Women’s Health and Contraception Experts Testify to Congress at Request of GOP

February 16, 2012 by 2 Comments

Five Transsexual MDs/Ministers Testify Before Congress

 

Now, before all my liberal readers jump to conclusions, I have been able to find little to no information about these five men. There were actually nine men scheduled to testify in this hearing led by Congressman Darrell Issa. It is about the intersection of – some would say conflict between – religious liberty and a woman’s need for available, affordable contraception. It’s difficult, from the photo, even to make out the names of these five who are testifying, so Googling to learn about them is impossible.

We could, of course, assume that these are all misogynists, representatives of the most patriarchal, fundamentalist branches of their respective religion. But we don’t know that. The fact that they are all men of the cloth does not preclude the possibility that they are each medical doctors and post-op transsexuals as well. We just don’t know. How the GOP could find nine transsexual MDs who are ALSO religious leaders is a story I hope will soon be told. I’m not saying that all of them are post-op transsexual MD ministers. Maybe only a plurality of them are. Or just a few. That would be more likely, even in a nation of over 300 million. It’s possible, I suppose, that none of them are, but that is highly unlikely. What would be the point of having nine natural born men, some of whom may be celibate – or even pedophiles, for Christ’s sake – testify about the intercourse between contraception and dogma, if the only thing they know about preventing conception is avoiding sex, or only having sex with those who are not likely to make you pregnant? That would be absurd or, potentially, obscene.

Filed under belief, culture, GLBT, human rights, irreligion, News, opinion, politics, sex Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Punishment Fits the Crime?

January 16, 2012 by Leave a comment

A recipient of a Golden Globe last night, Peter Dinklage, dedicated it to a dwarf named Martin Henderson who was crippled as a result of being assaulted by a stranger, “tossed,” as the euphemism goes.

I know we usually mete out fines or jail terms when we find someone guilty of a crime. But some crimes, some types of depraved cruelty, seem to call for  more poetic forms of justice. If the person who crippled the man in question is caught and convicted, what do you think his punishment ought to be? (Just to be clear, I don’t think this is funny.) What justice would be sufficiently poetic? Would any of it be of use to Mr. Henderson?

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Tebow Is Just Alright With Me

January 15, 2012 by Leave a comment

Tebow Tebows

Sometimes you don’t know what you think about an issue until you’ve spent some time offering different opinions in a public sphere, engaged in dialogues, and become less comfortable with one position or another.

So here is the surprising place I am landing this morning. (For further reading, see a book called A Little Exercise for Young Theologians). I’m going to leave Tebow and his Tebowing alone. (Tom Meyer, you will be pleased, I think). Calling him an exhibitionist (on Facebook) was my last, I hope, cheap shot, at least at him. He’s just a young, simple guy who thinks it is important to make a show of his belief. His idea of God is that God expects such things, that not showing his faith publicly is, perhaps, hiding his light under a bushel basket. I don’t mind people being religious, or even showing it. These are, by and large, simple people, and their displays of their faith are like my bumperstickers or someone else wearing Hollister clothing. We all fly our flags in one way or another. Maybe it’s a tribe-forming strategy: let like-minded people know where we are, because we all take pleasure and comfort in being with those who think or believe or have the same assumptions we do. Showing your preference is always a bit evangelistic. It’s a way of saying this is what I have chosen, and recommend to you. I think I can tolerate that better than I have.

So I’m going to let Tebow continue Tebowing if he wants to. Maybe he will grow out of it, and maybe not. He’s a helluva quarterback, by most accounts, especially for a rookie, and I’m told he does good things besides playing ball. Good for him.

And look at the teaching moment, just in this article about whether Muslim players have been accorded the same respect for public display of their faith, he has provided. Such conversations are good. So I will defend his right to ostentatious display of his faith, and hope he would defend the same right of his fellow athletes who are Muslim. Or Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, or Pastafarian.

Now. Let us play. Together.

Filed under belief, culture, inspiration, opinion, religion Tagged with , , , ,

Getting Tough On . . . Being Human

January 10, 2012 by Leave a comment

To Err Is Human – and A Chargeable Offense

So many mistakes seem to find their illogical extreme in Texas. The Guardian reports,

Children have been arrested for possessing cigarettes, wearing “inappropriate” clothes and being late for school.

Don’t Mess With Texas!

It’s as if the only good child must be a Stepford child in Texas: never questioning authority, never bending or breaking rules, never asserting themselves. Violent criminal behavior is entirely different, and should be punished, just as it is on the streets or, say, a professional sports field. But a zero tolerance policy for normal childhood behavior will not foster good behavior – at least not in our species. It will cause resentment, a sense of powerlessness or ruthlessness. I think they may be shooting for powerlessness and compliance without question.

This policy is like if every parent decided that the only appropriate correction for any infraction, no matter how minor, is a spanking. But that is exactly what we as a country have been doing with adults, too: if a perpetrator isn’t sent to jail for every offense, we want the judges removed from the bench, and we want politicians in the next election to promise to get tougher. No wonder we fear Sharia law: we see in ourselves a tendency to cut off the hands of those who steal a peach.

