Ultranormal

Category: current events

  • The Culture Warriors’ Inner Battle

    This whole thing with Mark Foley is insane. Not only was he the head of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, but he sponsored more than one bill on child abuse. A 50 year old man was propositioning a page… it looks like more than one. Was it an intern? No. Was it someone of legal age? No. The worst part? The GOP leadership in the House knew about it for ten months and did basically nothing. The didn’t dig deep enough to find out what was going on so they could turn a blind eye and pretend that nothing happened.\
    This seems to fit a pattern. Culture warrior rails against some big evil in the world, advocating draconian punishment for any criminal dastardly enough to perpetrate such a crime, only to be a secret practioner. There are plenty of examples:

    • Bill Bennett rails against gambling and all other forms of moral weakness only to turn out to be a huge gambler himself.
    • Rush Limbaugh advocates insane jail time for non-violent drug offenders only to turn out to be a huge illegal oxycontin user.
    • Henry Hyde, who helped lead the impeachment of President Clinton over what boils down to marital infidelity, turned out to have committed the same sin himself… no one threatened to impeach him.
    • Rick Santorum goes on a crusade for tort reform, yet his wife takes a huge settlement in a civil trial.\
      The rules only seem to apply to everyone else in the culture wars. They fight against what they themselves are most guilty about. Well, you know what? Not only is it hypocritical in the extreme, it’s just psychotic. Get counseling, talk to your clergy, pray, but keep your fetishes out of my laws, and your broken government out of my bedroom, e-mail and phone calls. Get your own life in order before you go preaching to me, you Pharisees.

  • Just A Thought

    Just a thought for a Wednesday morning. For all the Christians out there who support President Bush’s secret torture “program”, think about this: Jesus Christ was a victim of torture and was considered a “terrorist” by the government of his time. Our country has tortured, and knowingly sent to be tortured, at least dozens and possibly hundreds of innocent people. This is not a theoretical question.\
    Can you be a Christian and support torture? You can’t say, “I only support the torture of guilty people,” because we’ve already tortured innocents. We’ve already proven that the program is flawed: innocent people are being detained indefinitely and tortured by American citizens acting on behalf of our government with the approval of the President. It’s a binary thing. Either you support torture or you don’t.\
    What would Jesus do?

  • Bad Idea

    Can we agree now that the invasion of Iraq was a bad idea? Nothing that the Administration said would happen has happened:

    • There were no WMD.
    • Saddam had no ties to Al Qaeda.
    • We weren’t greeted as liberators.
    • Fighting them there hasn’t made us safer here.
    • Democracy hasn’t “flourished” in Iraq or been a good example to anyone.
    • We could fight the war on the “cheap”.
    • We could do it without losses. If you think the war is worth it, worth the sacrifice, read this, and think about it again.\
      On top of the things that the Administration got completely wrong, they’ve turned this country upside down. The United States of America has now admitted to torturing suspects. We’ve admitted to hiding prisoners in secret and illegal prisons scattered throughout the world. We’ve sent innocent people to other countries to be tortured for knowledge they didn’t have. We’ve let Osama bin Laden escape for 5 years. That’s five years of tough talk and inexcusable mistakes at all levels of government.\
      Whatever the President’s intentions, or the intentions of those who support him, he’s a complete and utter failure. And that’s not a “partisan” statement. Really think about it. Look at what he said would happen in Iraq, or after Katrina, or how we would find bin Laden. Nothing he has promised has happened. Nothing he has claimed has turned out to be true. He told us we don’t torture. He told us we followed the Geneva Conventions. He told us New Orleans would be rebuilt. He’s either a liar, or the most imcompetant leader in modern history… I’d bet on both.\
      Our government is a disgrace, a disgrace to its citizens, its history and its ideals. It’s time to do something to change it.\
      How? Vote. Vote in November and do what you can to kick out of office anyone who supports our incompetant president and his cronies, no matter what party they belong to. Yes, most of them happen to be Republicans, but the Democrats are still responsible for not standing up stridently enough. They could have stopped the Patriot Act. They could have done more to hold those responsible accountable for their actions. Some Democrats, like Joe Lieberman, actually support this Administrations ridiculous policies.\
      Vote for people who will hold them accountable, who will find the truth, and do something about it. If we don’t, we’re just as guilty as those who approved the torture, who ordered the bombs to be dropped, who have failed so completely to do the right thing.

