As I Please

Joe America

2011-12-28T07:51:00.001-05:00

This is an oldie but a goodie

Joe America

“Joe gets up at 6 a.m. to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medications with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to ensure their safety and guarantee that they work as advertised.

“All but $10 of the medicines' cost is paid by Joe's employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance. Now Joe gets it too, because his employer needs to offer competitive benefits to hire the best people.

“Joe prepares his breakfast bacon and eggs this day. Joe's bacon and eggs are safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing and poultry industries.

“Joe takes his morning shower, reaching for his shampoo. The bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air is clean because some tree-hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting the air.

“Joe drives to work in one of the safest cars in the world because some liberal fought to raise safety standards and emission controls.

“Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with good pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these improved working standards. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a workers' compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

“It's noon and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC up to $250,000 because some liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from greedy, unscrupulous bankers like the ones who ruined the banking system and helped cause the Great Depression.

“Joe needs to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten mortgage and his below-market interest rate federal student loan, which he got because some liberal decided that Joe and his family and our society would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

“Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. Joe was the third generation to live in the house, which was financed by Farmers Home Administration because town bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

“Joe is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure Joe's dad could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

“After his visit with his dad, Joe gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show. The host keeps ranting that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell Joe that his conservatives have fought tooth-and-nail against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.) Joe agrees that ‘We don't need those big government liberals running our lives; after all, I'm a self made man who believes people should take care of themselves, just like I have.’”

The Dickensian Mr. Nugent

2011-12-26T14:13:00.003-05:00

A few days ago a friend e-mailed me the following article entitled “Nugent: Poor parental choices make poor children” and asked me for my thoughts. When are people going to learn not to do that…

First, allow me to express my keen disappointment in the Motor City Madman’s rather bland regurgitation of right-wing think tank talking points. This is work more akin to the bleating duckspeak of a second tier Fox news commentator than something from the man who inflicted “Wango Tango” and “Cat Scratch Fever” on the American public thirty odd years ago. You would think there would be more pyrotechnics.

However, there are some pleasures to be found in Mr. Nugent’s unlettered drivel, even if they were unintended.

Let’s take a moment and savor the delicious irony of Ted “Wango Tango” Nugent extolling the probity of middle class sexual mores to the feckless poor. To my mind, this is a bit like enduring an avuncular lecture about the evils of chemical dependency from Keith Richards.

Terrible Ted opens his salvo on the less fortunate with the admonition:

“The fault is with the parents or, often, the lack thereof.”

Nugent is so good as to graciously spare the children from being complicit in their parents’ inconsiderate actions which so aggrieve good conservatives such as he. This is a common complaint. Even at the most cursory glance, history is chocked full of examples of society’s betters bemoaning the fecundity of their lesser members (see Dickens). Setting aside the lack of originality, it’s Nugent’s shameless hypocrisy that comes to the fore.

Nugent has been married twice and is the father of eight children. His first wife Sandy divorced him, accusing him of “bizarre sexual practices”. Three of the children were from his first marriage and two were from the second. Wait a minute; that is only five, his other three were born out of wedlock! And if that wasn’t enough, he further warns “mindless baby-making machines”:

“… if you can’t afford to have kids, quit having them and expecting the taxpayers to pay for them. Men and women with no visible means of support other than the taxpayer dime shouldn’t be having children. That may sound ugly and controlling, but it’s much uglier to expect the taxpayer to pay for mindless baby-making machines…”

Of course, Ted takes his responsibilities very seriously, so much so that in 2004 he was sued for unpaid child support payments for a bastard he fathered in 1995.

It must be said that Nugent contributed more than his fair share to the corrosion of our cultural currency. His 1980 classic “Wango Tango”enlightens young minds with the following lyrics:

“Kinda like, goes kinda like this
You take her right ankle out
You take her left ankle out
You get her belly propped down
You get her butt propped up
Yeah lookin' good now baby
I think you're in the right position now baby…”

Oh there’s more,

“I got salivate late, salivate late, salivate late
I got the droolin', droolin', get all wet, salivate, salivate
Got salivate, salivate, salivate, salivate, heh heh heh
Yeah you look so good baby, I like it, I like it, I like it
You know what I been talkin' about honey…”

Ted, no vicarious tunesmith, often put these words of wisdom into action. He gained a bit of notoriety in October 2000 when Spin magazine declared what follows as #63 on their list of the "100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock". Channeling his inner Jerry Lee Lewis, the thirty-year old Nugent initiated a “relationship” with seventeen-year-old Hawaii native Pele Massa. (There seems to be some dispute as to Ms. Massa’s true age with allegations she might have been as young as thirteen). Due to the age difference they could not marry so Nugent joined Massa's parents in signing documents to make himself her legal guardian. The above lyrics probably give some insight into the type of guardianship “Uncle Ted” was providing. Nothing creepy here.

It is illustrative that Nugent chooses to quote William J. Bennett another leading light of the “do as I say, not as I do” school of conservative thought. Bennett, when not dropping millions on the tables of Las Vegas, spends his time cranking out unreadable tomes with a singular theme – blame the victim. Perhaps Bill “Know when to fold ‘em” Bennett wants the poor to parlay their lottery tickets and repair “The Broken Hearth”.

Of course, we have to “punish” the poor for their own good. They don’t work. That broccoli on your table just finds its way there. The toilets at the McDonalds just clean themselves. Damn, if those poor people would just work 100 hours a week between three or four jobs, they could make as much as $725.00 a week! “[We] must make hard choices that force people into making smart, responsible decisions.” You’re too late, Ted, poor people make hard choices every single day.

I suppose it is now de rigueur in conservative circles to blame teacher unions for AIDS, the Kardashians and the fall of Western Civilization. This argument is so tiresome and spurious, I can only respond as Christopher Hitchens would have responded; 'That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence'.

The most risible and laughable of his assertions is “…we need a government that respects the free market and private sector instead of spitting on them. The more our government embraces the private sector, the more opportunity there is available…” It could well be argued that our government does a bit more than “embrace” the private sector. In fact, given its behavior toward Wall Street and the trillion dollar bailouts one could say they fellate the private sector. Now that we have protected the “job creators’” wealth from taxation, the question remains – where are the jobs?

If Mr. Nugent really wants us face the “ugly and uncomfortable” truths about poverty in America today, he might start by leaving his “canned hunt” in the wilds of Michigan and ask a few a few of his former fans – many of whom are becoming statistics in the longest recession since the 1930’s - in decaying rust belt cities that long supported his decadent rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. If this really all the right has to offer, along with the cavalcade of clowns they call their candidates; Mr. Obama, of whom I am no fan, should have nothing to worry about this November.

US hypocrisy on free speech at United Nations

2009-10-10T17:14:00.001-04:00

Found this disturbing article at the "Index on Censorship" website:

The UN Human Rights Council has passed a resolution condemning “stereotyping of religion”. It’s a move that flouts freedom of expression – and it was sponsored by the United States. Roy W Brown reportsThe United States has backed a new UN resolution on free expression which would be considered unconstitutional under its First Amendment — which protects freedom of expression and bans sanctioning of religions.

The UN Human Rights Council on 2 October adopted the resolution, which the US had co-sponsored with Egypt. The US had finally joined the Human Rights Council in June, and its support for the measure reflected the Obama administration’s stated aim to “re-engage” with the UN.

While the new resolution focuses on freedom of expression, it also condemns “negative stereotyping of religion”. Billed as a historic compromise between Western and Muslim nations, in the wake of controversies such the Danish Muhammed cartoons, the resolution caused concern among European members.

“The language of stereotyping only applies to stereotyping of individuals, I stress individuals, and must not protect ideologies, religions or abstract values,” said France’s representative, Jean-Baptiste Mattéi, speaking for the EU. “The EU rejects the concept of defamation of religion.”

France emphasised that international human rights law protects individual believers, not systems of belief. But European members, eager not be seen as compromise wreckers, reluctantly supported the measure.

On the other side of the fault line stood the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which lobbied for a measure against “religious defamation”.

“We firmly believe that the exercise of freedom of expression carries with it special responsibilities,” said Pakistan’s delegate, speaking for the OIC. The “defamation” of religion, he said, “results in negative stereotyping of the followers of this religion and belief and leads to incitement, discrimination, hatred and violence against them, therefore directly affecting their human rights.”

Following the OIC’s logic, one could equally apply the language of the resolution to Islamism, a political form which is arguably a “contemporary manifestation of religious hatred, discrimination and xenophobia. It results in negative stereotyping of the followers of other religions and beliefs and leads to incitement, discrimination, hatred and violence against them, therefore directly affecting their human rights.”

The EU also had other worries. European members felt that the provision in the resolution on “the moral and social responsibility of the press” was objectionable in that it went beyond the limited restrictions set out in article 19, the provision on free expression in the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.

Finally, the EU encouraged the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, Frank LaRue, to continue his work. This was an indirect reference to the attacks made against LaRue by several OIC members at the June session of the Human Rights Council. (Read more here)

The Council stopped short of repeating the OIC’s criticisms of the Special Rapporteur but encouraged him to stick to his mandate. That indicates that he should continue to focus on violations of free expression, rather than purported “abuses” of that right.

While this new resolution reflects new efforts by the US to broker compromises between Western and Muslim nations, it also represents an ominous crack in the defences of free expression.

An infinite number of monkeys...

2007-10-15T20:09:00.000-04:00

A new report suggests that an infinite number of monekys hacking away at an infinite number of typewriters will NOT produce works of the quality of William Shakespeare.

A spokesman for the report said: "Plainly, the internet has shown our findings to be true".

Local Scientists Raise Concerns about Creation Museum

2007-05-31T11:56:00.000-04:00

Statement of Concern

We, the undersigned scientists at universities and colleges in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, are concerned about scientifically inaccurate materials at the Answers in Genesis museum. Students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level. These students will need remedial instruction in the nature of science, as well as in the specific areas of science misrepresented by Answers in Genesis.

How to sign this statement

Click “List of signatories” (below) and scroll to the end of the list.
Post your name, title, institutional affiliation, and website. Submit only your name, institutional affiliation, and website, if you have one. No text, please.
Your email address is required to post the comment, but will not be shown publicly.

Your signature will be posted after it is validated.

Please sign only if you are a scientist (faculty or post-doctoral level) from IN, KY, or OH. Thanks!

List of signatories

1453

2007-05-29T21:30:00.000-04:00

The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West
by Roger Crowley

Five hundred and fifty-four years ago today, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople fell to the forces of the Ottoman Turks ending a thousand years of Christian rule in the east. Its significance to us today is underscored by the daily headlines emanating from that region of the world. Iraq, formally known as Mesopotamia, is a legacy of both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.

Roger Crowley’s fluency of writing and even-handed approach in bringing the events occurring in the spring of 1453 to life avoids the simple-mindedness so common in “popular” histories. Crowley argues the fall of Byzantium “is unusual in being history largely written by the losers.”

Contemporary Ottoman accounts barely exist; they were still largely a preliterate society and the accounts from their oral tradition ossified into terse chronicles with the aim of creating an Ottoman dynastic legend. It is from reading between the lines of writing from Christendom, which can hardly be relied upon to be impartial. There is also a paucity of records from the Byzantine Greeks themselves. The story is largely left to Italian eyewitness accounts that give the Byzantines, with the exception of the 57th emperor Constantine XI, unfailingly bad press. The Ottoman emperor, Mehmet II who was a mere 21 years when he took Constantinople, is often label by European sources as a “blood-drinker”.

Crowley’s challenge is to sort out what was plausible and to engage the reader in the description of a two-month siege and he succeeds admirably. He takes the reader through the geopolitics of the 15th century as well as the engineering and tactical preparation of both the Muslim army – a multinational force of 80,000 containing a sizable number of Christians, and the defenders, a motley force of 8,000 comprised of Greeks, Venetians and Genoese as well as a contingent of renegade Turks and a intrepid Scotsman.

For anyone interested in the end of the medieval world and the origins of current situation in the Muslim world, I would highly recommend this informative and entertaining read.

Northern Exposure

2007-05-27T13:19:00.000-04:00

Like most readers, I carry an image of Alaska that was formed in large part by the quirky television program Northern Exposure. A populace comprised of congenial misanthropes and eccentrics who were charming against a backdrop of majestic natural beauty.

The frozen north it seems is not quite as friendly – at least to nonbelievers – as we were led to believe. The following letter has a decidedly less tolerant tone than one would expect to find in the Kenai Peninsula Clarion where stories of moose charges and Grizzly bear sightings make the front page. A certain Alice Shannon, whose letter appeared in the Clarion holds somewhat xenophobic notions in regard to infidels:

“It’s time to stomp out atheists in America. The majority of Americans would love to see atheists kicked out of America. If you don’t believe in God, then get out this country.

The United States is based on having freedom of religion, speech, etc. which means you can believe in God any way you want (Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, etc.), but you must believe.

I don’t recall freedom of religion meaning no religion. Our currency even says, “In God we trust”. So to all the atheist in America: Get out of our country.

Atheists have caused the ruin of this great nation by taking prayer out of our schools and being able to practice what can only be called evil. I don’t care if they have never committed a crime, atheist are the reason crime is rampant.”

Well, Alice certainly has a bee in her bonnet. One hardly knows where to begin with this (but I am sure some readers do!). If I might throw in my two cents worth, I’d like to address Alice’s failing memory, “I don’t recall freedom of religion meaning no religion.” To quote Thomas Jefferson, author of the amendment she so clearly admires;

“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

So to all you evil-doing atheists (with or without felony records) out there, watch out! Alice Shannon is on to you, and she has the [final?] solution.

My thanks to the Raving Atheist for this gem.

Nearly 1 in 3 Believe Bible is Literal Word of God

2007-05-26T19:23:00.000-04:00

I found this disturbing little bit of news in the latest issue of Editor and Pulisher magazine:

Nearly 1 in 3 Believe Bible is Literal Word of God

By E&P Staff

Published: May 25, 2007 10:05 AM ET
NEW YORK About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word, a new Gallup poll reveals. This percentage is only slightly lower than several decades ago.

Gallup reports that the majority of those "who don't believe that the Bible is literally true believe that it is the inspired word of God but that not everything it in should be taken literally." Finally, about one in five Americans believe the Bible is merely an ancient book of "fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man."

There is also a strong relationship between education and belief in a literal Bible, Gallup explains, with such belief becoming much less prevalent as schooling continues.

Those who believe in the literal Bible amount to 31% of adult Americans. This is a decline of about 7% compared with Gallup polls taken in the 1970s and 1980s. It is strongest in the South.

Believe in the literal word of the Bible is strongest among those whose schooling stopped with high school and declines steadily with educational level, with only 20% of college graduates holding that view and 11% of those with an advanced degree.

E&P Staff

For Shame

2007-05-25T12:16:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday the Cincinnati Enquirer devoted the front page and an entire section to the creation museum opening here on the 28th. Of course, the praise was lavish and what few criticisms there were, buried in the "letters" section (yours truly was included). An entire spread was dedicated to Ken Ham, the Chaucerian mountebank who swindled the credulous out of $27 million to erect this shrine to ignorance where Adam and Eve go to Sunday school riding dinosaurs; a place where Darwin, secular science and troubling evidence hold no sway.

If our bumpkinhood was not already confirmed, this insult to every natural history museum in the world was splashed across the pages of the New York Times yesterday. And to my horror, it remains the most popular e-mailed, blogged and searched article today. Now the whole world knows of our shame and can only conclude we are hotbed of inbred goobers.

This utter barking lunacy make one almost wish for biblical wrath; a nice plague of locusts or a Sodom and Gomorrah tactical nuclear strike, anything to end the embarrassment.

Christopher Hitchens on "Militant Atheism"

2007-05-24T15:34:00.000-04:00

This appears in the current issue of Free Inquiry magazine:

"All you need is to ignore the difference between someone who believes in, say, heaven and hell and someone who doesn't. The first has a lot of work to do by way of providing anything that even looks like evidence. The second rests his case on the extreme improbability of any such evidence being adduced. Are these positions really describable as morally or intellectually equivalent? Or take the case of someone who believes in punishment for blasphemy or in prior restraint on those who might commit it. Is this the same dogma as the argument that says that religion, since it makes such huge claims, must expect to have them submitted to rigorous questioning?...The faithful believe that certain truths have been 'revealed.' The skeptics and secularists believe that truth is only to be sought by free inquiry and trial and error. Only one of those positions is dogmatic."

Well said...

MANIFESTO

2006-03-01T12:09:00.000-05:00

Note: you can learn more about the manifesto and its signers at Butterflies and Wheels

Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man’s domination of woman, the Islamists’ domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject cultural relativism, which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of “Islamophobia”, an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

The Bush Family’s Working Vacation

2005-09-15T17:54:00.000-04:00

Still stinging from accusations of inaction and incompetence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush today announced that he and his extended family would finish his truncated five-week vacation in the “Big Easy”. Taking time out from his busy schedule of groveling and “taking responsibility” for what may be America’s greatest natural disaster, the chief executive is pictured here with his father, the former president George H.W. Bush enjoying a little sport fishing.

"Who said all the big ones were at Kennebunkport?" Photo:www.glennbeck.com

The Bush clan matriarch, Barbara, however, will not be joining the family; she is currently undergoing gin and tonic therapy at a clinic for the terminally insensitive.

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them."

–Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005

2005-08-24T19:42:00.000-04:00

Pat Robertson isn't the only one who can play this game...

2005-08-08T19:48:00.000-04:00

2006 Poet's Market

“I do not feel your pain”

2005-07-18T21:36:00.000-04:00

“YOU WILL SMASH YOURSELF ON ISLAM!"

As murders go, the brutal butchery of Theo Van Gogh in a busy Amsterdam street was particularly grisly. On the morning of November 2, 2004 the 47 year old great-grand-nephew of the Dutch master and controversial filmmaker was riding his bicycle to work when he was ambushed by Mohammed Bouyeri. Bouyeri, a Dutch Moroccan and Islamic fanatic then pulled a gun and shot Van Gogh several times.

According to witnesses, Van Gogh hit the street and then struggled across the street to collapse in front of a shop. Bouyeri, dressed in a traditional Arab cloak known as djellaba, crossed the street to where Van Gogh lay, firing several more 9 mm rounds into his helpless victim. Eight bullets were to be found in his body.

Bouyeri heeded neither the pleas for mercy from the heavily bleeding Van Gogh or from some of the bystanders who had cowered for safety behind cars and doorways. One witness described the young man as behaving with the methodical detachment of 'a butcher' as he produced a long sharpened knife and proceeded to slit Van Gogh’s throat so deeply he nearly decapitated him. With a second knife, he pinned a five-page letter written in Dutch to Van Gogh’s chest addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch MP from Somalia who had collaborated with van Gogh on Submission, a film suggesting the Koran sanctioned domestic violence.

Refering to Hirsi Ali as an "infidel fundamentalist" who "terrorizes Islam" and "marches with the soldiers of evil." With her "hostilities," she "unleashed a boomerang and it's just a matter of time before this boomerang will seal your destiny." To emphasize his point by writing in capital letters it said: "AYAAN HIRSI ALI, YOU WILL SMASH YOURSELF ON ISLAM!" Bouyeri ended his screed with a sinister litany: "I know for sure that you, O America, are going to meet with disaster. I know for sure that you, O Europe, are going to meet with disaster. I know for sure that you, O Holland, are going to meet with disaster."

His business finished, he briefly spoke to someone in the street and then quietly walked away.

Dutch police a short time later captured him, after a shootout resulting in one police officer being wounded and Bouyeri himself was shot in the leg and taken to a police hospital.

Theo Van Gogh (1957-2004)

"The Voice of Jihadism"

Mohammed Bouyeri made his first appearance in an Amsterdam high-security courtroom last Monday. Initially, he refused to speak claiming the court had no authority over him.

On Tuesday, he addressed the court and Van Gogh’s mother, Anneke, in particular; bearded, dressed in a black robe and white headscarf, clutching a Koran he praised Allah and the Prophet Mohammad before admitting to the killing. Arguing that he did not kill her son out of hate, ``I did what I did purely out my beliefs,'' the 27-year-old Muslim told judges, ``I want you to know that I acted out of conviction and not that I took his life because he was Dutch or because I was Moroccan and felt insulted.''

Bouyeri continued his chilling confession, "but I have chopped off his head according to the law that orders me to do so to everyone who offends Allah. I do not feel your pain as I do not know what it is to suffer the loss of a child"

The man who Andrew Sullivan has dubbed the “voice of jihadism” addressed the judges and stated, "If I ever get free, I would do it again."

Facing a life sentence, Bouyeri, allegedly a member of a terrorist cell known as the Hofstad Network, is said to have attended private prayer sessions with a Syrian spiritual leader, Redouan al-Issar, who disappeared shortly before the Van Gogh killing.

Twelve other suspected group members are awaiting trial on separate terrorism charges.

The Marching Season

2005-07-12T06:23:00.000-04:00

For those of my readers who are not familiar with the peculiar tribal customs of the north of Ireland, today is the “Glorious 12th.”

It is the high holy day of the Loyal Orange Lodges (L.O.L.) celebrating the victory of the Protestant William of Orange (William III) over the Catholic forces of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Triumphalist and anti-Catholic in its creed, the Orange Order sends incendiary parades through Nationalist neighborhoods throughout Northern Ireland often provoking rioting while marching to tunes such as “Croppy Lie Down” (“croppy” is a derogatory term for Irish Catholics) and “Kick the Pope” while waving banners and British flags.

The closest analogy one could make for an American audience is that this akin to allowing the Klu Klux Klan march through the streets of Harlem.

While the organization claims to practice religious tolerance, Taigs (another derogatory for Catholics) are strictly forbidden to join (as if any wanted to) and its members suffer expulsion for attending “Papist” ceremonies. When in 1998 Ulster Unionist Party leader and Northern Ireland First Minister-designate, David Trimble representing Northern Ireland attended the funeral Mass for a child murdered in a Real IRA bombing, there were demands that he be expelled by the Orange Order for attending a "Papist ceremony". Members are forbidden to marry Catholics, as the Catholic Church requires its adherents to make all reasonable efforts to raise all their children in the same religion, regardless of the other parent's faith.

Bigotry on Parade

American Connection

In fact, this year there is an American connection: an Orange Lodge from Alabama (where else?) has traveled to Tobermore, Co. Derry to participate in one of the 19 rallies being held today. This misbegotten cultural exchange allows the boys to slip out of their hoods and don the sash and bowler, the traditional costume of Unionist bigots.

Ian Paisley, the arch-bigot and political leader, is a prominent member of the LOL and has more than a few unsavory American connections himself.

He styles himself "Dr Paisley", on the basis of the award of an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina. Bob Jones Jr., was a close personal friend and a co-leader with Ian Paisley in the international Fundamentalist movement. At the time of the award of this degree, Bob Jones University was a segregationist, unaccredited Christian college which banned African-American students from its campus. This policy was later reversed by stealth, completed in 2000 when the college abandoned its policy banning inter-racial dating following a national debate in the US which was occasioned by George W. Bush's decision to speak from the college's pulpit during his presidential campaign. Bob Jones University remains an unaccredited college.

Did you miss me?

2005-07-07T06:55:00.000-04:00

I’m returning tomorrow from a much needed sabbatical.

Frist and the AMA

2005-06-20T06:59:00.000-04:00

In response to my previous post about Senator Frist’s possible ethics violations concerning his video “diagnosis” of Terri Shiavo, Paco Delicious at “The Force Recon: In point of fact” has written a concise exposition of how precisely Frist has violated AMA ethics.

“The issue of Frist questioning the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state based on a viewing of the video is completely unprofessional on its face, but it wasn't the only, or indeed the first ethical breach in this case. Whoever taped her and then released the video, clearly did not do so to provide "therapeutic benefit" to Schiavo, nor were the objectives of the filming "first and foremost educational," the Council's other main criteria besides "informed consent" that might allow such filming.”

It is well worth a few minutes of your time to read.

There Are None So Blind...

