Spuds McKenzie

Spuds
Originally uploaded by intothefuzz

This guy had it all: fame, fortune (mucho dog biscuits!) and girls! Spuds McKenzie was one pooch who made advertising (or looking at advertising) fun. Sure, it was a beer, but what better way to say that the product is for a real "party animal"? This guy wasn't close to cutsie, bull terriers are very strange looking dogs, what with a huge head, short bowed legs and small hind quarters - they look like some science experiment gone wrong. None of their parts seem to fit. But if they're put down, you wouldn't know it, because they are the sweetest breed of dog. Great with kids and adults!
Thanks Spuds. This Spuds' for you!

With Focus on the Family and Family Research Council, Who Needs Joan of Arc?

Perhaps We Do

Today, in the year 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. She was 19 years old. Her last words were "Bishop, I die through you." Pretty enigmatic for an uneducated peasant French girl.

In fact, the French peasant was an enigma: she said she heard the voices of St. Michael (archangel), St. Catherine and St. Margaret since she was twelve years of age. She convinced the heir of France to send her into battle with troops. She overcame the prejudice of war-hardened generals and became what some people say was the most ingenious (and victorious) war hero of her time. She saw her king crowned at Rheims, then was captured by the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, found guilt of heresy and burned at the stake.

Joan fought for a free France. In America, who's fighting for our freedoms?

Politicians? Even the inspiring rhetoric of Barack Obama doesn't convince people that he can fight as well as he should. Hillary? McCain? They all say that God is on their side. So do organizations like Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, and Concerned Women for America. Ditto "ecclesiastics" like Parsley, Hagee, Wright, Robertson, Copeland. They certainly wouldn't try a current-day Joan of Arc, would they? Guess again: Joan's "heresy" was based on the fact that she wore men's clothes (a trumped up charge nonetheless). Feminism! Horrors!!

Again, who do we have to fight for our freedoms. Who do we have to fight for our lives? Read this bit about hate crimes:

The Triangle Foundation said Tuesday that the number of violent crimes against Michiganders because of their sexual orientation that was reported to the Detroit-based group jumped 133%

There were 226 reported incidents during 2007 involving violence or violent threats against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered people, according to the report, which was released in conjunction with the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. By comparison, the foundation said, there were 97 reported incidents in 2006.

The national statistics are almost as bad. And it's not just gay rights that these people won't defend, but human rights. Who will wage war against the people who do not want us to have human rights? We've been forced into a serious culture war on our own soil, but who will fight for us?

We really need a Joan of Arc now. We need someone who has had powerful visions and can be just as inspiring. We need someone to command troops of people with dedication, fortitude and zeal, troops that will counter the prejudice and bigotry we see in numbers like the one in Michigan. We need someone to help us crown our individual human sovereignty. We need someone to lay siege to religious hatred. But who? Where do we find him/her? In politics? In church? On the street?

Maybe what we really need is for us all to become Joan of Arc.

We need you, me, us. Together.