TO: Julia, Mary, Murphy, Angels, Sheena and Xena - LADIES, YOU STILL HAVE A WAY TO GO! (and a tiny memorial to Arthur C.Clarke)

WHY IS THIS WOMAN SO JOYFUL?

It's hard to Hate Mary Tyler Moore, but the intro of that "you're gonna make it on your own" girl probably kicked up the ire of evangelicals every time she threw her hat up into the air.

Here are some snippets from our favorite moralizers, The Southern Baptist Convention's STATEMENT OF FAITH:

Article VI. The Church. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

Article XVIII. The Family. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to his people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

And that was their latest "liberal" statement! As the song in Little Shop of Horrors goes: "I'd cook like Betty Crocker and I'd look like Donna Reed!"

And you don't think the MEN of the SBC think the same way? Here are some of them speaking out about the role of women:

[From Southern Baptists and the Role of Women by Austin Cline - Ask.com]

This hostility towards women is not something which is being imposed upon the members by an unthinking leadership. Instead, it is something shared by large numbers of Southern Baptists and its effects are already being seen. In Waco, Texas there were reports of tussles and protests over the appointment of a woman as senior pastor at a Baptist church. A large crowed of mostly male protestors (big surprise) gathered outside the church and one man told reporters “We’ve already believed that women’s place is in the home, and certainly, in the house of the Lord, she has no place pastoring.”

Signs reflecting similar sentiments were visible among the protesters. Among the messages were “Women have no authority” and “Working women equal moral corruption; working mothers equal child abuse.” Julie Pennington-Russell, who was to become that first female senior pastor in any Baptist church in Texas, had moved from San Francisco where people were a bit more tolerant. Some greeting, wasn’t it?

And a NOTE TO HILLARY: you KNOW that there are 16 million voters out there who think that women should not hold public office at all. Geraldine Ferraro should have told you that. Think of the Janet Reno jokes and even the Condi jokes. You (and Bill) would become stand-up comedian fodder for a good long time. You actually started the enity with the "cookies and cupakes" remark. And think about the SBC, Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America. Not to mention the KKK, skinheads and Neo-Nazis

This election time, you may have to wear a partiular shade of fingernail polish: JUNGLE RED!

In memory of a great thinker:

Clarke made us think of mankind's evolution in a whole new way. The concept of a computer evolving on its own HAS ACTUAL EVIDENCE in the studies of AVIDA - a project of Michigan State Uniersity where digital entities are being observed in their random evolution.

He also had a sense of humor