It is Easier to Fight

There are two subjects that as children we are taught to avoid talking about in open forums as adults. Those topics are politics and religion. Because so many people have differing opinions about the multifaceted philosophies and theologies of these two independent subjects they are considered taboo to discuss in public. The debates and arguments surrounding the person beliefs and traditions of the two subjects continue to fuel wars and heated discussions between people that believe their views are the only correct views and their opinions are always right.

Most people are unwilling to open their minds to the viewpoints and beliefs of others and would rather brood over their one sided view of how things should be than accept that another's point of view might hold validity.

In political circles the debates over how to resolve differences of opinion are often tabled in public policy meetings where sides argue over the cause and effect of issues and only on occasion discuss how to best resolve situations that require political interference. Political forums bring together charged people that are so blinded to the opposition that they will rarely if ever see eye to eye on any subject that is up for political debate.

It seems that the only way to effectively resolve arguments inside the political arena is to stack the votes of the two major opposing forces with people that are decidedly in favor of one solution. The political process allows every American citizen the right to vote for representatives that have similar opinions or follow similar lines of thinking as they do and to support the incumbents or candidates that best fit their way of life and belief systems. By loading the political battleground with like minded politicians the ability to pass bills and legislation can be accomplished through a majority vote on the issues and questions that fuel the debates.

Is Your PR Campaign Working?

Whether you have an in-house PR department, hire a public relations freelancer part time to work your campaign, or are trying to launch and implement your campaign on your own, do yourself and your company a favor and do an outside PR assessment on your campaign, objectives, strategy, game plan and implementation. Public Relations is a very refined and subtle process. You can have the right stories, but be implementing them the wrong way, or presenting them to the wrong media contacts. You could have all the elements for a successful campaign in place, but not be utilizing them correctly. There are several aspects to consider and review, including:

1. Are your press releases written in a way that will garner media attention?

2. Are you making follow-up phone calls to the media and if so are those calls being handled correctly?

3. Are you only pitching the obvious media stories? (99% of the time will be the same stories your competitors are pitching)

4. Are you thinking like a journalist and coming up with new feature stories, news business stories, trend stories and timely pitches?

5. Are you presenting yourself as an expert in your field, who can address a number of topics?

6. Are you presenting your company in a way that establishes a strong brand?

7. Are you utilizing your press coverage in your advertising and marketing programs?

8. Are you utilizing your media coverage on your blog (do you have a blog?)

9. Are you combining your traditional media campaign with social media?

These are just some of the aspects you want to consider when reviewing your public relations campaign. You could have all of the right pieces in place, but be implementing them incorrectly, or, the reverse could be the case. Sometimes it just takes some minor tweaking to turn a stalled media relations campaign into a successful one. Without a systematic review, you might never know. You could end up with the most successful media campaign that never worked.

Student council election speeches

A student council election speech is a crucial determinant of the success of your election campaign. It is often the case that an effective speech drives the candidate towards the winning spot. While you may have ambitious plans and you know you will make a good student council president, you may have difficulty in preparing that winning school council speech. Here are some tips that will make the speech effective enough to get you winning the election.

Running-of-the-mill and boring speeches are a big no no. To make a speech appealing to your fellow schoolmates, put yourself in their place and retrospect as to what kind of kind of speech would appeal to you.

Start it with an introduction of yourself. Keep it simple. It is a good idea to start with an inspiring or interesting quote. Don't forget to mention the position you are contesting for. These should be a must in your speech. Moving further, you can make it interesting and different. Here's how:

• It is common for the candidates to ask other students about what changes they would like to see in the school. You should do it too. But don't turn all the suggestions into promises. Be authentic. Promise only things that can be accomplished.
• Humor is a good tactic. It will increase audience's attention and help you make the audience comfortable with your speech. This may even build trust among the audience. But watchful and don't let humor overpower the tone of your speech. You enter the danger zone and you may just end up sounding ridiculous. While humor is good, include aspects of substance. It matters.
• Be persuasive. Don't brag about yourself. Instead of "I am creative", you can use something like "I encourage creativity". Pay close attention to how you phrase your ideas.
• The closing should be powerful. Close the speech with a promise, something that the audience will remember and vouch for. This could be very crucial in getting more people to vote for you.

