About Albert Stern, SEIU President
The
New York Times Magazine (free registration required) has a lengthy article on Andrew Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union.
Purple is the color of Andrew Stern's life. He wears, almost exclusively, purple shirts, purple jackets and purple caps. He carries a purple duffel bag and drinks bottled water with a purple label, emblazoned with the purple logo of the Service Employees International Union, of which Stern is president. There are union halls in America where a man could get himself hurt wearing a lilac shirt, but the S.E.I.U. is a different kind of union, rooted in the new service economy. Its members aren't truck drivers or assembly-line workers but janitors and nurses and home health care aides, roughly a third of whom are black, Asian or Latino. While the old-line industrial unions have been shrinking every year, Stern's union has been organizing low-wage workers, many of whom have never belonged to a union, at a torrid pace, to the point where the S.E.I.U. is now the largest and fastest-growing trade union in North America. Once a movement of rust brown and steel gray, Big Labor is increasingly represented, at rallies and political conventions, by a rising sea of purple.
The Principles Project
The Principles Project is a four-week online discussion to help create a one-page Statement of Progressive Principles: a clear vision of a just society and a progressive politics. The starting point of our discussion is a draft statement that has been prepared with the assistance of 2020 Democrats' 3,500 members. Its purpose is to start people thinking.
They're looking for your help, so check them out.
Inauguration Protestors Are Punks
According to
Media Matters for America,
Nationally syndicated columnist and CNN host Robert Novak said that people who protested President Bush's inauguration "are a lot of punks and it's none of their business and it isn't free speech." He also claimed that Democrats are "so nasty" and that Republican partisans are "nothing like these Democrats."
Here's the
entire transcript.
Destroy the Environment To Hasten the Second Coming of Christ
I thank
Social Gospel Today for pointing out a speech by Bill Moyers, accepting Harvard Medical School's annual Global Environment Citizen Award.
"The speech discusses Moyers' fear that those who believe in the infallibility of the bible are more than willing - if not actively trying - to exploit and destroy the environment in order to hasten the second coming of Christ. It is a chilling thought."
The Neo-Cons Own the Language
Progressive Ink! joins those saying that the political right has taken complete ownership of religious language.
So, to summarize: the neo-cons own the religious language, but do not practice or embody it - they contradict it. Liberals embody the actual message of the Christian Gospels (and almost every other world religion) but can’t attach it to words they don’t own.
One More 'Moral Value': Fighting Poverty
Philocrates discusses an article in the New York Times called "One More 'Moral Value': Fighting Poverty". He says "John Leland doesn't start with Jim Wallis, but Wallis captures the essence of the story:
"In postelection analyses, "values voters" were often equated with evangelical Christians, just as "values" were equated with opposition to abortion and gay marriage. But evangelical churches and seminaries have become increasingly mobilized around poverty both in the United States and abroad.
"This is the great secret story," said Jim Wallis, a progressive evangelical who runs Sojourners magazine and Call to Renewal, a network of religious groups committed to combating poverty.
"The perception of evangelicals is that all they care about is abortion and gay marriage, but it isn't true," he said. "It hasn't been for years."
Cullinane demands a positioning message
An
editorial in the Boston Globe says that John Cullinane, founder of of Cullinane Corporation, one of the first successful software companies -- who now runs The Cullinane Group, Inc. which helps companies develop positioning messages -- is asking candidates and other seekers of political contributions to do what he would ask of any entrepreneur seeking start-up capital: come up with a succinct campaign message. If they can't do that much for him, he is done supporting them.
'Looking back at 2004, Cullinane blames Dean's failed primary campaign and Kerry's general election loss on weak messages. He points to a passage in Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi's book, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which describes a scene where the candidate is surrounded be reporters who are asking questions he cannot answer.
'"Dean had finally been put on the defensive by his competition, those mean Democrats. This was the surest sign he was being outpositioned," says Cullinane. "He had nobody to blame but himself, because he had no new message to put his competition on the defensive."'
Winning Cases, Losing Voters
Paul Starr, co-editor of The American Prospect and the author, most recently, of
The Creation of the Media writing in
the New York Times (free registration required) says that the democratic Party is paying a historic price for the moral crusades of the last half-century.
