Frank Rich vs Melissa Etheridge Re: Rick Warren

Face it, people, we can't split the world down the middle. We can't exclude everyone we are not in lockstep with. We're not talking about Charles Manson here. If humans are going to move forward as a race we have to rub off on each other a bit. I know, it's risky--no,its not risky--its smart. We are up to this. We have to take the chances that may bring us a little closer.
Rick Warren may turn out to be another Hitler (but wouldn't that be giving him rather too much credit?). He may be another smooth talking snake oil salesman (its not like they aren't under every rock in D.C.).
I don't think that Obama's move in bringing him in is another airy-fairy attempt at reaching out--I think its a calculated move to start being involved with each other on a serious level.
We can't continue the cowardly luxury of the black-white thinking, red-blue politics or theist-nontheist drivel we've been indulging in because we're afraid of the slippery slope factor.
We can't continue to participate in the debasing trivialities of political maneuvering--at least not all the time.
It may be a disaster and it may not.
The risk here is that we will continue the red-faced pointing and blaming of the other and miss completely the opportunity to quit our infantile self-importance and step out of timidity and fear and stupidity.
We are intelligent grownups; we are capable of hazarding the hope of possibility and of dealing with the consequences in a responsible manner.
I give you Frank Rich and Melissa Etheridge .

Different and edifying.

43 Degrees

Yes, finally the snow and ice has turned to rain. We're having some flooding and power outages but that's OK.Here in the lowlands around Puget Sound it rarely snows and because of that communities don't spend a lot of money on snow removal equipment.I would rant about that for a while but I'm so happy to step outside and see some pavement that I'll just shut up and be grateful.

The News:

*Israel is bombing Hamas targets after an unfortunate bout of rocket fire. I defer to Catherine 927 to expound on this--I'm too giddy today to be serious or down-hearted. It is the little things, isn't it?

*Pakistani troops are moving on the Indian border.

*Bernard Madoff has stolen Everyone's money.

*Rush Limbaugh is promoting a song about Barack the Magic Negro--when you can't think of anything intelligent to say (or if your listeners aren't intelligent). Regress!

*And zeppelins are making a comeback.Click on the links below for some very solid basic information regarding: 1.technology and 2. human nature. I'm going out to play in the rain.
Local politics?
Responsible living

Tea to the rescue!

Hello. I am cold and still a little sick from my sinus issue. I fell asleep for the brief window of time that my husband was home and awake. Now he is asleep and I am mourning the fact that I barely even said hello to him. He does look comfortable though.

A lot of the snow has melted but there is still several inches out there. It does look like we'll make it to the store tomorrow, Mom.

My friend's baby is sick and in the hospital with a heart issue. I just read their blog updating us all on her progress. It looks good for her but I feel all negative today. Babies are sick. My other friend has lung cancer. I've got green stuff coming out of my head. At least I have always got tea to cheer me up.

I did not listen to the news at all today or read any email either. I'm over the news for a little while. Except for sports, of course. I cleaned my house a little bit. I paid the bills and realized I missed the due date on my second bill this month. That is so unlike me. I chalk it all up to the illness and the feeling of unreality this month has carried. I mean, all this damn snow and the freezing temps. It's like living in a square state.

I need to go buy one last Christmas present for someone who shall remain nameless. Then I need to do some wrapping and I'm all ready for the family gathering. I'm keeping the dinner itself pretty simple but I did decide on a new potato recipe. You get some Yukon Gold potatoes and heat up a skillet really good with oil in it. Then you lay the potatoes in there whole, browning on both sides. After they have a good color you pour in chicken stock half way up the taters. You then let them cook until soft and give them a little squish so they crack open and soak up some of the thickened chicken stock. Sounds good, huh? Saw it on Rachel Ray, whom I usually don't watch. She said she got it from Jacques Pepin.

Love, Catherine.

Cabin Fever

69 Rabbits Discovered

In One-bedroom Apartment

During Recent Eviction In Illinois.

