Supporting the Separation of Church and State

Archive for January, 2008

Catching Up

As always anymore I am playing catch up. Between full time job, part time job, full time school, a wife, and kids there just isn’t enough time in the day. On the bright side the part time job is winding down, school is over in July when I finish my Bachelor’s degree(!!!), and that will free up some much needed time. I am also working to find ways to be more efficient and that will free up time too. So, enough of my rambling, here is some of what I missed the past week or so. I know there is more so feel free to comment with whatever you feel has been important lately.

The City Council has approved the purchase of a new safe house for the Pretty Bird Woman House. If you remember we wrote several times on their situation and helped with fund raising. You can read more here, here, here, and here is the post on their blog about it too. I have written about this a lot but I am really proud to be a small part of such a powerful movement that is helping so many.

Obama is gaining important supporters left and right. Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, and Kathleen Sebilius from Kansas (yay!) have all recently thrown their support behind Obama. To tell the truth despite my earlier doubts about his experience I am actually getting excited about him too. I still think he would make a better vice-president to get some experience but for the first time in ages I could fully support any of our top candidates.

Speaking of famous endorsements for Obama we can also add in Hulk Hogan. The Hulksters endorsement is exciting for one reason, we get to ponder who’s endorser can beat up the others. Huckabee has Chuck Norris and McCain has Sylvester Stallone. I say instead of an election we have a no holds barred cage match and whoever wins gets the presidency. With all the voter suppression and fraud this may actually be more fair. For the record my money is on Chuck Norris because I heard that there is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist. How do you fight against that?

John McCain apparently has a secret method of capturing Osama bin Laden (remember him, Bush doesn’t?). He wont give anything away but I think if you read the last paragraph, then factor in the new Rambo movie, it’ll be something like that. Why do Republicans get all their ideas from bad action films? That must explain their fascination with old actors.

Lets see in Republican news Rudy’s campaign has officially ended. later today. I’m still undecided if this is way overdue or way too soon. On the one hand he is one of the worst possible candidates. He is is a horrible person with a horrible record and he has horrible ideas. I’m glad to see him go. On the other even Republicans can’t stand him once they get past the image of him as the hero of 9/11. That fantasy would have been easy to burst later when it mattered. Oh well, good riddance.

Reflections on the Debate

I watched the CNN Debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tonight and I have to say that I was impressed by both of them. Barack has steadily gained public speaking skills and Hillary has finely honed her already amazing ones.

There are, of course, many similarities in policy between the two but I was finding myself agreeing more with Hillary when their differences were highlighted. In things like health care, the mortgage crisis, and Iraq I found that she came across as more knowledgeable and having much the same positions as I myself hold.

One major disagreement I have with both of the candidates is a plan for health care. I would like to see a single payer universal health care plan, like Kucinich championed. Hillary is more toward the universal idea but does not include a single payer. Instead she would roll back George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, which are set to expire and I think should roll back anyway, and cover the remainder of the cost to the government by making the system more streamlined and efficient. She would do this by going to electronic records and focusing on preventative measures.

Obama would offer incentives for people to purchase their own health care and then would also focus on lowering the premium costs through providing more efficient services and focusing on preventative measures. His would still leave out a projected 15 million, a figure which he dismisses.

Throughout the debate I felt that Wolf Blitzer was really trying to stir up the bad blood that seems to be between the two but neither of them took the bait. There were a couple of times where they almost turned snarky but not quite. It was really very refreshing and I am ended the debate feeling very hopeful about the coming elections.

No matter which candidate gets the nomination I will feel comfortable voting for them in the general election. I am so excited! Finally an end to the madness of King George!

The Bible Makes You Dumber

Categorized: Religion

If your wondering what books will make you smarter, and which ones to avoid, I have stumbled across the perfect resource for you! This website has taken the top 10 books by university and compared that to the university’s average SAT scores. The results show what books are most popular based upon intelligence.

You can see the entire list by going to the page linked above, but here are the top and bottom 10 for your convenience. They also have a list of music that makes you dumb if your interested. Spoiler Alert…Beethoven makes you smarter.

The 10 Books That Make You Smarter …

  • Lolita*
  • 100 Years of Solitude
  • Crime and Punishment*
  • Freakonomics
  • Catch 22*
  • Atlas Shrugged
  • The Alchemist
  • Cats Cradle
  • Enders Game
  • Life of Pi

The 10 Books that make you Dumber

  • The Coldest Winter Ever
  • The Holy Bible*
  • B More Careful
  • Nervous
  • Flyy Girl
  • Farenheit 451*
  • True To The Game
  • Addicted
  • The Color Purple
  • Zane

So there you have it, the Bible ranked as number 92 in the top 100 books that make you dumber. Of course this isn’t scientific and is mostly intended to be funny, but its still interesting. I have personally read 5 of these, 3 of the top 10 and 2 from the bottom. How many have you all read?

Happy Roe Day to Canada

Categorized: Politics

Ok, so its not Roe day. But today is the 20th anniversary of Canada’s historic pro-choice court case R. v. Morgentaler. For more information read the wonderful write up on bastard.logic titled A Landmark Victory For Reproductive Liberty. Just wanted to give a cheer out for our friends to the North.

One thing that is universal across borders and time is that no matter how much the forces of oppression fight against it, progress still takes place. It may stop or move back from time to time but conservatives have never accomplished anything except to slow down progress. In the end humanity always wins.

http://wwjv4.com

Breaking: John Edwards to Drop Out

Categorized: Democrats

Via AP by way of Feministing Edwards will be announcing today at 1:00 eastern.  I had always suspected he was running for Vice President so we will see what happens.  This officially makes it a 2 horse race, though it always has been.  Sad but not too surprising.