"Democrats have paid a historic price for their role in the great moral revolutions that during the past half-century have transformed relations between whites and blacks, men and women, gays and straights. And liberal Democrats, in particular, have been inviting political oblivion - not by advocating the wrong causes, but by letting their political instincts atrophy and relying on the legal system."
Competing definitions of Freedom
MyDD says 'I'm "for" freedom. I'm sure you're "for" freedom. We know George W. Bush is "for" freedom. So are the freepers. Geez, Al Qaeda is probably "for" freedom, or at least they would say they are. I don't really think there are many people in the world who aren't "for" freedom and they're even fewer who "hate freedom." But what KIND of freedom are we talking about?'
We've Been Taken Over by a Cult
The Revealer discusses an speech by 'the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, one of the best investigative journalists at work'.
In a transcript of the speech, Hersh says that we have "been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neo-conservatives have somehow grabbed the government.".
The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience
MyIrony.com notes that "flagship evangelical magazine
Christianity Today, in an article called
The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience is running a remarkable article detailing exactly how unchristian most evangelicals really are, according to a series of Gallup and Barna polls."
Agendas of the political right and religious right
The Culture Wars lists the issues that the Christian Coalition will be pushing in the political arena in 2005.
They bear carefully reading ... this is a list of precisely what religious and political liberals are up against. And these people are unified -- we're not.
Just one note from Roberta Combs -- president of the Christian Coalition: 'The election demonstrates that a majority of Americans are tired of being told that they should somehow be ashamed of highlighting their faith in the public square - and yet should accept every ideology, depravity or secular idea that liberals promote. The election results show pro-family Americans stood up and said "enough is enough!"'
'Nuff said.
The Anatomy of a Divisive Doctrine
Progressive Ink! writes on the source of fundamentalist/evangelical theological divisiveness:
He begins by saying "The main source of fundamentalist/evangelical theological divisiveness can be found in the Christian doctrine of Atonement. It is within this doctrine that otherwise good-hearted people find their inspiration to exclude all other religions, systems, and ontologies by broadly labeling them all as “untrue,” or, even more bluntly, “not of God.” Theirs, however, is a doctrine not only from God, but also the foundation of their “one and only true way.” Their “Atonement” says, simply: “Jesus Christ’s (Christ was not his last name, BTW) spilling of blood on the cross reconciled humanity to God, and vice versa.”"
A bit later ... "First of all, Jesus as a sacrifice is a religious carry over from Judaism’s own animal sacrifice system which was a carry over from the rest of the known Mediterranean world. In other words, the entire section of the world - “pagans” and all - practiced animal sacrifices. So, Judaism was doing nothing new or extraordinary and one must wonder if a God who required animal sacrifices was more a reflection of the human being of the time than of any sort of metaphysical being? If it is the former, then Jesus as sacrifice is a mere carry over of a primitive humanity’s religion and it necessity should be questioned."
A Virginia UU in King George's War
This is a blog written by a 39-year old officer in the US Marine Corps who is also a dedicated Unitarian Universalist. He is recording his thoughts, observations, and experiences while deployed to Iraq.
Say No on Gonzales
Armando at Daily Kos opposes the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to the position of Attorney General of the United States.
I agree. The article says it much better than I could.
CC Theology 101
ChaliceChick, in discussing her religous identify, says ...
"Tillich says that everything one says about God is metaphor. My chosen metaphor is gravity. Gravity is everywhere, always pulling on and effecting things, but we don't notice it most of the time. Gravity is a wonderful thing, a miraculous thing, we couldn't survive without it. But it works itself so seamlessly into our reality that only physicists and engineers think about it much. It's just a part of "the way things are' for us."
What a great metaphor. I'm going to use it.
Spiritual but not religious
PeaceBang expresses her frustration with the phrase "Spiritual But Not Religious".
"So tell me", she says, "about the religion of Self you've concocted from bits and pieces of your rejected religious upbringing, your reading, your intermittent attendance in houses of worship and your acquaintance with pop psychology? I'm just dying to know!"
