Coming Out...

I am going to come clean about a few things here. I think what I post here will surprise most of you that know me. =) I do not usually discuss politics or religion to anyone really, mostly due to not knowing what my beliefs are and not knowing enough. I am in the process of developing my political and religious views, and this journey has taken me to some interesting places, of which I will detail below.

Political Leanings

According to PoliticalCompass.org I am a slightly left leaning Libertarian ( I think that I am reading that correct?):

Economic Left/Right: -1.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.64

I am not exactly sure what that specifically means, but I think that it shows that I have strong Libertarian views, which I think is close to true.

Micronationalism

In the process of this journey I have joined a micronation called the Republic of Talossa which has been a very interesting experience that has caused me to think about and investigate topics and ideas that I would never have broached otherwise.

Shortly after joining I was nominated and accepted the position of Secretary of State which took me by surprise. In this position I am in charge of the electoral process and the National Register of Law which I completely recoded.

I have also joined their political party called the Union for Talossan Progress for which I have created a simple site for them and posted my modest views and ideas which will be in short form posted below.

World Government

As a part of the Micronational experience I have come upon the World Government site which blows great big HTML and usability chunks. I have taken steps to recode much of the site so that it is usable and standards compliant, but I have more to do. The great thing about this is that it is based on the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is a great thing and I very much support. Take a look at it.

Miscellaneous Views

Here come some interesting views that you may find interesting and/or shocking.

Marriage

Some basic views about the institution of marriage and civil unions:

In short Marriage should be privitized or atleast unrestricted as marriage in-an-of-itself is really a religious and/or very personal decision that the government should have exactly no say in. The government should maintain a database of contracts for those who wish to solidify or contractualize their union; of course, this would mean redoing much of the tax, divorce, insurance, and child custody and care laws. When is hell going to freeze over?

I am for gay Marriage and I support Poly marriages as well. Again this is a personal choice and the government has no place in it. Check out Fair Wisconsin to help stop the ban on same sex unions.

Time and Measurement

I believe that we should be fully metric, using the 24 hour clock and possibly an alternate decimal clock, and definitively using the International Fixed Calendar.

Religious Leanings

Exploring my religious beliefs has been interesting. I do not have very strong religious leanings as no specific religion has appealed to me and my rather liberal beliefs, as you can see from above.

I have a problem with religion in general as some religions are potentially the richest organizations in the world. There may come a point where decisions made within the church are business and not religious ones, or are financially motivated rather than faith motivated. There are stories of churches that require their congregation to tithe via automatic electronic withdrawal and require a specific percentage of your income. Ugghhh!!!

Oh, and the last reason why I am not keen on religions is that many wars have been started due to religious reasons and horrible crimes against humanity committed with fath based justification.

So, with these thoughts in mind I do not have a really great view of religions. Now, barring those issues, churches have done some wonderful things for people around the world: missionary work, building houses, and providing personal and financial support to their members and non-members amongst other wonderful things. Great community activism. Very cool!

I looked to Bahai'ism, but that did not quite fit me. Then my search turned to Unitarian Universalist. I am currently researching this religion and I think that this will be the best fit for me. I am not sure yet. We will see.

I have come to find that Thomas Jefferson was Unitarian and he has created and published the Jefferson Bible where he stripped out the supernatural and tried to boil down the teachings of Jesus into a book of morality, which is something that I have long thought would be best use for biblical teachings.

In closing

In closing I have been thinking and doing a lot of research on these topics and have come to some interesting and unexpected conclusions during this journey. I would like to thank my wonderful parents who raised me to be and conservatively open-minded and understanding.