So where do you get your news?

An interesting fact came up this week in my Poly Sci class. I cannot vouch for the technical accuracy of the following statement, but it makes a good point.

If you take the total script of any major network's primetime news broadcast, and compared it to an average-sized newspaper, the script would equal less text than is contained on the newspaper's front page.

Okay, okay, but does the same hold true for the Daily Show?

Happy Veteran's Day

Yesterday was Veteran's Day. So today I read in the paper that the San Francisco City Council wants to ban military recruiters from city limits. This galls me on a number of different levels, not least of which is the fact that these so-called "enlightened" liberals have the gall to stick their noses up at the very institution that preserves their right to do so.

Now, don't get me wrong... I am probably as liberal as they come (or at least as liberal as they come in my profession and in this part of the country), but unless the people of San Francisco actually believe the United States doesn't need a military, they're just blowing smoke and reinforcing everyone else's impression of them as left-wing whackos. Please guys, as a liberal, don't do me any favors.

And thanks to all of the veterans out there.

Big Oil

I, like probably 99% of all Americans who pay for gasoline, took great pleasure in watching the CEOs of major American petroleum companies squirm in front of Congress last week as they attempted to justify last year's record earnings. And, when confronted with the twin facts that the outragous price of gas has now started to affect the lifestyle decisions of even the sacred middle class, and that Big Oil seems to literally rollong in the dough because of it, I felt justified in feeling that pleasure.

But after thinking about it, I am wondering why, in a Capitalist society that encourages competition at all levels, we're so upset when a small group of shrewd capitalists actually benefit from the system? After all, they did nothing wrong - no one is claiming that somebody created an artificial gasoline shortage, cooked the books, or somehow skimmed off of the top. These executives played the game and they played it well, and it seems to me the losing team is expeirencing a case of sour grapes. To censure them for making profits seems somehow un-American.

Don't misunderstand me; I don't believe for a minute that these august gentlemen actually deserve the scale of compensation they recieve, I'm just trying to say what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Lets not point fingers unless we're willing to point at the system that created Big Oil in the first place. Capitalism is all about economic winners and losers; "fair" or "right" have nothing to do with it.

What an Ass

News Flash - Dateline: Dover, PA. The entire 8-person school board for this small town has been voted out of office, apparently in retaliation for their efforts to force the teaching of Creationism in public school science classrooms. Pat Robertson responded by threatening the town with a natural disaster, and commented that they could "call on Charles Darwin" to help them, as they had rejected God.

This from the same individual who stated several years ago that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Can you spell "Luddite."

One very small step for mankind.... backwards!

Today the Kansas State School Board authorized the teaching of Intelligent Design in high school science class rooms.

Once I got over the initial shock, I became angry, then, and then... just... very... sad. How pathetic. How very pathetic to have such an apparently sizable segment of what we call the most advanced nation on earth not only believe such drivel. And worse, that they are allowed force their backwards beliefs on our children. One Kansas board member even stated that this was a victory for "academic freedom" and that "it gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today." Yeah, dogma like scientific method, the principles inductive reasoning, and academic objectivity. And our fearless leader (or should that be Fearless Leader) George W. endorses all of this? No wonder we're in trouble.

I read a great comment on the ID debate in a local newspaper, and, although I can't recall the author (sorry 'bout that...), it went something like this: "I am all for academic tolerance when it comes to teaching alternatives to evolution. And I'd be glad to include intelligent design in any science curricula, anywhere.... as soon as they start to teach Darwin's theories in the Bible." Touche.

If this is your God, then you can have him

Amid the trauma and devestation of Hurricane Katrina, it's good to see so many good Christians out there lending a hand. And those who can't break away to help out in person can at least use this opportunity to spread the good word. Take the web site Repent America (www.repentamerica.com), which I just finished reviewing. The splash page - that's the first page of a site, designed to make a viewer want more - is a color photo of the Manhatten skyline (sans towers) at dawn. There is a large American flag in the background (to show what good Americans these folks are) and the words "Repent America" emblazoned across the whole page. The only other images are the Enter Here buttons, one each for Christians and "all others." So far we have a page suggesting that 9-11 was a result of God's displeasure with the United States and a set of buttons suggestive of the "White's only" signs that used to grace parts of the South - Of course I had to choose door number one (Christians).

