Cranky Cindy Changes the World

Jon Stewart Destroys Bill Kristol on Health Care

2009-09-24T14:45:00.001-04:00

Bill Kristol:
The Government currently runs the best health care system in America.

Watch it here:

and the public doesn't deserve it???

Protect Insurance Companies

2009-09-22T14:20:00.000-04:00

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Pete Hoekstra is a meme

2009-06-18T15:29:00.003-04:00

The most original thought I've had in a month or four is to point you to another blog.
But it's so very very worth it.

http://petehisameme.wordpress.com/

To Hoekstra is to whine using grandiose exaggerations and comparisons.

It all started with a simple, foolish tweet. On June 17th, GOP Congressman Pete Hoekstra compared the life and death struggle of Iranians trying to get their message out via Twitter to the Republican Party’s tussle with Democrats. (See quote above.) The Twitterati began satirizing Hoekstra’s tweet (see lulz below).

And that’s how the Hoekstra meme was born.

As of the moment of my typing this post, there are three pages of fun. Make good use of the older and newer entries buttons at the bottom of each page.

One more reason Cranky Cindy is grateful that she cooks from scratch

2009-05-18T09:39:00.004-04:00

Food companies put the onus for food safety on consumers. New York Times article. (Michael Moss 5/14/09) By writing specific directions on packaged foods, businesses hope to shift the responsibility for contamination from the company to the consumer.

"In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show."

Photo :Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
"Banquet pot pies sickened thousands with salmonella in 2007. The corporate parent, ConAgra Foods, and others have decided to leave the “kill step” to eliminate pathogens up to the consumer’s cooking at home."

Interesting that this article is located in the Business section, and not, say, health.

I cook from scratch because I'm a good cook, not because I choose to permit business to shift responsibility for knowing where the ingredients come from, and how they are tested and processed to me!

The problem though, is that contamination is not simply in prepared foods, so maybe my crowing prideful sanctimoniousness is premature.

The recalls of Peanut Butter a while back and White Pepper last month leave me in a quandary. And as a from-scratch cook, (with prideful expertise in chicken with peanut sauce) should I install a lab in my basement?

One cost of high energy

2009-05-02T07:39:00.007-04:00

Mountain Top coal removal is rarely seen. You don't really see it while driving, airplanes fly over too high to see. Once in a while we hear a story about slurry leaching down toward a town or an elementary school,

...Harriman, Tennessee, where millions of yards of coal sludge broke through a dike at TVA’s Kingston coal-fired plant at 1:00 in the morning just two days before Christmas.

Hundr eds of acres have been destroyed, covered in the toxic sludge and at least two of the more than 12 homes in the sludge’s 400-acre path are now deemed inhabitable.

or this photo (opens larger in new window)

"In Raleigh County, West Virginia, about 45 miles from Charleston, just over 200 students attend Marsh Fork Elementary School. Though small, Marsh Fork is important to the folks in the Coal River Valley, and not just because it's the only school in the county with high enough enrollment to remain open. No, the fate of Marsh Fork matters more because it represents all the special interests and politics that have come to define life in the shadows of Big Coal.

Not 300 feet away from where children learn and play nine months a year sits a leaking, 385-feet tall coal refuse dam with a nearly 3-billion gallon capacity. Never mind the coal dust that has been found in the school. Never mind the drinking-water contamination that has been reported. If this dam breaks, it will destroy everyone and everything within 30 miles. So why are 200-plus children still making the trip to school every day despite the constant threat of illness and even death?

Because they have nowhere else to go."

but really, except for these occasional references in popular news, you have to choose to look.

So look at the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition site here. Click on the photos for amazing high resolution photographs. Then take a stroll through the website.

Or look through SourceWatch. This will be useful if you're a person who thinks I blow things out of proportion.

The Obama EPA is cracking down. Support them from the pushback from the Coal industry.

Clean Coal ought to start where the coal starts, not just how we burn it.

Way to Go Iowa!

2009-04-03T11:14:00.000-04:00

Not Cranky Today!

Our responsibility, however, is to protect constitutional rights of individuals from legislative enactments that have denied those rights, even when the rights have not yet been broadly accepted, were at one time unimagined, or challenge a deeply ingrained practice or law viewed to be impervious to the passage of time." The Iowa Supreme Court.

Why some people should not drink at the staff Holiday Party

2008-11-23T08:34:00.004-05:00

A Cartoon.
originally posted here.

No Commentary Needed.

Except to point out that this is funny, but not a personal statement of any kind.
I happen to adore my boss, and working conditions here could be improved upon, but are far from frightful.

Alternative text provided for accessibility:
A drunk man standing on the punch table up sings:
"Well conditions at work are frightful,
and the boss is not delightful,
and someday we'll all be let go,
this job blows,
this job blows,
this job blows."

Caption:
Harvey's bitter, drunken version of "Let it Snow"
brought down the house at what turned out to be
his last Christmas Party.

Friends don't let Friends give socks to terrorists

2008-11-12T09:01:00.002-05:00

Nat Hentoff reports A Brooklyn College Grad Experiences the Constitution in a Cage.

For the past year, a 28-year-old Muslim American student, Sayed Fahad Hashmi—the first person extradited to the United States from Britain to face charges of terrorism—has been held at the Manhattan Correctional Center under conditions of confinement that are the very definition of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishment."

He has not been charged with being a member of Al Qaeda or for providing any money or resources to any terrorist. He is here—for a trial months away in 2009—for letting a former acquaintance, Junaid Babar, stay for a couple of weeks in his London apartment, where Babar stored several ponchos, raincoats, and waterproof socks in a suitcase.

A week ago, I was having a proud to be an American moment. But there is so much work to be done. The conditions under which he is being held, this American citizen? This is keeping me safe?

On a 23-hour solitary-confinement lockdown, Hashmi, was not allowed family visits for months. Now, he can see one person for an hour and a half, but only every other week. He is permitted to write only one letter a week to a single member of his family, but he cannot use more than three pieces of paper per letter. (I would be grateful, Mr. Mukasey, for an explanation of how these restrictions serve our security needs.) Mr. Hashmi is forbidden any contact—directly or through his attorneys—with the news media. He can read newspapers, but only those portions approved by his jailers—and not until 30 days after publication. And he is absolutely forbidden to listen to news radio stations or to watch television news channels.

You will not be surprised to learn that he is under 24-hour electronic monitoring and is forbidden to communicate with any of the other inmates. However, a merciful Justice Department allows him one hour of recreation every day—inside a cage.

There is nothing I can say to comment upon this that the facts themselves don't say.
Go read the whole article.

If only I had stock in Cafe Press

2008-10-04T09:24:00.005-04:00

The Sarah Palin Debate Flow Chart is available on products from buttons to messenger bags. I'm sitting here wondering what I'll break down and buy.

I stayed up half the night and yelled at the tv with family and facebooked with friends and then went to sleep. These guys stayed up all night and made money.

Palin-Biden debate drinking games

2008-10-02T12:20:00.005-04:00

I went a'googlin' for drinkin' games, and lookey here, Josh Nelson over at The Huffington Post has compiled them for me.

You can go there for the whole thing, but I could choose from this brief selection:

When Palin claims she said "Thanks but no thanks" to the Bridge to Nowhere: Demand a new drink from your hosts, say "thanks but no thanks," and then when no one's looking, take it anyway, then claim you never wanted it. (Via) (from MIT)

Every time Palin mentions a Moose or says something so stupid you think she might be less intelligent than one: drink a Moosehead beer.

Everytime Biden mentions a foreign leader he has met: sip wine -- every time he mentions a Senator as a friend: drink beer.

Every time Palin fidgets and twists her fingers, switch drinks with the person next to you.

Every time Palin mentions Wasilla drink a shot of Jager and howl at the wolves.

(If you go to the original page, you'll find more ideas, and many embedded links)

But since I'm just too old to drink like that, more likely I'll simply add tequila to my margarita for every answer squeezed in that she missed with Katie Couric last week. She said she'd get back to ya on that, so I'm going to drink when she does.

Smithsonian Magazine on Why Iran is so Ticked off

2008-09-28T06:39:00.006-04:00

I hate when I forget the history I swear I'll learn from. I'd forgotten that in 1953, the US overthrew Iran's democratic govt (whose Prime Minister was Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1951) and installed the Shah. I had remembered that we backed the Shah, but had forgotten that we went and actually did the imperialist intervention thing to establish him.

Stephen Kinzer's excellent article, Inside Iran's Fury, is available online.

About the Iran hostage Crisis, he writes

Bruce Laingen, a career diplomat who was chief of the U.S. embassy staff, was the highest-ranking hostage. One day, after Laingen had spent more than a year as a hostage, one of his captors visited him in his solitary cell. Laingen exploded in rage, shouting at his jailer that this hostage-taking was immoral, illegal and "totally wrong." The jailer waited for him to finish, then replied without sympathy.

"You have nothing to complain about," he told Laingen. "The United States took our whole country hostage in 1953."

Understanding what hundreds of years of foreign intervention will do to the cultural and political outlook of a people (as say, First Nation peoples in North America, or African American descendants of 400 years of slavery) is important in terms of understanding the political context of a country in this fraught region.

And understanding how our CIA overthrew a[nother] government because their policies were first and foremost in the interest of their own people and not ours... that's a patriotic duty. The good and the bad people, the good and the bad.

Working Class Warrior or Liberal Elite ?

2008-09-27T18:37:00.005-04:00

I took the How to Win a Fight with a Conservative Quiz, and with one answer change, got two different identities.

I had a terrible time deciding who to place in my naked pyramid, (in fact, wanted an opt-out so as to put no one into a naked pyramid) so I tried it both ways:

Turns out that it doesn't take much to change me from my working/middle class anti-corporate greed roots into an intellectual elite.

Putting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld into a naked pyramid made me a Working Class Warrior.

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Putting Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh in the pyramid is all it took to make me into a Reality Based Intellectualist

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Truth is, I'm a farm girl that went and got edumakated. Which kind of makes me a Working Class Warrior Liberal Elite.

Funny how quizzes never have a category for that.

Nod to Ms. Kitty and Rev. Sean.

While you were watching the Other Hand

2008-09-26T06:57:00.004-04:00

The House just passed the $630 Billion Omnibus bill. The Bank Bail out makes great press, as does John McCain's "suspending the campaign."
Meantime, as if they're powerless, the House Dems have passed a bill that contains
$488 Billion for the Pentagon
$30 Billion for Homeland Security
But not the increase in food stamps, extension of unemployment insurance, or Medicaid support they wanted.
Thank god there's an increase in funding for Veterans' Health programs, but here's a surprise to me, a 25-Billion dollar bail out (low interest loan) of the US Auto manufacturers. hmmm...

Thanks to ohmygov.com

and mom.

David Letterman on "suspending the campaign"

2008-09-25T07:06:00.003-04:00

I haven't seen Letterman go on and on like this in a long time.

"You don't suspend your campaign, you have the vice president run it... are we suspending it b/c there's an economic crisis, or are we suspending it because his poll numbers are dropping......someone's been putting something in his Metamucil... you don't suspend the campaign, you put in your second string quarter back. Where's Sarah Palin? ...The Economy in Alaska is fine.

and best of all, 7 minutes in he does a lovely bit about how McCain couldn't be on Letterman because he was racing back to Washington, but then cuts live to the Evening News studio where he is doing an interview with Catie Couric.

or link directly

Sarah Palin - even talking about her is sexist

2008-09-05T18:02:00.002-04:00

Why watch real news when there's Jon Stewart? He masters another moment of letting people speak for themselves...again and again and Oh My Goodness, it's quite lovely. Watch Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Dick Morris, Nancy Pfotenhauer.

Reasons to love Jimmy Carter #46587b

2008-09-01T21:14:00.002-04:00

You may have forgotten, but Carter put solar panels on the white house in 1979, and offered tax credits to Americans who did the same.

Reason # 5,947,356 to be mad at Ronald Reagon -- he took them down and terminated the tax credits.

Carter's goal was to have 20% of the nations energy supplied by renewable sources by the end of the 20th century.

Today it is the same as it was in 1979 -- %6

Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee introduce Sarah Palin

2008-08-30T17:48:00.003-04:00

Right here...

Keep watching for the excellent moment of letting FOX commentators speak for themselves.

Just a heads up, Samantha Bee goes a bit over the top... even for me.

Really really bad judgement

2008-08-30T13:18:00.004-04:00

See the party boat.

See students drink.

Drink, Students, Drink.

Vodka or beer?

Both please.

They can drink because everyone on board is over 21.

Drink more students, drink more.

(wait, excuse me a minute....

What?

Not all students?

A... what was that? A President?

Oh, that guy my age is Robert Paxton, President of their community college?

Oh.)

Hold the keg Mr. President.

Drink, Students, Drink.

Resign, Mr. President, resign.

Why might he think this wasn't a bad idea? Maybe because no one has ever put the brakes on his behavior before. According to Clark Kauffman at the Des Moines Register,

In 2002, Paxton was indicted on charges of felonious misconduct in office, falsification of public records and tampering with public records. The charges grew out of an investigation into student athletes being awarded false grades.

Three of Paxton’s colleagues at Iowa Central eventually pleaded guilty to charges they tampered with student records to benefit the athletes and to deceive others. All three men retained their jobs at the school. The charges against Paxton were deferred under an agreement in which he accepted responsibility for the transcript fraud.

I guess if you get to keep your job after being responsible for tampering with student records, it might not occur to you that partying with students is a bad idea.

My favorite bit: he gets paid $400,000 for resigning.

PolitiFact : checking on political accusations

2008-08-26T19:02:00.002-04:00

The Truth-O-Meter is great!

Even better than truthiness, they do fact-checking.

Constantly updated, for instance, when it became clear that John McCain has 8, (not 7) houses, they fixed it immediately.

When is Fasting and Prayer like Mind Control?

2008-06-29T15:43:00.001-04:00

When it happens in DC, in August, for 12 straight hours, in likely 90+ degree heat and has silence rather than speech as an expectation of participants.
Mind Control = Creating circumstances within which one person can modify perception and cognition of another. It's not rocket science - it's social psychology.

The Call : A Fast, not a Festival August 16, 2008, Chief organizer, Lou Engle.

It is not enough that Jesus died. Someone must apply the blood of Jesus to the national sin of USA.
~ Lou Engle, from The doctrine of the Shedding of Innocent Blood(this is a .pdf).

First, who is Lou Engle? You think you've never heard of him, but you did if you saw "Jesus Camp" He is the man who showed plastic fetuses to young children and reminded them that 1/3 of their potential friends had been aborted. He prayed while the children chanted, "Righteous Judges, Righteous Judges."

We are preparing for some 500,000 people, but really there's no way of knowing beforehand.

