Yesterday (and the day before), we had a very lively debate on religion at Shakespeare's Sister, which generated more comments than any other topic before at this blog, and although there were many commenters all contributing on a topic about which people have extremely deep feelings, it stayed a civil (and thereby productive and interesting) discussion the entire time.
To that end, I just want to say thank you.
I don't know why I'm blessed with such amazing, thoughtful, and just generally cool readers, but I sure am grateful for all of you.
(Especially since you'll allow me the occastional rant when something really gets my goat.)
A Slight Indulgence
…and His Heart Ain’t In Great Shape, Either
Building on my last post about the president’s rather curious priorities, here’s yet another example of Bush’s selective concern for his electorate:
Native Americans across the country -- including tribal leaders, academics and rank-and-file tribe members -- voiced anger and frustration Thursday that President Bush has responded to the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with silence.You know what, Clyde? I don’t think so, either. Unless, of course, it was a poor white community, or one which looked decidedly blue on an electoral map, or for any other reason didn’t tickle his political fancy. See, Bush just continues to prove that he doesn’t give a shit about anyone unless he’s going to garner more political capital that he can spend on behalf of furthering the agenda of his beloved corporatists or throwing a bone to the voracious fundies, who are so determined to claw their way to preeminence that they ignore the corporate monolith-favoring policies of which their great leader is so fond, that will eventually come back to bite them in their poor, bankrupt, minimum-wage, no-healthcare, no-legal recourse asses.
Three days after 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed nine members of his Red Lake tribe before taking his own life, grief-stricken American Indians complained that the White House has offered little in the way of sympathy for the tribe situated in the uppermost region of Minnesota.
"From all over the world we are getting letters of condolence, the Red Cross has come, but the so-called Great White Father in Washington hasn't said or done a thing," said Clyde Bellecourt, a Chippewa Indian who is the founder and national director of the American Indian Movement here. "When people's children are murdered and others are in the hospital hanging on to life, he should be the first one to offer his condolences. . . . If this was a white community, I don't think he'd have any problem doing that."
The reaction to Bush's silence was particularly bitter given his high-profile, late-night intervention on behalf of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman caught in a legal battle over whether her feeding tube should be reinserted.Yeah, it tells you what an absolute plonker he is.
"The fact that Bush preempted his vacation to say something about Ms. Schiavo and here you have 10 native people gunned down and he can't take time to speak is very telling," said David Wilkins, interim chairman of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the North Carolina-based Lumbee tribe.
Even more alarming than Bush's silence, he said, is the president's proposal to cut $100 million from several Indian programs next year.Alarming. Right. Par for the motherfucking course.
Why is it that every time there’s some group that’s been offended, ignored, affronted, or otherwise slighted, or conversely, cynically celebrated as a cause de jour, by Bush & Co., a quick look at the budget shows massive cuts in funding to some sort of program or other that would have benefited them?
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, in an informal discussion with reporters Tuesday, said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who were killed."How about instead of thoughts and prayers, you put that $100 million back into the budget? If you can’t, because your rampant warmongering and insistence on further padding the pockets of the already-wealthy with further tax cuts won’t allow such “discretionary spending,” maybe you ought to just shut the fuck up.
Brain Dead
In addition to the myriad of other hypocrisies of the Bush administration that the Schaivo case has pointedly highlighted, this might be the ultimate cherry on top of the gigantic sundae of unmitigated temerity (hat tip WTF Is It Now?):
According to doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., 60 percent of the wounded soldiers coming back from Iraq have traumatic brain injuries.That’s right. Bush’s proposed 2006 budget includes cutting a $9 million program for treating people with traumatic brain injury, which completely eliminates the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Federal Traumatic Brain Injury Program. The Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996 was passed
Unfortunately, the Bush administration has recently completely zeroed out funding for the Federal TBI Act, which provides exactly this kind of help.
