infosoldier.com

By now you should have noticed that at the very top of this blog there's always some quote. They vary randomly and repeat often. Yet, these quotes are not intended for you my dear reader, but for myself. They are there in order to remind me that everything has been said already. They also serve to remind me that there are men and women wiser than myself, that there have always been and always will be. The quotes are for me, but if you find some wisdom or solace in them, be kind and take them to heart!

I'm going to add a bunch of new ones soon. But this one, by Robert A. Heinlein is too long to put up there so I'll put it here instead:

"I said that "Patriotism" is a way of saying "Women and children first." And that no one can force a man to feel this way. Instead he must embrace it freely. I want to tell about one such man. He wore no uniform and no one knows his name, or where he came from; all we know is what he did.

In my home town sixty years ago when I was a child, my mother and father used to take me and my brothers and sisters out to Swope Park on Sunday afternoons. It was a wonderful place for kids, with picnic grounds and lakes and a zoo. But a railroad line cut straight through it.

One Sunday afternoon a young married couple were crossing these tracks. She apparently did not watch her step, for she managed to catch her foot in the frog of a switch to a siding and could not pull it free. Her husband stopped to help her.

But try as they might they could not get her foot loose. While they were working at it, a tramp showed up, walking the ties. He joined the husband in trying to pull the young woman's foot loose. No luck —

Out of sight around the curve a train whistled. Perhaps there would have been time to run and flag it down, perhaps not. In any case both men went right ahead trying to pull her free... and the train hit them.

The wife was killed, the husband was mortally injured and died later, the tramp was killed — and testimony showed that neither man made the slightest effort to save himself.

The husband's behavior was heroic... but what we expect of a husband toward his wife: his right, and his proud privilege, to die for his woman. But what of this nameless stranger? Up to the very last second he could have jumped clear. He did not. He was still trying to save this woman he had never seen before in his life, right up to the very instant the train killed him. And that's all we'll ever know about him.

This is how a man dies.

This is how a man... lives!"

~ Robert A. Heinlein

The information soldier has quoted...

En speek2.us encontré el siguiente artículo que vale la pena traducir (para el beneficio de esos pobres fundamentalistas, que encima son penepés o populares arrebataos, que no saben inglés):Cruz

10 - Vigorosamente niegas la existencia de miles de dioses reclamados por otras religiones, pero te sientes ultrajado cuando alguien niega la existencia de tu dios.

9 - Te sientes insultado y deshumanizado cuando los científicos aseguran que la humanidad evolucionó de otras formas de vida, pero no tienes problema con la aseveración bíblica de que hemos sido creados del polvo, tierra y suciedad.

8 - Te ríes de los politeístas, pero no tienes problema en creer en un dios con tres partes.

7 - Tu cara se vuelve violeta cuando oyes hablar de las “atrocidades” atribuidas a Allah, pero no pestañeas cuando escuchas sobre como dios mató a todos los bebés de Egipto, y pidió la eliminación de grupos étnicos enteros incluyendo mujeres, niños, y árboles.

6 - Te ríes de creencia hindú que deífica a los seres humanos, y de los griegos el que los dioses duermen con las mujeres, pero no tienes ningún problema que creer que el espíritu santo impregnó a María, que entonces dio a luz a un hombre-dios que fue asesinado, volvió a la vida y después ascendió en el cielo.

5 - Estas dispuesto a gastar tu vida en la búsqueda de pequeños errores cometidos por los científicos modernos al decir que la tierra tiene varios billones de años de edad, pero no encuentras nada malo con creer todas la fechas por hombres que vivían en tribus, sentados en la tierra y que adivinaban que la tierra solamente había existido por par de décadas.

4 - Tu crees apasionadamente que la población entera de la tierra, con la excepción de aquellos que creen lo mismo que tu (pero que no sean de una secta distinta!) pasaran la eternidad en un infierno de eterno sufrimiento. Sin embargo consideras que tu religión es la más tolerante y amorosa de todas.

3 - La ciencia moderna, la historia, la geología, biología y la física no pueden convencerte de nada, pero por otro lado puedes creer cualquier cosa de cualquiera que se tire al piso y hable "en lenguas".

2 - Defines 0.01% como un alto porciento de éxito cuando se trata de oraciones respondidas. Consideras ese 0.01% como evidencia de que orar funciona y que dios existe. El otro 99.9% de oraciones no respondidas es simplemente la voluntad de dios de no responder.

1 - Comparado con la mayoría de los ateos y agnósticos, en realidad conoces mucho mucho menos acerca de la biblia, el cristianismo y su historia. Pero como quiera, dices que eres cristiano.

Bibliaficción

Quiero aprovechar para declarar que yo no soy ateo... sino simplemente agnóstico...

Enlaces:

• Traducido de Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian en speek2.us

There's too many stuff and ideas going on in my little head but I'm gonna blog about the craziest one (gotta do a post about ideas soon...). I think Puerto Rico needs an honest-to-goodness smut magazine. Scratch that. Make it three.

I just don't talk about politics in this blog. Even when that might attract a much larger readership than I would otherwise get (I think!). One reason is that I want to be... Huh.. Err... politically correct. By not talking about the subject I also think it would be more probable to keep my job. You know, the virtues of public service and all. And last but not least, there are others that are doing a much better job than I think I would do.

I want to state, however, the conditions under which I will cast my next vote. I will further clarify that I seldom vote. Yes. I am one of those people, you know... non-voting people. Indecisos, we sometimes call them here. Though none of them really are, I bet. Non-affiliated would be a better name for such as the likes of me, however. Yes, I know that's hard to believe; but I have never been affiliated with any political party. And I don't expect that to change anytime soon.

Anyway, the prerequisites for my next vote are... simple. I will vote for the person (I won't use the term politician; since that gives them an air of respectability none of them has actually earned)... Sorry, got sidetracked there. I will vote for the person, or persons that vow to do less. Yes, you know... less.

Less politics.
Less laws.
Less bickering.
Less promises.
Less grand-standing.

Less. Less. Less!

Any senator, no matter what ideology he begets, need only make this one promise: "I will only make laws that simplify or derogate other older laws."

Anyone who runs for governor that, instead of having a more-with-less mentality, says he (or she) will do less with less; will instantly get my vote.

I know it's hard... Huh... Well; that isn't hard at all...

The information soldier is politically correct, respectably so