I think it's time to LEAVE.

I think I've used that precious line from Tammy's (Friend for Live) and my undergrad latenight party-going days before on here, but dag, it's appropriate.

I mean, seriously, some people in Afghanistan complained that the authoritays in the US did not arrest the jackass pastor who invented that despicable plan to burn Qur'ans tomorrow? All the while burning American flags? Really? I don't remember when burning a book became a criminal act in this democratic republic. (Go to town with the Terry Jones effigy, though, without danger of arrest. Burning stuff and protesting aren't against the law here as long as no one gets hurt; it's probably that way in Afghanistan, too, right?)

And calling for President Obama's death? Really? Those people would fit right in here with our culture of "blame some other guy." Seriously.

And finally, we are not all the jackass pastor (who still should be ashamed, even though he bagged his plan), other people in the world. What the hellz? So, if we Americans are all jackass pastor-types who want to engage in acts of hatred, does that make you all terrorists?

Come on, people. yeesh

There is only one thing that can be said about this: American are growing more and more stupid.

And really, what the hellz does it matter anyway what is his religion? We didn't elect the guy to be our pastor or imam or any other religious leader.

Poll: Growing Number Believe Obama Is Muslim
by The Associated Press

August 19, 2010

Americans increasingly are convinced - incorrectly - that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are thoroughly confused about his religion.

Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is down to just 34 percent.

The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don't know his religion, an increase from the 34 percent who said that in early 2009.

The survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center and its affiliated Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, is based on interviews conducted before the controversy over whether Muslims should be permitted to construct a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center there, though he's also said he won't take a position on whether they should actually build it.

In a separate poll by Time magazine/ABT SRBI conducted Monday and Tuesday - after Obama's comments about the mosque - 24 percent said they think he is Muslim, 47 percent said they think he is Christian and 24 percent didn't know or didn't respond.

In addition, 61 percent opposed building the Muslim center near the Trade Center site and 26 percent said they favor it.

The Pew poll found that about three in 10 of Obama's fiercest political rivals, Republicans and conservatives, say he is a Muslim. That is up significantly from last year and far higher than the share of Democrats and liberals who say so. But even among his supporters, the number saying he is a Christian has fallen since 2009, with just 43 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Democrats saying he is Christian.

Among independents, 18 percent say Obama is Muslim - up from 10 percent last year.

Pew analysts attribute the findings to attacks by his opponents and Obama's limited attendance at religious services, particularly in contrast with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whose worship was more public.

Andrew Kohut, the Pew Research Center's director, said the confusion partly reflects "the intensification of negative views about Obama among his critics." Alan Cooperman, the Pew Forum's associate director for research, said that with the public hearing little about Obama's religion, "maybe there's more possibility for other people to make suggestions that the president is this or he's really that or he's really a Muslim."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129291805&sc=fb&cc=fp

Chill Bear

At our house, we have a candy bear that makes clicky noise, a sweet present my bro and sis-in-law brought from Yellowstone. We put a Miller Chill beer cap on the bear's head, and I call him, alternately, Park Bear or Chill Bear, and frequently tell Catsy to stop knocking the bear off the window sill.

Chill Bear. Last week I became embroiled in a group on FaceBook in which many rude words were exchanged, and at the end of a day of trying to talk reason with the torch-bearing young masses, I was told by one guy that I take life too seriously and that I needed to drink a beer.

Well, the FFM has told me on numerous occasions pretty much the same thing, and I took it to heart and decided to chill.

And today, I am offering the same weight-releasing, mellowing suggestion to the Muslim world, or, to be clearer, at least to those who figure prominently in creating a reason for the warning to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of one of the ultimate politically incorrect, joking and jabbing cartoons, South Park.

Really, guys, it does feel way better to just chill. I mean, really, what is this insane fear people of all stripes demonstrate so aggressively when someone disagrees with them? Yuck. Crap, who's right? Who's wrong? Who cares? believe what you want, and let the rest of us do the same. Simple!

In fact, if it weren't 8:27 in the morning, I might chill with a beer right now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8636455.stm

Thousands Flee Wrecked Haitian Capital

Huh... I read this headline: "Thousands Flee Wicked Haitian Capital." I wonder why?