Privatization vs same-sex marriage
In another example of the rapid disappearance of the separation of church and state, the
New York Times (free registration required) observes that "A coalition of major conservative Christian groups is threatening to withhold support for President Bush's plans to remake Social Security unless Mr. Bush vigorously champions a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage."
Safe, legal, and never
According to Slate, Hillary Clinton's taking an approach on abortion that's repositioning the Democratic party to win the abortion debate.
'Abortion is "a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," said Clinton. Then she went further: "There is no reason why government cannot do more to educate and inform and provide assistance so that the choice guaranteed under our constitution either does not ever have to be exercised or only in very rare circumstances."
'Hillary Clinton just endorsed a goal I've never heard a pro-choice leader endorse' said William Saletan, the author of the Slate article. 'Not safe, legal, and rare. Safe, legal, and never. Once you embrace that truth -— that the ideal number of abortions is zero -— voters open their ears. '
Scalia as Chief Justice might not be so bad
Slate argues that appointing conservative justice Antonin Scalia as Chief Justice might not be as bad an idea for liberals as it sounds.
The basic argument they make is that the Chief Justice doesn't have that much power. "If the religious right is salivating over the prospect of Scalia as chief when the seriously ill William Rehnquist retires, accede. Just demand that the president nominate a moderate associate justice in return and threaten filibuster and gumming up of the Senate in other ways if the deal falls through. This would be better than an even-up trade, since replacing Rehnquist's slot with Scalia, and Scalia's slot with a moderate, would ultimately swing some 5-4 decisions away from the conservatives."
Lesbians are inappropriate for the target audience
Here's the
Boston Globe's article on PBS's refusal to distribute an episode of "Postcards From Buster", a part animated and part live action children's show about families. The episode featured 2 lesbian couples and their children.
This week, the new US secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, denounced PBS for spending public funds to tape an episode of a children's program that features lesbians. Spellings complained that the "Postcards" episode -- which is funded by the federal Ready-to-Learn program -- did not meet the objectives of Congress to "use the television medium to help prepare preschool age children for school."
Redefining the word 'science'
The Revealer notes that, in an attempt for foster creationism, "Kansas' State Board of Education is holding a public hearing this Saturday on the proposed statewide science standards which include a proposed redefinition of the word "science" intended to remove bias towards "naturalistic" (non-theistic) belief systems."
Be warned, says The Revealer ... They Will Be Your Doctors When You're Old.
Protecting Mother Earth
According to a
Boston Globe editorial, how good is the United States at protecting the environment?
Actually, we trail Gabon, Peru, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Colombia, Albania, Central African Republic, Panama, Namibia, Russia, Botswana, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Congo, Mali, Chile, Bhutan, and Armenia, as well as 25 other countries.
White House Scraps 'Coalition of the Willing List'
According to
Reuters via ABC News, "The White House has scrapped its list of Iraq allies known as the 45-member "coalition of the willing," which Washington used to back its argument that the 2003 invasion was a multilateral action.
"The senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the White House replaced the coalition list with a smaller roster of 28 countries with troops in Iraq sometime after the June transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government."
Who's Who on the Religious Left
Beliefnet provides a guide to some of the major figures on the liberal side of religion and politics.
SpongeBob controversy: UCC to the rescue
Responding to accusations by James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, that the popular SpongeBob Squarepants and other well-known cartoon characters are crossing "a moral line" by stressing tolerance, the United Church of Christ extends an
unequivocal welcome to the characters.
The Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president, said it is Dobson who is crossing the moral line for sending the mistaken message that Christians do not value tolerance and diversity as important religious values.
The Crafty Attacks on Evolution
The
New York Times (free registration required) opines on "Intelligent Design" in an editorial that begins ...
"Critics of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution become more wily with each passing year. Creationists who believe that God made the world and everything in it pretty much as described in the Bible were frustrated when their efforts to ban the teaching of evolution in the public schools or inject the teaching of creationism were judged unconstitutional by the courts. But over the past decade or more a new generation of critics has emerged with a softer, more roundabout approach that they hope can pass constitutional muster."
