Sunday, February 01, 2009

Achtung!

Here’s another bit of evidence in the B-16 (the Prada Pope) file for you, Dear Gentle Reader(s).  It comes from today’s print edition of the Los Angeles Times.

VATICAN CITY
New bishop tied Katrina to sin
An Austrian pastor who has been quoted as saying Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for sin in New Orleans is being promoted to the rank of bishop.
The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had tapped the Rev. Gerhard Wagner, 54, to be auxiliary bishop in Linz, Austria. It did not mention the reported remarks about Katrina.

And it was just last week that Benny re-instated an excommunicated bishop who is a Holocaust denier.  What a guy.

John XXIII is twirling in his grave; Andrew Sullivan has one more obstacle to hurdle (he refuses to join the ranks of recovering Catholics).

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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Republicans call for tax cuts. Surprised?

Ah, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the joy of politics lies in the small print.

Today the Los Angeles Times gives us a little more insight into the “class warfare” which the Republican Party so often bewails. 

It’s a classic case of misdirection.  The class war is over, and you and I, DGR(s) have lost.

This last week the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted, each and every one of them, for more tax cuts.

That insight in the LAT is this:

The average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2% through the first six years of the Bush administration, and their average income doubled to $263.3 million, new data show.

Was your tax rate reduced by 1/3 and did your income double during the first six years of the Bush administration?

Thought not.

Welcome to awareness, fellow losers in the class war.

The Republican Party is not so interested in preventing a redistribution of wealth as long as that redistribution is trickle up.

Alas.

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Agnostics All

Here’s a quote from a recent posting by Andrew Sullivan:

What the defenders of the Flying Spaghetti Monster thesis' commensurability with actual theism fail to recognize is that belief in God generally doesn't have anything so "concrete" as its substance. It's not the particulars of God -- the "invisible man in the sky" imagery and such -- that matter.  In some sense these particulars aren't the content of theist belief at all; it's the "consequences" of God -- moral compunction, cultural taboo, social phenomena that amount to a de facto eschatology, etc. -- that actually constitute theism. And when measured by adherence to behaviors consistent with this belief, atheism suddenly appears much rarer. 

And that, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is what I’ve been trying to formulate into words both respectful and logical.  The “particulars” of the monotheist religions of the desert are truly irrelevant.  What is important is the social contract, the “consequences.”  “Do unto others” is far more important than a virgin birth or a resurrection or a single anthropomorphic deity.

When that basic reality becomes dominant in religious thought and seminaries, the world will be better off.

Unfortunately, researching the answer to a religious cui bono indicates that the power/money behind the current religious thinking will not cede anything to logic or the betterment of the planet’s occupants.

There’s one current theological dictum with which all can agree:  Man cannot grasp the reality of the godhead.  And since that reality extends far beyond an anthropomorphic supreme being, we’re all agnostics.  We simply don’t know because we can’t know.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Rottweiler Snarls; The Rottweiler Whimpers

Poor Pope Benedict—he simply can’t win for losing.

Benedict XVI, (B-16), welcomes back into the fold of the Roman Catholic bishoparchy an outspoken Holocaust denier then says he doesn’t agree with the guy’s anti-Semitism.  Sounds like a version of “hate the sin, love the sinner.”

Pope John XXIII convened Vatican II which was designed to “modernize” the Catholic Church; B-16 seems determined to roll back VatII as much as possible. 

B-16’s actions speak louder than his words.

One wonders if the Prada Pope will be welcomed by John in the Conclave in the Sky.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Editor? We don’ need no stinkin’ editor!

With apologies to John Huston, Dear Gentle Reader(s), one moans the use of spell check in the absence of editors who are a bit more sentient than an application.

Here is a quote from today’s The Desert Sun obituary page.  It seems a man who recently died also recently, in 2007, “marred” the woman who became his widow.

One doubts she would agree.

A spell check program is less expensive than a live editor or at least a proof reader, but the trade off is of dubious value. 

 

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Oh, really?

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One has to be amused, Dear Gentle Reader(s), at the inadvertent humor contained in some email subject lines which grace the Junk box.

