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Thursday, December 23, 2004


I'm Not Here to Judge, But I'm Here to Judge

Last week's issue of The Washington Blade, the capital city's gay newspaper, had an article about Georgia black churches' support for a same-sex marriage ban and the counter-protests by some black gay activists.

There were a few quotes from the article that reminded me just how far many gay-rights foes will go to try to cover their tracks. It's what I call the "I have nothing against gay people, but ..." spin.

For example, there was this quote:
... [the gay counter-protesters] were also chided when they chanted, "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Homophobia has got to go!"

Standing across the street (from gay counter-protesters), Wanda E. White of Atlanta leaned toward the protesters to mimic their chant but replaced "homophobia" with "homosexuals."

"People live their lives like they want to, and I'm not here to judge them, but once you move God out of society, you have a big problem," White said.
What horseshit. When you replace a chant, as White did, in a way that says homosexuals have "got to go," judging others is precisely what you're doing.


posted by Frederick Maryland at 8:19 AM




Having Been Safely Re-Elected ...

... our president seems to be proving once again that his word is pretty much worthless. Remember this Bush statement from the third and final presidential debate?
"Education is how to make sure we've got a workforce that's productive and competitive. Got four more years, I've got more to do to continue to raise standards, to continue to reward teachers and school districts that are working, to emphasize math and science in the classrooms, to continue to expand Pell Grants to make sure that people have an opportunity to start their career with a college diploma."

President Bush, presidential debate, Oct. 13, 2004
But Bush's Department of Education is reportedly doing precisely the opposite of what Bush pledged that October evening. As CNN reports:
A change in eligibility for Pell Grants to be announced Thursday by the Department of Education would cut some 90,000 students from the rolls of recipients and affect more than 1 million others, an education advocate says.

The department will announce the change -- the first in 15 years -- in the Federal Register, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a trade association representing 2,000 public and private colleges and universities.

In addition to those who will lose their grants completely, "we estimate about 1.3 million students will see reductions in their grants from $100 to $300 per year," he said.
Much like other Bush policy changes or appointments that were likely to draw fire, this reported change will be quietly announced (two days before Christmas) so as to draw a low level of media coverage.

If Hartle proves to be correct, this is one more hole that has been poked through the mythical image of Bush as a president who supposedly "knows where he stands."

On the other hand, perhaps Bush still knows where he stands. He just happens to be standing someone else seven weeks after his re-election.


posted by Frederick Maryland at 7:55 AM


Wednesday, December 22, 2004


Integrity Award

Frederick already posted about the ongoing drama in Washington over last month's (almost last year's by now) gubernatorial race. One of the issues mentioned in the post is whether King County should be permitted to count more than 700 ballots that were mistakenly omitted from the original count and the machine recount.

This is a heavily partisan issue. King County is very much Democratic, so it's assumed that Gregoire, the Dem, would get a clear majority of these ballots--a majority large enough to overcome the few dozen votes that have separated the two candidates in the two previous machine counts. The Dems are insisting on "counting every vote," while the Republicans organized a noisy demonstration outside the state Supreme Court. Sound familiar?

I wanted to highlight something mentioned in Frederick's excerpt, and that's the position the Secretary of State has taken in the litigation over the omitted ballots. From Rick Hasen's excellent election law listserv, here's a distinguished commentator:
I watched the C-Span telecast of the Washington State Supreme Court arguments this morning on the mistakenly uncounted absentee ballots in Kings County....The SOS's attorney was arguing that the lower court injunction should be lifted and the county canvassing board should be permitted to include these absentee ballots in the manual recount, even though that result would presumably add scores of additional votes for the Democratic candidate and the SOS is a Republican. The SOS is to be commended for taking this position, and I hereby withdraw the innuendo in my previous comment suggesting that the SOS's positions were inevitably influenced by his partisan affiliation.
How's that for a man-bites-dog story? Just when you're about to become irretrievably cynical, a politician actually tries to do the right thing. I don't know enough about the situation to judge what the right result is; but even if the Secretary of State is wrong, the fact that he's trying to get it right, rather than just doing what's best for his party, is a breath of fresh air.


posted by Arnold P. California at 5:28 PM




Enemies of Peace?

After reading Joseph Farah's recent essay on how the 2nd coming of Christ is just around the corner-- beause he can just feel it, as a journalist who "can't ignore hard evidence" -- I am reminded that for many right-wing folks they genuinely don't want world peace or the world to be a nice place. It doesn't fit with their vision for the future.

