Eclectic intelligence.
Note: As of July 3, 2009, only the RSS feeds on this blog will be updated so I can focus my energies on my research-related writing. Thank you.
Let me conclude by saying that things can only get worse for the US in Iraq. Moreover, the Iraqi resistance has transformed the global equation. The US is weaker today than it was before May 1, 2003. The Atlantic Alliance that won the Cold War no longer functions. The situation in Afghanistan is more unstable now than last year, and US troops are also pinned down there. Islamic revivalism, against which the US has ranged itself, is now more vigorously spreading. In Latin America, we now have governments in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and Bolivia that are avowedly against the old neoliberal economic policies imposed by Washington. The World Trade Organization is in serious trouble after the collapse of its ministerial in Cancun last September, and Washington’s vision of the Free Trade of the Americas failed to materialize owing to Latin American opposition during the FTAA Ministerial in Miami last November.
Owing to its hubris, the US is suffering from that fatal disease of all empires—imperial overstretch. And its threat to institute regime change in other countries, such as Iran, Syria, and North Korea is no longer credible.
I think that the crisis of the empire is not only good for the world. It is good for the people of the United States as well, for it opens up the possibility of Americans relating to other peoples as equals and not as masters, really learning from them, and really respecting and appreciating them. Failure of the empire is, moreover, a precondition for the emergence of the truly democratic republic that the United States was intended to be before it was hijacked to be an imperial democracy.
Bush is an awful leader, but so far there's no indication that he's comparable to Hitler. But he's running an ad with pictures of Hitler, between pictures of John Kerry, Al Gore, Richard Gephardt and Howard Dean. How could someone want to win so badly that he would be willing to do that? What are we supposed to think about this? Does he know that Americans have families who were murdered by Hitler? Is this what compassionate conservativism is? What does he stand for? This should be question #1 at the next Bush press conference.
Why is it ok for a Democratic organization to use offensive imagery to attack the President, but it is very offensive if the President responds to the attacks and tries to turn them around?
Most national studies estimate that as many as half of all homeless youth are lesbian or gay, many of them tossed out by parents who scorn homosexuality for a variety of reasons.
As director of the Ali Fourney Center in Manhattan, [Carl] Siciliano can shelter only 12 people at a time and wring his hands as the waiting list grows beyond 100. He seethes with indignation when talking about the teenagers who are forced onto the streets, where they quickly become acquainted with drugs, hustling, violence and the virus that causes AIDS. For many, he says, suicide becomes the only way out.
Both the gospel liturgy and the Father Jacques' homily were very affecting. At one point he called all of the fathers into the aisle, had each man put his hand on the shoulder of the man in front of him, led a prayer for them, then gave each man a gift. There were hundreds of men in attendance, even though it was at 9 am. (This was actually the second Mass of the day.) Certainly part of the church's draw is its active involvement in the community; this article is a good example.
The chairman of the Communications Department at Edward Waters College, a small historically black school in Jacksonville, Fla., has been fired along with four other administrators in developments that involve a popular journalism student said to have altered her transcript and another journalism student who was shot and killed on the campus.
(Jun. 21, 2004) *After seeing Carlos Santana at numerous press conferences, and watching him field even the stupidest questions with poise and grace, we've come to expect the musician to be laid back on most subjects. But not when it comes to the legacy of jazz drummer Elvin Jones.
Jones died on May 18 of heart complications, yet none of the major news outlets covered his death in any form. That got Santana, pardon our French, really, really pissed! He expressed his frustration during a recent interview from his San Rafael, California office.
"I'm really embarrassed for this nation, and for MTV and VH1 and Rolling Stone, because it was a very racist thing not to acknowledge this most important musician when he passed," Santana said to the San Diego Union.
"For them to (play up) Ozzy Osbourne and other corny-ass white people, but not Elvin, is demeaning and I'm really embarrassed to live in this country..."
JACKSON, MISS. -- When Roy Veal was found hanging from a tree in Woodville, Miss., in April, for many black Mississippians, it became a tale of two headlines.
"Wilkinson County, Mississippi Lynching Called Another 'Suicide' by state and county authorities," said the headline in the Jackson Advocate.
The Mississippi Link offered the official view: "Source: Wilkinson County hanging was a suicide."
The Advocate, the state's oldest African-American newspaper, bills itself as "the voice of black Mississippians since 1938." The Link, a relative newcomer to the field, proclaims itself, "keeper of the knowledge for people who speak the truth since 1993."
The divergent views expressed in the headlines are mirrored on the Internet where myriad Web sites, particularly those catering to a black audience, have posted stories about the Veal case.
While mainstream African-American columnists at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the Chicago Sun-Times urged a cautious response, most of Mississippi's black press seems predisposed to think the Woodville hanging -- and three others similar to it -- marks a revival of the state's sad tradition of racist lynching....
[snip]
Kim Pearson, a journalism professor at The College of New Jersey, who has tracked newspaper and wire service accounts of the Veal case at her Web site, said it's understandable a black audience would assume he was lynched.
"There is a belief in the black community that the mainstream media isn't going to get the whole story and something here just doesn't sit right," she said. "But some of this is a matter of Internet literacy, too. Not everyone is at the point where they understand everything you get in your inbox isn't true."
There can be no doubt that the Bush administration has elevated minorities to unprecedented heights of visibility. Yet the sidelining of Secretary of State Colin Powell, and the unfortunate identification of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice with the administration's failures in Iraq, demonstrate that the Republicans' strategy to open the doors of the party in welcome to minorities has been nothing more than a masquerade in blackface. The strategy – ten years in the making – has now ended in dismal failure, solidifying instead blacks' reluctance to view the GOP as a place of political possibility. This failure is revealed, in large part, by the rise and fall of the Republican black power trifecta – former Congressman J.C. Watts, Powell and Rice – all of whom have met or will meet their ultimate decline of influence during George W. Bush's tenure as leader of the Republican Party.
