Friday, March 05, 2004

Weekend Blog Outsourcing 

New Format for the Blog Outsourcing. Topic, links, synopsis. Let's show you how it works.

Ralph Nader
Pandagon has the numbers, interesting as they may be. Nader has neutralized Kerry's six point lead naturally, but is drawing one and a quarter Republicans away from Bush for every 2 Dems he's pulling for Kerry. That's not good, really. But I don't like Pandagon's suggestion to Kerry: "It strikes me as a potential opportunity. By using Nader as the extreme liberal foil and Bush as the extreme conservative, Kerry can paint himself as the mainstream candidate. Running against both Bush and Nader and equating them in every speech creates the potential for Nader to actually help offset Kerry's perceived liberalism while highlighting Bush's extreme right-wing ideologies." The thing is, Nader is speaking the truth to a lot of issues, he's just speaking to them in a manner that ensures his own destruction. (Read: "Expiring for Love Is Beautiful But Stupid", my little op-ed on Nader.) Marginalizing a candidate who is against corporate rule and painting him as an "extremist" is going to do more damage to Kerry than it will do good. I'm hanging on to beating Bush way more than I am hanging on to Kerry, and if Kerry starts attacking Nader's anti-corporate oligarchy agenda as "extremist" then he's going to lose my vote. Theoretically anyway. He's got my vote no matter what, pretty much, and it's not something I'm all that proud of.

George W Bush: The Post Modern President?
Skip this whole paragraph if you are one of the millions of people who totally don't care if Bush is a Post Modern President. American Street asks and answers the question, sort of. But I don't know if I can imagine Karl Rove and Jean Beaudrillard getting together for drinks. Post Modernism is pretty much impossible to define, but it seems to me that all the examples given here are actually examples of what the post modernists despise. For example, the association of "conservative" with "good" is less about identity politics than it is about linear narrative: "We are conservatives, marching towards the endgame of the good and noble." Pomo hates the linear narrative. But the Burroughs-esque notion of the cut up seems to work to get rid of that linearity: "They have WMD. They don't have WMD. That is why we're, Saddam was a bad man, liberating the Iraqi people." Ahem. Granted, Bush also embraces the Spectacle, and ditches the kinda-modernist / kinda-po-modernist ideology of the Situationist Internationale. I sometimes think Karl Rove reads "The Society of the Spectacle" as an instruction manual.

The Draft
Estimated Prophet rounds up all the evidence (or enough, anyway) for a revival of the draft. I did mention I am a Liberal Quaker?

Microsoft Humor
Poison Kitchen made me laugh pretty hard with his expose of inane Microsoft glitches. You know I'm a loser.

Blogging the Op-Eds
Chris Brown has a letter to the op-ed column of his local paper. Do you? It's easy and it's fun and it makes a difference, sort of. Everything "sort of" makes a difference- donating money, for example, sort of makes a difference. When you add up a bunch of stuff that sort of makes a difference, however, it starts making a difference, actually.

Girl Scout Liberals
Elayne Riggs on why the right now has a problem with Girl Scout Cookies. (Here's a theory: is it because the money doesn't go to rich old white men?)

Bush 9.11 Ads
Edward Pig weighs in.

International Prestige
Speedkill has a post on the North Korean "spin" on The Diary of Anne Frank. Look for Rove to adapt this to Kerry sometime soon. I don't really like comparing Bush to Hitler, but calling the neocons "nazi's" is fair game, I think, unless you're using it to criticise the round up of Muslims or our unprovoked invasions of foreign countries. Then it's a weak metaphor. But as long as it's because of how they view the social order, go with it. The whole "Fascist" thing is more than just mass genocide. It really brought out a whole wide range of great stuff, like, for example, encouraging the individual to feel powerless and then to inspire them to gain power by working to empower the state, and to feel empowered by military victories that the aforementioned powerless individual really has no connection with. That part of Fascism was totally fucking awesome.

