Thomas L. Friedman

In his recent book - The Lexus and the Olive Tree, author Mr. Friedman wrote: “Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire with his own global network, declared war on the United States in the late 1990s, and the US Air Force retaliated with a cruise missile attack on him (where he resided in Afghanistan) as though he were another nation-state. Think about it. The United States fired 75 cruise missiles, at $1 million dollars apiece, at a person! That was a superpower against a Super-empowered angry man.”
What Mr. Friedman neglected to articulate, however, is how the US economy is based mostly on war production materials and at global activities creating enemies of all sorts to facilitate the use of US made weapons even if drains the national wealth or the USA allying herself with right-wing tyrannies overseas. Poch Suzara

The Human Heart

The human heart is more prone to hate than to love. That is why bullets, guns, and bomb makers have been the most profitable of industries. Especially in the United States of America. In fact, the economy of the USA has been and still is based not upon a world at peace with goodwill to all men, but upon foreign countries at war or preparing for war against each other. Thus, the core of the US foreign policy has more to do with military greed. It has virtually nothing to do with human need.
In the meantime, the whole world today is in desperate need to wage a battle against ignorance. It does not need to wage a war against terrorism. Terrorism is just one product of ignorance as inspired by stupid religion. Poch Suzara

Cosmic Insignificance

Our entire world is one planet so small in that 1,000,000 planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun, Indeed, we are living on a speck of dust in a galaxy that contains 400 billion suns, and is itself only one of the several billion galaxies. According to science, however, our sun will grow cold, and life on this earth will come to an end. The universe, however, will continue to exist while utterly indifferent to human destiny. Poch Suzara

Childhood Impressions

One of the hardest things to achieve in life: throw off childhood impressions out the window. Early impressions have an immensely stronger hold upon us than those acquired in the later years. Thus, a child grows up to be a Catholic or a Jew or a Muslim because of nursery environment and early teachings. Sometimes, even a biologist devoted to the science of biology believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. As a child, said biologist had been frightened to believe that God had a virgin for a Mother. Poch Suzara

The Power of Philosophy

The power of philosophy lies not in the agreement, but in the disagreement among the philosophers. What is even more powerful, however, are the daughters of philosophy – the sciences – each in their respective field of endeavor discovering more and more scientific knowledge for the philosophers to disagree or agree with. Poch Suzara

It is the Same Thing

The pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of knowledge amount to the same thing. What is essential for the good, happy, and creative life is not deadly paralysis, but lively analysis. Bertrand Russell wrote it more gracefully: “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” Poch Suzara

Jesus Died On the Cross

It has been two thousand years since Jesus died on the cross to destroy the devil. Yet today millions of Christians still believe that their greatest enemy is not those lively little creatures found under a microscope, but the silly devil and his deadly influence found in their daily horoscope. Obviously, dying on the cross was a barbaric way to remedy social problems. It has not work in the past. Never will in the future. Poch Suzara

Jesus Baptized

Jesus, the Son of God, was born without sin. And yet John, the Baptist, the religious moron that he was, baptized Jesus to cleanse his presumably blackened soul due to the mess called original sin. Poch Suzara

Childhood Friends

My friends since childhood days have turned out to be not friends at all. They have never met Jesus personally. And yet in our old age my friends are peeved at me because they expect me to be more of a friend to Jesus than be a real friend to them. Well, I don’t know Jesus. I never met Jesus. Jesus and I never grew up together laughing, playing, studying, misbehaving, traveling, and chasing after girls together? In fact, Jesus was never here or there or everywhere with me at any time or place during my trials and tribulations! Why should I be a friend to some one who is not only a Jewish ancient mystery, but who was also never a living flesh and blood personality to me? Poch Suzara

Atheism

Do you believe in God? It is a meaningless question. What is more meaningful to ask, however, is whether God (if he exist) believes in you. After all, God has the kingdom, the power, and the glory. For my part, as I have nothing why should God give a hoot whether I believe in him or not?
Since the time of Jesus, more than ONE HUNDRED BILLION people have already lived and died on this earth. That God is so worried about the salvation of souls has got to be a sick joke concocted by the corrupt priesthood industry. Really, if God cares for souls, why create them to be in danger on this earth? Why not create souls happy in heaven? Or, better yet, why bother to create silly little souls to begin with? Poch Suzara