Farah quotes the Bible for more evidence:
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
Farah remarks that our modern times clearly resemble the time before the 2nd coming, as prophecied in the Bible. What strikes me is that it seems pretty clear that Farah and his friends aren't exactly motivated to make the world a better place, are they? They genuinely don't love this world, they are just waiting (and praying) for its destruction. Seriously. Because if the world isn't completely f*cked up, then Jesus isn't coming back, yo'.

posted by Zoe Kentucky at 5:15 PM




Merry Christmas, You're Going to Hell

Like Arnold, I too am perplexed by the breadth of the Christian persecution complex on the Right this year. I expect it to some extent, but so many yapping heads are buying into it this year. (See the list at Christianity Today's ever-useful Weblog for a sampling.) You'd think there was nothing else for an ideologue to write about.

Take it from a Jew who knows a bit about persecution complexes, it's not something you want to get too invested in. There's a fine line between celebrating freedom from oppression and creating a cycle of perpetual angst. If nothing else, it just might ruin your Christmas cheer.

Speaking of that, CWA's Jan LaRue, almost ruined my Christmas cheer this morning with a little missive titled "Room in America's Inn for Jesus." (I know, I know. I should know better.) She managed to invoke the old persecution ruse without even pretending to cite an incident. That's nothing special. But then she gets to her real message.

The emptiness of the human heart is profound at Christmas for those who don't yet know Jesus. The message of "good tidings of great joy which will be to all people" is meant to be a personal daily experience and not just a yearly public celebration. The inn that Jesus came to fill exclusively is the one in every human heart.

Have you invited Him in? If not, have you considered that He will have no inn for you?


That Jan is quite the Grinch, eh? I hope Santa brings her a clearer connection for her personal direct line to God. I think she's getting some interference.


posted by Helena Montana at 1:38 PM




Wash. State Mystery: Who's Our Governor?

The mystery continues. According to CNN:
Washington's most populous county is expected to announce its manual vote recount Wednesday, which could swing results in the closest governor's race ever in state history.

Also Wednesday, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether some 730 additional ballots can be hand-counted and added to that total in King County, a Democratic-leaning bastion that includes Seattle.

On Tuesday night, Democrats claimed state Attorney General Christine Gregoire had moved ahead of Republican Dino Rossi for the first time with an eight-vote victory, citing preliminary recount data given to them by King County election officials ... "We're confident Christine Gregoire has been elected the governor of the state of Washington," Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt told the AP. "I believe Dino Rossi should concede."

... After the initial count of statewide ballots in the November race, Rossi led by 261 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast -- a margin small enough to trigger a mandatory machine recount. That retabulation cut Rossi's lead to 42 votes, at which point Secretary of State Sam Reed certified him as governor-elect.

... On Friday, a judge in Tacoma issued a temporary restraining order preventing King County from counting the disputed ballots that election officials say were mistakenly excluded from initial voting and from a machine recount.

... Democrats, backed by the secretary of state, a Republican, argued that the court's earlier ruling only applied to ballots that had been considered and rejected, not ballots that had been excluded by mistake.

In an affidavit, state Elections Director Nick Handy told the court that in the first two counts election officials in at least six other counties had corrected results with ballots found to be processed improperly, as King County wants to do. He also said that Reed's office advised local officials they had the authority to fix errors found as they recounted ballots.

The absentee ballots at the center of Wednesday's court fight originally were rejected because the signatures on the ballots did not match the voter registration signatures in King County's computer system.

Dean Logan, the county's election director, said the ballots were excluded by mistake because the voter registration signatures were never entered into the computer system.

... Republicans have questioned the appearance of hundreds of new votes in the middle of the hand recount, arguing that they had not been kept secure ...



posted by Frederick Maryland at 11:07 AM




Happy Gay Holidays

The family is flying tomorrow to the blue state where Mrs. California's parents reside, so I suppose I'll soon find out if this bizarre mission to "save" Christmas from the pestilence of "Happy Holidays" is really happening. It seems like something Stephen Colbert would have made up for "This Week in God," but apparently it's actually happening.

The only way "Happy Holidays" threatens Christmas is the same way marriage equality threatens heterosexuals' marriages. It's now "anti-Christian" to be non-Christian, just as it's anti-straight to be gay. For Bill O'Reilly, it's an affront to Christians and an offense against their religious freedom for anyone to acknowledge that there are non-Christians in the United States or to accommodate in any way the sensibilities of non-Christians.