Prepare your speech by using the suggestions made above. Your speech is sure to become a hit.

Separation of business and politic

In the heat of the election season and as a life-long political junkie, I can't wait for election night. It is always one of the biggest nights of the year around my house. Glued to multiple TV's, tuned to every station (and now the Internet) I watch the returns roll in. Depending upon your investment in the campaign, the emotional highs and lows intensify. It's even better to be at a party. Some friends ask why I don't wait until the next morning to read the headlines. Would you turn off the TV before the end of the big game and find out the score tomorrow? This is an important political year full of excitement, so it's easy to be engaged. We're probably finding more people expressing their opinions about politics than ever before. But what about doing this at the workplace?

Political expression comes in a lot of forms. I have to admit I got a little uneasy when I pulled into my office parking lot and saw a bumper sticker that said something derogatory about meat-eaters. Now, I don't have anything against my vegetarian friends, yet I do like a nice steak now and then. What might people think about the opinions displayed at work? Might they be offended?

What about expressing strong political opinions in a small office environment to co-workers and clients? Unless you're working in the campaign office or at the legislature, this might have its limits. I did a little research on how well the workplace tolerates political discussions. We know that public employees (and many who work for private companies) have to adhere to specific guidelines. Those rules may include personal use of company computers and the wearing or distribution of political materials. In general, private, at-will employers have a great deal of latitude in how they manage their workplaces and what political tone they choose to set.

Even if the flexibility exists for employers, politics in the workplace can bring about workplace politics. There is some basic etiquette one can use to keep tensions down. How you handle yourself may depend if you're in management or not. There appears to be a tolerance for conversations among co-workers, but managers are held to a different standard. A national survey conducted in May and June 2007 by Harris Interactive, found that nearly one out of four U.S. workers says they are uncomfortable when their top managers openly express their political preferences at work. More than a quarter of those polled said they don't fit in with their company's culture in terms of politics. The survey found generational differences between younger and older workers regarding talking politics at work. Seventy-six percent of younger employees (age 18-34) would share their political views, compared to 64% of those age 50+. Eight-four percent of younger employees were comfortable telling their boss which candidates they support. This is compared to 68% of older workers who would do the same.

So do you tip-toe around your passion for R's or D's? How can you inspire an excitement for politics at work while not creating unnecessary tensions? At a very minimum, you can create an environment that values voting. It is not inappropriate to inquire is employees or coworkers need registration information. If the outcome of certain ballot measures could affect your business or clients that could also be acceptable for discussion. Alerting family, friends and co-workers to important debates, forums or community meetings may also create involvement and engagement without appearing bias. If you're in a politically charged environment that can be exciting, but what's most important is that you vote, your vote is yours, it's private and it's important. I hope you'll mail in your ballot and be part of this great process. Remember, on election night don't call, I'll be busy, unless you're having a party.....

Kalashnikov AK 47 secret

Already for years Kalashnikov AK-47 has become a symbol for Russian weapon industry. Weapon professionals still time by time point out that the original Kalashnikov is a German invention that Russians simply copied it. It usually causes furious protests from Russian side and most often the discussion is carried on only among the professionals. However, one Russian person has decided to declare publicly that Kalashnikov isn’t a Russian weapon.

