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"We should learn to tolerate others."

"No one should tell us what’s right and what’s wrong.  That’s pushing you’re values on someone else."

Do these quotes sound familiar?  They are commonly spouted by "civil rights" groups.  The common response to these lines have often been, "Well, then, how far is too far?"

Obviously, murder should be, right?

According to an Australian news web site, two teenage girls killed one of their friends simply because they wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.  "We just did it because we felt like it."

Frankly, I’m not at all surprised by this.  We live in an increasingly permissive society that doesn’t want (read: want) consequences.  Instead, we want nothing short of complete and utter liberty to do what we feel like, whenever we feel like.

I think the ACLU, along with the rest of us, should celebrate this as a leap in civil liberties.

The Virginia Tech shooting has, no doubt, raised fear and concern about the safety of schools and even our lives.  Many of us are wondering if the next shooting is going to be at our school, work, or any other public place.  We feel less safe and are on the border-line of panic.

However, when we think about the shooting, we often think about the victims of the tragedy.

But when it comes to the perpetrator, we have nothing but loathing for him and if he were alive, we’d want justice to be served.

Why is it that society, as a whole, demand justice for others but seldom want it for ourselves?  Why is it that we always want grace?I propose that this is the human condition.  I can’t recall the number of times I’ve overheard people complain that someone "didn’t get what he deserves" or, even more frequent, "I hope he gets what he deserves."

What ever happened to "Do onto others as you’d have them do to you?"  This double standard, quite frankly, is quite revealing.  A student at the University of Colorado was arrested for speaking out in his class, saying he could understand why someone would kill people.  The arrest was made simply because the student empathized with the shooter.

Glossing over the fact about his first-amendment right, the students that brought the charges were afraid of him.

I think we need to look at the plank in our own eyes before to point to someone else’s speck.

I’m hoping that some of my friends can help me understand a trend in politics that I’m seeing. Ever since being a student, people here at the University support or oppose one thing or another. The nature of the liberal arts education, I suppose. The thing that has always interested me is why students get involved in various topics. However, what’s often lacking is any active work to actually help their resolution.

I feel that this can best be summed up in an a T-shirt:

The first time I saw this T-shirt, I stopped the person to ask him why he felt Bush should be impeached. I really wanted to know. After getting his response, I asked him what he has done to get Bush impeached. His response was that he protested, circulated petitions, and talked with other people. Confused, I asked him a question to clarify the situation. I asked him, “So, have you ever called your congressmen to let them know what you’re thinking?” He responded with a half-hearted “no.”

And since that moment, I’ve had a skeptical view of those who broadcast their political, social, economical views. I think, in many ways, this is a good reflection on where we’re at as a society. I’ve written about my personal grips about blogging before. The fact is that it’s getting worse. A recent article showed that the number of Americans that do not talk about things that are important have doubled in the last 20 years. Does anyone else find that troubling?

I almost feel that this ‘instant coffee’ society, that protesting, circulating petitions is a ‘safe’ way to get your point across. Maybe I’m wrong. But it seems that without actually talking to a senator or a congressman, many of the issues that are worth protesting will not really impact the government. I’m not at all saying that protesting is not a good thing. Many country-altering things happened because of protests and petitions. But I often wonder what would have happened if those same people called, sent letters, basically harassed their elected officials personally about the issues near and dear to their hearts.

Now I don’t think Bush should be impeached. But I totally support people’s right and privilege to petition the government. And basically, I was encouraging the man to do something I didn’t like or support. However, I think it was worth the 10 minutes we talked. I don’t know if he ended up calling his officials. I hope he did.

The lottery is pretty much a tax for people who can’t do math. While some people can win out, many do not. In fact, the odds of winning any large substantial cash is so low, that you would have better odds giving me your money than giving it to the state.

If your a starving student like this guy was, you should probably use the $1 to buy milk, not a lottery ticket. Although he won, he could have easily lost and wouldn’t have any milk in the process.

Most companies are proud of their profits. In fact, when you profit, it’s a good thing because more people will want to invest in you.

Take Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) for example. Their stock has gone steadily up over the last year:

As you can see, the line goes up. Now, Apple, Inc. is very proud of this…and thus more people are confident that Apple will continue to do well…

So you’ve got to ask yourself…Why is Exxon Mobile Corp (NYSE: [XOM | http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=XOM]), Chevron Corp (NYSE: [CVX | http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CVX&t=5y]) and other oil companies downplaying their profits? They’ve said everything from "they really aren’t as high as you think" to "we’re really not making much of a profit."

According to Reuters, the oil companies have earned over ”’$100 BILLION”’ in collected profits last year (source) So…what’s going on here guys? Are you telling me that my stock really isn’t doing as well as it looks?

I think we should take their word seriously. We need to start dumping our oil futures, stocks, and options out of these companies that are spiraling into the sewers. The corporate executives are telling us that they aren’t doing too hot, even though the average American now has to take out a small loan to fill up their 30-gallon SUV that gets 5 miles to the gallon.

Is the oil-industry going to make it? Gosh, at the rate their going, they may have to switch to a bronze spoon…