With Ineptitude on Full Display, the Party's Over for Republicans

Garrison Keillor's comments on the Republican Party.

Welcome to the Police State

Oh my dear God! Just when I can't imagine things getting any worse.

I Am a Liberal Airhead

Try this Authoritarian Personality test. Is it wrong to LIKE being an airhead? LOL

Why universal health care is MORAL

An excellent article on single-payer health care. The provision of health care for everyone is as much a right as education. There are many ways to implement universal health care, but I believe the single-payer method to be the least costly and most effective.

Street Prophets' Interview With Barack Obama

This is my third post on the Obama speech to the Spiritual Renewal Conference:

First Article: Text of Speech
Second Article: Clarification

I hope this clears up the misunderstandings, but I doubt it. I welcome the chance to read more about Senator Obama's vision for the religious left.

Religious Left is Coming Alive

Maybe we won't have hate, but will anger applied in love do? Maybe it'll be easier to get behind the issues of those who don't cast stones to be divisive, but apply reason to persuade instead. Anyway, what will people choose when offered a choice between hatred and love?

The Politics of American Greed

"It seems to me that we've seen enough evidence over the years that the capitalist system is not going to be destroyed by an outside challenger like communism -- it will be destroyed by its own internal greed."

This is shameful. What would happen if we let ALL the people speak, rather than just the rich and the powerful?

Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition!

I didn't read Brooks' column, but reading this gave me a good shot of humor for the day. Thankee pastordan.

The title of this post is also the title of a skit by Monty Python, shown at right. As in most things Pythonesque, the transcript does little to convey the delightful silliness, unless you're like my youngest daughter, who looks at me incredulously and asks, "This is funny?"

How often I despair of our youth!

Is Duck, Duck, Goose Next?

Oh for crying out loud! Maybe they should just abolish fun altogether and get it over with!

Critiquing the Religious Left

This thought provoking article talks about transforming the religious left, currently not very organized and lacking a cohesive philosophy other than expressing a desire to "help," into a force for action on "...political, social and economic justice..."

Wiccan Soldier Denied Memorial

"Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I believe this soldier gave his life in part to protect and defend religious freedoms"

Blessed be!

Heavily Armed and Trained Aryan Racists

Where have I heard this before?

We employ neo-Nazis and skinheads as armed emissaries of a country that went to war in the 40s to defeat the terrible threat of those with a like philosophy? What price will we pay when we become more like those my father's generation fought in Europe?

North Korean missile tests

Believe me, I'm concerned about North Korea having nuclear weapons, and I hope I don't underestimate the danger to those countries closer to North Korea. But if I understand the situation correctly (which is by no means a given), North Korea and the United States at least are well-matched in terms of the missile tests. North Korea has long-range missiles that don't work, and the U.S. has a missile defense system that doesn't work either.

Ann Coulter

Why does anyone pay any attention to this woman and continue to encourage her to spread her philosophy of hate? If we ignore her, won't she eventually go away?

Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason II

I really enjoyed the interview with Jeanette Winterson this week! What a warm, articulate, funny and honest woman. What she spoke about and how she spoke were quite intriguing.

"...since the Enlightenment in the 18th Century, we have privileged reason, logos, the empirical sense, finding proofs for things, discovering things that can be touched, and tested in the universe. Absolute rationality has seemed to be the key to our advancements. And in many ways this Enlightenment, this rationality, this dependency on logic and reason, has freed us from many cruel superstitions, many nameless terrors. It also brought us technological advancements, of civilized advancements. But it's not sufficient."

"And the Greeks, for instance, who were a very rational set of people, still knew that there were two ways of arriving at truth. And it's Plato who makes the distinction between mythos and logos. That there is a mythic truth, which is an imaginative truth, and emotional truth, a way of understanding the world which is not about the facts and the figures, but which is never the less, valid. And we need to have kind of a balance. So, things need to be held in balance. And you wouldn't want to use mythic truth to tell you how to mend your washing machine, for instance."

The rapper/playwright Will Power was also interviewed, primarily about his hip-hop version of Aeschylus' play, Seven Against Thebes, the continuing story of Oedipus' sons. Once again, it was the first interview, with Jeanette, that really got to me.

Progressives: Stop Waiting for a Hero

"...progressive values cannot be saved by heroes. Progressive values can only be saved by ordinary citizens living up to their principles."

Put away the flags

"...nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail last year that God speaks through him.

"We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history.

"We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation."

I am lately much ashamed to be an American, but I love this country and want to help it acheive its inherent potential. But if blind belief in America is supporting a national narcissism, then perhaps this article by Howard Zinn will give us thought as to how we might heal these pathologies.

Willie Nelson for President?

Hey, he'd have my vote!

Senator Obama Clarifies Points from Speech About Religion

This interview of Senator Barack Obama clarifies some of the distortions and misunderstandings (mostly courtesy of an AP story) from his speech to the Call to Renewal conference. The speech has been criticized from the secular left, as well as the religious right.

I believe that this kind of talk from a man of Obama's standing gives "permission" for people of faith to stand up for what they believe in, no longer heeding the tyranny of the religious right, who reserve to themselves alone the right to define what Christianity and moral behavior are. Linking the strength of God with the dedication of secular progressives to improve the world for all seems a good idea to me, NOT to court votes, but to work towards realizing a common goal to heal a wounded world.

Definitions of Power

This is an excerpt from Starhawk's book Truth or Dare where she talks about three kinds of power. When I hear the word power, I think of the kind of power where one seeks to dominate. Starhawk calls this power-over. But there are two other kinds of power: power-with and power-from-within. I read this book years ago and this part stuck with me and I wanted to share it with you.

Bill Moyers on Faith & Reason

I really loved this PBS show last night, with Bill Moyers interviewing writer Mary Gordon and philosopher Colin McGinn. I was especially fascinated by Mary's story...her growth as a person. From a childhood of wanting martyrhood so much that she prepared herself for suffering by putting thorns in her shoes, to a person with of insight, humor, honesty and a living faith complete with its necessary complement of doubt.
She is saddened at the fundamentalism and consumerism that threaten what she values most.

A favorite quote from her interview:

"So that now it seems that one of the most important human divisions is between those who think of religion as a major threat to our survival as a species. And those for whom our survival without it would seem to have no meaning."

Colin's interview didn't capture me the way Mary's did, but was interesting nonetheless.

I plan to watch the rest of the series...thoughtful, intelligent and inspiring.

Milgram experiment

This Wikipedia article on the infamous Milgram experiment frightens me no end. Conducted around the same time as the Eichmann war crimes trial in the early 60s, these experiments were intended to determine if a participant would follow the instructions of an authority to the point of violating their own conscience. Horrifyingly, over two-thirds of the test subjects overrode their humaneness to perform acts of cruelty as directed. Hmmm...