Inconsequential Election Night Mystery, Solved.
I am actually really grateful to Gotham for seeing a sign at Kerry's nomination party on super tuesday, and then doing the legwork that I was too lazy to do for myself. Maybe you, too, were interested in the same level of detail that he and I were: "CNN is Bad News" being held in front of all the major news outlets cameras.

Media Deconstruction Watch
Echidne at her deconstructionist best here, this time toward a David Brooks column on poverty.

On The Temptations of the Gay Lifestyle
Otters gets at the whole "homophobia is a symptom of repressed homosexuality" concept. Freud, you know- you overcompensate as a means of repression? That was kind of the idea behind my Letter to Congresswoman Musgrave. There's a second one in the works, but it's turning into a sort of "Congresswoman Musgrave Gay Sex Fan Fiction" thing and I don't want that sort of thing on my website. I wish I could be happy with subtlety.

That's your weekend, punks.

# posted by Scout @ 8:56 PM


Roy Moore For President 

Roy Moore, the ultra conservative biblenazi that wanted the ten commandments on display in Georgia and acted as if its removal was a systematic forced abortion for every Christian on Earth, is mulling a run for President, which I wholeheartedly support because he's got no chance and would take Religious Fundamentalist votes from Daddy Warbush. But I would support him for another, less likely reason: He's against the Gay Marriage Amendment.

"I don't think you can make a constitutional amendment for every moral problem created by courts that don't follow the law of their states [...] If you do, you pretend to do what God has already done and make it subject to the courts. I think it's a problem to establish morality by constitutional amendments made by men when the morality of our country is plainly illustrated -- in Supreme Court precedent and in state-law precedent and in the common law -- as coming from an acknowledgement of God."

Seriously, when our President is more Conservative than Roy Moore, you know we're totally fucked.

# posted by Scout @ 12:55 AM


Thursday, March 04, 2004

Annoy The Bush Campaign 

Go tell the Bush campaign why you're voting for Bush in November.

Here's my reason:

"I support George W Bush because I like watchin' the wars on the TV. Them bombs sure is cool. Bush kicks ass and I don't care whose ass is gettin kicked so long as the boot says "America" and the kickin is damn hard."

If you can't think of some reasons, feel free to use some the others I've come up with (and feel free to post suggestions in the comments):

"I'm supportin George W Bush cuz I hate them homy-sexuals, and want to make sure they don't get no happiness that I got."

"I'm supportin' George W Bush cuz I don't deserve my job anyway."

"I'm sportin' George W Bush cuz he was a real war hero, not some pot smokin' draft dodger like John Kerry."

"I'm supportin' George W Bush cuz my parents was Republican and even though blacks is fine with me I don't trust'em all that much just yet."

"I'm sportin' George W Bush cuz I respond to fear like an abused dog."

If they offer to mail you stuff, say yes, because it'll waste their money. I know I am totally annoying for doing this, but it's fun.

# posted by Scout @ 10:28 PM


A Letter to the Editor 

To The Editors of A Certain Local Newspaper:

George W Bush runs on the campaign slogan, "Steady Leadership in a Time of Change." Last January, President Bush assured Americans about the September 11th attacks, "I have no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue." But this week, he is launching an ad blitz that shows him standing with firefighters after the attacks. What the picture cannot show is how Bush has handled firefighters and first responders since the attacks- with cuts in funding. Pictures cannot show us how Bush has refused to testify for the 9/11 Commission Investigation. While the President's pictures make him out to be a hero, neither are there any compelling images to show how he has cut combat pay for our veterans in the line of fire in Iraq and Afghanistan. These people, firefighters and soldiers, are our true heroes, and until George W Bush can stand behind them in action as well as pictures, he has no right to exploit September 11th for his own political gain.

Sincerely,
Me

# posted by Scout @ 4:09 PM


It's a New 9/11 In America... 

Remember that old "New Morning In America" song that Reagan used, alongside patriotic Burger King ads, to get into office? Well Bush has his own spin, and some people are none too happy.