All I have to say is that you should be ashamed of yourselves. Not as Christians, but as human beings. On the very first page I found articles advocating the banning books, questioning the veracity of so-called hate crimes, supporting the firing of people based upon their sexual preference, and suggesting that Terri Shivo was aware of what was happening to her (despite what 99% of the medical profession says). Oh, did you know that it was okay to disrupt non-Christian gatherings because it shows the compasion of Christ to tell people what God says, even if they don't want to hear it? But the piece de resistance was an article suggesting that Katrina was evidence of God's wrath at New Orlean's annual Gay Pride celebration, known pithily as Southern Decadence. Where's your compassion of Christ now, you hypocrites?

As an aside, the Christain-based Family Policy Network (www.familypolicy.net) is running a similar article titled Just a Coincidence... Or the Hand of God? And this is the vaunted Chrisitan Conservativism supposedly sweeping America? You people make me sick.

O'Reilly has it Wrong, again.

More than occasionally, I listen to one the ubiquitous right-wing talk radio shows out there (I think it's illegal in this part of the country to broadcast a left-wing show). And, to tell the truth, I often agree with what I hear. But a couple days ago Bill O'Reilly claimed that the founding fathers intended this country to be a Christian country, and that really set me to thinking.

Now, a "country" is a political entity, having a designated head of state, a specific system of government and defined geographic borders. I submit that the founders (all of whom were not even Christian, by the way) most specifically did NOT intend this to be a Christian country, as evidenced by their inclusion in the constitution of a very specific separation of Church and State. Okay, I know those exact words aren't there, but by "not making a law that respects one religion over another," Jefferson et. al. are obviously advocating a government that is not only secular in itself, but, by definition, equally tolerant of all faiths. Herein lies both the beauty and strength of our constitution and of our government.

On the other hand, a "nation" is a much looser aggregate of people linked by some commonality, be it race, language, or ethnicity. Or even Christianity. If O'Reilly had stated that the founders had intended this nation to be a "Christian nation," I could have let it go (even though I know what he's inferring). As a "nation," that is, a social, sociological, and cultural entity, Christianity was one of the commonalities between a majority of the founders. But, and this is an absolutely key caveat, they were far-sighted enough to be able to separate the structure of a government from the composition of the people. It's a distinction that neither O'Reilly nor our current administration seems able to make.

I should have known better than to tune to The O'Reilly Factor in the first place. What no spin zone?

One last bumper sticker

Mrs. L. Described this one to me and, although I do not entirely agree (for those of you who don't know me, I just felt I had to make that point clear), I felt that I should share it.

"Love God - hate his fan club."

Tell it like it is, brother....

Why is it?

The Dominion of Canada's House of Commons passed a resolution legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the country yesterday. Okay, technically, it still has to be passed by the Senate, but I understand that this is purely a pre-forma procedure.

And so Canada joins the august ranks of those few [3] countries who have actually risen above their own prejudice and formally recognized that citizens either have rights, or they don't. You can't arbitrarily "cherry pick" which citizens have certain rights and which don't -- unlike most things in this world, it's a black and white issue.

The thought has also occurred to me to pose the question as to why, as a nation advances socially, culturally, and technologically, the so-called Christian Church seems to lose influence? Is it because those advanced nation's have matured beyond religion?

I've always admired Canada.

Too PC, or not to PC?

Rampant political correctness continues to plague the land. Howard Dean states that the Republican Party is "pretty much a white, Christian party" and pundits from both sides of the divide go wild. Politicians of every stripe rush to distance themselves from Dean, afraid that he'll drag them down with him. Well, I gots some news for ya: The Republican party IS primarily white, and primarily Christian, and if stating the facts is a crime, then send me too jail.

Now that I think of it, I'd wager that the Democratic Party is also primarily a white, Christian party. What's the big deal?

Bumper Sticker Addendum

I just saw this one yesterday and had to add it to my list:

Guns save lives. (Although I continue to maintain that there is no valid reason for the average citizen to even own, let alone carry, a gun, logic such as this goes a long way towards explaining the GNL (gun nut lobby) mentality. How do you counter such a blatant denial of reality?)

Most stupid bumper stickers

In no particular order:

At least I can still smoke in my car (well, have at it!! - just don't complain to me in two years when you're hooked up to an oxygen bottle and the doctor says you've got 6 months to live because the cancer has spread.)

Experience the joy of knowing and doing the will of God (Yes, this entire thing was spread across the bumper. I am not sure how this guy got the number to God's direct line, but more power to him. We all have our crutches...)

Patriots don't vote for Kerry (Yeah, it's a bit dated, but it still ticks me off - labeling anyone who disagrees with you as unpatriotic seems to go against against the very premise of democracy as the expressed will of the people. In fact, I'd suggest that such a sentiment was much more unpatrotic than voting for Kerry could ever be.)

