Cranky Cindy's Top Ten

and can I crank that i hate that blogger won't let me modify formatting properly when I cut and paste? so you may be seeing curiously large letters mixed in with normal ones.

On behalf of Church Administrators, custodians, and sextons everywhere
(this one's kind of a cheat b/c i posted a link to it on the LREDA list)

This is My Blog. Censorship, Community, and Public Dialogue

Wednesday Drivin'Bloggin'
Jesus for the Sex Industry

Breakfast Club to Dead Zone and a rant about racism on tv
My own words bite me in the butt

The Rubix Cube of Racism and classism
Race as Meme and White Privilege
Sponge Bob has Square Pants
Pirates of the Caribbean Commentary Track
Why is this breaking News? Albert Einstein was actively opposed to lynching, segregation, and racism


There's not really a bottom ten on this blog -- almost all my posts are read by 10-20 people, no matter what. Thanks regulars, whoever you are!

Happycindy had a much more defined low point.

Wednesday Drivin’Bloggin’ – Stop Signs and Red Lights are for Stopping

If it was safe to yield, there would be a yield sign there.

According to the National Safety Council, in a study of Good Drivers that got killed while driving,

Sixteen percent of drivers in our analysis were killed because another driver either did not see, purposely ignored, or showed poor judgment at a stop sign.

Note this link is to a downloading .doc file, don’t click on it unless you’re comfortable with that. Otherwise, this link, at least for now, is to the html google cache of it.

This article puts the onus of being wary of bad drivers on the good drivers, and doesn’t yell at the bad drivers.

Red-light running turned out to be another deadly accident for innocent drivers, killing eight percent of them. When the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety monitored a busy intersection in Arlington County, Virginia, for several months, they found a driver running the light every 12 minutes on average. It was as high as once every five minutes during peak rush hours. "That's more than 100 chances a day for an unsuspecting motorist to become a crash victim," says Institute safety expert Richard Retting.

Two days ago, a man in a pick up barreled through the red light of a left turn arrow in front of me. I was leading the oncoming traffic and watched him as he floored it 4 or 5 car lengths before the intersection as the green turned yellow, then barreled through the red. Luckily for me at least, and perhaps for him, I had seen him speed up and instead of accelerating into the intersection and dying, I leaned on my horn.

In general, I think horns should be reserved for safety violations or to bring someone’s attention to a dangerous situation, and not for expressing anger, but I think my bringing his ahole behavior to his attention then turned into an expression of anger as he looked up and waved to me.

Not a “oops, sorry,” wave, or a “my mother’s in the hospital and I’ve got to go,” wave, or even a “yea yea, I probably shouldn’t have,” wave. It was a “Hello you silly woman, have a nice day, I just ran this red light and you can’t stop me,” wave. You know, those elaborate FU waves that are energetic and go on and on. I continued to lean on my horn throughout.

So while he was waving at me, he almost ran over a woman who was walking across the street, she thought, with the light.

So I accept that my part of it wasn’t innocent.

What would he have said if he had hit her or me? “It was an accident; I didn’t mean to hit the woman”? “I only meant to run the red light”?

It wouldn’t have been an accident. Accident are unforeseeable and uncontrollable. It is perfectly foreseeable that when rolling through a Stop, flooring it to beat the red light, or turning into oncoming traffic you might Kill Someone.

So the National Safety Council can say, that “Please people look out for idiots.”

Crankycindy sez, "Please Idiots, Stop Running Red Lights and Stop Signs!"

slc24a5 -- Melanin and Me

99.9 percent of human genes are the same. Of 3.1 Billion (how many zeros is that? 3,100,000,000?) letters in the human genome project, slc24a5 "blocks the creation of a protein whose job is to move charged atoms across cell membranes, an obscure process that is crucial to the accumulation of melanin inside cells." from the Washington Post article, which I send you to b/c the last line is great.

Recent revelations that all people are more than 99.9 percent genetically identical has proved that race has almost no biological validity. Yet geneticists' claims that race is a phony construct have not rung true to many nonscientists -- and understandably so, said Vivian Ota Wang of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda.

"You may tell people that race isn't real and doesn't matter, but they can't catch a cab," Ota Wang said. "So unless we take that into account it makes us sound crazy."

The title of the article in the Washington Post (Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin)
is misleading -- this gene mutation accounts for northern european white skin, but humans with light and white skin which genetic origins are from asia, those are accounted for by other mutations.
The original article in Science is linked for you really really smart people.

Read or listen to NPR story.

jenn at reappropriate.com says

Race is not about genetics, it's about social inequality and disenfranchisment. As cool as this finding is, we must be careful not to conclude that we can therefore simply erase the effects of racism by pretending it doesn't exist.

This is new and not much commented/discussed yet by the religious right, conservative right, but the racist right's picked right up on it.
For now, keep an eye on comments at MajorityRights.com as a jump off way to link to the conservative right's take on this.

Or spend some time at the racist right, where at stormfront.com comments are going like this:

Hmmmm. How can it be just one gene (i.e. locus)? If it was, then race-mixer's would reproduce according to simple mendel laws right? I.e. there would be limited shades like very black, very white. This if alleles would be strictly dominant/recessive. Or, if recessive allele played a role too, then there could be a one or two middle shades. How comes there're so many shades of skin color?
It looks like there have to be severel locuses involved... or not? Can somebody better educated in genetics explain?

and

Read the article, seems a bit like PC bull****. There's still confusion, but by default we are all black, my ass. Ask the fish.

and

When we mix, we are destroying the blessing and miracle of the creator, we are sending the love letter written in nature and translated by us back unopened. This is suicide, it is choosing death.

more here.

We may have all 'come from africa' and were brown skinned at that time. BUT just as we evolved into who we are so too the black african evolved into who they are. We evolved differently and sharing a common ancestor does not in any way negate who we are today nor invalidate any of our goals and achievements.Indeed, I see such scientific discoveries confirming the fact we ARE genetically different and strengthens our position. [from this page]

from the same page, my favorite

I've always thought skin color was ostentatious

Wednesday Drivin’Bloggin’

Passing me like a fool to beat me to that Red Light.