Pat Robertson: Haiti Earthquake due to 1791 “Pact with Devil”

Pat Robertson: "Haiti Cursed Since Satanic Pact"

Yeesh.

Even the Swiss Are Rude.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, and just plain mean.

Vatican and Muslims condemn Swiss minaret ban vote

Religious leaders across the world have criticised Switzerland's referendum vote to ban the building of minarets.

The Vatican joined Muslim figureheads from Indonesia and Egypt, as well as Switzerland, in denouncing the vote as a blow to religious freedom.

France's FM Bernard Kouchner expressed shock at the ban which, he said, showed "intolerance" and should be reversed.

More than 57.5% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban on Sunday.

The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People's Party, (SVP), the largest party in parliament, which said minarets were a sign of Islamisation.

More at the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8385893.stm

The best is French FM Koucher's intolerance of intolerance:
"I am a bit shocked by this decision," Mr Kouchner told France's RTL radio on Monday. "It is an expression of intolerance and I detest intolerance."
(Yeah, that's the country where the headscarf caused controversy when the gubmint decided to ban that "religious symbol" in schools.)

I get it, though. People are afraid of other cultures impinging on their own cultural traditions and rights, and that kind of behavior so outmoded, don't you think? I mean, when is the last time a white western country invaded some other nation to impose their own values and ways of living, including religion?

Church

It's that time of year, people, when I get really maudlin. You know, wistful and thinking about where I have been in life and where I might be going- or not- and then wondering sort of what it matters anyway and am I pleased enough where I am right now that if someone hit me in the face with an axe tomorrow, I would be OK with croaking?

I guess I am not alone. I went to see the Judge yesterday, and he was reclining in his recliner thinking pretty much the same- although with 50 more years than I behind him. And the FFM told me later on that Ebony had been "ruminating," to use the Judge's word, over similar, on the realization that she has been in LA now for two years.

So, she went to church to sing. I love to go to church to sing, too, and don't do it often enough probably, so bless you, girl, for getting up on a Sunday and doing it.

Instead, I went to the senior center here in town and helped serve brunch from 10:30-12:30. That's like my church, I told the FFM. And it is. I felt about 7K times better when I got there and started doing the community service thing. Yeah, I mean that I do that because I enjoy it, and I had been missing that element of civic life and feeling pretty selfish.

I read an article last week about the Student Senate here at UWYo voting against making community service a requirement. Yay! Jerbus, life is not necessarily a prison. Just get out and try helping other people on a regular basis because you want to. You may be pleasantly surprised. And for those of you who believe in karma, hell, it can only do you good.

p.s. I might have scammed the photo here. I think I am supposed to pay for it, but hey, it's no larger here than it is on the search site, so thanks, whoever.

I just could not shut up on this one.

I'm sorry; I'd planned to let Diz's spiel take the spot for a few days, but before I can let that happen, I just want to ask:

What the hell were these old men doing in the Young Adult Section at the library, huh? (Story link below):

Christian group sues for right to burn gay teen novel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/12/christian-group-sues-burn-gay-teen-novel

Why am I so mad?

How often is that the title of my entry? Crap.

But seriously, so my brother sent this video of some monks doing their throat singing, which is pretty cool, at least interesting. I don't know if I could listen for longer than the 4 or 5 minutes of video time, but that's OK. The singing is some sort of prayer, and I don't get it; I'm not Buddhist, but that's OK, too. Tomas noted that his chest burns when he listens to these guys singing. Mine doesn't. Oh well.

Then I noticed that my brother's tag was listed in the comments, and that he had been involved in a conversation about the video. Now, I don't know if it's that I am protective of my little bro and didn't like the patently aggressive response of someone to his comment about faith, or whether I am just sick and tired of people being able to rail against the Ten Commandments being placed in the public arena via courthouses and such, but those people are permitted to spout their venomous hatred of all concepts even remotely mysterious, as though their nonreligion is the only real and true one and the rest of us had better start sucking it up and not believing in anything, just like them, or we're destined for hell on earth..?

