OK, I probably still am a democrat, but, the older I get, the more I begin to identify with the republican party. Here are two articles that explain why.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071101/NEWS/711010360/1006/NEWS
The University of Delaware has an orientation class that defines all whites in the U.S. as racists. Defines, no debate or deliberation of fact. Simply stated, you're white and American, therefore racist. I happen to work at a University and can vouch for the open hostility to SWAMs. You know, Straight White American Males.
http://www.colbsa.org/openrosters/ViewOrgPageLink.asp?LinkKey=12731&orgkey=1853
The openly gay Philadelphia City Solicitor has succeeded in getting the Boy Scouts evicted from the building they've occupied for 80 years. Not only a building they occupy but BUILT! Granted, they have a $1 lease from the city for the land. Like it or not the Supreme Court ruled the BSA a private institution with the right to set membership requirements. Philadelphia can kick the BSA out of the building but it won't stop the BSA from building young men of character.
The continued destruction of values and organizations that promote values will be the end of our nation.
So, if anybody from the DNC is reading, guess what. I'm a white 45 year-old man. I have a job, pay taxes, support my family, serve my community and church, and I VOTE. It's this type of New England politically correct stupidity that makes all the non-costal states red. Get a clue. For now, I guess I'm officially in support of Mike Huckabee.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Thursday, November 08, 2007
A few more articles
Links to a few more articles that highlight the current tension between free speech, patriotism, religion, and loyal opposition:
School Board decides to ignore Illinois state moment of silence law (Chicago Tribune)
Berwin's Morton West HS suspends and considers expelling protestors (www.chicagosuburbannews.com)
School Board decides to ignore Illinois state moment of silence law (Chicago Tribune)
Berwin's Morton West HS suspends and considers expelling protestors (www.chicagosuburbannews.com)
Protests, public speech, incivility
I know, I'm still being captain obvious. I wanted to post this essay from an email list called "sightings" that's run by the Martin Marty Center of the University of Chicago Divinity School. It's an interesting discussion about the intersection of freedom of speech, religion, jingoism, and grief. I think the "hate group" label may be to strong but the article made me think. Unfortunately they don't have it posted on the sightings web page yet so here it is in it's entirety:
Sightings 11/08/07
Public Wrongs and Rites
-- Barbra Barnett
There is a small church based in Topeka , Kansas , consisting primarily of a founder and his many children. Maybe you've heard of it. Members claim to have proclaimed their message in all fifty states: It is too late to pray for the good of the USA or the redemption of her inhabitants. We have ignored the mandate to repent and so we perish, increasing the population of hell with each death. Our sin? Bestowing societal acceptance on the "soul-damning, nation-destroying sodomite lifestyle." Those who "prance around yelling about the evils" of gay marriage are just as doomed; we are all to be punished for our nation's sin. God's wrath is manifest in the September 11th attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and other national tragedies. The most visible efforts of this group have been its demonstrations at soldiers' funerals, where members rejoice at American deaths on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan as God's retribution for our irredeemable corruption.
I hesitate to name the church, Westboro Baptist, here. Hate groups feed on publicity, and this group has received a lot of it in the past week. On October 31st a jury in a Baltimore federal district court ordered the church to pay $10.9 million to the father of a marine killed in Iraq for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress, after the group demonstrated outside the marine's funeral and posted disparaging statements about him on its website. The verdict will translate into little actual cash for the marine's family, as Westboro Baptist has few assets. But the church calculates the value of free publicity generated by the verdict at over $10.9 billion: They boast on their website that in less than twenty-four hours their words have spread to every corner of the earth.
This church's thirst for publicity and its legal battles raise important questions about the shape and scope of freedom of speech today. The activities of this group also raise questions about religious freedom, but First Amendment scholars focus on the speech question because any claims by Westboro Baptist most likely would be brought under the constitutional framework for dealing with public protests. Public discourse is the foundation of democratic society, and our society protects the rights of all voices to be heard, even those that are distasteful and offensive. First Amendment jurisprudence on free speech has struggled with the problem of hate groups and whether it is possible to disable their corrosive effect on public discourse without destroying robust public discussion.
When confronted with attempts by local jurisdictions to regulate public protests, the Supreme Court has prescribed content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions as the only constitutional method of restricting the assembly and speech of such groups. States cannot regulate the content of the message expressed. Several dozen states and the U.S. Congress have introduced laws restricting demonstrations at funerals, noting the importance of respecting families in their time of grief. However, constitutional scholars have expressed concern that such measures may exceed these content-neutral requirements, and may even restrict or favor speech on the basis of the point of view of the speaker. For example, if members of Westboro Baptist can be arrested for their activities while members of a family (or invited guests such as the Patriot Guard Riders) are free to counter-protest, with signs and songs proclaiming the patriotism of the deceased, the government unconstitutionally discriminates in favor of one side of the issue and against another.