So I'm starting a Wednesday Drivin’Bloggin’ meme because there’s nothing, except maybe people who cut in line right in front of me while I'm looking right at them, that irritates me more than stupid and aggressive driving.

Today it’s people who cut in line with their cars. (Merging will be another day) I’m a speed limit goer, especially in town. Kids dart out, squirrels and cats dawdle, and people roll through stop signs. You never know.

Why do people feel it necessary to act the fool and pass my speed limit going self in a double yellow line area, or in front of the music school straightaway, only to arrive one car ahead of me at the next red light?

They wasted gas (the physics of coasting to stop signs saving brakes and gas another time), endangered their life, mine, and the kids at the music school bus stop, and got my blood pressure up!

It's Unacceptable. Fool Passing People should go to the naughty mat!

Four girlz and a gay guy

Ok, so crankycindy believes that popular media television sucks -- and absolutely loves it. Years ago I made fun of my new partner's love for the TV show Survivor. But I sat through it with her... and here I am years later, celebrating that a group of players came up with a strategy that takes into account age and gender discrimination in a way that works for women and a gay man.

On the other hand, I could go on for days about how for the most part, Survivor producers pick white folks to play this game. Women of Color have had some small success (yea Sandra and Vecipia!), men of color who aren't of african decent are very few and far between, and the occasional African American man selected for the series can't swim, or hate bugs, or are somehow otherwise completely unprepared for outdoor survival.

There are exceptions of course, and but given that there are what, 11 seasons of Survivor, and 20 people per season, the experience of people of color hasn't been all that great -- I suggest that this is not because of the individual prejudice or racism of participants, but because of who the producers choose, and how they choose to edit.

And because it’s a 40 day experience, edited down into a few hours, we’ll never know for sure what the role of white supremacy or heterosexual/male/Christian privilege really is in this show. They show Big Tom (a stereotypical white poorly educated farmer guy) threaten to shoot Clarence, an African American man, but they've also managed to edit it to show Clarence as simultaneously lazy and a physical threat to the players. We'll never know for sure, but I'm confident that the "reality" that Survivor producers intend to show, is the reality of 60's cowboy movies meets Swiss Family Robinson. (hunker down, build a shelter, and protect the womenfolk.)

Interesting essay/ article on racism and editing.
The white supremacist Vanguard News Network, that bastion of all news perspective and lies racist, anti-semitic, and homophobic, has an interesting, if stomach wrenching, take on racism/editing and the stereotypes the Survivor producers chose to portray. It's good sometimes to remember that there are people who still perpetuate the racist myths that underlie much of our more well intentioned unconscious racism.

But that's not the point of this post.

Given that it's edited, this is the way we see this show --
A whole group of people row to an island, or run 11 miles through the woods or over the desert to get to their two camps.

Then we see young adults quickly divide between 'hard workers' and the 'gotta rest a minute' and 'gotta catch some rays.' The older adults work as hard as they can to keep up with the young strong ones.

They arrive at their locations and have to build camps.

The older people w/ outdoors or building experience work on building structures and get frustrated w/ younger people laying around, or: older people with nursing or teaching experience nurse the young kids back to health after the kids hurt themselves. After they've been and helpful to the team effort,
the older people get kicked out one by one.

Then the funny looking, geeky, dweeby, too pushy, “too-black,” and “too-queer” get kicked out/voted off. I think gay guy Richard Hatch won the first season only because no one else understood the concept of alliances, and so he controlled the game by controlling alliances – that’ll never happen again now that everyone understands it’s a game of alliances, trust and backstabbing.

The “Cool Kids” who often include an occasional quiet mom/pop-type person run the place (Every neighborhood has a "cool mom.") They’re generally the cool white kids, mostly men, who define what is normal (on a fake survival island surrounded by cameras!) and determine what’s too different...too pushy/black/queer.

Sandra and Vecipia and Tina (middle aged white woman) won Survivor by staying under the radar for a long time. When I watch this show I always want to go on it. I think I could win.
My partner says I’d wouldn't, that I could never be an under the radar middle aged woman – she thinks I'd be the first one out -- I'd be there trying to tell them they were doing something wrong, how to build the shelter toward the wind, or away from the water, or whatever, and I’d be the first older opinionated person out.
I think that’s only if it was her voting.

I would would like to think that while I could never stay under the radar, I might be able to pull off being the mom/pop type person that the cool kids want to hang with.
...Except that I’ve never been a cool kid or a cool kid hanger-on, and I’m funny looking, geeky, dwebby, pushy, and queer. So maybe not so much with the winning.

So anyway, last night, three people got a chance to plot and plan away from the rest of the group -- one woman who is a cool kid, one who had her head on the next nights chopping block, and the gay guy who has made it this far by being gay and athletic. (Perhaps the first time producers have picked a strong gay man.)

And damn if the game doesn't turn in a way it never has before.

They voted off the guy who thought he was the leader of the cool kids. Oops.

And damn if we don't have four women and a gay guy playing the last rounds of Survivor. Rafe, the gay guy from a huge Mormon family, is, I think, best suited to win this game -- he's an experienced outdoors educator and wilderness guide. The women are Danni, a young white model who was Miss Kansas, Miss USA runner up, and won Star Search. Then there's two time Survivor Stephanie, a young beautiful white woman and accomplished athlete, Cindy, another young beautiful athletic white woman, and Lydia , a middle-aged woman who (I don't know what name she gives her heritage,) was born in Japan of a Puerto Rican father and after leaving Japan, grew up in Puerto Rico, and lived a life of army-style multicultural/multinational life experience as an adult. Example of the producers editing choices? Everytime they show Lydia's name on the tv, they call her a "fish-monger." Her bio lists her as having 18 years experience with one company, and is currently an assistant manager there.

