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...