To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for the conduct of expanded studies and the establishment of innovative programs with respect to traumatic brain injury, and for other purposes.This endeavor, however, was considered expendable by the President who now undermines the checks and balances of our system of government, issuing an edict from the executive branch to direct the legislative branch to undermine the judicial branch. Willing to subvert one of the fundamental tenets of our democracy, he was not willing to earmark $9 million for the continuation of a program that studies traumatic brain injury—despite its importance in developing possible treatments for fully 60% of our returning wounded soldiers. Support the troops indeed.
And note—the program did not require a specific amount of funding to keep it alive. Indicating a $1 million budget, or even a $100,000 budget, for the program would have sealed its reauthorization, but refusing to fund it at all was its death sentence.
I guess there are some plugs worth pulling when nobody’s paying attention.
Sign of the Apocalypse #154: Pat Buchanan Agrees with the Rabbi
Crooks and Liars has the video of the Daily Show on the media coverage of the Schiavo Fiasco here.
Friday Limerick
Ode to the Real Euthanasia Candidates (or, Please Put Us Out of Our Misery)
The revolting yet priggish Bill Frist,
Is first on our expendables list.
I can tell him, “So long!”
With no hope I’m wrong
That he’ll never, ever be missed.
Next up is our leader King George;
Who hopes an alliance to forge
With bigwigs galore
And wingnuts who ignore
The two groups’ vast moral gorge.
And what of Jebbie, his brother?
In him we find yet another
Who in Terri sees
A chance to please
Both the fundies and a ballbreaking mother.
And lastly the prick Tom DeLay
As repugnant as long is the day.
Oh please pull the plug
On this hideous thug
And send him at last Satan’s way.
Friday Blogrollin'
Here we go:
Preposterous Universe. Go read anything; it’s all good.
Liberty Street, whose author generously shares a very emotional story here from the perspective of someone who lost a daughter and shows with subtlety that it can be done privately and with dignity.
Alas (a Blog). This is a recent favorite.
Heraldblog. All good, all the time.
Oliver Willis, who should have been on my blogroll a long time ago.
Who Says It's Women Who Can't Hack the "Food Fight?"
Yesterday, over at Big Brass Blog, a brave (ahem) anonymous commenter said about me:
[F]rom your writing in general (vitriol, aggression, hate, intolerance) I'd say you were one of the least respectful people I've encountered in my blogosphere.My response:
Yeah, I'm a regular Ann Coulter of the Left.
Not that witty, I know, but I just couldn’t be bothered arguing. Who cares?
Why share this little anecdote? Well, to point out that criticisms of bloggers come with the territory. Sometimes they’re fair, and sometimes they’re not. But hey, as they say, if you can’t take the heat, then get out of the kitchen. Or, perhaps more accurately, if you can’t ignore the heat, then stop turning on the stove.
Yesterday, a lesser known blogger posted a critique of Atrios’ Eschaton that was critical, but respectful. Atrios responded by providing a link, which was followed by the Atriosian Army, who proceeded to do the dirty work that Atrios no doubt knew that they’d do. It got ugly—and it didn’t have to.
Pam’s got the whole story at Big Brass Blog.
Bush and Political Opportunism, Part 9,826 and Counting
The Sun-Sentinel reports (link via Raw Story):
As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show.Read the rest at Big Brass Blog.
Two weeks later, a Florida official summarizing the hurricane response wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was handing out housing assistance "to everyone who needs it without asking for much information of any kind."
Open Thread
Okay, the religion discussion is getting hard to keep up with across three different comments threads, so let's continue it all here, shall we?
Keep going, everyone--it's superb! I've really enjoyed reading all your thoughts on the topic.
Eugh
JJ’s got a fun (though rather revolting) post up over at Big Brass Blog that starts with this:
Fast food is one of the 4 main food groups that keeps me alive. I have tried dieting but just can't get past my recommended daily allowance of cheeseburgers. However, this makes me think twice about the quality of food that I am consuming……and ends with this:
…tell us what has been your worst fast food experience?I know you’ve got stories to share, Shakers. Head on over.
Question of the Day—Part Two
This one’s for secular liberals.
As part of the first question, I outlined my own difficulties with trusting and understanding religious liberals, but maybe your beef with them (if you have one) is different. If so, this question’s for you.