So it's such a mixed thing, this show Survivor. I'm cranky and happy. go figure. This is probably why most people only have one blog.

Jesus for the sex industry

JC's Girls Girls Girls. Honest to God. Especially check out the fuzzy blurry glamour poses.

Why do you use glamour poses on your site?
We designed our site to reflect the girls we are trying to reach. Our desire is for the girls to instantly know this site was made just for them. Based on Heather's experience, we know for many girls in the industry physical beauty is so important and the thought of having to change their appearance is terrifying. We just didn't want this thought to keep them from learning that God cares little about outward appearance and desires to develop the spiritual beauty inside of them. from their Q&A page.

Additionally, Heather can be seen here. The comments are hysterical!

"nice tats."
" i like the bible too god bless you"
"Hey how are you doin Heather? just seein what my new friend was up to and whatnot, well hit me back sometime and then maybe we could talk if you would like to :) -Anthony"

On behalf of Church Administrators, custodians, and sextons everywhere

Congregational administrative support, administrators, sextons, and other behind the scenes people who do the day in and day out labor that allows us to have our time thinking about deep things and inventing new curricula and saving the world through love, peace, and justice get the short end of the stick way too often.

Instructions for Working with your Support Staff. A Guide for DRE's, Ministers, and lay people in congregations.

1. Assume Good Will. Your support staff intend to support the work of the congregation. They did not intentionally screw with your phone system, email accounts, pile of stuff you left in the corner for next week, or reimbursement checks. If an error happened, it was an ERROR.

2. Recognize their knowledge. The only people in your congregation who have a complete grasp of the multiplicity of policy issues involved in anything that someone wants to do is the staff. The committee chair that wrote the policy on publicizing announcements before worship is now on the activities committee, and no one else on the publicity committee even knows there was ever a written policy. (See also #6)

3. Do not even think of scheduling an event before checking it out with the staff. There is nothing more that should need to be said about this. But of course, there is.
Just because your calendar you got in your newsletter doesn't have anything listed for Saturday afternoon, does NOT mean the building is available on Saturday afternoon. It could be carpet cleaning day, it could be an outside wedding rental, it could be that the Coming of Age class is having a sleep over that wasn't open to the public and so was not on the calendar. The use of the kitchen is not auotomatically ok.

Related: Your cousin's friend Johnny doesn't get to have his wedding here for free just because you said you'd be the official responsible person and use your key instead of having him do a contract through the ofice. Also true for our not-UU non-profit but really important events, for our book signings, our carpentry classes, our free one time legal advice clinics, or our group education classes that are really an opportunity for people to see what a great therapist/coach/teacher you are so they can hire you privately.

Related Related: If you give up a reserved room because you're going to have an event in your living room instead, don't change your mind back and expect to have the room back after it's been given away.

4. The office staff's desks don't become public property on Sundays when they aren't in.
The computer has a password because there is private financial information in it, as well as emails of a personal nature from parishoners to the office. Don't hack the password just because you want to print the lyrics to this is my favorite song and I want to read it during Joys and Concerns and forgot them at home. The markers belong in the marker drawer, the lables are for mailings not name tags, the expensive paper that was hidden below the desk is for Canvass, not your Sunday School fold-up activity, and File Folders are not a substitute for oak tag posters.
And used tissues go in the TRASH.

5. It is no one's job to clean up your half-distributed flyers and keep them for you till next week. If you don't clean them up yourself, they will be thrown away. Then don't get mad that your flyers aren't around, and don't yell at the office staff for how much paper they use when you look at the budget at the end of the year.
Related: The xerox machine is not there for your christmas letters, poems, or kid's cute picture.
Related Related: If you're going to sneak a copy, and the copier jams, don't be asking the office staff to spend 30 minutes to fix it for you.

6. There is no staff person who can read your mind just because you did something a certain way last year. You have to ask for what you need, completely, and well ahead of when you need it. This is especially for committee chairs who have not changed committees.

7. It is not the Sexton's job to wash your dishes. and yes, just these two cups does matter.
Related: It won't kill you to put the extra toilet paper roll ON the roll instead of balancing it on the edge.
Related Related: Running a vacuum after you give the kids sprinkles for art would be a nice kindness.

8. It is not the administrator's job to explain to you personally every little decision s/he makes. That falls to his/her supervisor. What you can do is ask questions...

Always refer to #1 - Assume Good Will, and to #2 - Recognize their knowledge

BAD WAY TO COMMUNICATE WITH STAFF
Why didn't you [fill in here with My Way]....
Didn't you know that [fill in here with My Idea or special knowledge that you obviously don't have] ...
You can't [fill in here with What I Didn't Like] ...

BETTER WAY
I was surprised by that...
I thought we usually...

BEST WAY
Thanks for letting me know. I didn't realize that before. I'm sure there was an error, or that there is something I don't know about our policies that meant that [thus and so happened,] if I have questions about that, to whom should I address them?


Add more?

Buy Nothing Day

True story.
This morning at 7:30 am I was in my living room talking on the phone to my recovering alcoholic friend S, while she was entering the mall preparing to DVD and CD shop.
She said,
"I was bummed this morning when I heard on the radio it was buy nothing day and I turned the car around ' cause it sounded like a great idea and I had to do it. But then I heard them say that you shouldln't even buy a cup of coffee, and I already did, so since I blew it anyway, I turned back around and I'm here now at Circuit City."

Anecdotal evidence of the addictive nature of consumerism?

See also Michele's post about Buy Nothing Christmas.

If Harriet Miers had made it to the hearings - Doonsbury unpublished

cartoons available here.

Confidential to the Transcendentalist Super Hero

Dear Sir,
I have seen your website/blog and materials you have posted in links to groups over the years. I think we all have.

You have done an incredible job of submitting your new blog and citing yourself and linking in groups and lists, heck, even to your own blog repeatedly so that it shows up all over the internet, in Google searches, and in other search engines. You have recently begun to take clips of various UU bloggers words and managed to work them into the subject of your blog.

