For those interested in third world poverty in Africa

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/151

Here is a fascinating speech at TED, one of the few that is not part of the liberal freakshow on parade that it usually is.

He offers a lot of support to what I have said arguing that it is liberal hubris to assume that saving the third world and leftist politics need to go hand in hand.

He makes a point that I actually forgot. Most third world countries actually have more natural resources at their disposal than the US. South America and Africa definitely do. Our wealth has been generated symbolically through free trade and capitalism, and theirs has been stifled and kept from the people by communism and other forms of dictatorship.

Audios Castro, Fortunamente

What could possibly appeal to anyone I know about a communist dictator that all in his own country but his inner circle fear dread and flee with only the shirt on their back I will never know. They flee to this country, and vote republican. Buenvinidos!

And if it seems I am going overboard in my revulsion to such affinity, which I probably have, sorry, but what can I say it was a bit shocking to me to hear someone like this praised by any source, it is in my opinion proportionate to the threat. See the thing is the United States is really the only capitalist country. It is the rising tide that lifts all the boats in the world. United States wealth (generated in very little time since we ourselves were a third world country thanks to the GOD GIVEN MIRACLE of capitalism) is treated hypocritically by this country's detractors as the answer to third world salvation, and I guess that says a lot about whether they want to save the world if they would look this gift horse in the mouth.

And I am very familiar with the kind of response I would get if I said this around any of the people who think this in person. They would get hostile and snippy. But I am not like that. I don't think that supporters of Castro are evil. I don't feel the need to spank them verbally like I was their mom. THEY ARE WRONG. I don't accuse those who dissagree with me of being evil selfish or having no soul. THEY ARE WRONG. And people forget that they don't get to just declare themselves right because they think they are superior.

None of this is personal, so I always get surprised when anyone thinks it is. If you love your ideas so much, argue for them and don't make it about who is evil. It is not about who wants to save the world and who doesn't. We all want to save the world. It is a disagreement about methods. I choose not to think (because I am not racist and have no superiority complex) that I am entitled to enjoy the fruits of capitalism while others suffer because of my militant ideology. If people want what the United States has, they should fight to make their countries more like the United States. To quote a recent blog post I saw, Duh! I would heartilly support that effort in whatever way possible. I would send my sons to die for it.

The ironic thing is that absolutely all of the people that I know who say such things in my personal experience have absolutely no idea what it is like to be poor. They like to spend time around poor people because it makes them feel better about themselves for some reason, but those poor people don't have that opportunity to switch countries for a self-indulgent change of scenery. Slade has paid his own way in life since he was twelve. He didn't get sent all over the world and financed till he was near thirty. When you actually have to struggle and make your way in life you come to understand a bit more about how things work. And you won't have to excorcise your guilt by hostility to others and how they choose to live.

So anyone who interprets what I have said as being hostile to them personally hasn't understood me. I don't feel that people who I disagree with are evil or have 'no soul.' Just because someone may feel that about me and my beliefs doesn't make it mutual. And I also think they discount the immense condecension of their own opinions. Things like hating BYU because its graduates are obsessed with how their education might actually translate into a vocation as if this is a selfishess problem is hostility. Those supposedly selfish BYU students are ironically living their own lives and not returning the insult. That is exactly what I am trying to do. I am not trying to make this about who is evil, and I am not trying to be hostile. But I am sorry communist sympathy is misplaced, and I will argue that to my dying breath whatever the personal cost to me.

All pampered rich Castro fans like all the citizens of this country have the right to live on communes, kibbutzes or flee the evils of this country to any other they choose. I have a feeling that any who support communism or any of its relatives are really not about their own rights. They are about taking away mine. And I am from a pretty proud history of not letting that happen too easy.

Perdon, compadre.

So because this is not personal and I love all my relatives dearly whether or not they agree with me, all I have been doing was running with a ball I was thrown, since very implicit in communist/leftist rhetoric is implied criticism of those who don't agree. It is the hubris that one person knows better than another what is good for them and can enact it by force that is behind all of it.

I did not have Castro on the mind today. I have tried to put him way out of mind, way back to the dated 1960's regime he belongs in. So please delete my posts on the other Castro blog, I would do it myself if you had a Google blog, and I am done now. =) I did cold turkey off some meds recently, for some bizarre reason that I am actually rethinking. Just back to the usual grind of horrible pain and its associated irritability and difficulty coping with life. And the fact that it always makes me feel extremely raw to go back to life au naturalle may feature prominently in why I got so excited. But most likely these are things I believe, just usually don't say, which I admit isn't always a bad thing.

That blue guy on Oprah

Seriously I don't usually end up seeing Oprah but for some reason I watched it for a few minutes the other day and happened to see that blue guy that took a lot of silver and because it is actually not a good thing to take silver or actual members of the medical communuity might recommend it, he turned blue. QED.