2005-06-17T23:13:00.000-04:00

According to Jon Trogmartin, medical examiner and board certified neuropathologist, who was in attendance at the autopsy (as pursuant to Florida chapter 406) of the late Terri Shiavo:

“Her brain was profoundly atrophied. The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. This was due to diffused hypoxic ischemic damage. There was massive neuronal loss or damage. This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.

Of note, there was severe occipital lobe necrosis resulting in lateral geniculate nucleus (visual) demonstrated transneuronal degeneration with gliosi. Her vision centers of her brain were dead. Therefore, Mrs. Schiavo had what's called cortical blindness. She was blind, could not see.”

In spite of Dr. Throgmartin’s tongue-twisting medical jargon, the conclusions are stark – massive brain damage, atrophy and total blindness with no possible hope of recovery.

Like most of America this past spring, I was subjected to the heart-rending (and now known to have been carefully edited) videos of Terri Shiavo allegedly following a balloon waved by her father. The St. Petersburg Times has published a link to that particular clip where it becomes evident that Terri was not the only one in the room who had been blinded by her awful reality.

But, none was so blinded by the Terri Shiavo case (or was it ambition) than the Senate Majority Leader, Dr. Bill Frist. Frist, an MD and heart specialist, led the fight to intervene against pulling Schiavo’s feeding tube, claiming he was defending a “culture of life”. In a bid to bring her case into federal court, Congress held its emergency session and passed the Terri Schiavo bill, which allowed her case to be considered by a federal judge. President Bush flew back from his ranch Texas on Palm Sunday to sign it into law.

On March 17th, on the floor of the senate, Dr. Frist made this pronouncement:

"To be able to make a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state - which is not brain dead; it is not coma; it is a specific diagnosis and typically takes multiple examinations over a period of time because you are looking for responsiveness - I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond."

NBC’s Today Show host Matt Lauer questioned Frist’s now infamous diagnosis in the wake of the autopsy findings. It seems that Senator Frist has now developed a case of amnesia that would delight a medical malpractice defense attorney.

LAUER: But when you stood on the floor and you said, She does respond, are you at all worried that you led some senators…

FRIST: I never said, She responded. I said I reviewed the court videotapes – the same ones the other doctors reviewed – and I questioned, Is her diagnosis correct?

Liar, Liar...Pants on fire

You’re right Bill, you said, “she does respond”.

Representative Barney Frank (D- Massachusetts) in the New York Times said, “I think it will been seen at some point as a turning point in America about what’s going on with the Republican Party – namely that you have this fanatical party willing to impose its own views on people, and frankly, powerful enough to do it." Frank, who was among the most vocal critics of the Schiavo bill, continued, "This is particularly a problem for Dr. Frist. This is a direct refutation of his TV diagnosis."

Frist, who is viewed as a potential presidential candidate for 2008, has pandered to the right wing extremist elements of the Republican Party not only in the Schiavo case, but also in the debate over the use of the filibuster in judicial hearings when he appeared along with other far right Christian luminaries such as Tony Perkins and James Dobson on “Justice Sunday” where it was declared that the Democrats were attacking “people of faith”.

It seems the good doctor may arguably be in violation of AMA ethics opinion E-5.045 by his amateur video “diagnosis”. But, there is no doubt he has abandoned the Hippocratic Oath where he swore “I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.” Or, “this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.”

Perhaps the good doctor might want to consult the Bible he is so fond of defending and read Jeremiah 5:21:

“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:”

Creationist Mythology Gains Acceptance at Tulsa Zoo

2005-06-16T06:52:00.000-04:00

“For that matter, even religious worship would have been permitted if the proles had shown any sign of needing or wanting it. They were beneath suspicion. As the Party slogan put it: ‘Proles and animals are free.’’’

1984
-George Orwell

Well, those crazy, cretinous creationists are at it again. Not satisfied with undermining scientific education in the schools, they have moved on to bigger and more public targets such as the local zoo.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Park and Recreation Board voted this past Tuesday in favor of a Biblical display highlighting the myth of Genesis in which God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh at the Tulsa Zoo.

In spite of objections from zoo officials and scientists, the board voted 3 to 1 to include the religious display without regard to the fact that theology should not be part of a taxpayer-funded scientific institution.

Jesus loves me this I know...

The lone dissenting board member, Dale McNamara, said the zoo is dedicated to animals and science, not religious beliefs. "I do not like the idea of scripture at the zoo," she said.

Exhibit curator at the zoo, Kathleen Buck-Miser, expressed misgivings about the zoo delving into theological debate. "I'm afraid we are going in the wrong direction," she said.

The move to have a creationist display was spearheaded by religious fanatic Dan Hicks, who has campaigned since the mid-nineties to have evolution-based displays removed. Hicks’ objection is to the statue of Ganesh, a Hindu elephant deity that stands outside the elephant exhibit. "I see this as a big victory," said Hicks, "It's a matter of fairness. To not include the creationist view would be discrimination."

Because the Bible tells me so!

Zoo officials argued that the zoo, as a scientific institution, does not advocate religion and that displays like the elephant statue are meant to show the animal's image among cultures. The same exhibit includes the Republican Party's elephant symbol.

Tulsa’s conservative Republican mayor, Bill LaFortune supported the initiative saying the zoo already had religious exhibits referring to the Ganesh statue. But, more likely, the two thousand signatures Hicks had collected on a petition more heavily influenced the decision on the mayor’s part. After all, Mr. LaFortune is the man who declared March as National Caffeine Awareness Month in Tulsa.

The board agreed to post a disclaimer on signs around the zoo that reads, "There are many views on the origins of biological species and their behaviors. The information that accompanies our displays is based on evidence of the natural sciences. Because scientific knowledge is subject to change these displays may be revised as new information becomes available."

Another dark day indeed for science and progress.

“This Important Good Law”

2005-06-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

“It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice.”

1984
- George Orwell

While most of America has been obsessing over the verdict of the Michael Jackson trial or the conversion of Katie Holmes to Scientology, our dear leader has been stumping at various events across the country urging lawmakers to make certain provisions of the Patriot Act permanent. He has called on them to disregard what he called “unfair criticisms of this important good law.”

Our Leader

Traveling to various venues in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, including the National Counterterrorism Center in Tysons Corner, Virginia, Mr. Bush has thrown down the gauntlet to legislators saying, "The Patriot Act has not diminished American liberties. The Patriot Act has helped defend American liberties."

Some civil libertarians disagree, saying the act passed with little debate in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 left some disturbing questions about its constitutionality. Its critics contend that the act’s broad powers of search and detention violate the Fourth Amendment. Ramesh Ponnuru, writing in the conservative magazine National Review, concedes the law should not be made permanent: “Moreover, the civil libertarians make a reasonable demand when they ask that Patriot be subject to periodic re-authorizations, so that Congress can regularly consider making modifications.”

Watch, ride and report

While there have been draconian laws passed in times of emergency and war in our nation’s past, they have usually been struck down rather quickly after the emergency has passed. Lincoln, for instance, suspended the Writ of Habeus Corpus during the Civil War until the Supreme Court intervened. Every governor has the right to declare martial law in the event of civil unrest, rebellion or imminent invasion.

It is the chilling words of Mr. Bush that concern me; “For the sake of our national security, the United States Congress needs to renew all the provisions of the Patriot Act and, this time, Congress needs to make those provisions permanent".

Secure beneath the watchful eyes

“Permanent” seems, well, so permanent.

Back to the Future Part 2

2005-06-10T06:19:00.000-04:00

Welcome To Wal-Mart Nation

As the United States’ population approaches 300 million, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that there are only 10 million production workers on the payroll. And their numbers are declining.

What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? It means that the U.S. economy has been unable to create jobs in export and import-competitive industries. U.S. job growth is confined to non-tradable domestic services. In short, we are importing more and more goods from abroad producing less and less tangible goods for export thereby contributing to a staggering trade deficit that must be financed by foreign credit.

Clyde Prestowitz, author of the just published “Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East”, explained that America's prosperity is an illusion. Americans feel prosperous because they are consuming $700 billion annually more than they are producing. Foreigners, principally Asians, are financing US over-consumption, because we are paying them by handing over our markets, our jobs, and our wealth.

While the “de-industrialization” of American has been going on for three decades, it has accelerated in recent years with the advent of “globalization.”

One of the biggest culprits in the move to third world labor markets is the retailing behemoth, Wal-Mart. With their motto of “Always low prices. Always” they have grown into a retailing powerhouse with sales of $256.3 billion—more than the sales of Microsoft and retail competitors Home Depot, Kroger, Target, and Costco combined.

Wal-Mart: Always Low Wages. Always (AP Photo/April L. Brown)

Wal-Mart, which bills itself as a “family friendly” business, is not so friendly when dealing with its vendors:

“Pillowtex Corp. had more than 1.2 BILLION dollars in sales, with $450 to $500 million of it with Wal-Mart according to the company's former CEO. He was quite was bitter, as he described how Wal-Mart drove his prices lower and lower. Then the store had the nerve to firmly suggest he go off-shore to get his products made. In the end, he liquidated his company and was forced to fire ALL 14,000 employees. 14,000 people all unemployed.”

Of course, those 14, 000 workers have families, but the quest for profits apparently trumps the needs of American families.

Next: Allegations of abusive labor practices and the sweatshop economy.

Back to the Future Part I

2005-06-08T06:55:00.000-04:00

The Long Slow Slide

“As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a ‘categorical pledge’ were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.”
-1984
George Orwell

Do you ever wake up in the morning with a certain dread, a sense of impending disaster? Not the cataclysmic variety disasters such as a hurricane or tsunami, or something manmade like a nuclear plant meltdown, but rather the slow slide into a bleakness stamped with inevitability. In short, a realization that the future is not what it used to be.

Some of this is I blame on the malaise of middle age; that time in a man’s life when the horizons begin to constrict and the realization that the years behind you are greater than the ones that lie ahead. But, with advancing years comes a perspective of having decades, rather than years, to measure. And from this perspective comes a disheartening conclusion that “things” are not going well in our brave new world.

Like Orwell’s protagonist, Winston Smith, it is becoming increasingly apparent that there is a wider and wider gap between the message of the bleating duckspeakers on the evening news and the reality that is most of our situations. The chocolate ration has been cut; yet, we are told there will be plenty of chocolate to go around.

Two pieces of news recently that bring this point to mind: the recent announcement from the government about jobs creation and General Motors decision to eliminate 25, 000 mostly blue-collar jobs over the next three years.

Paul Craig Roberts of Counterpunch sums up the first story thusly,

“In May the Bush economy eked out a paltry 73,000 private sector jobs: 20,000 jobs in construction (primarily for Mexican immigrants), 21,000 jobs in wholesale and retail trade, and 32,500 jobs in health care and social assistance. Local government added 5,000 for a grand total of 78,000.

Not a single one of these jobs produces an exportable good or service. With Americans increasingly divorced from the production of the goods and services that they consume, Americans have no way to pay for their consumption except by handing over to foreigners more of their accumulated stock of wealth. The country continues to eat its seed corn.”

This was followed by a headline in the New York Times detailing GM’s biggest wave of job cuts since 1992. GM’s chairman and chief executive engaged in a bit of doublethink as he announced the planned cuts:

“Addressing such costs ‘will be challenging and discomforting, but it is clear that not addressing them will cause significant risk to the long-term viability of our business.’”

“Challenging and discomforting”, what a lovely euphemism for tossing twenty-five thousands souls into the ranks of the unemployed; the harsh reality is that these twenty-thousands will in all likelihood never regain the standard of living they once enjoyed. Yes, I would call that “challenging and discomforting”.

What is noticeably absent in the report is the ripple effect these cuts will incur. Hundreds of vendors and local businesses are dependent on the high wage levels of these manufacturing jobs. Anyone living through the huge dislocations in the manufacturing sector during the Reagan years, particularly those of us in the Midwest, will remember the double digit unemployment figures and the shuttering of many small and medium size cities, most of whom have never recovered to this day.

The alternative: part-time employment as a Wal-Mart Greeter for slightly more than minimum wage?

The future is not what it used to be...

Damaging Books?

2005-06-06T06:26:00.000-04:00

While perusing the various conservative magazines online recently, I came upon a disturbing article in the archconservative weekly Human Events entitled “Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries”. The lead paragraph explains:

“Human Events asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Each panelist nominated a number of titles and then voted on a ballot including all books nominated.”

All the predictable villains are there, plus a few surprises:

1. The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels
2. Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao - Mao Zedong
4. The Kinsey Report - Alfred Kinsey
5. Democracy and Education - John Dewey
6. Das Kapital - Karl Marx
7. The Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy - Auguste Comte
9. Beyond Good and Evil - Freidrich Nietzsche
10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money - John Maynard Keynes

Honorable Mentions

The Population Bomb - Paul Ehrlich
What Is To Be Done - V.I. Lenin
Authoritarian Personality - Theodor Adorno
On Liberty - John Stuart Mill
Beyond Freedom and Dignity - B.F. Skinner
Reflections on Violence - Georges Sorel
The Promise of American Life - Herbert Croly
Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin
Madness and Civilization - Michel Foucault
Soviet Communism: A New Civilization - Sidney and Beatrice Webb
Coming of Age in Samoa - Margaret Mead
Unsafe at Any Speed - Ralph Nader
Second Sex - Simone de Beauvoir
Prison Notebooks - Antonio Gramsci
Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon
Introduction to Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud
The Greening of America - Charles Reich
The Limits to Growth - Club of Rome
Descent of Man - Charles Darwin

The question I have is, just exactly what is the purpose of such a list?
To be fair, I suppose you could find similar lists among those publications tilting to the extreme left, but as yet, I haven’t found them. But, orthodoxy is orthodoxy no matter what flavor it comes in. While Human Events holds back from telling its readers not to read these “evil” books, the implication is clear; books will damage you.

This is the fundamentalist mindset in a nutshell whether it is the variety that springs from the right or left, or the religious or non-religious. “We don’t like ideas that are different than ours,” therefore a list must be compiled. And, as it is too often the case in history, the list becomes a bonfire. Ideas, and after all, what are books but ideas in a portable form, are dangerous and must kept away from the true believers – whatever that belief may be.

Hitler Youth burning "un-German" books in 1933

Over the years I have read a fair number of the books listed above. And yet, I became neither a Stalinist nor Maoist nor Nazi. In fact, it was from reading such books that I learned to reject what Orwell labeled “smelly little orthodoxies”. A critical mind must.

In fact it was a Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, during the height of the cold war era, who spoke most eloquently about the need for a liberal democratic society to maintain the free exchange of ideas:

“Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.

How will we defeat communism unless we know what it is, what it teaches, and why does it have such an appeal for men, why are so many people swearing allegiance to it? It's almost a religion, albeit one of the nether regions.

And we have got to fight it with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they're accessible to others is unquestioned, or it's not America.”

Dartmouth College Commencement, June 14, 1953

I wonder if the editors of Human Events ever considered that they might have caused more damage than their intended targets?

The Dream of the Astronaut

2005-06-02T15:20:00.000-04:00

Local playwright Chip Gambill’s The Dream of the Astronaut opens tonight at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) as part of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

It has been receiving some favorable notice from local papers, and if this play is as good as his previous efforts, it will be well worth the effort to go see.

"The play involves three stopovers in the journey of a man, which involve encounters with three women," explains Gambill. "And in these encounters we see how the thinkers among us conceive ideals: ideal people, ideal situations. Yet, because they're ideals they never quite get there."

Peter Karapetkov directs The Dream of the Astronaut and it stars actors Nick Rose and Jennifer Dalton. Gambill and Karapetkov have collaborated before when they worked together on a Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative workshop last summer.

If you only attend one play a year, this could very well be the one.

See Chip Gambill's latest at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) June 2-11

Performances, all at the Contemporary Arts Center, 6th & Walnut, are:

Thursday, June 2 at 7:00
Saturday, June 4, at 9:00
Tuesday, June 7, at 7:00
Thursday, June 9, at 9:00
Saturday, June 11, at 7:30

Get tickets at:

cincyfringe.com
cincinnatiarts.org
513.621.ARTS
or the Aronoff Center Box Office, Walnut between 6th & 7th.

I'LL BE BACK...After a word from our sponsors

2005-06-01T06:47:00.000-04:00

I would personally like to congratulate Arnold “The Governator” Schwarzenegger for breaking down one of the last barriers between our corporate masters and their political puppets.

In a recent advertisement endorsing his political agenda, the Republican governor of California has embraced the time-honored strategy of “product placement”.

"The TV ad, released in May, features Schwarzenegger talking to people in a lunchroom, and places Pepsi and Arrowhead Water in prominent spots next to the governor for 1/3 of the ad. Donors connected to Pepsi Co. and Arrowhead Water's parent company, Nestle, gave the governor a total of $279,800 in campaign contributions. Also recognizable on-screen are Ruffles, Sun Chips, Cheetos and a SoBe Beverage, all brands owned by Pepsi.”

Pepsi anyone?

Product placement has been with us for years in movies and television. Marketing departments know that straightforward ads detailing the virtues of the particular product have been losing their impact in a media saturated world where the attention span of their audience is only slightly longer than that of a gnat. Entertainment, the only thing most Americans care about anymore, is riddled with corporate logos and gizmos used by characters in hopes that you are so enamored of fictional characters and what they value, you will rush out of the theater and purchase their brand.

Soon every aspect of our lives will have a corporate sponsor – “This funeral is brought to you by Hillebrand caskets” – so, why not our political arena? It has been corrupted by corporate money for years. Let’s see who is footing the bill. We can choose our candidates on the basis of their brand endorsements, which in truth would tell us as much, probably more than anything in their carefully scripted campaign speeches.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to turn on the evening news and see a segment about the Iraq war that began with:

“This war has been brought to you by The Halliburton Corporation and Exxon-Mobil, serving global dominance for 50 years.”

P.S. By the way, please take a look at some of this blog's fine corporate sponsors!

Catapulting the Propaganda

2005-05-31T06:01:00.000-04:00

Someone from the Ministry of Truth in the Bush White House is very probably going to become a nonperson, in fact, a doubleplusungood nonperson in the next week if it hasn’t happened already. Of course, we will never know, because as a nonperson he never existed in the first place and any mention of him will slide down the memory hole just like the following statement President Bush made at one of those creepy Orwellian “Town Hall” meetings where the audience is carefully screened and the entire presentation scripted.

It seems this low-level functionary of the Outer Party forgot to delete the highlighted phrase on the speakwrite.

“Now, a personal savings account would be a part of a Social Security retirement system. It would be a part of what you would have to retire when you reach retirement age. As you -- as I mentioned to you earlier, we're going to redesign the current system. If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)”

Dubya flinging the spin...

Yes, one can almost see the pneumatic tubes humming with frantic orders to “rectify” .

times 17.3.05 bb speech malreported iraq rectify

times 19.12.04 forecasts 3 yp 4th quarter 83 misprints verify current issue

times 14.12.04 miniplenty malquoted economy rectify

times 3.05.05 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling

times 24.05.05 bb speech malreported social security rectify

O’Brien or Big Brother could not have said it better…well, okay, they probably would have used grammatically correct English.

Update on the FEC and the Internet

Go to the Center for Democracy and Technology website

The deadline is June 4th!

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

2005-05-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day is set aside for the remembrance of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Those brave men and women deserve our respect and our admiration for their unselfish service to their country.

We now find ourselves at war again in Iraq.

Without belaboring the reasons we find ourselves there, it is enough to know that over 1,600 young men and woman have given their lives with no end in sight.

While I am not a pacifist, I do not support this war. However, I do believe our actions in Afganistan were justified and largely successful, but unfortunately hampered by our commitment of personel and resources to the Iraq invasion. We had the moral high ground there.

It is, by now, no secret to many of you that the U.S. Army is having grave difficulties meeting its recruitment goals. This report from Reuters:

“The U.S. Army missed its April recruiting goal by a whopping 42 percent and the Army Reserve fell short by 37 percent, officials said on Tuesday, showing the depth of the military's wartime recruiting woes.

With the Iraq war straining the U.S. military, the active-duty Army has now missed its recruiting goals in three straight months, with April being by far the worst of the three, and officials are forecasting that it will fall short again in May.”

Where are the Republicans?

So, why aren’t young Republicans of military age, who ardently support this war, rushing to their nearest recruitment office and enlisting? Could it be that their leadership as evidenced in the following list has set a poor example? Please note that many of those named below were highly instrumental in leading our nation to war. I will let their service records, or more precisely their lack thereof, speak for themselves:

* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Five deferments, the last by
marriage.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." (This is the man
who attacked Max Cleland`s patriotism.)
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard service; assigned to Alabama to campaign for a family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam; AWOL
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role
making movies.
* B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Lt. Commander, USN; Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit,
Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem," although continued
playing in the NFL for 8 years.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Prominent Rightwing Pundits & Preachers & Posers or otherwise known as "the cheerleaders"

* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a `pilonidal cyst.`)
* Bill O`Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.
* Charlie Daniels: did not serve.
* Ted Nugent: did not serve. (He only shoots at things that can’t
shoot back.)

Could it be that Eugene V. Debs was right when he said that “wars are fought to make rich men richer and poor men die”

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori...indeed!

(Trans. “It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country.”)

Sunday Morning Cartoons - Brimb: On Jesus

2005-05-29T08:11:00.000-04:00

Having take the oath of allegiance to the Evil Atheist Conspiracy®, it is my sworn duty to commit one evil act before breakfast or, at least, do something that will piss the godbotherers off.

Below is a cartoon from the website “Brimb: On Jesus”. There are several of these and they are all very witty. Try imagining Jesus today in the climate of the religious right.

Jesus as envisioned by the Christian Right

The Hammer Now Lashing Out at Fictional Characters

2005-05-28T10:48:00.000-04:00

It’s been a bad week for Tom DeLay. The Texas Republicans ethics issues took a sudden turn for the worse when a Texas judge ruled that a political action committee he formed failed to disclose over $600, 000 in corporate contributions. The passage of a stem cell research bill came as another blow to his “culture of life”, with forty of his fellow Republicans supporting it, over his hyperbolic condemnations. DeLay decried using taxes for "the dismemberment of living, distinct human beings for the purposes of medical experimentation."

So, in the grand old tradition of Former Vice-President Dan Quayle battling the fictional television character Murphy Brown on the issue of family values, the ethically challenged House Majority leader has decided to take a crack at a reference to him in a police drama concerning the murder of judges.

Bad hair day, Tom?

In the season finale of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”, which this past Wednesday, a police officer, frustrated by the lack of clues, makes an offhand comment that, "Maybe we should put out an APB (all-points-bulletin) for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt."

In a letter to NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker, DeLay wrote: "This manipulation of my name and trivialization of the sensitive issue of judicial security represents a reckless disregard for the suffering initiated by recent tragedies and a great disservice to public discourse."

The Texas Republican went on to suggest the "slur" against him was intended as a jab at comments he had made about "the need for Congress to closely monitor the federal judiciary."

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly responded in a statement that the dialogue in question "was neither a political comment nor an accusation."

"The script line involved an exasperated detective bedeviled by a lack of clues, making a sarcastic comment about the futility of looking for a suspect when no specific description existed," Reilly said.

Producer Dick Wolf, creator of the "Law & Order" franchise, took a swipe at DeLay in his own statement on Thursday, saying, "I ... congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show."

Earlier this spring, during his failed crusade to “rescue” Terri Shiavo, the bombastic DeLay made a thinly veiled threat to members of the judiciary who did not embrace his “culture of life” stance:

"We will look at an arrogant, out of control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at the Congress and president when given jurisdiction to hear this case anew and look at all the facts ... The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today."

Judge Joan Lefkow, U. S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, appeared earlier this month before the Senate Judiciary Committee to rebuke politicians and other public figures who have used inflammatory language to criticize judicial decisions they disagreed with. She said that such rhetoric encouraged violence against judges.

Lefkow’s husband and elderly mother were murdered by a man angry at her sentencing a white supremacist to forty years in prison for plotting to assassinate a federal judge.

Thanks to the folks at "Crooks and Liars" for this story

Congressman Accuses Bill Maher of Treason

2005-05-26T06:07:00.000-04:00

Traitor?

In another glaring example of how little our Republican overlords tolerate criticism or dissent, Republican congressman Spencer Bachus from Alabama has accused comedian Bill Maher of treason for comments he made on his HBO program, Real Time with Bill Maher.