There is no missing your presence Sir, and it is no longer necessary to entice me, (or, I suspect, anyone else in the UU blogosphere) to go to your website. It is no longer necessary to post off-topic, or faux-on-topic comments on my blogs in order to get me to read your commentary or supporting newspaper articles that have been copied into various groups on the Net. I already did.

My Statcounter makes it evident that you read my criteria for posting, from a a library computer at McGill University, prior to your submitting your last comment, therefore violating that criteria almost immediately. Your obvious intelligence and articulateness makes it clear that you did not misunderstand, and suspect that you were attempting to find some sort of loophole in the criteria I posted, perhaps testing to see if I would post your almost-on-topic-but-not-quite-and-still-managing-to-direct-the-reader-back-to-you comment.

I wish you well in your life, but I am not interested in discussing your concerns with you, I am not going to permit my blog to be part of your carefully crafted internet publicity campaign, and I will not allow any links from my blogs that support your concerns.

Normally, I would send a private post to someone who wasn't commenting on subject, asking them to refrain from off-topic comments, but given that I have read your blog, and supporting materials, I am not comfortable enough that my words wouldn't come back poorly, or perhaps mis-articulated, and so I am posting my request plainly and relatively politely here in public.

Please stop commenting on my blogs.

Please don't take this personally, it's not particularly personal -- I am also not interested in why white chocolate is yucky, if lava has the properties of a liquid, or if Matt Drudge is Gay.
So please stop attempting to post on my blogs, it is unnecessary to your purposes.

I don't want anyone to comment here on this particular subject, so I'm turning comments off for this post.

Religion Clause - new found website

My mom pointed me to this blog/site, and it's great!

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... --US Const., Amend. 1

Religion Clause
a blog devoted to legal and political developments in free exercise of religion and separation of church and state.

People care about this?

Debunking the Drudge Rumors, Part 1 of 2: Why He’s Not Gay, Why I Care, What It All Means

But based on my accrued knowledge of Matt Drudge, and my own gaydar, I have to say: the “outers” are toilet-papering the wrong tree. Matt ain’t on the team.

It's not the subject matter that surprises me, people gossip. Whatever.
What surprises me is the tens of pages of discussion and documentation on this subject at the above link.

I'm confident it qualifies as stupid.

This is My Blog. Censorship, community, and public dialogue.

Censorship:

the changing or the suppression or prohibition of speech or writing that is condemned as subversive of the common good. It occurs in all manifestations of authority to some degree, but in modern times it has been of special importance in its relation to government and the rule of law. (From the Encyclopaedia Britannica.)

My criteria for posting on my blogs. A rant-like essay:

It’s very simple. My blogs are mine. Like my house, I am in charge of determining who and how people post.
I am not a government. I can not determine who posts on any other blogs, internet groups, discussion boards, or letters to the editor. I cannot change, supress, or prohibit speech beyond my personal space.

This is about ME, not you.

I have many identities. I am a DRE, grandmother, godmother, working farmer class, Unitarian Universalist, ex-fundamentalist, independent scholar of the religious right, life-partner/now wife, white, lesbian, privileged overly educated underly paid 40-something. Unlike many bloggers, i have chosen to be public, to be exactly who I am-- name, job, beliefs, family, the whole nine yards.

Lots of time my friends and colleagues have things in common with me. But commonality with these identities alone doesn’t determine who I converse with. What makes that determination is if someone can engage me in a mutually respectful relationship, giving and taking in turns as appropriate. Sometimes this includes people who disagree with me on some core issues, but who choose to be in relationship with me anyway.

It often surprises people who know my Really Big Opinionated Self that I count among my friendly acquaintances people who call themselves ex-gay. There is a celibate woman in another state, who calls herself a not-a-lesbian, because of her faith beliefs, who I would call upon for help or conversation before many lesbians I’ve met, because we are able to be in a mutually respectful, boundaried, helpful relationship.

Conversely, I count among my not so friendly acquaintances people who call themselves gay, or UU, or scholarly, or white, or graduates of Union Theological Seminary. (And if any of you call it Columbia, I’ll hurl.)

The point here is that I get to decide, in my own world and personal space, that is, in my community, who I engage with, and about what.

Rather than provide recent blog/internet examples, and invite specific retorts or suggest that I am in any way identifying this criteria as a call to democratic decision making about my own Blogs, I’ll provide examples from my real-life.
In my life/house/phone, I have dis-invited:

• a woman who drank all the cooking wine before I even arrived home from work to greet her,
• man from a sober party when he lit up a joint,
• a woman who insisted on sharing with me the personal details of her unhappy marriage without ever asking me about my life,
• a man who felt it necessary to keep harping on a particular topic as if I could be worn down to eventually turn on my belief system and agree with him
• a minister (not UU) who chose to continue talking to her personal ghost/angel rather than to a professional counselor (she thought the dead chick's advice was better)
• I’ve dis-invited a temporarily homeless someone who came to my house and stayed for 6 weeks, while working in a barn, and never cleaned the bath tub. Even after I left the mop, bucket, and ajax in it.
  (and yes, I was less direct and still working on that mutually respectful bit as a young adult)
  

There are individuals who exhibit bad behavior, who have interpersonal challenges like an inability to utilize listening skills, who could probably learn sharing skills from my pre-schoolers. There are others who believe that their perceptions, being forged out of the crucible of their own enlightened and transcendental lives, (or conversely, from their individual bodily suffering in this world) are elevated to Authority in a way we UUs generally don’t elevate anything. There are individuals who confuse freedom of thought with freedom to be mentally ill and to act out. It’s not ok to stand up in the middle of the sermon and decide, for instance, to sit at the piano and play a song for your elderly friend Frida from Seattle. It’s not ok to stop by my house in the middle of the night and throw up on my couch. (Just for instance, it was a long time ago, but you know who you are.)

