disclaimer: I do not proofread when I type in blogs etc..because frankly I don't have time..so if you find grammar errors, misspellings etc..try to bear with me.

It is not only important to fight irrationality; especially in the form of religion, but it is equally important to understand how religion is playing a role in politics today. Religion is obviously and unfortunately a major factor in today's politics, as it has been through out the ages. Modern US politics is dictated by a group of people who we lovingly call neocons. These people share a political ideology that stems from the philosophical politics of Leo Strauss. Neoconservatives have slowly, cunningly and in most cases illegaly gotten a hold of our government mainly through propaganda (in the form of abortion, gay rights etc...i'll explain later on) and religion to get the voters out and to keep the voters pre-occupied with these religious issues.

Who is Leo Strauss?

Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973), was an American political philosopher of German-Jewish extraction, who specialized in the relativization of classical philosophy at the University of Chicago. He is widely considered to be one of the leading intellectual sources of neoconservatism. (wikipedia) And the founder fo the only conservative movement to spread silently but very effectively through many universities' political science curriculums. Which is why he has so many scholars. This whole idea of liberal campuses..forget it, it's a distraction. The neocon academic movement has been working under the media spotlight and is growing ever so largely, shaping the minds of political science majors a campus at a time...
To read more about Leo Strauss from Wikipedia click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss

In short, Leo Strauss is who I call the Karl Marx of neo-conservatism. Strauss believed that Philosophers offered both an 'exoteric' or salutary teaching, and an 'esoteric' or true teaching, which was concealed from the general reader (wikipedia). To translate and interpret this (at least by his students and his students' students) in modern political ideology; Strauss thought that the masses should be exposed to a salutary agenda, in other words government should purposefully mislead the public (taken from Plato's "Noble Lies") due to that fact that he believed that the masses need to be kept in line so that the elite can rule without bother. Now that's just part of the deal. He also believed that the masses can be kept under complacency using religion as a means for distraction and to keep the politicians in power by using religion as a tool for vote gathering. Religion is being used as part of a political tool to keep the masses "dumb" and pre-occuppied (which is why abortion and gay rights usually motivate neocon voters..see how it all pulls together?).

If you look at this administration and the neoconservatives who have hijacked congress you can plainly see what is going on here. The neocons believe in keeping the masses blind from what is really going on. Because the people don't need to know...as far as the neocons are concerned. This has been shown over and over...Cheney's "secret" energy meetings, secret prisons, secret motives for the war in Iraq...it is all part of this Straussian political ideology. Straussians believe in "old philosophy" not modern philosophy and as far as they are concerned, the constitution is a hindrance to their ideology. If you have been paying attention, this government is no longer for the people by the people from the people... because if it was, we would have absolutely more transparency and more accountability instead of lies...and diversions.

So how did this come about? How did it happen? Well: you know those little things in Washington called Think Tanks? Well, they don't just sit around and smoke cigars and drink 300 dollar bottles of Pinot Noir. Nope they actually have an agenda and they work very hard at it.

Let's take one little think tank called PROJECT FOR A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY OR PNAC: http://www.newamericancentury.org/ (yeah go ahead and check em out). The chairman and co-founder of PNAC is William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, a scholar of Leo Strauss. PNAC was the driving force behind our Middle East Policies. They had been trying to persuade President Clinton to attack Iraq all throughout his presidency, writing him letters and such (http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm : it is also important to see who signed this letter....look closely at the names, who now run our government...more on that later). They finally realized it was futile and even suggested that short of an occurence much like Pearl Harbor, Iraq would remain untouched. Was this a suggestion?
PNAC was predetermined to attack Iraq and once President Bush got into power, many of these PNAC members were appointed high level government positions (ducks were being aligned) So it comes to no surprise that we are in this international mess today. This also raises the question, did the US have a hand in the 9-11 attacks or purposefuly ignore intellignence that could have prevented 9-11 in order to fulfill their agenda? Of course this all ties in to religion because it is PNAC and other neocons that use words like godless unpatriots to those of us who speak out against inequality and against the war in iraq. Again, use religion as a tool to fight rationality.

Benevolent Global Hegemony
Why go to Iraq? Well PNAC and other Straussian Neocons believe in what they call Benevolent Global Hegemony. A nice little term that really means...USA is right....fuck the rest of the world we will change any government that is agains US policies..because again, the neocons have this belief that the elitist in power are righteous and everyone else is either dumb or needs to be taken out in order to fullfil global hegemony...(to make everyone like the USA). Because the USA is ALWAYS RIGHT. Which is why also, we have such an interest in Israel. Israel is very well hegemonized to western ideologies. They are the gateway to the middle east..zionism. Spreading western ideologies through Israel's zionist views. This is why neocons support israel so much and will stop at nothing to ensure Israel's survival. Without Israel in the middle east it would make the neocons' task almost impossible. Which is why the US selectively chooses who can and cannot have nuclear weapons. India is next...we like india, mostly because our jobs are going there, but more importantly because India has the largest growing middle class in the world right now and the neocons see this as $$$$$ for the corporations. So if we become good friends with India and Israel....both allowing them nuclear weapons..who's to stop this? A couple of kids with rocks? or even a couple of peopel that know how to fly planes? Of course not, but the neocons welcome this to keep the US citizens in fear. Pray to your god this doesn't happen to you.

So you see there is much at stake here...Religion is playing a very vital role in the US as to who and how to keep our government "legal" yet hijacked. This is not about just God, this is now about much much more. Education is the key here. People need to open their eyes, break away from their religious mind chains so that they cannot be held captive to the neocons' grip. Fear is your only god. Break away. The neocons know exactly what they are doing...and are becoming very rich in the process...very very very rich....

I apologize for the long rant, however, I think it's important to make connections here because religion is a political tool and must be treated as such, refuted and destroyed so that it will not hold us captive.
Below are some links of interest.

Left of Larry

http://www.thefourreasons.org/leostrauss.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss
http://home.earthlink.net/~karljahn/Strauss.htm
http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Leo_Strauss
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1233
http://www.alternet.org/story/15935/
http://members.tripod.com/Cato1/strauss-bio.htm
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3011profile_strauss.html
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Leo_Strauss
http://www.mun.ca/animus/1999vol4/roberts4.htm
http://www.logosjournal.com/xenos.htm

for more..well just google..or go to your library...