I took a kid hunting at XXXX National Park (So you taught a child how to kill defenseless animals for the sheer pleasure of it? Bravo!)

One story. End of story. (so much for religious tolerance - see also number two above.)

Keep marriage sacred (I am assuming that "sacred" is a code word for perpetuating discrimination by limiting the option to legally marry to those who share the same narrow-minded point of view as you do)

Thought for the Day

"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals."

by Rabbi-poet Samuel Ullman (1840-1924)

If this gives you pause, maybe you owe it to yourself to stop and take a look at where you are in life and what it took to get there. I know I did, and it was enlightening.

A Broken Heart

My heart crys for the poor parents of the two 8-year old little girls found stabbed to death in the city of Zion, Il, yesterday. A permanent sadness settles across the plains.

At times like this I fail to understand how anyone could possibly be against the death penalty.

Peace.

To all of those whom I have to share the road with....

Please, put down the hamburger, newspaper, cigarette, or mascara, leave disciplining the kids until you get home, turn down the radio so that I can hold a normal conversation in my own car, and for God's sake, HANG UP THE DAMMED CELL PHONE!!!

Maybe then you'll be able to stay in your own lane (yes, we each have one), stop at stop signs, and keep up with the normal flow of traffic. I'm just saying....

Dumbest Thing I've Read in a Long Time

Perhaps this isn't so very unusual, but the response to it has me thinking. Several weeks ago in a city near here some idiot stalked and killed his estranged wife and her female friend in front of their three children. He followed them in their SUV, forced their vehicle to the side of the road, opened the door and shot his wife in the back as she attempted to run away. And then he went back and shot her friend, for good measure, I suppose. Fortunately for society, the man soon thereafter died when he crashed his own SUV while attempting to flee. Two innocent women dead and three children scarred for life.

Then yesterday I read in the opinion column of our local newspaper that it was all the government's fault for not allowing the wife to carry a concealed weapon in order to protect herself. Now the issue here wasn't that she'd applied for a concealed carry permit and been turned down (she had not), but that, I suppose, it's okay for a mother of three to carry a loaded firearm in her car with three small children. In fact, the writer went to far as to condemn the government for not allowing ALL adults to carry concealed weapons. Silly me, I thought the problem here was that THE HUSBAND DID HAVE A GUN, NOT THAT THE WIFE DIDN'T. After all, he's the one who actually did the deed.

Am I off base here?

For those who wondered....

Dada or Dadaism [French, from dada, child's word for a horse] Nihilistic movement in the arts that flourished chiefly in France, Switzerland, and Germany from about 1916 to about 1920 [and later -ed.] and that was based on the principles of deliberate irrationality, anarchy, and cynicism and the rejection of laws of beauty and social organization.

The most widely accepted account of the movement's naming concerns a meeting held in 1916 at Hugo Ball's Cabaret (Café) Voltaire in Zürich, during which a paper knife inserted into a French-German dictionary pointed to the word dada; this word was seized upon by the group as appropriate for their anti-aesthetic creations and protest activities, which were engendered by disgust for bourgeois values and despair over World War I.

In the United States the movement was centered in New York at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, "291," and at the studio of the Walter Arensbergs. Dada-like activities, arising independently but paralleling those in Zürich, were engaged in by such chiefly visual artists as Man Ray and Francis Picabia. Both through their art and through such publications as The Blind Man, Rongwrong, and New York Dada, the artists attempted to demolish current aesthetic standards. Traveling between the United States and Europe, Picabia became a link between the Dada groups in New York City, Zürich, and Paris; his Dada periodical, 291, was published in Barcelona, New York City, Zürich, and Paris from 1917 through 1924.

In 1917 the Dada movement was transmitted to Berlin, where it took on a more political character. The Berlin artists, too, issued Dada publications: Club Dada, Der Dada, Jedermann sein eigner Fussball ("Everyman His Own Football"), and Dada Almanach.

In Paris Dada took on a literary emphasis under one of its founders, the poet Tristan Tzara. Most notable among Dada pamphlets and reviews was Littérature (published 1919-24), which contained writings by André Breton, Louis Aragon, Philippe Soupault, and Paul Éluard. After 1922, however, Dada faded and many Dadaists grew interested in surrealism.

