Moving on....

Three months and one day. That's the countdown to January 20, 2009, when one way or another the debacle known as the Bush administration will end. Of course, we will know in less than a month who will succeed as president 44, and with all the stars being aligned properly, that successor will be Barack Obama.

Now, I'm not as keen on Obama as some are. Some, like the Obamabots I know from a very well known Democratic website, have allowed their minds to be clouded and their wills to be subjugated in a blind devotion to the Democratic nominee. I personally would have preferred John Edwards or Hillary Clinton for the nominee, but beggars can't be choosers. I've gotten flamed for my hesitation in recommending a full endorsement of the junior senator from Illinois, but them's the breaks. The truth is, in a rush to make an historic run for the White House, many Dems have forgotten to exercise common sense in the selection of the candidate.

Of course, the media hasn't been a whole lot of help. The legions of reporters and so-called journalists has made this primary and general election a study in Pavlovian techniques: ignore the majority of the potential nominees, and concentrate on the most sensationlistic candidates instead. Is it only coincidence that the two most non-traditional candidates were the last to remain, even after a well qualified and vetted candidate as John Edwards was (and is, extra-marital affair nothwithstanding) one of the best possible solutions? And is it coincidence that John McCain, who had been doing quite rotten in the primaries, came from behind to become the nominee?

People in the United States come from three basic groups, regardless of their economic level: knowledgeable about world politics, our place in the global community and capable of understanding our position of power; willfully ignorant of all of the above; and finally, ignorant because of a general lack of education or the inability to understand all of the above. The first group votes their choice because of their own stands on topical issues, regardless whether it's conservative or liberal in nature. The third group might not vote at all, simply because they aren't sure whether their vote will make a difference, or if they vote at all, it might not be to their best advantage. It's the second group that remains dangerous to the country and to rest of the electorate. They will half-listen to

The inevitability of change

Life surrounds us every minute, every second, every day. It is our environment, our thoughts, our actions, our circumstances, and our world.

Sometimes, our life is good, comfortable, and fulfilling, and other times, hell seems like a nice alternative compared to our own reality.

As an atheist, I don't look at our existence with much of a glamour--my philosophy is whatever makes a person happy, as long as it's not being forced on me, is fine. I simply do not believe, and that is all. But through this critical eye, I believe that we are very much going to change things very drastically over the next 20 years if the human race is to survive somehow intact.

And this is not limited to the United States--this is true of every country in the world, because what affects one, affects all. The people in the United States are, for the most part, better off than 85 to 90% of the worald's population. We aren't perfect, and we will never be perfect, but at the very least, we have non-contaminated water, indoor plumbing, and some element of a psycho-social