If state criminal statutes that ban funeral protests are potentially unenforceable because they violate the U.S. constitution, then civil cases like the one brought against Westboro Baptist by the marine's family, that allege defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, can be seen as a sort of end-run around the constitutional restrictions. Thus, some scholars question whether the recent verdict will withstand constitutional scrutiny.
Hate groups such as this one take full advantage of the protections guaranteed to them by the U.S. constitution. However, in order for public discourse to serve as the foundation of democratic society all voices should be heard, muffled sobs as well as angry shouts. Whether the recent verdict against Westboro Baptist is eventually upheld or overturned, one thing is clear: The marketplace of ideas has exploded into a cacophonous din of voices, with little or no effort by participants to foster either civility or reasoned engagement with issues of public import. The result is the deterioration of a common forum wherein not only controversial convictions but also the solemnity and grief of public burial rites can be expressed.
Barbra Barnett is a PhD candidate in Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and received her JD from the George Washington Law School ('96). She is a Junior Fellow in the Martin Marty Center , and an adjunct professor in the Theology and Religion Department at Elmhurst College.
Sightings 11/08/07
Public Wrongs and Rites
-- Barbra Barnett
There is a small church based in Topeka , Kansas , consisting primarily of a founder and his many children. Maybe you've heard of it. Members claim to have proclaimed their message in all fifty states: It is too late to pray for the good of the USA or the redemption of her inhabitants. We have ignored the mandate to repent and so we perish, increasing the population of hell with each death. Our sin? Bestowing societal acceptance on the "soul-damning, nation-destroying sodomite lifestyle." Those who "prance around yelling about the evils" of gay marriage are just as doomed; we are all to be punished for our nation's sin. God's wrath is manifest in the September 11th attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and other national tragedies. The most visible efforts of this group have been its demonstrations at soldiers' funerals, where members rejoice at American deaths on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan as God's retribution for our irredeemable corruption.
I hesitate to name the church, Westboro Baptist, here. Hate groups feed on publicity, and this group has received a lot of it in the past week. On October 31st a jury in a Baltimore federal district court ordered the church to pay $10.9 million to the father of a marine killed in Iraq for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress, after the group demonstrated outside the marine's funeral and posted disparaging statements about him on its website. The verdict will translate into little actual cash for the marine's family, as Westboro Baptist has few assets. But the church calculates the value of free publicity generated by the verdict at over $10.9 billion: They boast on their website that in less than twenty-four hours their words have spread to every corner of the earth.
This church's thirst for publicity and its legal battles raise important questions about the shape and scope of freedom of speech today. The activities of this group also raise questions about religious freedom, but First Amendment scholars focus on the speech question because any claims by Westboro Baptist most likely would be brought under the constitutional framework for dealing with public protests. Public discourse is the foundation of democratic society, and our society protects the rights of all voices to be heard, even those that are distasteful and offensive. First Amendment jurisprudence on free speech has struggled with the problem of hate groups and whether it is possible to disable their corrosive effect on public discourse without destroying robust public discussion.
When confronted with attempts by local jurisdictions to regulate public protests, the Supreme Court has prescribed content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions as the only constitutional method of restricting the assembly and speech of such groups. States cannot regulate the content of the message expressed. Several dozen states and the U.S. Congress have introduced laws restricting demonstrations at funerals, noting the importance of respecting families in their time of grief. However, constitutional scholars have expressed concern that such measures may exceed these content-neutral requirements, and may even restrict or favor speech on the basis of the point of view of the speaker. For example, if members of Westboro Baptist can be arrested for their activities while members of a family (or invited guests such as the Patriot Guard Riders) are free to counter-protest, with signs and songs proclaiming the patriotism of the deceased, the government unconstitutionally discriminates in favor of one side of the issue and against another.
If state criminal statutes that ban funeral protests are potentially unenforceable because they violate the U.S. constitution, then civil cases like the one brought against Westboro Baptist by the marine's family, that allege defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, can be seen as a sort of end-run around the constitutional restrictions. Thus, some scholars question whether the recent verdict will withstand constitutional scrutiny.