INDIANAPOLIS (BP)--President Bush spoke directly to Southern Baptists June 15, upholding a "culture of life" and the sanctity of marriage.
Bush, speaking live from the White House via satellite, also addressed issues relating to faith-based organizations, the judicial system and the war on terror.
The president told messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis he and his wife are thankful for their prayers, which he has felt "at crucial hours."
... Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end--where all men and all churches are treated as equal--where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice--where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind--and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe--a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
"As we enter the season of celebrating Pride in the LGBT community, Americans should embrace the diversity that makes our nation strong and recommit ourselves to ensuring that all Americans receive equal rights.
I am proud to have fought for equal rights for gay Americans, but unfortunately so much still remains to be done. I am committed to using the power of the White House to advance equal rights for all Americans, including gay Americans. Together we can help America keep her promise of liberty and justice for all.
The Bush Administration repeatedly uses gay rights as a political tool to divide the nation. That’s just wrong. We don’t need a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. We need civil unions with full and equal rights. We don’t need opposition to hate crime legislation. We need to reject hate and embrace tolerance. And we don’t need a President who plays politics with gay adoption. We need a President who works everyday to protect and support all children and families.
[Interviewer Rita] COSBY: What about what's happening in Iraq now, too? How much do you think that's going to affect this race? We're looking at some of the--the last poll shows a lot of people have more faith in Bush when it comes to national security, but of course all eyes are on what's happening in Iraq and elsewhere.
[Fmr. Abassador and Pres. candidate Alan]KEYES: Well, I think a lot depends on it. I think Bush has to rely heavily on his war leadership, because it is the top priority challenge that we're faced with as nation, the War on Terror. I think how he has managed it has been a big boost for him, in terms of the perception of his leadership. I think Iraq can damage that, I think the Abu Ghraib business undermined confidence in some ways, but I also think that a proper transition to Iraqi control--which is obviously going to be under tremendous pressure in terms of what the terrorist might do, what Iran might do to try to embarrass us, but I think that that is going to have an impact. Provided they handle it competently, I think it could be a positive one.
COSBY: What role do you think religion should also have in the race? And of course now we're hearing that Bush's visit to the Vatican may be to sort of "get the Catholic vote going."
KEYES: Well, see, I really don't think it's a matter of religion, though, Rita. I think it's really a question of the right stands on the issues that have to do with the moral conscience and moral foundation of America's family, of America's political life. I think that we are obliged first as citizens to respect our moral creed, the principles of which were clearly articulated in the American Declaration that respected the right to life, and that articulated clearly our commitment to self-government, which is to say, government based upon the kind of discipline that requires decent moral character in our people.
And so, I think that those moral issues are key, I've always said so, and I think it's right to give them a top priority as we approach this election. I think that's true of political leaders, it's especially true of religious leaders--not for political reasons. I think religious leaders--Catholic, Protestant, whoever they might be--are under obligation to represent the conscience of this people before God, and that in order to do that, they should speak out boldly on those issues where we are clearly making judgments that affect right and wrong, that affect the moral decency and character of our people....
Just about every flight engineer and crew chief has noticed over the course of flying across this place called Afghanistan these past months that a large percentage of the children have no shoes to wear and of course, almost all of the girls are shoeless.
So my esteemed friends of the blogosphere, in the spirit of Chief Wiggles and minding the words of the infamous Steve Miller Band, I announce the beginning of Operation Shoe Fly in an effort to shoe the children, with no shoes on their feet. If you can collect the shoes, used or new, boys' and girls' (age 14 and under), and send them to me, my crewdogs and I will fly them out to the Afghani kids who so desperately need them.
Please send your shoes to:
Operation Shoe Fly
B Co, 214th Aviation Regiment
Bagram, Afghanistan
APO AE 09354-9998
NOTE: According to 2002 U.S. Census, 12% of African-Americans have a college degree of which 65% are women. Furthermore, the U.S. Census reports that there are 12.6 million black women 21 or older versus 9.9 million black men 21 or older. Moreover, U.S Census data also reports that 50.1% of all men marry women 5 years younger.
A group of retired US ambassadors and senior military figures is set to urge voters to remove President George Bush from office in this year's election.
They are scheduled to release a statement on Wednesday attacking the president's foreign policy.
The 26 former officials - Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change - aired their views in interviews this week.
They say Mr Bush's policies have made the US more isolated and less safe, and damaged its standing in the world.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the group of many respected figures, includes some who worked for President Bush's father when he was in the White House. ..
Afrocentrism in a nutshell: The ancient Egyptians were black, Cleopatra was black, the ancient Greeks stole Africa's culture (philosophy, medicine) and claimed it as their own, Africans invented writing, had many architectural achievements, developed electricity and "early planes." They believe that Africa is one homogeneous culture, despite the fact that many cultures exist on the continent, and that all ancient civilizations were either black or stole ideas from blacks.
...This bogus history (which "scholars" say was destroyed by whites to downplay Africa's greatness) is apparently designed to raise the self-esteem of black kids, which some surmise is the reason for their poor performances in school. Again, at first glance, it's obvious that lack of parental involvement and home environments not conducive to learning (no books, too much TV viewing), coupled with unqualified teachers and the indoctrination of politically correct tripe like afrocentrism, are major reasons black children underperform in school. Why black parents allow their precious gifts from God to be experimented on by quacks is beyond me.
While the grown-ups are puffing themselves up about so-called African accomplishments, these poor children are taught distortions and lies in the name of "ethnic pride." The result? White students, who study real accomplishments by Western cultures, including the black American sub-culture, will continue to outperform black students.
Amazingly, 86 (Yes, Eighty-Six) high-level resignations and dismissals have taken place since this administration first established its initial set of ‘good people’. That’s almost one every 2 weeks. These include such top level officials as White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Commander of the U.S. Central Command General Tommy Franks, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Glenn Hubbard, Head Weapons Inspector David Kay, Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, Pentagon Advisory Board Chairman Richard Perle, SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, CIA Director George Tenet, Army Secretary Thomas White, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, and EPA Chief Christine Todd Whitman. And that's just the beginning.