Don't get me wrong; be an atheist. That doesn't bother me, and it's your choice, anyway, and I can honestly say that as someone who calls herself a Christian, that's my ethical philosophy, as the FFM so eloquently labeled my own "faith" rather than a religion or a belief in deity, some human-looking guy wearing long hair and a fresh white robe and walking around in the clouds. (Though I do find comfort at times in yapping with the Big Guy Upstairs, just to get my head or my heart straight, or simply to be thankful for all the cool stuff that makes up my life, regardless of how it or I got here.)

You can be Christian- of any number of denominations because, let's admit it, many denominations exist, thanks to the ability of The Bible to provide many opportunities for interpretation. Just don't proselytize at me about how your denomination is the "right" one. Are you sure the Big Guy really made you and not the rest of us in his own image?

You can be Jewish, but don't get me started on Israel.

You can be Muslim, sunni, shia, doesn't matter, Sufi peace-loving, Rumi reading, but if you're one of those intolerant religious buffs- like Christians who preach meeting people where they are at but then tell them how they have to live- and strive to hurt people who don't do what you want them to do, don't talk to me.

You can be Buddhist. Or Wiccan. Even the kind that feel the need for something but buck against the white man's western religion, so that's your reason for your leanings.

You can be Hindu, though I totally don't get the whole thing about that, and frankly, have little interest in finding out more, when there are other topics out there to explore and only so much time.

If you practice religion, or "spirituality," or simply humanity, or none of that, no big deal. But when people run around busting on those who have some belief system and then push their own proposed nonbelief in others' faces, it pisses me off. I just don't know quite why, but when you yell "screw faith" at my brother as he is engaging in a thoughtful conversation about people's tendencies toward belief in something, whatever it is, outside of themselves- out of your own fear, I'd challenge- and equate faith with "believing blindly"- I am just so glad you're not my neighbor on a dark Saturday night... You would not get donuts from me on Sunday as a make-up present.

(The picture here is of the frequency of the throat singing. Does it look like anything else to you?)

Just in Time for Sunday Worship!

Pope Launches YouTube Channel

Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 January 2009

The Pope has officially embraced the digital world as the Vatican unveils a new YouTube video channel, featuring clips of the day-to-day activities and messages from the head of the Catholic church.

The new channel, unveiled today at the press room of the Holy See, aims to "help establish relationships with Catholics from around the world" by broadcasting short video news clips on the Pope's activities and events at the Vatican.

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the press room, television centre and Vatican Radio, said that the YouTube channel was a "real and tangible example of the Church's commitment in the field of new technologies, to reach out to a global audience without regard for nationality or culture".

In a press statement, the Catholic church said that despite its "ancient roots" it remained "convinced of its ability to express words that are still important and relevant in today's world, using language and communications technologies of today's world".

The Vatican YouTube channel is expected to help establish relationships with Catholics from around the world, who will have easier access to updated information, as well as with people of different beliefs or religions.

The channel, which will run audio and text in English, Spanish, German and Italian, launches today with clips of Pope Benedict XVI, such as the Christmas message and blessing and the 1 January celebration of World Peace Day.

It will also have a clip of the Pope talking about new technologies in social communication, the theme he has chosen for this year's Catholic Church World Social Communication Day.
"YouTube is a communications platform open to all, where users, institutions and content producers come together in a global meeting place," said Henrique de Castro, managing director of European sales and media solutions at YouTube.

"We are honoured that the Vatican has chosen to use the site to communicate with people across the world, and delighted that our community will have access to the words of the Pope on some of the most important issues facing the world today."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/23/pope-youtube-channel

What is with his face looking all like a beet?

Here's to 2009- are you laughing or crying?

So, now everyone is all up in arms about evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren giving the inaugural prayer next month- except Warren himself and Obama, I imagine:

Worries about Obama inauguration prayer http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rel_inauguration_prayer.

People, what is this crap about "cultural sensitivity" on the verge of going too far? The PC world entered the realm of Cultural Insensitivity ages ago. When you're all bent on getting your own agenda met, without considering the reason behind the proposed action or the words with which you disagree, existing, or considering why people believe or think other than you do, as though your way is the only right way, you're being a hypocrite.

I don't agree with Warren's stance on gay marriage. I have plenty of gay friends I think should be able to declare their intimate commitment the same way I am allowed with a man if I so desire. I've also read Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life, and found some of his points pretty lucid and reasonable: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less." "Real fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives." "Every time you understand and affirm someone's feelings, you build fellowship." (Fellowship being defined as "experiencing life together.")