Ok, one online example. 15 years ago I engaged with a troll on an unmoderated gay christian usenet-type group, and 5 years later the same troll joined a moderated public dialogue group I was part of moderating at that time. (a cyberspace initiative providing models and resources for building respectful relationships among those who disagree about moral issues surrounding homosexuality, bisexuality and gender variance.)

On the first list he and I had it out about what he said, over and over. On the second, we had it out about what he said, how he said it, and whether he could moderate his own behavior and speech and listen and respond to what was said by others rather than according to his own repetitive agenda. In both cases, I spent hundreds of hours on it. That's not what this blog is for, and I won't engage trolls.

It's not ok to continually publish your own issues and agenda as fake commentary on someone else’s blog.

I have turned on comment moderation. I will publish all comments, positive and negative, that relate to the content of the post it is attached to. I will engage in mutually respectful dialogue and discussion on my blog about any subject I have brought up, as long as that conversation remains generally within the confines of the subject itself. And i will make that determination.

I will not publish anything that I consider Spam or Trolling (which, as far as I’m concerned, is just Spam from someone you know or are familiar with).

Although I cannot be responsible for error, I will not knowingly publish links to websites that I believe contain fraudulent, slanderous, or libelous material. Obviously, on the internet, that’s not a standard defined by perfection, but by imperfection… likely I’ll publish something at some point in error, and have to correct it after the fact. But correct it I will.

Having Comment Moderation on also means that no one will be able to post a comment and have it live unnoticed by me for weeks on an old blog post. I will be forced to keep up with commentary on my entire blog, and not just the most recent posts.

Finally, a comment about Censorship.

Censorship is the complete silencing of a voice, usually by a government. In this case, my choosing which comments to post and which to delete does not constitute the silencing of a voice (far from it).

Anyone who has the technological capability to post comments to my Blog can start their own Blog and have their say.

There are places for unmoderated public dialogue, open forums all over the internet where an individual might then advertise her/his Blog. If you don’t know where, start with groups.google.com, or groups.yahoo.com.

I have turned on Comment Moderation

I will discuss it here, later, but first, I have to get through my big work day.

In the meantime, let me entertain you with this incredible image from jesuspolitics



who, in turn, got it from http://www.correntewire.com/science_religion_spooky_shit

Miers just withdrew. go to your favorite news site.

Personally, I think she threw herself on her sword, and knew she would do so from the very beginning.

After all, now Bush can put up nearly any others of his cronies and they'll likely be better qualified. Not qualified mind you, but better qualified. The standard has been set.

That said, the line her speech supporting Roe v. Wade,

The ongoing debate continues surrounding the attempt to once again criminalize abortions or to once and for all guarantee the freedom of the individual women's [sic] right to decide for herself whether she will have an abortion.

did make me sad. But I am absolutely not in favor of anyone getting on the most highest muckety muck judiciary who isn't skilled and experienced at actually interpreting the law and applying it to different situations. Even if she seems to support something I consider foundational.


I'm done talking about it though, the rest of you have at it.


news.yahoo has the original AP story.

Google Purge. Download it now.

This is funny. Google announces plans to destroy everything it can't index. At the Onion.

Why is this Breaking News!?! Albert Einstein was actively opposed to lynching, segregation, and racism

Of over 100 biographies on Einstein, this is the first to even mention Paul Robeson or lynching. Kudos to Book TV on C-SPAN. This weekend I was able to watch Journalist Fred Jerome and author Rodger Taylor, discuss their book Einstein on Race and Racism. Although known as a non-joiner, and a person of dis-frumpled solitude, he was, it turns out, member of no fewer than 14 anti-racist/segregationist organizations, with involvement with the NAACP, the Civil Rights Congress and the Southern Conference Educational Fund. He offered to travel to DC to testify on behalf of W.E.B. DuBois when our gov't arrested him for being an agent of a foreign power. (in case you aren't aware, without evidence of doodly squat, except that Mr. DuBois held leftist political ideas - story available at the link below to LogosJournal)


Those who want to argue that racism is no more need look no farther than the silence of 100 biographers on this area of his life. One might argue that in the 50's and 60's biographers of his scientific mind might not want to "complicate matters," but for that silence to continue? Why don't we know the full story of this man and just his scientific achievements and personal fuddy-duddyness?

From the website of the Book:

The book uses Einstein’s letters and personal exchanges with such figures as W.E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson as evidence for his commitment to racial equality and the anti-lynching campaign. “Einstein on Race and Racism” includes interviews with African-American members of the community in New Jersey where Albert Einstein lived.

From LogosJournal.com

On the eve of Einstein’s move to America he joined the international campaign to save “the Scottsboro Boys,” nine African American teen-agers from Alabama, falsely accused of rape – eight of them sentenced to death in 1931. For Einstein, the Scottsboro Defense was the first of several protests against racial injustice in the American legal system. For J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI, it was the first “Communist Front”

[At Lincoln University] "His visit was “in a worthwhile cause,” he told the assembled students and faculty. “The separation of the races [segregation],” he declared, “is not a disease of colored people, but a disease of white people,” adding, “I do not intend to be quiet about it.”
read more from Logos Journal.

Read the Preface, then the article/overview above, then buy the book.

Why does Tom DeLay get to smile in a Mug Shot?

That's just wrong.

The Smoking Gun has the Big Picture

What's the Definition of "Failure"?

According to Google, it's ... well, I don't want to spoil it for you.

Go ahead. Google "Failure." Click either Google Search or I'm Feeling Lucky.

Seriously. Do it.

Love Won Out counter protest scheduled

According to queertoday.com, there is a protest scheduled to preceed the opening of the LWO conference.

7:30AM: 88 Tremont Street. Large-Scale Protest against the anti-gay conference by Focus On The Family. Show up to protest the start of James Dobson's/Focus On The Family's "Love Won Out" Conference that aims to "prevent and cure homosexuality."

This protest will join the anti-war protest at noon, they will march with them, and, according to this website, they will all return to stop in front of the LWO conference site.