Why the exodus?
Outrage seems to be the most common answer. Many left to protest the administration’s policies regarding its obsession with Iraq, its disdain for preserving nature, and its habit of playing fast and loose with the facts. Several ex-administration members even wrote (or conspired in) scathing appraisals of the president and his policies....
And this was one of the most stunning parts. He had just returned from Europe, and he said high officials, even foreign ministers, who used to only talk to him off the record or give him backchannel messages, were speaking on the record that the next time the U.S. comes to them with intelligence, they'll simply have no reason to believe it.... He lamented of his journalistic colleagues, "I don't know whey they don't just tell it like it is."...
He said the people most horrified by the way the war was planned were the military commanders responsible for protecting their troops.... He talked about the horror of the 1000 civilian deaths in Fallujah (but was careful to note the Marines were doing their job, placing the blame with their superiors)....
He talked about how hard it is to get the truth out in Republican Washington: "If you agree with the neocons you're a genius. If you disagree you're a traitor." Bush, he said, was closing ranks, purging anyone who wasn't 100% with him. Said Tenet has a child in bad health, has heart problems, and seemed to find him generally a decent guy under unimaginable pressure, and that people told him that Tenet feared a heart attack if he had to take one more grilling from Cheney. "When these guys memoirs come out, it will shock all of us."...
He said that after he broke Abu Ghraib people are coming out of the woodwork to tell him this stuff. He said he had seen all the Abu Ghraib pictures. He said, "You haven't begun to see evil..." then trailed off. He said, "horrible things done to children of women prisoners, as the cameras run."
He looked frightened.
Yes, but Brad spells my name wrong--it's Rick Perlstein, not "Pearlstein."
Yes, his June 8 speech.
Hersh gave a public speech, I wrote notes, I circulated them to some journalist friends. Knowing the Internet, I wasn't surprised they were distributed more widely, nor disappointed; I did this as a citizen. Why write a story? These are Hersh's stories, not mine. "Rick Perlstein reports that Seymmour Hersh might someday report..."?
I don't know if there were (other) reporters at the speech. I don't know Hersh's plans for the material. But it is important to note that journalism comes in lots of "stages," in constant and dynamic flux. Some things the journalist can be confident of but can't report in print, either because he doesn't have proper confirmation yet, or to protect sources, or because he's saving it for other articles, or whatever. Hersh was exquisitely careful to say only things he was confident of, as this WAS a public speech; but also very careful to make the kind of distinctions he made above.
First of all, black people are too happy just being able to shout not to take advantage of the luxury. When you have read that bits were put in some of your ancesstors' mouths, you tend to shout. When a sweet grandmotherly sort has to tell you how black people were once chained in iron masks in the canebreak, to keep them from eating the cane while they harvested it, and that these masks were like little ovens that cooked the skin off their faces -- when you hear that grandmotherly voice and you realize that she was once a girl who might have been your girls, and someone caused this pain on her lips and nobody did anything about but keep on living -- this gives you a tendency to shout, especially when confronted with the opportunity to speak to a smarmy talkshow host or a snarling highway patrolman.
Eye drops that reduce elevated pressure inside the eye can delay or possibly prevent the onset of glaucoma in African Americans at higher risk for developing the disease, researchers have found. This makes it more important to identify African Americans at higher risk for developing glaucoma so they can receive prompt evaluation for possible medical treatment. These results are reported in the June 2004 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.
Scientists found that daily pressure-lowering eye drops reduced the development of primary open-angle glaucoma in African Americans by almost 50 percent. Primary open-angle glaucoma is the most common form of glaucoma and one of the nation's leading causes of vision loss. Of the African American study participants who received the eye drops, 8.4 percent developed glaucoma. By comparison, 16.1 percent of the African American study participants who did not receive the eye drops developed glaucoma. The study was funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD), two components of the Federal government's National Institutes of Health.
Primary open-angle glaucoma affects about 2.2 million Americans age 40 and over, half of whom are not aware they have the disease. Vision loss from glaucoma occurs when the optic nerve is damaged. In most cases, elevated eye pressure, also called ocular hypertension, contributes to this damage. This causes gradual loss of peripheral (side) vision. As the disease progresses, the field of vision gradually narrows and blindness can result. Glaucoma has no early symptoms, and by the time people experience problems with their vision, they usually have a significant amount of optic nerve damage. However, if detected early, glaucoma can usually be controlled and serious vision loss prevented. Comprehensive dilated eye examinations are recommended at least once every two years for African Americans over age 40 and all people over age 60.
"This is the first study to recruit large numbers of African Americans to examine the benefit of pressure-lowering eye drops to prevent or delay the onset of glaucoma," said Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NEI. "The results underscore that African Americans over age 40 should receive a comprehensive dilated eye exam at least once every two years to see if they are at higher risk for glaucoma."
These results do not imply that every African American with high eye pressure requires treatment, according to Eve Higginbotham, M.D., chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and first author of the journal article... "While African Americans participating in the study were more likely than others to have these specific physical characteristics, the study results underscore the importance of measuring these ocular risk factors rather than relying solely on the race or ethnicity of the individual."
Dr. Higginbotham suggested that before determining treatment, the doctor and patient should also discuss the patient's health status and life expectancy, and the burden of daily treatment, including cost, inconvenience, and possible side effects.
The OHTS studied more than 1600 people, including 408 African Americans, 40-80 years of age who had elevated eye pressure but no signs of glaucoma. Half were assigned daily pressure-lowering eye drops, and the other half were assigned to observation (no medication). In the medication group, the number of African Americans participants developing glaucoma was significantly lower (8.4 percent) compared to the observation group (16.1 percent).