Check it out: We all live on this planet together. What's the sense of pointing out another's hypocricy without looking at our own part in the conflict? Obama "defended his choice, saying he wanted the event to reflect diverse views..." No, serious, the view that we can only have certain opinions and beliefs is only one view! Really! But craploads of people have differing opinions on what those views should be. What?

The world is full of hypocricy. My counselor yesterday (yeah, it's true, I am not completely pulled together in all areas of life and need a little help now and then), suggested that my disappointment with the way people conduct themselves, some deep-seated grief over the nature of the world in which we live, leads to my general mistrust of humanity, and occasionally the people closely surrounding me. That's a pretty miserable feeling, but there it is. I have my own idea of how we should act toward each other, but I don't go around telling people they can't have their own ideas; I just rail about what I perceive as general human retardedness here in my blog- and spend a ridiculous amount of crying and wondering if I'm doing enough to make things out there any better- my definition of "better." Eh, face it; I'm a hypocrite, too.

Don't give me any of that "religion is evil" shite either. Sure, there are plenty of people out there who interpret the Bible, the Qur'an, whatever sacred text, to their own liking, even atheists (who have their own sacred texts, "sacred" being defined by Webster as not only having to do with religion in the deity sense, but also "devoted exclusively to one service or use," and "entitled to reverence and respect.") But what's wrong with invoking Jesus Christ at an inaugural ceremony? It's not the only thing that will happen there, right? If you don't like to hear those words, "Jesus," "Christ," then close your ears for that part. It's no more a sign that the country is destined to go straight to hell because religion has been shoved into a secular event than four years ago when it happened. Obama was elected, not someone representing the radical self-righteous conservative Christians who live here. Or are you afraid of Jesus Christ because you can't find it in your own human heart to meet people where they are at, like he did, historically, according to certain accounts?

Even if the man didn't exist in real life, and even if he did and was just another human being who was able to spread a radical way of being in the world, because the timing and socio-political conditions were ready and he was uber-dedicated to his own beliefs, can a person deny that it's pretty much a universal value to want to accept others and get along at some level? What did you say, Mr. Obama? You would like to "reflect diverse views" at your inauguration? Is your intention to try to bring people together? Huh. What's that, "culturally sensitive" folks? You want to "reflect diverse views," as long as you agree with them?

OK, enough ranting on that subject. Let's look at the other stories that appeared on my homepage for the last day of the year:

Billionaire Blowups of 2008
"More than 300 of the 1,125 billionaires we tallied on our annual list last March have since lost at least $1 billion; several dozen lost more than $5 billion. The 10 richest from our 2008 rankings dropped some $150 billion of wealth, dragged down by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, estranged brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani and property baron K.P. Singh, who together dropped $100 billion. America's 25 biggest billionaire losers of 2008 lost a combined $167 billion."
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/106352/Billionaire-Blowups-of-2008

Don't ask these guys for money any time soon; they're practically flat broke, poor things:
Anil Ambani- $42 billion to $12 billion (This is what happens when family ties go to hell.)
Oleg Deripaska- $28 billion to <$10 billion (Once the world's richest man, he survived the gangster wars for this? How much is Putin worth now?) Anurag Dikshit (There's an unfortunate name; no wonder he's having trouble.)- $1.6 billion to $1 billion
Bjorgflur Gudmundsson- $1.1 billion to ZERO (Maybe he's the guy from Iceland who wrote Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home Companion saying, "Please send money.")
Luis Portillo- $1.2 billion to $15 million. !Esto mercado finca apesta!

Hey, how come the top 10 blowups aren't American? Don't worry; my close warm personal friend Bill Gates is still the richest man in the US, and the Wal-Mart Walton family is going strong.

"The rich haven't gotten richer--or poorer--this year. The price of admission to this, the 27th edition of The Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion for the second year in a row. The assembled net worth of America's wealthiest rose by $30 billion--only 2%--to $1.57 trillion.