This is Midge Decter all over again. The threat to the dominant "way of life," whether that be Christian in general or straight in particular, is not that anyone is interfering with Christians' (or straights') right to do as they please. Merely failing to conform to their beliefs about how you should behave now constitutes an offense against their way of life.

And they call us PC.

I'm reading Philip Roth's new book The Plot Against America, which, while an ahistorical account of the 1940s under "President Lindbergh," reminds me of the very real and virulent anti-Semitism that Jews of a certain generation grew up with, where we were considered by many to be an alien element that didn't belong and weren't really American.

It's not nearly as bad now as it was the 1930s; Father Coughlin isn't back, and more or less overt anti-Semitism isn't mainstream Republican (and sometimes Democratic) politics in the Midwest and West. But I've never been more conscious of my status as a religious minority, nor of the hostility toward my faith that is felt, if not often explicitly expressed, by a not insignificant number of my countrymen (The creepiest part is the patronizingly "pro-Jewish" sentiments expressed by those very countrymen, who co-opt my faith into a "Judeo-Christian tradition" that is all Christian and no Judeo and who think that they're being friendly to Jews by staunchly supporting Israel--in the hope that we'll all move there and hasten an Apocalypse in which we'll be damned for all eternity).

Trust me, Mr. O'Reilly: it's not Christians, nor even Roman Catholics, who have the most to fear from the zeitgeist of Dubya's America. Muslims are first in line, and you're not second.


posted by Arnold P. California at 10:10 AM




It's a Twin Thing

Dubya may have the common touch, but I've never felt I had anything in common with him. Except for one: we're both fathers of twin girls. As much as I opposed him in 2000, I figured a twin dad couldn't be all bad.

His twins, though, are fraternal (or dizygotic, if you want to use the currently correct term among the parents of multiples set). Mine are identical (monozygotic), which allows for a much broader range of mischief. For example:

Twins Swap Identities for Jail Break

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Brotherly love was put to the test this week after two 18-year-old identical twins swapped their clothing and traded places so that one could escape jail.

During a visit, the two siblings, neither of whom were named, managed to switch their outfits without anyone noticing.

After visiting hours ended, the inmate walked out, pretending to be his brother. Faced with the prospect of spending the night in jail, his brother admitted the ruse to prison guards.

"We knew there was a certain risk of a mix up, so we took some measures," said Lars-Aake Pettersson, the warden for the jail. "But this was apparently not enough. They managed to dupe us."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: singleton parents are wimps.


posted by Arnold P. California at 2:11 AM


Tuesday, December 21, 2004


Scott McClellan and the "Defeated"

Well, apparently, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan didn't like the proposed statement that I drafted earlier today for the president. In reaction to the Mosul bombing that has claimed the lives of at least 22 U.S. soldiers, McClellan spoke to reporters earlier today.

According to CNN, here are some McClellan quotes, which have not yet been posted at WhiteHouse.gov:
"As we move forward in helping the Iraqi people build a free and democratic future, the enemies of freedom seek to derail that transition, and it's important that we continue to go after the Saddam [Hussein] loyalists and the terrorists who want to turn back to the past."
Continue "to go after" the insurgents? Yeah, wherever and whoever they are. Insurgents don't wear name-tags or matching caps. When it comes to guerrilla warfare, time is not on our side.

Speaking of the insurgents, Scott McClellan also said this:
"They will be defeated .... They are being defeated."
Given that these insurgents have killed 22 U.S. soldiers and more than 60 civilians in the past two days, one can only imagine how many more they'd have killed had they not been "defeated."

Thanks for the reassuring words, Scott.


posted by Frederick Maryland at 2:39 PM




Privacy Rules Gone Overboard?

I'm a staunch defender of privacy rights, but is Yahoo! going overboard in this instance? With my limited knowledge of the circumstances, I'm inclined to think so. But draw your own conclusions.

The Associated Press reports:
WIXOM, Michigan (AP) -- The family of a Marine killed in Iraq is pleading with Internet giant Yahoo! for access to his e-mail account, which the company says is off-limits under its privacy policy.

Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth, 20, was killed by a roadside bomb on November 13 during a foot patrol in Al Anbar province. The family wants the complete e-mail file that Justin maintained, including notes to and from others.

"I want to be able to remember him in his words. I know he thought he was doing what he needed to do. I want to have that for the future," said John Ellsworth, Justin's father. "It's the last thing I have of my son."