Can you imagine though if 500,000 people gathered on the National Mall, not in irritated protest against a man or his policies, but in abandoned worship and prayer - coming before the Lord, in a Joel 2 Solemn Assembly where united in fasting and prayer, generations turn to seek the Lord? Can you see the largest silent siege - as seas of people in solemn silent prayer with red LIFE tape across their mouths turn to face the supreme court and pray to the Maker of Heaven and Earth to "...end abortion and send revival to America?" and establish righteous judges?

What might this LIFE tape look like at a rally of fasting and prayer?

Faith Development is the natural unfolding of one's mind toward trust and commitment. There are natural stages of this, and concrete ways to help people to explore in developmentally appropriate ways.

The opposite of Faith Development is Mind Control -- dishonest and manipulative influence over what people believe.

How do you exert, not honest, appropriate influence, but manipulative influence to the point of control, over what people believe?
BITE
Control over Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotions. (Hassan)

What might this look like?
~Control the environment and limit information and ideas -- social environment and physical environment.
~Cast the world as binary - 1 and 0, yes or no, on or off. Don't allow for questioning, or context or complexity.
~Be sure you have absolute truth and repeat it again and again.
~Use language that is so loaded that everyone accepts the meaning of the word, and the surrounding ideas.
~Manipulate and induce blank-mind states - trance like states of openness -- through prayer, chanting, repetitive singing, etc.
~Keep them tired, fill up their awake time with material controlled by the group leader.
~Create emotional highs and lows and use those emotional states to induce thinking that the leader wants.

If you want to control someone's mind, control their behavior, limit their freedoms (of movement, speech, self-care), and keep them hungry and tired.

I've been to Marches on Washington. Hot, sweaty, thirsty, hungry and tired from a bzillion hour bus ride, but I am expected to participate, to march, to move my body and interact with people, to eat and drink, and listen to different speakers, some of whom don't' agree on everything and we all agree to disagree that day b/c the focus of the march is primary.
And we holler. And hoot. and whistle. And did I say, eat?

We sometimes take UU youth to events, overnight trips/lock-ins, or camps - and we support them while they examine and ponder and talk and worship and eat and drink. We feed and water them, we keep them safe, we engage them in dialogue, and we strongly encourage sleeping and other forms of self-care.

What happens if young people stand silently in the sun without eating for 12 hours?
They think this is what will happen:

TheCall does not seek to entertain, but to encounter God. Unlike other mass gatherings which attract people through the rhythms of loud music, the glamour of flashing lights, or through the appeal of charismatic personalities, TheCall is a gathering centered around the affections of a loving God. There will be no advertised bands and no promoted speakers, as our purpose is not to promote any man or ministry.

TheCall is a FAST not a festival. TheCall is a SOLEMN ASSEMBLY not a conference.
Whereas conferences focus primarily on training and discipleship, the 12 hours of TheCall are spent primarily before the Lord in the place of prayer and worship. ...
PEOPLE SHOULD PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER FASTING ON THE DAY OF THECALL
Those who fast should do so under the supervision of parents and doctors and by the leading of the Holy Spirit. A person could fast just one meal or drink only juice for the day. Water will be provided by The Call organization; however, food will not be available because this is a solemn assembly to pray and fast for revival. (bold emphasis mine)

I think that this prayer and fasting in the sun is just plain wrong. Their belief system aside (and don't get me started) I think this is coercive at best, abusive at worst.

An intervention is called for. This is what I would do if I weren't' in a pulpit the next day 650 miles away. Maybe you might choose to do it my stead.

Go to the rally.
Pass out juice and crackers/cookies/fruit.
Tell people the food is free, like speech, and you hope they will ask questions instead of agreeing to silence.
Don't argue, feed and walk away.

Jesus fed the 5000. No reason we couldn't as well.

Turn your face away from GA just for a minute

2008-06-27T17:40:00.004-04:00

and watch Stephen Colbert interview Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, on Gay Marriage. He's plugging his book, Personal Faith, Public Policy. This clip was from May 27, but you can never wait too long to watch Stephen smoothly "agree" with his right wing guests.

According to the FRC website, the authors

argue that the religious Right is not falling apart; rather it is growing, expanding, and being rejuvenated.

"What our critics see as 'splintering' is actually the growing pains that precede a healthy expansion," write Jackson and Perkins. "The movement is adapting to the changing political environment and broadening its ranks while holding firmly to the principles that have united us thus far."

Jackson and Perkins write that the religious Right has experienced significant growth in recent years, becoming more diverse in a number of important ways, from race to age to political affiliation; however, they conclude that unifying these coalitions has been and will continue to be a challenge to the religious Right.

I wonder why they capitalized Right, but not religious in those paragraphs.
Perhaps being Right is more important than being religious?

naw, probably just an intern.

Best Zinger all year

2008-06-15T08:07:00.004-04:00

Departing from the cranky news, I thot I'd share a story wherein I'm not the cranky one.

My best friends used to own a small store during the 90's and into this century. I helped out and supported them and watched them through good and lean times, I got a discount on nifty items, and contributed my New Years' Days to inventory and carpet cleaning. Eventually, they sold the store. I have a huge soft spot in my heart for this store, and feel a lingering connection to it.

The new owner rearranged, and like when a therapist gets a new office, or the minister redecorates after a decade, the changes just felt wrong for the longest time. But after a few years I'd gotten used to the changes, and the store continued to have a special place in my heart.

I was there yesterday, asked the owner how he was, and he told me that he is selling and has a couple of prospective buyers. Awww.... damn. It seemed wrong again, just after I had gotten used to him and his way of doing things, just after I had gotten used to paying retail price for everything.

I said, the way I would were we say, actual friends, "So are you getting out with some money, or just your shirt?"

He didn't miss a beat and with no affect whatsoever said, "I am happy to talk in detail about that with any prospective buyers."

Bam, Zing, Set that boundary I'd crossed. It was excellent, and I laughed with appreciation.

He didn't.

I wonder if it is similar to how people come in and out of congregations, and have an emotional relationship to the congregation as a place, or as an idea, and come back after time away and are surprised that they can't just jump in where they left off.

Helen Thomas is my Hero

2008-05-11T19:07:00.005-04:00

You may have missed this photo. It seems only the Washington Post published it, then got grief about it. The government... that is to say... our U.S. Government, has been pulling out all stops to keep us regular American citizens from seeing the consequences of the war in Iraq.

The Washington Post published this photo, of 2 year old Ali Hussein, being removed from rubble left by a US Airstrike. He later died.The photo is hosted at washingtonpost.com and was taken by Karim Kadim, Associated Press Photo. (He also was part of the AP pool who won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. Those photos can be accessed here.)

Some people complained that this was published in the newspaper.

Helen Thomas responds in her column, A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Howell [Post ombudsman] said some readers felt the photo of the Iraqi boy was “an anti-war statement; some thought it was in poor taste.”

Helen Thomas' response?

Well, so is war.

...

Howell said her boss, Executive Editor Len Downie, “is cautious about such photos.”
“We have seldom been able to show the human impact of the fighting on Iraqis,” Downie was quoted as saying. “We decided this was a rare instance in which we had a powerful image with which to do so.”

It’s unclear to me why this was deemed to be “rare.” After five years of war, there is finally one photo that is supposed to say it all?

Please go read her piece. I hope that when I am her age (39?) I'll have as much ... everything.... that she has.

"The Contents don't squirt... (moved from happycindy)

2008-05-03T08:24:00.004-04:00

Hmmm, odd that this clip about the perfection of a BANANA proving God's creation didn't make it into Expelled - No Intelligence Involved.

Bad, Bad, Happy Cindy. This is another "Mom, It's not my fault, I didn't do it, I just found it!" clip from the wacky world of media and cultural critics who don't pay enough attention to their own media.

Below are Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort in a clip from The Way of The Master (this is a longer clip).

There's more subtext here than in a Jr. High Locker Room.

How did they not know that this was a Bad Bad idea?
and how did Happy Cindy not know it was a Bad Bad idea to post this over there?????

People believe strange and surprising things. Why would Rev. Wright be different?

2008-05-01T16:09:00.008-04:00

According to Gallup, 6% of Americans believe that the Apollo Moon Landing was a hoax. Another 5% aren't sure.

A CNN/TIME poll shows that 80% of Americans think that the US Government is hiding the fact that it has knowledge of alien life.

Sixty-four percent of the respondents said that aliens have contacted humans, half said they've abducted humans, and 37 percent said they have contacted the U.S. government.

Huge numbers of Americans believe that UFO's are coming to earth and kidnapping humans.

Scientologists believe that L. Ron Hubbard's body is on a planet galaxies away from here, and that Xenu, head of the Galactic confederacy, was responsible for bringing billions of frozen humans to earth 75 million years ago.

16 % of the American people believe that the Collapse of the World Trade Centers was primarily accomplished by an intentional, controlled demolition, likely by the US Government.

49% of New York residents believed (in a poll in 2004) that the US Government knew ahead of time of the attack on the Twin Towers.
Over the years, 36-49% of Americans polled by Newsweek have believed that Sadaam Hussein was behind the attacks.

Scripps Howard found (Nov 23, 2007) that of 811 US adults,
42% think it likely or very likely that people in the US govt knew ahead of time about the assassination of JFK,
37% thought it likely or very likely that some people in the US Govt have proof of alien/UFO life.

Where people believe that UFOs are kidnapping humans, we know that Africans were kidnapped.
So it fascinates me that it surprises anyone that a leader in the African American community-- a community that has a collective history that includes, yes, kidnapping, slavery, lynching, murder, rape, exclusion and discrimination, less than average educational opportunity and greater than average incarceration rate, and medical experimentation without consent -- why is it surprising that this man might believe that the US Government introduced HIV to that community?

For goodness sake people. I don't have to believe this myself to understand how someone could! Frankly, I think it's more likely to be true than alien abduction, or ghosts or that Xenu planted humans in volcanoes 75 million years ago. No, change that. More likely to be true than alien abduction or Xenu, but less likely than the existence of ghosts.

This is not a fringe belief in our country, to be scoffed at by others, including Mr. Obama, but a belief we must acknowledge and grapple with what it means that, in fact, "A 2005 Rand Corp. survey found...that 15% of African Americans consider AIDS "a form of genocide against African Americans, and nearly 27% agreed that "AIDS was produced in a government laboratory." (Rosa Brooks, LA Times, Today)

This belief, unlike beliefs about UFO's or who killed JKF or MLK, this belief is one which contributes to killing people. A lack of realistic scientific understanding of the etiology and transmission of this disease is killing people. These kinds of beliefs can lead people to dismiss the basic behaviors they need to do to keep from getting HIV -- the use of barrier protection/condoms for all sexual activity. This kind of belief keeps people from going to the Dr early enough after infection to make appropriate use of the medication regimes available.

And this kind of belief, unlike aliens and their magic spaceships, can make people lose focus on their own bodies and health and prevention, and make them turn their heads and Look Over There at the Big Bad Government rather than thinking carefully about their next step with the hot guy next door who wants them.

(and just for fun, here's my favorite hot guy)

We know that Pres. Reagan tied the hands of his Surgeon General for five years.

Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan's surgeon general, has said that because of "intradepartmental politics" he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan administration. The reason, he explained, was "because transmission of AIDS was understood to be primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs." The president's advisers, Koop said, "took the stand, 'They are only getting what they justly deserve."

So, what is the distance between knowledge of apathy and inaction to belief that some people in the govt caused AIDS? A couple of inches? A Mile? Is it so hard to believe that some people might believe this? I think these are incredibly important questions. And Obama needs to take a speech and talk about HIV/AIDS again. Here (reprinted) is his HIV/AIDS Plan (I'd call it an overview more than a plan) the original pdf. is here. He can't just say that Wright is wrong, he needs to take a positive stand about this disease, and how it is ravaging people here in the US and around the world, needlessly, because people aren't protecting themselves.

What Rev. Wright said two days ago at the National Press Club: (whole transcript here) It was a good speech overall.

MODERATOR: In your sermon, you said the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. So I ask you: Do you honestly believe your statement and those words?

WRIGHT: Have you read Horowitz's book, "Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola," whoever wrote that question? Have you read "Medical Apartheid"? You've read it?

(UNKNOWN): Do you honestly believe that (OFF-MIKE)

WRIGHT: Oh, are you -- is that one of the reporters?

MODERATOR: No questions...

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: No questions from the floor. I read different things. As I said to my members, if you haven't read things, then you can't -- based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything.

In fact, in fact, in fact, one of the -- one of the responses to what Saddam Hussein had in terms of biological warfare was a non- question, because all we had to do was check the sales records. We sold him those biological weapons that he was using against his own people.

So any time a government can put together biological warfare to kill people, and then get angry when those people use what we sold them, yes, I believe we are capable.

This cell phone stuff has gone too far

2008-04-14T21:38:00.003-04:00

Cranky Nephew, who resides with Cranky Cindy, didn't feel good yesterday.

I got home from church at about 2, changed clothes, then knocked on his door to remind him that he was supposed to be at McDonald's at 3:30.

I thought he said, "Uhhhh" but it was hard to hear him. He low-talks when he's sleepy, but he hears everything (ask me some time about the argument he overheard between me and Cranky Spouse.)

I walked away and made lunch.

I ate my lunch.

I watched the end of a Die Hard Movie, a panacea after a long hard day at work where I'm terminally happy cindy to people who are, (just occasionally,) shall we say, um, overly assertive in my general direction.

An hour later, the phone rang. Caller ID identified it as him.

I sat up straight and said "Hello?"

"Hellooowww wwoowwooph." Cranky Nephew said.

"Where are you?" I demanded, fighting the intrusive traumatic pictures in my brain, imagining that perhaps I'd been wrong, that he wasn't in his room, that he was out all night, not safely ensconced in his bed, and I needed to go find him somewhere. My pulse raced.

"In my room."

In. His. Room.

Calmly, very calmly... deep breath first ...

"Why are you calling me from your room?"

"I can't move." My limbic system re-fires. "Everything hurts."

"What hurts?" What if he can't, actually, move?

"Everything! -- My back, my neck, my ribs, my thighs, my arms. Practically even my fingernails."

And there it was. Even the fingernails.

Calm, breathe, yelling doesn't work. As I realize that I've been tricked into talking on the phone with a young man in the next room, who Can So Move.

"I'm hanging up the phone now. You need to open your door so we can talk like actual human beings because you are going to be late for work."

Well, you don't need the details, suffice it to say he learned the hard way what happens to one's body when one throws oneself head first (literally) into a 2 hour Kung Fu class. when they say stretch first, they really mean it.

The calling from the cell phone? It seemed to him a perfectly reasonable thing.

So tell me, dear readers, do your children (or other young people in residence) do this to you?

And if so, do you tolerate it, take it as an indication that we are, in fact, old, and/or do you make them hang up and drag their sorry behinds out into the real world where there are real people to bother and tell them they smell bad?

Or worse, are you one of those younger people with cell phone strapped to hip like Annie Oakley's gun, pulling it out and shooting off a text to people during meetings and phoning people in the same house? And if so would you please explain it to me?