Welsh Rabbit (WB). Binge-eater, Emerson Llewellyn, 56, says he can't eat another bite of pizza or birthday cake (he loves the butter cream frosting). His mother, in Wales, had recently sent him her traditional recipe for WB and Mr. Llewellyn developed a craving for the delicacy.
What disturbed his neighbors was the smell from the burned sauce bechamel. "Just never could make a proper sauce" Mr Emerson told reporters "but I don't think it was the sauce that smelled so bad though--I think it might've been the 50 pounds of cheddar cheese--I couldn't fit it in the refrigerator."
Illinois Hazmat said that the clean up was a piece of cake seeing how the ingredients were natural and biodegradable. The Fire Dept and its crack hazmat team were relieved at the relative ease of the job. They'd recently spent time at the Governor's Mansion. "That's going to stink for a long time." said their spokesperson.

For more information see the writings of Ambrose Bierce.

I Got You Beat.

That's me in my front yard. In the words of Clyde Bruckmann (I think that was his name.), "I'm not smiling; I'm wincing." Oh, and the sun isn't shining either.

But you did a good thing. Your post of 'Snuggs' actually made me laugh.

I feel bad for you guys out there. 16 degrees, huh? That's going to be tough on the plants. It'll be a bad year for camellias.

We're languishing around 30 degrees. That cold, gray, mucky eight-inches-of-wet-snow-that's-glued-to-all-the-tree-branches-and-power-lines kind of 30 degrees. I'm just waiting for the lights to go out.

I haven't been reading the news. I haven't been reading my email. (Well, I read a few. Yours, of of course.) I woke up to 102 unread emails today. Hardly any of them were spam. I think I'll be declaring email bankruptcy - just deleting everything and starting anew.

I have been reading mysteries. A book a day for the last three days. Too bad the only mysteries I ever buy are set in Edinburgh or North Yorkshire. Or Reyjavik. I should order some books where the murders take place on tropical islands or in hot, humid jungles. I know I have a Carl Hiaasen around here that I haven't read yet. I'd even read a Kathy Reichs, as long as it wasn't one of the ones set in Montreal or Nunavut.

This isn't a proper blog post. It's just a letter. I'll go onto the NY Times site and see if I can come up with something real. By the way, your post about John McCain was spot on! I always knew that he had at least two or three people wandering around inside his head. It's nice to see that the good one has come back for a bit. I hope that one sticks around awhile.

- Nanook

Good Morning from Frozen Tacoma, Wa

This is a photo of Snuggs the Cat standing in the street outside my apartment. Every thing's changed here. 16 degrees. NOAA is reporting the Big One for us--we could get 4 inches of snow.
Really, the PNW has no clue. The last time it went to zero degrees here was in 1949--they still talk about it!!
Well, we'll see what happens. I'm bringing extra underwear to work tonight just in case something really happens.
And now the news of the day:
The Beautiful Spanish Dancer was here the other day and pointed out that since the Madoff Incident there are a lot more people in the middle class. We're back to the 3-tiered system, haves, havenots and have-somes. Good news.
She also pointed out that with all these billions of dollars rolling around no one has actually seen any. It's all in cyberspace, unbacked by any precious metals or even green stamps for those of you who remember. And since it's all imaginary anyway why can't we reshuffle it to the schools and the hospitals and the shelters. We knew this already but isn't it crazy that you can buy a chateau in France or starve to death in Rawanda all using imaginary money? What is the Euro based on? Is it actually backed by something? It must be because it's the global standard now isn't it? This is the news and I'm asking you the questions! It's a wacky world.
In other news the NYT has this:
"A hydra-headed system of oversight currently finds the Department of Homeland Security answerable to 16 committees and 40 subcommittees in the House, and 14 committees and 18 subcommittees in the Senate."
Well no wonder we've had no major attacks of terrorism since 9/11. We're terrorizing ourselves financially--Al Queda knows this and as far as the USA goes they just have to sit back and wait.

