Drawing the distinction even further between a liberal religious believer and the Religious Right, Yoffie continued, saying that the former believe that “’family values’ requires providing health care to every child and that God cares about the 12 million children without health insurance.

“It means valuing a child with diabetes over a frozen embryo in a fertility clinic, and seeing the teaching of science as a primary social good.

And it means reserving the right for each person to prayerfully make decisions for herself about when she dies.”

And, he said, “it means believing in legal protection for gay couples,” noting that there is room for disagreement about gay marriage, “but there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry.”

Yoffie accused the Religious Right of refusing to acknowledge that there are religious perspectives different from its own, and of misreading religious texts sacred to both Christians and Jews. He noted that “the Bible, both Hebrew and Christian, has far more to say about caring for the poor than about eradicating sexual sin.”

hear fucking hear.

Union for Reform Judaism - Leader Criticizes Religious Right for Intolerance

Gross observes that the changes recommended by a commission appointed by the President will have much greater negative effects on taxpayers in Democratic regions. Its as if the tax changes are a form of economic gerrymandering whose impact will be to significantly reduce the net take-home pay of (surprise!) Democratic donors.

[ Interesting. I had skimmed the highlights of these plans but not had time to read them all the way through, or, of course, do any analysis. I guess, thinking back now, I had thought that the eliminated deductions applied only to second or third or etc. houses, not primary residences, but it would seem I read that wrong. It does not particularly surprise me that the administration would craft a long view policy designed to reduce wealth in democratic areas. After all, tort reform is largely about the same thing... reducing the wealth of a highly democratic group of people. -k]

The politics of taxation

TiVo has announced an expansion of its TiVoToGo service to include PSPs and iPods.

The move will be welcome news for TiVo users who own one of the popular video playback devices. Up until now, moving video from a TiVo box to a PSP or iPod, involved a complex chain of conversion software to get files into the required MPEG-4 format. Now the conversion will happen natively as part of TiVoToGo.

[ Smart, and necessary. If TiVo's gonna survive, they need to position themselves as the easiest turnkey solution and the one that has the most consumer-friendly features. -k]

TiVo Ties In With PSP And iPod | News | Media Center PC World

Watch all of this video. It's astounding.

[ That's fucking cool. -k]

Living Cornstarch

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has been heading an effort to "re-brand" her city, and she and a group of marketers have come up with a new slogan: "Every Day is an Opening Day." Plus, they commissioned a song, "The ATL," composed by R&B producer Dallas Austin

Uhh, ok.

NPR : Re-Branding the City of Atlanta

Tim Kehoe has stained the whites of his eyes deep blue. He's also stained his face, his car, several bathtubs and a few dozen children. He's had to evacuate his family because he filled the house with noxious fumes. He's ruined every kitchen he's ever had. Kehoe, a 35-year-old toy inventor from St. Paul, Minnesota, has done all this in an effort to make real an idea he had more than 10 years ago, one he's been told repeatedly cannot be realized: a colored bubble.

Neat...

The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles - Popular Science

On Nov. 18, 1985, a new comic strip made its newspaper debut: Calvin and Hobbes. It featured a small boy wearing a pith helmet who announced that day that he was going to check his tiger trap. The boy was Calvin and the tiger snared in the last panel -- happily snacking on the bait -- was Hobbes.
For 10 years the duo captured the imaginations of adults and children alike. Then, in 1995, cartoonist Bill Watterson announced his retirement at the age of 37.
Now the definitive Calvin and Hobbes collection has been released. The three-volume set is fittingly called The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. It features every one of the 3,160 strips Watterson produced between 1985 and Dec. 31, 1995.

[ These are gorgeous volumes, I think. The paper has reasonable heft, and they did a clever thing with the coloring that makes it look as if the strips had been carefully cut from a white page and glued, scrapbook style, onto an off white sheet. If i didn't already own every single Calvin and Hobbes book ever published, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Since I *do*, I'll buy it sometime later, when I can simply no longer resist. -k]

NPR : Spiffy: 'The Complete Calvin and Hobbes'

Welcome!
Every day in small towns, college campuses, and big cities across the United States, thousands of religiously devout young people answer the call to service in their traditions to give back to their communities. We're a 501(c)3 nonprofit committed to creating exciting, effective ways to bring them together, to build and learn side by side.

The exec. director, Eboo Patel, was on NPR's Speaking of Faith tonight. It was a good discussion and a wonderful, reassuring thing to hear of such an organization. Rather than dwell on how different we are, and learn hate via ignorance, let kids engage each other's beliefs constructively.

Interfaith Youth Core - Home

“Arrested Development” is simply the best comedy on television, period. No qualifications.
Strike that. There is a qualification. Because last Thursday, it came out that Fox was cutting their season order down to a mere 13 episodes, and would not be picking up the back nine. When I heard this, I wept like a fat chick stuck home on prom night with only two Krispy Kreme donuts left to keep me company. And then on Friday, someone stole one of my donuts — word came out that the show’s run was more-or-less officially kaput. I wanted to go on a homicidal spree, unleashing the Furies on every Fox executive I could find, with a special gutting and flaying reserved for Rupert Murdoch and his old man balls.

Middle America's Development Is Arrested Review by Seth Freilich

Elsewhere Hollywood star CHARLIZE THERON forced movie bosses to change her costume design for forthcoming movie AEON FLUX - after deciding her character's original outfit was too revealing.

When Theron saw the superheroine's skimpy crime-fighting outfit of a bikini, thigh-high boots and shoulder pads, she decided to add trousers to the outfit.

The 29-year-old star admits, "When you're playing with aspects of sexuality, certain things have to be hidden. That's what my mother always used to tell me.

"I wanted to stay as true as possible to the original character, but didn't feel the need to go as far with the costume."

Charlize Theron is too pretty for this role. And too famous. I disagree with what she says above, not because I'm so male that I need to see Charlize Theron in as little clothing as possible, but because, to me, the visceral sexuality of the character is one of the things I remember the best. I recall very clearly that the negligible clothing mixed with the raw and angular animation, reinforced a character that expressed more the animal side of sex than the loving side. Truly, this was a woman who, if real, I wasn't certain I wanted to meet, naked or otherwise. She was intimidating, not least in the realm of sexuality.

I was concerned that Charlize was the wrong pick from the beginning, because as great an actress as she is, as gorgeous as she is, she lacks that aspect of intimidation... perhaps "too soft" is the description. There was always something impure associated with desire towards this character. I just don't get that from this incarnation. I'll withhold saying more until I've seen the movie, of course... perhaps I'll be proven wrong. -k]

Charlize Theron: Charlize Theron Aeon Flux - Linsay Lohan