But without the account's password, the request has been repeatedly denied. In addition, Yahoo! policy calls for erasing all accounts that are inactive for 90 days. Yahoo! also maintains that all users agree at sign-up that rights to a member's ID or contents within an account terminate upon death.



posted by Frederick Maryland at 1:56 PM






His Confidence, Their Carnage

"No one can predict every turn in the months ahead, and I certainly don't expect the process to be trouble-free. Yet I'm confident of the result."

President Bush, speaking at Monday's press conference
Meanwhile, in today's news:
BLASTS KILL MORE THAN 20 AT U.S. BASE IN IRAQ
Militant Group Says It Was Responsible

By Christine Hauser and Richard A. Oppel, Jr.
The New York Times

A powerful explosion ripped through an American military base in northern Iraq today, the American military said. More than 20 people were killed and more than 50 wounded, a military official said. A short announcement from the military said the explosion occurred at noon Iraqi time near the city of Mosul, scene of raids by insurgents on police stations in the past six weeks.

... The militant group Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for [today's] attack, news agency reports said.

... Today's explosion came on the same day as a surprise visit to Baghdad by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, who vowed that the war against the insurgents would be won and elections held on time. Britain has some 8,000 troops in Iraq, mainly in the south of the country, centered on the city of Basra.
To help take the pressure off of White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, I've drafted a brief statement for the president to make in response to today's carnage:
PROPOSED STATEMENT FOR PRES. BUSH

Yeah, there were more bombings today in Iraq. Tough news to get so close to Christmas. But that just proves what I've been sayin' all along.

Those insurgents are out to prevent the election, to attack democracy. They're bombin' and killin' people. I predicted months ago that those insurgents who hate our way of life would just keep on killin' people. So, you see, I was right in my prediction. That's what I meant yesterday when I said, "I'm confident of the result."

Losin' lives in a war ain't so bad when you're able to predict that it's gonna keep happenin' to you. Y'see, it's all about expectations.

God bless America.



posted by Frederick Maryland at 1:11 PM




Rummy the Survivor

In his column in today's Washington Post, David Ignatius reminds us that Donald Rumsfeld is the proverbial cat with nine lives:
"I think Rumsfeld may be not too long for this world. . . . Let's dump him."

The date was April 7, 1971; the speaker was President Richard M. Nixon. And despite Nixon's muttering about "the Rumsfeld problem" -- which in this instance was that Rummy was too critical of the Vietnam War -- the ambitious young White House aide kept his job.

The anecdote, recounted in journalist James Mann's history of the Bush national security team, "Rise of the Vulcans," illustrates several telling facts about this month's leading Washington villain. Rumsfeld is a contrarian whose arrogant manner has made him powerful enemies over the years; he's also a survivor whose political obituary has often been written prematurely.

... But despite Bush's public embrace of Rumsfeld yesterday, it's hard to imagine him lasting four more years.

The defense secretary has become the symbol of an accident-prone Iraq policy -- and even more, of the administration's refusal to admit or learn from its mistakes. The man who bears ultimate responsibility for Iraq policy isn't Rumsfeld, of course, but Bush. But the president has just won reelection, and obviously isn't about to fire himself. So Rummy makes a convenient scapegoat in chief.



posted by Frederick Maryland at 11:53 AM




Nostalgia

Remember when right-wingers seemed more worried about the government raiding them and taking there guns away or blowing them up in a Waco-style bonfire? I'm thinking of thoses days fondly right now, especially after reading this new poll from Cornell University.

In a study to determine how much the public fears terrorism, almost half of respondents polled nationally said they believe the U.S. government should -- in some way -- curtail civil liberties for Muslim Americans, according to a new survey released today (Dec. 17) by Cornell University.

About 27 percent of respondents said that all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government, and 26 percent said they think that mosques should be closely monitored by U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Twenty-nine percent agreed that undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations, in order to keep tabs on their activities and fund raising. About 22 percent said the federal government should profile citizens as potential threats based on the fact that they are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage. In all, about 44 percent said they believe that some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim Americans.

Conversely, 48 percent of respondents nationally said they do not believe that civil liberties for Muslim Americans should be restricted.


Via The Revealer.


posted by Helena Montana at 11:52 AM




Perish the Thought!

A group of language institutes is sounding the alarm about the foreign-language skills of Dutch businessmen. Apparently, they're not as proficient in their third and fourth languages as they think they are.

