You're not alone, Mother Teresa!

The faithful masses were spinning this week at revelations that Mother Teresa, or rather soon to be Saint Teresa, expressed doubt about her Christian faith and towards God.
What's so shocking about this, the Gadfly asks? I would counter that anyone with a modicum of common sense would have doubts about the make believe that is Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and the multitude of faiths in existence today.
There are so many contradictions in faith, and conflicts that arise if one believes in the existence of a just, omnipotent God, and falsehoods in every "holy" text in existence, that it is truly astounding that anyone in this age of science believes in God.
Doubt towards faith is best highlighted, to me, in the book "Of Human Bondage", where the protagonist Philip Carey, realizes that all this belief in a just God and prayer is bunk. No God will fix his club foot, no amount of goodness or prayer will fix his club foot. Only the secular health care system and medical intervention from the hands of man can fix his club foot.
Those of us who have moved beyond doubt in God should celebrate that Mother Teresa looked towards what we embrace. That there really is no God. All the motions we go through, all the holy texts, all the priests, popes, and holy men (and they are, usually, only men, not women allowed into the hallow circles of holiness), are just part of a huge game of make believe.
Notwithstanding the goodness that Mother Teresa brought to this Earth, one would wonder, how much more suffering she could have ended if she promoted birth control and contraception to the poor women of Calcutta? Forget even about abortion, but just allowing women control of their reproduction in the form of birth control could have decreased the numbers of suffering children that Teresa had to take care of. It is ironic that while providing comfort and care to the downtrodden of Calcutta, Mother Teresa actively renounced the scientific/medical means for limiting poverty through contraception and education. Yet, that is what happens in the make believe world of faith - when we believe from the pope that birth control is a sin, we have to preach against it, even when we see the suffering that a lack of birth control can produce.
It's too bad Mother Teresa couldn't have taken the further steps to embrace a secular stance and continue to support the poor and downtrodden as well as the efforts to uplift the poor through family planning and education.

Moving towards illiteracy?

While the Gadfly may have issues with polls, this one caught my eye recently. 1 in 4 Americans apparently never read a single book last year, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.
The Gadfly is not surprised by this. In fact, I would probably peg that number as even higher than 1 in 4.
America is not a reading nation. We are a nation of TV, movies, and sports, but not of reading.
I would add that as much as I would like it to count, perusing blogs does not count as reading.
The Gadfly at times has felt like a sole evangelist standing on my soapbox, touting the critical need for reading. In fact, if I had to name my greatest teacher, it would be the library. Through reading, and knowing how to access information, one can quickly become knowledgeable and even have a foundation for making new discoveries and insights. But it takes reading, and reading isn't easy. Good reading requires a quiet place with minimal distractions, it requires actively taking notes and questioning what one reads, and it requires time. It is so much easier to plop in front of a couch to watch TV or surf on YouTube than to read these days. The level of distractions and easy entertainment options today has shunted our attention away from critical reading.
The Gadfly can only hope that the spark of reading catches on at some point in this country, so that we can discover our greatest teacher in the written word.

Slipping life expectancy in America

America is slipping, in its life expectancy. We are now surpassed by Jordan, Guam, and the Cayman Islands in average life expectancy. Why?
The answer is likely multifactorial. The Gadfly would like to point out that American style capitalism has some blame. McDonald's and our low (or even negative) nutritional value but high calorie fast foods, our sedentary lifestyles, supported by television, movies, obesity (inertia), cars and highways over walking/biking to work have all undermined our health.
Also, our health care system likely shares some of the blame. While we make a big deal of health care disparities, the Gadfly would also mention that wealthy people may be getting butchered by their doctors. Doctors taking care of wealthy patients may resort to extra, unnecessary tests or treatments that may in turn be associated with side effects. The Gadfly, for instance, has seen patients aggressively transfused with blood products for minimal anemia, despite clinical data showing worse outcomes in such treated patients. The Gadfly has seen patients undergoing biopsies for insignificant lesions discovered on "wellness" CT scans, only to suffer complications from such biopsies.
The real issue here is that sometimes, it's good to stay away from the doctor. Taking care of your health has a strong component of personal responsibility, not just a health care system's responsibility. Eating right, exercising, avoiding smoking, and drinking only in moderation are the keys to a healthy and long life for the vast majority of people. Of course, medical interventions such as vaccinations and clean drinking water are also critical for health. In an ideal world, only a small minority would otherwise need regular visits to the doctor or medical interventions to ensure a long life.

Gadfly rant against Alberto Gonzales

The Gadfly has, in various posts, railed against Republicans and the current administration. One person in particular is the poster child for everything that's wrong with the GW Bush administration - Alberto Gonzales.
Alberto Gonzales is walking proof that sycophancy is a vile, pathetic way to reach the top.
America needs to be shown by the next president that sycophancy is not a virtue. Where it not for sycophancy, Alberto Gonzales, Condi Rice, and numerous other GW Bush appointees would never be allowed to serve in positions of power again.
Focusing on Alberto's faults - to sum it up, he puts "loyalty" or what the Gadfly would call sycophancy, above service to the country. He would rather please GW Bush than do what's right for the country.
He has shown this over and over again - in trying to secure authorization for secret wiretaps, in defending the handling of enemy combatants, in his political hack work of firing US attorneys for party loyalty reasons. Long before he had a chance to screw up the Justice department, he showed his sycophancy by writing cursory summaries of death row inmates, facilitating more executions in the state of Texas than any other state in history. If GW Bush does not believe in pardons, except for close friends like Lewis Libby, then Gonzales will give him unpardonable offenders.
On a personal level, the Gadfly is also irked that Gonzales and I share a common alma mater, Rice University. I am particularly saddened that Rice University has bestowed honors upon Gonzales, such as giving him a Distinguished Alumnus honor, and inviting him to speak at commencement.
I have no problems having Gonzales speak in a public forum, but a commencement speaker should exemplify values that a university would hope to transfer to its graduates. Gonzales exemplifies little more than the value of sycophancy, in the Gadfly's view.
Rice University should strip him of any honors it has bestowed, and let him live with the shame and dishonor he has brought upon the country, his political party, his alma mater, the state of Texas, and the Justice department, to name a few.
Gadfly rant is over.