Category: current events

I watched the debate last night, after a long day of doing nothing (God bless vacation time!). Here are my impressions:

• I’m sorry Bob Graham dropped out, but not too much. He seems like an honest and reasonable guy, but he didn’t really strike me as presidential in the debates I watched.

• In 2000, I didn’t like either choice – Gore or Bush. I liked McCain, but he dropped out in South Carolina, and left us with W. But, of the nine Democrats left in the race, there are real differences between the candidates, and they are polar opposites of our current President. It’s exciting to watch.

• To me, Howard Dean is losing ground. Maybe it was just this debate, but he’s starting to look a little wooden, and I’ve heard all of his answers before. I don’t know if it’s just Dean Burnout, but he’s slipping in my mind.

• Wesley Clark is moderate enough to win against Bush, but not liberal enough to win the nomination. That’s a little depressing, but unfortunately a fact of life. Apparently, to win the nomination, you have to go way out on the left, and then spend the rest of the campaign swimming against the current to get back to the middle. I think that the Democrats need to start that transition now. Bush is not a moderate, and his actions are eroding his support in the middle. If the Democrats speak to the middle and not the party faithful now, they get a head start on next year, and we can pick a candidate that will energize the moderates in this country, who make up an overwhelming majority of the voters in this country.

• This debate format sucked. I could try to say something intelligent about it, but I’m not awake yet.

• Sharpton was flatter than in other debates.

• Speaking of moving to the middle, Kucinich needs to drop out soon. No matter what the question, he comes back to the “I voted against the war. I’m the ONLY ONE!!” line, and the even worse “Bring our troops home now!” Kucinich is interesting, but too far out on the fringe to do anything in the race. He needs to drop out.

• I don’t think we’ll see too many more folks leave the race until New Hampshire, although I could see Moseley-Braun and Kucinich leave before then.

• For winners? I think Kerry and Gephardt gave their best performances, and Gephardt for the first time actually looked like he had some fire. Kerry gave his most fiery performance and, in my mind, pulled even with Dean and Clark.

I’ve been thinking about each candidate, their strengths and weaknnesses, and may write up what I see in the near future if I can find the time. Oh, Lazyweb, does such a thing already exist?

This makes me ill. To sum up, an anti-gay preacher wants to put up a “monument” in Matthew Shepard’s hometown that reads:\
MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God’s Warning: ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.’ Leviticus 18:22

This could get rocky, so hold on to something. This is what I don’t get about the inflexibility of some Fundamentalist Christians. Oh wait, before I get started, let me state that I’m talking about a select and chosen few who say they’re Christians and believe in Christ – not all Christians, probably not most. Unfortunately though, this group is too large and vocal not to stand up to. Here’s what I don’t get… how can you believe in Christianity – therefore you worship Jesus Christ – and espouse such hate? Luke chapter 6, verse 37 states: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. See, this verse is in the Gospels, so it’s probably attributed to Jesus. So, even if you believe that homosexuality is wrong, how can you be so blind as to determine, on your own, where he is spending his Eternity?

To me, one of the most important tenets of Christianity is the Golden Rule: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. It’s the second great commandment, only after the first, which is loving God. That should help put into perspective where we’re supposed to hold those who share the earth with us.

If we’re supposed to love our neighbors, I think that includes everyone (notice there are no qualifiers on that statement). If I loved someone, I would not pass judgement on where they’re going after they die. It’s not up to me, a mere mortal who possesses no great insight into the inner workings of anyone’s soul, not even my own. It’s not up to Fred Phelps, either.

The Gospel is not about hate. It’s not about declaring that anyone’s going to hell. It’s about love. Love means tolerance, peace, patience and humility. It means accepting others’ shortcomings and hoping that others accept yours. To me, being a true Christian means living your life emulating the Savior – to the best of your ability. It means accepting that human beings are imperfect. We are all going to mess up.

I have a hard time balancing sins and sinners. We’re supposed to hate sin, and love the sinners (you know, our neighbors). It’s not easy to draw the line between the sin and the individual sometimes. My religion teaches that acting on homosexual desires is a sin. Personally, I don’t know how to balance loving my neighbor with that. But… if loving my neighbor is the second great commandmant, loving my neighbor is probably more important than hating anyone’s sin. Therefore, I should suspend judgement, accept the person and love them. I shouldn’t worry about where my neighbor is going after they die, because I surely don’t have any right to judge them.

I know that I’m not perfect. I do stupid and wrong things. If I want people to accept my shortcomings and imperfections, I have to accept others’. Being imperfect myself, I have no right to judge. There is on Judge, and it’s not me, you, Fred Phelps, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell or any other mortal.

I wonder if Fred Phelps would like someone putting up a giant marble monument in his hometown declaring his damnation… I doubt it. I know I wouldn’t.

I know this probably won’t convince anyone of anything. Most people I know are in the choir on this. The ones who aren’t, I’m not eloquent enough a writer to convince.

I love Reid Stott’s site. I found it originally through searching for photos, and stuck around when he started blogging. He’s as smart a guy as he is a photographer, and he says it better than I ever could again in his Weekend Plame Update. Amazing summary of what’s going on, and a great view from the middle that should scare the President’s Re-election Team silly.

Why do we still add “gate” to the end of our scandals still? Watergate happened thirty years ago, and it’s about time we let the ritzy apartment complex on the Potomac its name back, and remove the stigma from “gate” so it can get back to meaning something again. “Wilsongate” doesn’t even sound cool. It sounds like a really horribly named, faceles suburb of Akron. Now, I know the Media will never go for this. They love their cute little names for complex conspiracies and scandals. I’ve come up with a couple suggestions for possible replacements and usage examples:

• “ron” – a la “Enron”: It sounds so much more tech geeky when you add “ron” to the end of words it doesn’t belong on.
  • Wilson-ron

  • File-ron

  • Travel-ron

  • Energy-ron (kind of redundant, don’t you think?)