I'm not kidding.

This is surely going to hurt Christmas sales of the boxed set of three dictionaries (Dutch-English, Dutch-French, and Dutch-German) that I saw in a department store this morning. I can't remember ever seeing a similar set in an American store. But that's the luxury of being really big, really powerful, and really rich, I suppose.


posted by Arnold P. California at 6:54 AM




Shades of Gray

I figure Secretary of the Navy Gordon England is going to be one of the next Dubya appointees to get the axe. He's just not a team player, as can be seen from his comments about the latest prisoner released from Guantanamo. He's trying, but Manicheism is something you either have or you don't have, and he doesn't have it.
England stopped short of saying the latest prisoner determined to be wrongly classified as an enemy combat had been held as a mistake.
That's good.
"I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this. I think this is a gray area," he said.
Both of those sentences are bad. 1: There's a right answer to everything: whatever Dubya says. 2: There are no gray areas; complexity, especially moral complexity, has been abolished.
"We would like to see trends to better understand this [i.e., which detainees are likely to return to the battlefield if released]," England said.
Another boo-boo. We do not try to improve our "understanding" in light of evidence. Facts are useful only insofar as they support the right answer (see above) or can be made to appear to do so.
"This is a very tough balance. You don't want to release people who could harm Americans or other people."
Borderline. There are no tough balances (see above). Also, we don't really care about "other people." But it's true we don't want to release people who could harm Americans, so this statement, standing alone, wouldn't doom England. Also, he seems to have referred to "other people" only once in the press conference; at other times, he said "Americans and our allies," which is approved administration-speak (don't forget the Poles!). But then comes this:
"On the other hand, people do have rights."
Do I have to explain how far off the talking points this is?

Shrub must be disappointed. He probably figured that by appointing a senior executive with a career in defense contracting (and no military experience), he'd get what he wants from a Secretary of the Navy: someone who would keep his nose out of policy-making and quietly oversee the distribution of pork to the Lockheed-Martins of the world (some of which would then flow back in the form of contributions to the RNC, Dubya, and other GOP campaigns).

But, as Dubya said during the debates, the only decisions he regrets from his first term are appointments of backstabbing ingrates like Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke. O.K., so maybe I'm paraphrasing a bit. But isn't it hard not to sympathize with the poor guy? It's so hard to find good help these days.


posted by Arnold P. California at 5:05 AM


Monday, December 20, 2004


When Concern Equals Inaction

From the AP
The Bush administration expressed grave concern Monday about a recent increase in violence in Sudan's Darfur region, accusing both sides of violating a cease fire.

Operations carried out by the government and government-supported militias "have caused untold suffering, displacing tens of thousands of people," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Yeah, tens of thousands of people tend to suffer when a genocide is unfolding.

And there is a genocide unfolding Mr. Boucher, in case you had forgotten. The US said so a little over 100 days ago.

And in the last three months, outside of reiterating your "grave concerns," you haven't done a whole hell of a lot about it.

posted by Eugene Oregon at 4:26 PM




I Just Got Cut By Glass -- Allah Akhbar!

Yesterday, two car bombs in Iraq -- one in Karbala and a subsequent one in Najaf -- killed at least 64 people and wounded more than 100 civilians. The Washington Post reported that the bombings "appeared designed to inflict the greatest number of civilian casualties possible."

An Iraqi who witnessed the carnage from the bombing in Karbala had an interesting "take" on the event. The Post reports:
"God saved us," said Abu Ahmed, an employee of Kawther Transportation Co., whose office was just 10 yards from the blast. He was cut by flying glass.
If we're to believe that God "saved" Abu Ahmed from death, we must also believe that God apparently chose not to save him from the flying shards of glass that cut him.

I'm always amazed by people (Muslim, Christian or otherwise) who, on the one hand, are so certain that their "close call" was the result of God's active intervention, but, on the other hand, never question why God didn't intervene to prevent the death and misery that's all around them.

If I had the power to prevent shards of flying glass from striking and cutting you, but failed to do so, I doubt you'd declare, "Frederick saved me." The odds are that you'd use Cheneyesque language before and after my name. So why is it that God gets "graded on a curve"?


posted by Frederick Maryland at 3:44 PM




Way Off Topic

This has nothing to do with politics, or genocide, or nudity-related foreign news (unfortunately), but I would like to take this opportunity to call Jacksonville Jaguars' safety Donovin Darius a thug and a liar.