The congressman took issue with Maher’s quip about the fall in recruiting figures in April, which he point the Army missed its recruiting goal by 42 percent.

"More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club," Maher said. "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies."

Army Reserve Pfc. England was accused of abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"I think it borders on treason," Bachus said. "In treason, one definition is to undermine the effort or national security of our country."

Maher's Book Cover

Maher, a strong supporter of the war on terrorism, has been highly critical of the Bush administration’s prosecution of the war and Americans’ lack of willingness to make sacrifices toward that end. His book, “When you ride ALONE, you ride with Bin Laden” released in 2002, revamps patriotic posters from the Second World War to modern day realities.

Its subtitle, “What the government should be telling us to help fight the war on terrorism” pretty much sums up Maher’s view. He is not only critical of the current administrations links to major oil companies, but our unwillingness to give up gas guzzling SUV’s ("Selfish Use Vehicles") which he contends puts more money in the pockets of Islamic terrorists.

Have the Republicans forgotten him?

Some of Maher's more trenchant arguments are:

MAKE SACRIFICES
Wars are won by uniting and making sacrifices, so why not carpool as civilians did during WW II (hence the title of this book) instead of driving alone? Also, why not give up SUVs and other idiotic vanity vehicles in favor of fuel efficient ones that will reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, which is one of Al Quaeda's prime sources of revenue.

PROTECT THE CITIZENS
If the president gets a secret service, why can't we? Put real security in our airports like Israel does.

PERFORM INTELLIGENT SEARCHES
At the risk of being offensive, search likely suspects at airports, not random people including old women and children.

THE 'WAR ON DRUGS' IS REALLY STUPID
Why are we investing billions of dollars and lots of resources making sure cancer victims can't smoke pot when we could be directing all of that money and resources toward protecting civilians at home? Besides, it doesn't work and it simply makes more people hate us.

UNDERSTAND WHY WE ARE HATED
People are attacking us for a reason. Try to understand what that reason is, don't just resort to comfort and clichés.

Not Patriotic Enough?

Bacchus says he does not want to prosecute Maher (after all, his accusations are groundless) but wants Maher off the air. Maher might be prickly and a thorn in the Republicans'collective side, but he is hardly a traitor. This is one more example of silencing any voice that dares disagree with them.

Bush’s Ongoing War on Science

2005-05-25T06:01:00.000-04:00

While the nation was focused on the filibuster issue, another important bill (probably far more important than Senate procedures)passed in the House. This was clearly a rebuke to the growing "culture of life" presence in the Congress. Between his conversations with God and the Danish Prime Minister, President Bush clearly stated that he chooses the medievalist worldview of the fundamentalist faction of the Republican Party.

“I have made very clear to the Congress that the use of taxpayer money to promote science that destroys life in order to save life, I am against that,'' Bush told reporters in at the White House before meeting with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. ``If the bill does that, I will veto it.''

Bush has yet to veto a bill. But, then, why would he? The rightwing fanatics who control Congress are hardly going to pass something he isn’t going to like. Still, the issue of stem cell research is a sticky one for the Republicans whose poll numbers are going south.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll published May 19th showed that 65% of those questioned believe Congress does not share their values.

Last night, fifty Republicans split with party leaders to back the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, written by Delaware Republican Mike Castle, after an emotional debate between advocates for such research into cures for debilitating diseases and those who believe use of the embryos is the unwarranted destruction of human life. Castle’s bill will remove the limit on the number of embryonic stem-cell lines eligible for federal research funding. The measure had 202 co-sponsors; passage required 218 votes. The 238-to-194 vote fell short of the 290 votes needed to override a veto.

The Gold Dust Twins of corrupt politicos, Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, both opposed Castle's bill, yet they agreed to allow a vote in part because public support is growing for expanded stem cell research. After the Terri Shiavo fiasco even “Tom the Hammer” is wary and apparently capable of reading the handwriting on the wall:

A poll released by Castle and other lawmakers last week found 66 percent of 1,300 voters in 13 Republican districts favored stem-cell research.

The danger for Republicans and opponents of embryonic stem cell research is a public backlash, Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute said.

``There are strong majorities of Americans out there who want embryonic stem cell research, and there is also evidence that the American people think Congress is out of touch,'' Ornstein said. ``This could turn into a case of, `There they go again.'''

Embryonic stem cells are like blank slates that have the potential to mature into any type of cell or tissue. Researchers say the cells, which scientists first began to isolate and grow in 1998, may lead one day to cures for conditions including spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes.

Brilliant Fraud

2005-05-24T06:52:00.000-04:00

This fake BBC online news article has now made it around the world several times and more than one blogger has been taken in by it. After the Newsweek fiasco, we should all be a little more careful…but, who could resist lion-fighting midgets!

Bring on the midgets!

Go here to read the rest of the story.

Fairy Tales Pass As News at the Enquirer

2005-05-22T12:31:00.000-04:00

Fairy tales, superstition and imaginary friends now qualify as facts at the Cincinnati Enquirer. In a marketing coup that would garner the envy of Fortune 500 corporations, “Answers in Genesis” (AIG) bamboozled the Gannett owned rag into spreading their message of extreme right-wing creationist nonsense all over the front page. I wonder who at the Enquirer is on the AIG payroll?

The piece entitled “Ministry uses dinosaurs to dispute evolution” has an uppercase banner above Ken Ham the founder of the museum with some of his dinosaurs, proclaiming, “How and when did life begin? Ken Ham wants you to find the answer in his $25 million Boone County CREATION MUSEUM.

A giant step backward

Among the more idiotic beliefs that these bible-thumping morons want you to believe is that man and dinosaurs lived together and the world is only 6,000 years old.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, of Moral Majority fame, is featured prominently in the lead with quotes such as, “When that museum is finished, it’s going to be Cincinnati’s No. 1 tourist attraction. It’s going to be a mini-Disney World.”

Oh Joy! Cincinnati is soon to be overrun with throngs of ignorant, knuckle dragging hayseeds from Kansas and Alabama. Perhaps I can make my fortune selling pieces of the “true” cross at a roadside stand to the fat pig-eyed pilgrims and their slack-jawed spawn on their quest to seek darkness and eternal imbecility. I’ve a half cord of firewood left over from this past winter; if these troglodytes believe this nonsense, they believe anything.

Falwell goes on to say, “(Ham) is a very popular speaker here at Liberty University (a rival, no doubt to Oxford and Cambridge). He brings science down to a populist level where people leave saying, ‘That makes sense.’”

“And who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?” Ham doesn’t bring science down to a “populist level”, he buries is in the medieval muck of ignorance and superstition. His “science” is fabricated out of whole cloth. One of the life size models at the new museum will be a Triceratops sporting a saddle. They also contend that the Grand Canyon was formed by floodwaters in a matter of days. This is what passes for science at the Creation Museum. It would be as funny as anything Monte Python could concoct, only they believe it to be true.

More disturbing is the fact that the 95, 000 square foot complex on 50 acres in rural Boone County receives between $300,000 and $400,000 in contributions and operates on a $14 million budget.

Spread the Alarm

2005-05-22T09:20:00.000-04:00

Brendan at spacetropic is alerting local bloggers to the pending amendment broadening campaign finance regulation before the Federal Election Commission concerning the use of the Internet. This amendment would open a can of worms concerning free speech issues, equal time and what qualifies as “press exemptions”.

...and soon, so may the FEC

Brendan includes several links giving the background of the proposal as well as a copy his own letter to the commission. I agree whole-heartedly agree with Brendan that this is NOT a left-right issue but one that concerns the exercise of free speech. It deserves your attention and action. The deadline is June 3rd.

Guided By Voices

2005-05-20T06:51:00.000-04:00

If you have spent more than fifteen minutes on the World Wide Web, you have probably come the conclusion there are some mighty strange people out there (present company excepted, of course). Recently, I have started looking at some of the advertisements that appear on this blog from time to time and it has given me pause.

Hearing voices again....The Serial Killer Evangelist

David Berkowitz, a.k.a “Son of Sam”, was the infamous serial killer who terrorized New York City in the mid-seventies. His killing spree of over a year and a half was apparently directed by the neighbor’s dog, which transmitted evil messages telling Berkowitz to kill. The story had all the lurid details the tabloid press loves; satanic rituals, black magic, sex, and talking dogs.

Berkowitz is now incarcerated, serving several life sentences in an upstate New York prison and has converted to Christianity. And this is where the story takes another bizarre twist. He has become somewhat of a poster child for the “Focus on Family” organization. You know, the folks helping to lead the charge of the Christian Right. Its leader, Dr. James Dobson, is the fellow who discovered that SquareBob Spongepants was gay and has been instrumental in declaring the fight over judicial nominees was “attacking people of faith”.

Is “Focus on the Family” going to give us “Manson Family Values” next?

What the hell.....???

2005-05-18T06:30:00.000-04:00

It gives to new meaning to the term “coyote date”. You know, the date where you wake up in the morning and would rather gnaw your arm off than wake her (or him).

Republican Sluts?

Also, notice the use of the lower case "d" in democrat. Have Republicans become utterly contemptuous of those who believe in a democratic political system?

Scientific American Gives Up

2005-05-16T20:02:00.000-04:00

This is a few weeks old, but it is still funny as hell. Scientific American, a magazine not normally associated with parody or humor, ran the following article:

"Okay, I give up" - Charles Darwin

"There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should be renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong."

Go here to read the rest of the article in Scientific American

Panzer Pope Blitzkriegs Liberal U.S. Catholics

2005-05-13T06:58:00.000-04:00

In a surprise pre-dawn attack, Überpapenfuhrer Benedict XVI began his campaign to purge his ideological and theological opponents within the U.S. Catholic Church.

“The announcement Friday that the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, an oft-quoted commentator on the workings of the Catholic Church, has been forced to resign after seven years as editor of America magazine has sent shock waves through the worlds of Catholic journalism and academia. Reese was ousted after facing five years of criticism from the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI for publishing articles that questioned the Vatican's writings on issues such as same-sex marriage, stem cell research, and salvation for non-Christians.”

Germans on balconies and adoring crowds: never a good combination

Other Catholic editors and writers have expressed concern for the prospect of open debate within the church:

“''It would be hard for any Catholic editor not to say, 'Well, if this happened to America magazine, perhaps it could happen to others,' " said the Rev. Pat McCloskey, the editor of St. Anthony Messenger, a 311,000-circulation Franciscan monthly based in Cincinnati. ''I'm afraid that a move like this one will cause more and more Catholic thinkers to say that they want to write for publications that are not identified as Catholic and to teach at schools that are not identified as Catholic, because there is more freedom there."

The editor of Commonweal, a biweekly published in New York, arrived at his office to find an e-mail from a critic threatening, “you’re next.”

In related news, it is reported the Swiss Guard has taken to goose-stepping in their ceremonial parades at the Vatican.

Epistle to a Conservative

2005-05-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

I recently received the following letter:

“I really don't understand the anger you libs have toward Republicans, especially Bush. Can you explain it to me...without sarcasm, in simple, straight language? I seriously would like to understand. Thanks.”

Without sarcasm? You really are asking quite a bit, but I will try.

Perhaps it might be best to start with another question: why do conservatives hate we “libs” (as you so derisively refer to us) so much?

A brief perusal of any newsstand or the Internet or a quick turn of the radio dial pretty much sums up who is doing the most trade in hate speech. It wouldn’t be Ann Coulter, the screaming banshee of the right, whose only regret is that Timothy McVeigh did not visit the offices of the New York Times and kill the liberal editors and reporters there? Or, perhaps the drug-addled Rush Limbaugh who supported a pretty healthy oxycontin habit while bashing liberals for fun and profit and blaming them for every conceivable human frailty and perversion including drug addiction, might hold part of the answer.

For a quarter of a century, the onslaught from the political right has been relentless. Liberals are accused of treachery, treason, and perfidy at every turn. In short, liberals hate America. Of course, when someone calls them on their lie mongering and sleazy innuendos, their retort is the well-worn plea of “liberal media bias”.

The question I have is: where is this “liberal media”? Certainly you cannot be talking about the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns and operates 62 television stations in 38 markets and reaches about a quarter of all American households, and last fall ordered all of its stations to air the anti-Kerry "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" without commercials in prime-time, just two weeks before the Nov. 2 election? When has Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Network or Al Neuharth’s Gannett empire (the largest newspaper chain in the U.S. and owner of The Cincinnati Enquirer) ever been considered in any way “liberal”?

Yet, all we hear is the bleating grievances of the weak and victimized conservatives at the mercy of the evil “liberal media bias”. It is hard not to find this contemptible to say the least.

It is also interesting to me that conservative Republicans, who proclaim to uphold the Constitution, conveniently ignore Article VI, paragraph 3, where is states: “No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public trust” requiring, de facto, what the Constitution expressly forbids. The recent antics of Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, the House and Senate majority leaders respectively, have both betrayed the public trust and have openly declared that Democrats are leading an attack on people of faith because they dare question the integrity of a few judicial nominees.

However, I am so relieved that the president felt it necessary during his latest news conference to say that unbelievers can be good Americans: “If you choose not to worship, you’re equally as patriotic as somebody who does worship.”

Gee, Mr. Bush, I’m sure Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin would no doubt be giddy with excitement to hear that they too could be patriots.

Perhaps it is this, the ignorant condescending tone of an officious fraternity brother that sets we “libs” off. More than the ill advised adventure in Iraq and the ever-elusive WMD’s; or the ridiculous tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent of our country; or his desire to dismantle the social security system (do you really think he wants to strengthen it?); or his abysmal lack of acumen concerning cell stem research or evolution, it is his cock-sure, “never mind the facts” attitude of a son of Eastern privilege (his Texas “heritage” is as phony as John Kerry’s duck hunting) and a mind that is neither inquisitive nor tolerant.

Liberals in this country have a proud legacy. To be sure, we have our failings and missteps to answer for. We also have our cranks and our loonies – every family does. But, it was the dreaded “libs” that led this country through the Great Depression after the incompetent and corrupt conservative administrations had set the stage for the crash. It was the “libs” of the Democratic Party who constructed the New Deal that lifted a third of the population out of dire poverty and despair. The liberals not only faced the menace of World War II, they triumphed and rebuilt Europe and Japan with a magnanimity unknown in history. The Civil Rights Act, The Voting Act and the “Great Society” (without which, yours truly would not have been able to pursue higher education) are all great achievements, which brought freedom and opportunity to millions.

Were there excesses and failures? Of course, there were. But I wouldn’t be too eager to measure the accomplishments of the current resident of the White House against this. Even with a majority in the House and Senate and a Supreme Court that put him in power, the Bush presidency has remarkably little to show other than massive debt, declining opportunities, an education system in shambles, and a war with no end in sight.

Papa Joe Would Be Proud

2005-05-07T14:00:00.000-04:00

Joseph Stalin, the late communist dictator of the Soviet Union, presided over numerous show trials and purges during his long reign. In the 1930’s hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of faithful party members who were deemed ideologically impure disappeared into the gulags or were immediately executed.

It now seems a Waynesville, North Carolina Baptist minister is channeling the ghost of Papa Joe. Chan Chandler, the minister of a Haywood County Baptist Church, is telling members of his congregation that if they're Democrats, they either need to find another place of worship or support President Bush. In a fit of Christian charity, Chandler has ex-communicated nine members of East Waynesville Baptist Church. Another 40 members have left in protest.

Adam and Eve being driven out of the Garden of Eden after God discovers they voted for Democrats. Woodcut by Albrecht Dürer.

During last Sunday's sermon, he acknowledged that church members were upset because he named people, and he says he'll do it again because he has to according to the word of God. He claims his actions “weren't politically motivated”. I suppose that if you are prepared to believe the book of Genesis is the “inerrant word of God”, you can believe almost anything.

One former church member says Chandler told some of the members that if they didn't support George Bush, they needed to resign their positions and get out of the church, or go to the altar, repent and agree to vote for Bush. Another member who was “excommunicated” (I wasn’t aware Baptists could be excommunicated) said on TV that it was like a cult. Another man who was shown the door said that the rest of the congregation stood up and applauded when the Democrats were told to leave.

Personally, I would encourage more of this sort of behavior. After all, driving fundies into the ranks of the disaffected would only be good for those of us who believe in an enlightened secular society.

New Literary Magazine: Fling Quarterly

2005-05-05T20:59:00.000-04:00

Fling Quarterly

A new online literary quarterly co-founded by Miami students Michelle Rose and Julie Bechtel has just made its debut on the web. Another Miami student, Meagan Sliger is serving as the premiere issue’s guest editor.

"We are a brand new web journal dedicated to the distribution & praise of literary works. We feel that as writers, we are all constantly 'flinging' work out into the world for possible publication. Consequently, some of it landed here, in our debut edition!

We are pleased and proud to have the following featured writers to christen the launch of Fling: Eric Melbye, John Tassoni, and Barney McClelland. Fling Quarterly is not only dedicated to our featured writers, but also to our up and coming writers. This edition displays work by several previously published writers, as well as several first-timers.

We are excited to have you at our launch! Look for our next installment coming in August 2005!"

Fling Quarterly is also accepting submissions for the next issue. Guidelines are available at their website:

Fling Quarterly

Scopes Redux

2005-05-05T06:45:00.000-04:00

The Kansas Board of Education has scheduled six days of courtroom-style hearings to begin today in Topeka. More than two dozen witnesses will give testimony and be subject to cross-examination, with the majority expected to argue against teaching evolution.

Clarence Darrow (left) and William Jennings Bryant (right)

William Jennings Bryan, the prosecutor in the Scopes trial of 1925, said that trial was a "duel to the death" between evolution and Christianity. Apparently, the good folks in Kansas did not get the word.

For the next several days I will be publishing links and observations about the "trial" and I would be interested in hearing what my readers think about the all out assault on science in the 21st century.

Humanist Network News

2005-05-04T06:31:00.000-04:00

HNN

The Humanist Network News has published my article "Hypocrisy Under the Guise of Free Speech” in their April 27th issue.

Et tu, Leo?

2005-05-03T06:58:00.000-04:00

This is the time of year when hope springs eternal. And believe it or not, there is something to be hopeful about.

It seems the juggernaut of rightwing theocracy is showing some cracks.

This is not to say they are defeated or even seriously set back, but for the first time since the election the fundamentalist fanatics have been suffering some serious public relations setbacks.

The Terri Schaivo case showed the face of political and religious opportunism on the part of the Republican Party. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s blood is in the water and the sharks are circling. His heavy-handed manipulation of the constitution and his threats against judges have come back to haunt him and the investigation into to his egregious ethical violations are making daily headlines.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist still cavorts with the far right in his cynical bid to be considered presidential material. His participation in Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council’s Two Minute Hate this past week called “Justice Sunday “ along with other religious fanatics such as James Dobson, the man who discovered that Square Bob Spongepants was homosexual, Frist purports that the idea that wanting to filibuster judicial nominees is an attack on people of faith.

This blatant pandering to the zealots is becoming worrisome some conservatives.
John Leo, conservative columnist for U.S. News and World Report, has never met a liberal he did not love to bash. Yet, the recent power plays of the far right fringe of theocratic thugs are a bit much for even him. In his most recent column entitled “Not a Religious Fight” calls the event a “woeful tactic based on a false premise.” He further elaborates on why the self-appointed ayatollahs of the right are dead wrong:

“Accusing the Democrats of running a jihad against believers clearly implies that people who vote Democratic are either terribly ignorant or simply not good Christians, Jews, or Muslims. This is a surefire recipe for increasing polarization within the churches.”

Et tu, Leo?

Even the daddy of right wing ideologues, the President himself, has tried to put a little distance between himself and the godbotherers. In his uninformative news conference Bush was asked whether he believed "that judicial filibusters are an attack against people of faith." He said no. "I think people are opposing my nominees because they don't like the judicial philosophy of the people I've nominated," Bush said. It was the first of four times that the president rejected the notion that religious discrimination was motivating opposition to his nominees. "No, I just don't agree with it," he said. "I don't ascribe a person's opposing my nominations to an issue of faith," he said. "No, I think people oppose my nominees because -- because of judicial philosophy," he said.

Perhaps the rightwingers are discovering that most of us believe in the idea of separation of church and state and do not want a bunch of bible thumpers calling the shots? As I mentioned before, hope springs eternal.

April is indeed the cruelest month... Part 1

2005-04-27T06:40:00.000-04:00

“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.”

- T.S. Eliot
The Burial of the Dead,
from The Waste Land

April has nearly passed; and I, for one, wish it good riddance.

April, for the uninitiated, is National Poetry Month; a month where the proselytisers of verse, or things approximating verse, gain the fleeting attention of the manic news cycle if only for an instant. Magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals along with television, radio, and other forms of electronic media make a little space for the art form we call poetry. Readings spring from the ground like Morrell mushrooms in the rain. Snippets of verse are splashed upon posters in subways and buses; banners on street corners proclaim that poetry is good for you. I know “Guinness is good for you” (their marketing is more convincing), but poetry?

This would be all be well and good, if it were not so damned patronizing. Poets are paraded out, interviewed, and flattered for thirty glorious days every spring. Well, at least since 1996 anyway, when the Academy of American Poets created NPM. Withering like blooming dogwoods and daffodils; at the stroke of midnight on the eve of May Day, the poets are expected to return to their lairs and garrets for another 335 days of consulting their muses or, more probably, teaching creative writing courses. Patted on the head and sent on their way with a dismissive “Same time next year?”

Every year editorials in small literary journals figuratively wring their hands and ask the question: Is there an audience for poetry? To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends on what you mean by audience?

With the massive expansion of creative writing programs both on the undergraduate and graduate level, the United States is producing poets far in excess of its readers. While the teaching posts and literary magazines have increased exponentially, the numbers of general readers of poetry (along with all literary forms) has plummeted precipitously. There are a myriad of reasons this has occurred – modern forms of entertainment such as movies, television, etc., but there are some who blame the poets themselves.

In the 2500 years between Homer and Ezra Pound there is an unbroken tradition that only started breaking down in the twentieth century. A hundred years ago the term “free verse” was unknown to those studying prosody. “The long revolt against inherited forms,” Billy Collins, the former Poet Laureate of the US, said, “has become the narrative of 20th poetry in English”

Every morning I find missives, or rather e-missives, in my mailbox from various literary ‘zines reminding me to peruse their latest poetic offerings on the World Wide Web. Poetry Daily, one of the better sites, features a poet every day from what is considered the best contemporary poetry has to offer. After avidly reading the site for several months, the frequency of my visits declined because I found less and less to bring me back. Still, hope springs eternal and I clicked on the link to find this poem by Stephanie Marlis some time ago that had been published in the Chicago Review:

Transsexual Cloud

all through this metamorphosis we hunt for therapies.....burly reasons
ours, a knot that does not slip............ thunderclap
yellow basin..... settles behind a cloud......... lemon blouse...... carries the trash
only curly leaves befuddle me and you........ were a chiseled man
so long

My first thought upon reading these two “poems” was how wonderful it is that the Chicago Review should publish the works of recovering stroke victims. The lack of grammar, scansion, the non sequiturs, the erratic spacing and the utter lack of sense would lead the reader to believe he was reading the work of someone who had suffered severe damage to the part of the brain controlling language.

I made several attempts to unravel the puzzle, including reading it from top to bottom like Chinese, but to no avail. Not least of all, I was befuddled by such an archaic and fussy word like, well… befuddled. Like an orphan stranded at the train station of avant-gardism, its glaring antiquated presence appears to be a cry for help. This is not to say that nonsense poetry hasn’t had a place in literature, we have Edward Lear and Edith Sitwell. However, Lear and Sitwell relied on the euphonic quality of the words and adhered to a strict sense of meter and rhyme. In short, there was some sense of aesthetic – something remarkably lacking in Ms. Marlis’s exercise.

How would one recite one of these? The only recourse I could think of was to bark out the fragments in the deranged manner of a homeless man who is encountering a delusional episode. And the listener? (Or reader?) Well, what on earth would make you think the listener should have anything to do with the crafting of a poem? As the poet and critic Joan Houlihan remarked in her essay “Post-Post Dementia” that these poems are driven less by a need to communicate than a need to afflict.