"Rising prices of oil and art paved the way for 31 new members and eight returnees, while volatile stock and housing markets forced 33 plutocrats from our rankings."
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/09/16/richest-american-billionaires-lists-400list08-cx_mm_dg_0917richintro.html

Whoa, FFM, did you see that? Art! This is it: your chance!

Hooray! Here's to next year, without all these crappy overused words:
green, carbon footprint, maverick, first dude, and MAIN STREET.
Banned words list offers no 'bailout' to offenders
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/ap_on_re_us/banned_words;_ylt=Ar8cwOMHR1jXvhUHFid4sD4azJV4
Bye-bye, 2008.

Radical Zealots Use Conventional Weapons to Kill NY Worker

On November 28, Black Friday in the United States, a throng of extremist consumer-shoppers, using a weapon that has served in battle since time immemorial, their physical bodies, successfully killed a 34-year-old retail worker at a corporate giant Wal-Mart store in Long Island, New York, during a mad rush that also shattered the glass doors of the establishment.

Meanwhile, four other people, including a 28-year-old woman reported as pregnant, were treated for minor injuries following the assault.

While charges could be filed, according to police, using surveillance video and eyewitness accounts would be difficult in establishing direct involvement and culpability in this criminal act. If other stories of trampling deaths during impassioned rushes at religious pilgrimage are any indication of consequences, expect none, except for the collateral damage experienced by many who found themselves empty-handed of flat-screen TVs and other idols of worship for which they had arisen early and come out to fight.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008448574_shop290.html
(if for some odd reason you haven't seen this already)

Nights Without Melatonin

Among the many topics that entered my mind, some to stick around for quite a bit of thought, last night while I wasn't sleeping, were soil project ideas and who might be good connections for problems that maybe would allow playing around with landscape architecture; the sophisticated yet primal beauty of Elphaba's death throes in the book "Wicked," by Gregory McGuire; and, most importantly, that I ought to clarify my most recent blog entry before Something Happens.

I was really mad the other day. It's easy to see how people can get passionate enough about their own beliefs and need for responsibility over their own lives to wish or bring ill upon those who threaten those beliefs and that need. I mean, I was really mad. But, I am also a person who believes in some amount of karmic something out there and generally ascribes to the Golden Rule, so I want to clarify that I do not really hope that everyone who believes it is an important political and moral issue to address gay marriage in our federal government so that God will take care of our country loses his or her job and every penny he or she has. That was more a figurative way of reacting to the threat of someone else trying to drive my life with his (what I consider misconstrued and nonuniversal) values and my general disillusionment with a large portion of the American public and their willingness to succumb to vague political or religious rhetoric or doctrine without full consideration of what that means.

For example, I imagine, though I could actually be wrong about this, that many people who believe the President of the USA should push for a legal nationwide ban on gay marriage also believe that terrorism by Muslim extremists at our doorstep is an imminent danger and that we are a freedom-loving equal-opportunity democracy that should not be threatened by Those People. Yet, as my friend from Turkmenistan pointed out at lunch last weekend, in her Muslim nation there was enough of a holdover from Soviet government when Turkmenistan became independent of Soviet rule, that women there are still paid the same as men for doing the same job. Period. That doesn't necessarily happen here in this Land of Opportunity; there is still a wage gap in the US of A.

But crap; I've blown my self-imposed moratorium on talking politics until after November 4. Dang!

Oh, My God?

Before I get started, check out this sweet colorful street art from Apex in San Francisco, provided by the ever-reliable Fatcap at Fatcap.com:

I'm slow getting around to this today. Scutabaga, my laptop by Acer, with Windows Vista, has completely stopped working. I have owned it for four months and have returned it to the company for repairs twice. I have been informed in messages on the computer over the past couple days that there is a software and a hardware problem.

On to today's real problem, the one that makes me want to do more than scream, that makes me want to shake people by the collars and punch them in the head with my jacknife (and I consider myself pretty much a pacifist who doesn't like conflict, particularly): Listening to Morning Edition on NPR this morning, I heard a man say that he doesn't care if the country goes broke, that what is important to him in voting is the issue of gay marriage; that if this country pays attention to morals, then God will take care of us.

K, people, I am going to break it down for you here, the Ten Commandments, the moral imperatives purportedly handed to Moses by that God guy of whom this man spoke:

1. I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.

3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and mother.