Jack Kevorkian for Congress

2008-03-24T20:27:00.004-04:00

Honest to God, he's running.

There is no better commentary on this than the time that Michael Moore spent with Dr. Kevorkian on TV Nation in 1994.

A Day with Dr. Death

Cindy Goes to a Party - 1955

2008-03-17T17:47:00.002-04:00

[deep sigh.]

Cindy, a tomboy unsure of her social status, dreams of a party where her fairy godmother gives her etiquette lessons, and wakes up to receive her very own invitation.

Just this very weekend I had an extended conversation with a group of people about the complex and wondrous diversity of the interplay of biological sex, gender identity, gender roles and sexual orientation.

One of the participants sent me the link to this video. Alas, if only I had a fairy godmother when I was a child, with my short hair and jeans and an untucked boys' shirt, I too could have been blinked into a frilly dress, and learned how to Obey the Rules of The Game.

My favorite line:

You can't see or hear fairies unless you need them.

of course, you could try looking here...

What prompted yesterday's post about racist opposition to Barack Obama

2008-03-04T07:26:00.012-05:00

In all my flurry to get out yesterday's post taking apart some of the racist opposition to Barack Obama, I neglected to nod over to smijer over at tete-a-tete-tete where he posted a link to an email that's making the rounds. That's what prompted my post, and I'm copying it here in case you missed it, (and to strip out the email addresses, which makes it easier to "see" the message and not put people's email addresses out there.)

Subj: Fw: NEXT FIRST FAMILY Say "HI BRO" to the next First Family?

Barack stands behind Kezia (stepmother) in a Kenyan family shot.
(Including brother Abongo "Roy" Obama who is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must "liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture."
"Abongo's new lifestyle has left him lean and clear-eyed, and at the wedding, he looked so dignified in his black African gown, with white trim, and matching cap, that some of our guests mistook him for my father," Obama wrote in Dreams From My Father.

(in the original, you have to page down past a couple of hundred email addresses to get to the rest of the email.~cranky)

Source Associated Press
Senator John McCain and his wife, Cindy, in a
1999 family photograph with, from left,
Meghan, Bridget, Jimmy and Jack.
Source
Source

and that's it. That's the visual email.

Any Questions?

The Racist Opposition to Barack Obama

2008-03-03T14:33:00.008-05:00

Sigh. I'm tired of this, and it's only getting started. And I can't imagine how he and his family stand it.
Let's look at all of the mud being slung, shall we? Much of it comes in emails, but some through video. (Following is lots of embedded video and pictures - watch your bandwidth and download time).

1. His childhood attendance in elementary school in Indonesia
2. Senator Obama - the Flag and the Qur'an
3. His church affiliation - Afrocentric Christianity in a Mainline Denomination
4. Thinly veiled - or not so thinly veiled - racist images of Senator Obama
5. His African relatives

1. He did not attend a Radical Islamic School. This is old, but showed up in my in-box as recently as a month ago. Insight Magazine ("In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a Madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim.") and FOX news liked to claim that Barack Obama attended a Madrassa in Indonesia. CNN and the AP debunked this, though the emails continue to fly. Snopes page here.

2. Obama does so salute the Flag, and he did not take the congressional swearing in ceremony on a Qur'an. All kinds of photographic evidence here. Obama says

"My grandfather taught me when I was 2.
During the Pledge of Allegiance, you put your hand over your heart.
During the national anthem, you sing."
Keith Ellison, of Minnesota, is a practicing Muslim, and used the Qur'an for photos after the swearing in.
It's only a teeny tiny itsy bitsy teeny weeny bit racist to not be able to tell them apart.

3 His church affiliation

In October 2007, Politico.com reported that

a CBS News poll in August found that, in response to an open-ended question about Obama’s faith, 7 percent of Americans identified him as a Muslim — more than any other response. The right answer, Protestant, was second at 6 percent. (Most didn’t know or wouldn’t say.)

(see also a longer article at the Washington Post.)

He is a member of the UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST denomination, in an Afrocentric Congregation, Trinity UCC. It is a Mainline Denomination, and his views, particularly on salvation, are progressive.

Mission Statement: What Trinity Is About

Trinity United Church of Christ has been called by God to be a congregation that is not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that does not apologize for its African roots! As a congregation of baptized believers, we are called to be agents of liberation not only for the oppressed, but for all of God’s family. We, as a church family, acknowledge, that we will, building on this affirmation of "who we are" and "whose we are," call men, women, boys and girls to the liberating love of Jesus Christ, inviting them to become a part of the church universal, responding to Jesus’ command that we go into all the world and make disciples!

We are called out to be "a chosen people" that pays no attention to socio-economic or educational backgrounds. We are made up of the highly educated and the uneducated. Our congregation is a combination of the haves and the have-nots; the economically disadvantaged, the under-class, the unemployed and the employable.

The fortunate who are among us combine forces with the less fortunate to become agents of change for God who is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!

W.E.B. DuBois indicated that the problem in the 20th century was going to be the problem of the color line. He was absolutely correct. Our job as servants of God is to address that problem and eradicate it in the name of Him who came for the whole world by calling all men, women, boys and girls to Christ.

An article that covers most of the material in the following inflammatory videos, should you prefer to read, can be found here.

Right Now America Needs to Take Notice: Change we Cannot Believe In.

Here is a brief clip by one of the "wiggers" mentioned in the above video by JTF:

A great article on Senator Obama's Faith Journey is here.
Excerpt:

So, I have a deep faith," Obama continues. "I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.
"That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived."

Obama on Farrakhan (to whom the above video alleges he is connected, via his Pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ) (By this logic, I am actually a world class fencer):

“I have been very clear in my denunciation” of Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitic remarks, Obama said at the Democratic debate in Cleveland, “I did not solicit his support.” Obama said he “can not censor” individual endorsements but said there is no affiliation with his campaign and Farrakhan. “I can’t say to somebody that he can’t say that he thinks I’m a good guy,” Obama said, citing his support among Jewish Americans and stating that he would make it a priority to soothe historically tense ties between the African-American and Jewish communities in the nation. “I have some of the strongest support from the Jewish community in my hometown of Chicago and in this campaign,” he said, describing himself as a “stalwart” on supporting Israel.

4 and 5. Thinly veiled (and not so thinly veiled) racist images and His African Relatives.

Ted Sampley, of Swift Boat Veteran "fame"

When it comes to imagery, choosing to show him with his extended family [of Muslims],

or in [frankly, any type of] traditional garb

is so much more useful in feeding the basest fears of white Americans.

Why don't people use images of his relatives who are identified as white people? Because that wouldn't be seen as damaging.

LOOK OUT! THESE ARE DANGEROUS GRANDPARENTS!

nope, doesn't work.

This photo doesn't work, he looks too... too...

American. You can tell by how tired his kids look.

The caption reads: Sen. Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, daughters and niece watching dancers at CARE/OBAMA project. Obama donated $14,000 to help fund a program assisting grandmothers raising grandchildren who are AIDS orphans. (Lynn Sweet/Sun-Times)
Yea, not so fear inducing.

Oh I have an idea! Someone could use this photo which provides solid evidence that he's part of the African Straw Hat Brigade, out to destroy the American Straw Industry!

Lastly, the claim that he is close, friendly, and by implication, in kahoots (yes, kahoots, a really white people word) with Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga is mixed.

Obama is a supporter of Kenyan Muslim Raila Odinga, who recently lost in that country’s election, and who wants to institute Islamic Sharia law as the law of that land. Raila claims to be Obama’s first cousin.

This one pops up many places, but this particular quote is pulled from Jews Against Obama at JTF.org.

Well, the man claims to be Barack Obama's cousin, tho' it's not clear if he is. Odinga is a member of the same Luo tribe as Obama. And, as of 1994, the number of Luo was 3,185,000l so there's some latitude there in the DNA pool.

More notably, imho, Odinga's an Anglican, not Muslim, and of "ambivalent religious conviction." There was what appears to be a smear against him, designed to alienate Evangelical Christian voters in Kenya.

www.wikileaks.org does a lovely job pulling that one apart.

And when he introduced himself to the nation in his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote speech, Obama said he was

"grateful for the diversity of my heritage."

"I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth is my story even possible."

But in this country it's damn hard to tell the story at all.

There is a follow-up to this post, really a prequel, about the anti-Obama email that prompted the above.
Subj: Fw: NEXT FIRST FAMILY Say "HI BRO" to the next First Family?

"We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth"

2008-03-03T09:31:00.003-05:00

War Made Easy -- The Use of Propaganda to Sell War.

Sometimes it's difficult to decide where to post -- I could post this on HappyCindy b/c it's a great educational program, or here because propaganda makes me Cranky.
I flipped a coin...

The Institute for Public Accuracy, partially funded by the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, has produced this great video on propaganda has been used to sell wars. Featuring Norman Solomon and narrated by Sean Penn.

This documentary is slow and thoughtful, carefully laying out ideas with lots of supportive footage from wars, press conferences, and clips of all US Presidents and news stations, lots of reporters, looks at the news media as partners with Capital Hill -- "US officials say..." and failure to look deeper than public statements.
It's 1 hour 10 minutes long.

(Title quote was Sydney Schanberg.)

"The Word of God is Potent. The Word of God is His

2008-03-02T20:54:00.004-05:00

"The Word of God is Potent. The Word of God is His

...sperm."

Seriously.

Bishop Eddie Long, via the Wittenburg Door : can't embed, click this external link.

There's really nothing else to say.

What I didn't know about Testosterone

2008-03-01T12:32:00.002-05:00

could fill a syringe.

This American Life last week was incredible (a repeat from 2002 I've missed all these years.) Everyone should listen to it.

Testosterone.

220: Testosterone

Stories of people getting more testosterone and coming to regret it. And of people losing it and coming to appreciate life without it. The pros and cons of the hormone of desire.

Prologue.
This American Life producer Alex Blumberg explains that he wanted to do this show because of his conflicted relationship with his own testosterone. He tells host Ira Glass that the reasons go back to a girl in his eighth-grade homeroom and the 1970s seminal feminist novel The Women's Room. We also hear from a man who stopped producing testosterone due to a medical treatment and found that his entire personality was altered. (9 minutes)

Act One. Life at Zero.
The interview with a man who lost his testosterone continues. He explains that life without testosterone is life without desire—desire for everything: food, conversation, even TV. And he says life without desire is unexpectedly pleasant. The man first wrote about his experiences, anonymously, in GQ Magazine. (7 minutes)

Act Two. Infinite Gent.
An interview with Griffin Hansbury, who started life as a woman, but began taking massive testosterone injections seven years ago, and now lives as a man. He explains how testosterone changed his views on nature vs. nurture for good. (17 minutes)

Song: "To Sir With Love," Lulu
Act Three. Contest-osterone.
The men and women on staff at This American Life decide to get their testosterone levels tested, to see who has the most and least, and to see if personality traits actually do match up with hormone levels. It turns out to be an exercise that in retrospect, we might not recommend to other close-knit groups of friends or co-workers. (12 minutes)

Song: "What Kind of Man Are You?," Ray Charles

Act Four. Learning to Shut Up.
Novelist Miriam Toews, author of The X Letters (which appeared in an earlier episode of the show), tells the story of a recent road trip she took with her fifteen-year-old son. (11 minutes)

Song: "That's Alright, Mama," Elvis Presley

You've seen Yes. We. Can.

2008-02-27T21:41:00.002-05:00

Aaron Sawyer and uuMomma have brought john.he.is, to your attention [Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran,]

but have you seen NO, YOU CAN'T -- NO SE PUEDE. ?

Funny Funny Stuff.

While I'm at it, I'd like to tip my hat to CC for turning me on to Stuff White People Like.

Thank you for purchasing a weapon from.... warranty questionnaire

2008-02-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

[humor]

ie.
True/False
___If everyone has a weapon in a theater you feel safer
___ Hand held weapons should be smaller and lighter because soldiers are younger ...

How did you become aware of this weapon?
___ heard loud noise
___ weapons fair
___ coupon
___ recommended by friend/ally
___ political lobbying by manufacturer
___ was attacked by one
___ As Seen on TV

External Link that's worth the click through. Once you are at the site, click to enlarge.

Feb 6 the link stopped working so here it is on the home page,
http://www.corpse.org/issue_14/index.html

home page is brown background, this is black letters on white background that takes up the whole third column about half way down the page. [good luck]
Hat tip to mom.

Rachel Maddow is on MSNBC again

2008-02-05T19:09:00.000-05:00

with Pat Buchanan. Holding her own against a man who doesn't understand that the use of a woman's name at the beginning of a question indicates that the interviewer wants her to actually be the person to answer that question.

I'm actually in a RE Committee meeting right now, can you tell?

People who carry Obama signs should not jaywalk

2008-02-05T16:38:00.000-05:00

I'm just saying.

Terrorism breaks my heart again

2008-02-01T18:24:00.000-05:00

Two adult women with mental retardation/Down's Syndrome/mental illness (descriptions vary and their specific challenges are unclear to me) were strapped to bombs and exploded from a safe distance by (theoretically) mentally [st]able terrorists in Baghdad today.

Excuse me a moment while Hope takes a pause to make space for a competing thought:

People suck.

And I will continue my work to make it be otherwise.

The Reign of G-d is among us.
Amen.

(AP continues to publish reports of mental retardation. thanks to h sophia for noting that NPR didn't)

The dumbest thing Hillary has said, ever.

2008-01-29T06:35:00.000-05:00

Unbelievable.

Hillary Clinton said,

"Anybody who committed a crime in this country or in the country they came from has to be deported immediately, with no legal process. They are immediately gone."

This is not a position, it's a sound byte. Even the pure America-For-America anti-immigration wahoos should be able to see through this.

Without a legal process, we won't know for sure that someone actually did commit a crime. Heck, without a legal process, we won't know for sure that someone is actually an illegal immigrant.

And people who committed crimes in their country of origin, say, the crime of opposing a dictator and fighting for democracy? Those anti-Saddam folks a few years ago? Or the Burmese poet Saw Wai for instance, who was arrested last week for writing a love poem with the hidden message "Power crazy Senior General Than Shwe." (military dictator of Myanmar)

Or identity crimes like the crime of driving while female in Saudi Arabia? Or the 77 countries in the world where it is a crime to be Gay?

I guess there's really only one thing to say,

Oh for God's Sake!

(I'd missed this until now. Thanks to Debitage, for not writing on environmentalism quite yet)

GW vs. the Pats vs. Crystal Meth Throwdown

2008-01-28T18:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight at 9 pm EST, I can either watch the worst president in American History* share more bullsh, um, er, misperceptions, or a show about the Patriots and the Business of Winning on CNBC; or Tressa the Olympic athlete crystal meth addict on Intervention and watch an hour long train wreck followed by a 2 minute celebration of sobriety (we hope).

Boy oh boy, how ever will I decide. The pressure is intense.

I may have to read a book.