“Like the almost-dead in the film ‘28 Days Later’ these poems are poised to bite any reader who ventures too close, hoping to infect them with the same virulent strain of avant-gardism inflicted on them by their maker who has doomed them to a life of aimless, disembodied wandering through people-less landscapes. Who has loosed these babbling and afflicted beings into our public byways, and why? Who are their makers?”

You have seen their makers if you have attended a poetry function (I hesitate to use the word “reading” here) in the past decade: their navels proudly displayed and duly pierced; festooned with colorful tattoos that would turn a Pictish chieftain green (or should I say, blue) with envy, chattering away in that curious gurgling argot born of MFA programs and post-post feminism. These are, after all, people who can actually mouth the words “ongoing hegemonic appropriations” with a straight face. And it should come as no surprise that in her brief bio, Ms. Marlis tells us she has named her dog “Sappho”.

Imaging one of these denizens of the underground (or their spawned poems) leaping out and biting you with a virulent strain of anything does not take nearly the leap of imagination you might suspect.

How did poetry become so, well, so damned ugly?

Screaming Banshee of the Right

2005-04-25T16:16:00.000-04:00

Time magazine makes an attempt to humanize the slanderous, shrill-voiced Ann Coulter in their cover story this week. This is a woman who thinks Joe McCarthy was a great American and everyone…yes, everyone who describes themselves as “liberal” is a traitor. Like Tom Tomorrow, I have to wonder why the editors of Time choose this week, the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombings, to have Coulter as their cover girl in view of her flippant remarks about that horrific incident:

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

-Ann Coulter as quoted in the New York Observer, Aug. 20, 2002

"RE: McVeigh quote. Of course I regret it. I should have added, 'after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters.'"

-Ann Coulter, from an interview with Right Wing News

But, taste has never been Coulter’s strong suite.

Have they no shame?

Some other gems from Coulter:

"I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote. No, they all have to give up their vote, not just, you know, the lady clapping and me. The problem with women voting -- and your Communists will back me up on this -- is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care."

- Politically Incorrect, Feb. 26, 2001

"No wonder you guys lost.." (to a disabled Vietnam Veteran)

- MSNBC (Source)

Phil Donahue: "I just want to make sure we got this right. Liberals hate America. They hate all religions except Islam. Liberals love Islam, hate all other religions."

Ann Coulter: "Post 9/11."

Donahue: "Well, good for you."

- The Phil Donahue Show, MSNBC, July 19, 2002

UN Human Rights Commission passes pro-Islamist resolution

2005-04-23T07:03:00.000-04:00

STAFF REPORT

Humanist Network News
April 13, 2005

On April 12, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution at its meeting in Geneva that condemns the defamation of religion.

The resolution, titled "Combating Defamation of Religions," expresses "deep concern that Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."

Humanist organizations are protesting the resolution for failing to mention or condemn those who defame a religion by carrying out acts of violence in its name.

Five days before the vote, the International Humanist and Ethical Union -- the worldwide federation of humanist, freethought and ethical culture groups -- sent an appeal to delegations of the 53 member states. The IHEU asked the delegates not to accept the draft resolution without inserting a paragraph calling upon the international community "to condemn all who defame religion by claiming to kill in the name of their religion or God."

That appeal went unheeded.

The commission passed the resolution by 31 votes to 16, with 5 member states abstaining. (See PDF of record of votes.) The resolution was sponsored by Pakistan on behalf of the 57 states belonging to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Last week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan criticized the political use of the Human Rights Commission by states with bad human rights records, saying that the "Commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole."

"Just days after Annan's remarks we see the countries with the worst human rights records lining up to denounce attacks on Islam 'especially in human rights forums.' These countries should stop trying to silence human rights advocates and start living up to their human rights obligations," said Matt Cherry, executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies and president of the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the UN in New York City.

"The irony of the OIC calling for tolerance and respect for all religions and their value systems appears to have escaped most of the states voting for this resolution," said Roy Brown, president of the IHEU. "The Islamic states would do well to practice tolerance and respect for diversity at home before preaching about it at the UN."

Brown said that "attempting to silence criticism of Islamic abuse of human rights while failing to condemn those who kill in the name of Islam speaks volumes for what this issue is really about."

A similar resolution was passed by the Commission in 2004, but by a smaller margin.

God's Rottweiler

2005-04-20T08:52:00.000-04:00

Oh great, it’s the scary one. The Roman Catholic Church has decided not to be left out as the rest of the world’s religions take a giant step backwards to the Middle Ages and elected a reactionary German who was head of the Inquisition, aka “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

Obligatory Pope Picture - Benedict XVI a.k.a Joseph Ratzinger

If stifling dissent, hatred of gays and adhering to backward doctrines is your thing – you’re gonna love this guy! Wasn’t JPII bad enough?

I'm Back....

2005-04-19T19:35:00.000-04:00

Look ma, no hands!

I've arrived home from nearly two weeks in the craziness of Florida. Also, I made a few interesting stops along the way including one in Dayton, Tennessee - home of the famous "Scopes Monkey Trial."

I should have some new posts up starting tomorrow.

Another Roadside Attraction

2005-04-11T13:14:00.000-04:00

Gatorland's famous entrance

I have a confession to make - I love roadside attractions. Who could resist the unadulterated kitsch of “Arnold, the piano playing pig” or a “Gator Jumperoo show”? In a world distracted by hi-tech gadgetry and special effects these low rent sideshows serve as an antidote to our jaded senses. Give me cigarette smoking chimps and alligator wrestlers and you have made me a happy man.

It started years ago when I would go on family vacations. My family could never resist a come-on from the garishly painted signs along some lonely stretch of Arkansas highway or the siren call of the mermaids of Weeki Wachee near the Crystal River on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Perhaps it gave us a sense of superiority to peruse the gift shops where tackiness was raised to a whole new level. Sure, grandma would love the shell shaped ashtray with the pink flamingos crudely painted upon them. While we are here, why not get the matching set of salt and pepper shakers to go with the ashtray?

But times have been hard for this uniquely American form of entertainment. We, as a nation, have grown too sophisticated for such amateurish enthusiasms. After all, we now have reality television programming and Britney Spears.

One of the survivors is one of my favorites, Gatorland. Billed as the largest working alligator farm in the world with over 5,000 alligators there at any given time. The movie “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” had the now famous ending scene where the bad guys fell off the cliff into the waiting crocodiles’ mouths filmed there. The real highlight to this attraction, a few miles south of Orlando, is the “Gator Jumperoo” show. Whole chickens are pinned to a clothesline while the largest ‘gators leap up from the pond below and snatch the chickens off the wire. Now that’s entertainment.

Gatorland’s gift shop is second to none; pink flamingos, hula girls, and every minutia of alligator trinkets are to be found.

The “Chimp Farm” north of Clearwater was also one of my favorites before it closed a few years ago. Set up as a “retirement home” for chimpanzees that had grown too old or uncontrollable for their former employers in circuses or other attractions. Actually, the whole affair was a little depressing. When you went to visit, it was advisable to bring an extra pack of cigarettes. Apparently, in less politically correct times, it was fashionable to teach the chimps to smoke. While you walked between the cages, a sort of primate skid row, the chimps would “beg” for a cigarette. After taking the cigarette, they would press their faces against the chain link fencing waiting for their light. While I know this is deplorable on so many levels, there is something about watching our closest relatives in the animal kingdom taking a big drag. Also, there is nothing meaner than a chimp jonesing for a smoke!

Weeki Wachee cir. 1950's 1

The Road to Wigan Pier

2005-04-10T07:47:00.000-04:00

George Orwell 1903 - 1950

When I was seventeen, I found a paperback copy of George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier at a yard sale. The acid paper of the cheap Signet edition had browned with age and was crumbly to the touch. The drab, gray cover gave the retail price of thirty-five cents, inside the sale price of ten cents was written. No name, no inscription was to found on the inside of the cover; a brief description of the contents was printed on the back above a catalogue list of other inexpensive Signet editions.

What exactly a copy of this book was doing at a yard sale in western Indiana, I couldn’t say. I’ve speculated about it numerous times since; perhaps its subject matter - the conditions of coalminers in Northern England in the 1930’s - struck a familiar note with some of the locals as it was a coal mining region also, or its lengthy argument for joining the Socialist movement for Indiana was the home of the great American socialist, Eugene V. Debs might explain its presence, but there is no real way of knowing why the book was there.

If it seems I am inferring precociousness on my part, I would like to disabuse you of that now. I was only vaguely aware of the coal mining industry and its history in my corner of the world. Of course, the slag heaps, and the occasional tunnel collapse brought it to the dimmest reaches of my consciousness, but I had no sense of its history or the effect it had on my home.

As for the socialist aspect, it was certainly quite fashionable in 1970 to describe oneself a socialist, or a radical of some kind; but again, it was hardly a well thought out political or philosophical stance. Suffice it to say the authority figures in my life - teachers, coaches, priests, and policemen - were all unified in the view that socialism was a bad thing: therefore, it deserved my unswerving attention.

It was as a result of one of my many infractions with the aforementioned authorities that I came to read The Road to Wigan Pier. I had been sentenced to several days confinement to a study carroll to think over what I had done. Truthfully, I have no recollection of my transgression, but in all probability it had something to do with some surly remark, or insolent rolling of the eyes that were correctly perceived as a sign of disrespect.

If I read the introduction, I have no memory of it. It was not until several years later while at the university did I understand the significance of Victor Gollancz disavowel of Orwell's peculiar take on what he had been commissioned to do. Gollancz had assigned Orwell to produce a documentary account of unemployment in the North of England for the Left Book Club. In part, Orwell succeeded, but it was nothing the orthodox leftists had expected and I will return to that in a moment.

But, there is one memory of that day seared into the very fiber of my being, and that was the following passage:

"The train bore me away, through the monstrous scenery of slag-heaps, chimneys, piled scrap-iron, foul canals, paths of cindery mud criss-crossed by the prints of clogs. This was March, but the weather had been horribly cold and everywhere there were mounds of blackened snow. As we moved slowly through the outskirts of the town we passed row after row of little grey slum houses running at right angles to the embankment. At the back of one of the houses a young woman was kneeling on the stones, poking a stick up the leaden waste-pipe which ran from the sink inside and which I suppose was blocked. I had time to see everything about her—her sacking apron, her clumsy clogs, her arms reddened by the cold. She looked up as the train passed, and I was almost near enough to catch her eye. She had a round pale face, the usual exhausted face of the slum girl who is twenty-five and looks forty, thanks to miscarriages and drudgery; and it wore, for the second in which I saw it, the most desolate, hopeless expression I have ever seen. It struck me then that we are mistaken when we say that ‘It isn’t the same for them as it would be for us,’ and that people bred in the slums can imagine nothing but the slums. For what I saw in her face was not the ignorant suffering of an animal. She knew well enough what was happening to her—understood as well as I did how dreadful a destiny it was to be kneeling there in the bitter cold, on the slimy stones of a slum backyard, poking a stick up a foul drain-pipe."

Although I did not find the subject matter of the book compelling at that time , it was the descriptive power of Orwell's writing that kept me riveted to the page. I had not read Orwell's more "popular" works at that time. His two biggest sellers, "Animal Farm" and "1984" were and, I suppose, still are the standard introduction to Orwell's oeuvre. But, it is in his journalism, where his real power lay, as in his essays such as "Shooting an Elephant", or his other two nonfiction books, "Down and Out in Paris and London," and "Homage to Catalonia".

Gollancz admits as much. What he was apologizing for was Orwell's rather blunt assessment of what the ordinary person thought of socialism in general. The following passages were just a few examples of what made the publisher of a rather orthodox leftist book club more than a little squeamish:

"In addition to this there is the horrible - the really disquieting - prevalence of cranks wherever Socialist are gathered together. One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words "Socialism" and "Communism" draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, "Nature Cure" quack, pacifist, and feminist in England."

"Sometimes I look at a Socialist - the intellectual, tract-writing type of Socialist, with his pullover, his fuzzy hair, and his Marxist quotation - and wonder what the devil his motive really is. It is often difficult to believe that it is a love of anybody, especially of the working class…"

"…And all that dreary tribe of high-minded women and sandal-wearers and bearded fruit-juice drinkers who come flocking towards the smell of "progress" like blue-bottles to a dead cat."

Keep in mind; this was Orwell's argument for socialism! At this point, his strong anti-communist stance was not as clear, that was to come later in his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, but what is clear is his perception and what he thought the majority of his fellow countrymen's perceptions of socialism were. Although he remained a socialist until the day he died, he hated, in that very English way, cant and orthodoxy excusing totalitarianism whether it came from the right or the left.

Timothy Garton Ash in his essay "Orwell in 1998" sums up for me why Orwell became the predominant figure in my development:

"In his best articles and letters, he gives us a gritty, personal example of how to engage as a writer in politics. He takes sides, but remains his own man. He will not put himself at the service of political parties exercising or pursuing power, since that means using half-truths, in a democracy, or whole lies in a dictatorship. He gets things wrong, but then corrects them. Sometimes he joins with others in volunteer brigades or boring committee work, to defend freedom. But if need be, he stands alone, against all the “smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls”."

2005 Barney F. McClelland

Make My Day, Punk!

2005-04-09T06:59:00.000-04:00

I safely arrived in Florida yesterday afternoon, but how safe I am, now that I am here, has become somewhat more problematic.

Back off, buddy, I'm packing!

This past Tuesday, both houses of the Republican controlled Florida Legislature passed what is becoming in popular parlance known as the "open fire" law. The new "anti-crime" measure will allow Florida residents to open against anyone they perceive as a threat in public, instead of having to try to avoid a conflict as under prevailing law.

Florida has long been rather open-minded about citizens' right to protect their property, allowing residents to "shoot to kill if their property, such as their home or car, is invaded by an unknown assailant." But it also states that if a resident is confronted or threatened in a public place, he or she must first try to avoid the confrontation or flee before taking any violent step in self defense against an assailant.

The new law, which is supported by Governor Jeb Bush who has said he intends to sign the bill, was actively supported by the National Rifle Association. Governor Bush describes the law as "a good, commonsense, anti-crime issue."

Let's say I find myself in a barroom argument, apparently now the object of my rhetoric has the inalienable right under Florida law to blow my head off and walk away without any accountability.

Charles Bronson would be proud.

Click on image to enlarge

It Neither Picks My Pocket nor Breaks My Leg

2005-04-07T05:30:00.000-04:00

“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

Nearly thirty years ago, I stood at a rally in the Glens of Antrim to hear a “sermon” given by one of the great demagogues of our time, the Rev. Ian Paisley. Paisley, a minister and head of the Free Presbyterian Church, opened in his sonorous voice with the line, “I have hated God’s enemies with a perfect hate.” Those enemies: Papists, of course, and the Whore of Babylon (the Roman Catholic Church), the Anti-Christ (better know as the Pope) and all their allies – consisting, as far as I could tell, of anyone who disagreed with his particular vision of the world. No touchy-feely New Testament - Sermon on the Mount - “love thy enemy” - nonsense from our Ian; it was strictly the God of Abraham for the lads.

The rally was a festival of Orange paranoid delusions and thinly veiled threats toward the “minority” community. Conspiracy theories abounded. One of the warm up acts for “Big Ian” announced that the IRA was an agent of the international conspiracy of “Communists, Freemasons and Jesuits.” Also, it was common knowledge the six northeastern counties of Ireland would soon be the sight of an apocalyptic battle worthy of the Book of Revelations. They, the good Protestants of Ulster, were a besieged people.

My “guide” to this event flashed me a stern look as if to warn me not to give in to my instincts and roll on the ground in fits of convulsive laughter. He needn’t have worried. A quick survey of the grim Ulster visages surrounding me gave no doubt to the folly of guffawing out loud. Even a knowing smirk might prove not only inappropriate, but potentially deadly as well. After all, Paisely justified his violent anti-Catholic pogroms in 1968, by saying, "Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners"; he also attributed the massive discrimination in employment and housing for Catholics were simply because "they breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin".

This was not a group of people to trifle with – especially if you might be perceived to be one of the “vermin”.

"I have hated God's enemies with a perfect hate."

So, why exhume a long ago rally in an obscure corner of the planet where insanity and fanaticism are assumed to be the norm? Only one reason - I have personally traveled to the nexus of where religion and politics have crossed, often with tragic results. Paisley was not only the leader of a church; he was also the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – the largest political party in Northern Ireland. Not only could Paisley lay claim to moral authority, he had the political clout to carry out his “mission”.

While the fusion of the political and the religious in Ireland dates back to the 16th century, its unhappy history still serves as a chilling reminder of what happens when gods and princes join forces, and are bent toward any enterprise. I thought to myself, perhaps a little too smugly in retrospect; as I left that rally in 1977, that what I had witnessed was an anachronism, a vestigial nightmare peculiar to a backwater where the events of three hundred years ago were spoken of as if they were last week. And, how lucky I was to reside in a country where this sort of nonsense cannot take place or, at least, it was confined to the lunatic fringe.

Now, nearly three decades later we seem to have found ourselves in the pages of Ronan Bennett’s bête noir novel, Havoc, in its Third Year. Set in 1630’s Northern England on the verge of civil war, Bennett’s depiction of Puritan theocracy has a decidedly modern ring. Adam, the manservant to the protagonist, John Brigge has recently been converted to the zealots’ camp, envisioning the world thusly:

“We live in bitter times and the world is divided in two: those who live inside the godly nation, and those outside. Inside is righteousness and strength. Outside is barbarism and terror.”

This, of course, is the language of fanatics; the language you might expect from demagogues like Paisley and his Orange brethren, or a mullah from the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is the mindset of Mohammed Atta – leader of the 9/11 hijackers. The wizened rabbis of Judaism’s Ultra-Orthodox sect would be comfortable with it as would be the Sikhs who attacked a theater in England causing the playwright to flee into hiding. Radical Hindu nationalists, when they take time out from killing their Muslim neighbors, to trash and burn shops selling St. Valentine’s Day cards would also be in agreement.

The famously tolerant Netherlands has lately experienced a spate of Islamic radicalism that has turned murderous, resulting in the death of one of its film directors, Theo Van Gogh, and resulting in the protective custody of two of its MP’s. Several other European countries, including Great Britain, Germany and Sweden, have seen a rash of “honor” killings involving young women who have somehow violated the honor of their Muslim families.

There doesn’t seem to be a major religion in the world (or any of their attending sects) that has not been infected with the dangerous virus of fundamentalism. A virus that is spreading as the spirit of the Enlightenment - rationalism, scientific inquiry, religious tolerance and economic liberalism – is weakening under the onslaught.

Thomas Jefferson’s plea, “But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg” is barely audible in the Babel of religious bigotry consuming large swaths of the planet.

Thomas Jefferson

Increasingly, Adam’s admonition is also becoming the language of the body politic in the United States. From President Bush on down there seems to be nearly a daily invocation of the “Lord” from political hacks that Thomas Franks describes as “nearly blasphemous”. The religious Right, straying far from the principles of traditional conservatism where government is to a minimum, seeks to use the power of government to impose their “inerrant” plan for the rest of us.

The religious Right’s victories in the 2004 election, where anti-gay referendums were passed in thirteen states, are a frightening reminder that the well of intolerance is deep indeed. Hardly a day passes where there is not a story of another assault on the First Amendment and the protections provided in the separation of church and state. School boards are feeling the growing pressure from well-organized groups to teach creation myths in place of scientifically based evolutionary theory. Nearly a third of biology teachers report they are hesitant to even mention the term in their classes.

The recent media spectacle surrounding the Terri Shiavo case highlighted how tightly interwoven the fundamentalist movement and the current administration really are. The Republican Party, at this point in time, seems to have misjudged the American public’s reception to these fringe ideas as reflected in recent polls, but they are beholding to the fanatics and their battle is hardly through.

While we here in the United States have yet to see the violent nature of religious zealotry, unless you count abortion clinic bombings, the rhetoric of these demagogues is growing shriller and coming more to resemble the language of that rally in Northern Ireland so many years ago.

As I said earlier, I thought I had witnessed a ghost from the past outside that market town in County Antrim, something that would soon be going out of the world. Little did I realize at the time, I might have been privy to a ghastly vision of the future.

©2005 Barney F. McClelland

You can read more of Barney F. McClelland’s work at Butterflies and Wheels

Ted Kooser Wins Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

2005-04-06T09:10:00.000-04:00

Current Poet Laureate of the United States, Ted Kooser, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for his latest collection, “Delights and Shadows”.

Kooser, a retired life insurance executive, has published ten books of poetry over the past thirty-five years and has received numerous awards. A native of Iowa, he has lived for years in the Lincoln, Nebraska area. There is a hilarious interview with him in the New York Times.

This past December, while attending Jared Carter’s reading at the Library of Congress, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Kooser, whose work I have admired for a number of years. His quiet understated humor was what anyone who had read his poetry would expect. While most poets are a notoriously jealous lot, it is hard to begrudge such a craftsmen and gentleman his good fortune.

Below is one of my favorites:

Ted Kooser

The Blind Always Come as Such a Surprise

The blind always come as such a surprise,
suddenly filling an elevator
with a great white porcupine of canes,
or coming down upon us in a noisy crowd
like the eye of a hurricane.
The dashboards of cars stopped at crosswalks
and the shoes of commuters on trains
are covered with sentences
struck down in mid-flight by the canes of the blind.
Each of them changes our lives,
tapping across the bright circle of our ambitions
like cracks traversing the favorite china.

Without DeLay....

2005-04-05T09:50:00.000-04:00

Tom "The Hammer" DeLay is the most corrupt politician in Washington. DeLay's anti-democratic, pro-special interest agenda - all in the pursuit of personal power and partisan gain – is cause for even the most disreputable used car salesmen to hold up his head with pride and say, “thank God, I’m not Tom DeLay.” The ethically-challenged DeLay, a darling son of the far right and religious fanatics, stepped over the line last week when he threatened the federal judges judges who refused to hear appeals on behalf of Terri Shiavo.

"We will look at an arrogant, out of control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at the Congress and president when given jurisdiction to hear this case anew and look at all the facts ... The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today."

The New Ayatolla

In light of the fact judges and their families are increasingly under attack, with several losing their life and that of family members; is this conduct becoming the second most powerful member of the House of Representatives?

Perhaps the House Majority leader might want to consult someone on the matter of constitutional law. One of the reasons many judges are given life terms is to free them from exactly the kind of demagoguery “The Hammer” espouses.

Of course, the sleaze-ball from Sugarland only joined the “save Terri Shiavo” brigade in the 23rd hour in order to divert attention from the scrutiny being given to his own disgraceful political shenanigans. Such transparent maneuvers translated into polls showing 60 to 80 percent (depending on which poll you choose) are not in agreement with his “culture of life” crusade and think Congress would be better off minding its own business in this matter.

Now, even his own rightwing buddies are beginning to desert him. An increasing number of conservative publications and columnist are calling for his resignation, including The Wall Street Journal. The Ledger, a newspaper serving Lakeland, Florida and hardly known for its liberal views, put it most succintly in their editorial this past Friday:

“DeLay is a disgrace to his party and to the Congress. If he doesn't resign his leadership position, members of the House Republican caucus should remove him.”

"Tom DeLay gives us a bad name," says Wally the Weasel

This is from the Daily Delay

10 reasons why Tom DeLay should resign from Congress

1. Tom DeLay violates ethics rules at will, making him a national embarrassment. Indeed, he has earned four formal ethics violations, a truly rare achievement as only five Members of Congress have been chastised by the committee in the last six years.

2. Tom DeLay embodies the worst of pay-to-play politics – he puts big donors like Enron ahead of the rest of us.

3. Tom DeLay abuses his position as House Majority Leader to trample on the legislative process and stretches the rules of campaign fundraising far as he can.

4. Tom DeLay accepted travel expenses from a registered foreign agent, in apparent violation of House rules.

5. Tom DeLay used illegal corporate contributions to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Texas voters with his anti-democratic re-districting scheme.