During yesterday's game against the Packers, Darius clotheslined Robert Ferguson, knocking him unconscious and sending him to the hospital.



Darius was flagged for unnecessary roughness and ejected from the game.

How does Darius feel about his cheap shot? Unrepentant, apparently
"It's part of the game," Darius said. "Brett threw the ball and Ferguson was wide open. I was just running over trying to make a play, trying to separate him from the ball. I never intentionally try to hurt someone. I love to play the game and I play it 100 mph. Unfortunately, he got hurt. I pray for him. Everybody that saw it from our standpoint said it looked clean."
"Our standpoint" apparently means "my standpoint."

But it is nice of Darius to pray for Ferguson. I'm guessing that it was his prayer that finally brought Ferguson back to consciousness and eventually helped him regain feeling in his legs.

Maybe next time, instead of praying for someone after the fact, Darius can try to refrain from viciously and illegally clotheslining receivers.

posted by Eugene Oregon at 1:29 PM




We Asked for This

To be more precise, about 51% of those of us who voted asked for it.
The Pentagon is drawing up a plan that would give the military a more prominent role in intelligence-collection operations that have traditionally been the province of the Central Intelligence Agency, including missions aimed at terrorist groups and those involved in weapons proliferation, Defense Department officials say.
So the same faith-based intelligence geniuses who were wrong about everything when they disagreed with the CIA during Dubya's first term are going to get more chances to get a lot of people (not including themselves) killed for no good reason.

Wait; it gets better.
One part of the overall proposal is being drafted by a team led by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a deputy under secretary of defense.
They've decided to put General "My God Was Bigger than His" Boykin in charge of intelligence? Where's George Carlin when you need him?

It would be bad enough if this deadly, deadly crap were a suprise. But this is exactly what they've been doing for four years; we have no one to blame but ourselves for the next disaster this gang of gets us into.


posted by Arnold P. California at 1:19 PM




These Were the On-Message, Detail-Oriented Organizational Geniuses We Couldn't Beat?




Don't get it? Look carefully at the sign one more time.

Still don't get it? Congratulations: you're qualified to teach English at a charter school.


posted by Arnold P. California at 1:11 PM




Praise the Lord – a Pomegranate!

Evangelical Christians are a persistent crowd. One of the latest efforts by evangelicals in suburban Dallas to pitch religion to public school children was described in today’s Washington Post:

Last year, a (Plano, Tex.) school administrator stopped Jonathan Morgan at the door to his classroom because the "goody bag" he had brought to a school party on the last day before Christmas vacation contained candy canes with a religious message attached. Titled "The Legend of the Candy Cane," it said the candy was shaped in a J for Jesus and bore a red stripe "to represent the blood Christ shed for the sins of the world."

This year, the 9-year-old and his evangelical Christian parents went straight to court. They were among four families who persuaded … the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, to issue a temporary restraining order on Thursday securing their children's right to hand out "religious viewpoint gifts" at school-sponsored holiday parties.

The family had some high-powered help. Two conservative nonprofit law firms, the Liberty Legal Institute and the Alliance Defense Fund, took the case free of charge.

The religious note attached to each candy cane struck me as rather far-fetched – a photo in the printed version of The Post pictured the note, which explained the origins of candy canes this way:
“A candy maker wanted to invent a candy that was a witness to Christ. First of all, he used a hard candy because Christ is the Rock of Ages …”
In one respect, the note’s title of “legend” seems to acknowledge just how dubious this explanation is.

In fact, it occurred to me that almost any food or candy could conceivably be claimed by Christians as “symbolic” of their faith. Through the centuries, various Christian denominations have identified literally hundreds of animals or objects that “symbolize” their faith. In addition to water and the ubiquitous cross, these include:
Bells
Lambs
Burning torches
Doves
Candlesticks
Pelicans
Hands
Triangles
Peacocks
Butterflies
Ships
Grapes
Lilies
Cornerstones
Circles
Daisies
Fish
Rope
Ladders
Fleur de Lis
Sea shells
Crowns
Lamps, and .....
Pomegranates.
As this website explains, even the fylfot – reintroduced in the 1930s by the Nazis and called the swastika – was embraced by ancient Christians “because they saw in it a cross concealed from their enemies.”

The same goes with colors. Nearly all major colors are said by Christians to represent some aspect of their faith – green symbolizes “hope,” purple symbolizes “penitence,” and so on.

