When I was in the eighth grade, I went on a field trip to a Mosque in New York City. Once there, we took off our shoes and sat upon the soft carpet within the high-ceilinged, elaborately patterned building. An imam sat down in front of us and did his best to educate us on the rules and customs of Islam and, in accordance with jihad, attempted to convert us. I agreed and disagreed with the various ideas he espoused and ultimately decided that I would keep the religious status I was born into. One of the ideas that I disagreed with was that the tornadoes which caused a lot of damage in the Midwest, just before our visit to the Mosque, where the work of God trying to tell mankind that gays are bad. I disagreed with this notion for several reasons:

• His argument that gays are bad was based on his belief that nature is full of opposite pairs. His examples upholding the natural arrangement of male and female included positive and negative electric charges, day and night, and that animals never gay it up. The latter point is wrong, and the imam only managed to point out that homosexuals are different and different is never automatically bad.
• God doesn't actually have it out for gays because San Francisco still stands while homophobic Jesus-lovin' Bible belt inhabitants get Dysoned every few weeks each Spring.
• Bad weather has surely occurred prior to the advent of Homo sapiens.

However, the weather and seismic events that occurred in Burma and China make me consider that divine intervention is afoot. Like I said before, bad weather isn't new, and neither are earthquakes. It's the timing of these disasters that makes my ears prick up. In Burma, we have the military junta attempting to tighten its grip on the people by holding a false referendum of an illegitimate constitution. The junta has no intention of changing Burma's status as a virtual slave state. The recent typhoon has served well to highlight the greed and cruelty of Burma's leaders as they try to save face. Meanwhile, journalists languish in Chinese prisons, while the government paints a pretty picture of the Olympics and looks away from the atrocities in Darfur and Burma. Perhaps an intelligent designer is trying to point out that the governments in question are up to no good.

Of course, I would never wish such ordeals on anyone and I don't actually believe that God is intervening. Everything I've pointed out is merely circumstantial. That said, there are some problems in the world that need to be fixed. Therefore, I propose the founding of a philanthropic mercenary organization designed to remove cruel and unjust leadership. Bruma's junta would make a good first mission. Our philanthropist mercenaries would swoop in and quietly subdue and capture the unwitting junta members and promptly liberate Aung San Suu Kyi allowing her to form the government per the election in the early nineties. These events would proceed in a single evening, of course, and the deliverers of justice would certainly wear snazzy uniforms.

Labels: burma, china, god, Justice League, opinion, politics

Finally, here are my photos from Moscow:



I think some of them are pretty cool. I took these photos on my first trip into downtown Moscow. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't good. Luckily my Nikon Coolpix 8800VR held up relatively well. The rain sucked, but it did make the Red Square look all shiny. The mist made Saint Basil's Cathedral look really spectacular. Buildings like this one freak me out with their age and beauty. They're all over Moscow, too. I can't really rationalize a vacation to Moscow, but I can't rationalize passing up an opportunity to visit either. Somehow, despite the traffic and pollution, Moscow makes me feel good about humanity. Too bad pictures can never really convey this sentiment.