Hate groups such as this one take full advantage of the protections guaranteed to them by the U.S. constitution. However, in order for public discourse to serve as the foundation of democratic society all voices should be heard, muffled sobs as well as angry shouts. Whether the recent verdict against Westboro Baptist is eventually upheld or overturned, one thing is clear: The marketplace of ideas has exploded into a cacophonous din of voices, with little or no effort by participants to foster either civility or reasoned engagement with issues of public import. The result is the deterioration of a common forum wherein not only controversial convictions but also the solemnity and grief of public burial rites can be expressed.
Barbra Barnett is a PhD candidate in Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and received her JD from the George Washington Law School ('96). She is a Junior Fellow in the Martin Marty Center , and an adjunct professor in the Theology and Religion Department at Elmhurst College.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Lessons from Katrina or differences in socio-economic status?
Here's an interesting set of articles from cnn.com. They talk about the volunteerism happening in the SoCal fires, the amount of supplies available, and the general lack of anger/chaos caused by the evacuations, etc.
So how do we interpret this information? At one level we might think that FEMA learned valuable lessons from the Katrina/Rita disaster in New Orleans. The crisis, while definitely intense, is probably less intense than Katrina. Many critical services (water, electricity, etc.) are still functional in SoCal. Although I'm seeing estimates of over 1 million evacuees, the number is still smaller than New Orleans. That said, it also appears that people were more amenable to the evacuation orders in SoCal and perhaps better prepared since major fires swept the area only a few years ago.
More cynically we might think that FEMA (and the U.S. and State Governments in general) responded more quickly to a crisis in a state with a popular republican governor. Even more cynically might think they responded more quickly to caucasions in distress in a state with a popular republican governor.
I suspect the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. FEMA likely did take lessons learned from Katrina and apply them to SoCal. The Bush administration probably did respond more quickly to SoCal than Katrina (but I'll withhold judgement as to why/how). I do believe the situation in SoCal is less intense than the situation was in New Orleans, however, I also believe there is a good argument to be made that the people evacuated have taken better control of the situation they are in. I'll let you decide why.
So how do we interpret this information? At one level we might think that FEMA learned valuable lessons from the Katrina/Rita disaster in New Orleans. The crisis, while definitely intense, is probably less intense than Katrina. Many critical services (water, electricity, etc.) are still functional in SoCal. Although I'm seeing estimates of over 1 million evacuees, the number is still smaller than New Orleans. That said, it also appears that people were more amenable to the evacuation orders in SoCal and perhaps better prepared since major fires swept the area only a few years ago.
More cynically we might think that FEMA (and the U.S. and State Governments in general) responded more quickly to a crisis in a state with a popular republican governor. Even more cynically might think they responded more quickly to caucasions in distress in a state with a popular republican governor.
I suspect the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. FEMA likely did take lessons learned from Katrina and apply them to SoCal. The Bush administration probably did respond more quickly to SoCal than Katrina (but I'll withhold judgement as to why/how). I do believe the situation in SoCal is less intense than the situation was in New Orleans, however, I also believe there is a good argument to be made that the people evacuated have taken better control of the situation they are in. I'll let you decide why.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Amazing Images
Check out NASAs Earth Observatory for some amazing photographs. I went there to look at some satellite images of the fires but was drawn in by all the photographs. It's worth a few minutes to look around. While you are there, check out this primer on Global Warming.
Monday, October 22, 2007
So, you don't believe my comments about city slickers?
Here's a snippet of text from the "safety alert" system where I work:
"Avoid taking money out of your
wallet in the street, train, or bus.
Use discretion when walking or
talking with strangers.
Do not use headphones while
walking; they make you vulnerable to criminal intent."
OK, I admit it's all solid advice but, is this anyway to live? Why should adults live in fear of talking to each other?
"Avoid taking money out of your
wallet in the street, train, or bus.
Use discretion when walking or
talking with strangers.
Do not use headphones while
walking; they make you vulnerable to criminal intent."
OK, I admit it's all solid advice but, is this anyway to live? Why should adults live in fear of talking to each other?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
You might be a city-slicker
I've been thinking about life in the city for a while now. I grew up rural, moving to Chicago after college to "start my career." That was 16 years ago now. So, with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy here's my take on city life.
If you purchased a SUV with low-profile tires and spinning hub caps...you might be a city slicker.
If you purchased a SUV in a light color because it doesn't show dirt...you might be a city slicker.
If you drive across more than 2 lanes of of on-coming traffic to make a right-hand turn...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe honking your horn will clear a traffic jam...you might be a city slicker.
If you can stand at the intersection of two roads that have four different names and understand why...you might be a city slicker.
