This is going to be a political rant, but I think it's important to discuss, being as most of us are artists, or those who appreciate art, and art is about expression, and this is about the freedom of expression.
It has come to my attention that President Obama has partnered with Egypt at the United Nations Human Rights Council in backing blasphemy laws--laws that would limit free speech, in order to not offend those engaged in delusion, a/k/a people of faith. To say I'm agitated by this, being as I am an atheist, is an understatement.
I voted for Obama in the hopes that our ailing health care system in the US would be healed. He's let me down big time on that one, and I have to admit I feel like I was tricked. I loathed the "stubborn cowboy" image that George Bush portrayed, but this "compromise at any costs" crap that Obama has been yielding is beyond nauseating, and now it's jeopardizing my right to mock delusionists, which was a right that is protected by the first amendment to the constitution.
Don't get me wrong. I've grown out of the stage where I claim allegence to Satan because Satan is a symbol of rebellion and independence, and I've tempered my selfish glee of actively tormenting Christians about the paradoxes of their faith, first because it's pointless and second because I've realized a lot of the downfalls of being an atheist (you can't comfort anyone whose grieving for a loved one, you're powerless when someone is ill; there are certain situations in life that beg the ability to manipulate the future, and simple science just will not provide that ability). But the fact that if taken to full fruition, siding with Egypt in upholding blashphemy laws, means that I won't have the ability to defend myself in arguments of faith without opening myself up to the possibility of imprisonment has me livid. I thought this guy was going to make my life better...instead, he's taken the few things I have left (free speech) and made my life worse!
Nobody wins in a compromise, and all Obama has been going is compromising. I don't believe McCain would have done much better, but I could have written in "Mickey Mouse" for president or voted for whomever was running as the Libertarian candidate (yeah...forgeiting my vote, which I've done in every other election except the one Reagan won) but at least I wouldn't be feeling so gullible and naive right now.
I'm an artist, and I've been fortunate to have been born in a country that was founded on the idea that people should be free, where freedom to believe as one wishes and is free to express that is a guaranteed right. If I want to create a wallpaper that mocks Islam, in this country I should be able to do that without fear of imprisonment.
I can't determine if Obama truly believes that free speech should be throttled when it comes to religion, or if he's sided with this UN resolution to trick the Muslims in Afghanistan into thinking that he's their friend to put them off guard when it comes to the conflict that we're waging there.