6. Tom DeLay uses tax dollars and government resources for partisan political gain.

7. Tom DeLay opposes any reasonable campaign finance laws, even disclosure of donations.

8. Tom DeLay shakes down small business owners for campaign contributions.

9. Tom DeLay received all expenses-paid junket from a lobbyist accused of bilking tens of millions of dollars from six Native American tribes.

10. Tom DeLay believes he is above the law.

Thanks to Brian's Political Donnybrook for the cartoon.

Jared Carter Appears in Bohème Magazine

2005-04-04T17:09:00.000-04:00

Acclaimed Midwestern poet Jared Carter’s short story "The Old Musician" is featured in the April edition of Bohème Magazine. Bohème is an online magazine of arts, literature and opinion created by a group of artists and writers and has been published in Paris, France since 2003.

Carter, a native of Elwood, Indiana, is the author of 3 collections of poetry. His first collection “Work, for the Night is Coming” and the winner of the Walt Whitman Award. His second collection, “After the Rain” was award the 1995 Poets’ Prize.

In December, Carter read at the Library of Congress and was introduced by U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser as part of a series of readings made possible by the Gertrude Clark Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund. His reading was recorded for the library's archive.

Jared Carter

Don't miss the "Insider's Report" on Jared Carter and his poetry as featured in the 2005 Poet's Market, published annually by Writer's Digest Books and edited by Nancy Breen.

"The Universality of the Local," in which Carter discusses some of the influences on his work, was contributed by poet and critic Barney F. McClelland, and begins on page 104.

Orwell, Toads and the Inevitability of Spring

2005-04-02T10:25:00.000-05:00

Where I am sitting, it is a cold blustery day. This past week, we have a had a brief flirtation with spring, but it did not last. There is a possibility that it might snow today, and it the second day of April! Where is global warming when you really need it?

In preparing yesterday's posting, I came across a number of excellent animal photo sites (and no little trouble learning how to upload pictures to this sight!), I also reread some of my favorites essays by Orwell which resulted in the following:

Although he is best known for his "novels" Animal Farm and 1984, George Orwell wrote dozens of excellent essays in his short career. In fact, it would not be a stretch to say he is one of the finest essayists in English along with Hazlitt, Arnold and Swift.

The best known of these are "Politics and the English Language," "A Hanging," "The Prevention of Literature," and "http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/essays/elephant.html".

One of my personal favorites is a less well-known piece entitled "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad." It is interesting because it reveals Orwell as a nature lover. It was written within a year of the end of the Second World War and much of the dreariness and privation of a wartime economy still held true. It is this war torn landscape that provides the backdrop for the nightmare world of Oceania. Hardly a time or place for a pastoral reflection. Still, Orwell argues convincingly as to why we should take time out to appreciate nature.

Bufo Americanus

"I mention the spawning of the toads because it is one of the phenomena of spring which most deeply appeal to me, and because the toad, unlike the skylark and the primrose, has never had much of a boost from poets."

Yet, the recent scars of war are never very far away:

"As for spring, not even the narrow and gloomy streets round the Bank of England are quite able to exclude it. It comes seeping in everywhere, like one of those new poison gases which pass through all filters. The spring is commonly referred to as `a miracle', and during the past five or six years this worn-out figure of speech has taken on a new lease of life."

And the political is always the primary concern for Orwell. In another essay explaining his motives for writing he tells us:

"And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally."

In a world where even the personal is political (much more so now than in his day) it would probably do us all well to remember that there are some things that government, corporations and the masters of Madison avenue cannot control.

"At any rate, spring is here, even in London N.1, and they can't stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, spring is still spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it."

Satanic Terrapins...Oh My!

2005-04-01T09:09:00.000-05:00

It appears that the semi-aquatic turtle species Trachemys scripta elegans, better known as the “Red-eared Slider” and often called the “dimestore turtle”, is now in league with the Prince of Darkness. According to pet shop owner, Bryan Dora, the image of Satan has appeared on the carapace of Lucky, the sole survivor of a fire which destroyed his Frankfort, Indiana pet store, Dora's A-Dora-ble Pet Shop. "The marking on the shell was like the devil wanted us to know he was down there," Dora said. "To me, it's too coincidental that the only thing to come out unscathed would have this image on it."

Dora is currently trying to sell Belial's Lucky online

Meanwhile, several fundamentalist theologians have speculated as to why Beelzebub would choose such a humble species on which to reveal himself.

“I’m sure he [Satan] was pretty hacked off about the Blessed Virgin appearing on a grilled cheese sandwich several months ago,” said Rev. Bobby Ray Hinton, “and it brought a pretty penny on E-bay, which couldn’t make him too happy.”

Rev. Billy Earl McGuffy believes it is the devil’s way of foisting the dreaded theory of evolution on America’s innocent children. “Them evil-utionists is always saying that turtles have been on earth for 225 million years, but Holy Scripture clearly states that the Almighty created the world less than 6,000 years ago!,” McGuffey bellowed, “This is just one of the Devil’s tricks to confuse our children and spread the unholy gospel of Darwin!”

Other Biblical literalists are reserving comment until they can consult the book of “Revelations” to see if there is any mention of turtles.

Satan's emissary on Earth?

In related news, Butterflies and Wheels editor, Ophelia Benson claims to have seen the nappy rash of the Baby Jesus while spreading marmalade on her toast.

A Living Will for Barney

2005-03-31T06:24:00.000-05:00

In light of the ongoing Terri Schiavo melodrama, I’ve decided to be responsible and make out a “living will” in order to avoid any unpleasantness in the event that I may turn into a 165 lb. turnip. It is my desire that you, my readers, friends, acquaintances, and most especially, my enemies and rivals, should participate in bearing witness to my final wishes.

Also, I would like to thank Susan Paxton at An Age Like This (another Orwell reference) for providing this living will. I have made a few modifications for my particular circumstances.

If you would like to be a witness, please avail yourselves of the comment section.

A Living Will

I, Barney Francis Patrick McClelland_ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a cigarette, cup of coffee or a pint of Guinness (or, all three), it should reasonably be presumed that I am not going to get better.

When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my children, siblings, parents and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day. I would, however, encourage them to stop by the pub on the way home and have a pint in my honor.

Under no circumstances shall the members of Congress enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damned business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and welfare of the millions of Americans who are not comatose.

Under no circumstances shall any political entity butt into this case. Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of Neanderthal rightwing politicians who could not pass ninth-grade biology if they had the answer sheet in their hands.

I do not care how many fundamentalist wing nut votes these smarmy charlatans are trying to scrounge up for their run for the presidency in 2008, it is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me the hell alone to die in peace.

I do not give a tinker’s dam if a million semi-literate home-schooled religious zealots send grammatically incorrect and misspelled e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I do not know these people, and I certainly have not authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. What I can say with all certainty is that I do not like them while I am conscious, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that my disposition towards them will not improve while I am in a vegetative state. They, too, should mind their own damned business.

If any member of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and haunt them until the end of their days.

___Barney Francis Patrick McClelland___
Signature

Witnessed below on this _31st_ day of _March , 2005

An Open Letter To The National Press Club

2005-03-30T07:32:00.000-05:00

Sean-Paul Kelley | San Antonio | March 28

To add your name and blog, write to seanpaul@agonist.org

Members of The National Press Club,

We, the undersigned bloggers, are very concerned about how liberal political bloggers are being systematically under-represented and belittled in the mainstream media, academic settings and media forums. By being intentionally excluded away from these venues, we are effectively pushed out of the discourse of opinion-leaders. The result is that the conventional wisdom about blogging, politics and journalism, as it concerns liberal blogs, becomes a feedback loop framed by the Conservatives and their media allies.

Indeed, just a few weeks ago, The Brookings Institution hosted a panel that originally included no liberal political bloggers and yet while including numerous conservative political operatives in the event. We registered our protest and the Brookings Institution's response was simply to invite a few liberal political bloggers to attend, yet not sit on the panel, as we had originally insisted upon.

Today, however, we are faced with an entirely new situation that is more insult than misrepresentation. The discredited conservative media operative Jeff Gannon, neé Guckert, has been invited to sit on a panel at the prestigious National Press Club to talk about the scandal surrounding his access to the White House and more generally, the similarities and differences between bloggers and journalists. Guckert's token liberal counterpart will be a gossip blogger and sex comedy blogger. While we have nothing but the greatest respect for Mr. Graff and Ms. Cox we believe that neither represents bloggers who write about hard-nosed politics. And as for Mr. Guckert, he isn't a blogger, he's barely a journalist, and not a single political blogger involved with the Gannon/Guckert scandal, or otherwise, has been invited to sit on the panel to counter Mr. Guckert's arguments.

Therefore, we the undersigned bloggers, respectfully but firmly insist that a serious political blogger such as John Aravosis, of Americablog.org be included on the panel to fairly and accurately represent our industry and us. Mr. Aravosis has agreed to our request that he serve on the panel as our representative and is available should such an invite be forthcoming.

This situation is simply unacceptable. We will push back against the growing bias and sloppiness we see in the mainstream media as it concerns serious political blogging. If we do not we will never achieve any semblance of balance in the media. If we do not, we abdicate our ability to tell our own side of the story. If we do not we leave it to others to define us and defame us.

Please call Julie Shue or Rick Dunham at the The National Press Club and politely insist that they include John Aravosis of Americablog.org at their event. Here are there numbers: 202-662-7500 or 202-662-7501 or email at tglad@press.org and info@npcpress.org.

Sincerely,

Sean-Paul Kelley, http://www.agonist.org
Think Progress, Think Progress
DCMediagirl, http://www.dcmediagirl.com
Ezra Klein, http://ezraklein.typepad.com
Echidne of the snakes, http://www.echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com
Amanda Marcotte, http://www.pandagon.net
Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, http://www.BuzzFlash.com
Matt Stoller, http://bopnews.com
Democratic Underground http://www.democraticunderground.com/
Lindsay Beyerstein http://majikthise.typepad.com
Shakespeare's Sister, http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com and http://www.bigbrassblog.com
Bob Brigham, www.SwingStateProject.com
Dave Johnson, http://www.Seeingtheforest.com
Matt Singer, http://www.leftinthewest.com
Kos, http://www.dailykos.com
Kari Chisholm, http://www.blueoregon.com
Steve Gilliard, http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/
Kevin Drum, Political Animal
Crooks and Liars, http://www.crooksandliars.com/
Brian Balta, http://balta.blogspot.com
That Colored Fella, http://www.ThatColoredFellasweblog.bloghorn.com
Anna Brosovic http://annatopia.com/blog.html
skippy the bush kangaroo http://www.xnerg.blogspot.com
David Neiwert Orcinus http://www.dneiwert.blogspot.com
Julien 's List http://www.educatedeclectic.blogspot.com
General J.C. Christian, http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/
Laura Rozen, http://www.warandpiece.com/
Liza Sabater, http://www.culturekitchen.com
Chris Patil, http://www.marchingorders.org
Billmon, http://www.billmon.org
Ralph Dratman, http://newsfare.com
David (Austin Tx), http://supremeirony.blogspot.com
Ellen Dana Nagler, http://bopnews.com
Sean Carroll, http://preposterousuniverse.blogspot.com
media girl, www.mediagirl.org
Joe Giblin
Stephen Anderson, http://steveaudio.blogspot.com
-Kevin Hayden, American Street
Elaine Supkis Culture of Life News II
Melanie Mattson Just a Bump in the Beltway
Bill Scherr, Liberal Oasis
Kenneth Bernstein http://teacherken.blogspot.com
ZenYenta http://zenyenta.blogspot.com
James E. Shirk www.degenerateart.blogspot.com
Hugo http://hugozoom.blogspot.com/
Dennis Perrin -- Red State Son
Margaret Imber http://pudentilla.blogspot.com
Read The Otter Side http://otterside.blogspot.com
Kerry Lutz http://www.100monkeystyping.com
Kelly B http://spacetimecurves.blogspot.com/
Carla, http://preemptivekarma.com/
Wes Flinn, Walk In Brain
Greg Turner, http://www.independentreport.org
Jeremy, http://upyernoz.blogspot.com
Dean Lawrence Velvel, www.velvelonnationalaffairs.blogspot.com
The Purple Coalition http://purplecoalition.blogspot.com/
Erik Wilson, The Generik Brand
Clif Burns www.OutsideTheTent.com
Sandra Wooten, Dallas, Texas
Nico Pitney, Center for American Progress
Hughes for America, http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/
Ben Varkentine, http://blogs.ink19.com/soundcrowd/
Barney F. McClelland, As I Please
Lane Schwark, Dr. Laniac's Laboratory
stumpy, stumpysfindings.com
Jeff Tiedrich, Editor and Publisher, The Smirking Chimp
Ryan Pitts, Dead Parrot's Society
Paperwight, Paperwight's Fair Shot
The Farmer, http://corrente.blogspot.com
Mr. Thomas M. Fiddler, Somerset, KY 42502
Sidsel Anderson, http://www.newframes.typepad.com
Boadicea, We are the Resistance
Frederick Rhine, BeatBushBlog
Riggsveda, It's My Country Too!
John J. McKay johnmckay.blogspot.com
Larry Hosek, Silence Is Consent
ice weasel, private blog
James Benjamin, The Left End Of The Dial

Hitch and the godbotherers

2005-03-29T10:01:00.000-05:00

Christopher Hitchens has a scathing piece about the Terri Shiavo case on Slate today. It probably comes closest to my real feelings about the entire matter. Here is a brief sample:

“The immediate crisis has apparently passed. But all through Easter Sunday, one had to be alert to the possibility that, at any moment, the late and long-dead Terri Schiavo would receive the stigmata on both palms and both feet and be wafted across the Florida strait, borne up by wonder-working dolphins, to be united in eternal bliss with the man-child Elián González.” Read more….

You gotta love Hitch, especially when he takes on the godbotherers. After all, this is a man who lacerates the Mother Teresa cult, calling her a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.

DeLay’s Flexible Standards; God Warns DeLay at Press Conference; and Ohio’s Hizballah is on the March

2005-03-28T11:58:00.001-05:00

Several articles came to my attention over the weekend and I felt they ought to be shared. The first is an interesting piece from the Los Angeles Times about House Leader Tom DeLay’s father.

“When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do not resuscitate."

On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch "expired with his family in attendance."”

On a lighter note, Andy Borowitz of the The Borowitz Report features a press conference where the big fellow himself expresses his dismay at DeLay’s recent shenanigans:

“When asked if He intended to strike Rep. DeLay with a lightning bolt, God replied with a terse “no comment,” but later said, “I’ve been known to smite people in the past, and I’m not prepared to take smiting off the table.”

Closer to home, Ohio’s right-wing Christians think that the leadership of the Republican Party is behaving like (gasp) a bunch of Massachusetts Liberals and they, according to the New York Times, intend to do something about it.

"The establishment of the Ohio Republican Party is out of touch with its base," said Russell Johnson, the pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church and the principal organizer of the project. "It acts as if it lives in Boston, Mass.".

The Taliban has apparently relocated to Ohio.

Minding Your Own Business

2005-03-27T09:22:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post runs an analysis on the political implications of the Schiavo fight. Congressional Republicans turned it into a national issue, only to find that polls say "82 percent of Americans—including a whopping 68 percent of people who identify themselves as evangelical Christians" think they should have stayed out of it. Now some GOP lawmakers are complaining (anonymously) about their leaders.

From Slate Magazine

What Next?

2005-03-23T09:59:00.000-05:00

Not satisfied with the ruling of Federal District Court judge in Tampa, James D. Whittemore, the parents of Terri Shiavo have appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to intervene on their daughter’s behalf. After congress passed extraordinary legislation to have the federal court review the case, the decision by Judge Whittemore was not the one the “right-to-life” movement had hoped for. In a thirteen-page ruling he stated that the Schindlers (Shiavo’s parents) had not established a "substantial likelihood of success" on the merits of their arguments if a new trial were held in federal court. He also said that Ms. Schiavo's "life and liberty interests" had been adequately protected by the Florida courts, and that despite "these difficult and time-strained circumstances," his court was obliged "to apply the law to the issue before it" and deny the parents' request to restore nutrition and hydration to their daughter.

Now the appeals court has denied their motion this morning. Of course, the Supreme Court is the next logical step, by they have declined to hear the case three times in the past. What next? The United Nations security council? Perhaps Bush and company can put together another “coalition of the willing” to trample over the rights of the people of Florida.

Meanwhile, Republican strategists are growing concerned that negative public opinion polls may indicate congressional Republicans made a costly political blunder. Oh really?

The Republicans are States’ Rights Advocates – unless, of course, it doesn’t suit them.

2005-03-22T11:05:00.000-05:00

The one positive outcome of the entire Terri Schiavo affair is that it has managed to keep the news media focused on something other than the celebrity trial of washed-up pervo, Michael (Whacko Jacko) Jackson. Of course, it has also crowded out news about the possible criminal activities of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay who has led the charge to dismantle the federalist system because he wants to do his part, like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, “to uphold human dignity and affirm a culture of life."

Of course, the Republicans are normally in favor of a federalist system in which private domestic matters are litigated in state, not federal courts. You know, when it comes to matters such as teaching creationism, curtailing abortion rights or putting 20 ton marble monuments to the ten commandments in courthouses, the GOP is in the forefront of the battle to defend the state’s right to administer its own affairs, or at least those that they agree with.

But, in recent years the Bush administration seems to have become intoxicated with the power of federal government. And their grasping control of the government has seemed to color their judgement of how conservatives see their role in government. In what has to be one most cynical documents in recent memory, the real agenda of the Republican leadership is revealed. In a memo distributed only to Republican senators, the Schiavo case was characterized as "a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.

The unsigned one-page memo went on to state that the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters. The memo singled out Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection next year and is potentially vulnerable in a state President Bush won last year.

"This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue," said the memo, which was reported by ABC News and later given to The Washington Post. "This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats."

Ahhhh, there it is…the real reason DeLay, Frist and company are shedding crocodile tears in front of every camera they can while jettisoning their “strongly held principles” of states’ rights. This has nothing to do with the “culture of life”, or Terri Shiavo, or anything else but the consolidation of their power.

An Padraig La!

2005-03-16T11:52:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, ostensibly a celebration of one of Ireland’s patron saints. Actually, Ireland has three patron saints; along with Patrick there is Bridgid (or Bride) and Columbcille (or Columba). Just exactly why Ireland needs three patron saints is anyone’s guess. Patrick gets top billing largely because he is credited with converting the Irish to Christianity, although there was already a small community there when he arrived in 432 AD.

The holiday itself has more or less degenerated into nothing more than a drunken fraternity bash with little or no acknowledgement of its origins or its significance in Ireland or the United States (largely a protest against Anglo-Saxon protestant ascendancy and discrimination). Even why the date March 17th is used is a fact that few, if any, of the revelers take into account in their green-tinged debauchery (it is the anniversary of the old boy’s death.) In the not so distant past – my grandparent’s day – it was customary to wear black and a sprig of shamrocks. It was also a day they would have attended mass as it was, and still is, a holy day of obligation in Ireland and until as recently as the late 1970’s, pubs were closed in Ireland on March 17th.

Two things of late have really irritated me about St. Patrick’s Day:

1.) The incorrect use of the diminutive in regards to Patrick’s name. A generation or two ago it would have been thought vulgar and disrespectful to use the diminutive at all, but I’ve noticed recently, they don’t even use the right one. In an advertisement for an “Irish” bar downtown calling itself McFadden’s, it listed its “St. Patty’s Day” activities. Even the most ignorant gobshite should know that there is no St. Patricia. The correct form would be “Paddy”. This derives from the Irish language form of the name Patrick – Padraig. The diminutive or “knick-name” would be Paidín (lit. “Little Patrick”) and would be anglicized as “Paddy”. I would hardly be inclined to patronize a bar that didn’t know the difference.

2.) The use of four-leaf clovers instead of the trifoil shamrock. Without going into a botanical discussion of the preference of Trifolium dubiumas opposed to Trifolium repens, let it suffice to say that for purposes of things relating to St. Patrick, it should be the three leafed variety that is used. The reason? According to legend, Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the heathen Irish. Even Protestants and pagans should know this.

I suppose it is inevitable that any tradition in America is bound to be corrupted by corporate greed in the same manner as Christmas and Easter. Still, it is disheartening, even to a godless infidel such as myself, that the holiday should be stripped of its cultural content and reduced to a grubby occasion to sell trinkets and Budweiser.

Hypocrisy Under the Guise of “Free Speech”

2005-03-08T22:18:00.000-05:00

The lead in a story from a recent issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer read: “Ohio Senate Bill 9 troubles Majed Dabdoub.”

There are indeed a number of troubling things about SB 9, a Buckeye version of the Patriot Act, sponsored by Senator Jacobson, a Dayton Republican. The ACLU contends that the bill provides government with broad powers to investigate and prosecute potentially any activity.

Mr. Dabdoub, a local spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a Palestinian immigrant and structural engineer residing in Sycamore Township, waxed poetically about the bill of rights at the end of the article:

“For us, who came from other countries, we came for what this country stands for – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of everything. This [Senate Bill 9] is taking away all those rights from us, from all the citizens.”

Bravo! What a heartfelt sentiment uttered by someone who is newly arrived on our shores expressing what many of us native born take for granted. However, the applause rings a little hollow when you consider the source – for Mr. Dabdoub is a despicable and disingenuous little censor in his own right.

If anyone is interested in taking a lesson in ancient history – say, almost exactly two years ago – you might find Dabdoub’s concern for “free speech” a little dubious indeed. Given his role in the Paradise fiasco at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park two years ago shows an entirely different Dabdoub: Dabdoub the censor, Dabdoub the intimidator, and Dabdoub the anti-Semite. For good measure, he labelled the play’s author a “racist”, which he later retracted.

For those of you who do not remember the controversy surrounding Glyn O’Malley’s play commissioned by the Playhouse in the Park, it was awarded the $5,000 New Play Prize for Young Audiences and scheduled for a school tour.

Paradise was centered on the real life suicide bombing carried out by Ayat al-Akhras, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman who blew herself in Jerusalem in March of 2002, killing herself and two others including 17-year-old Rachel Levy. In an interview with the New York Times, O’Malley said he had hoped to create “fictional characters driven by psychological, physical, emotion factors, not religion.” He continued, “I’ve worked to show the hard-line point of view from both sides of the conflict without justifying or condoning suicide bombing.” As if anyone could.

The Playhouse had tackled difficult subjects in the past, presenting plays such as Fires in the Mirror about race riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and presented it shortly after the 2001 riot here. Artistic Director Ed Stern said they had presented plays dealing with “homosexuality, incest, parental abuse and American foreign policy. We want to take works with social consciousness and resonance,” and “we’ve withstood all criticism.” That is, until he met Mr. Dabdoub and his gang of bullyboys.

At an unrehearsed reading anticipating the sensitive nature of the topic, where several members of the community were invited including a professor of Islamic history, a rabbi and Mr. Dabdoub, Mr. Dabdoub appeared with ten other Muslims who were not invited.In what was hoped to be an open discussion and forum for constructive criticism, the atmosphere quickly turned rancorous and invectives were hurled at O’Malley and Stern and their “racist, Zionist piece of propaganda.”

Dabdoub and his colleagues tried to involve the Human Relations Commission of Cincinnati in their campaign of censorship with a “fact sheet” alleging the play was “hateful, deceitful, vengeful, spineless and opportunistic.” At this point, one can’t help but wonder if any of these people had ever read Shakespeare’s Macbeth. To their credit, the commission sent a message to Dabdoub saying, “We are not in the business of censorship.” Alas, this was the last honorable act in the whole affair.

Having failed to get the sanctions he desired, he then resorted to a quiet campaign of intimidation. “Expressing his concerns” Dabdoub succeeded in getting the principals of several high schools to cancel the play in their schools. His reason? The fictional character in the play dons a hijab before she commits the suicide bombing. According to Dabdoub he has two daughters who attend high school and they wear head coverings and he fears students might become confused. (As I am writing this it is International Women’s Day and the whole matter of head covering as an act of oppression should make one question Mr. Dabdoub’s commitment to individual rights.)

Shortly thereafter, Stern, expressing his regret, cancelled the play.