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in African Americans, said John Ruffin Ph.D., director of the NCMHD. "Glaucoma is almost three times as common in African Americans than Whites," Dr. Ruffin said. "However, if glaucoma is detected and treated early in its progression, it can usually be slowed and serious vision loss can be delayed."
Dr. Ruffin said Medicare covers an annual dilated eye examination for people at higher risk for glaucoma. This important preventive benefit defines higher risk as people with diabetes; those with a family history of glaucoma; and African Americans aged 50 and older.
In a hard-hitting sermon, Dr Rt Rev Mvune Ndadala, the secretary-general of the All Africa Conference of Churches, regretted that Christianity in Africa had betrayed the ideals of its founder, Jesus Christ.
He told churches going to Sudan to show humility, and not go there "in the spirit of know-it-alls".
"It's wrong for the church to behave as if it is bringing a package from outside that promises quick riches. We want a gospel that heals and reconciles, not one that stresses on 'what's in it for me,'" he said during special prayers for peace in Sudan at the city's Anglican All Saints Cathedral.
The prayers were held ahead of the three-day general assembly of the Sudan Ecumenical Forum that starts in Limuru today.
“Television is more sensitive to diversity,” says Williams, an assistant city editor and writer at the Post. “What people see drives what people watch. You don’t know who’s behind the byline.”
"It is time for us to take back America."
"As a woman I support John Kerry I'm sick and tired of what George Bush has done under the radar. They have retired Title IX. If you are a young girl in school and you have been sexually harassed,you will be hard pressed to find any accountability...."
[Reeves urged the audience to read this article from the National Women's Law Center that accuses the Bush administration of covert rollbacks in a variety of areas important to women, including the equal pay initiative and funds for emergency shelters for battered women.]
"As a mother I support John Kerry... Children are not getting the education that I got in public school years ago... I don't want to live in a country where only the privileged are able to get the education that we all should have....
"As a citizen, I'm voting for John Kerry. We need a leader who will not squander our resources for short-term gain...The natural resources of this country have to be protected and we are the only ones who can do it. ...Global warming is real...I drove here in an SUV; I'm guilty. But I'm researching a hybrid car...I'm lucky that I can afford to do that. The problem is we need to be actively researching alternate fuel sources...We should all be filling our tanks with ethanol...There is no excuse for our dependence on foreign oil..the Administration is not leading the way.... We need a leader. John Kerry is that leader.
"Most people expected me to talk entirely about stem-cell research, biomedical research. This is an area where both my husband and I are absolutely adamant...The restrictions that are going on this country are... horrifying. Our best scientists are leaving the country [to go to countries with fewer restrictions]...Other countries are ahead of us [on stem-cell research],...Israel is ahead of us, England...Sweden...Peru... They are no less moral and ethical than we are. They are moving ahead because they see the promise -- not just for paralysis, but for diabetes, Alzheimers, stroke."
"One of the things that we are focusing on today is not just to preach to the converted...[but] you don't just get to keep all your stuff. You have to have fiscal responsibility."
We all have to do our part to make sure that George Bush does not return to the Presidency. There are families across this state that are struggling because of George Bush.
This has been an interesting week in America. It has given us an opportunity -- an unexpected opportunity -- to reflect upon where we are and where we want to go as a county and as a people. It's given us the opportunity to think about: Do we widen the difference between the richest and poorest Americans? Do we want to health care for only for those who can afford it, or do we have -- do we want to have a serious conversation in the corridors of power in Washington, DC about how we can give health care to each and every American. What kind of America do we want?
I bring you good news and bad news. The good news is that John Kerry is up seven points in the latest polls.... The bad news is that the election isn't today. We have to get the word out to everyone.
I run into people all the time who voted [for George Bush in 2000] and they say, "Never again." We have to make sure people know what's at stake!
The Roundtable:
One of the criticisms of the [Federal] marriage initiative is that it could encourage people to stay in violent or damaging relationships. What would you say to that?
Rev. Young:
I worked for almost six years at the YWCA. I was the coordinator for the domestic violence unit. I don't think that everybody should be married. I think (the critics) have a legitimate point. If you've got as much conversation as you've got coming from the government, there is a tendency to feel some pressure. So you have to be careful.
We work directly with the domestic violence people in Oklahoma. They're on board with us because they know we're not trying to put folk in situations that are dangerous. I don't want to endanger anyone, but I also want them to have the best opportunity to make that marriage work.
I know that what Cosby said was tough for some blacks to hear. But more than anything, I question the motives of any black journalist who took umbrage at Cosby's diatribe. Indeed, when I set out to investigate black mental health issues in the late 1990s, I learned that self-hatred is our biggest enemy, and that that self-hatred takes many shapes and forms. The result of my investigation is a book called Lay My Burden Down, which I wrote with Alvin Poussaint, MD, a psychiatrist at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. P. is, as many black Americans know, a close friend of Bill Cosby's, and a former consultant on The Cosby Show. Cosby and his wife, Camille, endorsed our book when it was published in 2000, and while I've never met him, I am honored to have Cosby's blurb on my work. I mention this now not only as a disclosure, but to provide a humble extension of the gauntlet Cosby threw down in his May 17 talk (for that is surely what it was).
In Lay My Burden Down, we found that self-destructive behavior among black Americans is a long-standing, entrenched part of our shared experience, and that it is an inevitable byproduct of our history of enslavement in America. It is pernicious, and it does, in varying degrees and in different forms, affect us all. But Dr. P and I did not shake our fingers at blacks, or blame our people for the ongoing self-victimization that plagues us. We acknowledge the strong, cold, drag of historic and continuing racism and discrimination on the black psyche. But we also argued that blacks must now take responsibility for improving our own health in general, and our own mental health in particular. Unlike at Cosby's recent forum at Constitution Hall, we had the luxury of time, research, and space to provide the necessary context, history and background (and to propose solutions) for ending the self-destruction that still grips so many of us. (To our publisher's great frustration, our discussion was not carried out in the sound-byte blur of 24-7 cable television. Maybe now someone like Oprah will pick up the topic, especially since her pal Cosby is under assault.) The roots of these issues are complicated, and don't lend themselves to quick-hit conversations. But, since we've already invited white America to listen in on this long overdue conversation, it only makes sense that we take it out of its current, unhelpful, name-calling state, and into the realm of rational discussion.
