Well maybe Exxon-Mobile will similarly have their prices just the way they are for however long God wants them to. To say imply that we may as well not do anything because God has everything under control isn't a satisfactory response - Sky.. If God gave you the cognitive resources for fight for something you think worth fighting for (The prices Exxon-Mobile is charging) then surely he'd expect you to apply those same cognitive resources to fight for something that is even more important (the future of this planet).

I came back just now because I wanted to make it clear that I DO NOT AT ALL CONDONE the bombing of the twin towers. Not at all. I also wanted to say, however, that to call it 'the bombing of the twin towers' is to sanitize the situation - and to make it seem even less understandable than it is. It was the 'World Trade Centre'. And to think that the bombing of the 'World Trade Centre' on US soil was completely unrelated to foreign concern about the US stance on World Trade is... A little odd, to say the least.

I'm not sure about the 'American Dream'. If you ask different people what they take the dream to be then they will give you different answers. It is one particular interpretation of the 'American Dream' that I find problematic. It isn't at all an interpretation that the majority of people within the US condone, I don't think.

I do find it hard, though, when people have this attitude of 'I have the right to certain things in life that are well above the basic necessessities, and if anyone tries to take that away from me then I will defend it to the end'. I find it hard because one only gets to have so much in life in virtue of others going without. And the implication seems to be 'well I have what I have because I deserve it and they have little because they are lazy or whatever'. And of course that doesn't follow at all. One doesn't choose whether one will be born at all, one doesn't choose the income of ones parents at all, one doesn't choose what country one will be born in at all. But still... That does little to curb the sense of entitlement...