. No, I have not debated morality, but rather, I have spoken out when my government does outrageously immoral things.

Insert deep sigh here. I’m not sure why I bother writing these posts. There are so many stinkin’ bloggers around and they/we all think that they/we have something to say. I’m not sure why any of us subject ourselves to this, All that ever comes of any of it is that those who agree tell us how smart we are and those who disagree tell us how messed up we are. Do hearts and minds ever get changed? I doubt it.

When my wife reads these posts or hears of some of my email exchanges, it is always followed with a heavy sigh and a groan, even though she generally agrees with my point of view. She knows what I’m still having trouble reconciling; that it’s all really rather pointless. I know that too, but there’s that other little voice in my head, the one of my great grandchild asking, “Why didn’t you do something before it came to this?”

“I tried honey, I really did, but everyone thought Global Climate Change was just an Al Gore PowerPoint thingie to get Government money under the guise of research. I spoke out but they kept making wars, kept spending beyond our means and overpopulating a planet that was already stretched to its limits. I guess the planet showed them in the long run, I was just hoping there would be something left for you. I tried and failed, but at least I’m not angry about it.”

Twenty One Day Salute

Wow, it's been quite a year. It's been quite an eight years too. Strange as it may seem, especially if you've read some of my other writing recently, I'm actually optimistic about 2009, both in my personal life and in the world at large. No, I don't have my head in the sand, not at all. You'll have to trust me on that one.

Since life is nothing if not a contradiction, let me now say the future looks pretty bleak. Even an economic dummy like me can see that the coming depression has only begun. The signs of global climate change are, quite literally, all around us. The Bush administration's assault on our constitutional rights and their apparently successful attempts to insulate themselves from being held accountable, have left our Government in shambles. We're fighting war on two fronts with Chinese money. We're short on soldiers and long on debt because of it. No, I'm no Pollyanna.

Good news though, is on the horizon. We only need survive twenty one more days without another major setback and hope is on its way. I'd like to believe that our new President will wave his magic wand and restore all of our rights, fix the climate and our economy, and while he's at it, bring back the 2300 + US soldiers and 98,000 + civilian casualties in Iraq. Maybe Santa Obama can bring me a new motorcycle too. Obviously, that's not going to happen.

No, it's not going to be easy to undo the damage that Bush has done and so much of it will never be undone. We can't bring back the dead, for example. It's unimaginable that this guy sleeps at night knowing that over 100,000 human beings are dead because of his arrogant insistence on a needless war. He says he sleeps very well.

Now I hear Bush is working on his legacy, expecting to walk away unscathed, believing that history will judge his holy war as the right thing to do. This is why religion is so dangerous. Silly me, I thought we hung people for treason?

See how hard it is not to digress, even when I'm trying to write an optimistic piece? I wasn't happy when Bush overthrew our legitimate Government in 2000 but in my worst nightmares I could never have guessed just how badly he could mess the world up. I know rash statement like that take away from my credibility but how is it not a coup when he loses the election and becomes President anyway? And how can manufacturing evidence to gain support for the War in Iraq, resulting in all those aforementioned deaths, be anything less treasonous? What traitor has ever damaged the US more than Bush? Do I sound pissed. HELL yes!

Alright, alright, back to the optimism. We finally have a President-elect with an IQ higher than mine. That's not a brag folks, we need someone a whole lot smarter than me to deal with this mess. Unlike Bush, I can form complete sentences all on my very own, but that doesn't make either of us geniuses.

While President Obama won't have that magic wand, he does seem to have a firm grasp on our challenges and a determination to take them on. I'd love to see a more liberal lean to his Presidency but let's be real, we won't get anything done that far from the center, at least not right now. I fully expect things to get worse before they get better. No, my optimism is not of the Pollyanna variety so much as my belief, or maybe just hope, that there is a 'better" to follow. Through the lens of the last eight years, that would be a very radical change and it's about as optimistic as it gets these days.

On the personal front, I'm very concerned about what will happen as the economy continues to plunge. My self-employment situation is certainly vulnerable. I'm working full time for one client while I prepare to find others before the full time project is finished. Meanwhile, my client's business is down 40% from a year ago and that seems to be the norm in the industry. Finding new clients is always hard and will be even harder now. When I do find clients, getting paid may well be a bigger problem than in the past. Obviously, you can see my optimism, right?