Secular libs, what’s your main problem with religious liberals?
(Please note, this is specifically about religious liberals, not the fundies with whom we all have a problem.)
Question of the Day--Part One
This one’s for the religious liberals.
I think part of the reason that there are many liberals who feel intolerant toward religious people is that when the fundamentalist adherents of any of the major religions are questioned about positions that seem anti-women’s equality, anti-gay, anti-choice, and even, in some cases, racist, they can cite places in their religious texts that do indeed inform those positions, if not overtly advocate them.
A source of pride among liberals is, of course, a respect for logic and reason, and many secular liberals, myself included I must admit, struggle to reconcile a respect for religious liberals when it seems as if calling oneself a Christian (for example) and also denouncing the idea that homosexuals are hellbound sinners (for example) requires a certain amount of intellectual dishonesty.
I have a minor degree in theology, and I’ve studied with some brilliant Jesuits who were, frankly, unable to ever give me a satisfactory answer to that question. I’ve heard everything from the Bible has gone through many translations to hate the sin; love the sinner, but none of them really convinces a secular (and rational) liberal that either you’re not relying on some kind of convoluted mental gymnastics to justify or erase the parts of your religion you don’t like, or that you’re not quite as dependable a political ally as you assert.
So I’m opening it up for discussion. It’s part and parcel of the discussion started below, which I found quite fascinating, and now I want to see if we can talk about the real problem, which is, to put it succinctly, a mistrust of religious liberals.
Religious libs, how do you square your own tolerance and egalitarianism with some of the more intolerant and decidedly illiberal teachings of the religion to which you subscribe?
Me and You and God
I consider myself an atheist, in the sense that I have no relationship with or belief in any type of anthropomorphic god. I believe there is plenty about this existence that is outwith the capacity for human understanding, much of that falling into a category that might best be described with that muddy and imprecise word "spiritual," but I am, for all intents and purposes, an atheist.
That said, I have respect for those who are religious, as long as they don't wield it like a weapon and regard my beliefs with the same respect I extend to them—a reciprocity generally determined by one’s opinion about whether religion belongs in the public sphere. Once it starts creeping beyond privacy and into a place where I am expected to conform to religion’s expectations of its adherents, that’s when the problems begin.
There have been a lot of problems with just that sort of invasiveness lately, and, consequently, the intensity of the response of the nonreligious to such incursions has escalated. To that end, the Green Knight, a liberal Christian blogger, whose contributions on religious topics are invaluable, has written an interesting piece on the intolerance of the Left toward religion, questioning, quite fairly, whether much of the contempt shown toward religion (and, by association, religious people, irrespective of their politics) was birthed by possible injustices meted out by the religious (or just plain old intellectual snobbery), and noting, quite rightly, that we’re going to have to excise those demons if we don’t want to alienate potential allies.
It’s a dialogue we need to have on the Left; undeniably there is a backlash against religion as a result of the insurgence of religiously driven wingnuttery that has become such a prominent part of the national debate, but many liberals have become incapable of tolerating the merest presence of godspeak. And not all religious people are intolerant; indeed, some of the kindest, most inclusive, most welcoming people I’ve known have been devoutly religious, letting a belief in God inform a rare and wonderful empathy, rather than narrowly construe their boundaries of acceptance into something odiously judgmental and unrecognizable as an intention of the tenets of any major religion. It is tempting, and easy, to cast the religious in together as a uniform lot, especially when the most vitriolic of their numbers are the ones who seem to have the loudest voices. But good godly people dissociate themselves from that garbage, and we should be willing to do the same.
Cackle...Sob...Cackle
Me4President on irony:
In an effort to appeal to both liberals and conservatives, I have come up with a new campaign slogan. I think the "I support the troops, Fuck the President" is good. But I need those swing voters. Therefore me and my crack campaign staff of myself has come up with a new one.It kind of makes me laugh and cry at the same time.
I believe everyone has a right to live and I am willing to kill to protect it.
