Here are links to figments of my prolonged childhood now for sale.
Olympus C-730 Ultra Zoom digital camera
Tell your friends, especially if they have kids and money. I'd happily ship anything up there.
Opportunities this good don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
I am all for trying to protect the small inventor, but solo inventor who does not commercialize his/her technology does not bring nearly as much economic value (and jobs) to our society as the entrepreneur who actually takes the risk, starts the company, hires people, commercializes the technology, raises the necessary capital, and builds lasting sustainable value.
I should preface my entry in this discourse with a polite disclaimer: my opinion is not based on Church doctrine, dogma, or the like, but merely on a wholehearted belief that life is of the highest value. However I do not limit this belief to the value of American lives, nor even to HUMAN life, but rather to all living entities.
The inconceivably tragic condition of many other parts of the world weigh on my mind much more heavily than any domestic issues, moral, ethical or political. I immediately hurdle and ignore any implications my vote may have on my eternal soul, thinking only of the severe consequences my wrongful vote will have on millions of other poor, suffering souls around the planet that never had a chance or a voice as I have and as I do. More than that, I also recognize the heinous transgression our species has committed upon the planet that has fostered our life and survival. These considerations far outweigh any selfish desire for moral approbation that may trigger me to worry about (globally comparatively) rich old people who would have died without any help, or fetuses that would have been born to mothers who were willing and wanting to murder that child before they ever met it. Pardon my candor, but the greater horrors I choose not to mention would far supersede these.
I lived in a blind warm nest of isolation and ignorance for the formative years of my life. No longer can I ignore the injustice of my undeserved privilege. My votes will be cast (and always have been cast) to balance the equation, for the candidates who, to the greatest extent, share my respect for life, my valuation of true universal justice. It's quite honestly the least I can do to repay my Creator for placing me, in the grand perspective, in the very lap of luxury.
The beauty of this whole voting thing is that my opinion only counts as much as anyone else's. Consequently I am forced to evaluate everyone's opinions on equal ground because they all have the same weight.
That said, vote for whoever you want. This country's on its way down the tubes, mainly due to the crumbling integrity of values, due to selfishness, due to isolated, ignorant perspectives. It gives me hope to read all of your entries above, hope that some Americans do try to become informed on the true state of the world (which is quite obviously impossible but a valiant pursuit all the same). For only with real and complete information about the consequences of our actions, our votes, and our governments' actions, can we begin to evaluate the wrongness or rightness of something as minuscule as our vote for President. If you want to trust the Church to channel the infallible will of God in Three Persons into a political opinion, that is your choice. But it is a choice the effects of which the whole planet and all the beings on it will feel. I can only hope that I will not be counted with the goats that I condemn by my vote as an American citizen, because let's face it, people will die either way, it's really just a choice of who. The only way to truly be pro-life is not to vote at all.
Please understand that I am not making any personal attacks with my opinion, nor do I hope to change anyone's mind — that is something one must do for oneself. Nor am I qualified to evaluate anyone's decisions or votes. I doubt that any presidential candidate in the history of our country has been satisfactory by my standards. Have a lovely day, a wonderful week, and a fantastic fall. But please don't bother stopping to pass judgment until you've learned all there is to know.
© State of Florida 1999-2008