I believe in the possibility of a better world, and I hope to contribute to this coming of a better world every day, in every way I can.

However, I will not force my beliefs about how this world should be onto others, because I wouldn't like that to happen to me either. Therefore, the only fair way to go is to let everybody live their own lives.

I support a free market of lifestyles existing in our society. However, I have also said that society and government should protect everybody's freedom so they are not infringed by others' activities.

Therefore, for example, as a person who lives according to a set of 'progressive family values', I believe that it is reasonable to ask the government to act on the following matters:
1) To keep the streets secure. I don't want to have to encounter drunken people who are violent when I walk out there at night.
2) To enact anti-discrimination laws to protect minorities we care about, as friends and family, so that they too can enjoy the greatest extent of freedom.
3) To forbid parents from physically hurting their children in public - I don't want to explain to my child that some parents hit their children for discipline and that is normal for them.
3) To allow us, as people who believe in an undissolvable family for life, to have covenant type partnerships with backup laws against adultery (that only apply to us who believe in such moral standards), and extend these rights to people regardless of sexual orientation.
4) To help ensure the popular media does not impart values of obscenity and violence to our children, for we do not wish them exposed to such content and society should not work against our effort in that (for we are not doing anything wrong by society either, for example by teaching discrimination).

Note that all the above demands have to do with helping ensure that we can live the type of lifestyle we believe in. They are not aimed at forcing other people to obey what we believe is correct - because in the free market of lifestyles, nobody should be able to do that.

Countless people can claim that their particular lifestyles are given from heaven by their trusted diety, but that also means they are all contradicting one another. The only way forward is to have a fair match.

They say the free market is an effective way of deciding what is useful for commercial production, and which places and resources are best for producing it - because what is popular will survive and become even better, and what is not popular will perish. If we can put our worries about how jobs will be lost etc. making this not entirely workable as the sole basis for our economy, it is actually a valid saying.

Now let's apply this to the lifestyles marketplace, where, no matter what lifestyles are in and what are out, no jobs will be lost. Therefore, the free market should be a very valid tool for determining what is best.

To have a truly free market in terms of lifestyles, people should be free to pursue whatever lifestyle they believe in, as long as it doesn't harm anybody else (I'm not saying that's the only criterion for morality, but it's the basis that allows us to define freedom to the utmost extent to let this fair free market run). Society should not discriminate against anybody and the government's role would be to ensure everybody equally enjoys this freedom without intrusion or pressure to conform otherwise. This should apply regardless of anybody's personal beliefs.

1(1) Miranda Cosgrove - Raining Sunshine (6wks #1)
2(6) Chipettes - Hot N Cold
3(7) Leona Lewis - I See You
4(3) Hayley Warner - Good Day
5(New) Swedish Idol 2009 - I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas
6(5) Erik Gronwall - Higher
7(4) Joe McElderry - The Climb
8(2) UK X-Factor 09 - You Are Not Alone (5wks #2)
9(10) Taylor Swift - Untouchable
10(9) Cherine Nouri - Forever Faithful

11(8) Taylor Swift - Jump Then Fall (2wks #1)
12(11) Taylor Swift - Fifteen (2wks #1)
13(12) Owl City - Fireflies
14(13) Allison Iraheta - Friday I'll Be Over U (1wk #1)
15(14) Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA
16(15) Carrie Underwood - Cowboy Casanova (1wk #1)
17(16) Carrie Underwood - I Told You So (2wks #1)
18(17) Katharine McPhee - Say Goodbye (1wk #1)
19(19) Colbie Caillat - Falling for You (3wks #1)
20(20) Katharine McPhee - Had It All

The parents of the 'balloon boy' hoax in the US have been sentenced to jail terms - of a month and less than that, respectively.

Even though it is a short sentence, it is a double punishment for the kid. This is when jail is not appropriate.

It is for the same reason that although I support anti-corporal punishment laws, I do not support having substantial punishments to go with them. Counseling is enough here.

Whilst gay couples fighting for equal marriage right have dominated the headlines for the past few years, in the UK a straight couple is fighting for a civil partnership - which has been denied to them because they are not gay.

Which is equally ridiculous. Equality is the answer to everything.

Now, this may come as shocking to some of you, but this is what I really think of the world around us:

( You really want to know? )

However, the most important thing is how I act in the world, what I have to contribute. And you know my position: freedom for all, non-discrimination for all, economic equality, justice to the environment and to animals, interfaith goodwill, inclusive family values. And this is the most important thing - regardless of how I otherwise feel about the above things that I mentioned.

That the supply of the drugs you take is likely to come from gangs doing dirty work.
That people have been executed for transporting the substance around the world.

Aren't these reasons to stop people from taking those things - not that they are any good for your health either?

My dream as a journalist is to bring the truth of the world to people. Well, this may sound cliche, but it is very important to recognise that many people, especially disadvantaged minorities that the mainstream know very little about, are still suffering immensely. Their suffering could be eased, if only our society wakes up to its misdeeds and mistreatment of people. Therefore, I wish to do my part to make society wake up and do the right thing by everyone.