"It makes me sick," said Colleen Kelly, who lost her brother Bill Kelly Jr. in the attacks and leads a victims families group called Peaceful Tomorrows. "Would you ever go to someone's grave site and use that as an instrument of politics? That truly is what Ground Zero represents to me."

"We're not going to stand for him to put his arm around one of our [International Association of Fire Fighters Union] members on top of a pile of rubble at Ground Zero during a tragedy and then stand by and watch him cut money for first responders," [Union Leader] Schaitberger said.

Barbara Minervino, a Republican from Middletown, N.J., who lost her husband, Louis, in the attacks, questioned whether Bush was "capitalizing on the event."

David Potorti, an independent from Cary, N.C., whose brother Jim died in the north tower, called the campaign's use of the images audacious. "It's an insult to use the place where my brother died in an ad," Potorti said. "I would be just as outraged if any politician did this."

Until Bush cooperates with the federal commission that is investigating the nation's preparedness before the attacks and its response "by testifying in public under oath ... he should not be using 9/11 as political propaganda," said Kristen Breitweiser, of Middletown Township, N.J., whose husband, Ronald Breitweiser, 39, died in the World Trade Center. "Three thousand people were murdered on President Bush's watch," Breitweiser said. "He has not cooperated with the investigation to find out why that happened."

Some people get upset over Bush using death, fear and turmoil- and bragging that 3000 Americans killed on his watch was "steady leadership"- as a "positive message" in his ad campaign. Some people have a similar reaction to Janet Jackson's Boob.

Priorities, Priorities.

# posted by Scout @ 2:04 PM


Bush Eliminates Sewage Sludge While Helping Small Farmers 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing that the government's definition of compost include sewage sludge. The rule change is couched in a December 10, 2003 Federal Register notice about proposed revisions to the Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG). It would consolidate all compost designations under one item called "compost made from recovered organic materials."

Mmmm, who wants to throw some compost in the garden now? If Republicans say Democrats throw money at problems, is it safe to say that Republicans just rename things until they aren't problems anymore? The article calls it "Linguistic Laundering":

"The problems deriving from sewage are indeed massive. Sewers give sewage. Treatment gives sludge. What to do? How to get rid of the sludge? The solution proposed here is only linguistic laundering: call sludge "biosolids", call "biosolids" compost, and, through the "Comprehensive Procurement Guideline V for Procurement of Products Containing Recovered Materials," legally oblige federal, state, and local entities, and contractors working for same to preferentially purchase sludge aka "biosolids" aka "compost" when purchasing "recovered materials." To put in bags of neat looking pellets to sell as "compost" to unwary gardeners. That will get rid of a lot of it, and it will take a long time for people to come to understand what happened to them." - Common Dreams

So, if Bush keeps on dropping in the polls, do you think he'll change his name to John Kerry?

# posted by Scout @ 12:25 PM


Running Thither and Yon 

The same website that published an editorial suggesting that Howard Dean would wrap up his nomination by flying a plane into the World Trade Center is now, of course, on John Kerry like, well, Republican Nutcases to Democratic Candidates. But why? Well, because John Kerry wants peace, that's why.

"Kerry then, according to his communications with Democrats, will set things straight by going to each nation damaged by Mr. Bush, set up dialogue tables worldwide and usher in the peace long-awaited. No wonder when profiling Kerry, I cannot help but picture the rider on the white horse in the Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation, chapter 6. There the rider appears out of nowhere. He has a bow in his hand but no arrow. He goes forth on a white horse (the good guy) in a campaign to bring in peace, for without an arrow he cannot slay anyone. However, he's fake. In due time he reveals himself to be none other than the antichrist having been under cover. In fact, he's one of the four riders of death and destruction. So it is that Kerry, not necessarily the antichrist, but a workout of his shadow, gives to the world a false policy of peace and hope, love and kindness. The world, of course, is not like Kerry's Eden. The world is presently bereft with killers international. They are running thither and yon, already showing their bloody hands in one country after another. So if Kerry gets elected, they will have received the welcome mat, the open door, and engraved invitation to enter America for the kill."