Lord Acton

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by the minorities.” Lord Acton
In the Philippines, however, despite the more than one million security guards from licensed private security agencies guarding our banks, government buildings, piers and airports, hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, restaurants, plush villages, condominium buildings, shopping malls, and indeed guarding even our churches and cathedrals, nobody but nobody enjoys security in our sick society.
One thing, however, stands out very clear. We have no need of security guards to guard our public libraries since there aren’t any existing that is worth visiting anywhere in the Philippines. Never mind guarding the existence of Science Museums throughout our country. No such creatures exist in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Ignorant Religion

Imagine the harm that has come from ignorant religion. On the other hand, think of how much help has come from human intelligence, kindness, courage, and perseverance. Indeed, freedom of religion is important, but what is even far more important is freedom from religion.
We could never achieve the full potential as a human being if we remain not only religiously ignorant, but also remain ignorant religiously. Poch Suzara

Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal

Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal As the Knights of Rizal, you people should have already settled the issue of the Rizal retraction scandal. The shameful damaging controversy has been going on for more than 111 years now. Rizal was condemned to death as an infidel. He was framed with the crime of rebellion to kill him for brilliantly attacking the Catholic establishment as even the 2005 published Opus Dei book admits. Down Through the years, you Knights of Rizal, historians, biographers, and even a famous lady columnist wrote that it does not matter whether Rizal retracted or not because it is a non-issue. I ask: are you people really that frightened of the truth? And to think that some of you are lawyers by profession. You were trained in the art of cross-examination precisely to ferret out the truth. When has the truth ever been a non-issue in human tragedy? We Filipinos have yet to acknowledge that our hero, Rizal, died truthful to his principles and humanitarian ideals. Indeed, he met his death intellectually sober and not drunk with religious lies. Clearly, the Catholic church in authority found it necessary to put Rizal to death. After all, it is easier to destroy the reputation of a dead man than it is to destroy his truthful writings, especially if he remains alive doing more truthful writings. Rizal advocated the rational way of life and he therefore got to be the notorious enemy of Catholicism. Rizal wanted us to grow up and to stop living in fear and in guilt. Moreover, to stop wasting our time falling on our knees praying daily to a Supreme Being out there to give us this day our daily bread and to lead us not into temptation down here. The Catholic could never allow Rizal’s teachings to revolutionize the Filipino way of thinking: it is always better to think than it is to believe. Unfortunately, faith condemns people not to think. And sadly, with faith, millions believe that Rizal died as a penitent Catholic totally rejecting Rizal‘s message: “Be careful, choose well, for this world is full of deceits and deceivers.” And to think that after he was executed Rizal was not even granted a Catholic burial. It only proves that the Rizal retraction story was pure gimcrackery. It was concocted by the priesthood industry to protect the Catholic church with its vested interest in human misery. In this 21st century, we poor Filipinos are still searching for our identity and prosperity and social sanity which Rizal struggled and gave his precious life for. Oh, you Knights of Rizal, wake up! Rizal is still a vague hero to millions of Filipinos! Only the few know Rizal as a brilliant thinker who was executed for being too brilliant a thinker who catered not to the authority of the church, but served instead his people and the future welfare of his own country! Indeed, thanks to the courage of great thinkers in the stature of a Rizal, the Catholic church today is tearing itself apart externally as it is collapsing internally. I accuse you Knights of Rizal of both errancy and complicity in the second assassination of Rizal’s character and reputation. It is worthless to ignore those who maliciously invented Rizal’s retraction document hours before he was executed. It is more crucial to defend Rizal’s loyalty to veracity, profound sense of common human decency, and unquestionable level of scientific honesty. If we, the Filipino people, continue to suffer under the failure of our social values and religious beliefs, it is simply due to the historical success of Catholicism in the Philippines. Indeed, as products of our Catholic schools, colleges, and universities we have yet to be taught how to emulate our great hero - the rare and brave thinking Filipino that he was - who struggled against those made wealth, power, and glory selling nothing but the gospel of sacred lies and biblical falsehoods in this country since the 16th century. Gentlemen, our chief hero was put to death for being humanistic, scientific, and a heretic. Indeed, the same Rizal, the sane and rational man that he was, with dignity and self-respect - refused to fall on his knees in blind obedience to anything fantastic be it ecclesiastic, apostolic, pontific, or even theologic. Yours in Rizal, Poch Suzara

The Truth Hurts

The Truth hurts. The most stupid thing, however, is when one prefers getting hurt like a coward than facing the truth with courage. Poch Suzara