The famous biographer of the leader of the USSR – Brezhnev - Boris Sokolov in his book „Brezhnev. Golden century” comes out openly that famous Kalashnikov is a copy of assault rifle StG 44 invented by German weapons designer Hugo Schmeisser in 1943. There are only three differences – in a form of stock, in a mechanism of lock and in calibre. Germans turned it out experimentally already in 1943 but up to 1944 more than 400 000 were made. Stalin ordered to copy this successful weapon. None of famous Soviet designers – Shpagin nor Degatjarov wanted to put their names on the plagiarism and thus, a new Russian constructor Mikhail Kalashnikov was chosen for it.

Surely, this confession in the history won’t change anything and it is nothing unique.

Also Americans didn’t want to accept for a long time and so far they haven’t talked much about the fact that one of the most influential American astronautics and rocket technology „fathers” was a German scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun who worked in Germany during the war.

Nevertheless, one of the most concealed myths is connected with the most powerful spy nation in the world. The British with their James Bond suppose that they are the most elegant. But the most influential were others. Even Dan Brown couldn’t take a notice of their secret. There is a small nation that at the beginning of the 20th century developed two the most powerful spy organizations in the world that still are working. They shot at Winston Churchill, they were closely connected with communist leaders Lenin and Stalin, caused big trouble for Spanish dictator Franco, made Hitler be careful, they actually were the last ones who left Hitler’s bunker at the end of the II World War. Later they were seen in a prison cell of U2 pilot, in the last overturn of the USSR in 1991 and in many other places. It’s quite a surprise that one of them was also among the inspires of Sarah Palin. Although it is clear enough that he hasn’t got anything in common with his compatriots – spies. But who are they? It is still a secret.

Colors of election

Do you know how you can tell that we are beginning to enter an election season? I am sure there are many signs, but I am thinking of one sign that is very clear to see and a powerful election tool as well. Pretend you are driving down the street one day before an upcoming election and you look around at all the grassy yards. What do you see? During any election season these days, it seems like you will always be able to find something next to the gnomes in the front yard.

Now, do you have a better idea? The answer is campaign signs. During an election, what would look like bright green grass is usually speckled with many different colors. Each campaign sign is different because it represents its candidate who is fighting hard for a victory. Each sign wants to be different and stand apart from all the others.

Some signs stick to the classic political colors of red, white and blue while others candidates go for other bright colors and patterns as a way to draw the attention of those passing by.

Why are these signs important? Sometimes, we get so caught up in our busy lives that we do not really have enough time to research our candidates like we should. When it comes time to vote, who will we vote for?

It is possible that we will see a name on the ballot that looks familiar and vote for them thinking they are the best choice. Seeing these campaign signs is one way of advertising a candidate so people can go and research themselves, but it is also just a way of getting a name out there to be seen and heard over and over again. After seeing so many signs, each day, your brain is going to remember those names when it sees them again.

So next time you are approaching a campaign season, take some time to look closer at the campaign signs than you might have before you started reading this article. Why does one candidate deserve your vote over any of the others? Make sure to take a little time and do some research before heading to the polls.

Vote for the candidate who will be most likely to represent all of your opinions and values. This is the only way to feel satisfied with your choice and truly know that you did all you could to pick the best man or woman for the job.

Political satire

You can find political satire far back in the recordings of history. Leadership has been a target of comedians for ages. Making fun of a leader is always easier to promote because you are linking to their fame. It is also more competitive because many others are doing the same thing. The biggest downside of writing political satire is that it has a margin of time to be popular.

The easiest way to begin writing is to imagine the politician as he or she having to say what they really mean. It really isn't that hard to do with most of them. You can pick almost any issue find humor in the way a politician looks at it. You can also take everything they are for and make them against it. You can use their mannerisms and their body language to enhance your funny lines about them.

Politicians are always spending too much money or spending too much time not doing their job. So many times they say one thing and do another. It may take a little research but the funny stuff is most certainly there. Pretty much anything they do concerning their job is fair game. Their personal lives however, should go untouched. Always remember it is political and not personal.

