"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
How to defend yourself & fight against the Christian Right
Topic: Religion
2:52 am EST, Feb 21, 2007
"The real issue with these people is not their specific faiths. It's their addiction to thinking they are right. It's an addiction to believing they have a corner on the market of truth. In other words, it's an addiction to a "made-truth," that is, to a belief that the truths they've created in their minds are indeed absolute truths and that everyone else must be made to believe in the same truths lest they perish. ...
"CHRISTIANS ARE BEING PERSECUTED"
Ever hear the phrase, "You can dish it out, but you can't take it"? That's what's happening when Fundamentalists use this statement. They have been on the attack for years now, trying to deny rights to homosexuals, trying to outlaw abortions, trying to keep women from obtaining equal rights, and trying to impose their own morals - many of them non-biblical - on the rest of society. Non-Fundamentalists are finally fighting back by speaking out against their campaigns, their media onslaughts, and their mistaken notions of truth, and the Fundamentalists don't like it very much. They can dish it out, but they can't take it. So when people of good conscience stand up for their rights, Fundamentalists cry foul - they claim they are being persecuted.
Fundamentalists see this "persecution" as biblical proof of being on God's side. It's not. Their so-called persecution is merely the rest of society defending itself from their attacks.
esus was not the uptight, judgmental founder of Fundamentalist Christianity. He was radical. He was compassionate. And he was forgiving. Rather than thumping people over the head with the Old Testament (the New Testament hadn't been written yet), he spent much of his time standing up to the Fundamentalists of his day. In Matthew 23:27 he said they were nothing more than "whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." And isn't that so true. These are people who claim their made-truths come straight from the Bible, and yet they don't even know what's in it. They wear a facade of righteousness, and yet they sin by adding their unfounded doctrines to the Bible. They like to condemn others for living in sin, and yet they are blind to all the sins they simply ignore or write off as irrelevant.
You don't have to let them get away with it. The next time they launch an attack, stand up for your beliefs, stand up for your rights, and fight back with their own words. Or rather, fight back with God's own words. "
Good reading. I so needed to read this tonight. I've spent the last 3 days trying to argue with a powerful brick wall about an issue that to me should be so clear - equal opportunity for children of all religions. Yet, I hit a brick wall....and a hysterical 'You people are trying to take the Christ out of Christmas!' WTF - I can't deal with these mean ass people.
The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter. Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature.
Sammy told of the day when he had drunk half a gallon of rum listening to Johnny Cash all morning in his parked '62 Cadillac, then fallen out of the car when he saw a rattlesnake on the passenger seat biting his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.
Tots surely won't recognize that Santa's big entrance in front of the throngs of frenzied elves and awe-struck children directly evokes, however unconsciously, one of Hitler's Nuremberg rally entrances in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will." But their parents may marvel that when Santa's big red sack of toys is hoisted from factory floor to sleigh it resembles nothing so much as an airborne scrotum.
Whether we are readers or writers, teachers or editors, all of us in professional communities must understand three things about complex writing:
* it may precisely reflect complex ideas, * it may gratuitously complicate complex ideas, * it may gratuitously complicate simple ideas.
...
Here is an example of the third kind of complexity:
The absence from this dictionary of the a handful of old, well-known vulgate terms for sexual and excretory organs and functions is not due to a lack of citations for these words from current literature. On the contrary, the profusion of such citations in recent years would suggest that the terms in question are so well known as to require no explanation. The decision to eliminate them as part of the extensive culling process that is the inevitable task fo the lexicographer was made on the practical grounds that there is still objection in many quarters to the appearance of these terms in print and that to risk keeping this dictionary out of the hands of some students by introducing several terms that require little if any elucidation would be unwise. -- From the foreword, Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language
This means,
We excluded vulgar words for sex and excretion not because we could not find them. We excluded them because many people object to seeing them. Had we included them, some teachers and schoolboards would have refused to let this dictionary be used by their students, who in any event already know what these words mean.
You'll also find the above excerpt discussed in American Lexicography, 1945-1973, an article by Clarence Barnhart, published in American Speech in the summer of 1978. (Subscription required for access to full text.)
TOP SECRET POLO STEP - Iraq War Plan Assumed Only 5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006
Topic: Science
11:21 pm EST, Feb 16, 2007
I saw info about this on the History Channel - Iraq War Beyond Top Secret. It discusses Operation Rock Star, Polo Step, and Dora Ranch, as well as a few others.
Today is the Day! Make Georgia #1 The Great Backyard Bird Count!
Topic: Environment
1:19 am EST, Feb 16, 2007
We do this every year - THE GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT.