I'm not linking to it because they're copyright Nazis and will probably sue me for even excerpting their political editorials. But I just wanted to reassure everyone that Republicans are, for the most part, completely fucking crazy, and their candidate has $130 million dollars more than ours. So why not contribute ten or twenty to Mr. Kerry? Or five or six. Seriously. $5.00 a month is equal to about a $50.00 donation. It's all good, folks.

# posted by Scout @ 12:01 PM


I Could Have Bigger Problems 

Act For Love is a dating website designed for "activists". You may have seen it on a couple of lefty blogs, I found it on Atrios and on Taegan Goddard.

But man, what a pile of crap. I always thought Friendster could be an amazing tool for political activism- "search within (25) miles for all people interested in (anti war) with commitment level of (protester)" and bam, you've got yourself a psuedo-flashmob. Not to mention, you know, a chance to hook up with politically active people- instant date ideas! Instead, Act For Love is just a stupid dating service that seems to serve no real "activist" purpose whatsoever. For example, take "Cheebs", a preppie with a goattee (I guess that makes him "political"?) whose political statement is: "I want kids in three years, so get ready." Wow!

You can't sort people by political orientation, but you can find what sign they are and what color eyes they want you to have. The front page is mostly vapid "hotties" who sound like our good friend and psuedo-activist, Cheebs. So anyway, I know there's more important things to worry about, but it's amazing how they can co-opt political concerns and just turn it into bullshit like this when it really could have been something incredible.

# posted by Scout @ 12:29 AM


Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Bukowski Week 

Charles Bukowski died ten years ago this week. I've been posting some of his poems here. They aren't neccesarily my favorites, though they're all good, they're just the ones that are short enough to make for acceptable blog reading.

8 Count

from my bed
I watch
3 birds
on a telephone
wire.
one flies
off.
then
another.
one is left,
then
it too
is gone.
my typewriter is
tombstone
still.
and I am
reduced to bird
watching.
just thought I'd
let you
know,
fucker.

# posted by Scout @ 1:23 AM


Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Dean Wins Vermont, Edwards Drops Out, Kerry Nominee 

That says it all. The election starts now, which makes this all the more important. Give money. Stop thinking. Go! Now! Now! Now!

# posted by Scout @ 8:26 PM


What's the Charge, Officer? 

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (AP) -- The village's mayor was charged Tuesday with 19 criminal counts for performing marriage ceremonies for gay couples. Jason West was charged with solemnizing marriages for couples who had no licenses, a misdemeanor under the domestic relations law, according to Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams. [...] State Sen. Thomas Duane, a Manhattan Democrat and one of three openly gay state lawmakers, called Williams' actions "malicious.''

"Does the Ulster County D.A. really want to put someone in jail for recognizing long-term relationships between people?'' he said. "Does he really want to put in jail someone who recognizes same-sex families? Really, the Ulster County D.A. should be prosecuted for malicious prosecution, which is a felony in New York.'' - The New York Times

Jason West, by the way, is backed by the Green Party, and totally frickin' awesome.

# posted by Scout @ 6:24 PM


How To Give 

1. Take your tax cut, look at it, and repeat after me: "This is how much I am getting paid to have George Bush as my president."

2. Realize that, had Al Gore been president, you may in fact not have that tax cut. Then ask yourself if you would trade that in for having Al Gore as your President for the past four years. The answer, of course, is yes.

3. Donate some or All of Bush's Tax Cut to Cut Bush. You'd be surprised how little you need to give in order to be cool with the cool kids. These people love small donations, because they can use them to tout how the underprivileged are funding their revolution. So here:

Pledge time or money or both to Moveon.org, which will air ads attacking Bush in ways the candidates can't. You may have already seen the ad with children working on assembly lines and as janitors and the like, that ends with "Who will pay for Bush's deficits? Our Kids". That sort of thing. It's a media assault, which is useful, because Bush has got something like 3.6 million going into ads next week alone.