Contrary to what I said earlier, I won’t be attending this Conference because I have to be back here to run the Costume Parade at the Halloween Party at 5 pm. If there’s a massive demonstration, I’ll never get out of Boston in time to return to Western Massachusetts by 5.

NRA vs. PETA? A Throw down death match? Tonight on Pay Per View

Honest to G-d. This is the text of a letter sent out by Wayne LaPierre about the debate he accepted with Andrew Butler of PETA. Tonight, no lie, on Pay Per View.

The letter was re-typed by Andrew Connor, and posted here. Typos, I assume, are his.
I have added Color for emphasis, to pull out my favorite bits.

FBI Statements of Congressional hearings in May of 2005 make it clear that a major terrorist support netword ks now actively operating in your home state of North Carolina.

And some of your neighbors are probably contributors or even members.

This group provides major financial aid to arsonists and fire bombers. They massacre thousands of dogs and cats each year. They conduct psychological warfare against your values by providing hate literature to schoolchildren. They have recruited 235,000 classroom teachers across America to their cause. And they have left no doubt in my mind that they will do whatever it takes to ban your hunting forever.

I have been warned not to stand in the direct path of these fanatics -- because I could become a target of their hate.

And I have been warned by a representative of a major U.S. corporation that those who oppose this terrorist network are routinely stalked, harassed, and intimidated.

But I believe in my heart that someone needs to draw a line in the sand. Someone needs to break the silence. And because you've invested your trust in me to lead the NRA and lead our cause, I believe this is a fight I can't walk away from.

That's why I have accepted a television offer to debate one of the leaders of this organization -- Andrew Butler -- in a nationally-televised broadcast on October 18, 2005.

I need you to watch this debate. I need you to tell your friends about it. Because the group I'm talking about -- whose spokesman I will debate -- has an admitted track record of supporting a movement now considered by the FBI to be the #1 domestic terrorism threat to you, your family and your safety.

I'm not talking about Al Qaeda. I'm not talking about Hamas or Hezbollah.

The group I'm talking about is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) -- which, along with two groups they support, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) are the most fanatical and most extremist anti-hunting organizations in the world.

Right now, most Americans -- including gun owners, hunters and even NRA members -- have no idea what PETA really stands for or what they really do.

Some of your own neighbors could be among those who are sending nearly $30 million a year in tax-deductable contributions to PETA -- duped by slick ads claiming that their money will help find homes for stray dogs and cats.

But most are unaware that their money also helps to provide legal defense funds for extremists who use harassment, intimidation, and even terrorist tactics to achieve their aims.

But the more I've learned about PETA since accepting this invitation to debate, the more strongly I believe that the American People need to know the real truth about the growing "animal rights" movement.

And the more I believe that NRA members and hunters must step out and become the front-line defenders against PETA -- the biggest, richest and most powerful organization backing and supporting the "animal rights" terrorist movement across American and around the world.

You and I need to lay bare PETA's outrageous record of hypocrisy, zealotry and disregard of human life for all thee world to see. If children must die so that mosquitoes or lab rats can live, that's justifiable in their eyes.

Your neighbors and their nearly one million supporters of PETA need to know that when they send their contributions, they're supporting "animal rights" terrorists. Indoctrinating kids to hate. Shutting down medical research. And slaughtering animals that PETA pretends to protect.

They've provided cash assistance and legal defense funds to memebers of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) -- organizations that are part of an eco-terrorist network that the FBI says is America's "most serious domestic terrorism threat."

And just as Saddam Hussein once provided $25,000 cash to the families of suicide bombers, PETA provided a similar amount to the family of Rodney Coronado -- who was convicted of a multi-million dollar firebombing at Michigan State University.

And they're packaging their madness and pitching it to our kids, too.

One of PETA's newest campaigns, "Your Mommy Kills Animals," is targeting children in 20 states across the natino with a "comic book" feathrin a blood-spattered woman killing and mutilating a live rabbit -- a psychological warfare campaign aimed at converting the next generation of Americans to the "animal rights" cause.

Their website teachers kids how to be "animal Rights rebels," how to ridicule kids won drink milk, and how to boycott classes.

And even PETA's so-called "animal shelters" have now become killing fields for dogs and cats.

Between 2000 and 2004, PETA slaughtered over 10,000 dogs and cats at one Norfolk, Virginia "shelter" alone. For the past three yeas, this "shelter" has slaughtered more than 85% of the animals it has taken in.

In fact, two PETA employees in North Carolina were recently indicted for dumping 18 dead dogs and cats into a dumpster -- and authorities found 13 more dead dogs and cats in their van.

Yet, the "animal rights" and "eco-terrorism" movements have no more regard for human lives than they have for dogs and cats.

In report after report, scientists and doctors who were working on breakthrough medical research -- cures for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and other human sufferings -- have left their research after receiving letters containing death threats and poison-laced razor blades, and threats to their children

And there's no doubt in my mind that it's only just a matter of time before they start escalating their tactics against hunters in the field.

Would it look like an accident? Would it look like a fall from a tree stand? Mark my words. There's a lot of thing that can happen in the woods, where nobody knows the truth but the trees.

And "animal rights" fanatics have already make it crystal clear where they stand when it comes to hunters.

PETA compares hunters to the KKK and Jeffrey Dahmer, the notorious serial killer who ate his victims -- and claims that hunters are no different than "Nazi doctors and slave traders."

You need to know the facts as well as what I believe about PETA and their fellow "animal rights" extremists. Your fellow gun owners and hunters across America need to know the facts. And your neighbors and friends need to understand what really happens to theeir money when they send a contribution to PETA.

It's abut time that somebody had the courage to stand up to these fanatics. They are a threat to our values. They are a threat to our children. They are a threat to our way of life. And you and I need to stand up together and draw the line against PETA's war on our values and our future.

That's exactly why -- despite the warning I've received -- I decided to break silence and debate PETA spokesman Andrew Butler on October 18th.