Tony: The matter of homosexual rights is an issue that Christians cannot avoid. Not only has it been brought to the fore in the political arena, it is tearing apart every major denomination. Mark Noll of Wheaton College contends that evangelicalism has never defined itself in terms of theology, but always in terms of politics. Back in Civil War days, to be an evangelical was to be opposed to slavery. Today the two issues that define a person as an evangelical or not are probably homosexual rights and abortion.
I believe that the Bible does not allow for same-gender sexual intercourse or marriage. Peggy believes that within the framework of evangelical Christianity, monogamous gay marriages are permissible. Each of us is an evangelical with a high view of scripture. We believe in the doctrines outlined in the Apostles Creed, and know that to be a Christian is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Peggy and I choose to publicly express our differences on the issue of homosexuality because we have a message that is more important than anything we say in words: We know it is possible for people who love each other to differ intensely over this crucial issue and not separate....
Beverly Gordon, a home health aide from Brooklyn, is journeying to the opposite coast to participate in the major, historic action across the Golden Gate Bridge on June 19 to "Bridge the Gap for Health Care." She will represent the countless health care workers in America who have no medical coverage of their own.
Beverly, a Jamaican who immigrated to the United States 10 years ago, cares for disabled, sick and elderly patients in their homes, but must ignore her fibrocystic breast condition that causes recurring and at times painful cystic growths. Since it is more difficult to detect breast cancer in women who have fibrocystic breasts (mammary dysplasia), regular testing is necessary, but it is prohibitively expensive for Gordon, who earns poverty wages of $7 an hour.
Beverly used to seek treatment in clinics, but now they refuse to run tests or see her at all because of outstanding bills.
"I've known about my condition for years, but because I don't have insurance, I just have to pray everything is okay," she said. "Every day, people count on me to provide them with the best possible care - I wish I could afford the quality treatment I deliver to my patients for myself."
Beverly, an SEIU member, is walking the picket line with other Local 1199NY home health aides this week under the banner "Invisible No More" to seek decent wages and basic health care coverage. These caregivers offer their patients an alternative to institutionalization and provide selfless and, at times, life-saving work, but most have no insurance of their own.
Beverly will be among the tens of thousands of people -- those who have health insurance and those who don't, those who fear losing coverage and those who have too little -- who are marching across bridges throughout America as part of the June 19 day of action to call for quality, affordable health care for all.
[Reagan's] death this week has to it, as you might expect, a sense of national moment.
Flags at half staff, long lines snaking into the Capitol to pay final respects. His widow weeps, his supporters grieve and I'd have been content to leave them their space, to watch it all in respectful silence.
Except that it's getting kind of deep around here, if you catch my drift. Any deeper and we'll all need hip boots...
It's hardly uncommon to speak well of the recently departed. And there is certainly much about the former president's tenure that merits celebration. He restored ''can do'' to the American lexicon, his vibrant optimism a jolt of adrenaline after the dour Carter years and the criminality of the Nixon gang. He pushed communism to the breaking point. He famously called the Soviet Union what it was -- an empire of evil. He changed the political landscape.
But my point here is that some of us also knew another Reagan, and he is conspicuous by his absence from much of this week's coverage...
What did Reagan do? He significantly reduced revenue sharing with cities, believing that cities are creations of the state and that it was up to the states to take care of them. States rights. He was the first President to pick opponents of civil rights to head civil rights agencies. Clarence Thomas at the EEOC for example. Remember that most civil rights legislation is based on fed oversight. We know how many cases Thomas sees under his watch, and how high the burden becomes. Reagan also appoints a significant number of ultra-conservative judges to the federal bench, judges who, in sum, were loathe to acknowledge the existence of racism...largely because of their support for states rights and the individualist ideology that comes with it.
How did the Klan benefit? Indirectly, I'm thinking that members of the Klan felt more "American" and didn't feel as subjugated because of their race. Directly David Duke rides to power on a wave of Reaganesque sentiment.
As a key figure and hero of the 20th Century, Pres. Reagan must receive parity in Memoriam to Pres. Kennedy and Dr. King. Now that President Reagan has died, it is even more fitting to begin the process of commemorating his achievements in economics, human rights and American power. Dedications to this great American must be expedited, bringing his memorials to a level consistent with his fellow heroes of the 20th century.
Pres. Reagan's efforts in restoring the United States to greatness and bringing down Communism should be honored appropriately in number and respect. Placing Reagan on the $10 bill and half the dimes produced from this point forward is a beginning. Schools, roadways, public parks, statues, public buildings and other memorials throughout the "city on a hill" must be dedicated to President.
... In the near future, Senator Mitchell McConnell (R-KY) reportedly will sponsor legislation to replace Alexander Hamilton with a portrait of Reagan. Hamilton was never president but he was a New York member of the Continental Congress, a founding father, the first Treasury Secretary, and a principal author of the Federalist Papers. But according to Darlene Anderson, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, paper money is never changed because of aesthetic considerations. It has only been changed to prevent counterfeiting.
Several years ago Norquist attempted to have the president's face replace President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the dime (H. R. 3633). Changing the appearance of currency is not difficult. In absence of specific congressional guidance, the final decision to change the appearance of currency rests in the hands of the Treasury Secretary, who, prior to rendering a decision, must seek the advice of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The redesign must also be reviewed by the Commission of Fine Arts. The law prohibits any living person's face from appearing on money. Although Norquist had some success with both Bush and Clinton's Treasury secretaries, he could not convince former first lady, Nancy Reagan who was also consulted on the proposal. She declined to support the dime project.