In science news PE Obama has selected his team of advisers for science and technology: He says:
"Because the truth is that promoting science isn't just about providing resources - its about protecting free and open inquiry. Its about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. Its about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when its inconvenient - especially when its inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as President of the United States - and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work." He said a lot more than that and it was all very sensible --you can probably see it on You Tube. It will be a great thing if we can learn to use real science not just responsibly--but AT ALL. Right now, as I mentioned in a previous post, we use sci/tech for toys and one upmanship. Like fire and like water, sci/tech can be a really bad thing or a really good thing depending on how we apply it. It will probably stay that way but let's try to lean toward the constructive shall we? This is a tremendous opportunity. And...
It will also be a vast relief to many of us when the USA stops looking backwards. Lately I keep hearing comparisons to 1930, 1968, 1974. STOP THE PRESSES: It's always good to be aware of your history but it is imperative to look hard at the present--it's where we ARE. We're like kids running with scissors or jumping off the garage roof. What you choose not to look at---what you don't understand, will cripple you.
On a lighter note its -3 degrees in North Bend--about 12 miles east of Seattle. The weather people on the radio are going insane. (run,run for your lives!) Bread and beer are selling well (stocks are up).
GWB just said he was going to shield the American people from a terrible economic blow (?)
Well, keep thinking America.
I'm going out for beer.

The Truth about John McCain

This is the truth about John McCain as I see it. There can be no other explantion for what happened to the McCain campaign in the last several months before the election.

McCain struck everyone--even Obama supporters --as a decent, sensible, hard working politician who kept the people in mind. The man knew hard times, even though he has Cindy now and more homes than he can count at his advanced age. He also had a sense of humor that even we democrats appreciated.

Then came August 2008: What happened to John? He started telling the most amazing whoppers. He began wandering--in his speeches and while he was waiting to speak--moseying around the stage checking the drapes and the chairs--ignoring what was actually going on. We were all waiting for him to take a header off the dais a la Dole. And then there was the Palin incident--come on, John McCain, in another scenario, might make a pass at the tart-like valley-girl but intellectually they were in different dimensions. At that point--although the campaign became more colorful and lively--kind of like a freak show, it was over.

Most of us in the USA, although we see things very differently, at least have a crumb or two of brains in our heads, and we could see that the whole Republican process was FUBR.

THEN, Obama won the election and poof! Abracadabra, the old John threw off his clown outfit and emerged the statesman we once knew.

It's my opinion that John McCain looked at his republican party and thought to himself--'how can I bring these turkeys down?' As he saw it he had to be crazier than the craziest among them-- and he did a stellar job.

John McCain won. He was alone in that voting booth...and

...John McCain voted for Obama.

Melancholy

I know that there are men out there who get depressed and I feel for them but the fact is that women pretty much have the market cornered. I always wondered--and still do--why is there a depression gene? What good does it do?

I have the gene as does my sister and daughter and son--my mom had it as well and goodness knows how many others in the family. We all fight to stay on the safe side of the half empty glass. I've been told that it's the sadder but wiser syndrome, if you can see life too clearly, well, of course, you feel like crap.

There's some truth in that. It's also true that humans have had the fun bred out of them. We're happy until we're born and then we're stuck with people who have no idea how to raise a child, have no money, don't love each other or there's a war on or a depression (ha!). We're like birds tied to the earth--there's something else we should be doing. We've been sold a bill of goods at the molecular level.
God as Joker: 'See that beautiful tree with all the fruit? You can't have any.' See? Right from the start it's all been a practical joke. Well, we depressed people are mad as hell and as soon as we can get up the energy we won't be taking it anymore!

From the Oubliette

I haven't written anything in too long. Just can't seem to find the impetus. I suppose I'm depressed, but when I went to look for an image to illustrate this post, and typed 'Depression' into Google Images, all I came up with were pictures of people crying.

That wouldn't be accurate. I don't feel sad. I'm not all teary and weepy. I almost wish that I could cry. I just feel like....nothing. I have mental paralysis.

At times like this, my whole physical nature changes. Instead of being made of flesh and bone, I'm made of guilt and regret. ( With a little apathy and irritation thrown into the mix. ) And I can't see color. I mean, I can tell whether a pepper is red or green, but the color doesn't reach me. In fact, that's how I can tell when I'm about to ascend from the pit. It usually happens when I'm driving. Suddenly, I'll notice a shimmer of light off the water or the flash of a bluejay's wing or a cardinal in flight, and because of the way the color jumps out at me, I know I'm getting better.