1(1) Miranda Cosgrove - Raining Sunshine (5wks #1)
2(2) UK X-Factor 09 - You Are Not Alone (5wks #2)
3(New) Hayley Warner - Good Day
4(New) Joe McElderry - The Climb
5(New) Erik Gronwall - Higher
6(New) Chipettes - Hot N Cold
7(New) Leona Lewis - I See You
8(4) Taylor Swift - Jump Then Fall (2wks #1)
9(3) Cherine Nouri - Forever Faithful
10(5) Taylor Swift - Untouchable

11(8) Taylor Swift - Fifteen (2wks #1)
12(7) Owl City - Fireflies
13(6) Allison Iraheta - Friday I'll Be Over U (1wk #1)
14(10) Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA
15(15) Carrie Underwood - Cowboy Casanova (1wk #1)
16(13) Carrie Underwood - I Told You So (2wks #1)
17(9) Katharine McPhee - Say Goodbye (1wk #1)
18(11) Britney Spears - Three
19(14) Colbie Caillat - Falling for You (3wks #1)
20(16) Katharine McPhee - Had It All

There are many conflicts in this world. It is not reasonable to expect them to go away all at once - nor may it be productive to do so. However, what we can aim for is to make sure conflicts are not solved with violence - ever. To have a human being hurt or kill another is degrading of all of us, indeed. Violence is also the very thing that prevents us as human beings from experiencing freedom.

The foregoing of violence does not mean that there will be no heated arguments, exclusion, us-against-them and the like - for this may indeed be unavoidable. However, violence - the intention to physically harm others - does not have to come into this.

Although I really cannot comment about the fringe elements that have indeed cost lives around the world, by-and-large the 'cultural war' as they call it has been a conflict without violence, at least when it is mainstream conservatives vs mainstream progressives. Therefore, (besides the fringe elements mentioned above) it is one that may indeed serve as a model for future generations to handle conflict.

In the West, at least in the mainstream, there are those who profess modest dress in everyday life, who are very likely to follow Christian fundamentalism too. And then there are those who are totally against the idea of modesty, but who will fight nail and tooth against the fundamentalists. In the West, at least in the mainstream, there are those who will uphold the important of stable family structures and lifelong monogamy, but who are likely to be homophobic too. And then there are those who decry every bit of effort to prevent divorces (even if it is entirely voluntary), but who are likely to fight for gay rights too.

I don't belong to either group - in either of the above situations. And that makes me alone and a target. People from both of the groups in both of the above mentioned scenarios have viciously targeted me and the positions that I seek to promote. And it is not because I impede them living their own lives in any way - I have always advocated the 'I may not like how you believe and how you live, but I will fight for your right to do your thing' policy. That I emphasize this with every controversial thing I have to say doesn't seem to get registered by these people, unfortunately.

You see, the conventional model of multiculturalism in the West is not a real multiculturalism, but a place of warring factions, where you can get hurt easily if you are not sticking to any faction. When I say multiculturalism I mean the coexistence of all kinds of cultures and subcultures in society, not just the coexistence of different ethnic cultures. In the West, you either belong to one of the ethnic cultures or the mainstream Western culture (depending on your race), and if you happen to interact with the mainstream Western culture you get hit by this dangerous and unfriendly factionalism rather than true tolerance.

In this world that emphasizes political correctness both left and right, people who speak their heart are often attacked and hurt, even if they speak with good intentions. I wish this can end.

You cannot expect everyone who speaks out about something to have to know all the implications of what they are about to say before they open their mouths, after all.

With the march of arch-conservatives exploiting every available channel to force themselves and their distorted values all over the world, it is time that we need to send a clearer message to them - that people who advocate poor African nations have the death penalty for gays are not welcome in our society.

Leaders around the world, including such conservatives as Stephen Harper, have condemned the Ugandan gay genocide bill. However, as anti-conservative people we should take it one step further - criminalise our own citizens' involvement in promoting such acts, just as we criminalise involvement in terrorists organisations. I don't care if they are religious preachers in their own communities - people from advanced countries who go around promoting hate in poor countries deserve no less than life imprisonment.

In a much less dangerous but still worthy-of-mention development, a school district in suburban Dallas has decided to semi-suspend a young school boy - because he had long hair. Clearly this is a violation of a person's individual freedom. Whilst you may think the two events presented are not very related - I bet they actually are: conservatives, especially in the conservative states in the USA, are trying every channel to push their distorted values onto others - from sitting on school-boards demanding their culture be accepted as norm at the expense of others' freedom, to going abroad to preach their hate. Worst so, they are hiding from plain sight whilst doing their dirty work, therefore their work is unknown to many ordinary citizens. It is our work, as anti-conservatives, to expose them and tell them clearly that their work and their ideology is incompatible with the freedom and tolerance cherishing society that we live in and seek to better everyday.

Most economists claim that a small government and freedom of enterprise are great conditions for a booming economy. I cannot really disagree with this - except that there is a more important priority we need to talk about before we even talk about this.

People are only free if their basic needs in life are met - without exceptions or threats that it can be taken away. In the modern world, these inalienable rights should include adequate food, private shelter, access to education, information and the internet, and health care insurance that will take care of them when they are sick, regardless of how much money they have. If a nation is to be truly free, the government needs to take care of this for every single citizen, before it can consider anything else. This does not necessarily mean that we need to have a very big government - it can be done through voucher systems as with school vouchers - but it must be provided to all, equally.

Then, we can talk about having a free economy. In fact, if you have taken care of what I suggested previously, the economy itself can be freer and come with less restrictions as we do not need to fit everything around the need to provide economic viability for everyone, since we have taken of it in the first place. In fact, as long as the standard of living of every single citizen in the nation is taken care of, I am a big supporter of free global trade without tariffs, quotas, commercial subsidies and the like. I also can comfortably support leaving the government out of the marketplace and doing without bailouts if I know that none of this can prevent every single citizen from having an acceptable standard of living, which is already guaranteed anyway.

Hey, I'm back!

And I did a clean-up of my friends list here and elsewhere - don't worry, I only deleted people who have ceased to have any interest in being my friend.

The only account that I have cancelled outright is OkCupid. I have not found it to be very effective. And studying the 'more successful' profiles has not taught me anything either. Therefore, I have decided to quit it.