Oh no, wait, the Karate Kid is on VS. Phew, it'll be ok, I won't have to remember how to read.

Wendy Wright, Pres CWA, Proud of being Olbermann's World's Worst Person

2008-01-21T17:42:00.000-05:00

on Jan 2, 2008. She earned the moniker by stating, (on FOX, quelle surprise,) that advocates for comprehensive sex education benefit when teens contract sexually transmitted infections or become pregnant and have an abortion. Though called out for this morally reprehensible accusation, she repeated it.

Wright told CitizenLink her newest title is actually a positive thing.
“The overwhelming response I am getting from Olbermann’s award is hearty ‘Congratulations!’ ” she said. “More importantly, it has provided a wonderful platform to spotlight the common-sense point that earned me the title, that comprehensive sex ed promoters profit from the ill effects of their products.”

He's had better last words tho'.

Tom Cruise in his own words

2008-01-19T19:22:00.000-05:00

about Scientology on Gawker, which, unlike other media outlets, claims they won't be pressured into taking it down.

But I'd suggest you watch it now before you lose the chance.

When you're a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you're the only one who can really help. We are the authorities on getting people off drugs. We are the authorities on the mind.... We are the way to happiness. We can bring peace and unite cultures. Now is the time. Being a Scientologist. People are turning to you. If you are a Scientologist, you see things the way they are, in all their glory, in all their complexity... It's rough and tumble. It's wild and woolly. It's a blast. It really is. It is fun. Because damn it, there is nothing better than going out there and fighting the fight, and suddenly you see -- boom! -- things are better. I want to know that I've done everything I can do, every day... I do what I can. And I do it the way I do everything.

I don't know which disturbs me more

2008-01-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

The idea of Al Mohler as President of the SBC, or Will Smith as a Scientologist.

According to the New York Daily News (I know, I may as well cite Santa) he gave wrap presents to his crew, consisting of personality tests at their local Scientology center.

Ever wonder that those personality tests consist of, these insightful tools to determine how Scientology can help you?

Operation Clambake has posted it here. It's worth a look.

Albert Mohler - the Southern Baptists - and what ever happened to Molly Marshall?

2008-01-11T00:37:00.000-05:00

Albert Mohler is running for President of the Southern Baptist Convention. It would be another step deeper into fundamentalism (and yes, that is possible) for the Convention if they elect him.

My favorite comment about this thus far is a blogger Kyle McDaniel, a youth pastor and owner of the blog Southern Baptist Convention.

Lousivlle, Ky's "Courier Journal," has weighed in on the news that Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has been nominated and is running to be the next President of the SBC.

This is a pretty good article that includes some great quotes from Dr. Mohler and Dr. Hershael York. Though they include people who oppose his candidacy, it is a pretty good article.

The typos and links are his, the emphasis is mine. We certainly wouldn't want our press to show differing opinions now, would we?

***

You can delve into the ucky-land of Al Mohler directly at his blog and radio show at http://www.albertmohler.com/ or by association by clicking the link in my side bar to the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. (he sits on their governing board).

Or find and watch the documentary Battle for the Minds, which is an incredibly well told story about the earlier days of the political/theological battles within the Southern Baptist Convention, and Al Mohler who was then President of Southern Baptist Seminary, who ousted Dr. Molly Marshall, a woman who was arguably their most brilliant theologian at the time.

Dr. Marshall, after being Professor of Theology, Worship and Spiritual Transformation, is now the President of Central Baptist Seminary affiliated with the American Baptists, and "in full support of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship."

Who are the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship? (golly, seems like there are more kinds of Baptists than there are individual Baptists) The CBF are the moderates who came out of the Southern Baptist Convention after the fundamentalist takeover. They believed that the fundamentalists running the SBC had departed from their Baptist roots and joined with a religio-political fundamentalist authority structure that was in direct opposition to Baptist polity (autonomy of the local church).

Another of Kyle the Youth Pastor's blogs, Theology, addresses Dr. Marshall's "lurch leftward" into the theology supported by Christians for Biblical Equality. Apparently his wife's church, years ago, hadn't noticed her "liberalism and her gender as head of the church."

Maybe more than you wanted to know.

Finally, Dr. Marshall's statement about theological education is one I really like and will reprint here.

I view my vocation as an “equipper of ministers,” a midwife of grace who helps deliver what I discern is struggling to be born in the lives of students. Theological education is a process of discovering and refining calling and gifts—learning where one’s “great gladness meets the world’s deep need,” in the words of Frederick Buechner.

Molly Marshall

Megachurch Vision Statements (You're Not Likely To See)

2008-01-08T08:24:00.000-05:00

The very funny people at the Wittenburg Door have come up with these very funny Vision Statements. (external link, totally worth the click through) See also My Messiah-Matic while you're there.

Fox News - Frank Luntz - unbiased polling NOT!

2008-01-07T18:49:00.000-05:00

1/6/08

Fox News broadcasts an undecided voter in a Frank Luntz focus group.
Curiously enough, he was also an undecided voter last Sept 5 for Frank Luntz and Fox.

oopsy daisy.

This video shows these two "interviews" and a clip from a Penn & Teller piece on how to make data work for you, starring, yes, Frank Luntz.

look out mom, the cursing is still there, but somehow it seems to fit.

A great line-by-line exegesis of a Concerned Women for America Article

2008-01-05T13:03:00.000-05:00

Judge Declares the Declaration of Independence Unconstitutional .
I am delighted someone (else) will take the time to pull apart the ramblings of anti-American theocrats. Particularly those theocrats who have their knickers all bunched up right now for Rev. Huckabee for President.

Concerned Women For America is a right wing organization (and not so many women at all actually) which claims to promote biblical values and family traditions. Their newsletter circulation is 200,000, their membership estimates ('cause they won't say) are between 250,000 and 750,000, and the numerically specific "lots and lots" read their material on the internet.

The LeHayes, founders of CWA, distributed endorsements of Huckabee all over Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, at least in part via the CWA email lists of pastors, saying

“America and our Judeo-Christian heritage are under attack by a force that is more destructive than any America has faced” [since Hitler] “Defeating the radical jihadists will require renewed resolve and spiritual rearmament by the evangelical pastors in America.”

In case you forget how seriously Mike Huckabee takes his theocracy, watch this.

Values Voter Summi t comments are from the Family Research Council's 2007 event.

But I digress. Bay of Fundie has done a wonderful line-by-line exegesis Concerned Women Declare Independance from Brain, of the recent CWA commentary: Judge Declares the Declaration of Independence Unconstitutional.

It is important to know how they think, for "they" are often people in our families and at our jobs (tho' usually not my job,) and seem to be a tremendous percentage of Iowan voters. It's not enough to oppose them and think they're wrong and vote for our favorite progressive alternative, we need to know how to logically dismantle the falsehoods, implications, and just plain bad reasoning in most of their arguments in our day to day lives.

And even if you don't read it, the photo at the top of Fundie's article is worth the link click all by itself.

Best coverage of the Iowa Caucus

2008-01-03T08:50:00.000-05:00

At 8 pm. I will be listening to Air America Radio while reading the MSNBC crawl and watching their graphics.

Air America's coverage will include Rachel Maddow, David Bender, Thom Hartmann, Arianna Huffington, Sam Seder, Ron Reagan, with special guests including Howard Dean and George Stephanopoulos.

But wait, there's more!

My friend Rachel Maddow will simultaneously participate in the Air America live team coverage, and guest spot on MSNBC. How? It's a miracle of technology. When not on MSNBC, which she says want her "on deck" in case they want to use her, she'll be on the phone from the green room, or backstage closet, wherever they put her (probably not a closet, wink wink nudge nudge)

Well, ok, she's not my friend, but she lives just over the hill from me and we drink coffee in the same places and have incredibly similar politics and sensibilities. So if I were, like, a stalker or something, we'd be best friends.

I'm just saying.

White people are prescribed narcotics for pain more than others racial/ethnic groups

2008-01-01T20:32:00.000-05:00

AP via Yahoo News.
"The irony is that blacks are the least likely group to abuse prescription drugs."

Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds. Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.
The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.

"The gaps between whites and nonwhites have not appeared to close at all," said study co-author Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco.

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. Prescribing narcotics for pain in emergency rooms rose during the study, from 23 percent of those complaining of pain in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005.
Even with the increase, the racial gap endured. Linda Simoni-Wastila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Pharmacy said the race gap finding may reveal some doctors' suspicions that minority patients could be drug abusers lying about pain to get narcotics.
The irony, she said, is that blacks are the least likely group to abuse prescription drugs. Hispanics are becoming as likely as whites to abuse prescription opioids and stimulants, according to her research.

In the study,
opioid narcotics were prescribed in
31 percent of the pain-related visits involving whites,
28 percent for Asians,
24 percent for Hispanics
and 23 percent for blacks.
Minorities were slightly more likely than whites to get aspirin, ibuprofen and similar drugs for pain.

In more than 2,000 visits for kidney stones,
whites got narcotics 72 percent of the time,
Hispanics 68 percent,
Asians 67 percent
and blacks 56 percent.

The rest of the AP article on this, sans cranky formatting, but with theories as to the WHY of this, is here.
This is the original.

White people. Can't hardly see 'em half of the time, but they seem to get all the good stuff.

I've had a middle aged moment, and it was nothing - EDS

2007-12-20T10:43:00.001-05:00

Those of you who know me personally might be thinking "What is she talking about, she's been having middle aged moments for 5 years now." But I don't mean how my nouns have been flying out of my brain willy nilly, and I don't mean the happy dance my hormones have been having with my serotonin and dopamine.

I don't have to count these things as being caused by middle age, because I can come up with alternative explanations I can choose to believe instead. Lots of cyclical changes in a woman's body impact mood. Stress itself, regardless of age, effects memory's ability to retrieve the exact word one needs at the exact moment.

It could easily, I can say, have been stress that caused me, in the Dr.'s Office, to forget the word for Knee; or at work, the word for Book, or Vacuum, the former being in the middle of a children's talk during Worship, the latter being explained by a pushing motion with one hand simultaneous with a vvvrrrooooooooooo noise until someone guessed vacuum.

But this one can't be blamed on monthly shifts in estrogen or stress-induced mental moments.

I reached into the refrigerator to move the margarine so I could get to the wine, and dislocated a finger. Had to pull it out and everything. Swelling, pain, tendon popping, if not the whole 9 yards, then at least 4.5.

I whined and moaned. It was truly a middle aged moment. Young people don't dislocate fingers reaching for wine.

But then I was reminded of my friend -- Mags, Maggie, Margaret the Incredible -- and how blessed I am to have dislocated one joint this entire decade. When I came out of the closet at Eastern (Baptist) College in 1984, I could count on one hand the students who remained my friend at all, never mind those who were compelled to proselytize or "let you know that I didn't agree with it."

I was honored when Mags and her husband attended my wedding two years ago, doubly honored because of what it took out of her to be able to make the 600 mile trip. She hardly leaves her house, never mind a trip like that, from Virginia to Massachusetts.

See Mags has EDS. People with EDS have a defect in their connective tissue, the tissue that provides support to many body parts such as the skin, muscles and ligaments. The Fancy Medical definition is

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a heterogeneous group of heritable connective tissue disorders characterized by articular hypermobility, skin extensibility and tissue fragility.

This is a fancy way of saying that her body bends directions it should not and as a consequence her joints frequently fly apart, and her skin is too thin to protect her insides very well, and it's a terrible terrible illness. When she falls down everything comes apart. When she rolls over in bed something can come apart. When she picks up a dinner roll her finger, or elbow can dislocate, when she eats the roll her jaw might dislocate.

I am embarrassed to admit that fifteen-twenty years ago, before she was diagnosed, I dismissively thought she was depressed, or worse, a total woos. I was an uninformed jerk (and not for the last time in my life). I saw her complaining about symptoms of pain that didn't appear to have any cause, laying in bed all the time, and being depressed. And I mentally scoffed. Embarrassing or not, crankycindy will be as honest about herself as she is about hate mongers and bad drivers. I share it because it's a reality, and not uncommon. Remember when we "didn't believe in" things like chemical sensitivity, or gluten sensitivity? Young and judgmental, boy oh boy, sure miss those days. Um hum.

Because of course she was depressed, her body, the encasement for her self, the way she interacted with the world, was a total mess. And it's progressive.

This is her:

80% of people who have EDS don't know it. How 'bout your kids in your congregation? So let your good deed for the day today be to learn about EDS. Because of the internet, we don't need to remain ignorant when people tell us of a set of symptoms, or an ailment, and rarely understood diseases and syndromes are only a couple of links away from awareness.

So I dislocated a finger reaching for the wine. Big Whoop.

Huckabee's beliefs based on 1991 CDC recommendations?

2007-12-19T17:53:00.000-05:00

(note: this is part 2 of Huckabee's Christmas. If you don't read that first, you may miss the facetious, nay, dripping bitterness with which I pose these rhetorical questions as to whether there is an ounce of possibility that Huckabee might have an inch of wiggle room. While I am confident that he does not, I mean to provide evidence of that fact to you, dear reader, who may not simply wish to believe me because I say so.)

He keeps saying he didn't say quarantine, but that, of course, is what he meant.

In his not-backing-down statement, Huckabee cites

"Also in 1991 the Centers for Disease Control recommended restrictions on the practice of HIV-positive health care workers."

I started trying to remember. What year was that? What did we know then?

I mean, I remember being in an ER in Philadelphia in 1987 and yelling at a PA/Nurse to put on his gloves before he drew my blood.
He said, "What, do you think I have something?"
I said, "How do you know I don't? Aren't you just supposed to just always wear gloves?"

It was a time where those of us involved in understanding the importance of barrier protection in our own community were ahead of the medical community in some ways.

So in 1991, what were they, these restrictions Huckabee cites as a reason to support his desire to

deal with the virus using the same public health protocols that medical science and public health professionals would use with any infectious disease.

So I had to look it up. Oh yes, now I remember. There was a big broohaha about it.

But factually, it was a clear and simple set of recommendations.
They were recommendations, not requirements,
and they were about both HIV positive and Hepatitis B positive health care workers,
and the recommendations were that an HIV/HBV positive provider would not do "exposure prone" procedures without first seeking counsel.

As repeated by the American Academy of Physician's Assistants here

preventing the transmission of HBV and HIV from provider to patient during “exposure prone” procedures. According to the CDC recommendations, providers infected with HIV or HBV should not perform such procedures unless they have sought counsel from an expert review panel and been advised under what circumstances, if any, they may continue to perform these procedures. Such circumstances would include notifying prospective patients of one’s HIV status before conducting the procedure.

It was a big deal at the time -- we were afraid it was part of a slippery slope toward required testing and reporting... who would be the review panel? what would they do with information? was it medically necessary? why weren't they talking about barrier protection instead? why, if a panel said there were circumstances that a professional could do this procedure would s/he then have to reveal his/her personal HIV status?

