“…that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase ‘under God’” – Sen. Barack Obama, missing the point entirely.

Senator, you are correct – I also doubt that most children feel oppressed or brainwashed when reciting the Pledge. But mightn’t some of that have, oh, the tiniest bit to do with the fact that most Americans believe in God? Those who feel oppressed and/or brainwashed are in a distinct minority – and like it or not, that minority point of view is entitled to equal protection under the law.

Also, given the history of the Pledge of Alliegance and the phrase “under God”, how can you not see it as an attempt at intimidation and oppression? It wasn’t included as a celebration of American values, it was added as a club with which to bludgeon suspected Communists.

In your speech, you continue in this vein, deliberately and purposefully obtuse:

“Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square.”

I don’t ask you to leave your religion at the door – what I do ask is that you consider your religion in light of the quote attributed to (among others) Oliver Wendell Holmes: Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.

The bounds of your religious fist and my secularist, atheistic nose are open to question and debate – and to ask me to shut up about, no, to demand of me that I shut up about it is, well, crossing a line. A big line. And whining about oppressed believers (you poor, benighted majority, you) is not a way to endear yourself to me.

Posted by protected static as politics at 11:08 AM UTC

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[title source]

Posted by protected static as politics at 8:53 AM UTC

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This evening, I attended my first Cirque du Soleil performance – “Varekai”. Words just pretty much fail me… The costumes are amazing, the quality of the performace stellar, the music a kind of Delerium/Dead Can Dance/Deep Forest fusion.

The Boy (this was his birthday present) sat rapt the entire 2 hours.

Inspired by the story of Icarus, Varekai tells the story of Icarus after his fall. He does not fall to his death; rather, he plunges into a mystical world, where the inhabitants coax him back to health and teach him to fly again.

It was a pricy evening, but quite worth it… I’d go again in a heartbeat.

Posted by protected static as cultcha, random at 11:34 PM UTC

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…but won’t let anyone see exactly how short.

Professional horse’s ass Tim Eyeman, trying to capitalize on amorphous right-wing outrage, latched on to gay marriage as his latest fund-raising gimmick instead of taxes – and took it in the shorts. R-65, which sought to enshrine the right to discriminate against gays and lesbians in Washington law, will not be on the ballot this year.

Turning in his signatures to get his legalized discrimination referendum on the ballot, Eyeman had to admit that he hadn’t collected enough signatures. As Goldy on horsesass.org points out, there was no independant verification of the signature count – just Eyeman’s statement. And folks, that statement’s worth its weight in the precious metal of your choice.

You see, Eyeman hasn’t shown any compunction about lying in support of any of his other efforts, so I find his claim… dubious. Supporters of R-65 tried to mobilize Washington’s 5,400 churches to participate in “Referendum Sunday”… and from that effort garnered 14,000 signatures.

14,000 signatures. That’s about 1.5 times as many as Eyeman’s signature gatherers collected as of April 26 (That’s after 6 weeks of collection. The numbers are from Eyeman’s own website, and they show an average collection rate of about 2,000 signatures per week – for the weeks in which he reports numbers. After April 26, he stops reporting the numbers (at least on his website) entirely…).

In one month, he pulled in 80,000 more when the churches couldn’t deliver more than 14,000?

M’kay.

Tim, your t-shirt yesterday said “Let the voters decide”. Guess what? They did. I know I’ve certainly signed petitions for initiatives and referenda with which I disagreed – as long as they were honest about what they represented. If an issue is real, and the question is phrased fairly and honestly, sure – it might be worthy of a public vote.

I-65 was not worthy, and the voters of Washington saw that.

Posted by protected static as politics at 9:16 AM UTC

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Because when Googling “men’s paddling tops”, it helps to know if the searcher is into kayaking or, um, leather.

That is all. May your Google-foo be strong.

Posted by protected static as geek, kayaking at 8:08 AM UTC

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Economy? Mixed signals.

Iraq? “Okay” if your values of “Okay” range from “seriously messed up” to “clusterfuck”.

Iran? Not backing down.

Osama bin Laden? Laughing his ass off at us.

Approval ratings? Low 30s.

So what’s a president to do? Why, this of course: Hey, look! Fags! Getting married!

Gosh, I’m glad all those other important details have been taken care of.

Posted by protected static as politics at 3:50 PM UTC

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New York has no national monuments or icons, according to the Department of Homeland Security form obtained by ABC News. (Click here for the actual document.) [Note: Adobe PDF - p.s.] That was a key factor used to determine that New York City should have its anti-terror funds slashed by 40 percent–from $207.5 million in 2005 to $124.4 million in 2006.

Read the whole thing – it’s a stunner. Then repeat after me:

“New York has no national monuments or icons.”
“New York has no national monuments or icons.”
“New York has no national monuments or icons.”
“New York has no national monuments or icons.”
“New York has no national monuments or icons.”

 Perhaps someone should inform the NYC Convention and Visitors Bureau NYC & Company

Funny… that looks like a national monument to me…

[originally seen on Atrios]

Posted by protected static as politics at 8:47 PM UTC

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