Archive for the ‘Common-Place Book’ Category
Black is White
Expanding on the tradition of death-bed conversions: WASHINGTON, April 8 – Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics
Scholarly Attention
INCLUDING its three seasonal specials, the [Boston] Globe publishes about 150 full pages a year filled with stories about high school teams, their games, scores, summaries, prospects, and interviews, often with pictures of coaches and athletes. At the same time, high school academic achievement is almost completely ignored. Science fair winners, AP scholars, Emerson Prize […]
So Many Threats
"It didn't occur to me that there would be as many threats, and I do receive them," [Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day] O'Connor said [in remarks at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland]. "I don't think the harsh rhetoric helps. I think it energizes people who are a little off base to take actions that maybe […]
The Papal Legacy
But John Paul II's most lasting legacy to Catholicism will come from the episcopal appointments he made. In order to have been named a bishop, a priest must have been seen to be absolutely opposed to masturbation, premarital sex, birth control (including condoms used to prevent the spread of AIDS), abortion, divorce, homosexual relations, married […]
Since When?
Over the past two weeks, we have heard descriptions of the Constitution that bear no resemblance to the actual document or any of its relevant interpretations over the past 200 years. Since when does Congress tell the courts how to resolve a particular case? Since when do our national legislators single out one family to […]
We're Single. Really.
Once again, the fabulous Deb Price in the Detroit News: But [Deb Price's partner] Joyce never gets frustrated until she turns her attention to our taxes — hers and mine, that is. To my mother, our mortgage company, our credit union, American Express, my minister and even our Spanish teacher, we're a unit –blended financially […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
Was Jesus That Way?
In a story by Elizabeth Day at the Telegraph News [UK], the "Rt Rev Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church of the United States" is quoted saying interesting things: In answer to a question from the congregation [attending his recent address at the Christ Church of Hamilton and Wenham in […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Splenetics
The Same Liberty?
We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do […]
That's a Lot of Big Macs!
While McDonald’s CEO Jack Greenberg makes a healthy $7,331 an hour, young people are toiling away, often for minimum wage, which hasn’t even kept pace with inflation. If it did, the federal minimum wage would be at $8.65 an hour, and if it was pegged to productivity, our lowest paid workers would be netting $16.55 […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
"Science" a Dirty Word?
Behold the British Press, willing to say what the American Media apparently prefer not to mention: For Bush, science is a dirty word In America's right-to-die controversy the facts were not allowed to get in the way of evangelical populism Admittedly, the piece was written by Tristram Hunt, a visiting professor of history at Arizona […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Melting Pyjamas
I just love reading The Scotsman. Get me to hospital, my pyjamas are melting Nicola Stow MELTING pyjamas and a brush with an alligator were among accidents which put almost a million Britons in hospital last year, figures revealed today. A host of bizarre incidents were littered in the statistics of accident and emergency admissions […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
To Win at Any Cost
They may not have the votes to make this happen. Many of the wisest Republicans are well aware that their leaders are playing a dangerous game and that they are doing it for frivolous reasons. The judicial nominees can easily be replaced. But the sense that there are certain rules that all must play by, […]
Cow State Hallucinations
Yet the media’s response to all of this nonsense [in the Left Behind books] has been remarkably polite. In America, of course, with commercial success comes a degree of cultural respectability. If millions of consumers succumb to a childish revenge fantasy that takes the Christ out of Christianity and treats the Bible as a cosmic […]
To Be Gay Every Day
Looking into the Schiavo affair, Arthur Silber (in "Necrophiliac Spiritualism") discovers the hidden (alas, not unexpected) homophobia, and then quotes Dick Cheney: You want to know something? Bush and the Religious Krazies brigade that he’s unleashed have made gay-bashing so common—and so “respectable”—in America that my day is never complete until I feel I’ve been […]
Trading Places
I think the Democratic campaign philosophy in the next few elections should be obvious: smaller government. A government that is more responsible, less intrusive, more humble. Under the Bush administration, the national debt has escalated alarmingly; we have become aggressively unilateralist abroad, alienating people worldwide; protections of the privacy and human rights of citizens have […]
Cliches Fell
By late Sunday, when the debate [on the Terri Schiavo bill] had reached the House of Representatives, Barney Frank stood almost alone in opposing the bill. Cliches suffered. Here was an openly gay Democrat, the Massachusetts liberal of all Massachusetts liberals, defending the Founding Fathers, federalism and the American tradition of keeping the government's nose […]
Fat Hairy Tinkerbelles
PZ Myers writes a fabulous blog called "Pharyngula". One day, he wrote an enthusiastic critique of a rather stupid opinion piece in the Washington Post: "Uncritical journalism from the WaPo". This isn't about that at all. This is entirely about an off-hand comment that he made in the piece: Intelligent Design creationism is a fat […]
A Simple Test
I propose that every Republican politician be asked this simple question: Do you believe that the earth was created less than 10,000 years ago? In other words, is everything we have learned about the age of the universe, our planet, and the life thereon nothing but an elaborate hoax? They'll have two choices. First, they […]
Their Dismembered Remains
Pigeons strutted happily among their dismembered remains. [Ghost of a Flea, by James Sallis, p. 101.] The meaning is assisted, somewhat, by the preceding sentences: I'd gone across for coffee and doughnuts…. We'd both wisely foregone the doughnuts after tasting them. Pigeons strutted happily…. I'd say it makes a strong case for using the semi-colon.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Such Language!
"Old Jewish Men Confused"
[NYTimes] Scott McClellan, the press secretary to President Bush, called on you and allowed you to ask questions on a nearly daily basis. What, exactly, is your relationship with him? [Jeff Gannon] I was just another guy in the press room. Did I try to curry favor with him? Sure. When he got married, I […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Splenetics