Placing President Reagan's face on currency may be the quickest way to create a lasting memorial for the former Commander-In-Chief. Though some would be supportive of constructing a memorial to Ronald Reagan in Washington D.C. similar to the one honoring Franklin D. Roosevelt, legislation passed last year (P.L. 106-126) bars the construction of any new memorials on the Mall. In conjunction with this, the Commemorative Works Act, a bill that President Reagan signed into law during his second term, permits non-military commemorative works to be built in the District of Columbia only on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the commemorated person.
“Along with his longtime friend Quincy Jones, Ray Charles helped draw a musical connection between black and white people by linking the music they claimed as their own; country, rock and pop for whites, soul, R&B, jazz and the blues for blacks,” [music critic Eric] Deggans said.
There was something perfect about his slipping away on Thursday in the shadow of Ronald Reagan’s demise. Unlike the former president, Ray Charles will not have his legacy questioned.
CHARLES SHARR-MURRAY: I mean, basically, Ray Charles invented soul music, by setting blues lyrics, secular lyrics, to gospel tunes. 'I Gotta Woman' started out as 'I Gotta Saviour', and I mean, Ray Charles is of absolutely incalculable musical and cultural importance.
Grammy-winning music producer Quincy Jones, a Seattle native who met Charles when both were teenagers, said losing Charles was like losing family.
"I truly have no words to express the deep sadness that I have today," said Jones in a statement from his home in Los Angeles. "Ray Charles was my oldest friend, my brother in every sense of the word and bigger than life."
Starting in Seattle, Jones said, he and Charles recognized their boyhood dreams together.
"Ray used to say that if he had a dime, he would give me a nickel. Well, I would give that nickel back to have him still be here with us."
A woman with AIS could be prohibited from marrying her male (XY) partner because it would result in the marriage of two XY individuals
Someone born XXXY, or any other variation of mosaicism can't legally say male or female, if male and female is legally defined to be XY and XX
An XY person born with micropenis underwent nonconsensual sex reassignment surgery as an infant and is reared as female. Eventually she meets a man and want to get married, but both are genetically XY. Or, she identifies as a lesbian. Will they be allowed marriage because it is then an XX and XY pairing? If this person should transition back to his birth gender, things could get even more confusingParents who think that genital surgeries are for the good of their child (because that is what they have been told) may later find out that more than the child's genitals have been mutilated. That person's desire for marriage may be denied as a result of childhood surgery and gender of rearing if different from genetic sex or there are any chromosomal variations from standard XX and XY The flipside of all this is if they try to use Littleton as the basis for defining one man - one woman, intersex people with variant chromosomal makeup and who identify as gay or lesbian could theoretically get legally married.
President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday, while paying tributes to the former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, who died on Saturday, noted that Reagan had special interest in Nigeria which had gone a long way in cementing special relations between the two countries.
...[N}obody has ever played the role of US president as well as Ronald Reagan.
In fact, he re-defined it. The man who succeeded him, the elder George Bush, was a throwback to the old political style, but both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush exude the same folksy charm that made Mr Reagan the best-loved of former American presidents. They all made the cold-blooded political calculations that are a necessary part of partisan politics, but somehow they all managed to seem as if they weren't.
Ronald Reagan did it best because he was a professional actor, but also because he was a genuinely nice man. A nice man with a mastery of doublethink, perhaps, but you really believed that he didn't grasp the negative implications of his own political strategies....
WHILE several world leaders poured encomiums and eulogies on the late United States (US) President, Ronald Reagan, who passed on last Saturday, Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddaffi has expressed sorrow that he died before he could be brought to trial over US air strikes in Libya in 1986.
For Gaddaffi nothing would have pleased him more than to see Reagan account for his role in the April 15, 1986 air strikes which occurred during his tenure.
After taking office in 1981, Reagan began a sustained attack on the government’s civil rights apparatus, opened an assault on affirmative action and social welfare programs, embraced the White racist leaders of then-apartheid South Africa and waged war on a tiny, Black Caribbean nation.
So thorough was Reagan’s attack on programs of importance to African Americans, that the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights, an organization formed in the wake of Reagan’s attempt to neuter the official U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said he caused "an across-the-board breakdown in the machinery constructed by six previous administrations to protect civil rights."
Amid the praise and hagiography of Reagan, the media found it difficult to round up a Black person to comment on Reagan’s legacy, just as they were unable to find a Black soldier who might have had memories to share during the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
For most Black Americans, Reagan, the so-called great communicator, had little or nothing good to say to them, if he said anything at all. What is most memorable about the Reagan years, two terms of tragedy (1980-88), was his "full-scale assault on civil rights and social and education programs," as columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson once noted.
“Ronald Reagan was an amiable figurehead who made racism respectable. Efforts to re-write history, even by newspapers with so-called liberal editorial pages, cannot change that fact. I didn’t say he was a racist – I said had he made racism respectable. And he did so by launching an all-out attack on civil rights, all while smiling, tilting his head to the side, and doing a better acting job in the White House than he ever did in Hollywood.”
“With a disturbing deftness, Reagan managed to project an “aw, shucks” good nature that made his bigotry seem benign. But the record shows it was as malignant as any life-threatening cancer, at least to the health and well being of blacks…
“Most historians can agree that he was not a bigot or prejudiced in any measurable way. But his administration brought on a poverty and despair that afflicted an entire generation and changed the sound and reality of ghetto life from a dream deferred into the American nightmare. He did sign off on the MLK holiday, but Reagan seemed ambivalent about civil rights legislation and glad to slash social programs, widening the prosperity gap and accelerating a caste system in the black community. While some did well, many on the come-up were pulled back into the bowels of poverty, and they in turn formed an underground economy…”
“ I remember the impact [Reagan’s} policies had on my neighborhood, my parents, and on me. For many of us Reagan didn't bring "morning in America." He brought the deepest darkest night.”