6. You shall not murder. (The Roman Catholic Church, I have read, uses the word "kill", instead of "murder.")

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal. (Apparently some Jewish sources reference kidnapping here.)

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; ou shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

See on this list where thou shalt not marry a person of the same gender? Me neither. I don't know where this man got his glasses. Perhaps the same place as those fancy ones Sarah Palin wears are sold.

See on this list where thou shalt not steal or covet thy neighbor's house? Me too. Apparently plenty of other people forgot those morals. I hope that man who spoke on the radio this morning, and everybody who holds the same morals he does, lose every single job and every single penny they have so that they will have something real to worry about instead of shoving their proposed Godly morals down my throat, which is really sore right now as it is, from screaming about thieves like Bill Gates, the fraudulent Big Brother of the software industry who holds us all under his command while he goes off on his self-righteous jihad against the ravaging diseases in Africa. Chicaner.

And I won't even get started on the separation of church and state thing. I have to go to work. Thank the Big Guy Upstairs I still have a job for now. Whew. And imagine Him taking care of a woman who thinks anyone should be able to marry anyone he or she loves enough to commit to at that sacred a level, regardless of gender!

Thank God, Allah, Yahweh, the Big Guy Upstairs

This morning I woke to the news that a religious outcry has sparked the recall- or at least a hold-up in release- of the new and much-awaited (not by myself- I don't even own a PlayStation- but throngs of people out there who need a fix) Sony video game LittleBigPlanet.

"What are the damned fundamentalist Christians up to now?" I wondered. (You know a good number are damned; maybe they'll go to some sweet heaven someday where they'll sit on puffy clouds in neverending sunny 70 degree temps, and strum harps in perfect harmony, even if they've never had musical training before, aside from the experience of singing in church on Sundays, but admit it: those folks are pretty much living in hell on earth today when they refuse to enjoy all that's afforded in this life.) But it wasn't them this time.

LBP is a game of several levels of play, with themes based on various real-world-like locations (ie. deserts, city streets, the arctic) and in which players can band together and share their experience creating a global community. Doesn't sound too bad, right? So far no blasphemous utterances or decapitation of people of other colors or creeds or anything like that. Never having played the game, I can't attest to whether these are possibilities in the game world. (Players can slap each other, though; that's a fact.)

So, why was release of LBP delayed?

"Sony pulls its most celebrated title of the year four days before the store date over musical track containing 'potentially offensive' lines from the Qu'ran."---http://www.pcworld.com/article/152477/sonys_littlebigplanet_recalled_over_references_to_quran.html

"The 'social platforming' game is already gathering rave reviews, but it hasn't proven popular with one Muslim group, which issued a complaint to the game's publisher Sony concerning one background music track. Performed by award-winning Malian musician Toumani Diabate, the song quotes two verses from the Qur'an. Many Muslims consider the mixing of music and scripture to be deeply offensive."---Mike Smith for Yahoo! http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/religious-outcry-sparks-littlebigrecall/1257227

There you have it: some people might be offended by a bit of the content in a video game, so the company is holding off relesase until the possibly repugnant song can be expunged. The game is packaged and ready to go. But, in the long run, this decision is probably good for the company. Now all those people who are complaining will, I'm sure, go buy it for themselves and add to the profit Sony makes. (Grab yours as soon as it finally gets here- October 27?)

The best part of the whole situation? That people really do respond quickly and decisively to even a few squeaky wheels, whether or not they are constituents. That's progress in the Free World.

Pet Pony

OK, I know this is preaching to the choir; or I suspect it mostly is. So, here you go: PLEASE go out and take the message to the masses. Don't expect it to sink in, but remember, Jesus himself and his disciples, knowing their radicalism held at least a tinge of Truth, took a lot of crap and probably rolled their eyes and smacked their fists against their heads more than a few times when they came up against the brick walls of self-imposed ignorance.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080/page/4

It's a Beautiful Day, and Mi Hermana-in-Lawla Is a Beautiful Driver

I had a lot of work to do this morning on Scutabaga, even though he needs more surgery before wireless will work again. It's OK when I'm sitting at the kitchen table drinking strong coffee in the morning sun.