“grtou, keep your youthful look”

Um…Keep it?

Please.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

January quickies

1) It’s 86 degrees here in Palm Springs right now.  Top’s down.

2) Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is on the way out.  It’s about time.

3) No on 8 court case is going forward with substantial additional help from major unions.

4) To prosecute or not to prosecute the torture clique is ahead of its time.  Investigate first then, if warranted, prosecute.

5) Obama’s dinner w/conservative pundits was a good move on his part.

6)  Big Bang Theory is the absolute funniest program on the tube this season.

7) Two and a Half Men can hardly get any raunchier without full frontal nudity. 

8) CCH Pounder is underappreciated.

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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Tits Up in a Ditch

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That, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is the title of the final story in Allie Proulx’s recently released collection of short stories.  They all deal, natch, with Wyoming.

It’s a tough read. 

One wonders how citizens of that “Great State of” feel about Ms Proulx and her writing.

Recently Proulx made some minor headlines by announcing that she intended to leave Wyoming.

Read these stories, DGR(s), and let me know whether they are an homage to the people of the state or a…um…middle finger salute.  (You might also read the linked story for further insight.)

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Nature and the Bible

Amongst all of the brouhaha, Dear Gentle Reader(s), surrounding the passage of Proposition 8 here in California, is an oft-repeated conflation of some scientific and Biblical concepts.

The most often used is, of course, the female-male element of procreation.  It is a scientific fact, with some few androgynous exceptions, as well as the old “male female He created them.”

Biblical fundamentalists, especially those who claim to believe in biblical inerrancy, use this biblical reference as their principal argument against allowing committed same-gender couples to call their union “marriage.”  “God made it that way.”

While it is true that “God made it that way,” is it not strange that fundies ignore the studies of nature/God which indicate that procreation is not a rampant element of life on earth; rather it is, in most cases, rigidly controlled.

Why is it that carnivores have limited birth rates?  Why is it that small herbivores and insectivores have larger litters?  Why do insects and smaller fishes have such large numbers of offspring?

Generally speaking, the large populations of smaller life forms feed the larger life forms.  Without the small rodent food supply of the Arctic, many wolves and certain birds of that region would perish.  Population control is a form of natural birth control.  Nature has put in place a very stern limit on wildlife carnivores—should they exceed that limit, starvation to the point of possible extinction is a certainty.

If one might “jump to the chase,” DGR(s), it is strange that fundies opposed to same-gender “marriage” don’t see there is a logical thread between the natural order of population control amongst wildlife species and the population control of same-gender coupling.  And that coupling could very well be part of the larger plan to help control the human population of the earth—which is certainly better than war, disease, famine, and female infanticide.

Just because the desert tribes of 4,000 years ago were concerned with ethnic cleansing, if not genocide, does not mean that we ought to take their dicta as literal law of our own.  We have the ability of 4,000 years of observation and learning.  That should give us perspective which those desert tribes would not have been capable of achieving.  Same-gender unions are generally non-reproductive, although they are certainly a stabilizing force in the society; and, as such they are a God given element of population control—and a much better one than war, famine, disease, and female infanticide.

To assert, as does a writer to the local Palm Springs newspaper:

Mistletoe, can only grow in/on trees.

It cannot grow in the earth.

Only in/on trees, Oak Trees.

Hearts of oak are our ships, and our hearts.

If mistletoe did not attach to oak trees it would cease to exist.

Oak trees, (men) mistletoe (women).

Mistletoe attaches to oak trees to survive, it cannot attach it self to other mistletoe, that is the order of things, nature's order.

Simple isn't it.

is erroneous.  Nothing in nature is simple.

Here’s loving response to fundies’ outrage, Dear Gentle Reader(s), “Same-gender marriage is a blessing from God.”

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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

In case you thought…

Palm Springs is all palm trees and xeriscape, this is a scene from last week’s snow fall.

                                            12.18.08.8.31AM

Have a good Bah!Humbug! season, Dear Gentle Reader(s)!