In other words, this 9-year-old could just as well have brought shiny, red pomegranates to his school and attached a similar evangelizing note to each one. Of course, among 9-year-old children, candy canes are much better received than pomegranates. But pomegranates are definitely preferable to fylfots.


posted by Frederick Maryland at 1:06 PM




David vs. Goliath

I was reading the International Crisis Group's report "Back to the Brink in the Congo" over the weekend and was struck by the map that they provided.

I've read a great deal about Rwanda and the DRC, but sometimes I forget just how small Rwanda is, especially in comparison to its neighbor
Rwanda has 8 million people and an area of some 9,600 sq miles - the DRC has a population of 58 million and an area of 875,000 sq miles.

Despite its small size, Rwanda poses a very real threat to the DRC and, since 1997 when it played a key role in toppling Mobutu Sese Seko, has greatly influenced the DRC's internal politics.

Looking at it in terms we here in the US can more easily understand, this is akin to place the size and population of Massachusetts invading and intimidating a place the size of Texas and Alaska with the population of Texas, Alaska and California.

There really is no point to this post. I just think it is interesting.

posted by Eugene Oregon at 11:58 AM




Who Could Have Predicted That?

I recently mentioned the visit to the Netherlands of Princess Maxima's second cousin, a "pole dancer" from Argentina. I am sure you'll be as shocked as I to learn of the denouement:
The stripping cousin of Argentinean-born Princess Maxima will appear in men's magazine Playboy next year in what has been described as a "very royal" photo shoot in North Amsterdam.
In unrelated news, Princess Maxima and her husband Crown Prince Willem-Alexander have cancelled planned media interviews over their displeasure with published reports that the princess is pregnant again.

To think that I've always taken pride in the fact that the U.S. got rid of hereditary monarchy and noble titles two centuries ago. How do we survive without royal gossip? Sure, we've got imported news from Britain, but there's nothing like having public ownership of one home-grown family whose every private moment is fodder for our voyeuristic pleasure.


posted by Arnold P. California at 11:27 AM




Daily Darfur

Eric Reeves now has a website so that all of his previous and on-going analysis regarding Darfur can be found in one place.

Rebels attacked an oil pumping station in South Darfur over the weekend, killing 15 people.

An AU helicopter also came under attack this weekend.

Khartoum has reportedly has pledged to halt its military operations in Darfur but the AU reports that they continue to attack villages.

The Boston Globe reports on some 80,000 members of the Dinka tribe who fled to Darfur from southern Sudan a decade ago to escape the war, only to find themselves facing rape, death and looting once again.

Nicholas Kristof continues to write about Darfur.

In the Congo, the UN reports that an estimated 100,000 people have fled fighting in the East between renegade soldiers and army loyalists.

Then there is this report
On the wooded heights north of here, a fetid stench rises from the corpses that have lain for three days in the African sun.

The traces of fighting between mutinous soldiers and the army in this eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo are everywhere, and in the centre of the town, what little was left to be pillaged has been taken.

In a trench dug in haste, half a dozen bodies lie under a thick cloud of flies as battalions of ants swarm around the bullet wounds.
The DRC now claims that Burundian helicopters launched a raid against a base sheltering Hutu fighters in eastern Congo.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande said that Rwanda would end its threats to invade the DRC if the international community takes control of disarming the rebels in Congo. At the same time, Rwanda President Paul Kagame says that troops will invade Congo unless cross-border attacks stopped and accused Western powers of "abdicating their responsibility" by failing to disarm the Interahamwe and Ex-FAR who fled to the DRC following the 1994 genocide.

posted by Eugene Oregon at 10:23 AM




UN Peacekeepers' Extra-Curricular Activities

From this weekend's New York Times:
The raping of women and girls is an all-too-common tactic in the war raging in Congo's eastern jungles involving numerous militia groups .... But it is not just the militia members who have been preying on the women. So, too, local women say, have some of the soldiers brought in to keep the peace.

... The allegations leveled against United Nations personnel in Congo include sex with underage partners, sex with prostitutes and rape, an internal United Nations investigation has found. Investigators said they found evidence that United Nations peacekeepers and civilian workers paid $1 to $3 for sex or bartered sexual relations for food or promises of employment.

A confidential report prepared by Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the United Nations, and dated Nov. 8, says the exploitation "appears to be significant, widespread and ongoing."

Violators described in the investigation, which continues, appear to come from around the globe. Fifty countries are represented among the 1,000 civilian employees and 10,800 soldiers who make up the United Nations mission in Congo.

