Saturday, July 05, 2003 The strategy behind Santorum Love
Jesus did not concern himself much with sexual sinning. When an adulterer was about to be stoned, he said let him who is without sin cast the first stone. Jesus was very much concerned about the suffering of poor people and in the Gospels Jesus continually talked about the need to help poor people and how rich people would have trouble getting into heaven. [I am putting no links here because any educated person talking about this should have read the Gospels, in English at least, and understand this point.] Nevertheless, from most non-Catholic American Christians, we hear very little about really helping the poor and lots about sexual matters. The current governor of Alabama is being a true follower of Jesus because on Christian principles Governor Riley is trying to radically change Alabama's tax structure to make it fair to the poor people. Unfortunately, the vast majority of American Christians are not helping him in this endeavor as they are too busy worrying about gay rights to be concerned about things that Jesus was really concerned about: poor people.
Because the supposed followers of Jesus are ignoring his continual deep concerns about the poor, on their own terms they are not being good Christians. Instead, in being so concerned with current sexual morality, they are playing out their sexual anxieities, their prejudices and their personal problems. Thus they should not be taken seriously in their rantings on sexual matters. Debating with them only encourages them. Some people who are tremendously hurting others are beneath argument as they don't deserve to be taken seriously as they are not even following their own principles. Instead they should be ridiculed. In this vein, I celebrate Dan Savage ridiculing Senator Santorum and naming the byproduct of a sex act after him.
This week Dan Savage has written another column on santorum and how to deal with it. Santorum thinks he is a hero to his Christian base by fighting the pagans, but the hip senatorial aides will snicker at him every time they see him because they will think of the grossness of santorum. Reporters interviewing him will be secretly laughing at him because in the back of their minds, they will see santorum. If we are lucky and the word survives, his children (if he has any) or other relatives like nieces and nephews will be snickered at in high school or college by those who know what the word means. Maybe this price will stop the next person from the vile act of gay-bashing. Gay-baiting supposed followers of Jesus who pander to their followers' sexual anxieties while ignoring that Jesus cared so much more about the poor people should have to pay a personal price for their political pandering as that might be the only way they will change. This is a crude method, and maybe a gross way of doing things. But it is neither stupid or vile. Santorum started the vileness, and like we have to do with santorum, we are just trying to clean up the mess.
Posted by Joseph,
9:37 AM
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Friday, July 04, 2003 Carlyle Group... Perhaps this would also be a good time to introduce a book on the Carlyle Group.
And articles here (Economist) and here (Guardian).
What's this about? From the Guardian article:
For 14 years now, with almost no publicity, the company has been signing up an impressive list of former politicians - including the first President Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker; John Major; one-time World Bank treasurer Afsaneh Masheyekhi and several south-east Asian powerbrokers - and using their contacts and influence to promote the group. Among the companies Carlyle owns are those which make equipment, vehicles and munitions for the US military, and its celebrity employees have long served an ingenious dual purpose, helping encourage investments from the very wealthy while also smoothing the path for Carlyle's defence firms. But since the start of the "war on terrorism", the firm - unofficially valued at $3.5bn - has taken on an added significance. Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the current president's father. And, until earlier this month, Carlyle provided another curious link to the Afghan crisis: among the firm's multi-million-dollar investors were members of the family of Osama bin Laden.
Posted by Nikhil,
2:26 AM
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Thursday, July 03, 2003 Invasion may have been launched two weeks early to save oil fields reports the Guardian, basing the claim on a comment by British Air Chief Marshal Malcom Pledger and General Tommy Franks... here
Posted by Nikhil,
11:59 PM
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And more on the economy in this WaPo story Bush Faulted for Jobless Rate (washingtonpost.com): "Democrats pounced on yesterday's sharp rise in the unemployment rate, attacking President Bush's 'simplistic, knee-jerk tax cuts' as a policy failure and claiming the president 'doesn't have a clue' about how to fix an economy that has lost 3.4 million jobs since he took office."