First, the Future First Man and I were completely lame patriots on the 4th of July. After messing around at coffee for several hours, having a beer with the Judge, and dropping in at the first local farmers market of the season- all of which sounds like Normal American Behavior, right?- we went home and skipped all BBQs and parties we'd been invited to for the evening, and lay in bed and read and napped and almost missed the fireworks, crawling out to the corner barefoot- Very American!- to watch the last half or so of the show through the trees, leaning against a telephone pole (something still not found in some parts of Other Countries, right?)

When we got back home, we were wide awake, so lay on the floor and watched three episodes in a row of season 3 of Lost on DVD. Hugely American. Patriotic? That is for you to decide. FFM's favorite character is Sawyer the sassy redneck, so he probably passes. Mine, however, is Mikhail Bakunin, The Other who never seems to die- or at least is afforded more lives than a person, or even a cat, could shake a stick at.

Bakunin is so badass he escapes knife impalements to the chest in order to moments later pull pins from live grenades and throw them while underwater. I am assuming, though I know I should not, that he survives the blast. I am not allowed to read ahead to see what's happening these days on the show, lest it ruin my experience when I actually view episodes. (Recently, however, I stumbled inadvertently across an article in Popular Science about wormholes and how Ben may have moved the island. Of course, I read this. Voters, patience is not one of my top 3 virtues, or even top 5, probably, except when it comes to enduring crappy relationships with members of the opposite sex- not the FFM, just to be clear. There will be no shouting and throwing of lamps, dinnerware or other precious household items at each other in Aubergine House.)

Back to Mikhail Bakunin: he is so tough and cunning and mysterious- and is blessed with the bonus of being named after a Fine Anarchist- that I wish I'd been cast in his role on that show. So, this morning I got up to look for a "Which Character on Lost Am I?" quiz to take to see if I could actually pass muster.

You know what I found, don't you? Every dang quiz out there makes you into a Jack or a Sawyer or a Charlie, or in my case, happily enough, my second favorite character, a Locke. That's just crap, I say. But patriotic crap, isn't it? Good v. Evil, and you can only get to be a "good" character? Although whether Locke is evil was questioned in the quiz I took. Maybe more like "Us v. Them," and we know there are some of Them lurking among the Us that need to be called out and culled out.

I also took a little break to play some anime vampire quiz game that, despite it was devised for the enjoyment of teenage girls, I enjoyed. You want your President to be able to relate to a widely varied constituency, right? I heard a guy on Talk of the Nation yesterday say he's a Gen-Xer and believes that McCain doesn't represent him or really any of his generation because those older folks just don't relate to the younger set, and it's the younger generation that is going to inherit this country. The guy made sense to me.

So, on to politics, as it must be. Last night an Exciting Discussion arose about Obama and his Faith-Based Initiative Talk and why is he doing it, and what about the separation of church and state? I will not go into that here; it's for the man himself to explain now. I got the ball rolling here earlier.

What I heard that surprised me was that a poll had found that most Americans would not vote for an atheist for President. I could not believe this, though my gut reaction is, sure, a lot of people out there probably would not be comfortable putting their future in the form of government in the hands of someone who had a dim view, at best, of a future. That's how people look at existentialism, as fatalistic, despite the excellent way mi hermana approached the subject in a recent comment on this blog; and people connect existentialism with atheism.

Here is what I found when I went online to learn more about people's views regarding an atheist as President:

from http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheistSurveys.htm:
A 1999 Gallup poll conducted to determine Americans' willingness to tolerate a Jewish president (Joseph Lieberman was the Democratic candidate for Vice President at the time). Here are the percentages of people saying they would refuse to vote for "a generally well-qualified person for president" on the basis of some characteristic; in parenthesis are the figures for earlier years:
Catholic: 4% (1937: 30%), Black: 5% (1958: 63%, 1987: 21%), Jewish: 6% (1937: 47%), Baptist: 6%, Woman: 8%, Mormon: 17%, Muslim: 38%, Gay: 37% (1978: 74%), Atheist: 48%.

from http://www.swivel.com/data_columns/spreadsheet/2076653:
Would You Vote for an Atheist President?
August 1958- 18%; September 1958- 18%; December 1959- 22%; July 1978- 40%; May 1983- 42%; August 1987- 44%; February 1999- 49%; February 2007- 45%. (Note that the percentage of people willing to vote atheist in this poll decreased between 1999 and last year.)