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Monday, December 22, 2008

A Tiny Smile for the Season

Over at The New York Times’ email submission today, Dear Gentle Reader(s), there’s a slightly amusing teaser sentence:  “Talk radio hosts are back on offense, with some familiar names joining the airwaves as Barack Obama takes office.”  (The phrasing in the article itself--After eight years of playing defense for President Bush, the conservatives who dominate talk radio are back on offense--isn’t as much fun.)

Haven’t they always been offensive?  Isn’t that their purpose?  Why God put them on earth?  Rather like houseflies or cockroaches?

Who knew?

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Andrew’s Obsession

Poor Andrew Sullivan, he just can’t let go the bile his system holds for Senator Clinton.

Here’s Sullivan’s latest silliness as it appears in a discussion about Ms Kennedy’s interest in the New York senate seat which Mrs. Clinton will be vacating upon her move to the State Department:  “Clinton got her seat because of nepotism…”

Now, Dear Gentle Reader(s), well you might wonder about that.  Sullivan got it wrong.  Mrs. Clinton ran in the Democratic primaries; she ran against a Republican who tried mightily to run on resentment of the Clintons.  Mr. Lazio’s tactic didn’t work.  Mrs. Clinton worked hard on her campaign and won the race in 2000 handily.

That is not called nepotism; it’s called hard work. 

Mrs. Clinton had name recognition, but that could well have hurt as much as it helped.  Sullivan owes the Senator an apology, but there is serious doubt it will be forthcoming.

As to whether or not Ms Kennedy (Why isn’t anyone using her married name?  Did Mary Bono-Mack start something?  Or maybe Diane Feinstein?) should be appointed to the seat, it’s probably best to take Mr. Butler’s stance.  Remember, DGR(s)?  It starts, “Frankly, my dear…”

 

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Sunday, December 14, 2008

“I love them like everybody else.”

Um, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the above is not quite truthful.

It was spoken by Margie Christofersen about gays to Steve Lopez who wrote “Prop.8 stance upends her life” (print)/”A life thrown into turmoil by $100 donation for Prop. 8” (online).

It isn’t true, you see, because Margie Cristofersen also “…supports her church’s position [LDS] that marriage is between a man and a woman.

That support indicates that Christofersen doesn’t think gays are part of “everybody else.”  Committed relationships between two consenting adults are not equal in Christofersen’s view.  She merely mouths a platitude and seemingly doesn’t understand why she isn’t believed.  She thinks she loves equally, but she doesn’t.  Even the copious tears reported by Lopez are unconvincing.

Actions, Dear Margie, speak clearer truth than words.

It’s only logical.

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Friday, December 12, 2008

(Make a Suggestion)

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On occasion, Dear Gentle Reader(s), a thought comes to light which virtually defies description in the limited space available in a “title.”

One such thought appeared in The Desert Sun, the local paper in Palm Springs, in a letter to the editor on December 11, 2008:

A man and woman are equal partners, but different and complimentary in so many ways. That is why Adam was pleased with God's gift of Eve. Only the combination of man and woman can produce children and hence the continuation of a society.

Might one extrapolate?  “…Adam was pleased with God’s gift of Eve.”  Um…What?  God “gave” Eve to Adam?  Eve was a gift?  Did anyone ask Eve if this was OK with her?  God gives gifts?  Is there a receipt for possible exchange?

The letter writer lives in Indian Wells, a quite wealthy community in the heart of the Coachella Valley.  It is the home of the tennis tournament which brings thousands to Southern California.  It once tried to foist its low-income housing requirements onto a neighboring city.  One might think, then, that the writer is not completely a sheep, blindly following a religious tenet.

So.  What to think?  How might one write a headline which encompasses a person’s insensitivity, ignorance, audacity, virtual blasphemy, and courage to face his female spouse as well as another’s astonishment that such a thought would be uttered in the first decade of the 21st century?

Suggestions are welcome.

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Saturday, December 06, 2008

So much for redemption

The Vietnam War, Dear Gentle Reader(s), has left an indelible mark, hasn’t it?