Rabbi Barr’s comment (he attended the reading) speaks volumes, “Cincinnati’s reputation as a community that tries to control the arts and allows bigots to dominate the discussion is accurate. Once again Cincinnati looks small, foolish and provincial.”

So, where were the “free speech advocates” during this episode? Surprisingly quiet. Always eager to pounce on transgression of fundamentalist Christians (and rightfully so), they seem to have swallowed diefenbachia when it comes to questioning the motives of Muslims. Is this some kind of misplaced multiculturial piety or is it just plain cowardice? After all, Islam has a pretty nasty record of late when it comes to outspoken writers, poets and playwrights. Salman Rushdie’s death sentence by fatwa was renewed this past St. Valentine’s Day. Several of his translators and publishers have already been attacked and killed. The brutal murder of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh this past November by an Islamic fanatic is enough to give one pause. There are countless other lesser known writers who live in exile and fear because they have questioned the nature of Islam.

No, Mr. Dabdoub, you are not concerned about free speech, you are only concerned about your own narrow interests. In order to embrace the free exchange of ideas, you must be prepared to hear things you do not like, and then, be prepared to defend that individual's right to say them.

Postscript: Glyn O’Malley’s Paradise will finally take the stage this Saturday on Broadway. Perhaps there is some justice after all.

©2005 Barney F. McClelland

As I Please

Old News You Can Use: the denaturing of history

2005-02-25T13:24:00.000-05:00

The chronic complaint against history as a subject, you will hear from most Americans, is that it is “old news”. In our up-to-the-minute media saturated culture this is an undeniable fact. “That was soooo last year,” is perhaps a bit exaggerated, but hardly far from describing the willful amnesia of most young people today. More concerned with the staggering demands of the present tense, is it any wonder students find knowing that the Battle of Antietam took place on September 17, 1862 is of little or no material use in their lives? In fairness, I can think of no occasion where my knowing the date of the bloodiest day in U.S. history has put food on my table or helped to pay the electric bill. The meticulous chronology of momentous dates, more often than not, takes on the appearance of a sadistic ritual perpetrated by underpaid civil servants bent on making their charges suffer for the mistake in their career choice. While mathematics might be equally hated, it at least redeems its existence in the popular consciencousness if for no other reason than it is reckoned to be necessary for the development of new and faster video games.

Read the remainder of this article at Butterflies and Wheels

Beloved Cartoon Character Comes Out of Retirement

2005-01-21T21:48:00.000-05:00

With the recent controversy surrounding SpongeBob Squarepants and other cartoon stars under attack from the Christian right for “promoting” homosexuality, Butterflies and Wheels special correspondent Barney F. McClelland uncovers a cartoon hero for our times.

Go to: http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/

Look under “Articles”

Beloved Cartoon Character Comes Out of Retirement
By Barney F. McClelland
Finally, a cartoon hero who's not a little light in the loafers. Whew.
Date filed: 21-01-2005

Have We Found Angels In The Forms Of Kings?

2005-01-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow we shall all be witness to the coronation of King George II in a ceremony we once referred to as the Inauguration of the President of the United States. Mr. Bush with the generous help of his corporate sponsors and cronies will unleash one of the most lavish and decadent spectacles this side of Hollywood, displaying all the subtleties of taste and decorum one would expect from a trailer park superintendent who has just won the Powerball Lotto. The pomp and circumstance carries a price tag of a mere forty million dollars – a small price indeed for the moguls who have been the beneficiaries of Mr. Bush’s largesse in the form of tax cuts and war profiteering.

Contrast this, if you will, with an article I read in this morning’s paper concerning a local school district that finds itself scrambling to find ways to get children to school after bus service was discontinued because of a failed levy. How many young scholars could be ferried to classes with forty million dollars? Perhaps the money could be better spent on the armor our troops require in Iraq and Mr. Rumsfeld found so difficult explain away. Are there not a few phrases in the preamble of the very Constitution Mr. Bush is going to swear to uphold tomorrow that address the issues of to “provide for a common defense” and “promote the general welfare”? Is this garish extravaganza what our country needs in such troubled times? Or, more importantly, does it cause us to pause and contemplate that august document that serves as our foundation?

But, more than all this, is that this ostentatious pageantry of plutocratic privilege is an effrontery to the memory of our founding fathers who sought, with much peril to their persons and property, to free us of the trappings of potentates and princes. Take for example the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson, a man of rare intelligence and accomplishment – a man hardly to be confused with the current occupant of the White House.

On the morning of March 4th, 1801, the author of the Declaration of Independence and one of the principles of the American Revolution rose from his bed in a small room of a boarding house on Capitol Hill. He dressed plainly and went down to the dining room for his breakfast. Refusing a place of honor at the table he took his usual seat. Shortly before his swearing in, he walked through the muddy streets of Washington to the Capitol were he was quietly sworn in as the third president of the United States.

He then eloquently delivered his brief (a mere 1,724 words and masterpiece of conciseness) inaugural address affirming his belief in “Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people…”

He went on to pose the question: “Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

He then walked back to the boarding house to take his dinner, again refusing to take a place of honor. How unlike our current administration – Jefferson realized that he was not a ruler, but a servant of the people.

Barney F. McClelland

Girly-Men or Manly Men?

2004-10-29T11:09:00.000-04:00

We all know that the Democrats are all girly-men and weak on defense, right? Their cravenly “peace at any cost” mentality leaves our country vulnerable to attack at any moment. This is, of course, fact!

We also know those brave hearty men of the Republican Party will protect us and lead us valiantly to victory over our evil foes! We MUST trust their judgment in martial matters without question! Our sons and daughters serving in the military are most assuredly in trustworthy hands!

But, please don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at the military records of members of both parties distinguishing the men from the boys:

The cravenly cowards of the Democratic Party

* George “Peacenik” McGovern: He flew 35 combat missions as a B-24 bomber pilot in Europe, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star &DFC during WWII.
* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam January,
1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze
Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star &Bronze Star,
Vietnam.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam,
DFCs, Bronze Stars, and Soldiers Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple
Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in
Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57
* Chuck Robb: Vietnam
* Howell Heflin: Silver Star
* George McGovern: Silver Star &DFC during WWII.
* Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments.
Entered draft but received #311.
* Jimmy Carter: Annapolis graduate, skippered nuclear sub, seven years
in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and Air Medal with 18
Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII.
Saved by Raoul Wallenberg from forced labor camp.

The manly men of the Republican Party

* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Five deferments, the last by
marriage.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." (This is the man
who attacked Max Cleland`s patriotism.)
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Richard Shelby: did not serve.
* Jon Kyl: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Christopher Cox: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard service; assigned to Alabama to campaign for a family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam; AWOL
* Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role
making movies.
* B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* John McCain: Lt. Commander, USN; Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit,
Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
* Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
* John M. McHugh: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem," although continued
playing in the NFL for 8 years.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
* John Engler: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Prominent Rightwing Pundits & Preachers & Posers

* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4-F with a `pilonidal cyst.`)
* Bill O`Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.
* Charlie Daniels: did not serve.
* Ted Nugent: did not serve. (He only shoots at things that can’t
shoot back.)

Can we spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E, boys and girls?

A God-fearing Christian Nation?

2004-10-28T09:26:00.000-04:00

Perhaps one of the most irritating espousals frequently heard these days is that our system of government was founded on “Christian Principles”. In fact, it is said so often and with such authority, that it is rarely questioned. While the United States, like the rest of the western world, is heavily influenced by something we obliquely refer to as the “Judeo-Christian” tradition, its origins lie more in the Enlightenment with its emphasis on the rationalism and empiricism of John Locke and David Hume, not to mention Adam Smith, than the parables of Jesus.

As for our “God-fearing” Founding Fathers – there does not seem to be much enthusiasm for a godly or Christian state. It might be mentioned, that if these men were to walk among us today they would be labeled “secular humanists”; which, by the way, was exactly what they were. At the very least, most of these men were agnostics, some were no doubt atheist. But, enough of my opinions; let them speak in there own words.

Thomas Jefferson said, “Our civil rights have no dependence on religious opinions, any more than our opinion in physics and geometry.” And if that is not enough to cause apoplexy among the cousin-lovin’ crackers for Christ, Jefferson went on to state; “Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.” No god-fearing here!

In 1797, our second president, John Adams, signed the Treaty of Tripoli (along with the majority of the senate), stating that “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” In a 1756 letter, he wrote: “This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”

James Madison, later to be our fourth president, was forthright in his argument: “Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise…the legal establishment of Christianity [results in] superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”

Thomas Paine, author of “Common Sense” and credited with rallying the colonists in their darkest hour, rejected all denominations of Judeo-Christian faith, saying, “I disbelieve them all.”
But, what about good, old, honest Ben Franklin? Surely, he was a god-fearing Christian? Well, this was his assessment, “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle.”

Ethan Allen, the leader of the Green Mountain Boys and hero of the Revolution, was straightforward in his writings, “I am not Christian.” Years after his death the Reverend Nathan Perkins wrote in his diary, "Arrived at Onion River falls and passed by Ethan Allyn's grave. An awful infidel, one of Ye wickedest Men Yt ever walked this guilty globe. I stopped and looked at his grave with a pious horror."

Thomas Aikenhead Society

2004-10-21T11:16:00.000-04:00

If you are interested in what Barney F. McClelland is doing these days - check out his writings at the Thomas Aikenhead Society

2004-10-15T16:21:00.000-04:00

New posts in the future

2004-07-19T15:11:00.000-04:00

This is a test...this only a test...

2004-06-11T11:18:00.000-04:00

The Joke

Recently I read that according to actuarial tables, social security projections, and other such divinations that I might reasonably expect to enjoy perhaps another quarter century in your company. While allowing for my penchant for cigarettes, bacon (as well as all other culinary manifestations of the noble swine), and the occasional pint of Guinness, the odds are pretty good that I will be around to see my 75th birthday or even longer. Most would assume this would be a boon to my spirits, a cause for celebration, or at least, a fleeting moment of happiness. I have not found this to be the case. On the contrary, a certain dread has overtaken me as if some cruel, unspeakable cosmic joke has been played at my expense.

The ground has shifted underneath me. Or, at least, it seems to have. More and more I find myself out of step with what is going on around me. No, this is not some debilitating infirmity such as Alzheimer’s or a catastrophic stroke, but something equally terrifying – I am no longer able to communicate with my fellow denizens in this veil of tears. This is not say that I cannot order my meals, give directions, or handle the oral transactions necessary to insure my material well-being, it is becoming evident that the art of civil conversation is very nearly dead to me.

With alarming frequency, I am seeing the disconcerting arched brow of disapproval, a rolled eye, a sigh that says, “here he goes again” in my conversations, correspondences and writings. More often than not, I am obliged to stop and point out that I was being ‘ironic’ or having a ‘bit of fun’, thereby spoiling (for me, anyway) the tenor of the conversation with a half-hearted apology. After all, what fun is it having wit, if no one gets it?

Giving this considerable thought, one of two things has happened:

1) I have changed. While slipping into senescence I have become a tiresome old crank and have been condemned to be a repeater of stories and a perpetrator of embarrassing and boorish social gaffes;
2) I have not changed. But, like Rip Van Winkle, I have awoken to a world where my satires, parodies, and rakish ripostes more and more frequently miss their mark.

With each passing day I feel a little more like Milan Kundera’s protagonist, Ludvick, in his novel The Joke. For those readers not familiar the classic 1967 tale, the story revolves around Ludvick’s postcard in which he makes flippant remarks to the object of his affections (or more precisely, his lusts), Marketa:
“…it all goes back to my fatal predilection for silly jokes and Marketa’s fatal inability to understand them. Marketa was the type of woman who takes everything seriously (which made her totally at one with the spirit of the era…”

Of course, the censors at the political training camp Marketa is attending do not have a sense of humor either. When the postcard in question, containing the lines that are to haunt Ludvik: “Optimism is the opiate of the people! A healthy atmosphere stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky! Ludvick” falls into their hands the results are nearly catastrophic for our protagonist. He is expelled from the Party and the university and is drafted into a forced labor company in the army where he spends his service in a coalmine.

It seems that I am increasingly meeting more Marketas these days. The corrosive effects of political correctness and multiculturalism have taken their toll. This culture of “sensitivity” is anything but sensitive. If you make an offhand comment about some of the lunacies of the Right, you are immediately deemed “unpatriotic” or “anti-American”, if you have the effrontery to question some of the cherished chestnuts of the Left; only one conclusion can be reached, you are irredeemably racist, sexist or elitist.

Even your state of mental health can mark you as suspect in the eyes of the therapy police. Depression (or what is perceived as depression) is an indicator of guilt. To be sullen, a bit cranky or otherwise displeased with the way things are going, invites admonishments to seek help. The pharmaceutical companies offer a dizzying array of solutions for the recalcitrant and the unhappy – “soma” for the malcontents.

As a fan of dystopian literature, it has become apparent to me that while Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, London, etc., did not get it entirely right they certainly had some prescience.

As for my dilemma, neither prospect bodes well for my well-being and only serves to increase my sense of isolation. Is it any wonder that the idea of being here for another twenty-five years has given me pause?

2004-06-07T09:05:00.000-04:00

Modern Delusions

I am currently reading Francis Wheen’s new book, ‘Idiot Proof: Deluded Celebrities, Irrational Power Brokers, Media Morons and the Erosion of Common Sense”. For reasons unbeknownst to me, it has a different title than its original British release, which was “How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions.” Certainly a more manageable title don't you think?

Wheen is a journalist and author of several books, including a highly acclaimed biography of Karl Marx. His collected journalism, Hoo-Hahs and Passing Frenzies, won the George Orwell prize in 2003.

While some critics have charged that Wheen is quick to list the foibles of the modern age, he is short on solutions. While my response is “knowing the cause does not necessarily constitute the cure.” Wheen’s Swiftian wit and keen observations will have soon you laughing, and more importantly, thinking. The only alternative is to cry.

Recently Butterflies and Wheels featured Francis Wheen's Top 10 Modern Delusions:

1. "God is on our side"

George W Bush thinks so, as do Tony Blair and Osama bin Laden and an alarmingly high percentage of other important figures in today's world. After September 11, 2001 Blair claimed that religion was the solution not the problem, since "Jews, Muslims and Christians are all children of Abraham" - unaware that the example of Abraham was also cited by Mohammed Atta, hijacker of the one of the planes that shattered the New York skyline. RH Tawney wrote in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, "modern social theory, like modern political theory, developed only when society was given a naturalistic instead of a religious explanation". In which case modern social and political theory would now seem to be dead.

2. The market is rational

Financial sophisticates in the 21st century smile at the madness of the South Sea Bubble or the absurdity of the Dutch tulip craze. Yet only a few years ago they scrambled and jostled to buy shares in dotcom companies, which had no earnings at all, nor any prospect of ever turning a profit. To justify this apparent insanity, they maintained that such a revolutionary business as the Internet required a new business model in which balance sheets were irrelevant. In short, they thought they had repealed the laws of financial gravity - until they came crashing down to earth.

3. There is no such thing as reality

Hence the inverted commas which postmodernists invariably place round the word.
They see everything from history to quantum physics as a text, subject to the "infinite play of signification". But if all notions of truth and falsity cease to have any validity, how can one combat bogus ideas - or indeed outright lies? There is, for instance, a mass of carefully empirical research on the Nazi extermination of the Jews. As Professor Richard Evans points out, "To regard it as fictional, unreal or no nearer to historical reality than, say, the work of the 'revisionists' who deny that Auschwitz ever happened at all, is simply wrong. Here is an issue where evidence really counts, and can be used to establish the essential facts. Auschwitz was not a discourse."

4. We mustn't be "judgmental"

In 2002 the Guardian revealed that Christian fundamentalists had taken control of a state-funded school in Gateshead and were striving to "show the superiority" of creationist beliefs in their classes. When Jenny Tonge MP asked Tony Blair if he was happy that the Book of Genesis was now being promoted as the most reliable biology textbook, he replied: "Yes. . In the end a more diverse school system will deliver better results for our children."
This is the enfeebling consequence of unthinking cultural and intellectual relativism. If some schools start teaching that the moon is made of Swiss cheese or that the stars are God's daisy chain, no doubt that too will be officially welcomed as a healthy sign of educational diversity.

5. Laissez-faire capitalism is the prerequisite for trade and prosperity

The International Monetary Fund may say so, as it imposes Thatcher-style solutions all over the world, but its own figures tell a different story. Its report on The World Economy in the 20th Century", published in 2000, includes a graph - printed very small, perhaps in the hope that no one would notice - which shows that the pre-Thatcherite period between 1950 and 1973 was by far the most successful of the century. This was an era characterised by capital controls, fixed exchange rates, strong trade unions, a large public sector and a general acceptance of government's role in demand management. The average annual growth in "per capita real GDP" throughout the world was 2.9% - precisely twice as high as the average rate in the two decades since then.

6. Astrology and similar delusions are "harmless fun"

Those who say this never explain what is either funny or harmless in promoting a con-trick which preys on ignorance and anxiety. Yet even the Observer, Britain's most venerable and enlightened Sunday newspaper, now has a horoscope page.

7. Thin air is solid

Charles Leadbeater's book Living on Thin Air (1999), a starry-eyed guide to the "weightless economy", was described by Peter Mandelson as "a blueprint for what a radical modernising project will entail in years to come". The dustjacket also carried a tribute from Tony Blair, hailing Leadbeater as "an extraordinarily interesting thinker" whose book "raises criticial questions for Britain's future". Three years later, after the pricking of the dotcom bubble, industry secretary Patricia Hewitt admitted that "industrial policy in [Labour's] first term of office was mistaken, placing too much emphasis on the dotcom economy at the expense of Britain's manufacturing base...The idea of Living on Thin Air was so much hot air." Tactfully, she forgot to mention that the chief hot-air salesman had been her own leader.

8. Sentimental hysteria is a sign of emotional maturity

The psychotherapist Susie Orbach interpreted the 'floral revolution' outside Kensington Palace after Princess Diana's death as proof that we were "growing up as a nation". Will Hutton, radical social democrat and republican, said that the collective genuflection before a dead aristocrat showed that the British were "freeing ourselves from the reins of the past". The assumption is that emotional populism represents a new kind of collective politics. In fact, it is nothing more than narcissism in disguise.

9. America's economic success is entirely due to private enterprise

In the 19th century, the American government promoted the formation of a national economy, the building of railroads and the development of the telegraph. More recently,the internet was created by the Pentagon. American agriculture is heavily subsidised and protected, as are the steel industry and many other sectors of the world's biggest "free-market economy". At times of economic slowdown, even under presidents who denigrate the role of government, the US will increase its deficit to finance expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. But its leaders get very cross indeed if any developing country tries to follow this example.

10. "It could be you. . ."

This was the advertising slogan for the National Lottery, that monument to imbecility, which was introduced (fittingly enough) by John Major. And millions of British adults apparently believed it, even though the odds on winning the jackpot are 13m to one. It could be you. . . but it bloody well won't be.

Contact me at:

Barney F. McClelland

2004-05-26T16:37:00.000-04:00

The Breakfast of Champions

There are very few things I allow to interrupt or disturb my morning coffee ritual. So ingrained in my habits, that if I were ever really important enough to kill, a hit man (whom, I hope, was paid quite handsomely) would have no trouble pinpointing the time and place to dispatch me. In short, a cost effective hit.

Most mornings I rise early. Before turning on the lights, I feel around the top of my nightstand in the manner of the blind (excuse me, sight impaired) and find my cigarettes and lighter. As if interpreting Braille, I determine the filter end with my right hand and shove it my mouth. With my left (and this is one of the very few ambidextrous skills I possess) flick the zippo to see my first light of the day. After a few puffs, I rise like Lazarus and make my way to the kitchen where I switch on the coffee maker that was prepared the night before. In the few minutes it takes for the first cup to brew, I smoke and stare mostly. There are no coherent thought processes occurring beyond the craving of the second level of the McClelland food pyramid – caffeine.

The first cup is poured - black and strong and with a decided preference for French Roast. Wrapping my hands around the cup to absorb its warmth and to loosen my increasingly arthritic fingers, I raise the cups to my lips. My children when they were small learned to avoid Dad at this moment. Much like small animals that can sense earthquakes, they seemed to instinctively understand that the course of the entire day is often determined in that first sip.

Another cigarette is lit and a marvelous transformation occurs. I turn into an optimist.

Mind you, not one of those perky “ain’t it grand to be alive” optimists who have no grasp on reality. Or worse yet, those studied corporate types recently returned from a self-help seminar that want impose their optimism upon you and the rest of the world for monetary gain. No, just for that tiny sliver of time in the early morning, all is right with the world. The flowers bloom, the poets sing, and the children are happy. Fleeting though it may be, twenty minutes or so, the world has possibilities. The cynic in me, the pessimist, the nay-saying old crank, the cultural grinch who still believes in the Western Canon, standards and views the happenings in the world with marked disdain yields the floor to this metamorphosis of the spirit. After all, what has he to lose? He knows very well that he will always be called back into service. The morning news insures this.

It seems the culture of optimism has yet another victim – Krispy Kreme doughnuts. In a headline that says it all, ‘Krispy Kreme Vows To Meet Low-Carb Challenge’, the manufacturer of one of the essential food groups is bowing to pressure from the health nazi lobby to cut the fats, carbohydrates, and sugars; in short, everything that makes them such tasty little critters in the first place. After coffee and a cigarette, nothing quite lights up the day like a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut (unless, of course, there is bacon frying in the skillet!).

Let’s face the unpleasant facts shall we (the pessimistic cynic has returned at this point), dieting is nothing more than optimism ran amok. There is no magic formula. People eat too damn much and they lie on their ass and they get fat. Case closed.

But the health fascists are not satisfied. Like Stalinists of old (another group of incorrigible optimists), they seek perfection and do not care how they do it. The end justifies the means with a vengeance with this crew. They have sought and largely won exile for that most vile of creatures – the smoker. They have turned California, New York, and the whole nation of Ireland into terra non grata for that ilk. California, the truth told, is not much missed, but New York…and Ireland!

They have tried repeatedly to prove that coffee is bad for you, but have yet to provide ‘conclusive’ evidence. They have inflicted the most worthless beverage ever created on the unsuspecting public, decaf. I mean, what is the point?

To take a phrase from that eternal optimist, Lenin, you might ask; “What is to be done?” I will let you know after I have another cup of coffee and a cigarette.

2004-04-30T11:17:00.000-04:00

Thom Gunn R.I.P.

Thomson William Gunn (1929-2004)

The world of contemporary poetry lost one of its greatest practitioners this past week. Since the appearance of his first collection “Fighting Terms” in 1954 through his last “Boss Cupid” in 2000, Gunn remained one the most compelling voices of his generation. Innovator and traditionalist, this transplanted Englishman balanced his natural reticence with his exuberant adopted California life.

I sincerely regret missing his reading a couple of years ago at Miami University. He will be missed.

One of my favourites:

“All Do Not All Things Well”

Implies that some therefore
Do well, for its own sake,
One thing they undertake,
Because it has enthralled them.

I used to like the two
Auto freaks as I called them
Who laboured in their driveway,
Its concrete black with oil,
In the next block that year.

One, hurt in jungle war,
Had a false leg, the other
Raised a huge beard above
A huge Hell’s Angel belly.

They seem to live on beer
And corn chips from the deli.

Always with friends, they sprawled
Beneath a ruined car
In that inert but live way
Of scrutinizing innards.
And one week they extracted
An engine to examine,
Transplant shining like tar
Fished out into the sun.

‘It’s all that I enjoy,’
Said the stiff-legged boy.
That was when the officious
Realtor had threatened them
For brashly operating
A business on the street
- An outsider, that woman
Who wanted them evicted,
Wanted the neighbourhood neat
To sell it. That was when
The boy from Vietnam told me
That he’d firebomb her car.
He didn’t of course, she won.

I am sorry that they went.
Quick with a friendly greeting,
They were gentle joky men
- Certainly not ambitious,
Perhaps not intelligent
Unless about a car,
Their work one thing they knew
They could for certain do
With a disinterest
And passionate expertise
To which they gave their best
Desires and energies.
Such oily-handed zest
By-passed the self like love.
I thought they were good
For any neighbourhood.