from http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/atheism9.htm:
Web Posted: August 12, 2000
A poll from the Gallup organization shows that Sen. Joseph Lieberman has made history in becoming the first Jewish American to run on a presidential ticket for either of the two major political parties, and that an overwhelming majority of those questioned say that his Orthodox faith is not an issue. The August 8 survey results show that 92% of respondents said they would vote for a "generally well qualified person for president" who happened to be Jewish, with only 6% saying they would oppose such a candidate. Similar percentages are reported when asked how they feel about a Roman Catholic or Baptist candidate as well.
A Mormon candidate generates a 79% approval rating, with 17% saying they would not vote for an LDS member.
Atheists do not fare as well, though, according to the Gallup survey, which finds "close to half of Americans, 48%, unwilling to support an atheist for president while 49% say they would."

I'll leave the rest to you. It's time to go around the corner and see Mats and Cynthia about their cats before they leave for Sweden. Don't think about finding their address and messing with their house while they are away; I have my jacknife and imagine myself to be capable of being almost as skilled as Bakunin and at least as badass as Locke (who, oh crap, I just learned is the guy in the coffin.)

Government as Religion?

At risk of alienating a large part of my fan base, I would like to ask those of you peeps out there who bristle at Barack Obama's suggestion that he would include faith-based initiatives in federal policy were he to be elected President: Is that really any worse than asking the federal government to assign tax dollars to charity or social assistance? People fear the blending of church and state, when in actuality, faith institutions for ages have taken care of people in the community at least as well as government agencies, in many instances, and people have been served, and the notion of State has not been compromised.

I know, I know: They will give you help if you will convert to Their Religious Convictions. And you don't want to be told what to believe. But if you want the government to dispense the soup, you could be waiting a long time. And I'm not saying our tax dollars shouldn't be spent on that kind of thing instead of killing our young people, and innocents, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Those of you who know me know I am passionate about where I think the money and effort should go, if we have to rely on government. I'm suggesting that we think carefully about to whom or what we assign a higher power in our lives and why.

Government, ideally, is about the public welfare. But the people in government don't represent a large number of us, it seems to me. Of course, that's my opinion. I've heard more than enough people claim to be versus various federal decisions, including continuing to throw money and people at war, to feel justified in maintaining that bias. Meanwhile, there are people out there on a non-profit and non-governmental level, offering food and shelter and assistance to those who are in need, for whatever reasons, including that the government has ignored socio-economic divides in this country and perpetrated a decreasing budget to the government agencies and programs designed to help those who are facing economic adversity, making charity closer to home more and more necessary, like back before the government offered up in the first place.

Jesus wandered around a lot of area with little if anything he owned personally, at least according to the stories we have read and heard. He dispensed charity and healing to those in need at the same time. Even if you don't believe in miracles, surely you can extend creative thought to imagine he found the resources somewhere, whether through sweet talking diplomacy or outright trickery of the bloated. Was he really trying to convince people to believe in God the Father, some giant human figure hanging around in the skies waiting to smite us or bring us home to sit on clouds and strum harps? Or was he preaching a message to not be selfish and help each other out? We have the power to decide for ourselves, regardless of what people of various religious faiths insist. In the meantime, we are asked- expected?- over and over again to trust a bunch of people in positions of power to make decisions in our best interest. Presumably they will do so because we voted for them, elected them, assigned to them that power. I'm hard-pressed to see how this situation is less threatening to my personal liberties than asking me to believe in God. Not a lot has happened lately there that has been something I would have decided, personally.

However it happens, there are plenty of people out there in our own country, right now, who need a little help. And I, for one, am made a little more comfortable to see people reaching out, whether they do it through their churches or in their non-profit, third sector work, or through their commitment to civic duty. I am not holding my breath for the latter; I don't trust us as people in the guise of Government much. In fact, sometimes it would be easier to believe that God Himself, the fatherly figure with a beard and bushy eyebrows, might decide to come out and sit at my table and have a conversation with me than that anyone I vote for might walk into office and work with other similarly inclined people who have been elected, to change the fact so many of us are ignored.