The story also points out that the public may not have any more confidence in the Dems to fix things than they do with the republicans.
Figures released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department showed the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 6.4 percent in June, a larger increase than anticipated and the highest level in more than 9 years.
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Posted by Nikhil,
11:14 AM
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Who Wants to Be a Liberal Anyway?
From an article on NYTimes.com:
An aide to Mr. Lieberman said: "Everyone wants a race against Dean. Everyone has looked at the research, and he looks easiest to bring down. He's positioned himself as a liberal, and liberals don't win here."
(yes, this is my first post.) Since I don't know how to put in links, here's the address for the campaign fundraising article: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/03/politics/campaigns/03DONA.html?hp
Posted by Steven Alec Thomas,
1:58 AM
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Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Strom Thurmond fathered a black daughter !?!
Jack Bass and and Marilyn W. Thompson present persuasive evidence in their 1998 biography, Ol' Strom, that Thurmond sired a daughter in 1925 with a black house servant named Essie "Tunch" Butler, with whom he reputedly had an extended relationship. Though "Black Baby of Professional Racist" would seem to sail over the man-bites-dog bar of what is news, the story has never really gotten traction. (slate)
Posted by Timothy,
10:34 PM
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Dispatches from Uganda, the Congo and Rwanda The Observer has a couple of extremely brave correspondents in small African towns writing on conflicts in the frontier area between Uganda, the Congo and Rwanda. All Firsthand:
and summing them all up: The shaming tradgedy of Africa, "While many of Africa's problems are of its own making, the West's negligence continues to exacerbate them."
Posted by Nikhil,
10:46 AM
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Monday, June 30, 2003 Another victory for press freedom in "the Mideast's only democracy" The BBC has been declared persona non grata by the Israeli government.
It was decided that government offices won't assist BBC producers and reporters, that Israeli officials will not give interviews to the British network, and that the Government Press Office will make it difficult for BBC employees to get press cards and work visas in Israel.
This appears to be a new GOP solution to governing -- starve the states of federal aid and then let the games begin. California may be an extreme an example but similar budget crises are happening in almost every state thanks to George W. Bush's abdication of fiscal responsibility. Gee, I thought the un-ending tax cuts were supposed to stimulate an economic recovery by now?
Davis and the Democrats who control both houses of California's legislature cannot get their way on the budget because state law requires a two-thirds majority vote for it to be approved. They need a few Republican lawmakers to support their plan, which they say must include new taxes in order to save public schools and other vital programs from ruin...
Some public institutions already are reeling. The Los Angeles Community College District, which enrolls 130,000 students, has been forced to eliminate classes and lay off some of its faculty, and is on the verge of raising tuition by more than 50 percent because of the budget crisis. Thousands of students have dropped out because of cutbacks this year, college officials say, and more are likely to leave if additional classes are canceled.
Nursing homes are suffering the same plight. Some already have stopped receiving all the payments they had been expecting from the state and are cutting back services to their residents and turning away new patients. If more cuts are approved, or if the budget gridlock doesn't end soon, dozens of homes could go bankrupt and close.
Posted by Dan,
10:14 AM
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Sunday, June 29, 2003 A little over a decade out of date 1991 not 1941... Muslim and Croat prisoners in the Serb concentration camp of Trnopolje.
Posted by Nikhil,
11:20 PM
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Taxation w/o representation Washington DC has long been screwed over by not having a vote in Congress. Rep. Tom Davis, a powererful republican from Virginia, has proposed adding two seats to Congres, one of which would go to DC. The other, while Davis isn't speaking, would probably go to Utah which missed out on getting a fourth seat by something like 800 residents--and which instead went to North Carolina, as I recall.
This is ridiculous. You shouldn't just go creating new seats. Plus, DC deserves Senatorial representation as much as it deserves congressional representation. It has a bigger population than Wyoming, and is in the same league as Vermont, South Dakota, etc. DC has no budgetary authority that congress can't mess with--as the Hill once refused to allow the district to spend money to count ballots from a referendum that could have permited medicinal marijuana.