BUT none of that matter in this moment. The question here is, was this a recommendation that would lead Huckabee to such beliefs? No, it certainly does not meet a standard that could serve as a rational indicator that Huckabee had reasonable cause to believe that HIV fit the category of infectiousness that would lead him to reasonably believe that it was still appropriate to consider

following traditional medical practices developed from our public health experience and medical science in dealing with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

So no, Rev. Huckabee can't use that as evidence that he reasonably believed HIV infectiousness raised to that level.

I think he just looked backward in time, tried to find some rationalization for his being nearly 10 years behind in understanding HIV, and came up with a girl who said she got HIV from a dentist, and what are, in retrospect, pretty weakass recommendations.

but that's just me.

A Huckabee Christmas

2007-12-18T17:56:00.000-05:00

So Mike Huckabee put out a Christmas Ad.

Christ. Christ. Christ.

Or, more accurately:

"Are you about worn out of all the television commercials you've been seeing? Mostly about politics. I don't blame you. At this time of year, sometimes it's nice to pull aside from all of that and just remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and our friends. I hope that you and your family have a magnificent Christmas season. And on behalf of all of us, God bless and Merry Christmas. I'm Mike Huckabee and I approve this message."

The Christian Broadcasting Network suggests this is a harbinger of kinder, gentler political advertising.
Others say it's brilliant politics.

What say you?

Also, the floating cross in the background -- subliminal, a trick of lighting, or miracle?

But lest you think my time away has mellowed my crank, there is a huge and elongated cranky bit here.

Huckabee says here that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and friends? Yes, as a private person of the Christian faith, one might celebrate the birth of Christ, and he certainly has the freedom to use his money advertising that.

On the other hand, he isn't just a private person of faith, he's a man who wants to be President of the United States. A man who is desirous of a tremendous amount of power and authority over, among other things, life and death.

You see I, myself a private citizen of faith, celebrate the birth of Jesus, (if not Christ), and would also like to spend Christmas with all of my family and friends. Yet I have names in my address book that are crossed off, that haven't received a Christmas Card from me in a decade or two.* This is due, in great measure, to the fact that HIV research and treatment was underfunded for decades, and they are dead for lack of funds, or medicine, or appropriate mental health care.

So Rev. Huckabee's nice pretty advertisement for faith, family, and friends is merely a reminder to me that he was and continues to be part of a conservative cabal -- yes, cabal -- of people of power who chose not to listen to medical experts, but instead to make decisions based, not on fact and reason, but on belief based in faith.

In particular, although he claims we didn't know much about how HIV was transmitted in 1992, in order for him to be that behind in the facts, he had to ignore not only the CDC in general, but C. Everett Koop, a conservative evangelical who was explicitly clear by 1988 that HIV was not transmitted like TB.

This are Rev. Huckabee's original statements from 1992:

""I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague."
"It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."
"In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified," Huckabee wrote. "An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor (,) Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research."

This is his first attempt at spinning last week, not backing down:

In the late 80’s and early 90’s we were still learning about the virus that causes AIDS. My concern, as a Senate candidate at the time, was to deal with the virus using the same public health protocols that medical science and public health professionals would use with any infectious disease.

Before a disease can be cured and contained we need to know exactly how and with near certainty what level of contact transmits the disease. There was still too much confusion about HIV transmission in those early years. Recall that in 1991, Kimberly Bergalis testified in front of Congress after contracting HIV from her dentist, and that summer a study was published showing that HIV was transmitted through breastmilk more easily than had been thought. But the federal government provided some guidelines: Also in 1991 the Centers for Disease Control recommended restrictions on the practice of HIV-positive health care workers.

At the time, there was widespread concern over modes of transmission and the possibility of epidemic. In the absence of conclusive data, my focus was on efforts to limit the exposure of the virus, following traditional medical practices developed from our public health experience and medical science in dealing with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

We now know that the virus that causes AIDS is spread differently, with a lower level of contact than with TB. But looking back almost 20 years, my concern was the uncertain risk to the general population – if we got it wrong, many people would die needlessly. My concern was safety first, political correctness last…

Sunday on FOX News Huckabee said, still spinning still not backing down: (I guess if you're running for President, it looks weak to say something like, "I was really really wrong, and people died 'cause I didn't use my leadership to actually lead a journey that embraced the continuation of life, and I'm really really sorry." Too much to expect?)

Chris, I didn't say that we should quarantine. I said it was the first time in public health protocols that when we had an infectious disease and we didn't really know just how extensive and how dramatic it could be and the impact of it, that we didn't isolate the carrier.

Now, the headlines yesterday started saying that I called for quarantines, which if you'll go back and read my comments, I did not.

I had simply made the point, and I still believe this today, that in the late '80s and early '90s, when we didn't know as much as we do now about AIDS, we were acting more out of political correctness than we were about the normal public health protocols that we would have acted — as we have recently, for example, with avian flu, which — I spent hours and hours, and months, in fact, as a governor dealing with a pandemic plan that we were looking at which called for isolating carriers if they contracted that disease.

According to The C. Everett Koop Paper Collection online at Profiles in Science at the National Library of Medicine, in 1988

Koop promoted redefining the prevalent scientific model of the disease, from a contagion akin to bubonic plague, yellow fever, and other deadly historic epidemics that required the strongest public health measures--mandatory testing and quarantine of carriers--to a chronic disease that was amenable to long-term management with drugs and behavioral changes.

In 1987 The National Academy of Sciences ran a poster campaign that included this one
(if it doesn't appear below, click the link and open a new tab/window.)

In order to ignore the evangelical C. Everett Koop until 1992, someone running in conservative Christian circles would pretty much have to be listening to fundamentalists, while ignoring evangelical experts. The listening would have to be selective.

Koop himself knew explicitly he had to oppose some of these ideas that Huckabee cites:

"At the 1985 Conservative Political Action Conference, [Paul] Cameron announced to the attendees, 'Unless we get medically lucky, in three or four years, one of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals.' According to an interview with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Cameron was recommending the extermination option as early as 1983."
and
"Cameron also views AIDS as being such a large threat to 'innocents' that he has proposed nationwide testing for HIV and the forcible quarantine of all those testing positive, either by confinement to their homes or in regional detention centers."
- Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995.

Huckabee would have to have been listening to anti-gay people like these:

1. The major cause of HIV and AIDS in the U.S. has been and remains male homosexual behavior. The next largest transmission category is intravenous drug use, followed by high-risk heterosexual contact. This last group consists of people who have had sex with anyone who falls into the first two groups. If we eliminated homosexual male sex and intravenous drug use, HIV would be reduced by at least three fourths in this country. Both are unnecessary, chosen behaviors. (Linda Harvey, President of Mission America, cited at Americans For Truth )

By the way, Peter LaBarbera, who has been spreading both exaggeration and overt lies about GLBT people in general and Gay Men and Men who have Sex with Men for years and years, praises Huckabee for his original statement:

"Mike Huckabee is right to reject the liberal media's talking points on homosexuality. We need more -- not less -- debate on why HIV/AIDS has been singled out as a politically protected disease, and why it gets such a huge percentage of taxpayer funding vis-à-vis other diseases."

"Despite the obvious link between male homosexual behavior and AIDS, gay bathhouses where men go for anonymous sodomitic encounters with other men are flourishing in cities like Cleveland and Chicago. If homosexual and AIDS activists – and public officials -- would work to close these disease-spreading centers down, it would protect the lives of homosexual men and also women who unknowingly get infected by male spouses who secretly engage in homosexual perversions."

LeBarbera comes from a long line of fundamentalist Protestant and ultra-conservative Catholic people whose anti-gay rabidity overwhelmed their sense of right and wrong, truth and falsity.

Huckabee likely listened to the ex-gay/anti-gay people who were held up by "ex-gay" organizations like Love in Action, promoted by conservative political organizations as proof that AIDS was God's judgment and therefore not worthy of secular intervention. This is a "testimony" that inextricably links the "homosexual lifestyle" and AIDS.

An aggressive, outspoken and highly intense person, Paul wholeheartedly gave himself to whatever cause he was pursuing. During his time with Love In Action and Church of the Open Door (San Rafael, CA), Paul immersed himself in ministry and made deep impressions on all who knew him.
But when his desires to go back to his old lifestyle would overcome him, he would disappear. Two or three times, he came back to the Lord for a brief period.

In 1984, Paul visited our director, Frank Worthen, at a time when he was thinking of returning to the Lord. Frank shared with Paul long into the night, warning him about this "new" disease striking homosexual men.
Paul went home, promising to consider what Frank had said. The next day, he called Frank to tell him of his decision: He was going to stay in his homosexual lifestyle.
About two months before his death on July 15, 1985, Paul made his final return to the Lord. Although he was physically diminished from a half-year's battle with Kaposi's Sarcoma, and other infections, God used Paul in some exciting ways. Right before he was hospitalized for the last time, Paul wrote a small paper on AIDS and brought it to the LIA office. While he was in the hospital, one of our staff typed up his paper on AIDS and made copies.
Our director's wife, Anita, brought them to Paul, and he enjoyed handing them out from his hospital bed. What follows is a copy of Paul's paper on AIDS...

"For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).
AIDS has become the world's number one health crisis, and the medical facts point to the epidemic becoming much worse before it improves.
LIFE magazine had an article on AIDS in their July, 1985 issue which said: "AIDS is an epidemic that may change the way America lives."
Why has AIDS become such a problem? Are we supposed to be learning something from all this? Let's take an honest look at AIDS from a Christian viewpoint.
The AIDS epidemic is the result of sexual sin, homosexual and heterosexual. We cannot escape the fact that God has allowed certain afflictions to befall his creation throughout history.

Or this M.D. and Ministry student writing in the Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine:

In this author's opinion it is beyond reasonable doubt that AIDS is a manifestation of divine judgement and that practicing homosexual men are, among others, the present objects of God's wrath. Further, the failure to recognize God's disposition of judgement in this major event in the history of the world is to fail to recognize a significant aspect of its meaning. The large number of people in the United States with AIDS and even larger number with HIV infection are of a "staggering proportion." The majority contract the illness through ungodly "high-risk" behaviors, especially homosexual intercourse (as well as IV drug abuse). While homosexual behavior is itself a present manifestation of divine wrath through God's judicial abandonment to shameful lusts, AIDS is a further manifestation of divine retributive judgement resulting in suffering, disease and death ....As frightening as it is to suggest, AIDS is probably also a purificatory judgement through which God partially cleanses His fallen creation. Before the fall He ordained, in the context of monogamous marriage, heterosexual intercourse as the only legitimate expression of a union which meets, at the most intimate level, our need for human companionship

So you see, dear people who put up with my crankiness all this way,

Huckabee didn't just "not know" about HIV, he lived, and expressed political leadership, in a religious context that explicitly blamed and demonized Gay men for it. He made decisions about where to get his information from, and what sources to ignore. There was no medical confusion about HIV that would lead to any anyone who paid attention to the facts to make any sort of comparison with airborne, easily transmittable viruses like TB.
In the medical, and scientific world, there was no confusion.

So if Huckabee, in 1992, still had any concern that HIV was the kind of virus that might call for extreme community protection measures, it was because he chose not to ask people who actually knew.

I loved our last real evangelical president, Jimmy Carter. I would be happy with an evangelical president who understands the limits of faith in determining public policy. But I certainly don't want a President who chooses to listen, not to evangelical Surgeon Generals, but to the haters in his own, small community.

And here's a funny - Blogger thinks that demonized isn't a word.

*(I note here that I'm not counting people I just haven't sent cards because I am really really bad at sending cards.)

edited after some sleep 12/19/07.

Wednesday Drivin'Bloggin' -- At least the dog lived

2007-11-08T08:56:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I was on my way to a Religious Educator Cluster Meeting, when suddenly a low lopey dumb looking dog started ambling across the road in front of me. As I braked, I saw in a car coming toward me in the road, and in my peripheral vision a man, probably my age, on the far side of the road, chewing gum and telling the dog to get back here.

The dog then stopped in the road, cocked his head sideways, (do dogs see better sideways?) watched me coming toward him and decided my car was more interesting than the other side of the road and actually turned into me. The dog was, in fact, as stupid as it looked.

So I slammed my brakes on and pulled off to the right, stopping just short of the ditch. Phew, I thought. No dead dog. All the stuff in my car is on the floor, and my back is a little crooked, but no dead dog. I put on my flashers until the dog got out of the road.

The man still stood on the side of the road, still chewing, nay, chomping gum with his mouth open, his hands still in his pockets. Not a nod, not a wave, not a twitch of a smile to indicate that he was grateful that I didn't run over his dog. So either he wasn't grateful, or didn't think it important to express his gratitude, or, he couldn't in fact chew gum and wave at the same time.

I took a deep breath, and let it go without making a What's the Matter with You a face or gesture. I drove on.

So here's my ponder:

Is it not a nationally common expectation that when someone doesn't run your dog over, or waves you into a merge, or lets you know your headlights aren't on that people wave a thank you? It can't be generational, the guy was my age. If it's not, then I spend much unnecessary energy being ticked off by ingrates who aren't really ingrates.

Are my standards too high?

Patriotic Verklempt Cindy

2006-11-09T07:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was such an emotional day. Deval Patrick, whom I've been excited about since I first heard him speak in a little house up the street two years ago, won here in Massachusetts. We (yellow dog Democrats and Progressives together) took back the House, and likely the Senate. Previously out of reach government measures (by the people and for the people) like meaningful health care reform, wage support, and appropriate social services for citizens, are once again possible.

At the same time, citizens of seven of these states voted to ban gay marriage(or uh-hem, "affirm traditional marriage,") by sometimes overwhelming majorities, rejecting the extension of for the people to include me in a meaningful way. (Except Arizona. Thank you Arizona)

President Bush proved his narcisicissm, again, when he changed the subject of the national discussion half-way through the day from the Democratic sweep to his firing of Rumsfeld. Like a child or addict/alcoholic, bad attention is better than no attention. In a move that had Rove's fingerprints all over it, the President manipulated all the pundits and talking heads away from focusing on the democratic sweep state by state, Representative by Representative, Senator by Senator, and the various progressive (or reactionary) ballot initiatives that passed/failed to a HUGE piece of the pie discussion about Rumsfeld and the President and what's next for the Secretary of State, with a mere powdered sugar sprinkling of how it was the democratic sweep that led to this (except the Pres. says it didn't). They managed to have very little discussion about the actual races, or the platforms that were attached to them.

I attended a meeting of DREs (fabulous people) halfway across the state, and so listened to the radio for nearly 3 hours, switching between Rush Limbaugh and Air America's Al Franken. Something of a silly decision. Rush bellowed, "It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better folks," and Al didn't. He made noises about crowing, but didn't really crow.

When I got home, I checked out the television news networks. NECN, our local northeast cable news, stayed with the politics of the races, as did CNN. MSNBC and FOX switched their pundit focus and spent the majority of the time discussing the Rumsfeld resignation, er, firing, er, leaving.