His obituary appeared in the Guardian.

2004-04-29T09:14:00.000-04:00

I hope to be returning May 1st.
If you have a chance, check out my website at Barney F. McClelland

2003-12-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

Yes, Everybody Has One…

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

- Voltaire

Stephen Bayley, author of A Dictionary of Idiocy, recently wrote in The Telegraph, "I love opinions so much, I keep on having more of them." All of us have heard the disparaging cliché, "opinions are like assholes, everybody has one," which is usually issued as a form of dismissal. These are two views on one of the most human of all activities – or, at least, since we acquired language - forming opinions.

I am inclined to agree with Bayley on this. I, too, love opinions and I am not afraid to express them in most situations. But, in the timorous, sanitized PC worldview, giving voice to opinions is a suspect activity, unless you are, to use one of their favorite phrases, in compliance. Therein lies the problem. The best opinions are often disturbing, fly in the face of conventional wisdom, and well, cause those who hold more dogmatic views to squirm in their seats. I find it dismaying, to say the least, that holding opinions, however well informed they might be, to be a term of approbation; "Oh you're so opinionated!" As if denying the critical judgment any thinking person should be favorably disposed was something for which to be ashamed.

A girlfriend once berated me for my "strong" opinions and my annoying habit of expressing them anywhere and at anytime. It seems I had offended or made uncomfortable several of her friends at a party we had attended. Several weeks later, when another invitation was extended, they insisted that I accompany her. Apparently, a number of them found my "outspokenness" to be stimulating and wanted another opportunity to explore and debate some of the points I had made. Assuredly, I took no small amount of delight in pointing this out to her.

In a theocratic, authoritarian, or totalitarian society there is little use for opinions. A medieval monk in his abbey or a contemporary mullah in his mosque and, indeed, a storm trooper in Hitler's Germany or a Stalinist commissar, had little use for original opinions. The collective opinions of religion or political ideology are inflexible dogma, not interesting expressions of private thought. The groupthink of an Orwellian dystopia comes to mind. The best opinions are contrarian, not conformist, although that is in itself a matter of opinion.

In retrospect, I relish the contradictory nature of my own upbringing (although it did not seem like much fun at the time), where my rigid pre-Vatican II Catholic education often came into conflict with the somewhat loopy, argumentative, and combative Irish family I was raised in. The Irish have a rather large reputation for their oratorical and rhetorical skills as summed up in the expressions; "He has the gift of the gab" or more simply put, "he's full of blarney." My family had it in spades. Opinions, of course, were held with steadfast conviction (or until you found yourself in agreement with your opponent, and then you promptly switched sides!). My father who was the ringmaster (and primary provocateur) of these verbal gladiatorial battles, would often remark to his friends that his children "would rather fight than eat" with a lump of pride in his throat.

Later, when I attended university, I joined a very fashionable wing of leftist politics, which I now refer to as that "great lowing herd of radicals" where creative, original thought was held in as much esteem as Richard Nixon. In short order, I was to prove to be as poor a socialist as I was a Catholic. In recent years, a number of people have entreated me to become a "conservative" or active in the Republican Party. What ever for? That I might show how I would make an outstandingly bad conservative Republican as well? The Vietnam era poet, Robert Barth, once told me he belonged to an "anarchist party of one". That sounds like a party where I might feel welcome.

So, what in the end separates those who hold strong opinions and bigoted yahoo? The literary critic, George Steiner, in addressing the limp, multicultural relativists who inhabit universities everywhere, said: "The difference between the judgment of a great critic and that of a semi-literate censorious fool lies in its range of inferred or cited reference, in the lucidity and rhetorical strength of articulation or in the accidental addendum which is that of a critic who is a creator in his own right."

Also, it is important that one be flexible enough to revise, reevaluate, and sometimes discard those opinions that no longer work, especially in the light of factual evidence no matter how much you do not like it. Jonathan Swift, a holder of considerable opinion in his right, weighed in on this matter nearly three hundred years ago: "The latter part of a wise person's life is occupied with curing the follies, prejudices and false opinions they contracted earlier."

So what do you do the next time you are tempted to throw a rock into the ripple-free pond of consensus? Well, chuck away! Wittgenstein believed that if people never did stupid things, nothing intelligent would ever happen. Opinions, even the bad ones, make you think, or to be a little less charitable, make you a little less stupid.

2003-12-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

Well Said!

George Carlin has a brilliantly scathing routine centered on how Americans rely on soft language to avoid hard truths about death, disability, poverty and racial tension. "That guy's not economically disadvantaged,'' is the gist of Carlin's monologue. "He's f***ing broke.''

While many of us (if not all of us) will use a euphemism or two through the course of the day to grease the social wheels, to get along, or spare someone's feelings with little or no harm, there can be consequences. George Orwell pointed this out time and time again:

"Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

The obvious and obviously stupid obfuscations of governments and big media such as "collateral damage" instead of "dead civilians" have become so mind-numbingly commonplace as to be the butt of jokes or to be simply ignored. The military has always had a flair for linguistic lunacy. Perhaps it is the nature of their mission that makes it so, they deal in horrors most of us would rather not face. Yet, it does take a toll. There is more than a grain of truth to the old adage that if you are to repeat something long enough and loud enough, it will eventually become "true."

Now that the personal has been politicized, there is no stopping what has become known as political correctness or PC. While many well-meaning people argue this horrific language with twisted brutish constructions is necessary in order to provide more "friendly" or "sensitive" environment. It might be construed as more "kind" to say someone is "aurally challenged" but in reality it ignores what is in front of your nose – this individual is deaf. He knows he is deaf, you know he is deaf, but if you add five syllables and construct a fuzzy imprecise clause…well, it just will not seem as bad.

Right!

Not every group perceived to be worthy of victimhood and entitled to protection from the slings and arrows of outrageous language are as enchanted with the notion as their "protectors" might have wish. Recently in Britain, the Teacher Training Agency told its pupils to avoid using the word "brainstorming" for fear it might offend epileptics. There are a lot of good reasons to avoid using the word "brainstorming," but offending a group afflicted with a neurological disorder is not one of them.

It appears that organizations involved in issue relating to epilepsy took umbrage with the student teachers overweening concern. Gemma Baxter, from the National Society for Epilepsy, had this to say:

"We also contacted people with epilepsy in the community and the overwhelming response was that 'brainstorming' implies no offence to people with epilepsy, and that any implication that the word is offensive to people with the condition is taking political correctness too far."

Well said, Gemma, well said.

2003-12-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

Autism: Movies and Television Are Not Reality

A controversy has broken out in Britain in the past few weeks about a docudrama entitled "Hear the Silence" concerning the link between MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccinations and autism. Regrettably, I will probably not see the program since it is airing on BBC and might not be available to American audiences. I have more than a passing interest; my sixteen-year-old son, Brendan, is autistic.

But, I have read a great deal about it and have had several e-mail exchanges with one of my editors about it. The growing hysteria about the rise (and this is debatable for a number of reasons) in numbers of autistic children and compulsory and mass vaccinations of children has little basis in science. And, in view of alternatives - we do know the damage measles, mumps and rubella can do – against a theory, more accurately speculation that there might be some connection, what is a parent to think? Still, when it comes to your own flesh and blood, it is bloody damn difficult to remain detached and objective.

Dr Michael Fitzpatrick is the author of The Tyranny of Health: Doctors and the Regulation of Lifestyle and the parent of an autistic child had this to say in Spiked-Online:

"Hear the Silence is a scientifically dishonest and emotionally manipulative film, which can only compound the distress already experienced by families affected by autism as a result of the anti-MMR campaign. This campaign has made parents feel guilty that, by giving their children the MMR vaccine, they may have contributed to the development of autism - a notion for which there is, after more than five years, still not a shred of scientific evidence. It has also dragged more than 1000 families into a prolonged process of litigation (now halted by the Legal Services Commission), which could only lead to disappointment and disillusionment."

I could not have put it better myself. Autism is an affliction coloring every aspect of my life as well as that of my daughter and ex-wife. It has opened a portal into the world of prejudice, condescension, and superstition I could have hardly known existed. To use this as fodder for made for cheesy TV tearjerkers (and there have been several made in the U.S.) often appears as opportunistic voyeurism from where I am sitting.

Brendan was already eleven when the controversy about MMR broke in the news, thereby knowing that had there been any conclusive evidence I would not have had it available to me when he was vaccinated. There's enough guilt and second-guessing as it is. However, Brendan has had the misfortune of living in the post "Rain Man" world (the 1988 movie starring Dustin Hoffman) and the host of misconceptions it has foisted upon the general public. This is not to say it was not a wonderful movie – particularly Hoffman's performance, which was dead on – it was. Still, its focus on the "savant" features has had some negative effects.

When people first meet Brendan or discover that he is autistic, they often say something like "I bet he's good in math" (which in fact, he isn't) or they wait looking for his "special" gift as if it were a parlor trick. The savant feature, or as it was called in less politically correct time "idiot savant", occurs in perhaps one in two hundred autistic children – compared to 1 in 2000 in Downs Syndrome or 1 in 20,000 in "normal" children. In short, it is not universal. But, if you were to ask Brendan about spiders, you would learn more than you would ever care to know unless you were an entomologist. This is not a savant feature, but rather a fixation; a trait common across the entire (and rather wide) spectrum of severity within the autistic disorder.

Is it possible to have a relationship with an autistic child? Is it possible to have a relationship with a cat? This is not an attempt to demean Brendan: I am simply saying that the "normal" parameters of parent-child do not always have much currency in our relationship. He is different, but loved nonetheless.

2003-12-08T14:31:00.000-05:00

'We Can Implant Entirely False Memories'

No, this eerie line is not a quotation from a scene between Inner Party member O'Brien and the protagonist Winston Smith in the notorious Room 101 of Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, but rather the title of a story concerning psychologist Elizabeth Loftus in the British newspaper The Guardian.

Dr. Loftus, the author of The Myth of Repressed Memory, conducts an experiment on the unwitting former star of the TV series M*A*S*H*, Alan Alda:

" In his new guise as host of a science series on American TV, he was exploring the subject of memory. The researchers showed him round, and afterwards took him for a picnic in the park. By the time he came to leave, he had developed a dislike of hard-boiled eggs based on a memory of having made himself sick on them as a child - something that never happened."

The idea that an intelligent adult could be manipulated into to believing in a relatively short period a childhood memory that never existed sent shivers down my spine. The whole issue of epistemology – how do we know what we know – is thrown into sharp relief. And, just exactly what kind of memories are we carrying with us that are totally erroneous, which brings me to a second scary article I read today in the New York Times, entitled TV and Movie Characters Sell Childrens Snacks, a critique of the growing role of product placements in movies and television shows and their influence on children.

I was recently asked to write a piece concerning what I remembered about November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was only ten years old, yet I seem to remember it as clearly as if it were only a few years ago rather than forty. But, in trying to recall events from that period while trying to filter out the ongoing onslaught of influences that have come along since, I made a startling discovery. Yes, the memory of seeing my mother standing at the door and waving me inside while tears streamed down her face is indelibly marked on my consciousness, but I also found I could recite several of the jingles from cigarette commercials from that era. For those of you too young to remember, the last cigarette commercial (for Virginia Slims) was broadcast on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show - 11:59pm on January 1, 1971. (I had to look that up.)

More telling is the fact that I can remember LS/MFT (Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco) and can still hum the tune. And, I am still smoking 34 years later.

2003-11-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

Authenticity or Depravity? Murder and Mayhem As Entertainment

By Barney F. McClelland

Barney McClelland looks at rappers who get street cred by murdering women in today's Butterflies and Wheels.

2003-11-20T12:44:00.000-05:00

Gangsta Rap – Authenticity or Depravity?

Those of us in the "flyover" region of the Midwest were treated to a spectacle yesterday that clearly illustrates how sick our "culture" (and I use this word in the broadest possible sense) has become. Dennis Greene was convicted of murdering his 28 year-old wife, Tara by a Kenton County (KY) jury. Greene was sentenced to life in prison for nearly decapitating the schoolteacher and mother of their seven-year old son, Chi'An who witnessed the murder.

This alone is heinous enough, but there seems to be no depths our criminal underclass today will not explore. After his savage crime, Greene fled to his hometown of Chicago to evade authorities. In the spirit of our narcissistic times, Greene shot a "rap video" where he boasted of "killin' da bitch" and "cut her neck with a sword". A much-edited version was released last night on the evening news. Notwithstanding Mr. Greene's nearly Shakespearean lyrics, we also were allowed to watch him smoke a joint, dance, and wave his arms in the infantile manner so germane to this particular genre of "music".

His attorneys attempted to prove he acted under extreme emotional disturbance, which would have dropped the charge to first-degree manslaughter and his sentence to 10 to 20 years. But the jury of eight women and four men didn't buy that argument. Apparently, they had trouble with the "authenticity" of Greene's "urban" experience and decided that life in prison might be in the best interest of everyone, including Greene's young son.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this tragedy is that it should not serve as a deterrent in Mr. Greene's pursuit of a music career.

If you should think this is far-fetched, think again; the November 17th issue of Advertising Age, a trade magazine in the marketing and advertising fields, recently honored "The Ad Age Marketing 50, 2003: The Top Brand Success Stories Of The Year" where "Since 1992 the editors of Advertising Age have identified and profiled a select group of marketers whose vision, drive and innovation are major milestones of the year's brand success stories."

One of those honored was Steve Berman, senior executive - marketing and sales, Interscope, Geffen, and A&M Records. If you are not familiar with Mr. Berman, he is the man largely responsible for inflicting the model citizen known as "50 Cent" on the listening public:

"'He had done so much to heat up the streets,' says Mr. Berman, one of the architects of 50 Cent's ascent. 'He was well on his way.'

[Berman] says the meteoric rise of 50 Cent began with authenticity. 50 Cent has it: rap sheet, former second-generation drug dealer and multiple gunshot survivor (nine times at last count). He also helped to build his own buzz before he'd ever put out a record, by circulating his mix tapes and working the hip-hop circuit as his own goodwill ambassador."

Even the writers at Advertising Age join Mr. Berman in taking every opportunity to employ the argot of guttersnipes and illiterates in their praise of his marketing coup:

"You can buy advertising, but you can't buy street cred."

While I am still trying to process the cognitive dissidence of trying to imagine 50 Cent as a "goodwill ambassador" it has become plainly evident that there is no depth our consumerist culture will not plumb in order to make a buck. Or is there?

Take the case of a particularly noxious little miscreant who styles himself "X-Raided" and has managed to produce several albums of his thuggish art, all but the first from his prison cell where he is currently serving a 37 year sentence without possibility of parole for the cold-blooded murder of a middle-aged working woman who was unfortunate to have a son who was one of "X-Raided's" gang rivals.

His second album was recorded over the telephone from his current residence at a California correctional facility. Still, this hardly curbs the enthusiasm of his fans and critics:

"If you're a fan of hardcore/gangster rap and want to hear some true heartfelt music... pick up Unforgiven! Possibly the best rap CD of 1999!"
"Now this is one rapper who hasn't recieved (sic) the props he deserves. X-Raided is the siccest rapper on the West Coast since Pac. He keeps it real, that's why he don't get no radio play. The man's in the pen, steady thuggin, puttin it down for that G life."

Heartfelt music? And where does one go to buy the works of this Cole Porter of the penal circuit? Why Amazon.com, of course! And, I suppose any other major record chain in the United States. It would appear there is gold in murder and mayhem; capitalism in its finest hour.

My opinions here will certainly be rebutted with the tired old saw that I am a middle-aged, white male (the source of all evil in the upside-down multiculti world) and that I simply "don't get it." It will surely be remarked that my assessment of Tupac Shakur's "poetry" is unduly harsh and Eurocentric in focus because I believe it could only held up as poetry to a profoundly retarded six-year old.

But, think before you answer. (I know this will be particularly difficult for those of you who make a habit of listening to this aural sludge, so take your time.)

The point is that I do get it. Working as a reporter, I have seen the victims of assault, rape and murder and have seen their loved ones who survived them. Only the most depraved among us could possibly glory in the devastation left behind. Membership in the human race is certainly questionable when one profits from the misery and degradation of others.

With that said, I have no doubt that Mr. Greene's future is assured. He certainly has the "creds" now. I ask only one thing of you when you purchase his first "breakthrough" CD with all its "authenticity" and "urban" grittiness, please think of seven-year-old Chi'An Greene watching his mother being slit from ear to ear.

2003-11-19T13:04:00.000-05:00

To Put Pen to Paper…the death of penmanship.

Not long ago while sitting in my favorite coffee house, I was approached by a young woman who asked to see what I was writing. Not knowing her coupled with the fact that it was a personal letter, I was a bit hesitant until she said that she wanted to see the writing, or what I would have called the penmanship. Staring at the paper and the black scratching upon it as though it were some exotic piece of scrimshaw – I honestly do not believe she was reading the letter – she turned to me and asked if I had taken some special course in order to write as I do. The word she used was calligraphy.

Setting aside false modesty, I have always had a nice "hand" or "pen". As a child I always received an "A" in penmanship. Yes, our handwriting was graded. More importantly, it was also an indicator of an individual's character. I have often jokingly remarked that the nuns who educated me saw sloppy handwriting as symptoms of moral degeneracy and a precursor to juvenile delinquency and were to be addressed with "extreme prejudice" – or a ruler to the knuckles at the very least.

I disabused the young woman of the notion that this was calligraphy. This was simply how I wrote. She seemed incredulous that this was not somehow special. Calligraphy is a highly stylized and elegant form of handwriting used for artistic endeavors – this (the handwriting in my letter) was standard among children raised in the Catholic school system of my generation and earlier. The standard appears to have died out a generation before in the public schools, but I have no evidence to substantiate my claim.

The system used was something called the "Palmer Method" named after Austin Palmer a "graphologist" in the early 20th century who sought a way for students to complete with the encroachment of the typewriter. Eschewing the florid swirls of the Victorian and the idiosyncratic styles of the Eighteenth century, Palmer expounded a clean, uniform lettering legible to everyone. This, along with the insistence of drills, appealed to educators of the day.

Boys, as a general rule, suffered disproportionately, lacking as they do in most cases the necessary fine motor skills to achieve the mastery of ink and pen. There were, of course, no allowances made for left-handers with this particular pedagogical method. They were the recipients of numerous cracks across the knuckles until they relented and wrote with their right hand. There was a pragmatic rationale for this cruelty – lefties tended to drag their palm through the wet ink and smear what they had written. Besides, in 1959, conformity was considered a good thing. And while the ballpoint pen had been recently introduced, the nuns disparagingly dismissed them as "messy pencils".

The young woman and I agreed to meet again and I would bring my "real" pen set. Although this boxed set contains the necessary implements for calligraphy, the nibs, and bottles of ink would have been remarkably ordinary to most first graders fifty years ago. (Try to imagine handing out bottles of indelible black ink to six year olds today!)

Handing her the pen after I had assembled it (she didn't know how), I encouraged her to try her "hand" at it. It was a disaster. Her using too much ink, smearing, and an utter lack of the skills required, opened my eyes to how incredibly difficult a task it was to teach someone to write in this method. Certainly those with artistic gifts and training would probably fare well in their initial efforts but for most it is fraught with the drudgery of long hours of practice. My appreciation of the good sisters was reaffirmed.

I suppose it is bit anachronistic to lament the passing of good penmanship. There is hardly a justification for it. We have computers and cell phones. As a society we are moving more and more to the oral and the telegraphic. It's more than a little difficult to imagine a contemporary teenager praising the object of his affections for her graceful cursive. Today's elementary school teachers would probably be puzzled by the emphasis placed on good handwriting and properly appalled at the barbaric tactics employed to achieve excellence in the discipline.

Still, the passing of any skill, craft or art is bound to invoke nostalgia. When I receive a letter (this a much less frequent occurrence with the advent of e-mail) and it from one my contemporaries, it is like recognizing an old friend before you can say hello; Bob's peculiar "m's" which are virtually indistinguishable from his "w's" and Kent's tight loops and straight-backed script have become as familiar to me as their hair color (which is changing in most of our cases) and the sound of their voices and as unique as a fingerprint. No e-mail could ever be that familiar.

2003-11-18T12:53:00.000-05:00

Quotes For The Day

I found these two wonderful quotes while catching up on my personal reading. The first is from John McWhorter on the subject of Coca-Cola:

"I understand that I am referring to a drink that has become an emblem of American imperialism. But I also submit that a great many who reflexively scorn Coke because of its corporate associations, if they first encountered it in a distant village in New Guinea as a warm, local brew made in earthenware pots and called something like aktiip'a, would cherish it as a masterful coca-flavored "indigenous creation" and eagerly seek to reproduce it for dinner party guests when they got home."

The second concerns the subject of elitism from Christopher Hitchens:

"I've increasingly become convinced that in order to be any kind of a public-intellectual commentator or combatant, one has to be unafraid of the charges of elitism. One has to have, actually, more and more contempt for public opinion and for the way in which it's constructed and aggregated, and polled and played back and manufactured and manipulated. If only because all these processes are actually undertaken by the elite and leave us all, finally, voting in the passive voice and believing that we're using our own opinions or concepts when in fact they have been imposed upon us."

2003-11-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

Literary Biographies: Understanding or Cheerleading?

There has been a rash of "literary" biographies written in recent years, although it has been somewhat of a mystery to me that many of these biographies have sold more copies than their subjects ever did. I am ambivalent about the whole biography business at best. Does it really improve my understanding of the text that I know certain intimate details of the author's relationship with his mother? Will that information undermine or raise my appreciation for the authors work?

Three writers that have recently been in the news again in regards to biographical sketches have been George Orwell, Philip Larkin and Sylvia Plath.

I have never cared for Plath's work. I first encountered her while taking an undergraduate course entitled "The Young Protagonist" where we read The Bell Jar.Her poetry leaves me a bit cold. And since her one and only theme was "my daddy didn't love me, boo-hoo-hoo"; sticking her head in the oven was, in my estimation, a shrewd career move. There has always been certain cache attached to poet suicides, thus assuring "St. Sylvia" of an afterlife and certain pass on any real scrutiny of her talent. Will reading what a beast Ted Hughes was (and this is in some doubt) change my opinion of her writing? I doubt it. The new movie will surely allow us to witness her ascension into heaven.

Larkin is a prickly case, but one worth reading. The recent publication of his letters reveals that he was a nasty misogynist, racist, and class-conscious snob. Gee, you had to read his letters to figure that out? Although reading "Annus Mirabilis" still brings a smile to my face no matter how many time I read it, I was never under the delusion that I was dealing with anything other than a serious crank. Will I stop reading his work because we now have confirmation by his own hand that he was a flawed human being? Of course not, he was too good a poet not to be read.

Orwell may be the one writer where biography actually helps. He described himself as a "pamphleteer," that is to say he wrote very much in the moment. Although many of his essays such as "Shooting an Elephant" or "Politics and the English Language" hold up after five decades, but many are concerned with the political issues of his day and are perplexing to the contemporary reader. Bernard Crick's biography is by far the most helpful for the serious reader of Orwell in giving context to his more idiosyncratic writing. In a sense, Orwell was a proto-blogger. Christopher Hitchen's uncharacteristically fawning testament Why Orwell Matters, may not always be critically sound, but it informs you as to why Orwell still continues to influence many writers today.

While I have read dozens of these life stories, I can't think of a single instance where it has swayed my opinion of the quality of the subjects work. To know that Louis MacNeice drank twenty pints of Guinness in a single day (I certainly wouldn't want his bar tab!) or that James Joyce had a serious Madonna/whore complex doesn't diminish their accomplishments in my view. Perhaps these books serve a function for those of us who would rather choke than admit reading "People" that we get our share of gossip and titillation too.

2003-11-13T13:13:00.000-05:00

Farewell To Democracy?

There are times when I genuinely fear for the future. Not so much for mine (as I am already older than dirt), but for my children's, who are very soon going out into the world. The expression "the barbarians are at the gate" seems a bit dated now. The truth is, the barbarians are already within the gates and those gates have been smashed into faggots for their campfires while they sit in front of their dung-encrusted yurts.

