Saturday, September 20, 2008

Inner City? - What's An Inner City?



Answer: It's Something Bigger Than Wasilla

The Democrats are finally getting around to countering Sarah Palin's jab against community organizers. There's a wonderful video of Barack Obama's work on Reuters. Unfortunately, I couldn't embed it into this post. I was able, however, to come up with an inspirational Obama ad. See it below.

Mocking Obama's service as a community organizer has been, well, mocked. And I'm glad. Palin's comments were as demeaning as they were meant to be. Have you noticed that Palin - like McCain - doesn't give much thought to what she says? Obama, on the other hand, chooses his words very carefully. Thoughtless, quick words point to a politician. Well-considered words denote a statesman. The same goes for McCain's "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran."

Biden, of course, should not be left out of the subject of thoughtless words. I know that he's had a lot of gaffs, but I think he's thoughtful enough to admit and correct them. Palin's speeches have not corrected themselves: she has repeated the insulting lie "thanks, but no thanks" about 11 times after it was discovered that she not only approved of earmarks, she had at one time hired a lobbyist to get as many as possible, and never had any communication with Washington whatsoever that she refused earmarks.

As to the comparison of a mayor of a small town to a community organizer in Chicago's South Side, yes, there is quite a difference. I would challenge Palin to say that she knows the problems of an inner city ghetto. She doesn't. She couldn't possibly relate. Obama pulled together schools and churches in an area populated by 100,000 (mostly) African Americans to whom gunshots and sirens were more common than the cries of a mating moose. "Actual responsibilities" were more numerous and more serious than Palin experienced in Wasilla, Alaska.

There is a rather silly inversion of Palin's comparison, but there is a ring of truth to it: "Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor." In the sense that Jesus was an activist, yes. In the sense that Pontius Pilate had more responsibilities, no: Pilate had responsibilities given to him by Rome, while Jesus had a mandate from God.

Palin's choice of the word "community" was also wrong, since communities are diverse and some quite large.

When it comes to attacks, I think Palin should stick to hunting moose.

Just a thought.



Evolution of a Republican

Thoughts on Evolution and Republicans:

Republicans don't believe in it, so they haven't bothered to evolve.
Republicans don't believe in hairy bodies (this picture was created by a Democrat) because all the "bears" I know are gay!
Republicans hope that some men "devolve" so that they can poach them for their pelts (or shoot them from helicopters to keep the population down)

Holy Homo Sapiens! A Church's Apology to Charles Darwin!


(From Washington Post - On Faith, David Waters, 9/17/08)

Sorry, Charlie: Church Apologizes to Darwin

Proving it's never too late to evolve, the Church of England has apologized to Charles Darwin for vilifying him for having the audacity to question, wonder, and doubt.

Darwin has been dead for 126 years, so it probably doesn't matter much to him, but the apology comes with a fascinating essay that could start a more intelligent conversation between religion and science, especially when it comes to the origin -- or genesis -- of the species.




(From Rev. Dr. Malcolm Brown's
Good Religion Needs Good Science)
The anti-evolutionary fervour in some corners of the churches may be a kind of proxy issue for other discontents; and, perhaps most of all, an indictment of the churches' failure to tell their own story - Jesus's story - with conviction in a way which works with the grain of the world as God has revealed it to be, both through the Bible and in the work of scientists of Darwin's calibre.

In other words, Christofascists are very stupid, Or they haven't evolved yet. We might add that the "anti-evolutionary fervor" is a proxy for the frighteningly close ideology of theocracy, not as a discontent, but as a hope to win over secular humanism. The Evolution/Intelligent Design/Creationism debate is a real war to Christofascists - a war that they MUST win.

I am, therefore, fearful for Dr. Brown. Both he and the Church of England will be vilified by America's "men of God" like Hagee, Parsley, Robertson, Crouch, Hinn and Copeland. They need as many churches as they can get to oppose evolution and to eradicate the just-a-theory science from all classrooms. Right now, Paul Hamm of The Creation Museum must be sticking pins in a little Dr. Malcolm Brown doll.

Dr. Brown: thank you. We need some semblance of reason in religion because religion without reason is a mindless cult.

Just a thought.

You Mean Michael Savage Won't Be Appearing With Tony Perkins?

Every Other Self-Righteous Bigot Is!

Michael Savage is America's premier hate speech talk show host, so it came as a surprise that he originates out of KNEW instead of KSFO (both in San Francisco). The lineup at KSFO includes "Dr." Laura, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. I was doing research on the California Proposition 8 (ban against same sex marriage), when I noticed that KSFO was mentioned in an ad by Family Research Council. Here it is:

Join Tony Perkins for the Values Advocacy Council Action's "Stand for Marriage" Rally on Sunday, September 28 from 5:30 - 7:30 PM. Keynote speakers include:

  • Tony Perkins - President of Family Research Council
  • Hon. Louie Gohmert, U.S. House of Representatives, Texas
  • Ron Prentice, California Family Council
  • Brian Sussman, KSFO Radio

Plus they will have other National, State and Local Christian Leaders. The Rally will be held at:

Church on the Hill
500 Sands Drive
San Jose, CA 95125

I wonder if FRC can stand to be within spitting distance of the sordid, sin city of San Francisco. Idea: besides KSFO, there should be more representation of San Francisco in the form of protesters. What if we got together with our own local Christian Leaders, legislators and media to (quietly, in a more genteel fashion) to tell them that the San Francisco Bay Area is NOT a place for homophobes and bigots. (Also: notice that they have a congressman from TEXAS and not California - figures!)

A counter-rally would be certain to garner the media attention FRC craves.

Oh! Is Rush going to be there? I hope so!