Then there's the chance to donate some money to Democratic Action (Congress) and/or the Democratic Senate Funds, both of which will go towards electing a Democratic Majority in the house and senate. These guys look at candidates who are struggling in their districts and give them a cash infusion to boost their chances. If Bush wins, somehow, next election, then having a Democrat-controlled House or Senate is still vital, because, if anything else, it means we can impeach the President. (We can't as it stands without a Majority.)

Then, of course, there is giving to the Democratic Party in General. Which does a few things. One, it helps with ad buys for the Presidential Nominee as well as the congress and senate. Two, it helps the Democrats establish an infrastructure, helps them better prepare the talking heads going on the news shows, helps them with polling and get out the vote drives.

You can also donate directly to John Kerry, who, let's face it, is going to be the Democratic Nominee. He's also pretty much broke already. Bush has got $127 Million. So, you know, we're the guys Kerry gets money from. It doesn't grow on trees or spontaneously emerge from the odor of corruption in corporate boardrooms the way it does for Bush.

If you're interested in donating to smaller races, you can do that too. Act Blue has a great list of close but winnable races in play this election year, with links to each candidate. So, even if you're in Georgia and you like a guy in Nevada, you can donate to him. "Adopt a Democrat" from out of state, which is fun. It's like having a pen pal. This one takes a bit of work on your part, but it might be the most important thing the internet can do for Democrats this year.

So that's that, folks.

# posted by Scout @ 5:35 PM


Bukowski Week 

It was 10 years ago on March 9th that Charles Bukowski died. So, throughout the week I'll post a few poems he's written.

Drive Through Hell

the people are weary, unhappy, frustrated, the people are
bitter and vengeful, the people are deluded and fearful, the
people are angry and uninventive
and I drive among them on the freeway and they project
what is left of themselves in their manner of driving-
some more hateful, more thwarted than others-
some don't like to be passed, some attempt to keep others
from passing
-some attempt to block lane changes
-some hate cars of a newer, more expensive model
-others in these cars hate the older cars.

the freeway is a circus of cheap and pretty emotions, it's
humanity on the move, most of them coming from someplace
they
hated and going to another they hate just as much or
more.
the freeways are a lesson in what we have become and
most of the crashes and deaths are the collision
of incomplete beings, of pitiful and demented
lives.
when I drive the freeways I see the soul of humanity of
my city and it's ugly, ugly, ugly: the living have choked the
heart
away.

# posted by Scout @ 1:15 AM


Monday, March 01, 2004

The Passion 


I haven't seen "The Passion of the Christ" yet, but I did hear a caller on the NH NPR affiliate call up to imply that maybe, just maybe, the film itself is the second coming of the Messiah, the last chance for non believers to understand and accept Christ before the Rapture.

Which leads me to my biggest problem with this film: not the violence, which caused one woman to die of a heart attack while watching it, and which is glorified by the same people who abhor violence in any other type of movie. Neither is it Anti Semitism (I hear it's anti-Italian!)

What it is is, it's heralding the triumphant resurrection of American Fundamentalism at a time when the most dangerous thing that could happen to this country is "someone" "accidentally" allowing the "war on terror" to turn into Jesus v Mohammad. Chris Hitchins, that bloated motherfucker, had one thing right, which is that the battle against terror is not a battle of Christianity vs Islam, it's the battle of Fundamentalism vs Secularism. But this country is swept up into a fundamentalist euphoria- Where we crucify Howard Stern as if he posed a threat to Democracy instead of just our sense of decorum, while Ann "Bomb Christianity Into the Arabs" Coulter isn't- and we round up Gay Marriages as the sign of our societies ongoing freefall into the abyss of Godlessness.