Jefferson and the other framers of the constitution fervently believed that it would take a well-informed and educated populace to make democracy work. The idea of civic education was that to survive in an often hostile world as well as to keep our democracy vibrant, free Americans had not only to be materially successful but also had to learn in the very first years of school those self-evident truths on which our unique country rests—unlike almost all other nations, which are founded on a shared race, religion, or birthplace. By teaching each generation the nature of elected government, the singularity of Western freedom, and the importance of consensual law, we hoped to evade the capriciousness of tyranny and offer a refuge to those who sought freedom from tyranny.

Our educational system has deteriorated to such an extent that according to The Polling Company, Washington, D.C., the average American is unable to identify even a single department within the president's Cabinet.

The survey of 800 adults found that a majority (58%) could use a refresher course in Civics 101, to say the least.

When prompted, they could not provide any departmental names whatsoever (41% could). Only 4% of those surveyed specified five or more of the 19 executive-level posts.

Is this proof that Americans are getting dumber? Perhaps not. Last year, The Polling Company determined that almost two-thirds (64%) of Americans could not offer up the name of even one Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Some lowlights of its most recent study:

. War: What is it good for? Rote learning, apparently. The Department of Defense was the most recognized among all 19 Cabinet departments, with 23% identifying it by name.

. The Department of Treasury (14%), the Department of State (13%), the newly created Department of Homeland Security (12%) and the Department of Interior (11%) rounded out the top five responses volunteered.

. No respondent named all 19 departments correctly and only 1% were able to name 11 or more within the President's Cabinet.

. The majority of members in some demographic groups failed to specify a single agency or department.

Hispanics (79%), African Americans (75%), 18-34 year-olds (70%) and women (68%) were among the consumers most likely to say "I don't know" when asked to name at least one department within the current Cabinet.

. Slightly more than half of the men surveyed (52%) could name at least one department, while less than one-third of women (32%) were able to do the same.

Sobering isn't it?

2003-11-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

Poetry and the "New Senility"

At least once a week I receive an e-missive in my mailbox from Poetry Daily. It had been a while since I last visited the site, but hope, as they say, springs eternal. The frequency of my visits had declined in recent months because I kept finding less and less to bring me back. Yesterday was to prove to be no exception.

Clicking on the link I found two poems by Stefanie Marlis recently published in the Chicago Review:

Transsexual Fall

Living behind windows shaped to catch the rain
(a house in me)
I long for someone who no longer is though isn't not
the signal a breath
fluttering against my own
red leaf
(an old friend can not keep from smiling as he confesses
his eyesight's failing)
the thrall of change
as summer slips unnoticed into fall

Transsexual Cloud

all through this metamorphosis we hunt for therapies burly reasons
ours, a knot that does not slip thunderclap
yellow basin settles behind a cloud lemon blouse carries the trash
only curly leaves befuddle me and you were a chiseled man
so long

©Stefanie Marlis/Chicago Review

My first thought upon reading these two "poems" was how wonderful it is that the Chicago Review should publish the works of recovering stroke victims. The lack of grammar, scansion, the series of nonsequitors, the erratic spacing and utter lack of sense would lead one to believe he was reading the work of someone who had suffered severe damage to that part of the brain controlling language.

Of course, you would be wrong. Ms. Marlis and her ilk are considered "serious" poets; or, at least, to the fans of such poetry. You have seen them if you have attended a poetry reading in the past decade: their navels proudly displayed and pierced: festooned with colorful tattoos that would make a Pictish chieftain green (or should I say, blue) with envy, chattering away in that curious gurgling argot of MFA programs and post post feminism. These are the people who can actually say "ongoing hegemonic appropriations" with a straight face and many of them have probably named their cat Sappho.

This is what much of contemporary poetry has become - words on paper - no rhyme, no reason, simply words on paper. The whole thing has the feel of word magnets tossed on the refrigerator and has been passed off as a joke.

2003-11-11T13:10:00.000-05:00

At The Eleventh Hour – A tribute to our veterans

Since it is Veteran's Day, I think it only appropriate to reflect on the sacrifices of those who were willing to lay down their lives or to set aside their personal ambitions that we might enjoy ours. Also, to think about those who are currently in harm's way on our behalf around the world.

The Observer ran a particularly trenchant article written by David Aaronovitch entitled At The Eleventh Hour. What I liked about this piece is his critique of the mindless sort of pacifism that seems so reflexive on the part of the Left these days. Orwell observed this phenomenon in the years before WWII and rightly condemned it. He had, after all, seen the naked face of oppression during his experiences in Spain.

I opposed the war in Vietnam but I would have served in the Second World War or the Spanish Civil War. Also, I have serious reservations about our involvement in Iraq, but supported our actions in Afghanistan. The horrible bloodbath in Rwanda could easily have been prevented with a minimal commitment on the part of Western powers and our interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo, albeit tardy, were the right thing to do.

The problem, as Mr. Aaronovitch so succinctly points out, is that the Nazis, Fascists, Taliban and Ba'athists haven't bothered to listen to John Lennon's "Imagine" or read the works of Ghandi. In short, flowers don't stop bullets and protest songs can hardly prevent "ethnic cleansing" or whatever horrible ideology a bully is presenting.

Only a sociopath could love war – particularly modern warfare. I lived in Belfast for two years in the mid seventies and even at that low level of conflict saw enough to make me hate war passionately. Of course, reason and discourse are always the more desirable options, but sometimes your enemy is deaf to all reason. It is at these times, I am thankful there are still young men and women who are selfless enough to stand up to those who would mean you harm.

2003-11-07T13:25:00.000-05:00

Ongoing Hegemonic Appropriations

I've suffered many sleepless nights worrying about the "ongoing hegemonic appropriations" going on around me. What with worrying about paying the rent, feeding our children, and holding down a jobs, you would think we would at last confront this growing problem. Where are the authorities when you really need them?

Just what the hell does it mean? Well, nothing actually. This seems to be the "ongoing" trend in much of academic writing. Clarity, cohesiveness, and enlightenment were once the laudable goals of the educated writer, but this is no longer the case. Obfuscation, misrepresentation and a reliance on arcane and nonsensical jargon are the order of the day. I suppose they think it makes them somehow sound more important, but in reality, it only increases my contempt.

This example is from a review by Azfar Hussain of Dis/locating Cultures/Identitites, Traditions, and Third World Feminism by Uma Narayan.

"Narayan's preoccupations with the problematics of the representations of sati in Western feminist discourse indeed remain intimately connected to other representationalist discursive areas, namely dowry-murders in India and domestic violence-murders in the United States -- issues that she takes up in the third chapter of her book. Narayan takes a hard, critical look at the ways in which dowry-murders in India are framed, focused, and even formulated in US academic feminist discourse, while pointing up the dangerous problems kept alive by Western culturalist epistemological approaches to Third-World subjects, identities, traditions, and cultures. She argues that while crossing "borders" in the age of globalization, images, narratives, and the entire chain of events pertaining to the Third World lose their national and historical differentia specifica under the homogenizing epistemic logic of some readily available connection-making apparatuses. As Narayan further argues, such apparatuses -- informational, ideological, and mediatic as they are -- continue to provide visibility to dowry-murders in India and relative invisibility to domestic-violence murders in the US, thereby serving the hegemonic."

Not only is this bad writing, it is bad thinking. In fact, it is reminiscent of Orwell's parody of a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes in his essay "Politics and the English Language":

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account."

I have deduced that Hussain wants me to understand western feminists don't "get" dowry murder and they are looking at it through a cultural lens that does not look favorably upon it. OK, so why couch it in such obtuse language? In one paragraph I count five neologisms alone. Certainly, there are fields of study that require a certain amount of technical language, or jargon if you will, that can express specific thoughts or problems germane to that field. But if it can be expressed in ordinary language, why not do it?
In this next paragraph, Hussain at least keeps the neologisms down to four:

"Such a self-critical interrogation begins to complicate the very question of identity itself in ways in which the continuing "colonialist" process of constructing "Third-World" identity and also even the practice of conjuring the ghost of authenticity haunting that very identity (as exemplified in various brands of counterproductive, essentialist identity-politics these days) are all brought into productive crises. For Narayan, indeed, the question of identity continues to constitute a predominant concern throughout the book. And her insistence on historicizing and contextualizing identity and difference within the deeply specific national contexts -- instead of just celebrating or, worse, fetishizing them -- seems right on the mark. According to her, the fetishization of difference and identity only renders them vulnerable to ongoing hegemonic appropriations in the metropolis."

How the hell does one "fetishize" something? Perhaps if academic writers would quit "historicizing", "contextualizing" and using words like "mediatic", we could all rest a little easier and concentrate on those "ongoing hegemonic appropriations."

2003-11-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

Skip the Diversity, Hand Me the Bottle!

It is beginning to appear as though there is nothing the multiculti crowd won't stoop to in order to promote their agenda. Violating free speech rights, shutting down student newspapers, and downright lying simply are not enough realize their brave new utopia. Now they are engaging in plain old racial stereotyping. It seems our universities are soon to have a new course of nonsense studies (to go along with "media studies", etc.) – diversity science, or as Ophelia Benson of Butterflies and Wheels describes it, "The Department of Jumping to Conclusions."

The Washington Post reports on a Harvard study claiming, "'binge' drinking by white male college students was significantly lower on campuses with more female and more black, Asian and other minority underclassmen."

"This study has shown that having a diverse student body on college campuses is an important factor in lowering binge-drinking rates," said Henry Wechsler, principal investigator of the study and director of College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health. "In making decisions about admissions, colleges should recognize the many benefits of greater diversity on campus, including a possible decrease in problem drinking."

This is all well and good except that The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has a different set of findings:

"Alcohol use is increasing significantly among Asian Americans, who constitute one of the fastest growing U.S. minority populations (6). Among adolescent minorities studied nationwide, African Americans show the lowest prevalence of lifetime, annual, monthly, daily, and heavy drinking, as well as the lowest frequency of being drunk (7). Hispanic adolescents have the highest annual prevalence of heavy drinking, followed by Whites (7). Among all age and ethnic groups, men are more likely to drink than are women, and to consume large quantities in a single sitting (7,4)."

Erin O'Connor at Critical Mass weighs in with this pithy observation:
"The the nature of the benefits white people receive from being surrounded by non-white emblems of cultural and genetic difference remains somewhat vague: part psychological (one's sensitivity will be enhanced, and one will be able to get in touch with one's own racism) and part sociological (one will be better able to function in the global marketplace if one has been exposed to cultures other than one's own in school), the rationale for diversity is largely the rationale of prospective, unquantifiable good. Now science is stepping in to change all that. In a new study from Harvard, researchers have shown that white, male college students are less likely to have drinking problems if there are lots of women, non-traditional older students, and non-white students at their school."

She goes on to say:

"Correlation is not causation, but you wouldn't know it from this write-up. If the article accurately represents the study, there seems to be a major logical problem here with the interpretation of cause and effect, and that problem seems to be licensed by the researchers' evident desire to rationalize demographic social engineering on campus by depicting young white men as collectively incapable of making intelligent behavioral decisions and by suggesting that as such they are in need of the moral example of racial and sexual others who possess more discipline and self-restraint. If the racial roles in this study were reversed, people would be screaming racism. But since the racial profiling of the study conforms to the reverse racism built into the logic of diversity, it's able to present itself as both good science and good Samaritanism."

It is interesting that the study made no mention of the higher rate of alcohol use among Hispanic teenagers or that it is a growing problem among Asians. Lets face facts, drug and alcohol abuse among young people regardless of ethnic or racial background is a problem and should be addressed. Yes, there are a lot of good reasons for diversity on campuses – first and foremost, it would reflect our society as it is and it would be fair. But, using "diversity" to save those poor drunken white boys from themselves is hardly a tactic I could endorse and it reflects the poverty of thinking and the illiberal tendencies of the Multicultural left.

2003-10-30T12:28:00.000-05:00

Acceptable Prejudice?

It seems the one of the world's oldest prejudices – anti-Semitism - is making a stunning comeback if the cover of U.S News and World Report and an article in Foreign Policy. But, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this recent trend is where it is coming from. It seems the Birkenstock crowd is ready to don brown shirts and march to the beat of a multiculti hip-hop beat while chanting their Sig Heils.

Of course, this travels under the guise of being "Anti-Israeli" but the mask occasionally slips. Certainly there are serious questions about Israeli policies that are legitimate. However, the far left's fascination for the death worship politics of the Palestinian cause have caused even the most casual observers to wonder how much the lines can blur. It is particularly interesting to see the self-described "progressives" embrace the cause Christopher Hitchens accurately describes as Islamofascism. Mark Strauss in the Foreign Policy gives a brief overview of what is happening throughout the world:

"The year 2002 [had] the highest number of anti-Semitic attacks in 12 years. Not since Kristallnacht, the Nazi-led pogrom against German Jews in 1938, have so many European synagogues and Jewish schools been desecrated. This new anti-Semitism is a kaleidoscope of old hatreds shattered and rearranged into random patterns at once familiar and strange. It is the medieval image of the “Christ-killing” Jew resurrected on the editorial pages of cosmopolitan European newspapers. It is the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement refusing to put the Star of David on their ambulances. It is Zimbabwe and Malaysia—nations nearly bereft of Jews—warning of an international Jewish conspiracy to control the world’s finances. It is neo-Nazis donning checkered Palestinian kaffiyehs and Palestinians lining up to buy copies of Mein Kampf."

Historically, in the United States anyway, anti-Semitism was the province of rightwing cranks and social Neanderthals such as the Ku Klux Klan. However, the "Hacky Sac Intifada" as Christopher Farah calls it, rages on college campuses across the nation allowing trendy, hip white suburban students to shout out slogans reminiscent of Berlin circa 1938.

Even more perplexing is rise of anti-Semitism in the African-American community. Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, a notorious bigot who has described the Jewish faith as a "gutter religion" and an admirer of Adoph Hitler was once an isolated aberration, but no more. Both Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have "Jew" problems and Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones), the New Jersey poet laureate, had a long history of virulent anti-Semitism before last year's controversy surrounding his poem "Somebody Blew Up America," in which he suggested that 4,000 Israelis stayed home from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 because they had advance warning of the attacks. Even here in sleepy Cincinnati, we had an incident last year where a group of knuckle-dragging cretins calling themselves "The Black Fist" paraded around Fountain Square protesting the raising of a menorah during the holidays by carrying swastikas and chanting "death to the Jews."

I can only imagine what Adoph would have thought.

2003-10-27T14:09:00.000-05:00

Writing Gud and ohter stuff

Some years ago, my daughter brought home several of her writing assignments for me to sign. The purpose of this, I suppose, is to insure parental involvement in the child's education. And, I suppose, this is a laudable endeavor. However, I was not prepared for what I was about to find.

These writing assignments, or what was called in my day, "expository writing", were designed for fourth graders to exhibit their command of written language. My daughter who always excelled in school (and still does) also had a lively command of spoken language and preternatural understanding of irony and wit. When I started reading her class work, I was appalled. While I might have given her high marks for imagination and the ability to tell a story, I would have failed her for grammar, syntax, punctuation and spelling. If I were handing out the grades, the best she would have received is a "C". Still, on every one of these papers, written in red, was an "A", often accompanied by a "Good Work!" or "Excellent".

Now, I know I haven't any background in primary education and perhaps my standards for a fourth grade paper might be a tad high, but it seems to me that a ten year old should know after four years of schooling what the principle parts of speech are and how to diagram a sentence. It certainly was common knowledge among my peers at a similar age. Of course, we had the tender and loving guidance of the Sisters of Providence and their rulers.

Driven by curiosity as much as by concern, I made an appointment with my daughter's teacher. I wanted to know what constituted a high mark for what was clearly mediocre work.

When we met, the usual pleasantries were exchanged and she was telling me what a joy my daughter was to have in class (which made me immediately question of her mental state). I produced the documents in question and demanded to know why she was giving my daughter an "A" when she clearly deserved a "C". (She probably would have failed the assignment in my school, but I'm a bit more merciful than the good sisters.)

I was then met with a look of utter disbelief. I'm sure it is unusual indeed to have a parent come in and demand their child's grade be lowered. But, my intention was to find out what the criteria was for literacy among the adults whom I had placed my child's intellectual development. Even a jaded soul such as I was not prepared for what I was about to hear.

"Oh, we don't put much emphasis on that stuff," was the explanation. In the spirit of the therapeutic times in which we live, she went on to explain, "We want the children to express themselves."

Yes, absolutely, by all means they should express themselves! Never mind their writing resembles that of an illiterate rustic or street urchin. This is after all, the age of self-esteem. Pride in one's work notwithstanding, we just need to feel good about ourselves.

2003-10-24T14:07:00.000-04:00

Thoughtcrime at the Big U.

In a manner reminiscent of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe rather than that of institutions ostensibly dedicated to the concept free thought, political activists on campuses across the United States are increasingly resorting to tactics that resemble brown-shirted thugs rather than students in pursuit of free and open inquiry. Apparently, stealing newspapers with whom you do not agree with and destroying the copies is all the rage among the multiculti set. I find it interesting, to say the very least, that people who demand (and I put special emphasis on demand) that tolerance be practiced, seem to show so little of it.

The following paragraphs are from an article written by Sara Russo about one such incident on Brown University's campus:

"An organized coalition of fifteen ethnic and political student groups at Brown University stole 4,000 copies of the Brown Daily Herald. The theft was retribution for the paper's decision to print David Horowitz's anti-reparations ad three days earlier and its subsequent refusal to submit to outraged students' demands that payment for the ad be turned over to the campus' Third World Center for minority students and that the paper give protestors a full page to print a rebuttal...

The coalition of student groups that stole the papers issued a press release the day after the theft stating that they will perpetuate their campaign of action against the Herald until the paper meets their conditions. The coalition also added two new demands to their previous list: that the Daily Herald excise the word "Brown" from its title and that it cease dispensing copies on campus."

My favorite part comes when a flier issued by this "coalition" states:

"'The coalition has never opposed free speech,' the flier added."

I suppose it all depends on whose free speech that is being exercised. It apparently does not apply to the editorial staff of the Brown Daily Herald as far as the self-styled coalition is concerned. It is rare indeed to find such a splendid example of doublethink. It is all the more disturbing because it occurred at what is considered to be one of our finest universities.

At Roger Williams University censorship is alive and thriving. But this time, it is the administration that is getting in on the act. In a memo ominously entitled "Free Expression, Civility and Mutual Respect," written in reaction to an editorial in The Hawk's Right Eye, a conservative student newspaper.
The paper criticized the school's decision to force incoming freshmen to attend a "diversity" talk delivered by Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard. It also criticized the talk itself, which advocated for hate crime legislation and which accused organized religion of being a bastion of intolerance.

In what has to be a masterpiece in Orwellian duplicity, Roy J. Nirschel, the president of Roger Williams, wrote:

"While we affirm the right of campus organizations to hold different points of view and to disagree, the university will not condone publications that create a hostile environment for our students and community.

Roger Williams continues to believe in respect for diversity of opinion and a civil exchange of views as well as respect for individuals regardless of their beliefs, backgrounds, or orientation. As an institution whose namesake preached, for his time, inclusiveness and respect for human dignity, we are a university too busy for hate."

Well, while the university was too busy to hate, they also must have been too busy to understand the First Amendment and subsequently shut the paper down.

Having worked in journalism a good portion of my adult life, I have been associated at various times with views that run contrary to my own. Advertisements and editorials that I have found unappealing, even repugnant have found their way into print alongside of my work. Still, I have never once advocated stealing, burning or otherwise suppressing those views. That is, after all, the very essence of a "free" press – to protect the rights of others, no matter how much you may disagree with it.

2003-10-22T14:00:00.000-04:00

Et tu, Eminem?

Has our desire to be entertained become so great that we now expect our court rulings to be handed down in the insipid doggerel so endearing to the hip-hop crowd?

Although our legal system leaves much to be desired and on occasion fails us miserably, there was always an effort to try and maintain some sense of decorum when judgment was passed. This is apparently now passé with a recent court case involving America's favorite misogynistic mayhem meister, Eminem, or Marshall Mathers III as he is known to his mother.

It seems Mr. Mathers' gutter rhymes landed him in court in regards to a charge of defamation of a Mr. Deangelo Bailey who, according to the song (and I use that term loosely indeed) entitled "Brain Damage", used to give Mathers a daily thrashing. While I might be inclined, as was the judge, to side in favor of Eminem's right to free speech, I think Mr. Bailey might be deserving of some sort of commendation. (For beating the little creep, that is.)

Macomb County Circuit Judge Deborah Servitto's in two forms: as a 14-page brief for the lawyers and as a rap rhyme for the fans of the defendant. Servitto wrote that she penned the rap so that her decision could be read in "a universally understandable format."

The idea for the rap ruling was Servitto's, said Annette Lupo, the judge's secretary. Two aides at the court's law library helped write the lyrics and Servitto signed off on them, Lupo said. The ruling - that is the rap - was a hit with the court. Judges, clerks, bailiffs, attorneys and Hollywood wanted to see the song. The judge received calls from cable channels MTV and CNN and the TV program "Celebrity Justice."

Perhaps I'm being a bit wistful when I want my judges to serious, reflective and just in their treatment of proceedings in both the civil and criminal realm. While I might give Judge Servitto and her staff's humorous musings an "A" for light verse, I am not so sure she has done the beleaguered justice system any favors by pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Excerpts from Macomb County Circuit Judge Deborah Servitto's rap in Deangelo Bailey v. Marshall Mathers III (Eminem's birth name):

Mr. Bailey complains that his rep is trash

So he's seeking compensation in the form of cash.

Bailey thinks he's entitled to some monetary gain

Because Eminem used his name in vain.

Eminem says Bailey used to throw him around

Beat him up in the john, shoved his face in the ground.

Eminem contends that his rap is protected

By the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Eminem maintains that the story is true

And that Bailey beat him black and blue.

In the alternative he states that the story is phony

And a reasonable person would think it's baloney.

The court must always balance the rights

Of a defendant and one placed in a false light.

If the plaintiff presents no question of fact

To dismiss is the only acceptable act.

If the language used is anything but pleasin'

It must be highly objectionable to a person of reason.

Even if objectionable and causing offense

Self-help is the first line of defense.

Yet when Bailey actually spoke to the press

what do you think he didn't address?

Those false-light charges that so disturbed

Prompted from Bailey not a single word.

So highly objectionable, it could not be

-- Bailey was happy to hear his name on a CD.

Bailey also admitted he was a bully in youth

Which makes what Marshall said substantial truth.

This doctrine is a defense well known

And renders Bailey's case substantially blown.

The lyrics are stories no one would take as fact

They're an exaggeration of a childish act.

Any reasonable person could clearly see

That the lyrics could only be hyperbole.

It is therefore this court's ultimate position

That Eminem is entitled to summary disposition.

2003-10-21T12:01:00.000-04:00

Postintelligible

There are several splendid links on Butterflies and Wheels concerning the state of academic writing. One of these articles "Language Crimes" written by Arts and Letters Daily editor Denis Dutton would be absolutely hysterical if it weren't true. Dutton sponsors an annual "Bad Writing Contest" where he gives us the rules:

"The rules were simple: Entries should be a sentence or two from an actual published scholarly book or journal article. No translations into English allowed, and the entries had to be non-ironic: We could hardly admit parodies in a field where unintentional self-parody was so rampant."

Reading through some of the results are as Dutton says, "like swimming through cold porridge."

Here are a couple of my favorites:

“It is the moment of non-construction, disclosing the absentation of actuality from the concept in part through its invitation to emphasize, in reading, the helplessness — rather than the will to power — of its fall into conceptuality.”

- A Defense of Poetry

"This book was instigated by the Harvard Core Curriculum Report in 1978 and was intended to respond to what I took to be an ominous educational reform initiative that, without naming it, would delegitimate the decisive, if spontaneous, disclosure of the complicity of liberal American institutions of higher learning with the state’s brutal conduct of the war in Vietnam and the consequent call for opening the university to meet the demands by hitherto marginalized constituencies of American society for enfranchisement.”

- The End of Education: Toward Posthumanism.

English professors wrote both of these headache-inducing nightmares, who believe it or not, are ostensibly in charge of teaching students to write clearly.

God help us all.