Category Archives: The Outside World

So, Hillary Clinton has been criticizing Obama for
not leaving his church after Rev. Wright said some bad things.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ended her silence on Senator Barack Obama’s pastor on Tuesday, sharply criticizing Mr. Obama for not leaving the Chicago church where the pastor made inflammatory remarks about the United States, spread conspiracy theories about the government and made sensational comments about Mrs. Clinton.
“Given all that we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor,” Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said on Tuesday of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., at a news conference in Greensburg, Pa.

Wait.
Hillary is criticizing Obama for not leaving
after his preacher did something wrong.
Does anyone else see the irony?
Does Hillary really want to start a discussion about how
people should leave a situation after someone does
something wrong like, oh you know, maybe
has an affair with an intern and humiliates you in front of the world, something like that?

So, Hillary Clinton has been criticizing Obama for
not leaving his church after Rev. Wright said some bad things.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ended her silence on Senator Barack Obama’s pastor on Tuesday, sharply criticizing Mr. Obama for not leaving the Chicago church where the pastor made inflammatory remarks about the United States, spread conspiracy theories about the government and made sensational comments about Mrs. Clinton.
“Given all that we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor,” Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said on Tuesday of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., at a news conference in Greensburg, Pa.

Wait.
Hillary is criticizing Obama for not leaving
after his preacher did something wrong.
Does anyone else see the irony?
Does Hillary really want to start a discussion about how
people should leave a situation after someone does
something wrong like, oh you know, maybe
has an affair with an intern and humiliates you in front of the world, something like that?

I tried Find Your Spot a couple of times, tweaking the answers, and it always comes up with a list that might be called “Places I Would Never Live.” Even more suspicious, it always comes up with some of the same uninviting places.
Someone else try it and let me know if they get better results.

 http://www.barackobama.com/video/ 

Questions That I Need Answered:

1. The right tries to discredit the no-longer-debated proof that global warming is a reality by positing that this is another predictable trick by the left to scare people. But, they don’t explain WHY progressives, liberals, or radicals on the left would gain anything by warning people about global warming if it weren’t true? What’s in it for them/us? What’s the theory here? As near as I can figure, it goes something like this – “Them tree-huggers and liberals just hate to see the common man get ahead (so, um, what about their support of increased minimum wage and universal health care?) but anyway, the lefties hate to see folks succeed, especially corporate folks, and they’d rather pass more laws that let the government interfere with our personal lives, (but isn’t it the right that likes laws about private sexual behavior, personal medical decisions, etc?), so if they convince folks to worry about global warming and drive less or whatever, then um . . . . like I said, what’s the theory here?

2. What the hell does stem cell research have to do with abortion, really?  Has there ever been a woman on earth who said to herself, “Gee, I was going to have this baby but, y’know, if I abort it maybe the embryonic cells will be used for research.”

I find it offensive and repugnant that so many websites are airing the video of Sadaam Hussein’s hanging.   Essentially, the video is a snuff film, watched for its excitement value. 

My disgust with this has nothing to do with the war, national or international politics, capital punishment, or any other subject of current interest.   I’m against the war and the death penalty.  But, I’m also against secret videotaping of an individual’s death throes, even an individual as bad as Sadaam.    

I find it offensive and repugnant that so many websites are airing the video of Sadaam Hussein’s hanging.   Essentially, the video is a snuff film, watched for its excitement value. 

My disgust with this has nothing to do with the war, national or international politics, capital punishment, or any other subject of current interest.   I’m against the war and the death penalty.  But, I’m also against secret videotaping of an individual’s death throes, even an individual as bad as Sadaam.    

From the Den of Chaos comes this one –

Which classic screen goddess are you?

You scored as Rita Hayworth.

You’re the one who has the most fun. People are attracted to you because you don’t pretend to be anything but what you are. You know you are attractive and like to play on that – which makes you even sexier. However, when it calls for you to be serious, like Rita, you need to know that only hard work will get success.

12 December 2006 – Today’s NY Times has a front page article about http://gaychristian.net/, a ministry for gay Christians started by a Raleigh man. The article, http://tinyurl.com/w4zbn highlights the dilemma often faced by gay Christians –

“Justin Lee believes that the Virgin birth was real, that there is a heaven and a hell, that salvation comes through Christ alone and that he, the 29-year-old son of Southern Baptists, is an evangelical Christian. Just as he is certain about the tenets of his faith, Mr. Lee also knows he is gay, that he did not choose it and cannot change it. . . . Gay evangelicals seem to have few paths carved out for them: they can leave religion behind; they can turn to theologically liberal congregations that often differ from the tradition they grew up in; or they can enter programs to try to change their behavior, even their orientation, through prayer and support. But as gay men and lesbians grapple with their sexuality and an evangelical upbringing they cherish, some have come to accept both.”

Many gay Christians are still taught that their natural sexual orientation is inherently sinful. I can’t imagine how it feels to be told that your own nature is evil, and it’s infuriating that that some churches that preach such a gospel. Perhaps someday Christian congregations will embrace all worshipers, as I believe Jesus intended. Meanwhile, I hope this ministry will be a source of fellowship and support for gay Christians.

And not a moment too soon! You know the monstrosities of which I speak? Bulky cardigans plastered over with embroidered, sequined, and otherwise “embellished” Symbols of the Season? December in an office job is just one sparklysweater after another.

Exhibit A:

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I know this is silly, but it’s fun and the cards are pretty!
Here is mine:

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one.

There is an article that is wrong-wrong in the current issue of the state bar journal. It makes two basic points, both misleading and false. One is that Brady v. Marylond, rather than requiring prosecutors to disclose favorable evidence, gives them the privilege to decide whether the prosecutor considers the favorable evidence sufficiently “material” to hand over. This is incorrect. Materiality is not the standard for disclosure, but the after-the-fact review standard for assessing the effect or prejudice from the prosecutor’s misconduct.

Even worse, the article opines that, inasmuch as there is a new open-file discovery statute in place, there is no longer any basis for a moratorium on capital punishment.

For various reasons, it would not be prudent for me to be the person who publicly responds to this article. But, someone needs to!

Raleigh House – Setting for Imagined TV Show

I walk past this house every day. It’s divided into apartments, each with a large 12 x 12 foot porch. Every day I imagine it as the perfect setting for a television show, with a cast carefully chosen to be “diverse” in every possible way. At the beginning of the program all the tenants would come out on their respective porches. Let’s see . . . there would be a young couple in one apartment, perhaps with a baby; maybe a couple of young and unmarried people in another; an old person in one; non-English speaking people in one apartment; perhaps a reclusive sort in one unit; or an animal nut in one; oh, and one apartment would have a person who is attracted to someone in another apartment, allowing for their gradual courtship. Of course, the tenants would also be nicely assorted as to racial or ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and political viewpoint. It would begin and end and often take place on those wonderful porches. Can’t you just see it?

One more thing – I totally photoshopped that picture. I took it at dusk on a cloudy day from a parking lot, then deleted most of the parking lot, brightened it all up, and added that glorious blue sky. I’ll post the original sometime.

So – what should the show be called? Who should star?