Already, a French civilian has been accused of having sex with a girl, though it is unclear where that case stands, and two Tunisian peacekeepers have been sent home, where the local authorities will decide whether to punish them.

The United Nations report details allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers from Nepal, Pakistan, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa and Uruguay, and lists incidents in which some soldiers tried to obstruct investigators.

When they arrive for duty, peacekeepers are presented with the United Nations code of conduct, which forbids "any exchange of money, employment, goods or services for sex."

The home countries are responsible for punishing any of their military personnel who violate the code while taking part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

The United Nations, which has had previous scandals in missions in Cambodia and Bosnia, also warns the soldiers against sexual contact with girls under 18, even though the law in Congo permits sex with girls as young as 14.
Interesting. Apparently, the lawmakers of Congo think like the lawmakers of South Carolina.


posted by Frederick Maryland at 10:07 AM




Why I Read the Economist, Part II; or, What a Woman!, Part II

I've barely started the Economist's year-end double issue and have already run across two gems.

The title to the first one should have tipped me off: a leading article (or editorial, as we Yanks call them) called "A Modest Proposal." The leader offers a solution to "the biggest issue in modern politics"--the repeated, career-altering difficulties political figures seem to have in following tax and immigration laws regarding their nannies.

It seems that Bernard Kerik's nanny problems may have been made up to cover for Kerik's more serious failings, but we can all remember other would-be cabinet officers from both parties who have been brought down by failing to pay nanny taxes or hiring illegal aliens. And in the U.K., Home Secretary David Blunkett had to resign after admitting to an affair with a married woman. Not because of the affair, mind you, nor because he claimed to be the father of one of her children and the proximate cause of her current pregnancy, but because he "fast-tracked" the visa application of her Filipina nanny.

What to do? The Economist explains (translation from English to American provided as needed):

Parents are not the only people who have difficulty getting visas for workers. All employers face restrictive immigration policies which raise labour costs. Some may respond by trying to fiddle the immigration system, but most deal with the matter by exporting jobs. In the age of the global economy, the solution to the servant problem is simple: rather than importing the nanny, offshore the children.

Many working parents would hardly notice the difference, and there would be clear advantages beyond lower child-care costs. Freeing up rich-country real estate currently clogged with cots [cribs] and playpens would lower rents; liberating time currently wasted in story-telling and tummy-tickling would raise productivity. For parents who wished to be present at bed-time [bedtime], video-conference facilities could be arranged.

Luddites and sentimentalists will whinge [whine, kvetch, bitch] about the disadvantages of raising a brood in, say, Beijing. Language, for instance: what if one found oneself in possession of a posse of mini-Mandarin speakers? Yet in the age of global culture, few sensible modern parents are susceptible to such small-mindedness. If they were, they wouldn't so commonly leave their offspring in the care of monoglot Mexicans or Poles.

You've got to hand it to them, being so true to their free-market, free-trading faith.

So where does What A Woman! come in? In the letters to the editor.

The Economist recently ran one of those tiresome columns complaining about the domination of American universities by lefties (never mind the fact, as the Economist reminds its British readers whenever the subject of reforming U.K. higher education comes up, that American universities are the most sought-after in the world and widely regarded as delivering the best education). As an aside, the column mentioned Tom Wolfe's latest embarrassment, which depicts today's elite American university as a den of iniquity where the students do nothing but have sex with as many other students as possible.

In response, this letter arrived from a Brown University student:

SIR – Tom Wolfe's characterisation of co-ed life in the Ivory Tower is far from true, at least for this Ivy Leaguer. My life would surely be much more amusing if I were living in his fictitious Bacchanalia with a gangsta-rap soundtrack. As it is, I'm living in a house with nine guys and I'm still not getting any.

Elizabeth M____
Providence, Rhode Island

Grandma and Grandpa California, who are Brown alumni, are going to be so proud when I show them this letter. I went to Harvard, and I must concede that this is very much a Brown letter and one that Harvard men and women, to our discredit, would be unlikely to produce. And, as Mrs. California (herself a Harvard woman) said when she read this letter: "Well, she's certainly going to start getting some now."


posted by Arnold P. California at 8:03 AM


Sunday, December 19, 2004


Sneak Preview of New, GOP-Approved 7th-Grade Earth Science Textbook




Spirited away at great personal risk from the home of a former member of the Kansas State Board of Education.


posted by Arnold P. California at 3:03 PM



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