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Catholicism Made Easy
My mother used to tell a story about how as a young woman in the small town of Reedsville, Wisconsin she liked to go out dancing on Saturday nights. This would be in the early 1940s. Everybody went about 15 miles to Manitowac, the nearest sizable city, for a little night life. Then the local bishop - my mother and most of her friends were Catholic ( Read more... ) -
Happy International (Working) Women's Day
Most people in this country are unaware that today is International Women’s Day. And it would be surprising if those who are aware know that it started here in 1909. Like May Day, initiated earlier in the fight for the eight-hour day, American socialists - the likes of Eugene V. Debs, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Big Bill Haywood - got it going.
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There's Equal and Then There's Equal
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum!
How many evils has religion induced!
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, I
Rick Santorum yesterday, as reported by the Associated Press:
“’The left says “equality, equality.” Where does that come from? Does it come from Islam? …No,’ he said. ‘It comes from our culture and tradition, from the Judeo-Christian ethic.’”
Not an ( Read more... ) -
"I Still Hate Thatcher"
Movies are movies. Real life is real life. And history is history - subject to all and sundry interpretations. Still, in response to Meryl Streep’s winning an Oscar for her role in "The Iron Lady," I wore my “I Still Hate Thatcher” T-shirt to the gym this morning. I got it from the Sinn Fein Bookstore online back when I first heard the movie was ( Read more... ) -
Baptists and Bishops
Southern Baptists are now the “Great Commission Baptists.” They imagine themselves the inheritors of the mission entrusted by Jesus to his disciples, to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you….” (Matt. 28:19-20 ( Read more... ) -
Dumb PETA Tricks - and a Reunion
Friday morning I went downtown; I’d heard there was going to be some sort of Occupy Dallas event. Turns out my information was a little off. It was PETA making a Valentine’s Day-themed pitch for veganism. They had a young couple, in their skivvies, making out in a bed on the corner of Main and Akard in front of a banner proclaiming: “Vegans Make ( Read more... ) -
The Gospel According to Fidel
Funny story in the news the other day:
Fidel Castro Has Found Jesus, Will Ask Pope For Forgiveness, Daughter Says
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/02/fidel_castro_has_found_jesus_w.php
While this estranged daughter of the retired Cuban leader thinks he has recently "got religion" I say Fidel found Jesus a long time ago.
"For I was hungred, ( Read more... ) -
The Myth of the Market
What side of reality does Rick Santorum wake up on in the morning? The scary-Catholic ex-senator from Pennsylvania already endorses torture, admires the assassinations of Iran’s nuclear scientists and looks forward to when he can give the order to start bombing that country. Now, the dedicated “pro-lifer” argues down the mother of a very sick kid ( Read more... ) -
Southern Heritage (an old letter)
A band of local yokels known as the Sons of Confederate Veterans is suing the Texas Dept. of Motor Vehicles over its refusal to issue a commemorative license plate bearing the "stars & bars." My position on the Civil War is clear: the good guys won.
And, by the way, if the slaveowners' rebellion is such a grand part of this state's "heritage," why ( Read more... ) -
An interesting commentary on Obama's speech
(from Al-Jazeera)
Irvine, CA - How do you judge a State of the Union speech that begins with a lie?
There was any number of anecdotes or stories with which President Obama could have begun his talk to the nation. But he decided to begin with the most overused trick in any leader's rhetorical arsenal - to celebrate the military.
"We gather tonight ( Read more... )