From: http://www.peak.org/~dadaist/English/Graphics/

Other good sites:

http://www-camil.music.uiuc.edu/Projects/EAM/Dadaism.html

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/

http://members.aol.com/ArionS414/dada.html

M.L.

I'm back!

Okay, a couple of people expressed an interest and so I thought, well, I guess the blog doesn't take up that much time. And to tell the truth, it actually made me feel good that at least three people beside myself actually read this occasionally (hint: a comment every once in a while would be nice...). That, and I received this really gross hand bill on my porch the other day that I just had to tell someone about.

It's from the National Alliance, an organization which I was not formerly familiar with, but am apparently eligible to join. But even if I don't join, you can bet I'll be watching for them in the future. I bet you didn't know that the US government is about to start "impressing" citizens into the military to fight for the Jews in the Middle East. Or that if white people would only put racial loyalty in front of wasting their lives on drugs, white superiority would certainly be assured (who are these folks?). Or that whites must all band together to raise millions of dollars to fund new media outlets in order to counter all those owned by Jews. Or even that "all around the world white men are being slaughtered, violently and ruthlessly massacred at genocidal rates" (actual quote). Only maybe not in my neighborhood so much - or perhaps the perpetrators are so very socially conscious that they always clean up those whom they have ruthlessly slaughtered. In any case, I haven't noticed any dead whites on my block lately.

I have only one thing to say to anyone associated with this hand bill, the National Alliance, or JewWatch, and let me be perfectly clear: You make me ashamed. Ashamed that our society puts up with trash like you, ashamed to live in the same neighborhood with you, and ashamed to be associated with you, even if only by skin color. I wake up every morning ready to serve my country whenever she may call, but I'll be God damned if I ever defend your right to free speech. I don't do drugs as a matter of course, and I don't judge people I don't know because of the color of their skin.

Oh, and one other thing. If I ever catch you on my property again, I'm going to kick your God damned ass.... and you can take that to the bank.

M.L.

Why I joined the ACLU

Text of an article titled Christian Right Marks Start of `a good 4 years' (by Robin Abcarian - Los Angeles Times)

A couple of hours after President Bush took the oath of office, the indefatigable Rev. Lou Sheldon, founder and chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, was more upbeat than usual. On Wednesday, Sheldon had tossed a Christian bash for more than 800 people at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. The host committee was virtually a who's who of politically important evangelicals, including Gary Bauer, Ralph Reed and Rev. Jerry Falwell. On Thursday, Sheldon played host to an indoor gathering of about 300 fellow Christians, people who wanted to experience the inauguration events with like-minded people but weren't inclined to brave the weather.

"This is the beginning of a good four years," said Sheldon, who is given to quoting historical figures and this time offered a snippet of George Washington's 1796 farewell address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." "Religion and morality," Sheldon repeated. "That's what is happening--that fusion of religion and morality and public policy has now come about."

Comment by L. P. : It seems to me that the fusion of "religion... and public policy" must be effected by at least a partial fusion of church and state, the strict separation of which I will continue to defend until the day I die. Disturbing trends such as the one detailed above are why I joined the ACLU just this morning. Check it out at http://www.aclu.org.

I am reminded of Michael Douglas' character in An American President, when he confronts a crowd of hostile reporters and says "Why yes, I AM a card carrying member of the ACLU - an organization devoted solely to protecting the rights guaranteed to you by the United States Constitution - the question is, why aren't YOU a member?"

So there.

School District Rejects Science

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania school district on Wednesday rejected charges that plans to include references to an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution in high school biology classes would be illegal. The Dover Area School District near Harrisburg is the first in the United States to introduce "Intelligent Design," a theory that the natural world is so complex it must have been made by an intelligent being, rather than occurring by chance, as held by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

The district was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State on Dec. 14 over plans to teach the theory starting next week. The lawsuit is the first to challenge the teaching of Intelligent Design, which the groups say violates the Constitutional separation of church and state.

The civil rights groups argued that "Intelligent Design" is a thinly veiled version of creationism -- the belief that the earth was made by God. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1980s that teaching creationism in public schools would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

On Jan. 13, teachers will be required to read a statement saying that Intelligent Design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view, and that if students want to read more about it, they can read a book called "Of Pandas and People" which they can find in the school library.

Lawyers for the school board said that neither creationism nor "Intelligent Design" will be taught to students, and that no religious beliefs will be taught.

Intelligent Comment by M. L.:

Intelligent design presupposes that complexity plus existence equals God. A more valid argument would be that complexity plus existence equals a complex existence. But I don’t suppose reason or logic have much play in this particular argument.