John Hall won again in New York. ( Orleans' Jon Hall) At the end of this long and politically emotional day, last night's Colbert Report turned incredibly touching after the interview (wherein John Hall and Stephen bantered about Democrats and Republicans crossing the aisle) when John and Stephen did an Amazing duet of the Star Spangled Banner. Not Carnegie Hall amazing, but contextually amazing. (update at noon: the clip from YouTube is now below.)

And here's the funny thing, one might even say the illogical, unscientific, irrational thing that crankycindy finds irritating. Even though it was fake united-across-the-aisle-ness, the symbology of it totally got to me and I choked up and actual tears ran down my face.

As of now, 8 am EST, last night's clips aren't up yet at the above link, but I hope that they will put it up. Otherwise dear readers, check your tv listings, Comedy Central repeats Colbert a couple of times throughout the day. (I know at least at 8:30 pm EST.) It's worth turning away from Survivor while they count the votes to catch it there at the end of the show.

Let me know if it was the singing that was honestly touching and patriotic, or if I was just overwrought and overtired and therefore suseptible to silly sentimentality.

Repulsive and Dark Take 2

2006-11-07T08:40:00.000-05:00

Bill let me know I wasn't clear. Thanks.

"Repulsive" is a word they reserve for the Really Big Sexual Sins. It is how they talk about homosexuality. The use of language in Haggard's apology indicates that he is talking about something more than cheating on his wife. It isn't about generic cheating or compulsive behavior, it is specifically about the fact that this behavior involved another man not a woman.

Haggard is a deceiver and a liar, and I give him credit for admitting his failing - but I am saddened for his internalized shame, which isn't about cheating per se. So I'm sad personally for Haggard, because this isn't just about being unfaithful, it's about the repulsive sexual immorality of homosexuality.

In the religious world Haggard inhabits "cheating" isn't described as repulsive. It's described as wrong, as sin, as immoral. Repulsive is in some fashion a code word, the worst word you can use, generally held back for homosexuality, pedophilia, and pornography, the trifecta of loathsome sexual practices.

Dobson's opening statement on his radio program yesterday wasn't to talk about cheating but to identify Haggard's behavior as "a 3 year homosexual relationship."

What Dobson's response indicates is that his religious world will focus on the gender of his cheating rather than the lack of integrity, or the internalized conflict and shame that likely drove Haggard to feel he had no other options.

Let's be honest. A massage with a sexual component for money isn't a relationship, it's prostitution. Several popular Christian leaders have resigned because of being caught with prostitutes over the last couple of decades, but their peers don't say that these men who visit female prostitutes have "relationships" with them.

By saying that this prostitution was a "relationship," Dobson paints the current anti gay marriage initiative on the Colorado ballot (and others) with a nice big repulsive brush. If they want to stop these relationships, all they have to do is make sure that people vote their way.
This is the same thing as the libelous The Gay Agenda video that was put out in 1992. Paint a vile picture of gays, then say that that is what they have to vote against. And the best part is that Dobson can do it while expressing compassion for his dear friend the fallen.

Here are some examples of what I mean, provided here for those who don't necessarily listen to or read the religious right folks.

"...persecution of Christians and state-sponsored persecution of people who are moral enough to find prancing homosexuals repulsive. This is what the homosexual lobby wants, folks. They not only desire the end of free speech, they want their views forced upon everyone else." Alpha and Omega Ministries

"Finding homosexuality repulsive is a natural human instinct to protect oneself, and is common to most humans, not just a few conservatives"
MissionAmerica quoted at capalert.com

"Perhaps it is not very “Christian” of me but I find homosexuality as repulsive as God does from a mere human perspective. There’s something DIFFERENT about homosexuality. Male to male, female to female utterly denies what God designed us for and to whom." comment on Freerepublic.com.

Principles which guide AFA's opposition to the Homosexual Agenda
"1. The scripture declares that homosexuality is unnatural and sinful. It is a sin grievous to God and repulsive to Chrisitians because it rejects God's design for mankind as heterosexual beings." American Family Association

Could you surf the web and find the word used elsewhere? Sure. a quick Google search found, within the first 8 pages or so -- christians who say that lesbians find sex with a man repulsive, christian anti-divorce website talking about wives who suddenly find sex with their husband repulsive. 9/11 is described as repulsive, and often they'll describe pornography as repulsive.

But cheating on your wife with another woman? Not repulsive, just sin.

And all the talk about one sin being just like another sin? Baloney.

And Haggard believes this and must be in some kind of special hell.

Shameless Plug Alert: I have a lovely 90 minute multimedia presentation/lecture called "The X-Gay Agenda: The Political Science Fiction of Reparative Therapy." It's simultaneously fun and appalling in a CrankyCindy kind of way. That said, in real life, I'm a relatively friendly combination of cranky and happy cindy.
Hire me for your congregation today!

FOX news gets their own dedicated post.

2006-11-06T18:55:00.000-05:00

With this story about Ted Haggard that contains some of the worst writing I've seen on tv in years. I can't write good either, but then, I'm not on tv.

"Repulsive and dark" The bit that makes me sad, but cranky comes back after a couple of paragraphs

2006-11-06T17:39:00.000-05:00

Rev. Ted Haggard, in his letter to his congregation, stated

“The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem,” ... “I am a deceiver and a liar. There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life.”

It breaks my heart that as he accepts responsibility for behavior that is shameful, cheating, and likely compulsive, but his focus is likely not the cheating or the compulsiveness of his behavior that he sees as repulsive, but that it was homo-sexual behavior. Internalized homophobia is a biatch.

I'm sad for him personally. I'm angry because his behavior, his choices, and his response to those choices have, for some people, simply proved how evil and repulsive homosexuality is.

James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, for example, who shares Haggard's political opinions, changed his website a day or two ago. An upgrade was "due this fall" (promo for it)
and they put up the new site design and decided to go with MARRIAGE just in time for this thunderbolt to hit evangelical politics.

Google's cached version from October 31 (Parents, Pastors, Halloween, and Homosexuals were pretty prominent) is quite different from the new and improved family.org you'll see today.
It includes quick links to
God's Design for Marriage.
Biblical Perspective on Marriage.
Complete Guide to the first Five Years of Marriage. (oh wait, that's not advice, it's for sale)

James Dobson discusses this situation on his radio program here. If you haven't listened to the leaders of the Religous Right discuss such things recently - if you mostly spend time with others who like and agree with you, I highly recommend that you listen to this 30 minutes with hand picked evangelical leaders known for their anti-gay opinions and political work.

OPENING AD: America, you span a great continent, whose strength reflects... America, your history rises up off thelives and sacrifices of ordinary citizens... America, your future waits to be written. will freedom continue to echo in the corridors of education on noisy factory lines, and on white steeple churches? Will enough people care about freedom enough to sacrifice, or to sacrifice the time needed to cast a vote? America, it's up to you.

DOBSON: sigh. I'm sure that many of our listeners are aware that one of the most influential...leaders... has experienced a moral failure. He has now admitted having a homosexual relationship that goes back for several years.

It's not a relationship. It's a call girl, er, male escort, er, massage...
Whatever it was, it was definitely not a relationship.

They offer a Toll-free Pastoral Hotline: 877-233-4455.
If you're heart sick about this and need pastoral care over the telephone, then you should call it.

I'm just saying.

Religious Professional Tip #43. If you're so exhausted you consider buying Crystal Meth

2006-11-04T10:32:00.000-05:00

it might just be time to hire more staff.

I am, of course, referring to the admission of Rev. Ted Haggard, that he purchased methamphetamine from the gay escort, (once the convincing voicemail was released he admitted this) but says he didn't use it, or him.

I don't know if the gay-sex bit is true or not, but here's my question. Why would a man go to a gay escort/prostitute for methamphetamine and a massage but not sex??? Would one of the most significant evangelical leaders really go to a hotel to have a massage (only?) from a gay escort/prostitute? Perhaps this is simply a case of

REALLY REALLY BAD JUDGMENT?

There is a wonderful clip from beliefnet.com, see it below or open an external link atYoutube here .

how do you have a good family? you find a person of the opposite sex and make a lifelong committment to them..

More at YouTube
Ted Haggard from Jesus Camp the Movie
The Church lady responds, sort of.
Good Morning America plays voicemails that (sure as heck sound like) Rev. Haggard calling the prostitute for meth.
Clip of him saying No, I do not Know Mike Jones. (also, includes a Rumsfeldian "There are 14,000 men and women in my church, I might know men I know that i don't know if I know they're gay)
Clip, in case you haven't seen it yet, of his meth buying admission. "I went there for a massage"

This is just fun, 'cause wait, there's more!!

Mike Jones, the escort in question, is pretty believable on MSNBC.

Oral Roberts University has already erased Haggard from their website, but in a fashion that means they could bring him back very easily. This is slow, but enjoyable.

OR, see Jimmy Kimmel wrap it all up in 5 minutes.

I'm sure that i'll soon get tired of my new dsl inspired video toy, but for now, here's to YouTube!

Why do adults trick or treat?

2006-11-01T12:12:00.000-05:00

Really. Inquiring minds want to know. Last night we had about 65 kids and 6 adults. The kids were cute and adorable. Even the teenagers who decided at the last minute to go out with a streak of lipstick doubling as a costume were cute, but not so much cuteness from the adults.

None mumbled "this is for my other kid who is sick at home," or even stated, "I only look grownup." They proudly held their bags open for me to give them candy.

Is it just me? Do any of you trick or treat for yourself, and if so, why?????

The Death of Habeus Corpus

2006-10-19T07:28:00.000-04:00

In the 1980's I was occasionally afraid that those calling for the internment of HIV+ people and LGBT folk might actually get their wish. SON of COINTEL PRO was functioning alive and well in my life.

... by 1983, FBI agents and private security specialists had launched broad intrusions into the lives of ordinary citizens engaged in otherwise legal activities. (from the brilliant political-social-analytic website Public Eye)

My activities and those of many of my colleagues and friends - social justice activities - all proactive, creative, and legal - were curiously interesting to hunkered down men who sat outside my home in parked cars, to tall men who stood at ease in the back of my church during communion, to the "insurance agent" who, for "insurance reasons" had to read the titles of our books into a tape recorder after being let in by our landlord.

Might you wonder what type of activities?
Perhaps you surmise, dear reader, that we deserved to be snooped upon without warrant.

I was part of a drama troupe that educated various public servants, (educators, police, etc.) about HIV/AIDS and LGBT folks.
I taught 5th grade.
I was active in MCC, a "Gay Church" that met in the Unitarian Church, the same building that housed the anti-nuke people.
I was involved in an attempt to provide an education for the children of MOVE members that would be acceptable both to the mothers and the State. (Such a compromise was not possible.)
I protested to oppose the Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork.
I lived in an intentionally diverse house of African Americans and white folks, gay men and lesbians during a decade and in a city that preferred to keep everyone as separate as possible.

Jesse Jackson spoke from our front steps on the eve of the Pennsylvania Primary in 1986. Maybe that was the dangerous activity that required surveillance.

We were never identified as "enemy combatants," picked up for questioning, or carted away to another country to be not-tortured. It was clear that there were those in "law enforcement," in "the government," who believed there was something about our activities that constituted a threat, but their interference in our lives didn't go beyond an intimidating quasi-public survelliance.

What of activists now? How chilling must it be to have a law that completely eradicates Habeus Corpus. Why bother with intimidation and scare tactics? We used to be afraid that someone would cart us off, drop us somewhere without defense. But it would have been illegal, and we held on to the shred of hope that the feds who were watching us would follow the law and would not physically interfere with us.

No hope of that now. It is now legal for someone to be identified as an enemy combatant, and carted off to G-d knows where, where G-d knows what to happen, where even the Geneva Conventions - that last bulwark of ethical instruction - aren't attended to, and, since there is no right to a lawyer, no one will even know where they are should they want to report them missing.

Maybe it can be an episode of Without A Trace. The FBI looking for someone the FBI has taken.

And what does this mean for Ministers, DREs, and other religious professionals who act as if the Reign of G-d is among us and we are to do justice? I think it can't be good. The chilling effect of this legislation, of this constitutionally unsupported square of rotting spam on a board, can't be good. It means that we may begin to second guess our public statements. And that's the cruelest censorship.

Keith Olbermann has something to say as well. First, the special report on Habeus Corpus.

And his Special Comment on Habeus Corpus is available at Crooks and Liars.
It's got a great last paragraph. It's worth waiting for though, so go read or watch the commentary from the beginning.

I Heart Keith Olbermann

2006-10-07T11:29:00.000-04:00

for so many reasons. Reason #334A is because he's on "news network" programming at the same time as Bill O'Reilly, which just seems fair. Here's reason number 334B--

Olbermann named Paul Weyrich the Worst Person in the World Award winner for Thursday Oct. 6, 2006 for making this statement as taken from Olbermann's Countdown page:

“Here’s the real problem,” [Weyrich] said, “it has been known for many years that Congressman Foley was a homosexual. Homosexuals tend to be preoccupied with sex.” When the host suggested that that was just an opinion and many would take exception to it, Mr. Weyrich explained “I don’t care whether they take exception to it; it happens to be true.”

Olbermann responds (two days after Chris Matthews didn't respond to a similar statement on Hardball):

No, actually. But let me repeat this, brainiac. This isn’t about Foley being gay. It’s not about what the kids did, it’s an adult, male or female, straight or gay — taking sexual advantage of children and other adults protecting that adult. Commentator Paul Weyrich, today’s Worst Person in the World.

Media Matters has done a very efficient job of exploring the gay-pedophile libel.

A related set of statements/libels that has James Dobson and Matt Savage saying the Mark Foley scandal boils down to "pranks" by pages can be found dissected here.

It's so so nice to have the Right on popular television again, isn't it?

In case you're wanting a 360 degree view of other media outlets perspectives, here's Fox's:

Fox's Hannity and Colmes misleads their viewers about the actions of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in Washington, here, and a report on Special Report with Brit Hume, two days after CREW clarified their position, repeated these statements without including the clarification.

What Concerned Women for America are reading

2006-09-25T18:08:00.000-04:00

Beneath links to discussion of such concerns as Walmarts promotion of homosexuality (who knew?!,) the unborn child pain awareness act, and the criminalization of thought in America, the Concerned Women for America homepage has a section toward the bottom of the page labled

What CWA Staff are Reading

It's empty.

I couldn't make this stuff up.

Aww Mom but Peace Bang Started It (2)

2006-09-25T13:41:00.000-04:00

This one works!

finally got the image to load. It only required that I download two programs and completely change my picture management plan.

Awww Mom, but PeaceBang started it

2006-09-25T12:07:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted to do this. PB's Beauty Tips found the easy way, and given I don't have my mom's visual artistic nature to create one from scratch, I just went for it...

except i keep reposting this and I can't get the image to load... arrg aarrggggg talking like a pirate and that day's long over.

ok, any minute now, worth the wait, I swear.

There it is!!!