And I hope I can count on your strong personal support for my decision.

First, I hope you'll be sure to watch this debate, premiering October 18th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on InDemand Pay-Per-View. Invite your friends to join you. And invite them whether or not they hunt, or own guns - - because your neighbors will be shocked when they find out the real truth about PETA.

Second, I hope you'll use the postcards I've enclosed to tell more of your friends, relatives, and fellow Americans about this debate. Give them to people at work. Put them on the bulletin board at your hunting club. Or mail them to people you kow in other towns or states -- so that your fellow Americans can learn the truth about PETA on October 18th.

Third, in making this decision to take on PETA -- and explose them for what they are -- I hope I can count on your financial support to reach America with our NRA message.

I want to make sure that by the end of this year we can put a copy of this debate into the hands of as many Americans as we can.

According to PETA's most recent annual report, 11 million American schoolchildren have already been subjected to PETA's "animal rights" propaganda. 235,000 teachers have been co-opted into PETA's national misinformation campaign. And thirtyu million Americans have visited their website.

That's why I want every member of Congress, every legislative staff member on Capitol Hill, and every courtroom judge to have a copy of this debate.

I want to make sure we can send a copy to every hunt club in the nation. To every fair-minded T.V. and newspaper reporter across the country. To every American who takes a hunter safety course. To educators in cities where PETA is most actively propagandizing our children. And to every member of the 4H and other youth groups that work with animals -- young people who will soon be called on in the battle against these extremists.

I want to make sure that in the coming months, we have the resources we need to combat PETA's ongoing efforts -- because there's no doubt in my mind that we'll have to fight in the federal bureaucracy, in the stat legislatures and in the courts if we want to keep our public hunting lands open, preserve hunting opportunities in our National Forests and National Wildlife Refuges, and block efforts to shorten hunting seasons nationwide.

I want to make sure we have the resources to work with local law enforcement agencies to demand prosecution of extremists and fanatics if they harass and terrorize hunters in the field.

And most of all, I want to make sure that every American who cares about the truth has the opportunity to find out what PETA really stands for and what they really do.

Most Americans, if they know anything at all about PETA, think that they're over-eager animal lovers, or college kids with too much time on their hands or, at worst, annoying vandals who splash paint on fur coats.

They don't understand that, when they send a few dollars to PETA they're also sending money to a terrorist support group that wants to shut down hunting, take fishing poles out of children's hands, ban milk from their breakfast, and stop medical advancements. A group that condones the use of threats and destruction to achieve their ideological goals.

Someone needs to break the silence. And I'm asking you to help me lead the way,

And if I can count on you to send a contribution to the NRA for our efforts to fight back and expose the truth about PETA and the "animal rights" thugs, I'll send you a DVD, VHS, or audio CD copy of my debate with Andrew Butler just as soon as it's available after it airs on October 18th.

So please, support our NRA efforts. Please help me counter the $30 million that PETA is spending each year to brainwash our children, shut down medical research, slaughter dogs and cats, ban our hunting and end our way of life -- by sending a special contribution of $20, $30, $50, or whatever amount you can.

Please stand with me in this fight by watching my debate, using the enclosed postcards to spread the word, and sending your most generous contribution today.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Wayne LaPierre
Executive Vice President

P.S. Please watch my debate with PETA representative Andrew Butler on InDemand Pay-Per-View on Octobe 18th. Please use the enclosed cards to spread the word about this debate. And please send a generous gift to help fund our all-out NRA fight.

P.P.S. The FBI has called the "eco-terrorism" movement the #1 domestic terrorism threat in America today. You and I need to break the silence, stand up to this threat, and fight for our rights. I hope you'll let me hear from you in the next few days. Thank you again.

***

My favorite part? "I want to make sure we have the resources to work with local law enforcement agencies to demand prosecution of extremists and fanatics if they harass and terrorize hunters in the field."

Because if I were an animal rights activist, I'd surely go into the woods, walk up to Mr. Hunter up in his perch on his stand holding his gun and I'd ask him to stop shooting at the deer. please. right.

It must be nearing an election

Because campaigns are invoking Hitler. I am so tired of people throwing around Hitler or Fascism every time someone disagrees with them. Ugh.

Adolf Hitler became a central character in the Virginia governor's race this week as Republican Jerry W. Kilgore's campaign used the Nazi leader's name in an emotional ad on the death penalty... Kilgore's ad accuses Democrat Timothy M. Kaine of not supporting the death penalty, even for Hitler. <more>

"There's a real difference here in the use of Adolf Hitler," Cantor said. "Mr. Rosenbluth was trying to illustrate that Tim Kaine's views are so extreme, he wouldn't put the ultimate killer to death."

Tim Kaine's anti-death penalty views are so EXTREME, that he wouldn't put Hitler to death? And this is a bad thing? Consistency in a politician?

And the Kilgore campaign managed to have about 36 hours of news cycle out of it because they released it just before Yom Kippur.

There's a good editorial posted on Kaine's website.

Mormon Mix-Up -- When people forget to pay attention at their jobs.

A Provo Utah video store discovered that the PG-rated "Sons of Provo, " a wholesome story about a LDS boy band, Everclean, had been replaced by "Adored: Diary of a Porn Star."

Yup, lables and discs were mixed up.

Wolfe Video, distributor of the not-pornographic but about a porn star video, said, "It's a very heartwarming film about a porn star that reconnects with his family."

See, could be wholesome LDS family fare if only the porn star wasn't gay.

Whole story here.

4:18 am - Sorry if you recognize this list for what it is

Recognize these? ER - Rare Gems - Adams family Values - buy Shy - Coin Vault - Santa's Toy Shop - Heartland - Suze Orman - Oreck - My Body Guard - Fresh Prince - teacher's pet - dave the barbarian - School Ties - the amazing whirling chopper - boundty hunters - 20 dates - videos - Total Gym - Godzilla Vs. Megachizalla - Trading up - Happy Days - Rare Gems - Brainiac - Guthy Renker.