President Bush said Reagan believed God was on the side of justice. On South Africa, Reagan was on the side of one of the most demonic governments on the face of the earth. He chose to assist tyranny and ignore brutality. Ronald Reagan's death has been followed by relentless descriptions of him as a president of sunny optimism. On South Africa he was no sunshine. He was the cloud who dimmed the skies as apartheid rained death upon black people.
“On election night in 1980, I was terrified. From my bedroom, I could hear the radio in my parents' room down the hall. Jimmy Carter was losing. Months before the election I'd heard tales about how Ronald Reagan would send blacks to "the back of the bus" if he won. He won.
”But the sky didn't fall, ice caps didn't melt and old Jim Crow didn't return. In fact, from what I hear, blacks prospered economically under Reagan's watch.
”I went through the 1980s scarcely aware of politics. While Reagan demanded that Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall, I was celebrating the return of the mini-skirt. As the Cold War ended, I was extending adolescence and enjoying my reign as kegger queen….”
There are many ways to judge a President or anyone else. One old-fashioned way is by results. A more popular way in recent years has been by how well someone fits the preconceptions of the intelligentsia or the media.
By the first test, Ronald Reagan was the most successful President of the United States in the 20th century. By the second test, he was a complete failure.
...When Reagan was president, I was too young to vote, but I was fired up with misplaced hatred toward him. I used to believe the hype, and even stirred up a fuss when I wrote a pro-Mondale op-ed for my high school paper which viciously attacked President Reagan.
As I grew older, I came to respect his leadership and his achievements, even though I didn’t agree with them at the time. Also, I came around to regret that I wrote such a vicious screed...
"...My Brother, we are dying and suffering in unprecedented numbers. Africa’s civil conflicts, failing state economies, and poor management of resources are engines of destruction. When the victims of Africa’s civil conflicts are added to the millions dying from disease, unsanitary living conditions, inadequate food supply, malnutrition, and natural catastrophe, the dimension of the humanitarian crisis in Africa appears stupendous. But what is our position on this sad state of affairs? Should we just take to the pulpit and decry the "beloved country" and its insular political parties? Or do we take to the dance floor and "rock the vote" only to succumb to machinations of minority politics and Hip-Hop moguls who believe they can dance with the wolves while living in a Gangster’s Paradise? America’s Prisons are still overflowing with Black flesh. Churches are full. Masjids are full. Are they all devoid of leadership?
"...It was because of Africa’s massive humanity crisis that you claimed to appreciate the need for an all Black Pan-African Relief Agency – a broad based Voluntary Agency deriving its strength from the resources and talents of the African Diaspora. Recent events in Haiti, Western Sudan and the suffering of the Congolese peoples only add additional impetus for a Pan-African Relief Agency in the Diaspora. You assured me that you would move on this project and that such an endeavor would be the clarion call and moral agenda of your current campaign. I think we both realized that speaking out as I thought you would on this issue would never get you elected president of Corporate white America but it would significantly change the America’s debate on Africa. But the moment for that has slipped by hasn’t it? I imagine you gave it your best shot. Now which way forward?"
"Reagan is anti-labor, anti-Negro, anti-intellectual, anti-planning, anti-20th Century. We rather suspect Brown will take him. We can't really believe the old bogey of federal government still scares Californians. To help US stoop labor by barring braceros, he implied, was bad--US industries are now emigrating to Mexico. How about replacing braceros with some of those Negroes trapped in Watts? Wouldn't work, Reagan replied; it was just too easy for them to get back on the relief rolls.
"Reagan said in his modest, low-keyed, reasonable way that of course he favored the goal of civil rights; but he opposed the actual bill as unconstitutional (like Goldwater). No, he wouldn't repudiate the John Birch Society, nor reject support from members. Some things are going on at the University of California (Berkeley) he said, "I could not tell you in this audience; they were too shocking.Applause."
via Matthew Yglesias
"The Supreme Court decision for police court reform? Of course he opposed it. "I'm against the idea that the criminal must be protected from society, rather than the other way around!"
President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.
In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.”
Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.
“It reminds me of the Nixon days,” says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. “Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That’s the mood over there....”
...George Tenet is the first member of the Bush Administration's foreign policy team to resign after the discovery of multiple intelligence failures related to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Specifically, the assertions that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq posed an imminent threat because of its purported connection to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, have proven to be false.
"It has been over a year since the war in Iraq began, and the Bush Administration has yet to produce a single shred of conclusive evidence to substantiate the intelligence claims used by President Bush and other Administration officials to make the case for war.
"George Tenet is the first person to resign, but he should not be the last. The responsibility for the crisis in Iraq rests not only with George Tenet, but with every member of the Bush Administration's foreign policy operation, including our commander-in-chief.
The Mt. Zion United Methodist Church Memorial Committee invites you attend the 40th annual Memorial Service for the three slain civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman. The service will be held on June 20, 2004 at 1:00 pm at the Mt. Zion Church in the Longdale community in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The Longdale community is about ten miles east (Hwy 16) of Philadelphia and then about 2 miles north on county road 747.
[W]hen America found itself having a hard time facing the future, they looked for people like John Wayne.
But since John Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Reagan
--Gil Scott-Heron, ""B Movie
It may help that the news industry isn't a stranger to diversity campaigns. Through internships and other outreach programs, media outlets routinely make special efforts to hire minorities. The diversity efforts have had mixed success, however. According to a new survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, minorities hold only 13 percent of newsroom jobs at American newspapers surveyed, up from just 4 percent in 1978.
"When speaking of making our newsrooms 'diverse,' we're obligated to talk about the widest possible definition, and that means going far beyond just race and ethnicity. It means seeking out people who will provide a very wide diversity of thought, ideology, politics, religion, socio-economic background, age, gender, sexual orientation and any other backgrounds that help provide an accurate view into our communities. And that means finding people of color who are not all in lockstep, whether liberal or conservative, in their thinking.
