Sadam – Death of a Godlike Man

Well, they hung Sadam today and the world is better for it. The man was definitely evil but as with other tyrants he was so Godlike. He was a totalitarian ruler who demanded he be worshipped and was quick to kill individuals or groups that failed to do so. He had little regard for human life. He liked images and icons of himself to be displayed and building erected in his honor – see a pattern here yet. We see this pattern whether it is Stalin, Mao or virtually ant other dictator.
If we look at their most famous brethren, Hitler, we see even more similarities to the biblical God. His Chosen people, the Aryan Race. His cross, the swastika, and of course the flames of hell in his concentration camps make his kingdom on earth a more evident plagiarism of the biblical model. He even had his Archangels, the Gestapo, and for his most faithful followers the Heaven of the Nazi Party. The more a man patterns his behavior after that of the biblical God the more evil we consider him. Imagine what we would think of a leader who behaved as God did in the case of Adam and Eve. Punish not only the perpetrator of a crime, but all their descendents for all time. Going back to the Hitler story, Jewish Rabbi’s have been asked why God sent this miraculously charismatic man to exterminate so many of His chosen people. Their answer, the Jewish people’s faith had been slipping so God sent Hitler as a just punishment. Sounds fair to me. The biblical God is the ultimate example of “Do as I say, not as I do”. What I will never understand is why people choose Him as an object of worship.

Names, famous and not

The death of President Ford had me pondering how there was a time when only fame and fortune would allow your memory to live on for more than a generation or two. Even during this short span of time it was only family who would keep your memory alive for more than a couple years. The common man was doomed to be forgotten.

I think the Internet is really changing this. Most people show up somewhere on the net whether they want to or not. The combined efforts of family, friends, employers and government agencies will eventually put almost everyone somewhere on the net. Though not exactly what you could call fame, folks will occasionally stumble upon your remnants on the web.

Beyond this are those like myself who actively use email, post pictures, write articles in groups and now even have our own blogs. There is absolutely no need to have any talent. Even literacy is relatively optional. Again fame is still unlikely, but who knows even a moron might inadvertently write something worth quoting by pure chance and find himself being quoted long after his death.

In any event I think this is a great collateral benefit of the web. This huge reservoir of information about even the most obscure of individuals in a searchable format. Though never a genealogy buff I still have wondered about my ancestors on occasion. I am not interested in demographic data about them. I'd like to know who they were. With each passing year the web will provide more of this information to our descendants - I like that idea.

Merry Christmas

Well, we're done celebrating the winter solstice christian style. Funny how it is the birthday celebration of Jesus Christ being held months early or late depending on how you look at it. The kid was born in the spring near as anyone can figure. The church leaders needed a good excuse for a big winter solstice shindig so they could compete for the business all the pagans had during the season. Marketing was alive and well back then and we worry about it getting too commercial today.

The only thing that gets under my skin are the folks who are upset that they don't get a big enough piece of the pie today. Trying to use separation of church and state and other lame arguments to detract from the holiday. Get a life. Christmas is for the kids. It is part of our culture. It came over on the Mayflower and is older than the Constitution. The Christians have the market on winter solstice celebrations in the good ole USA, so just drop it.