These pale, blue funks usually only last less than a week, and I've been dwelling here for at least three days now. No color excites my eye, no music catches my ear. No book interests me enough that I don't put it down after the first few pages. It's nearly impossible to get out of the house, except to go and sit with Louise, who, I suspect, is in a deeper blue funk than I am, poor old girl.

I wrote a letter to all the people I know at the German Club, telling them that, for personal reasons (none of them serious or amusing) I would be unavailable for the next few days. I know that a few of them do read this blog, so now they know why.

It's like I'm homesick for a place I've never been, or lonely for a person I've never known. It's like I'm waiting for something to happen, but without much hope that it will happen.I feel like that old toy, Mr. Machine, and that my wind-up mechanism is winding down.

Kurt is so good. Any other person wouldn't put up with this. They'd nag at me to stop being such a baby. And they'd be right. But Kurt just asks, "Is there anything I can do for you, Hon?", and looks worried.

Maybe I should take a Vivarin. That would make me nervous. It would start up that internal vibration that makes me think a hive of bees has taken up residence in my thorax. It might 'jump start' me into action.

Me, me, me. What a schlump.

- Me, poopy.


EDIT: Two hours later: The Vivarin did NOTHING!

December 17th--I can't believe it!!

We are wussies here in the PNW. It really never snows or gets cold but its been in the 'teens and twenties here for the past couple of days and last night there was a dusting of snow.
See!
It's 30 degrees right now but I think this is supposed to be the high for the day.
It feels like Christmas--I may hang some lights or bake some muffins --wow, that's not like me at all.

If you want a good muffin recipe use the one on the back (or side) of the All-Bran cereal box. It's easy to adjust the recipe so that its not so good for you and you can add golden raisins and chopped walnuts or anything you like, you can also dust the muffin tops with white decorating sugar (big and coarse) just before you put it in the oven--the tops will be extra sweet and crunchy.

I'm going to go read the newspaper now and have a cup of coffee--then I'll post something depressing about the plethora of not so smooth criminals emerging in the political world just so we can finish 2008 on a low note.

December 16th! Can you Believe it?

I'm not feeling well today and although there are tons of things to write about I'm just going to post some pictures today. There's no theme involved--for some reason I just like them. I took some of the photos and others were stolen. The photo of the crane with the box-like item hanging from it was taken by my son-in-law--he was 'flying' the the port-a-potty to a more convenient location. Talk to you tomorrow.

For now...

...on religion belongs to the illustrious L. Margaret Kampp, my beloved and incisive sister:

"Religion has had it's finger in every pie that it could lay it's greedy, divisive, irrational and POLITICAL hands on. That's what we have to put a stop to. Religion can no longer be allowed to dictate national policy, or decide which books we can read and which books should be banned or burned. We are a civil society, duty-bound to use reason, evidence and precedence to govern ourselves. (I'm talking about the USA here. Taking on any more would be biting off more than I could chew.) Religions are constructs of man, designed to raise high the elite and repress the rest. And I CAN label myself as anti-religion.I'm not the thought police. I would never attempt to coax or coerce others into accepting my status of an anti-religionist as their own. I just require that they stay out of my face with their religion, on both a personal and national level.Here Endeth the Lesson.:

Another question regarding recession-driven worship

"Bad times are good for evangelical churches.
“It’s a wonderful time, a great evangelistic opportunity for us,” said the Rev. A. R. Bernard, founder and senior pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York’s largest evangelical congregation, where regulars are arriving earlier to get a seat. “When people are shaken to the core, it can open doors.”"
Shaken to the core? Which core? The one where you beg for mercy to the spirit in the sky? Why do we rush to church when our portfolios hit the skids? What would your parents say to you if you rushed home everytime your finances disappeared in a puff of smoke?
The little-noticed study began receiving attention from some preachers in September, when the stock market began its free fall. With the swelling attendance they were seeing, and a sense that worldwide calamities come along only once in an evangelist’s lifetime, the study has encouraged some to think big.
“I found it very exciting, and I called up that fellow to tell him so,” said the Rev. Don MacKintosh, a Seventh Day Adventist televangelist in California who contacted Dr. Beckworth a few weeks ago after hearing word of his paper from another preacher. “We need to leverage this moment, because every Christian revival in this country’s history has come off a period of rampant greed and fear. That’s what we’re in today — the time of fear and greed.”
Well, the Copper Bottomed Bitches are against fear and greed. It leaves you open to exploitation by any Big Daddy that comes along with a comforting message. Is that what Evangelicals provide? Comfort, companionship, maybe some good practical advice--straight from God.
And why don't the old-line Protestant and Catholic Churches grow during periods of recession? It could be that they don't fill the fearful with the comforts they require (the article cited in yesterday's post bears this out. See here.) Neither do the nonbelievers (provide comfort, that is). We'll just hand you a copy of "Your Money or Your Life" by Robin,Dominguez & Tilford and tell you to get started.
Maggie, help me here.

Timely but sad...

Look at this! It's an article about how much church attendance is growing since the Wall Street Big Dive.

Maggie got it in One!

If you don't know what to do and your savings is a just a memory and your SUV could be repossessed--turn to Jesus.

I'll write more when I'm rested.

Hope for the Non-Aligned

Rays of Hope from Hermana, Margurite the Fantastique:

TiaHermanaMaggie said...
According to this article in The Washington Post, "Only 6 percent of people over 60 have no faith in God, and one in four adults ages 18 to 22 describe themselves as having no faith. (That's 25 percent! Yay!)Javier Sanchez-Yoza, 21, a biology major at George Mason University, is a former born-again Christian who gave up his belief in God two years ago and is starting an atheist club at school. He turned atheist after growing skeptical of Christian friends' arguments for creationism."I think that Religion is a leftover from humanity's childhood. 50,000 years ago we were filled with questions; Why does it get dark at night? What are those lights in the night sky? What happens to us after we die? And, of course, HOW IS BABY FORMED? We didn't begin to have the tools or the technology to answer those questions. The answers were beyond our reach.I don't think it's worrisome that non-believers are having less children. I don't know a lot of non-believers, because they're kind of thin on the ground. But NONE of the non-believers I know had parents who themselves did NOT believe.Disbelief, skepticism, and incredulity are the products of a good education and a 'grown-up mind. Lots of people will never 'grow up' to the extent that they're are able to abandon the fairy tales and superstitions that sustain them.I think we have to recruit rational non-believers from the ranks of those who are beginning to be exposed to history, science and technology. You have to be old enough to support your skepticism with data. A three-year old can't be an Atheist (though it WOULD be nice if the three-year old wasn't having religious dreck poured into her head along with stories about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny).
December 12, 2008 10:12 AM

It would probably be a good idea for us free-wheeling types to just set a good example and keep bringing the rational and humanistic to the fore a la Sam Harris. That means we can't separate ourselves from the public at large. (see Hermana's previous post of December 7th regarding Atheists getting all clubby and having picnics and potlucks and such and giving themselves cute monikers denoting their non-believer status) No monikers, no clubs, no T-shirts, just get out there and live -- go to church even--and when asked tell them you love the companionship and the singing--you're smart, you can think of something nice to say.

Whatever you do--don't tell them we're infiltrating and recruiting.

Oh. Ye of Little Faith! Listen Up!

It's time to loosen up, hunker down and

GET IT ON.


See this article from More Intelligent Life




Just why are the non-religious not producing? Is sex not as thrilling if it's not a sin? Most people cling to the religion they were raised in (so the article says & I think it's true) and people of religious belief tend to have more children therefore religions are growing.
This is a real conundrum. Pretty soon we, the nonpartisan, will be extinct. So, all you unaffiliated of childbearing age better start making some moves.

The Governor from Illinois...et al. Just a thought.