The world is filled with funny politicians and sometimes their antics alone write the comedy lines for you. You can even imagine things like "If so and so were a different sex, what would he or she do then?" You can make them a different race, size, religion or political party and come up with hilarious material! Make yourself laugh and you can make the world laugh.

Politic ancient and modern religion

For anyone interested in religion on almost any level, the study of ancient Egypt can be a revelation. Certainly there were religions prior to that of the Egyptians, but they are not nearly so documented, nor are they so central to many of today's modern religions. Further more, it is a grand topic, who scholars have documented, but philosophers have hardly touched. This can only be a brief overview, but in frankly we wish to create inspiration and more dialog on the subject. In this respect, we will limit our discussion to some comparisons between the Christian and ancient Egyptian religion, as those are the two religions that are most familiar to us.

Christianity is considered monotheistic, meaning that Christians worship a single god, while we refer to the ancient Egyptian religion as polytheistic, meaning that they worshiped a number of gods. This is the comparison that is dictated to us from formal traditional thought, but how true is it really.

The Origin of Gods

At the dawn of civilization, city states were more common then nations, and in many instances, society grew up around and were somewhat isolated to individual villages. In Egypt, each of these usually had a principal god prior to the merger of societies. Certainly there may have been more then one god for a particular village or city, but very often there was an overwhelmingly important god that was supreme. It was probably not so much religion that forced people to worship more then one god, but rather politics. Throughout the ages, as men combined political entities, first cities, and then regions and finally merging all of these into nations, religious compromises were made. Perhaps this is most evident, or at least documented during the rule of the Greeks in Egypt, when many Greek and Egyptian gods were combined. No better example exists then Serapis, a new god that was politically created in order to present a deity that would be familiar to both the Egyptian and Greek cultures. This god combined the aspects of the Greek gods Zeus, Askelepios, and Dionysys with the Egyptian gods Osiris and the Apis bull cult.

Serapis represents, perhaps in its truest form, the religious complexities created by politics that were not present in the earliest times. Most Egyptians at the dawn of the dynastic period usually worshiped a specific supreme deity in any one specific area or city, though there were certainly a lot of deities throughout Egypt worshipped. It was most certainly politics, and the need for powerful men to gain control that forced these individual gods together in order to accommodate the religious beliefs in each of their holdings.

Basically, my point is that for any individual, and for early settlements as a whole, religion started out with a tendency to be somewhat monotheistic, just as most modern religions are today. Politics, for the most part, created polytheisticism. In fact, at one point we will see that the Egyptians created one of the most monotheistic religions ever devised.

Akhetaten, better known as Akhenaten, was called the Heretic King, because he abandoned all gods in favor of only one, Aten, the Sun God. To Akhenaten, this god was all powerful, and we know of no truer form of monotheisticisim that has existed before, or to the current day.

But there is More to Polytheisticism

Many people would argue that these ancients worshipped objects and animals. This is a common view of polytheisticism. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun, or a type of bull, but this is truly a misconception. Statues, animals and physical objects such as the moon or the sun were only representative of gods, their true form being much more mystical. Certainly the Egyptians may have seen the sun as a physical embodiment of Aten, for example, but they gave many more attributes to this god then simply being bright, or providing light.

Christians and Monotheisticism

While the early Egyptians may not have been as polytheistic as many believe, Christianity may not be as monotheistic as we would like to believe. The questions that begs answering, is what exactly is a god.

Correctly, Christians refer to their "god" as a supreme being. This is because there are, in Christianity as well as other religions, a number of supernatural beings. There are angels and demons among others, and of course the devil himself. And while Christians certainly do not worship the devil, Christian dogma does give that particular supernatural being some real control over a domain, making him supreme, if only in the realm of evil.

Even in ancient Egypt, at any one time, and particularly in any specific part of Egypt there was usually considered to be a deity that was superior to other "gods" and there are scholars that will argue that these other gods were more closely related to the Christian concepts of an angle. In this respect, the difference between Christian and ancient Egyptian religion begins to become cloudy. Certainly Christian angels operate and obtain their power and duties from the Supreme Being, but likewise many of the Egyptian "gods" also operated under the influence of a principal god.