Liberalism's elevator pitch
American Prospect asks:
what does liberalism stand for?
You can help answer the question.
Bush The New Dealer
Matthew Yglesias reports on a column by David Kusnet in New Republic Online in which he speaks about "the many, many, many ways in which Bush now speaks like a liberal, regarding not only foreign policy, but domestic policy as well."
Everybody's Talkin' About Christian Fascism
Gary Leupp in Counterpunch says ...
'Commentators right and left are talking about fascism in the U.S. of A. Libertarian conservative Lew Rockwell, in a recent article entitled "The Reality of Red-State Fascism," declares, "what we have alive in the US is an updated and Americanized fascism."
'Fellow libertarian Justin Raimondo, in a piece called "Today's Conservatives are Fascists," calls the neocons shaping U.S. foreign policy "fascists, pure and simple." United Methodist minister Rev. William E. Alberts accuses some of Bush's followers of upholding a "super religion displaying tendencies similar to Hitler's super race with its fascist ideology of superiority."'
JibJab: The Second Term
Check out
Second Term from the creators of "Good to be in D.C." and "This Land." This latest cartoon pokes fun at President Bush, conservatives, liberals, and just about anyone else vying for political power.
Newspaper shouldn't print Liberal voices
In case you wonder what we're up against,
Eschaton quotes a letter to the editor in the Ridgecrest Daily Independent which says in part:
"Surely those others would appreciate the opportunity to be saved. As God's chosen people, we Christians have the right to express our religion and praise tolerant, patient and merciful God, and I don't want to read any more letters from Liberals suggesting non-believers should be allowed to express their superstitions just because we Christians can express ours."
Evangelical Christians' political success may sink
Rev. Dr. Jack R. Van Ens in Vail Daily compares the current political situation to the election of 1800 between John Adams (a Federalist) and Thomas Jefferson (a member of the fledgling Democrat-Republican Party).
Van Ens says "Prior to this election, the Federalists enjoyed roaring success. Evangelical Christians supplied a prominent religious backbone to the Federalists' body politic. When the Federalists lost to Jefferson, the evangelical Christian Empire tottered, too. Christians put their political apples in only one basket. Most vociferously endorsed only the Federalist regime. What the 1800 election teaches is that the party in power may topple, doubled over by the heavy weight of its success. When Christians climb aboard but one political wagon that loses traction, they suffer depleted power and prestige. Danger lurks when evangelical Christians align themselves exclusively with one political faction."
Time to play "spot the code" in Bush text
GetReligion says 'It's time to play "spot the evangelical code words," the game in which the Washington press tries to figure out when President George W. Bush is sending mysterious secret messages to those religious, "values voters" who want to turn American into a theocracy.'
The Price of Homophobia
An editorial in
The New York Times (free registration required) begins ...
"Don't ask, don't tell - just scream in frustration: it turns out that 20 of the Arabic speakers so vitally needed by the nation have been thrown out of the military since 1998 because they were found to be gay. It is hard to imagine a more wrongheaded rebuff of national priorities. The focus must be on the search for Osama bin Laden and his terrorist legions, not the closet door. The Pentagon's snooping after potential gays trumps what every investigative agency in the war on terror has admitted is a crucial shortage of effective Arabic translators."
Conservative Christians target SpongeBob
Conservative Christian groups now seems to be grasping at
straws sponges in an effort to identify homosexuals. Their target?
SpongeBob SquarePants according to the New York Times (free registration required).
According to Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others.
Interview with the sheriff
The Last Midnight has a transcript of an interview with anti-gay Sheriff Holcomb done by Mike Signorile on a national satellite radio show out of New York City.
Signorile's first question: "What is it that you believe empowers you as a law enforcement official to call homosexuality an abomination and how then can gay people who might be in your district there, in your county, feel that you're actually going to protect them against being attacked or ridiculed or have hate against them?"
A gay saint
GetReligion says that the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
profiles a gay saint.
Screening a child's mind
The
Christian Science Monitor reports that fears regarding plans to test every child for mental-health problems are premature.