If somebody asks you how far away something is and you respond in minutes...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe a 3" pen knife poses a threat to society...you might be a city slicker.
If you eat meat but have never killed or cleaned your supper...you might be a city slicker.
If I have to explain to you that supper is the evening meal...you might be a city slicker.
If I have to explain what it means to "clean" your supper...you might be a city slicker.
If you've ever been told "if somebody walking toward you makes you uncomfortable, cross to the other side of the street"...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe gun-control laws will actually control unlawful users of guns...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe that plating and ambience can turn a $5 steak into a $50 meal...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe stopping behind a car that's stopped at a four-way gives you the right to go through the intersection...you might be a city slicker.
If you purchased a SUV with low-profile tires and spinning hub caps...you might be a city slicker.
If you purchased a SUV in a light color because it doesn't show dirt...you might be a city slicker.
If you drive across more than 2 lanes of of on-coming traffic to make a right-hand turn...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe honking your horn will clear a traffic jam...you might be a city slicker.
If you can stand at the intersection of two roads that have four different names and understand why...you might be a city slicker.
If somebody asks you how far away something is and you respond in minutes...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe a 3" pen knife poses a threat to society...you might be a city slicker.
If you eat meat but have never killed or cleaned your supper...you might be a city slicker.
If I have to explain to you that supper is the evening meal...you might be a city slicker.
If I have to explain what it means to "clean" your supper...you might be a city slicker.
If you've ever been told "if somebody walking toward you makes you uncomfortable, cross to the other side of the street"...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe gun-control laws will actually control unlawful users of guns...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe that plating and ambience can turn a $5 steak into a $50 meal...you might be a city slicker.
If you believe stopping behind a car that's stopped at a four-way gives you the right to go through the intersection...you might be a city slicker.
UCC Commercials
The "ejector" commercial was rejected by the networks again, but, here's a page with all the recent UCC commercials.
http://www.ucc.org/god-is-still-speaking/televison-ads.html
http://www.ucc.org/god-is-still-speaking/televison-ads.html
Friday, May 25, 2007
U-Haul sucks
I drive a Ford Explorer. Well, ok, technically it's my wife's vehicle but I'm going to be using it a bit this summer. We have a need to pull a small trailer this summer to haul around some Boy Scouts and their equipment. ( Just for claraity, only the equipment will be in the trailer. The boys will be in the truck.) Our troop doesn't have the money to purchase a trailer so we figured we'd go rent one for the week.
So, my loving wife calls the local U-Haul place to get a reservation. After she describes what she wants the guy on the other end of the phone tells her U-Haul doesn't rent to people who use Ford Explorers as the tow vehicle. WHAT???
I did a little research and apparently when people were running their Firestone tires flat on their Explorers, blowing them out and causing rollovers U-Haul decided to stop renting to Explorer owners. Never mind that you can rent if you are driving a Mercury. WHAT???
Anyway, U-Haul just lost what business I give them.
So, my loving wife calls the local U-Haul place to get a reservation. After she describes what she wants the guy on the other end of the phone tells her U-Haul doesn't rent to people who use Ford Explorers as the tow vehicle. WHAT???
I did a little research and apparently when people were running their Firestone tires flat on their Explorers, blowing them out and causing rollovers U-Haul decided to stop renting to Explorer owners. Never mind that you can rent if you are driving a Mercury. WHAT???
Anyway, U-Haul just lost what business I give them.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
A Walk in the Park
Took an hour today for a walk in the park to clear my head. A little snowy and icy but generally a beautiful late winter day.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Has it really been a year!?!?!?!?!?
Well, hard as it may seem, it has been almost a year since I posted anything to this blog. Since I haven't had an email pummelling I assume it's because nobody is reading this drivel but me. But, that's ok.
I've added a couple new links. We recently joined a UCC church in Yorkville so I've added links to http://www.ucc.org (the main denominational web site)and http://www.yorkville-ucc.org (my church web site). I also added a link to http://www.biggsville-upc.org which is the Church in which I grew up.
Since we got back from Disney last spring my life has been over run with a new job, scouting, and rediscovering (or at least attempting to rediscover) my faith. It promises to be an interesting journey.
I've added a couple new links. We recently joined a UCC church in Yorkville so I've added links to http://www.ucc.org (the main denominational web site)and http://www.yorkville-ucc.org (my church web site). I also added a link to http://www.biggsville-upc.org which is the Church in which I grew up.
Since we got back from Disney last spring my life has been over run with a new job, scouting, and rediscovering (or at least attempting to rediscover) my faith. It promises to be an interesting journey.
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