It's "Fill In The Blank" Fun Time! Bonus if you can identify the source:

"The task that Christ has started, I will fulfill. _________ is nothing but the practical fulfillment of teachings of Christ."

Give up? The answer is National Socialism, and the speaker is Christianity's own prodigal son, Mr. Adolf Hitler, in a 1926 speech in Munich, as documented in a police report at the time. But don't give me a tin foil hat yet. It's right at the end of chapter two in Mein Kampf: "Today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the ______ I am fighting for the work of the Lord." Now, I know you can say Hitler wasn't a "true" Christian, and that is true. That's not the point I am making anyway. The point I am making is, "true" religion or not, the governance by religion is governance by passion, and passion is easy to manipulate and thus, a pretty fucking scary thing to have running the country.

Those quotes are from a chapter in John Rawls' The Law of Peoples, where Rawls sums it up nicely: "Since the time of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, Christianity punished heresy and tries to stamp out by persecution and religious wars what it regarded as false doctrine. To do so required the coercive powers of the state. The Inquisition instituted by Pope Gregory IX was active throughout the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In September of 1572, Pope Pius V went to the French Church of St Louis in Rome where, joined by thirty three Cardinals, he attended a Mass of Thanksgiving to God for the religiously motivated massacre of fifteen thousand Protestant French Huguenots by Catholic Factions on St Batholomews Day that summer. Heresy was widely regarded as worse than murder. This persecuting zeal has been the great Curse of the Christian Religion. It was shared by Luther and Calvin and Protestant Reformers, and was not radically confronted in the Catholic Church until Vatican II." (Which, by the way, is precisely the same Vatican II that Mel Gibson is so pissed off at- and established this movie to fight back against.)

The idea behind a separation of church and state is that we need a fundamental societal set of rules for fairness in a society that exists outside of the morality of passion that comes with Religion. I have nothing against Catholicism, or Religion in general. I like Christianity, in part, because it favors isolation over the crowd, it is an individual religion rather than a frothing mass. You take communion with a crowd but with your own thoughts. You confess sins for forgiveness with one priest, anonymously. You pray silently. The passion that religion invokes is not a bad thing for individual lives. Focused, driving, furious passion cures alcoholics, gives people the strength to move on from devastating losses, inspires people to reach beyond their own imagined limitations, gives sight to the blind and walk to the walkless, etcetera. But Christianity can turn into a frothing mass when it is abused by political elements of the Church, and the passion it gives us to overcome individual existential struggles is manipulated into a fight for political power. The legislation of passionate reactions is an attack on the core of a Liberal Democracy, and it is the trademark of Religious Theocracy.

The danger of Christianity comes when it feels threatened by outsiders. The Crusades, the Inquisition, and now, the manipulators of religion are using "defense" against an onslaught of "Liberals" and "Activist Judges", feminists, gays, the ACLU. Bush may well know how quick the Christian Belief rises to its own defense, and now, whipped into a furor over Islam, it's also told- in an election year where attention turns to the homeland- to focus on the homeland enemy. Not Pedophile priests, but Liberal Democrats. When the people of a church feel threatened, it does two things. One, it divides the church between fundamentalists and moderates and liberal practitioners, (reinforcing, for the fundamentalists, the sense of attack) and two, it identifies the "individual" as part of a group, part of a mass that has power- previously identified as armies, and now identified as voters. It takes that blinding and furious passion that Religion gives as a gift to inspire people to personal greatness, and bends it, weakens and dilutes it into a crowd crystal designed to achieve political aims.

So it is no coincidence, in my mind, that Bush made a "surprise" announcement on his support of a Gay Marriage Amendment only 24 hours before a film would be released that, it seems, some fundamentalists believe may just be the second coming of Christ himself. For Bush and Rove- a strategist who has gone so far as to pose Bush in positions that make it appear as if a Halo is over Bush's head- this would be enough, I believe, to justify waiting three months between telling Musgrave that Bush would support her Amendment, and the actual announcement to the American people.