"Throughout last summer and into the fall", the story begins, "the news crept across websites and spilled onto talk radio: The Bush administration was planning to screen every American child for mental-health problems and put those deemed in need of help on powerful psychotropic drugs. Parental rights would be taken away, and the stigma of mental illness would stain the school records of innocent children. Libertarians and conservatives, home-schoolers and psychiatric rights groups, expressed their concerns."
Bush speaks for God
David Domke and Kevin Coe in Beliefnet discuss President Bush's approach to God versus other presidents' approaches.
The difference, they say, is that most presidents have petitioned God in their speeches. Bush speaks for God. As an example, they give a claim he made in 2003: "Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity." This is not a request for divine favor; it is a declaration of divine wishes.
Can't we just help?
The
Times of India reports that once again, religion is getting in the way of helping tsunami victims.
There's way too much ulterior motive going on over there ... groups are willing to help, as long as they can try to convert the victims at the same time.
Can't groups just go in, do something to help their fellow human beings, and leave?
"Religion" does not equal "stupid"
Nate Knows Nada, in listing some advice for fellow academics at Harvard, includes the following which particularly resonated with me:
"Religion" does not equal "stupid." I have noted this before. Plenty of very intelligent people are religious; I'd like to think that I am a decent example here. Plenty of the religious aren't particularly dumb. In fact, they may be more educated in some forms of social life than many secular academics. Many Christians and Jews know more about literature than secular people, because they have a background in the scriptures that provide much of the inspiration for that literature. Could many contemporary American Christians stand to bring more intellectual rigor and questioning to their faith? Yes, of course. But who is there to teach them, if we as academics tell them that their religious life is incompatible with the life of the mind? For one thing, it's not true, and for another, we fail them if we don't teach them how to think over what to think. Finally, academic credential or progressivism or both do not equal intelligence -- I've heard plenty of stupid, stupid, stupid reasoning come from the pens and mouths of the progressive and the academically credentialed. Sometimes, my fellows academics, "the Christians" are smarter than you.
Only the Grassroots Can Save The Democratic Party
Another Joe Trippi reference - this one from an editorial in the Wall Street journal. He begins by saying ...
"The staggering defeat of the Democratic Party, and its ever-accelerating death spiral weren't obvious from the election results. Two factors masked the extent of the party's trouble. Without the innovation of Internet-driven small-donor fund-raising and a corresponding surge in support from the nation's youngest voters, John Kerry would have suffered a dramatically larger electoral defeat. And the true magnitude of the Democrats abject failure at the polls in 2004 would have been more clearly revealed."
TRIPPI'S TAKE: A Return to America's Founding Principles
Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's former campaign manager, says "the answer for Democrat Party is not to move left or right - it is to lift itself up to the high principles on which our nation was founded."
These is no crisis
For those who don't believe there really is a Social Security Crisis, here's the site for you:
ThereIsNoCrisis.com.
Athens chief fumes at US lewdness claims
Reuters via Yahoo News reports that "A clutch of complaints by U.S. viewers that the Athens Olympics opening ceremony featured lewd nudity has incensed the Games chief, who warned American regulators to back off from policing ancient Greek culture."
"[Gianna] Angelopoulos, who said the handful of U.S. complaints were dwarfed by the 3.9 billion people who watched the ceremony, had a blunt message.
"As Americans surely are aware, there is great hostility in the world today to cultural domination in which a single value system created elsewhere diminishes and degrades local cultures," she said in her commentary."
Somehow, we have to get ahold of ourselves with this "values" thing or we're going to become the laughingstock of the entire world.
Critics attack "lavish" Bush at time of war
Reuters reports that "President George W. Bush is drawing heat over a $40 million splurge on inaugural balls, concerts and candlelight dinners while the country is in a sombre mood because of the Iraq war and Asian tsunami.
'Bush said he rejected such criticism. "It's important that we celebrate a peaceful transfer of power ....You can be equally concerned about our troops in Iraq and those who suffered at the tsunamis (and) with celebrating democracy," Bush said in a CBS News interview released on Monday.'
Transfer of power? Wasn't he re-elected?