It is easy, fun, educational, competitive between states & provinces- and it is nice to help out. You can even win a prize.
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc
In a nutshell, what you do is go outside sometime, and count the birds in your yard. It takes 15 minutes. Then you enter the birds online into a webform with your name and address.
This helps them get an idea about the migration times of birds, and about the health of the various populations.
Georgia was #8 last year!
So, think about doing it! It really is fun, and it doesn't take long.
WordGirl - A good way to Piss off Homeschool Parents
Topic: Education
5:38 pm EST, Feb 15, 2007
In my twisted mind, I DO think it is terribly funny that it is the HOMESCHOOLED kid that is the robotics master.
I do homeschool my son, and THERE IS a Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention Kit on my kitchen table right now and targets on my kitchen floor.
Still, I will pass this on because I really DO get tired of these negative stereotypes that are totally unfounded. ------------------------------------------------------------- ATTENTION HOME SCHOOLERS! ACTION NEEDED!
If you haven't seen any of the one minute WordGirl shorts throughout the PBS KIDS GO! weekday programming or the two minute WordGirl episodes which air after the very popular Maya & Miguel show on your local PBS station, please take a moment to visit the PBS KIDS website to view the negative portrayal of home schooled students that is being espoused in this programming. The link to the website is:
Click on the left side "Heroes, Villains & Mere Mortals" then select the character "Tobey". Here's the character description from the website:
"Tobey is a 10-year-old home schooled genius who causes serious property damage in order to get WordGirl's attention, not that he'd ever admit it. He's a master of robotics, building giant robots to do his bidding. He's constantly trying to prove that he is WordGirl's intellectual superior, and that he isn't afraid of his mommy."
In one episode, there is a comment about Tobey that "he's so timid that he has a hard time making friends." In the same episode, Tobey also acts very rude and destructive. You can see this episode and others (they are all only a minute or so long) by going to the same website link above and clicking on "Adventures of WordGirl" on the left side of the webpage, and then when the "Choose a Character" screen comes up, select "Tobey" and then click on the first picture under "Choose an Episode" at the bottom of the screen (it's the one with the robot picture).
Scholastic's choice to portray this intelligent, yet socially inept and deviant character as a home schooled student is a glaring attack on home schooling and educational choice. Scholastic would not have dared to portray this character as a racial minority or as a homosexual, yet they feel at liberty to attack home schooled students and indirectly their parents who they imply are making social misfits out of their children by teaching them at home. This programming is seen by thousands of children every day and is a means of influencing their attitudes toward home schooled students. As the saying goes, "If you say it loud enough and long enough, the people will believe it." There is no evidence to support the socialization concern in regards to home schooled students, yet the educational establishment continues with this propaganda.... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]
ATHF Boston Bomb Analysis - Puritan Remix? Psychology of a Witch Hunt?
Topic: Society
2:18 am EST, Feb 10, 2007
This is an excellent take on the situation, by a very ballsy Dion Dennis, an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in MA.
"First, we can see the historical and hysterical echoes of the 17th Century Salem witch trials. The two artists, the long-haired, bearded Belorussian immigrant Berdovsky and his sidekick, Stevens, stand publicly accused of producing, as defined by Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 266, Section 102, an "infernal machine." (Etymologically, the term "infernal" refers to Hell and the identities and products of the demons of said residence). So, like Arthur Miller's John Proctor, they will undoubtedly be asked to "make a deal" with official reality, to acknowledge their "infernal" (demonic) specific intent (as defined by the statute) and, in doing so, externalize the demons of the populace as they reaffirm the dominant symbolic order. [3] Contemporary ritual exorcisms will be performed in court, press conferences and press releases, and remixed and expanded by local and 24 hour news media, as they are archived for subsequent use. "
Free Streamlink Weekend - Art Bell, Coast to Coast MP3 downloads
Topic: Miscellaneous
6:56 pm EST, Feb 9, 2007
Ok, I have to admit that I am hooked on coasttocoast. I listen to it every night. I love the format - where really smart folks and really weird folks all call in with stories and tidbits and they are all given respect. I love the conspiracy theories focus in the same week as another show of really good science. I got the best advice ever from some 'hackers' on an Art Bell show back in the 80s. A friend that knew I liked computers brought it to me on cassette.
They said "Read the TCP/IP protocol and learn it inside out." I did. I've always felt like I owed Art Bell some credit for sparking a flame in me.
Anyway, streamlink is free all weekend. IF you are up late, why not check it out. Even when it is very bad, it is horribly funny at least.