  • Not much has changed

    Five years ago, I really thought my world was going to change drastically. I had flashes of a WW2-style life, with money being scarce for everyone, goods being rationed, and the economy in general being unstable. I remember wondering if my husband could still pay the mortgage if he lost his job and had to work for Best Buy instead. Some friends bought a brand new (expensive) minivan just days after 9/11 and I was incredulous. I thought they should have saved their money for when all hell broke loose. Did anyone else feel like this back then?\
    But really? Not that much has changed for me personally. All of my military family members are out. My husband won’t ever be drafted for health reasons and my sons are too young. Gas prices are higher, but not prohibitively so. Security is higher at airports, but that is more annoying than actually life-changing.\
    With all of the loss, and I am talking about more than the 3000 that died that day, I feel like there should be more of an impact here. We are destroying Iraq, and yet… I don’t know.\
    I am not a Muslim, not an Arab, not a New Yorker, not involved with the military or airlines, and not suspected of any crime. I feel like the only lasting change for most of the country (and most of the country probably falls into the above category) is a general feeling of anxiety. Does anyone else feel like this?\
    I am not saying things were peachy for me after 9/11. I remember the local scares, the tanks, the paranoia, the evacuations, and the talks Kevin and I had about what would we do if Max were at his mom’s if a report of a dirty-bomb went off (She had plans to immediately hit the road, but we did not). But those specific fears went away. And now I am left with what, besides an extreme distaste for Bush?

  • Random thoughts

    I still hate school. And of course Brian woke up very early all weekend, making me wake up early too. But today, when I had to get up to take care of Max, Brian slept in. Grrr. And I think I sent Max to school in the rain, without a coat. I am a bad, bad mom.\
    ABC is full of asshats, who won’t even comment on their program. What kind of leadership is that?\
    I still love Supernatural! And Veronica Mars. And am looking forward to Battlestar Gallatica. What do these three shows have in common? Amazing use of music. Listen up! You will feel the love too!\
    I am staying away from all of the 9/11 programs this weekend and today. Too much politicizing going on for me to stomach them.\
    The Skins play tonight and Clinton Portis might play too!\
    Kevin is still really sick. He can’t breathe that well or speak that well. I feel badly for him. And me. It is annoying trying to keep him stocked with juice and soup. And he keeps giving his juice away! How can I make sure there is enough for him, when he does that?\
    Someone left us cookies at our doorstep last night. Whee! Brian turned down half of a chocolate chip cookie in favor of crackers. WTH?

  • Church

    My mom asked if I was just blowing off steam when I blogged last week about the church. While that was part of it (writing is cathartic), I am also serious about this. I understand the church’s position on preaching out against gay marriage, but to enact a law? That is just wrong. Not only does it go against the idea of ‘Separation of Church and State,’ it also goes against the church’s 11th Article of Faith: We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.\
    After every change within the church, members have fallen away, unable to accept the change. This may be true of me now.

  • WTF?

    NY Supreme Court rules against same-sex marriage. This decision just boggles me. While not affecting me personally, gay rights are very important to me. Lately my church has taken a more active role against gay rights, urging its members to write their politicians in favor of the Gay Marriage Ban. I can’t support that at all. I am even thinking about leaving the church over it.

  • Virginia Democratic Party Primary Tomorrow

    In case you didn’t know (and I didn’t until I got e-mail this morning), there is a Democratic Primary tomorrow (6/13) in Virginia where you get to pick who runs against George Allen in November. So, if you care about such things, and you probably should, show up at your normal polling place and vote!

  • Weekend Update

    Max had another soccer game on Saturday. He has so much fun there, I have to recommend it to all parents of young children. It is so much more interactive and physically demanding than tee-ball or little league. (It’s practically non-stop running for an hour, instead of standing around waiting to bat or for someone to hit the ball your way.) It’s kind of hard to watch though, because he tends to stop paying attention. Which is fine since he is only 6, except I want him to pay attention and get better. But I don’t want to be one of those overzealous parents you hear so much about. In practice all of the boys seem to be getting better at the basic skills, but come game time, they just kind of do a “Lord of the Dance” imitation when they get near the ball. If the teams kept score, you’d note that they are relatively high-scoring though because 1) we don’t use goalies and 2) once a kid makes a good kick, he can usually follow it through to the goal because there is almost no defense on the field.\
    Yesterday was the first day in nearly a week that I didn’t have a horrible headache plaguing me all day. Also, Kevin only worked 11 hours. Coincidence? I think not.\
    Tonight is the series finale of 7th Heaven. Sniff. Let’s all take a moment to reflect on this horribly written and horribly acted show. The fans will miss the many non-interesting story lines filled with hypocrisy, manipulation, backstabbing, and outright lying. I guess they’ll just have to pay more attention to the Bush Administration to get their fill from now on.\
    In Brian news, he has been wearing only one sandal for almost 2 hours. I don’t know why.\
    Kevin told me he gets teased by coworkers about my numerous Veronica Mars posts. Hmm, I guess this means I shouldn’t post my thoughts on under-wire bras.

  • Truth!

    I believe in America. I believe it exits.