  • Monica-ron

• “iburton” – a la “Halliburton”: It adds a certain officiality to a name, doesn’t it?
  • Wilson-iburton

  • File-iburton

  • Travel-iburton

  • Energy-iburton (again, kinda redundant)

  • Monica-burton (shortened for ease of pronunciation)

I really think this’ll catch on. It’s a new century, it’s time for new scandal suffixes! Bring on Bush-ron and Cheney-burton!!

The following is a drug-induced attempt at humor:

You can thank Dawson’s latest treatise on Israel and Palestine for this piece of stupidity. I was thinking the other day about Israel and Palestine and how part of the problem is the proximity of the two parties and how all they really need is some space. Israel’s well-established, and has a working government. The Palestinains don’t. They’ve got resident crazy bastard Yassar Arafat and a bunch of cronies. The one guy who looked reasonable and actually agreed to wear a suit and tie just resigned.

I don’t think Palestine and Israel will ever live together in anything resembling peace. So, I’ve come up with a plan. Let’s give the Palestinians half of Montana. I don’t even care which half – we’ll let Montana vote on it. It’s more land than the Palestinians could ever hope to milk form the Israeli’s, and they’ll already have streets, a highway system and McDonalds on which to build their own economy.

I think George W. Bush could be seen as the greatest peacemaker of all time if he pulled this one off (although the Republicans would never win Montana again, but really, they have what, 1 electoral vote?). He’d be seen as a hero in the Middle East because now Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iran don’t have to hear the Palestinians whine about Sharon anymore, or have Arafat over for dinner.

All this problem needs is some creative thought. I think GW should through in cowboy hats for everyone too – and a pony – and maybe some brush for the new Palestinian Prime Minister to clear. I hear it makes you look presidential.

I just finished reading Al Franken’s book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. It’s an amazing book that I can’t recommend highly enough, with a couple caveats:

Don’t Read This Book If:

• You can’t take a joke, especially if it’s about “your guy”. I believe this book is very well researched, and honest in everything it says, but the humor is pretty rough. If you love Bill O’Reilly and think he can do no wrong, well, you’re going to hate this book. Should you read it? Yeah, you should, but be prepared for your guy to get tarred and feathered.

• You can’t handle profanity. It’s not over the top (ok, this point is totally for my parents), but there is some.

• You can’t handle the truth. This book will shock you. It will make you question everything that this Administration has done, and you’ll never see those in the Right-wing Media or the Administration the same – which is a good thing.

Why You Should Read It Anyway:

• This is a great piece of research. The sources are impeccable, and it felt like Franken went out of his way to not take quotes out of context. It’s an amazing and depressing read. Not depressing because it’s bad, depressing because he’s right.

• It is funny. It’s really funny. The line about the Malawi Space Program was hilarious. I laughed out loud many many times.

• It will put lies in perspective. It does a great job exposing the Administrations lies, and exposing the mainstream media’s absolute hypocrisy in not exposing them.

I loved the book. But, I can take a joke and knew when he was joking and when he wasn’t. I want my family to read this book, but I won’t ask them to because the book doesn’t come in a “humor-lite” version. I want them to see the proof of all the lies, but I know they won’t be able to get past the jokes. They’ll take them too seriously and get so offended by the humor that they’ll shut down to the real meat in the book. I know why Franken wrote it this way. It falls under satire if it’s funny – even though the book is an amazing indictment of the right-wing media and campaign politics.

Is there a book that’s this well researched that’s just the facts, ma’am? If so, pleeeee-ase tell me!!

He knows the emperor has no clothes. It’s time to see if the rest of the Republicans in the country will see that Bush has actually kept one of this campaign promises: to run the government like a corporation. Unfortunately, he’s modeled the government “corporation” after his friend Kenneth Lay’s corporation: Enron.

Anyone, anyone? Write any letters to McCain this week?

I so inspired myself, I decided to write my letter tonight instead of put it off any longer. You can too. Here’s what I wrote:

Do you think that with this news we could convince John McCain to run? I voted for him twice (once as a Senator, once in the 2000 Republican Primary) – I could be convinced to vote for him again. He’s a reasonable and moderate Republican – not an unreasoning idealogue like the President and his friends. So, who wants to send some letters? Anyone?

John Kerry officially announced his candidacy today. To compare, I went back and read Howard Dean’s. Now, Dean’s was a couple months ago, and is lacking in specifics. Kerry’s was today and is pretty darn specific on the big issues. After watching his Meet the Press appearance yesterday, I’m not sure who I’m going to vote for on February 24th (the day of the Democratic Primary in Virginia).

John Kerry has years of experience at the national level. We’ve elected governors the last two presidents, and maybe it’s time to see how a Senator does (you have to go back to, I think, Kennedy to find another President who went straight from Senator to President – LBJ was VP first, Carter – Bush II were all governors, right? Correct me if I’m wrong). John Kerry, like Dean, strikes me as a reasonable man who uses a sharp intellect to make decisions based on facts. This is an advantage over Bush. Kerry has military experience. Kerry is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and therefore has some foreign policy experience, which Dean doesn’t.

I still like Dean’s fire. I love the grassroots support he’s built up. I like his honesty, but Kerry impressed me. They both have until February to win me over. Honestly, I’m happy to have two quality candidates to choose from, both with a solid chance of beating GW in 2004. I’ll be happy to support either one against GW next year.