Getting tougher does not always get us the results we seek. I know that, and I’m not even a parent. Every parent who kept raising the stakes to try to get compliance from their child knows that. How is it that Texas, and American, lawmakers don’t get that?

And why did Senator Jim Webb, who wanted to champion prison reform, decide to leave the Senate?

Filed under culture, News, opinion, politics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Another Reason Our Schools Are Failing

January 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

Racism 101, Math Department

This is current news. This math homework was distributed to children in Gwinnett County, Georgia in early 21st century America.

This is not the work of one individual racist teacher. This was approved by all nine third grade teachers.

According to a report from WSBTV,

Friday, the Gwinnett County School District said the teacher was trying to reinforce social studies lessons through math…

No kidding.

There should be no question about firing these people. But also publish their names and pictures for the rest of the country to see. There isn’t enough shaming going on in this country.

Filed under culture, News Tagged with , , , ,

Land of Opportunity

January 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

Arriving Immigrant

 

When a 1%er tells you to “Get a Job,” obviously, you have to go where the jobs are. If it isn’t in the US, maybe it’s China.

Jonathan Levine did it for himself, as you see his article in the NY Times. It might be instructive for some Americans to begin to understand the appeal and the difficulties of being an immigrant. Of course, it sounds like China values immigrants, so it might be an apples and oranges kind of thing.  But it IS an available choice, with the usual benefits and drawbacks.

As we  continue to see Wall Street’s robber barons getting a free pass in America, China’s swift and final response – at least a couple of people were executed for their part in the scandal – to the baby formula tragedy looks mighty attractive to some.

But the pollution in China has been horrific for decades, and their energy policy seems mostly to be a matter of building more coal plants. One hopes they have a longer-term, more sustainable strategy, and good health care in the meantime.

Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, in their recent book, That Used to Be Us, contrast the “get ‘er done ” abilities of China with the current American capacity for dithering and delay. They discuss, at the beginning of the first chapter, the difference between the Tianjin Meijiang Convention and Visitor Center, about 2.5 million square feet in size and constructed in 8 months, and the escalators at the heavily used Bethesda Metrorail station, that had been out of service  and under repair for six months. As Friedman notes, the most damning thing about America’s current condition is that we have gotten used to it. I would add, we also DEFEND this state of affairs. And we avoid addressing the big issues, like climate change, health care, illiteracy and obesity, ad infinitum, because we no longer have the confidence – and, perhaps, the competence? – to address them.

As with every country, there are pros and cons. But if you need work, above all, it seems China might be a welcoming place for Americans, and an eye-opener.

 

Filed under business as unusual, culture, environment, opinion, politics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Woody Guthrie’s 1942 New Year’s Resolutions

December 27, 2011 by Leave a comment

Woody Guthrie's 1942 New Year's Resolutions

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“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”: See The Original

December 26, 2011 by 3 Comments

Went to see the new one, and despite what I’d heard from several people, Rooney Mara is no Noomi Rapace. Mind you, it’s not bad for an Americanization of a foreign film – lord knows that’s usually an exercise in destruction – if you never saw the original, you’d like the new version.

But it’s the original that is the must see. Just about everyone with a brain I know (both men and women) are intoxicated by Noomi Rapace. She’s an underacting tour-de-force;  she never quite lets you know for sure exactly where she’s coming from, and yet there’s so much going on beneath her hard exterior. And it’s quite possibly the strongest feminine icon ever portrayed onscreen.

From TMZ:

Here’s Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in the new David Fincher version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (left) — and Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth in the original 2009 Swedish version (right).

Question is … Who’d You Rather? (Click below for the poll)

via ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’: Who’d You Rather? | TMZ.com.

1222_gwtdt_rather

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Whither #OWS? Lefter or Broader?

December 16, 2011 by Leave a comment

But Can OWS Do That?

Addressing a very important issue as the movement grows, this article asks, do we become more radical in a particularly leftist kind of way, or more inclusive?

The author says, “If you believe that the Occupy movement is still struggling for a mass base, as this writer does, then you’ll likely agree that Occupy needs to immediately focus on broadening its base and wage militant struggles for demands that will bring in the wider working class community.”

And further, “an Occupy movement that ignores these popular demands and fails to unite the vast majority–and instead fights for more radical demands that are now only embraced by a relative few–has no real revolutionary potential, since it ignores the basic needs of the majority of working people.”

What think you?

Filed under culture, miscellaneous, News, opinion, politics Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Millionaires Are the Result, Not the Cause, Of a Good Economy

December 16, 2011 by 5 Comments

Some will say, “Go ahead and send in what you want to, even if we are not asking for it.” Such people come from a planet where the nature of its inhabitants differs rather markedly from that of human nature.

Filed under business as unusual, culture, miscellaneous, News, opinion, politics Tagged with , , , ,

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