There's an article by Gail Collins in the NYT today.
Gail spoofs the corruption of the powerful and gets some thought- provoking comments. Read it.
The power and isolation of office does a job on our public officials. Add to that the fact that you have to be at least a little screwy, if not a megalomaniac, to want such a position in the first place. It's hard to keep to the high ground when you're surrounded by aides and lackeys and hangers-on, all grabbing at you and expecting their due for supporting you & maybe you weren't looking for the high ground anyway.
What are the citizens to do? We aren't exactly sterling characters ourselves.
Shall we rely on the Journalists to watch and report on the devious? That didn't work with GWB--and journalists are prey to big-headed power plays themselves. And then there are all those bizzaro episodes like the Spitzer Affair.
Reformers and the Righteous and the Downright Insane.
We're surrounded.

Fugue State

Gypsy Jean and I went to Seattle yesterday to spend money and go to Benaroya Hall for a Grand Sing Along with the Seattle Symphony Chorus. It was not exactly the experience we expected. Firstly, the Chorus was excellent, as usual. Secondly, about 40% of the seats were empty which I had never seen before and lastly the Watjen Concert Organ at the Hall was used to great effect to instill the atmosphere of the Solstice Season. But I had never heard a fugue before--except by Dr. Phibes and by Davy Jones at unrelated events.
Adeste Fidelis in fugue was played in a solo performance by the Hall's resident organist, Joseph Adam, a man of impeccable credentials & massive and diverse experience.
If you've never heard a fugue you'll want to read up on it first, otherwise you'll look at the person next to you and say 'is this a mistake?'
Not at all, a fugue is a contrapuntal (look it up)it is reputed to be the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint. To a neophyte it evokes dark childhood memories of Vincent Price as the madman at the keyboard. It is discordant and abrasive and mostly minor key. When heard unexpectedly it grabs you by the brain, spins you around and thumps you to the floor then jerks you up and shakes you, growling and screaming, until nausea arises, your eyes roll back in your head and all your points of reference are lost in the angry mists. To top this off we were in box seats 2 floors above the orchestra, clutching our seats and wondering if this kind of musical assault could trigger an earthquake. It didn't and the concert ended traditionally with the Alleluia Chorus from Handel's 'Messiah'.
On the whole a memorable experience but beware of fugues--they've been known to trigger flight and amnesia.

Warning!! I HAVE been drinking!

I was goofing around on Reddit today and found a post on the Golden Rule, which consisted of this image. (Click LINK for larger image.)

When I'm drinking, I tend toward hyperbole. So when I say that there have been, presently are and will be zillions of religions, you can reasonably take that number down to 'thousands'. (Or perhaps, tens of thousands.)

They can't all be right. And being willing to take your own life, and the lives of other people to prove the validity of your faith only proves that you are obsessed, single-minded and deluded; willing to waste the experience of life just to make an false and tragic point.

But then I look at this image. They're all saying the same thing! (Although the Unitarians, for whom I ordinarily have great respect, managed to make it sound like a corporate mission statement.) This declaration seems to be nearly universal. And I don't limit this to people of religious faith. Rational and moral non-believers would not argue against this being a good rule for living; a valid and true path to a fully civilized world.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions about why all these diverse religions have come up with very same idea. (My own opinion is that we are born with an innate sense of altruism, which is all too often overcome by fear, greed, insecurity and the desire for power.)

I shall now submit this to Reddit / Digg and be "down-modded into the perma-frost", as one Redditor so elegantly put it. There goes my 'Karma'.

- Maggie

HealthCare HeadsUp

Looking grim. Read this

The health care industry in America is going the way of banks and auto companies. Mis-management for fun and profit is taking it's toll. Too long, the CEO's and executives of non-profits have been taking huge salaries while they expand services and advertise these services to the public. Advertising is great as long as you've really got what you're shilling for but too often the building is built, furnished, stocked and opened to great fanfare while nurses, support staff and communication technology have been skimped on. Either they've been unwilling to spend the money on credentialed people, who are expensive and a liability, after all or they've been unable to find credentialed people who haven't been disenchanted or abused by the system and have called it quits. Healthcare is now a top heavy industry like any other. Two-tiered like all America is becoming. Haves and have nots. Just how many CEO's and Insurance companies can dance on the head of a pin?
Even an immediate and drastic change to healthcare policies won't stop what's happening now. The snowball is rolling and anyone who can't foot the bill for their own care is going down.