Archive for the ‘Common-Place Book’ Category
Episcopal Presiding Bishop's Statement on Ugandan Situation
We recently mentioned the deplorable attempt by factions in Uganda to pass a bill that would impose unconscionable punishment on gay and lesbian people. We also mentioned, all too briefly, how the fires of homophobia are being fanned by American anti-gay forces: some radical evangelical clergy and related elements of the so-called "ex-gay" political movement, […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Moyers on Obama's Afghanistan Strategy
Sometimes I say I'm a Bill Moyers groupie, but I'm thinking that might not be quite accurate. "Groupie" suggests that I idolize Mr. Moyers and laud whatever comes out of his mouth because I am enamored of his celebrity. However, that's not really the case. I listen to Bill Moyers and hear a great deal […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events, Plus Ca Change...
Julian Bond at National Equality March 2009
No people of good will should oppose marriage equality. We have some real and serious problems in this country; same-sex marriage is not one of them. Since when did we believe that trust, loyalty, and love are bad things? –Julian Bond, Chairman, NAACP, speaking on 11 October 2009 to the National Equality March in Washington, […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events, Faaabulosity
The March Toward "Justice for All"
I’ve seen thousands of people naked. I have inspected their insides and outsides, felt their pain and sometimes their souls, and after all that, I can see we all are pretty much the same. That equality in human essence makes it impossible for me to see why gay people are not allowed the right of […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events, Faaabulosity
65% Still Favor Government-Run Health Insurance
So: "57. Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan – something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get – that would compete with private health insurance plans?" Despite all the propaganda that has eroded this figure since Obama has been in office, 65% still […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Moyers on Universal Health Care as Moral Imperative
Bill Moyers speaks my mind in a discussion with Bill Maher on health-care reform: "We're all in the same boat." That would be the metaphor that would change this [health-care "debate"], that's the moral message that America would send by adopting health care as a human need, which everybody should have access to. The moral […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events, Personal Notebook
"It Should be Stopped"
I dislike taking an entire blog posting and quoting it; I hope I can be forgiven. I see no need to amplify this remark with any comment on the history of intellectual achievement in senators from Pennsylvania. "I am tired of all this thing called science. … We have spent millions in that sort of […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Laughing Matters
Dingell on Racism & Health-Care Townhall Mobs
Michigan congressman John Dingell on "Coundown", with Keith Olbermann (segment on "Racism in the Public Square", c. 12 August 2009), explained that the staged "disruptions" at health-care town halls–his in particular–reminded him of a previous experience: Well, the last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the Civil Rights […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Open Mind vs. Empty Head
For reasons that we don't need to detail, I was doing some online research today on the topic of perpetual-motion machines (PMMs). This bit that I quote below is an excerpt from his answer to the question given, but it conveyed the idea pretty succinctly, I thought. As you might imagine, being an atheistic, gay […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
What Gentlemen Fought Over
Yes, a woman. Gentlemen didn't fight over men in those days. –Cary Grant as Victor, explaining the immediate cause of an historic duel, from the 1961 movie "The Grass is Greener".
In the World of Linguistic Peevery
In the world of linguistic peevery, there are several levels of hell. [Arnold Zwicky, "Prejudices, egocentrism, impositions, and intransigence", Language Log, 21 April 2009.] I don't really feel the need to explain, beyond saying that I found the sentence great fun to read and I thought I'd like to read it again sometime.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Such Language!
Iowa Promotes Families
If it weren’t for Iowa, my family may never have existed, and this gay, biracial New Yorker might never have been born. In 1958, when my mother, who was white, and father, who was black, wanted to get married in Nebraska, it was illegal for them to wed. So they decided to go next door […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
Julian Bond: Gay Rights are Human Rights
Julian Bond is the chairman of the NAACP. For decades I have been impressed by his thoughtful deliberation and eloquence. He has never been more impressive than in the speech he gave to the Human Rights Campaign's Los Angeles Dinner on 14 March 2009, recorded in the video below. When I started listening to it, […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
Attenborough on Creationism
Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance." Telling the magazine that […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Reich on Reaganomics: Thoroughly Tested, Thoroughly Wrong
The basic idea of Reaganomics was that the economy grows from the top down. Lower taxes on the wealthy make them work harder and invest more, and the benefits trickle down to everyone else. Rarely in economic history has a theory been more tested in the real world and proven so wrong. In point of […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Who Opposes Marriage Equality?
It is clear from the polls that the vast majority of those who oppose same-sex marriage and civil unions do so for religious reasons, and freely admit to this explanation. Indeed, the groups most vehemently opposed to civil unions are white Evangelicals (29% to 67%) and those who claim that they attend church every week […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
"Too Big to Fail", et al.
Specious elements of the current financial crisis I'd like to see laid to rest: We have to pay high bonus to retain the top talent–but that talent is by now clearly untalented since that "top talent" precipitated the current crisis We give the money to the financial institutions ("nationalize the risk") and let the experts, […]
In: All, Briefly Noted, Common-Place Book
Carol on Porn vs. Religion
…a lifetime of sexual repression can really screw you up. There's no evidence whatsoever that anyone, of any age, has ever been harmed by seeing porn, but there's ample evidence that a repressive religious upbringing is instrumental in turning children into sexually violent adults. I don't care if your kid turns into someone who likes […]
Park's "Physics Plan" Diet
Conservation of Energy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics are probably the two most important concepts in physics that have thwarted the aspirations and claims of inventors and charlatans for decades. Someday we hope that the public will understand this. WEIGHT-LOSS: SCIENCE CONFIRMS THE “PHYSICS PLAN“. Atkins, Pritikin, Jennie Craig, South Beach, NutriSystem . . […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Reich on Income Distribution
The incomes of the top 1 percent have soared for thirty years while median wages have slowed or declined in real terms. As economists Thomas Piketty and Emanuel Saez have shown, in the 1970s the top-earning 1 percent of Americans took home 8 percent of total income; as recently as 1980 they took home 9 […]
In: All, Briefly Noted, Common-Place Book, Current Events