"I'd agree that while in my own experience that overall the people in newsrooms would probably identify with being liberals, I have witnessed enormous efforts by people who are true professionals working at legitimate news organizations to make their stories as fair as possible.
"And, we tend to use these labels -- conservative and liberal -- and force people to be classified as either one, when in fact they are sometimes something of both depending on the issue."
It wasn’t just that the jokes in this so-called comedy weren’t funny. The movie felt ugly, man, from open to close. It felt like a crude, studied insult written, directed and produced by the Ku Klux Klan.
Wiley A. Hall, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Do you long for the days of films portraying black people as loud, lazy, work-avoiding, party-loving, chicken-eating, sex craving, drug maniacs? Well, wait no longer — if you're looking for the most vulgar trip in America, get a ticket to Soul Plane today. The film positions itself as a black version of Airplane, where "The Party is Non-Stop." While the movie does have an extended party scene, the only thing Soul Plane does perpetually is offend.
John Lee. Africana.com
Every possible racial stereotype regarding blacks and whites (and even one brief Muslim stereotype joke) is presented except for the typical white-racist stereotype which is quickly dispelled when Mr. Hunkee's girlfriend throws away his "Cracker World" trucker hat. Instead, the white family is treated the same as any other family. Interestingly enough, none of the African-American passengers have children, and only a security guard shows any paternal instinct regarding his five daughters whom he rarely gets to see. The Hunkees are the only "family" on the plane. Is the movie trying to say that only white people take responsibility for their families and that African-Americans don't care about having families? "Soul Plane" depicts blacks as sex-crazed, pot-smoking, 'shroom-eating drunks who love to dance.
Todd Campbell, Christian Answers
“Soul Plane” is beyond bad. It obliterates the line between poor and unwatchable by being so thoroughly detestable from the very first frame to the fade out.
Jacob Zeigler, 411Maniacom
Do yourself a favor and send Hollywood a message at the same time. Miss this flight.
Shiesty, Black Commentator.
"He died at eventide, when the sun lay like a brooding sorrow above the western hills, veiling its face; when the winds spoke not, and the trees, the great green trees he loved, stood motionless."
Burghardt dead at eventide, sun like a brooding sorrow behind western hills, no wind, his beloved great green trees motionless.
"The verb is like a weed in a field of flowers. You have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish. Take away the verbs and the language speaks for itself."
"Those women over there, probably mothers, bearers of ideas far too voluminous for their modest brains," he writes.
I've found the country to be very different from how you would expect a place in which a third of the population carries a death sentence. When I think of Europe during the plague, I imagine guys in the street with carts calling, "Bring out yer dead!". None of that here - individual cases are generally kept covered up, and the only things to openly remind you of the situation are the advocacy campaigns. Nevertheless, the epidemic casts its shadow across the entire continent, and it definitely has a significant effect on the atmosphere. When people talk about AIDS, it is almost casually referred to as something that is there - as if it always will be. When they speak of sick or dying relatives, it is simply implied that they have the disease. Although it seems as if there has been a lot of effort to do so, no one can ignore the fact that 12 million South Africans will be dead in ten years time.
Recently revealed federal documents show that the Bush administration estimated last year that the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit could cost almost $600 billion, more than half again as much as it publicly predicted at the time. Even worse, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has concluded that administration efforts to conceal this and other unflattering cost forecasts of the proposal while it was debated "appear to violate a specific and express prohibition of federal law."
Medicare's chief actuary, Richard S. Foster, recalls sharing figures on the drug plan with his former boss, Thomas Scully, Medicare's then-administrator. Last November, Foster's numbers far exceeded the $395 billion, ten-year cost at which the Congressional Budget Office appraised the drug bill. Foster says Scully replied: "We can't let that get out."
While I have grave misgivings about prosecuting media executives, I've been thinking how this court decision resonates with the way the American media handled Iraq. Now, I am not saying that the conflicts in Iraq and Rwanda are comparable. Rather, I am suggesting that the media played a similar role in both cases: recklessly inciting a nation to violence.
Most people hopefully understand by now that the American media dropped the ball on Iraq, completely. But instead of crying over spilt milk or persecuting the countless numbers of pundits who got things so very wrong, we should view the Iraq debacle as a lesson about why media reform is needed in this country. Badly. Whether that means new stipulations attached to broadcasting rights, stronger limitations on media concentration, more funding for noncommercial and nonprofit outlets, or whatever other ideas have been floated by media critics and activists, I am not sure. Nonetheless, what I am sure of is that this issue deserves a much higher profile on the national agenda.
You're The Poisonwood Bible!
by Barbara Kingsolver
Deeply rooted in a religious background, you have since become both
isolated and schizophrenic. You were naively sure that your actions would help people,
but of course they were resistant to your message and ultimately disaster ensued. Since
you can see so many sides of the same issue, you are both wise beyond your years and
tied to worthless perspectives. If you were a type of waffle, it would be
Belgian.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Giving all honor and praises to Mother/Father God, who is the head of my life, I greet you in the name of my church, Unity Fellowship Church-New Brunswick, and our pastor, the Rev. Kevin E. Taylor. I want to thank you for welcoming me into your sanctuary, and I pray that God continues to bless you and strengthen you in your spiritual walk.
What bothers me most about Exodus is what should make me admire it most -- that is, it tells a truth about how people behave, something I would rather not hear or know. Humans clump together in arbitrary, tightly knit groups that want to kill other groups and occupy their territory. Other people's children are merely bodies....
...Neither of us had shaken his hand. We were both afraid to ask him to drive along. Afraid of what? He was dizzy from the heat and his dog could barely stand. Together, they could hardly have weighed a hundred pounds. Maybe he had a knife, but not likely -- it doesn't look like he could've afforded one sharp enough to quarter an orange. Maybe he had a disease...."