Keith Olbermann Calls the President to Repentance and so should we

2006-09-20T09:44:00.000-04:00

Good Golly Miss Molly, this statement has more power and clarity than any speechifying I've seen on television all year. If you haven't seen or read Keith Olbermann's Bush Owes Us An Apology yet, you must do it now. You can view the clip on his blog site linked above, or at Crooks and Liars in WMV or QT. [9/21 Note: since Michelle instructs me below as to the challenges of Crooks andLiars links, and then went to the effort of posting the video herself, please watch it there.]

Read it to yourself or watch the original, then come back here to read the rest of this entry.

[No really, click a link above and read or watch the essay first then read on for my take.]

I think that the President is so out of bounds in general and in particular with his statement that "it is unacceptable to think there is any kind of comparison between [actions of the US and of terrorists]..." that it deserves not only the apology Olbermann demands, but a gianormous turning away from sin repentance experience. What America should do with this speech/editorial/statement, over and above reading it quietly or watching Mr. Olbermanns' excellent delivery and then talking about it on blogs, at watercoolers or in grocery stores, is to do an All-American Dramatic Reading. Outloud. In public.

In fact, I think that all of America could do a simultaneous reading of this statement, in unison, church style. Our President continues to believe, being surrounded by sycophants as he is, that he not only knows best, but that he's speaking on behalf of the country.

Therefore, I call for Americans everywhere to organize and read this essay in unison as a National Call for the President to Repent and Turn from his Ways, this Sunday, September 24, at noon Eastern Time.

And since very few people read this sporadic blog, you're in charge of passing it on.

John Danforth blasts Bush, Bill [Frist] and Bashing [gay]

2006-09-18T09:09:00.000-04:00

"If the kingdom of God is spacious, how dare church leaders take it upon themselves to rope off these large rooms and establish crannies for some while booting out the others?"

Faith and Values: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together.

He's taken on the Republican Religious Right before, as in "Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers," but now there's a whole book of his theological, social, and political musings. (You all know he's an ordained Episcopalian minister, right?)

In a book excerpt available online from Newsweek, he says of moderates:

It is time for a clear statement of what we believe, a statement we repeat relentlessly and a statement that expresses the strength of our convictions:
We believe in a large God, a transcendent God, a God who cannot be shrunken by political activists and stuffed into their own agendas.
We believe that no one should presume to embody God’s truth, including ourselves. We acknowledge that our political programs, however prayerfully inspired, are no more than our best efforts to be faithful to God, and that we should pursue them with humility.
We believe that God’s truth is expansive enough to embrace conflicting opinions, even on hot-button issues, even of people with whom we vehemently disagree.

More from this lovely excerpt can be found here, from Newsweek.

I' ll point you to an excerpt about the Schiavo debacle at The Raw Story

Also according to The RAW Story, the book says of the "Marriage Amendment":

"I think that the only purpose served by the campaign for the amendment is the humiliation of gay Americans, advocated by the Christian right and eagerly supported by its suitors in the Republican Party. "In reality, it is gay bashing."
Danforth then goes even further, saying supporters' assertions that the amendment would protect marriage is ludicrous.

"America's divorce rate is now over 50 percent, and marriage is under attack from a number of quarters: finances, promiscuity, alcohol and drugs, the pressures of work, cultural acceptance of divorce, et cetera," he pens. "But it is incomprehensible that one of these threats is when someone else, whom we have never seen, in a place where we may have never been, has done something we don't like."

Alas, it's coming out now in hard cover. When it's out in soft cover, or available in my local library, I'll actually read the whole thing.

ICE AGE 2:Christian Meltdown

2006-09-16T10:08:00.000-04:00

The Funniest Thing at the Wittenburg Door in months.

ICE AGE 2:Christian Meltdown is a sneakily acquired, er, found copy of an upcoming article in Don Wildmon's American Family Association Journal.

We are in a culture war of incredible proportions. We soldiers of Christ must take up our Biblical bayonets and stab the heart of the beast. We must hold high our crosses to repel the vampiric media which brainwash our children. We must rain down fire and outrage on the demons that attack impressionable minds through video games, television, movies, and "rap" music.
It is not that we need to simply encourage our children to take up a hobby that inspires creativity. It is not that we need to interrupt our busy schedules to read to our daughters and play catch with our sons. It is not that we need to encourage excellence in sports, theatre, music or other activities that pull them away from watching these things. It is not that we need to monitor what our children watch and listen to.
No! What we really need to do is organize nationwide bans. read the rest here

The Wittenburg Door is an evangelical Christian Parody and humor magazine. No, really, they're evangelicals. The above quote is parody. It's been on my sidebar for years as my favorite humor magazine, but alas, who looks at side bars anyway?

I've just noticed that they've got this new logo.

Here are some actual, non-parody press releases about the anti-Christian Media.

and here is the Full Tilt Campaign they're promoting.

The FullTilt Media Challenge is simple. Make a stand against negative entertainment for the next 30 days and listen exclusively to Christian music. Just for 30 days! We believe this simple exercise will help you see life from a godly perspective.

And my favorite -- CURVES exercise tapes.

So, Cranky Cindy is back for some saturday fun.

Cranky Cindy has DSL!

2006-09-01T23:12:00.000-04:00

Happy Cindy Go DSL Fast.
Go Internet, Go.
Go Cindy, Go.

Post Cindy Post.

yea well, we'll see.

Supporting the Troops Over a Cliff

2006-06-07T08:47:00.000-04:00

If you didn't read this Frank Rich column on Sunday, read it here. It says it all, and I need not comment.

Nod to CrankyMom for the link.

Thinking outside the box doesn't help if you're still in the hole

2006-06-05T18:26:00.000-04:00

Twice in two days I was stuck in a hole. This morning's blog entry is about two of my own illogical unscientifically stupid moments. Feel free to use them as sermon illustrations.

Last summer my partner and I bought a pop-up pool. You've seen them, the kind that's just a big round piece of plastic that you fill up with water with a blow-up donut on top magically holding it all together. Turns out, our lawn didn't care for having bzillions of pounds of water on it in one spot. The entire right side of the pool sank 6 or 7 inches. We made it through the year with a lopsided, partially filled pool; but this summer we really want to be able to fill it completely and not worry about it spouting off to one side and washing us off in a sudden waterfall. The grandchildren would love it. Us... not so much.

What could we use to prop up the area that would be easy to move later, or would just contribute to turning it back into lawn if we move?

Not sand, our first choice for shiftiness. Shiftiness is very important to CrankyCindy. It'd never turn into lawn right. Because of the positioning of the lawn, fences, and giant rhododendronish plant matter, dirt would have to be carried from our car 50 feet, one 40-lb bag at a time. The farm girl in me hates the idea of paying for dirt. So we tried mightily to think outside of the box.

Perhaps rotten old sci fi books, destined for tag sale. But no, they would be gross to move later. Pillows was my honey's idea, which idea was finally rejected after long discussion about the compressionability of pillows under bzillions of pounds of water. I thought maybe big bags of feed corn, because like sand, it would shift under the weight, and then it'd just compost. But no, we decided, it would mould before it composted, there'd be no air there. There was no substance that didn't get pondered. Lawn Clippings piled high, wood with a little dirt on top to blunt the sharp edges, compost. We couldn't come up with a solution that didn't involve heavy lifting and paying for dirt. 45 minutes we thought about it.

Then I called my dad for the Sunday afternoon chat.

"This is what you do," he said, very gently, "you take a shovel and lower the other side, spreading the dirt around until it's level."

Doh!

You'd think that'd do it, and my brain function would return, but no, there's another story.

I haven't been able to get online from home for the last 4 days, and hardly at work. They say it's something about "the lines." I don't know.

Yesterday was the Coming of Age Service in our congregation (Fabulous, thanks for asking) so I'm taking today off except for finalizing the agenda with my RE Council Chair for tomorrow's meeting. She phoned earlier this morning and told me she emailed it to me.

Aarg, my working style is not ears-only, I really need to see things in order to work on them. So I told her I'd call her back after I checked my email to see if it was up yet.

I still couldn't get on line. So I called work and yes, email was working there. So I put some on going out of the house but not really going to work clothes, and got in my car to drive to work so I could get my email there and go over the agenda with her by phone.

As I drove by her house, 4 blocks down from mine, I saw her and stopped momentarily to tell her that I'd call her in a few minutes when I got the agenda and could see my online calendar.

She looked at me like I had two heads.

"Come in," she said, (again, very gently,) "We can do that here. I have the agenda here, on my computer. We can look it over together."

Oh.

So my online friends, I have, perhaps, learned that it does no good to think outside the box if you're still inside the hole. We'll wait a few days and see if I am able to extrapolate from these two situations to future ones. Time will tell.

... addendum: Now it's Monday night and I'm finally online again. I guess if Verizon owns all the phonelines,There's no market pressure to fix problems. Oh wait, that'd be another post...

BOOK ENDS. Left and Right

2006-06-03T07:11:00.000-04:00

How far does CSPAN go to prove they cover both the left and right? As far as this afternoon.
Today on Book TV, Angela Davis and David Horowitz.

2:30	Angela Davis, Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture
4:05	David Horowitz, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America

Angela Davis, is, of course, one of the most dangerous academics.

If C-SPAN really wanted to do fair coverage, they would have followed it up with something with Robert Jensen (Dangerous" Academics: Right-wing Distortions About Leftist Professors)
or someone from Free Exchange on Campus, where you can fact check Horowitz at Facts Count: an analysis of David Horowitz's "The Professors."

Regnery Press, Horowitz's publisher, is the same publisher that brought us early works of conservatism like William Buckley's God and Man at Yale, and Phyllis Schlafly's The End of an Era.

Then they dove down into the pits of hell and brought us
The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS in 1990 by Michael Fumento &
Inventing the AIDS Virus in 1996 by Peter H. Duesberg

They publish pot-shot books about Democratic leaders,
"Swift Boat Veterans" Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,
In Defense of Internment: The Case for "Racial Profiling" in World War II and the War on Terror, (Michelle Malkin gets on C-Span quite frequently),
Madame Hillary, The Real Jimmy Carter, Legacy, and Paying the Price for the Clinton Years.

and most recently,
Outrage: How Gay Activists and Liberal Judges Are Trashing Democracy To Redefine Marriage, Peter Sprigg

Anyway, I started talking about this afternoon's Book TV and David Horowitz.
Now my stomach hurts. Maybe I'll just tape it and watch it when I feel stronger.

My priorities changed without my noticing

2006-05-26T11:31:00.000-04:00

Six years ago I was at a conference researching a book on the X-gay movement and the Religious Right when a friend called me and said that the UU was hiring a DRE. I started immediately and fell into the black hole that is everything that needs to be done to do this job right, and the book went on the back burner.

Actually, it came off the stove completely. I didn't even realize so much time had gone by until I had to do the math when thinking about a blog entry over at arbitrarymarks.com.

6 years have gone by. Three years since I lectured on the subject, four since I did any primary research, and one and 1/2 since I agreed to do a research based blog at Talk 2 Action that hasn't gone up yet. So many of my research activities have been put on hold they're mouldery now.

It's curious that my priorities changed not by choice so much as by the pressures of immediacy, and that makes me go hmmm. My writing has been driven by the curricular needs of my RE program and the challenges of serving a congregation in transition.

And I'm not sure if I'm cranky about it so much as surprised.

"ENRON" The conspiracy is complicated - how to comprehend the Beast

2006-05-26T11:09:00.000-04:00

The deregulation of the energy industry, nay, decriminalization of evildoing by the energy industry; the Bush family connection to Enron goes all the way to Uzbekistan, and is involved in the energy crisis in California 6 years ago and more..

Democracy Now! did a great show this morning, with commentaries by investigative journalists Robert Bryce and Greg Palast and excerpts from Enron, Smartest Guys In The Room.

My favorite thing about Democracy Now! is that you can listen or watch the show in any number of formats here. (This page changes daily, if you click the link after today, you'll want to search or browse the archives for Fri. May 26, 2006)

Check in throughout the day as they add transcripts and links.

Not simply a flip of the bird - a whole hand F-U

2006-03-31T08:36:00.000-05:00

Supreme Court Justice Scalia put his hand under his chin and flicked it at the lens of the camera and said,
"‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ "... The Italian phrase means "(expletive) you."

Read the article and see the picture at Boston Herald.Com

Thanks to crankymom for pointing me to the article.

Wednesday Driving'Bloggin' - Turn Signals

2006-03-29T08:59:00.000-05:00

One can never say enough about Turn Signals.

These handy devices are meant to be used to indicate I'm going to slow down in a second and then slow down more and then turn in this direction. Unfortunately, these little simple switches have become the sorry I slammed on my brakes without warning, but look, it's because I'm turning now.

Turn Signals are to keep the person behind you from Plowing Into Your Ass. It's in your own best interest to use them as warning devices.

So please humans, put your turn signal on before you start to slow your car.

Next Week. Merging: Taking Turns for Grownups.

Flipping the bird- Justice Scalia is truly a man of integrity

2006-03-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

Boy oh boy. Or, perhaps more accurately, old man old man. A Justice of the Supreme Court, a man who sits at the highest location of juris PRUDENCE in the land, flipped the bird at citizens like myself who support separation of church and state.

According to the Boston Herald:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."

The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper.

"Don't publish that," Scalia told the photographer, the Herald said.

It's now unclear if it was the traditional middle finger, or a Sicilian version. Irrelevant.

We already know he doesn't support separation of corporation and state, that he supports the execution of mentally retarded people who kill someone, that he considers it legal for guards in Alabama to chain prisoners to outdoor ‘’hitching posts'’ and leave them alone for hours without food, water, or bathroom access, and that having the crap beaten out of you and face mashed and teeth out is not considered "cruel and inhumane" punishment. (You can read a nifty list at American Progress. Ten Things President Bush Doesn't Want you to Know about Scalia and Thomas)

We just found out that he believes that the prisoners held at Guantanamo have no right to a jury trial.

According to Newsweek, and as quoted in Think Progress, (and a bzillion other blogs who picked this up before me,)

“War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts,” he says on a tape of the talk reviewed by NEWSWEEK. “Give me a break.” Challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don’t have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: “If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I’m not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it’s crazy.” Scalia was apparently referring to his son Matthew, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq.

My favorite bit is if he was captured by an army on a battlefield.

Doesn't the army define what the battlefield is? Wasn't most of the entire coutnry of Afganistan considered a battlefield? Nifty. Let's define Easthampton as a battlefield and start arresting people. Hey, wait a minute, where does Scalia live?

So he flipped the bird at me - at all of us who believe the Constitution is a living document and that the churches and the government should operate in different spheres and not control the others. The million dollar question is "What is Pat Robertson going to say about it?"

My bet is $5 that Robertson, who loves quoting his boy Scalia, won't comment.

where have I been? let me just say this...

2006-03-04T09:39:00.000-05:00

Grownups should not throw up. It's just wrong.

