The Wingnut Wetdream
We've probably all noticed the "Left Behind" books at the book store. Their stark covers draw the eye and actually briefly held my interest until my boyfriend at the time, whose family is very Southern Baptist, explained to me what the Rapture is.
I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that those left behind because they were not righteous enough should invent some way to prove their devotion and redeem themselves, but this is just creepy.
Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old.
This game immerses children in present-day New York City - 500 square blocks, stretching from Wall Street to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the United Nations headquarters, and Harlem. The game rewards children for how effectively they role play the killing of those who resist becoming a born again Christian. The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian).
Could such a violent, dominionist Christian video game really break through to the popular culture? Well, it is based on a series of books that have already set sales records - the blockbuster Left Behind series of 14 novels by writer Jerry B. Jenkins and his visionary collaborator, retired Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye. "We hope teenagers like the game," Mr. LaHaye told the Los Angeles Times. "Our real goal is to have no one left behind."1
And we give Islam a hard time? At least the Christian wackos are waiting for several million people to up and vanish before they begin their righteous slaughter. Or so we hope.
HAT TIP: Andrew Sullivan
Less can be more.
We've all heard it: "Less is more." Sometimes. Most of this time, though, "Less" is just boring, and is often inclined to intellectual snobbery. A more accurate statement comes from one of my favorite movies ever, "Sabrina" (the new one. I have yet to see the original): "More isn't always better, Linus. Sometimes it's just more."
What I love about this photo is how understated it is while still managing to convey the vastness of Nature. No purple mountains majesty. No raging cascades. It's simple and unassuming in its grandeur. You really need to see the larger version to get the right impression.
The Keystone Cops
I'm sure you've all heard of William Jefferson by now. A Congressman from Louisiana, he's been caught red handed by the FBI accepting bribes. This whole story just blows my mind. He is [allegedly] caught on video tape accepting a briefcase containing $100,000 in cash—Can anyone think of a legitimate reason to be handed a briefcase full of cash in a restaurant? I can't—a subsequent raid of his offices finds $90,000 of that cash in the freezer—perhaps a better choice than a mattress, should your offices go up in smoke, but probably a little more suspicious than, say, a bank—and he has the balls to maintain his innocence and deny all wrong doing!
But wait! There's more! His fellow Congressmen are up in arms that he has been thusly dealt with, outraged at this obvious and flagrant violation of the Separation of Powers. Are you f*ing kidding me? Congressmen are immune from prosecution? No. Delay has proven that can't be it. Congressmen are immune from being humiliated by blatant illegal activity? We're getting closer. How is this strange law enforcement behavior? You are video taped accepting $100,000 in bribe money. Isn't the next step to obtain a warrant and search your premises while you still have the money in your possession? Congressmen are not above the law. If they are breaking the law they should be pursued and prosecuted like common criminals. End of story. Our legal system has plenty of checks already in place to stem the abuse of power.
Or does it? 'Cause wait! There's more!
As bad as people want to say the Abramoff situation was, it didn't lead to any House offices getting raided," said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.1
He did not just say that. Is that really something you want to be calling attention to? This isn't a problem with Separation of Powers. It's a problem with an Executive Branch who has no concept of boundaries. While the Republican party is reeling from one scandal after another, a lone Democrat is singled out for unprecedented police action and public spectacle by a Republican Attorney General and a spokesman for a Republican political organization is kind enough—that's kind spelled s-t-u-p-i-d—to connect the dots for us. The fact that it's Republicans like Frist and Ginrich crying foul the loudest doesn't exactly dispel suspicion.
Unbelievable.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Over at Secret Simon, I found a link to the South Central Farmers, a group of folk trying to save their 14 acres of garden plots the city has decided to sell out from under them. It sounds like the only way they will be able to save their garden plots is to buy the land themselves. Since most of them are rather poor and actually live off what they grow there, that's not going to happen without help.
It's not really clear how much money they need to raise. I read that the city is selling it for $5 million and some change. Five million actually sounds like a bargain for real estate in South L.A. That's about $350,000 an acre. Anyone knowledgeable in L.A. real estate to opine as the the sanity of that figure? In other places it talks about needing $10 million.
Anyway, when I got to their web site, I found a news item saying that Leonardo DiCaprio had joined in the fight.
The farm," says DiCaprio, "holds a remarkable array of biodiversity and, because of its size, functions as a carbon sink, a natural environment that stores more carbon than it releases into the atmosphere, and this helps reduce global warming. We have to start acknowledging that every action counts."1
So Leo held a news conference and has a press item on his web site. How generous of him. There is no mention of Leo actually donating to the cause. If Leo thinks it's so important to save this farm, why doesn't he just pony up? I mean, even if they need $10 million, that's probably less than he made on his last film.
Now, I'm not Leo, nor am I his accountant. Maybe Leo has already spent his millions. Maybe he's saving up for that house in Tuscany. Maybe there are financial considerations for multimillionaires that simple folk like me cannot comprehend. Why doesn't he at least offer to match contributions to the fund? It seems to me his main interest in the plight of the farm is a photo op to show everyone how environmentally conscious he is.
Ooooo. That’s going to piss the Creationists off.
According to the new theory, chimps and humans shared a common apelike ancestor much more recently than was thought. Furthermore, when the two emerging species split from each other, it was not a clean break. Some members of the two groups seem to have interbred about 1.2 million years after they first diverged -- before going their separate ways for good.1
It's not bad enough that we're decended from apes. We were having sex with them, too!