Islamist Insurgency Against Modern World
Austin Cline in the
Agnosticism/Atheism Blog says '"What are [Radical Islamists] fighting in "the modern world"? They aren't fighting modern technology, like rockets or DVD players. They aren't fighting global travel or large corporations. No, they are fighting aspects of the modern Enlightenment that undermine traditional social structures, traditional religion, and traditional beliefs. They are fighting against women's equality, gay rights, the separation of church and state, etc. The same things that so many Christian conservatives don't like.'
34 George W. Bush scandals
Salon says "Print it out, send it to Harry Reid, or just read it and weep. Here are 34 scandals from the first four years of George W. Bush's presidency -- every one of them worse than Whitewater."
Preparing for an attack on Iran?
Salon says 'The Bush administration thinks that if it "can get rid of a few crazy mullahs and bring in the young guys who like Gap jeans, all the world's problems are solved," a former CIA official says.'
'President Bush's second inauguration on Thursday will provide the signal for an intense and urgent debate in Washington over whether or when to extend the "global war on terror" to Iran, according to officials and foreign policy analysts in Washington. That debate is being driven by neoconservatives at the Pentagon, who emerged from the post-election Bush reshuffle unscathed despite their involvement in collecting misleading intelligence on Iraq's weapons in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.'
Disability benefits may not be safe
The
Associatd Press via the Boston Globe reports that "Disability benefits may not be safe from the across-the-board cuts that are likely in President Bush's proposal to allow personal investment accounts in the Social Security program."
"Retirement and disability benefits are calculated using the same formula, so if future promised retirement benefits are cut, then disability benefits also would be reduced -- unless the program is somehow separated."
Probably doesn't matter to Bush anyway. The only people be seems to care about - the ones who benefit most from his tax cuts - probably saved enough money to cover an extended disability.
Kennedy says Iraq is Bush's Vietnam
The
Boston Globe says ...
"Kennedy, asked about Bush's comment on CBS's ''Face The Nation," ["The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."] noted that then-President Lyndon Johnson was easily reelected during the Vietnam War but did not seek reelection in 1968. ''Look what happened," Kennedy said. ''Lyndon Johnson had to basically abdicate the presidency because of Vietnam. . . . This is clearly George Bush's Vietnam."
Social Security may not be in trouble
An article by Roger Lowenstein in
The New York Times Magazine (free registration required) argues against President Bush's argument that Social Security needs a radical overhaul.
Lowenstein says "After Bush's re-election, I carefully read the 225-page annual report of the Social Security trustees. I also talked to actuaries and economists, inside and outside the agency, who are expert in the peculiar science of long-term Social Security forecasting. The actuarial view is that the system is probably in need of a small adjustment of the sort that Congress has approved in the past. But there is a strong argument, which the agency acknowledges as a possibility, that the system is solvent as is."
President Bush on the Gay Marriage Amendment
An interview with
The New York Post clears up the President's position on a Gay Marriage Amendment:
The Post: Do you plan to expend any political capital to aggressively lobby senators for a gay marriage amendment?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, I think that the situation in the last session -- well, first of all, I do believe it's necessary; many in the Senate didn't, because they believe DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] will -- is in place, but -- they know DOMA is in place, and they're waiting to see whether or not DOMA will withstand a constitutional challenge.
The Post: Do you plan on trying to -- using the White House, using the bully pulpit, and trying to --
THE PRESIDENT: The point is, is that senators have made it clear that so long as DOMA is deemed constitutional, nothing will happen. I'd take their admonition seriously.
The Post: But until that changes, you want it?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, until that changes, nothing will happen in the Senate. Do you see what I'm saying?
The Post: Right.
THE PRESIDENT: The logic. "
Whiteness Checkpoint
Did you know that there's a Border Patrol checkpoint in Vermont that's
100 miles away from the Canadian border?
MLK Jr's family disagrees on gay marriage
Boston.com reports that there's a split within King's family that fuels a gay marriage debate - his widow backs rights, and a daughter does not.
The Prez: No one needs to be accountable
According to
The Washington Post (registration required), "President Bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath."