Message to anyone who lives in Massachusetts-- wash your hands wash your hands wash your hands when you're out in public because you SOOOO don't want this bug.

Gene Robinson: Bishop, Gay Bishop, or Gay Alcoholic Bishop or (my personal favorite) Divisive Anglican Bishop

2006-02-15T12:39:00.000-05:00

Let’s hear it for unbiased news.
I searched for the news about Gene Robinson’s alcoholism treatment. Turns out what makes it newsworthy is that he's, um, GAY.

The AP, New York Times, Portsmouth Herald, ABC and MSNBC, GayToday and PlanetOut, headlines are variations on
Gay Episcopalian Bishop treated for alcoholism.

The Church of England ‘s newspaper headline sez,
Bishop Gene Robinson treated for alcoholism.
They cordially managed to point out that “A letter from the Standing Committee of the Diocese of New Hampshire said that the Episcopal Church had “long recognised alcoholism as a treatable human disease, not a failure of character or will.” The Standing Committee said this week that they fully supported the Bishop and commended him “for his courageous example to us all”." This message is missed in most press reports in the states.

But this is my favorite:

Christianity Today says,
“Divisive Anglican Bishop in New Alcohol Controversy."

The first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire has this week admitted that he is participating in treatment for alcoholism.

“The troubled bishop, who is also divorced with two daughters and a granddaughter, had also previously admitted to undergoing unsuccessful therapy to rid himself of his homosexual thoughts.

This week the bishop has issued an optimistic statement, describing his alcoholism as a disease and not a sign of a weak will. He also compared his period of rehabilitation to the resurrection, in a statement that is likely to provoke his critics even more”

First of all, this divisive, openly gay, troubled bishop in an alcohol controversy who admitted that he is participating in alcohol treatment... previously admitted to undergoing unsuccessful therapy to rid himself of homo thoughts? Wow, they're so encouraging of his recovery, aren't they?

It's not a sign of a weak will.
It's not a sign of a weak will.
It's not a sign of a weak will.
It's not a sign of a weak will.

Which are you going to remember, that alcoholism is a disease or weak will?

And he damn well did not compare his period of rehabilitation to the resurrection, he said, "God is proving His desire and ability to bring an Easter out of Good Friday." It's an analogy stupid.

(Analogy : resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike.
Comparison: the representing of one thing or person as similar to or like another.
And even if you want to use the word comparision, the comparison isn't the rehabilitation to resurrection, it's rehabilitation to Good Friday)

But how did this information become public and where did they get this particular take on things? Why we can thank David Virtue. (Not to be confused with David P. Virtue who almost made my wedding rings, which instead we got a pool and two low cost gold bands.)

Mr. Virtue (the most unfortunate and inaccurate name), who if you recall, was the individual who walked up to the microphone at the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop and asked,

"Do you know that Gene Robinson’s website is linked by one click to 5,000 pornographic websites?" No, responded both bishops. Virtue followed up, "Well, now that you do know this, will this change your vote on his election?" Gibbs replied, "I would doubt the veracity of such information at this moment. It seems like a last-minute ploy." Virtue walked back to his seat shaking his head.

It was in fact a last minute ploy, and proved untrue.

Now he says lovely things like these:

Here we have a man who was married to a woman with whom he had two children, divorces her, meets a man he shacks up with while he is an Episcopal priest, and then gets consecrated as a bishop, Two years later announces he has an alcohol problem, which the Episcopal Church Left is already spinning to make him look like a victim of his own drinking.

It is one more example of the Left trumpeting sin as a noble cause. The Global South bishops will not be happy, and they will see it as one more nail in the coffin of ECUSA.

There is, of course, a standing joke among Episcopalians, that wherever three or four are gathered together there you will find a fifth, (and it is our good friend Jack Daniels).

Alcoholism is not exactly new, and there is little shame admitting the fact that one has a drinking problem. Many people find Christ for the first time in an AA program, though it is no longer specifically a Christian organization, even though its founders were. I have a number of friends who are recovering alcoholics. (One is on my board).

There would be more shame in declaring you were an alcoholic if you were a Baptist than an Episcopalian. Baptists have a 'no drinking' policy, which for the most part holds up pretty well. Episcopalians, by comparison, drink like fish.

"During my first week here, I have learned so much," said Robinson. "The extraordinary experience of community here will inform my ministry for years to come. I eagerly look forward to continuing my recovery in your midst. Once again, God is proving His desire and ability to bring an Easter out of Good Friday. Please keep me in your prayers and know that you are in mine."

So there is no admission that it is personal failure, just a "disease". It's the same argument that homosexuals use for practicing anal sex. "It is hard wired, I can't help myself." Then the person gets AIDS and dies, cutting 40 years off of his life. Blame it on the disease. Never admit to personal responsibility.

The truth is Bishop Robinson is a fraud. See, I told you so.”

The text of Bishop Robinson's emailed message can be found here.

I have been working 12 straight days and I'm, um, CRANKY

2006-02-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

A POEM:
I love my job,
don't get me wrong.
But if one more person tells me there should be special rules just for them and a special one-on-one meeting or orientation just because they didn't read the yearly calendar they got in September, the special RE Newsletter in early January, the announcements in the Sunday Times, or the letter I mailed out a month ago, my head will pop off. It takes a great deal of effort to respond gently and respectfully and thoughtfully to these individuals who invariably approach me in the middle of the sunday morning chaos, a day or two before the deadline or event in question. So I've got a little resentment stored up.

This poem is best imagined as delivered from a soapbox on the subway platform, perhaps under Boston Common.

Ladies and gentlemen,
if your DRE sends you a letter in the mail,
please consider reading it when it arrives.
Consider the possibility that
perhaps, just perhaps,
your DRE worked for hours carefully crafting the information
so you would be fully informed and
able to make thoughtful decisions for the benefit of your children and family,
and
perhaps, just perhaps,
if it wasn't complicated or important s/he would have just written a note in the Sunday Times or left it as a brief comment in the monthly newsletter,
and
PERHAPS, JUST FREAKING PERHAPS,
s/he wouldn't have sent a personal letter
with a list of check-box rsvp options to your house unless it
CONTAINED INFORMATION THAT WAS ACTUALLY DIFFERENT THAN NORMAL AND THAT REQUIRED YOUR ATTENTION, FORETHOUGHT, DECISION MAKING ABILITY AND PLANNING AHEAD.

Thank you for your attention to my poem. I welcome your donation of nickles and quarters in this tin can before you get on the train or into the UUA. In fairness to your ability to make informed decisions, let me note that if I don't get enough change, I may share another "poem."

Congressional staff actions prompt Wikipedia investigation

2006-02-02T14:14:00.000-05:00

Seems staffers of House and Senate members have been re-writing articles on Wikipedia when they dont' like the way their boss is represented.
Congressional Staff Actions Prompt Wikipedia Investigation at en.wikinews.org.
Articles changed included Joe Biden, Robert Byrd, Norm Coleman, Conrad Burns, Tom Harkin and Tom Coburn.

The Lowell Sun (in my lovely state of Massachusetts) broke this story.
"Rewriting History under the Dome"

The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on a Web site that bills itself as the "world's largest encyclopedia," The Sun has learned.
The Meehan alterations on Wikipedia.com represent just two of more than 1,000 changes made by congressional staffers at the U.S. House of Representatives in the past six month. Wikipedia is a global reference that relies on its Internet users to add credible information to entries on millions of topics.

Nod to my LessCrankyButAlwaysLookingOutForMeBrother for this one.

Inquiring Minds want to know, "What's a pissy snook?"

2006-02-02T13:15:00.000-05:00

I made it up. Perhaps you can help me. I suspect that each of you regular, oh so gentle and uncranky readers, had some sort of understanding of what a pissy snook was when you read my last post.

I wonder if what you percieved was what I was trying to communicate. Such is the great challenge of communication - most especially of online communication where most of you don't even know me in real life.

It's my dad's inquiring mind that's inquiring, and so I open it up to you to define for him. And for me. What is a pissy snook?

Please comment below.

Wednesday Drivin'Bloggin' -- gas mileage

2006-02-01T09:58:00.000-05:00

It seems so simple to me. and yet I'm a hypocrite, or at least not as thorough as I might seem.

Slow and easy acceleration uses less gas than punching it.
Braking is a waste of gas and brake pads. If I coast to a nice and easy roll then brake I've used gas to propel my car and not had to waste the energy by braking it away.

Speed -- each 5 mph over 60 mph increases the wind drag so much on the car the cost in gas is about 10 cents per gallon.

Other basics, decrease the amount of weight your car is hauling, decrease the wind resistance in any way posible, and paying attention to the road conditions so you aren't surprised by stop and go traffic all help immensely.

That said, this (250 Tips for improving gas mileage) is my new favorite webpage. It makes me look positively lazy about saving gas.

Of course, the fact that I drive a 4WD Subaru and not a hybrid or bio-deisel makes me look like a pissy snook about saving gas.
Yea sure, opinionated cardrivin'chick drives the next largest thing to a SUV, which ridiculously unnecessary size she complains about constantly.

oh well.

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test. "

2006-01-31T08:47:00.000-05:00

Simultaneously funny and pathetic; What if George Bush gave a State of the Union written out of statements he's already said?
It would look like this according to Jamie O'Neill, George Bush in his own write at SFGate.com.

What's the difference between kidnapping and detainment?

2006-01-27T18:51:00.000-05:00

This June 10,2004 document outlines the detainment of a nursing mother in an attempt to get her husband, the "primary target." The document is available here.

Another is an email exchange regarding the detainment of Kurdish women who are "ladies" who "fought back extremely hard during the original detention." Yea, so would I. My paradigm for this is the 1984 film Red Dawn (watch the trailer here) where high school students fought Russian, Cuban and Nicaraguan communists in the Northwest of the U.S. Yup, tanks roll into my town and people who speak a language I can't understand "detain me," I'm going to fight back extremely hard.

So if US forces can kidnap nursing mothers, and assume that fighting back is a sign of guilt and knowledge of terrorist activities, can someone please tell me how are any Iraqis going to see kidnapping of, say, US women reporters as anything different?

Excuse me for a second,

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH U.S.?????

ok, better now.

On the flip side, the story is breaking, the ACLU got the government to release the documents, which the gov't did so in compliance w/ court orders, and these are results that might not be available in other countries. So the glass is, perhaps, partially full.

For us, if not for them.

Wednesday Drivin'Bloggin' - nice people

2006-01-18T07:19:00.000-05:00

The woman was clearly having a challenging life.
It was 4 degrees outside, as I stopped my car on the way to work. The line was formed at the new light in town that everyone hates, (you know, every town has a location where you used to just yield, er, slow and go, and now you have to stop and not turn right on red). This is the light that people are pushy and honky about.

Anyway, there was this woman who was clearly having a challenging life. She wore a pink puffy coat that was open, and under it hung an old paisley button down shirt which was only buttoned at the top four buttons or so. Her belly hung out from under it. She was carrying a plastic bag of stuff in one hand, and the other was balled up in a fist against the cold. I watched as she walked on the sidewalk with her eyes firmly fixed on the other side of the street.

As I sat at that red light, third in line, she approached the intersection and crosswalk. It didn't look like she was going to make it before the light changed. She didn't look as if she were going to wait for cars before entering the crosswalk.

The light turned green. The red Ford pickup in the front of the line didn't move.
The Gremlinish car in front of me sat patiently.
No one honked in front of or behind me.
She crossed the street safely, if slowly.
The light turned red again.

We all waited, knowing that no one ever died from having to wait a minute at a light.
Except maybe poorly dressed people in freezing weather.

It felt good, and I was both grateful to not be having that hard of a life, and grateful that at that moment nothing mattered more to any of us than to see that she crossed the street and got herself indoors.

So although I've not had time to post anything in weeks (except these Norwegian drivin'bloggin' posts) because of my crazy busy work and home life, I'm so grateful for that life I'm posting this at Cranky Cindy.

So there.

Wednesday Drivin'Bloggin' Headlights on for safety

2006-01-11T23:44:00.000-05:00

Today's tip is very simple and not at all cranky. Your headlights aren't only so you can see, it's so others can see you. Twilight and dawn are dangerous times on the road for people.

Car A without headlights can see good enought not to drive into a telephone pole, but might get slammed at an intersection or corner by Car B which never saw the darkened A.

This would be bad.

Wednesday Drivin'Bloggin' -- It's not how fast you can drive

2006-01-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

it's how fast you can stop.

I remember my first fast car. Well, my only fast car. A '72 Cougar I acquired in 1985. It handled like a charm. Zinging around corners. If I drove 85 on the highway it got 29 mph. (around town was only 8 mph, but I looked good in it.)

SUV's, big cars, big trucks, these are vehicles designed to go fast. But they don't stop fast.

"Braking distances" advertised by manufacturers don't factor in the amount of time it takes your brain to think about what's coming up, instruct your foot to move to the brake and push it, and start pushing it. On dry roads, "thinking distance" adds about 25% more time to stopping. So if braking distance in circumstance A is 100 feet, and you're actually looking right at the car ahead of you when it slams on it's brakes, so you see right away that you need to stop too, you've got to be 125 feet back from it to stop in time. Of course, if you're on your cell, or flicking ashes, or combing your hair, or swatting at your kid in the backseat the thinking time goes up exponentially until you notice there's a problem.

On wet roads, the stopping distance is just less than double what it is on dry roads.

So Why, oh Why, do big vehicles drive 65-80 mph 1 car length off the rear end of the car in front of them?

You have to have the thinking time distance, at a minimum, in order to stop without rear ending the car in front of you.

I say you, and I could also mean me.

But I don't.

Safe following distances used to be the 2 second-rule, or the 3 car length rule. Now it's this:
Dry, clear road you need a two- or three second gap.

If you are on a wet road then you need to have at least a four-second gap.

And if it's icy or you are driving on compacted snow or somewhere you know that something slippery (such as diesel fuel) has been spilled, then it is wise to create at least a ten-second gap.

Three car lengths is the closest I'll get on the highway, and people are constantly cutting in front of me around town because I leave more than one car length between me and the car in front and so, I guess, what, people think I was just saving them a place?

I'm pretty big into getting there in one piece, ("it's better to test your patience than to test the resilience of your head as your car slams into the vehicle ahead") even if it means I get there a couple of minutes late. And I learn to leave earlier next time.

Are you a big car driver who cuts me off and tailgates? Can you explain to me the rationale?
Really, I'm sure it must make sense to you, so please, hit comment and let me know.

Cranky Cindy's Top Ten

2005-12-26T15:11:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-21T10:26:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

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’

2005-12-07T10:31:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-02T11:35:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-29T10:37:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-28T10:08:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-25T20:02:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-23T09:52:00.000-05:00

cartoons available here.

Confidential to the Transcendentalist Super Hero

2005-11-14T16:36:00.000-05:00

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

2005-11-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-11-14T11:25:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-11-14T10:27:00.000-05:00

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.