My personal finances aren't all they could be but they could be a lot worse. Since my wife's income is assured, at worst, we won't lose our house, whatever happens in the economy... I think. That puts us well ahead of an awful lot of the country so I'll count my blessing and hope to minimize the damage when things get worse, as they inevitably will. Thankfully, my motorcycle is paid for so it's safe too. How can I not feel good about that? So I hope to survive the worse part on our way to the better part. Hey, it's a depression folks, I'll take that.

Most of my extended family will be okay too, I hope. My mother has a secure income, my daughter is doing well and works in a profession unlikely to get the worst of the hard times to come. My wife's children will survive, even if they need some help from us. They're young and resilient. We have our first grandchild on the way. I've finished my book and it's on the internet and getting good reviews from readers. I hope to see it published soon. So yes, I do see good things ahead.

I don't remember any time in my life when what was happening politically seemed so directly relevant to my own personal situation. I guess that's what happens in depressions. I remember some pretty hard times for everyone in the 70's and I've had some personal hard times of my own that I hope never to repeat, but this is on a whole new scale for those of us who weren't around for the last depression.

I generally have little faith in the intelligence of American voters so I am amazed that at this time, when it was so important, somehow, the right candidate was not only present but elected. It's nothing short of a miracle, given our voting history and the choices we typically have to vote for.

That, my friends, in the face of these terrible times, is the source of my optimism. Maybe I should call it guarded optimism and that may be as good as it gets these days.

Emergency Preparations at QuiXand Ranch

In an effort to amuse myself in the middle of this freakish winter, as well as to distract myself from the very real possibility that we might lose power for an extended period of time, I sent the following email to several friends and acquaintances:

With more snow in the forecast and the looming possibility of power outages, I have begun some emergency preparations. Here’s what I’ve done so far.

• Since we are on well water, power outages mean no water either so:

o I’ve taken my weekly bath several days early. Just my luck the power will go out on Saturday afternoon right before bath time and I’m such a stickler about hygiene.
o I’ve purchased several plastic five-gallon buckets for toilet water. Last time I lost my axe in the pond and fell in while breaking the ice to get pond water. This time we’ll be smarter. We’re filling the plastic buckets with snow so that we can set them on the wood stove to melt.

• We have stocked both freezers to the gills with meat for people and dogs. (Bought good candles to put in the electric oven to roast the meat – surprising no one has mentioned that before.)

• Dug all my Chuck Norris comics out of the closet for entertainment. I don’t see so well in poor candle light so I have my portable propane torch on the nightstand for extra illumination. If that doesn’t work, I can hold it in my lap while I read. Don’t worry, I’ll open the windows, duh!

• Piled all the old Carpenter Ant infested wood that I stripped out of the deck last summer on the wood floor in the living room for firewood. Okay, it’s actually been there since I stripped it out.

• Filled the car with gas and backed it up to the window so that the exhaust can throw a little extra heat into the place. *Bonus: also got a siphon hose to get gas from the car for lighting the stove*

I can’t help but feel I’m forgetting something. Please let me know if any of you think of something I’ve missed.
....................

I'm so fortunate to have wonderful, caring friends willing to wrack their brains to help me complete my list. Oh, and some other jerks added some suggestions, promting this update:

Thanks to all of you who added your thoughtful suggestions. While the weather is greatly improved, I’ll be prepared now for the next round. I’ve added the following suggestions to my list:

• No candles in the oven. Bring the BBQ inside for that. If it doesn’t light right away, I can use the gas from the car. I’m rather embarrassed that I didn’t think of that myself. It will make a great indoor source of heat too!

• Seal all doors and windows with that extra heavy Homeland Security plastic sheeting to keep the heat from the car exhaust from escaping. Good thing I have friends to do my thinking for me!

• Stock up on Valium and tequila to cope with being cooped up with the kid (AKA Emy Bunny Army – whatever in the hell that means). The tequila can also serve as marinade for the meat if we run out of spices.

• Allow the dogs to poop in the living room and use the resultant methane gas for heat and cooking. Marinade meat in dog pee to counteract the poop taste.

Thanks again, though I must say, some of ya’ll are sicker than me!

Don't try to hide - you know who you are!