The King of Wishful Thinking
Last week a shareholder of Ford Motor Co., one Robert Hurley of Alton, Ill, introduced a resolution that would strike protections for GLBT employees from company policy and prohibit Ford from contributing to GLBT organizations. Fearing the resolution would hurt Ford's ability to hire talent and negatively impact sales Ford tried to keep the resolution off the agenda, but Hurley went to the SEC and forced a vote.
That Alton was acting in concert with anti-gay organizations is all but a given. I'm not sure what they expected the out come to be. Perhaps they thought Ford shareholders would vote the same way the public has voted in the many amendments to state constitutions that have been introduced in the last few years. They probably didn't take into consideration that shareholders rarely actually vote and just rubber-stamp the company's recommendations (in this case, to reject the resolution). They probably also misjudged the difference between voting for an amendment that targets "others" (which doesn't personally impact them) and voting for a resolution that could hurt company profits and thus the stock price and thus their investment (which does personally impact them). In any case, what did happen was certainly not what they hoped for. The resolution was defeated with only 5% of Ford stockholders voting in favor.1 Apparently it is a very exclusive group who agrees with one supporter of the resolution who believes Ford's financial troubles are directly attributable to their gay friendly policies.2
Predictably, Dr. Don Wildmon, Head Wingnut at the AFA declared victory, just has he has in every failed initiative his organization has ever conceived.
The mere fact that five percent voted for this proposal came as a shock. I think it sends a loud message," says the AFA leader. "And we're very grateful that we got that five percent and that this issue can come back up again next year. We have a lot of time to work on it."2
Perhaps he hasn't noticed that trends with respect to gay and lesbian rights are not moving in his favor. On the other hand Dr. Wildmon gives every indication of living in his own reality. Who knows what's going on in his own private universe.
HAT TIP: Pam's House Blend
2Martin, Allie, "Ford Shareholders Turn Away Proposal to Amend Non-Discrimination Policy," May 11, 2006, Agape Press, agapepress.org.
Oh, for the the love of …
According to WorldNetDaily, 37% of respondents hope that Bush's speech tonight will provide for "Immediate construction plans for an impenetrable barrier on the border."
People, there is no such thing as an impenetrable barrier. Walls are not made to keep people out. They're made to slow them down long enough so you can shoot them or, if the wall is big enough, drop things on them. Get real.
While I'm sure that a Mexican shooting gallery at the border wouldn't phase most of the yahoos responding to the poll, it sorta puts the lie to this being a Christian nation. Granted, it's been a while since I read the New Testament, but I think Jesus might have one or two objections.
HAT TIP: Pam's House Blend
Here we go again.
Howard Dean is coming under fire from GLBT groups for recent sucking up to Evangelicals.
Gay rights groups reacted angrily Wednesday to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's televised comments to an audience of evangelicals that his party's platform defines marriage as between one man and one woman.1
Whence the shock? I just don't get it. He didn't say anything that hasn't already been said by Democratic politicians—over and over and over. I don't understand the faith that GLBT groups seem to place in Democratic politicians. Kerry never took a stand on gay marriage when it really counted. He pandered to whatever group he happened to be addressing. If he was addressing a conservative crowd he touted marriage between on man and one woman. If he was talking to a gay crowd he touted his opposition to a Constitutional amendment.
The Democratic Party remains committed to equal protection under the law for all Americans," [Dean] said in a written statement.
"How we achieve that goal continues to be the subject of a contentious debate, but our party continues to oppose constitutional amendments that seek to short-circuit the debate on how to achieve equality for all Americans."1
Do you see "We unequivocally support gay marriage" in there? I don't. I don't see that anything has changed. I don't understand why GLBT groups think Democrats are going to champion their causes which remain unpopular. Gays and lesbians are a political liability and will be sacrificed in the name of political expediency every time.
Nor do I understand why Democrats are trying to mollify self-righteous busybodies instead of pressing the point that you don't have to be a self-righteous busybody, constantly meddling in the lives of others, to be a person of faith and conscience. But then no one has ever accused the Democrats of being great strategists.
He’s laughing somewhere…
A little while ago my friend Tony passed away. A long time atheist, he didn't believe in an afterlife. "If there is an afterlife," he would say to me, "I'm coming back to haunt you."
I've been on medication that leaves my joints aching and my muscles stiff and weak. The doctor recently halved my dosage so I'm hoping for some relief soon. However, this morning while bending over a box of loose ends, my back went out. Anyone who's had a muscle spasm in their back knows just how debilitating that is. D rubbed it for me for a bit before I had to get dressed and head to work.
My lower back is still very stiff and sore. I don't feel like I'm standing completely upright. Earlier today, while gingerly making my way to the bathroom, my gait reminded me of the way Tony walked. Come back to haunt me indeed.
Tony, I blame you for this.
Anthropomorphism
Gilad Benari, an Israeli photographer, recently gave me permission to display some of his work in my blog. He does so much nice work it's hard to pick one image to start with. I settled on this one.
This image resonates with a lot of people. The most immediate response is, "That poor monkey! Look how he yearns to be free!" I don't think that's the power of this image though. For all we know, the monkey likes not having to hunt for fruit or scrape beetles out of the bark of a tree or likes not having to worry about jaguars or other predators.
I think the power in this image comes from what we bring to it. Each and every one of us can relate to feeling trapped. Whether or not our freedom has ever been physically restricted, we know what it's like to be caught in a situation from which we see no escape. Whether its a relationship gone sour or a dead end job or the confines of a culture we don't fit, we have all been there. Therein lies the power. Our little monkey has become a symbol for powerful experiences and emotions shared by all of us.