Senate Minority Leader

Aquilino Pimentel Jr. cautioned the executive branch of government against pressuring the Court of Appeals on the US Marine rapist custody issue.
Pimentel said the Philippine government was “well within its right” to voice its position on the case in view of the cancellation of the Balikatan 2007. But he said the issue “should be taken within the ambit of the case,” now pending before the court.
To allow the executive branch to bamboozle the court, that is something else,” the Senator told the Daily Inquirer.
Pimentel also advised the appellate court not to yield to “external pressure” and “to decide on the case on its legal merits.” “Only in that way will the issue be laid to rest,” he said, adding:
“Like extrajudicial killings, extrajudicial pressure is divisive.” Pimental also said the Philippine government had no reason to complain if the US government cancelled the war games and, eventually, stopped giving aid to the country.
“If the United States, the only superpower in the world, believes that the Balikatan exercises are not that vital for its security and ours, who are we to complain?” he said.
For my part, I admire Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. He is a rare Filipino politician in the Philippine government. He has not only the intellect but also the courage to assert self-respect and dignity for his people where a US Marine rapist and his spiritual adviser – Fr. James Reuter have only made a mockery of the status of the women citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.
In the meantime, we have yet to hear from the Visiting Forces Agreement Commanders on the US military proceedings to discharge dishonorably that criminal who raped Nicole in her own land. And to think that the job of the US Marines is to protect and defend those who are unable to defend and protect themselves. Poch Suzara

The Iraqi War

The Iraqi war has done much damage to the capability of the US military. The US government has been spending $9 billion a month and have spent over $300 billion total on this war thus far. The potential antagonists of the USA, including Iran, North Korea, Russia and China, “want and need America in Iraq” because the war is “depleting American financial and human resources.” Imagine $300 Billion dollars. Imagine what that money can do to rebuild communities that have been falling apart in American cities since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.
Imagine $300 Billion dollars wasted on war and not for peace and global stability. That kind of money can tremendously help America catch up with other advanced European nations, not to mention Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, Australia, and Canada ahead in: adult literacy, health care quality, student reading ability, student mathematics ability, student science ability, women’s rights, infant mortality rate, life expectancy, qualify of life survey, overall currency strength, human development index. In brief, ahead in social and political and economic sanity.
For my part, as an American citizen, I no longer feel free or even proud singing: God Bless America! Poch Suzara

If Atheism were a Religion

If atheism were a religion, then it is the oldest of all religions. Consider the angels who rebelled against God in heaven eons ago even before the days of Adam and Eve on earth. Those angels did not follow God. They did not believe in God. They were atheists, weren’t they? If God, however, was really all that great, all that fair and wonderful, and all that lovable – why would any of his angels in heaven and men on earth disobey or rebel against him? It makes no supernatural sense at all! Poch Suzara

Poor Philippines

We are such a poor country. We neither have a history nor a culture or values to live by. We do not even have national heroes to emulate. Our national heroes have turned out to be not heroes but faithful believers. Before they died or were executed, according to our priests and nuns, they retracted while embracing the teachings of the Catholic Church. One such great Filipino was Jose Rizal. He is now more of a saint of God than he is a hero of the Filipino people. Thus, in this only Christian country in Asia, we continue to experience poverty of the worse kind – the poverty of the mind and heart. We have no great leaders, and no great heroes. We have more bishops down here and more saints up there to love, worship, and adore. In fact, we Filipinos love only Mary, the Virgin Mother of God more than we love our own mother because our mothers have lost their virginity to our fathers. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

According to Science

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies all were made in the interior of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.
God did not create the universe. To begin with, the creation of the universe is beyond the scope of human understanding. We created God to justify our ignorance and fear. We even made such jusification appear like it is something unquestionably sacred, if not biblically holy. Poch Suzara

Bishop Oscar Cruz

The famous Nicole Rape case got her US Marine rapist sentenced to 40 years in jail. (PDI December 8,2006). Bishop Oscar Cruz stated: “Women, most especially, should be taught that womanhood is precious and noble, so it is not right for them to be flaunting it around . . . they should not make themselves appear cheap and practically inviting to be violated by men.” Wow! One can imagine during her days just how sexually attractive must have been the Virgin Mary flaunting her carnal desires all over the place. God almighty existing here, existing there, and existing everywhere, could not control himself. He was seduced and aroused. He got Mary deflowered and impregnated her with a baby. We do, however, have to give God some credit. He wasn’t really all that sexually reckless. He was responsible enough to practiced family planning and birth control. He had begotten only one Son, didn’t He? Poch Suzara