But I believe in the moderates. No less than John Leland, a Baptist Minister, spoke in 1802 on the same subject: Be always jealous of your liberty, your rights. Nip the first bud of intrusion on your constitution. Be not devoted to men; let measures be your object, and estimate men according to the measures they pursue. Never promote men who seek after a state-established religion; it is spiritual tyranny--the worst of despotism. It is turnpiking the way to heaven by human law, in order to establish ministerial gates to collect toll. It converts religion into a principle of state policy, and the gospel into merchandise. Heaven forbids the bans of marriage between church and state; their embraces therefore, must be unlawful. Guard against those men who make a great noise about religion, in choosing representatives. It is electioneering. If they knew the nature and worth of religion, they would not debauch it to such shameful purposes. If pure religion is the criterion to denominate candidates, those who make a noise about it must be rejected; for their wrangle about it, proves that they are void of it. Let honesty, talents and quick dispatch, characterize the men of your choice. Such men will have a sympathy with their constituents, and will be willing to come to the light, that their deeds may be examined.

# posted by Scout @ 11:03 PM


Haiti 

J'ACCUSE!

The thing is, if our Government did indeed stage a coup to overthrow Aristide, there's no way to know. It's down to Aristide's word vs McClellan's word. Aristide is a freely elected former Priest who maybe ran drugs through Haiti, but if he did, it might have been because drugs brought in 10 times more money for agriculture than the aid we were giving them to crack down on drugs. McClellan is a hired spokesperson for George W Bush who may or may not believe everything he says. If you're interested in figuring out just what the fuck is going on in Haiti right now, Stirling Newberry has a history of the crisis that gives you the answer: no one knows what the fuck is going on in Haiti right now. You should read the comments section at the BOP link too, to get even more confused.

# posted by Scout @ 9:36 PM


Sunday, February 29, 2004

Scaliosis 

Judge Scalia, speaking on the Supreme Court's decision to allow states to refuse financing students seeking thology degrees: "When the public's freedom of conscience is invoked to justify denial of equal treatment, benevolent motives shade into indifference and ultimately into repression."

Judge Scalia's dissenting opinion on the SCOTUS allowing ass sex in Texas:
"Today’s opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct. I noted in an earlier opinion the fact that the American Association of Law Schools (to which any reputable law school must seek to belong) excludes from membership any school that refuses to ban from its job-interview facilities a law firm (no matter how small) that does not wish to hire as a prospective partner a person who openly engages in homosexual conduct. [...] One of the most revealing statements in today’s opinion is the Court’s grim warning that the criminalization of homosexual conduct is “an invitation to subject homosexual persons to discrimination both in the public and in the private spheres.” [..] It is clear from this that the Court has taken sides in the culture war, departing from its role of assuring, as neutral observer, that the democratic rules of engagement are observed. Many Americans do not want persons who openly engage in homosexual conduct as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools, or as boarders in their home. They view this as protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive. The Court views it as “discrimination” which it is the function of our judgments to deter."

# posted by Scout @ 11:54 PM


Oh I Bet It's Probably Nothing! 

Hey, my guess is that this little bill, up for vote in congress, isn't really anything, eh? I mean, what could this mean: To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes? What's all that crap supposed to mean? Probably nothin, eh?

Did I happen to mention, by the way, that I am a Liberal Quaker?

Oh and I have no idea what this could be, either, which is being passed around the senate oh-so-quietly (don't wake up the election year!) and says, enigmatically, that "it is the obligation of every U.S. citizen, and every other person residing in the United States, between the ages of 18 and 26 to perform a two-year period of national service, unless exempted, either as a member of an active or reserve component of the armed forces or in a civilian capacity that promotes national defense."

I said I was a Liberal Quaker, right, guys?

# posted by Scout @ 1:13 AM


10,000 

Today, "And Then..." is gonna reach a landmark of 10,000 visits. Thanks everybody!

# posted by Scout @ 1:05 AM


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