The Ultimate Chuck Norris Joke

President Elect Obama has promised a new way of doing business in Washington by working together in a spirit of bi-partisanship. I think that's a wonderful and productive policy and all indications are that he is very serious about fulfilling that promise. While I applaud and support the President-elect in this view, I am very pleased that I, as a private citizen, can be as blatantly liberal as I please.

I find it a bit amusing that the left has been critical that he is too close to the middle, while right-wing idiots like Chuck Norris are near apoplectic over his ‘refusal to govern from the center’. He is afraid that Obama will be too much like Clinton, who brought us eight years of relative peace, the greatest economic expansion in history and the first balanced budget in many years. God, that would be awful.

Of course, this is the same simpleton that challenges the President-elect to "protect American life" while supporting the useless war in Iraq and the thousands of dead Americans it has produced. Not to mention the countless other Bush Administration policies that have made the world more dangerous for Americans.

With typical right-wing arrogance that assumes only they understand the Constitution and the intentions of the founding fathers, he quotes Thomas Jefferson. “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government".

Of course, Jefferson was obviously talking about abortion, not things like the death penalty and treasonous Presidential acts like manufacturing evidence to start a religious oil war. How convenient that religion and the needs of the oil companies converged when they each owned equal shares of the Administration. 9/11 provided a perfect opportunity, proving that God must indeed have a plan.

Here we come to the heart of my problem with the right-wing. They simply leave no room for intelligent discourse and for thinking Americans to forward a rational agenda. Their religious agenda is dangerous, ignorant and self-fulfilling and as far as I can tell, very un-Christ-like. They are willing to kill anyone in the name of God, oil, justice, freedom, and damned near anything else and yet they are so very concerned about the unborn. The hypocrisy is astounding but if you try to disagree, they'll shout you down. If you try to exercise your freedom of speech discount you by accusing you of being unpatriotic and unappreciative of your freedoms. Explain that one to me.

As a Humanist and recovering Mormon, I had actually reached a point where I was losing my anger over how Mormonism steamrolled through my upbringing and the difficult personal struggle to find my own path. Then came Prop 8 and the Mormon Church’s shameful actions in ‘support of the family’. They violated their tax exempt status by becoming a political, as opposed to a religious organization, while forwarding a hateful and un-Christ-like agenda.

There is an old punch line that goes “Welcome to Utah. Please set your watch back 20 years.” The Mormon Church’s actions regarding Prop 8 easily set the fight against ignorance and intolerance back by 20 years.

Lest I appear to be picking on Mormons, I believe that all religions are dangerous. I mean ALL religions, of every type, from anywhere on the globe. From Muslims who are willing to kill and die in the name of Allah to Christians whose crusades promote hate, war and intolerance, and who believe that freedom of religion only pertains to them. Every religion, from every corner of the world, has dovetailing apocalyptic prophesies that they are determined to self-fulfill and it's reached a point where they are dangerously close to accomplishing that.

I can no longer remain silent in my views about religion and I can no longer remain tolerant of their intolerance. There is simply too much at stake. Between their fatalistic view that it’s all going to end soon so why bother concerning ourselves with Global Climate Change, overpopulation, and myriad other deadly problems, and their determination to fulfill world-ending prophesies, they are now threatening our very survival. God, I hate sounding like some alarmist Bircher extremist! See what they’ve done to me?

A good first step would be to tax the churches. Between the Mormons and Catholics alone we could practically wipe out the national debt, not to mention the TV preachers who are living high off the hog on their tax exempt scams. There is simply no good reason why these organizations should be allowed to take the money of their gullible followers without even contributing to the national coffers.

In these hard economic times, churches are just about the only enterprises still turning a profit. They need to contribute somehow to offset their promotion of an agenda bent our destruction. At the very least, make the Mormons give me back the tithing I was forced to pay when I was nine - with interest, of course.

This was a difficult conclusion for me reach because I know these organizations are made up of many, many good people; people that I believe to be misguided but certainly not evil. My own family, which is made up of mostly very staunch Mormons, are some of the best people I know. I only wish they could see the harm that religions are doing in the name of their particular deities. Even tough guy Norris is probably a decent guy, whom I might even befriend if the opportunity arose. It’s just that he’s wrong.

Religion = Ignorance. Pass it on.