Remember the brouhaha over William Ayers, the erstwhile Underground Weatherman which the Republican campaign tried mightily to associate with Mr. Obama?

Well, today in The New York Times  he offers a sort of mea culpa.  If you have the time and inclination, the column is accessible here.

Expect to see the Republican bloviators to respond with found and fury along these lines of one Hilzoy,  in his blog Obsidian Wings.  After going back in history (one year prior to Ayers’ start in his column) and fairly well rebutting some of Ayers’ points, Hilzoy ends with this:

Ayers may think that there's still a debate about the Weather Underground's effectiveness. And he might also think that he "acted appropriately in the context of those times." To me, though, he's just a shallow rich kid who took himself and his revolutionary rhetoric much too seriously, helped inspire people to do things that got them killed, and helped to discredit the anti-war movement and the left as a whole.

He has done enough harm already. Now he should do the decent thing and leave us in peace.

That’s good advice.  One problem with the advice is that Ayers has been trying to leave everyone in peace, especially himself since those days of stupidity.  It was the opposition to Mr. Obama which resurrected Ayers and his wife, Bernadette Dohrn.

And from the tone if Hilzoy’s retort, it’s obvious that there’s no such thing as leaving someone in peace.  Ayers’ subsequent laudable behavior does not seem to have counted for anything among the right wing.  They could take a lesson from G.B. Shaw who wrote:

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

Redemption?

Piffle!  Not for those who took to the streets against the Vietnam War.

Do you ever suppose, DGR(s), that we’ll learn to take “measurements anew” anytime soon?

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Thursday, December 04, 2008

Class Warfare!!! (snort!)

A most recent teapot tempest, Dear Gentle Reader(s), has arisen over the different (?) treatment given by Congress to the Wall Street financiers and to the automobile CEOs and union bosses.

When it is pointed out that the financiers were treated with respect and the CEOs are being treated with some derision (You had the audacity to fly!?!), Republican types are immediately crying “Class warfare!”

Um…in case no one has noticed, the class war is over, and the rich folk have won.  President Bush has presided over the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the upper class in the history of the world.

Don’t believe me?  Look around.  How many rich folk are in default on their mortgages?

Thought so.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Ann Richards” “Poor George” was never more appropriate!

Hie thee, Dear Gentle Reader(s), to the Telnaes animated cartoon over at washingtonpost.com.

Although Gov. Richards made the statement about Bush I, it is very appropriate to Bush II.

Animated cartoon eyes are quite telling; notice, especially Telnaes’ ability with W’s eyes.

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

S&L Guilt?

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Andrew Sullivan has a snippet about President Bush’s pardons.  It seems Bush is being generous to “S&L executives and others who swindled thrifts in the mid-1980’s...”

Hmmm.  Wasn’t there a Bush brother, or two and a father, involved with an S&L in Colorado?  Didn’t he come out without doing time?  Something like Silverado?  (Gotta love Google!)

Just askin’.

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Oh, Please!

It isn’t often, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that a liberal comes to the virtual assistance of Governor Palin, but it’s time.

This brouhaha about the press statement backdropped by a couple of turkeys being slaughtered is a lot of ado about not much.

One remembers, for instance, watching one’s mother grabbing a chicken by the head and then twirling it around until the neck was broken.  (Then one remembers pouring scalding water over the chicken to prepare the feathers for plucking—not to mention the subsequent gutting!)

One also remembers one’s mother being given the knife when one’s father and neighbors were preparing to slaughter a young pig.  One gains a certain respect for one’s mother who is capable of slicing open the neck of a pig, and placing a pan in the appropriate spot to catch the blood—to be used later in sausage.

A turkey being prepared for a Thanksgiving table?  Bring it on.  It’s the way of a carbon based world.

Go Sarah!

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

A not-so-funny thing happened…

…on my way to buy a new food processor, Dear Gentle Reader(s).  The stock market fell to new lows.

Hmmm.  Perhaps one ought to wait on new purchases…just in case one needs the money later on for macaroni and cheese boxes.

Nice going, deregulators, whoever you were/are.

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