It's pitiful what's available on television to keep one awake at 4:20 in the morning. (although Brainiac is pretty good) If you too recognize this list, I'm sorry, but you should be sleeping now.
If I had something other than dialup, I'd watch any of the great independant films at ifilm.com or atomfilms.com, but alas, it's me and my dialup.

Why am I awake? Because we've been pumping out our basement since yesterday at 8 am when we woke up to 3 inches of water. I'm incredibly (O.M.G. Some guy just said, 'right in my ass' on the Total Gym ad, the phrase leapt right out at me) grateful that we are able to keep up with the water. We turn the pump on for 20 minutes, then off for 20 minutes, but I'm not sure how much it's helping, because although we're pumping it outside, it ends up in the storm drain that's backing up into the basement. As long as we don't use any water it's just runoff and not sewage, so there's that which I'm also grateful for.

I did it yesterday till 11 pm, then Beck did it, and now Tag! I'm It until I go to work this morning, when she'll get up again, but some incredible people on the RE Council are going to come in and be the DRE for the day after first service, so she'll be able to get back to bed.
So I'm putting this on Cranky Cindy because I am on the cranky side about this -- but still, so grateful that our house is in good strong standing.

It's funny tho' there's no StairMaster ad for running up and down to turn on pumps, and no total gym sweep the water sweep the water think wash on wash off ad either.

Going to pump and sweep now.
Oh m god, Peter Brady is selling the Ab Lounge now. ugh.

Pirates of the Caribbean Commentary Track. Another funny from the Wittenburg door

WWJFTLPT SAY?
What Would Jerry Falwell, Tim LeHaye, and Pat Robertson say about this movie? The funny funny people at The Wittenburg Door, my favorite evangelicals of all time, tell us here.

Harriet Miers and her religious community

Bartholomew's notes on religion has posted info via New Donkey, on Miers' church, the Valley View Christian Church, the years-ago church split that led to the theological formation of church she attends, and the recent church split that led her to join 200 others out of the church and into a hotel conference room.

Love Won Out (of homosexuality) Love One/Won Out. Get it?

I mentioned this earlier, and the particulars have been set.
I got this ad in my email today.

Love Won Out® Conference Boston, Massachusetts, October 29, 2005 Dear Friend, Nearly every family, church, and community has been impacted by homosexuality. Given the significance and scope of this issue it is imperative to know how to balance Truth and love. Focus on the Family developed the Love Won Out conference to provide helpful information and equip you to share the love of Christ with those affected by homosexuality. Join us in Boston and you'll learn how to minister to a loved one who's dealing with homosexuality, respond to misinformation in our culture, defend biblical beliefs and prevent your child from embracing homosexuality. What: Love Won Out Conference When: October 29, 2005 - 8:00 am - 5:30 pm Venue: Tremont Temple Baptist Church Where: 88 Tremont Street, Boston, MA Cost: $50 pre-registration/$60 at the door Contact: 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459) Homosexuality is one of the most hotly debated topics today. Popular culture tells us that homosexuality is biological and that change and freedom are not possible. The church frequently responds with either a deafening silence or a vitriolic condemnation of the individual struggling with same-sex attractions. Some Christians who stand firm in their biblical convictions often don't know how to share their beliefs with those they come in contact with, and thousands of families are faced with the heartbreak of learning about a gay loved one and feel there is nowhere to turn for answers. Whether you're a parent, friend or loved one of a homosexual; a pastor, mental health professional, youth worker, educator or gay activist; or simply someone who has a heart for the culture in which we all live, the Love Won Out conference is for you. Since our first event in 1998, the Love Won Out conference has traveled to America's largest cities bringing a life-changing message of hope to tens of thousands of people. At Love Won Out, you'll hear from nationally known experts who have firsthand experience with the seldom-told side of the homosexual issue. You'll learn how to minister to a loved one who's dealing with homosexuality, respond to misinformation in our culture, defend biblical beliefs and prevent your child from embracing homosexuality. Most of all, you'll experience the power of God's love. You'll come face-to-face with His desire to transform the lives of struggling homosexuals who seek freedom in Jesus Christ. Come witness the type of love that will help you become a catalyst for extending grace and truth in the midst of the controversy.

Featured Speakers: Mike Haley currently directs the Gender Issues department for Focus on the Family and also serves as chairman of the board of Exodus International. He is the author of the recently published book 101 Frequently Asked Questions About Homosexuality. Melissa Fryrear, M.Div, is the gender issues analyst for Focus on the Family and also serves as the church affiliate representative for Exodus International. She holds a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary and is actively involved in public speaking, writing and educating the church and society on homosexuality. Joe Dallas is a counselor, public speaker and author of three books including the recently released When Homosexuality Hits Home. Joe served for three years as the president of Exodus International and has been with the Love Won Out conference since its inception in 1998. Nancy Heche, D.Min., endured her husband’s diagnosis of and subsequent death from AIDS and experienced the media rush during her daughter’s highly visible lesbian relationship with a well-known celebrity. She holds a doctorate degree in pastoral counseling and has a private practice in psychotherapy. Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., is the president and principal research investigator for the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). He is the author of several books including A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Featured Resource: 101 Frequently Asked Questions About Homosexuality Mike Haley Paperback Book Suggested Donation: $11.00 US What people are saying: "Thank you for being real! For educating not only gay individuals but everyone that will have this issue touch their lives. You could apply this information to any problem we have in life." - Recent Love Won Out Attendee "This was more than I imagined. Thank you for your speaking the truth in love and encouraging me as a parent of a gay son." - Recent Love Won Out Attendee Please pray for our next event February 25 in St. Louis. For more information about this event, visit us at MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "imdl.net" claiming to be www.lovewonout.com.

and again, Mail Scanner thinks there's a possible FRAUD attempt here -- there is, it just doesn't know what type of fraud.