On this morning’s Reuters report:
Some 1.3 million Americans slid into poverty in 2003 despite the economic recovery, and children and blacks were worse off than most, the government said on Thursday in a report certain to fuel Democratic criticism of President Bush.
The percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty rose to 12.5 percent from 12.1 percent in 2002, the Census Bureau said in its annual poverty report, seen by some as the most important score card on the nation’s economy and Bush’s first term in office. The ranks of the poor rose to 35.9 million, a boost of 1.3 million.
Health care coverage also dropped last year and incomes were essentially stagnant, the Census Bureau said in its annual poverty report, seen by some as the most important score card on the nation’s economy and Bush’s first term in office.
What?! America doesn’t have poor people. The poor live in Iraq, which is why we’re there helping them find their natural resource. If there are 12.25%* poor in this country, it’s because the terrorists made them that way, because they hate America and the way we live with all of our freedoms and riches here.
*based on 2004 Population Reference Bureau number of 294 million
In other news, Canada’s legislative body is set to determine whether Islamic Sharia Law may be permitted to settle disputes within the growing Islamic community there.
On the one hand, I believe that people should be allowed to practise their religions liberally, as long as their “worship” doesn’t negatively affect others. On the other, Sharia law is only one aspect of Islam that passes for writ, and any code that degrades humans, be it religious or secular, should not be tolerated. I wish theocratic Muslims would see the undemocracy of their ways and rectify the situation themselves, but that’s up to them, we can’t do anything about it. Or, can we?
To take the argument one step further, a similar analogy would be the KKK. I heartily disagree with their views and don’t think they should exist, but I appreciate their right to be. In that light, what about black Americans who live in fear of bigoted violence perpetrated by members of the KKK? Again, Irani women fled their nation to enjoy freedom in Canada. If their differences are now forced to be settled in Islamic court, how has western freedom and democracy served these women? In my opinion, the footprint of “religious freedom” is growing out of control. What about the rights of people to be free from the ramifications of religion?
Should a theocracy be able to exist within the context and rules of a democracy?