Saints and Deified Humans

We also know that ancient Egyptian's sometimes deified humans. A classical example of this is Imhotep, an early physician and architect. He was "deified" by later Egyptians and said to be worshipped. But do we truly know the means in which he was worshipped, and can we say that it was altogether different then the more modern concept of saints? Most Egyptians who "worshipped" ancient ancestors and other deceased humans called upon them for some sort of help or aid in one manner or another, and isn't that very similar to practices associated with modern saints?

The Politics of Christianity

Christianity has also employed politics to enable its growth, in much the same way that more secular politicians have used religion to cement their territories. Of course, secular leaders bought together gods from various regions to solidify their holdings. But Christianity, having specific beliefs in a supreme being, most often bought together religious customs rather then multiple gods. Just as secular leaders made gods of various regions their own, so Christianity soaked up local customs and religious practices as its own. Examples of this abound, and as missionaries attempt to create conversions even today the practice continues. Easter comes to mind very easily in this regard, particularly in connection with Egypt. All Christians are familiar with this celebration, but what do eggs and rabbits have to do with the resurrection of Christ? Well, eggs and rabbits were symbols of renewal in ancient Egypt (and probably other ancient religions) and this polytheistic belief was easily adopted into the Christian church. But modern combinations of Christianity and local superstition, for example in areas where voodoo has been practiced, lead to some rather bazaar modern Christian practices. This is all very explainable, however. Very early Christian missionaries quickly discovered that it was far easier to make conversions by adapting local superstitions, therefore making the process more familiar and comfortable to the local populous, just as ancient secular leaders found it easier to solidify their subjects by embracing each region's gods, rather then forcing their own upon them.

Proximity

In fact, most readers must realize that there was considerable physical proximity of the Christian and the Egyptian polytheistic religion, and no one knows exactly the extent to which the Christian faith (as well as others) were influenced by the Egyptian religion. Egyptians often occupied the very heartland form which the Christian faith sprang, and was itself deeply involved in the faiths development. There are more then a few similarities between the Christian faith and the ancient Egyptian faith.

Probably the most obvious is the story of Osiris, Isis, Horus and Set, or at least their final positions, along with some of the surrounding icons. I will not repeat the story itself, but in the end, Osiris becomes the god of the heavens while Set is outcast as the evil lord of the underworld. Isis is the mother of Horus, who in tern becomes a living god in the form of the pharaoh. The associations of Osiris and the Christian supreme being, Isis as the Mother Mary Horus as Jesus and Set as the devil are obvious, and ancient icons depict Isis suckling Horus almost exactly as Mary would later be shown suckling the baby Jesus.

This is but one similarity. Perhaps another even more intriguing parallel is the Christian bible's mention of early sons of Gods who walked the earth:

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Genesis Chapter 6, New Kings James Version

Interestingly, in the Palermo Stone that documents early kings of Egypt and is important to Egyptologists for details of the early dynasties, it also documents several thousand years when mythical gods ruled, prior to the god Horus finally handing the rule of Egypt off to Menes, a human. Even were it not for this particular similarity, Genesis Chapter 6 is interesting in relationship to ancient religions.

The final analysis

In the end, many may call this analysis heretic, but in fact, the study of ancient Egyptian religion has strengthened my belief in the basic concept of modern religion. Mankind, and specifically individuals, have almost certainly always worshipped a supreme god, regardless of the name they might have called him, and there have always been "helpers" performing specific functions surrounding this deity, whether we refer to them as minor gods, or angels. But in the end, this is probably not the most scholarly article on this topic, but I hope that it simply makes people think, and understand the intrigue involved in the study of the ancient Egyptian religion, not simply placing it in the realm of archaic knowledge without real implications to our modern religions.