Karl Rove will be so jealous. Especially after I turn it into a fake news story.
Compassion Fatigue
Mahablog hits the nail on the head:
This is going to sound very cold, I realize, but it's the honest truth: I was reading the umpteenth news story quoting poor Mrs. Schindler pleading for somebody to step in and "save" her daughter, and a wave of pure, unadulterated annoyance swept over me. I suspect I am not alone.Indeed. And with 87% of the American populace wanting to be put out of their misery were they in the same position as Terri (and I tend to believe that most of the remaining 13% don’t fully comprehend what her situation actually is), most probably feel little compassion for the Schindlers, and a great amount for Terri (and her husband, Michael). The Schindlers, you might reasonably suspect, have lost the plot, and are not acting out of anything but self-interest at this point. And you’d be right (as noted by Emma at the American Street):
The Schindlers have had the Florida governor and legislature at their disposal for the past several years, and now the United States Congress and the President have taken unprecedented steps to intervene in their little family drama. Today the Schindlers are shopping federal courts to find one that will give them what they want. I don't watch much television news, but I bet the Schindlers are on somewhere on cable nearly 24/7.
I don't know what percentage of Americans have watched a hospitalized love one die, or what percentage have dealt with heartbreaking questions about DNR orders, life support, organ transplants, etc. I suspect that a whopping majority of people over the age of 40 have been there and done that. And, nearly always, these decisions are made quietly and privately. It doesn't occur to most people to make a federal case out of their grief.
How many of these Americans are looking at the Schindlers and thinking, who the hell do you think you are? How many are thinking, I loved my baby, my child, my wife, my father just as much, but I could let them go without setting the whole country in an uproar.
One of the most enlightening documents is the Guardian Ad Litem report that had to be filed under Florida’s Terri’s law(which was later found unconstitutional). Several sections spoke to the Schindler’s motivations. Here’s the most horrifying:That’s some seriously fucked up shit right there. (I’d like to say something more eloquent, but my brain is only capable of its basest animal reaction to that gruesome revelation, I’m afraid.)
Testimony provided by members of the Schindler family included very personal statements about their desire and intention to ensure that Theresa remain alive. Throughout the course of the litigation, deposition, and trail testimony by members of the Schindler family voiced the disturbing belief that they would keep Theresa alive at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb, and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open heart surgery. There was additional, difficult testimony that appeared to establish that despite the sad and undesirable condition of Theresa, the parents still derived joy from having her alive, even if Theresa might not be at all aware of her environment given the persistent vegetative state. Within the testimony, as part of the hypotheticals presented, Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it. Throughout this painful and difficult trial, the family acknowledged that Theresa was in a diagnosed persistent vegetative state.
My sympathies for the Schindlers dried up right about here, out of fear, I think. Or horror. They would keep a mindless, limbless husk in a bed, because it would make them feel joy?
Terri doesn’t need saving anymore; the Schindlers do. Although I fear they are as far beyond help as is their daughter.
(Associated reading: Digby on the very real possibility that this is an example of “‘conservative’ people who want to control their children's lives long past the time they are legally and morally allowed to do so.”)
What She Said
What She Said’s Morgaine is putting together a list of liberal male bloggers. Now, I could have just put in all the names of my favorites, but instead, I’m going to let you go over and introduce yourself to Morgaine.
She has a great blog (which has now been blogrolled) and a kickass blogroll rife with cool bloggrrls, which you should definitely check out while you’re over there.
Have fun!
Question of the Day
Finish this simile:
Tom DeLay is as corrupt as...
Or, if you don't like that one:
The Bushies' radical agenda is as scary as...
Have at it!
McCain’s Slide into Irrelevance Continues Unabated
Not to be all Seinfeldian about this or anything, but what is with this guy?!
Sen. John McCain said Tuesday the conclusions of a commission investigating intelligence failures on weapons of mass destruction should not lead to new questions about whether the Iraq war was justified. "America, the world and Iraq is better off for what we did in bringing democracy," McCain said…(Read the rest at Big Brass Blog or Ezra’s juke joint.)
