nothing better to do...? part XII

First, I need to clear why I haven't been posting for awhile. I have been incredibly busy. I have been taking a new class with Landmark and assisting at events and in registration. Work has consumed a major part of my life more than usual. My energy (what I have of it) and what little free time has been going into my other blog, existential chaos. PLUS, there really has been nothing out of the disordinary going on because all of it is disordinary!

Meirs? I hope neither she nor Bush backs out. We need a little amusement with all of the hurricanes, earthquakes, etc going on in the world.

Plamegate? What goes around, comes around. When you think you're bigger than life, you fall faster and harder with more pain.

FEMA? Murphy's Law in its raw form. The highest level of incompetence ends just where the sign on Harry Truman's desk in the Oval Office said: "The buck stops here." [Of course Truman also said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.]

Iraq? What can I say that everyone else hasn't been saying or starting to say?

On and on it goes.

BUT, here is one thing that fits into the "nothing better to do..." category. Friends have had this email conversation going on about the Starbucks' ad campaign with the sayings from famous and semi-famous people on their cups in order to start "old-fashioned coffee house conversations." [Starbucks words, not mine.]

The religious right were aghast a couple of weeks ago because of an Armistead Maupin quote on one of the cups from Tales of the City that they believed had Starbucks forwarding the "gay agenda." Quel horreur!



You can read the story here: "Tempest brews over quotes on Starbucks' cups," in The Seattle Times.

Soooo, what was Starbucks' response? It pulled the cup from the campaign! AND is including a cup in the spring with a quote from Rev. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life.

"You are not an accident. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He wanted you alive and created you for a purpose. Focusing on yourself will never reveal your real purpose. You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense. Only in God do we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance and our destiny." "Starbucks stirs things up with a God quote on cups," USA Today, 10/19/2005.

What about a quote from Madeline Murray O'Hare? Athiests should have equal time. What about Buddhists? Hindus? Shinto? Rastafarian? The Flying Spaghetti Monster? Hey, they all have agendas too!

So the next Pumpkin Spice, half-decaf, non-fat latte I order I will have to bow my head because some people have

nothing better to do...

how convenient...

With all of the crap that is being thrown at this administration, the New York Times headline is "New York Named in Terror Threat Against Subways." Seems so predetermined given Bush/Cheney/Rove have always deflected criticism using this tactic. The scary part is you don't know whether to believe it or not. It like the old children's story about the the boy who cried wolf. People didn't believe him eventually because they thought he was still pretending. Just like in the story, people's lives are at stake. It's difficult to know what to believe and when any more.

wolf, wolf, wolf...

something better to do...

An article in the mrzine [Monthly Review ezine] has an article, "Neo-Paleyism’s Assault on Reason," by Richard York, that has a very interesting thought on intelligent design that puts a hole into the argument itself.

Supporters of this movement are not deterred by the demonstrated power of natural selection to craft organisms finely attuned to their environments or by the rather obvious point that by renouncing material causes, they have created an infinite regress of explanation – i.e., surely the existence of an intelligent designer requires an even more extraordinary explanation than the existence of an object that appears to have been intelligently designed, so, if we are to follow the "logic" of intelligent design, we must invoke a designer of the designer, and so forth ad infinitum.

Wouldn't it be interesting if we were nothing more than an experiment being performed in a lab by an "intelligent designer" scientist who also is an experiment in a lab by another "intelligent designer" who is in a lab in an experiment by another "intelligent designer...?"

just asking...

and cronies...

Everyone is posting on the nomination of Bush's chief counsel, Harriet Miers, as the replacement for Justice O'Connor. Most of the blogs refer to her nomination as "cronyism." Living in Chicagoland all of my life, I'm used to this as a daily occurrence. However, except for the Chicago Sun-Times, it's not thought to be anything really bad. It's the way things are.

There has long been a tradition of "taking care of family" in Chicago and I don't think that anyone would really be opposed to taking care of "family" before anyone else. It's just that here, in Chicago, it is a large extended family. It includes and encompasses more and more people than the traditional family. It is also a hotbed of diversity. It has extended itself to all races, ethnic groups, sexual orientation groups, corporations, etc. Any entity that lends itself to the fostering of the family "tradition" is welcome and the main focus of this family is the continued existence of itself.

There are many people in Chicago who are against this type of governmental set-up. There are legitimate reasons for it to continue and other reasons to place it under control. One thing that can definitely be said for it is that it works. Anyone who has visited Chicago remarks about how beautiful the city is, how friendly the people are and how well taken care of the city is. I even get these comments in my visits to Paris when people find out I'm from Chicago.

So, if Mr. Bush is taking care of his "family," it is a way of taking care of the continued existence of the "family." In a way, it is survival of the fittest.

Yeah, right..., but what about family that lives in New Orleans and Mississippi or that is in Iraq and Afghanistan or is elderly or is approaching retirement age or is in need of medication or is put out of their homes because of their race or sexual orientation or is needing help finding a job or....

...enough said.

heroes, heroism, humanism..., continued...

Andrew Sullinvan is asking for people to lend their support to Capt. Ian Fishback by emailing supportfishback.@aol.com

I am especially impressed with Andrew's stand for integrity. I believe that integrity is being what I say and saying what I stand for. Capt. Fishback has certainly done this. Drop him an email and show your support. The United States must get back on the high road. For two centuries the U.S. was its word and its stand for freedom and the rights of all people. This administration has tainted our word and brought our integrity into question.

Lend your support in the quest to recreate our integrity.