I think that George forgot that sometimes words can have unintended consequences.
In Search of a Grand Unified Theory for the Left
Chris Bowers in MyDD thinks the Grand Unified Theory is somewhere between what the billionaire Democrats and the grass-roots organizations are doing.
Sometimes words have unintended consequences
CNN reports that 'President Bush says he now sees that tough talk can have an "unintended consequence."'
"During a round-table interview with reporters from 14 newspapers, the president, who not long ago declined to identify any mistakes he'd made during his first term, expressed misgivings for two of his most famous expressions: "Bring 'em on," in reference to Iraqis attacking U.S. troops, and his vow to get Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."
"Sometimes, words have consequences you don't intend them to mean," Bush said Thursday. "
Ya think? The President of the United States and nominal head of the free world is just figuring this out now??
Singles in VA will be SO relieved
The
Washington Post (registration required) reports that "The state Supreme Court yesterday struck down as unconstitutional a 19th-century Virginia law making it a crime for unmarried couples to have sex."
Stop sneering
The British
Prospect Magazine says "Many Democrats blame the unenlightened people of red-state America for John Kerry's defeat. But most working-class Americans remain politically centrist and a rising number simply want to live in the fast-growing suburbs of middle America. Liberals should stop sneering at the people they aspire to lead."
Thanks to Matthew Yglesias for pointing this one out.
Remembrance, Reflection and Renewal
Here's a message from
Unitarian Universalist Association president William G. Sinkford commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
One of the apparent qualifications to be president
The Washington Times quotes George W. Bush as saying that he doesn't "see how you can be president without a relationship with the Lord," but that he is always mindful to protect the right of others to worship or not worship.
The very definition of tunnel vision, it seems.
Should we boycott God?
Heather Mac Donald in Slate says we need to send a message to God - he has gone too far this time.
"Centuries of uncritical worship have clearly produced a monster. God knows that he can sit passively by while human life is wantonly mowed down, and the next day, churches, synagogues, and mosques will be filled with believers thanking him for allowing the survivors to survive. The faithful will ask him to heal the wounded, while ignoring his failure to prevent the disaster in the first place. They will excuse his unwillingness to stave off destruction with alibis ("God wasn't there when the tsunami hit"—Suketu Mehta) and relativising ("for each victim tens of thousands yet live"—Russell Seitz), even if those excuses contradict God's other attributes, such as omnipresence or love for each individual life."
Retirement privatization British style
In the
February issue of American Prospect, Norma Cohen says "How has Britain’s privatization scheme worked out? Well, today, they’re looking enviably upon Social Security."
" A conservative government sweeps to power for a second term. It views its victory as a mandate to slash the role of the state. In its first term, this policy objective was met by cutting taxes for the wealthy. Its top priority for its second term is tackling what it views as an enduring vestige of socialism: its system of social insurance for the elderly. Declaring the current program unaffordable in 50 years’ time, the administration proposes the privatization of a portion of old-age benefits. In exchange for giving up some future benefits, workers would get a tax rebate to put into an investment account to save for their own retirement.
George W. Bush’s America in 2005? Think again. The year was 1984, the nation was Britain, the government was that of Margaret Thatcher -- and the results have been a disaster that America is about to emulate. "
Lutherans Recommend Tolerance on Gay Policy
The
New York Times (free registration required) reports that ...
'A task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recommended yesterday that it retain its policy against blessing same-sex unions and ordaining gays, but suggested that sanctions could be avoided for pastors and congregations that chose to do so.
'The sixth-largest Christian denomination, with five million members in the United States and Caribbean, the Lutheran Church is attempting to resolve what the task force called a "deep, pervasive" disagreement about the role and treatment of gay men and lesbians.'
Iraq: the new terror training ground
An article in
The New York Times (free registration required) says ...
"The war in Iraq could provide an important training ground for terrorists, according to a government forecast that also says the key factors behind terrorism show no signs of abating over the next 15 years.
"The forecast, issued Thursday by the National Intelligence Council, describes a world in 2020 in which the United States remains the world's foremost power and political Islam remains a potent force. It describes the prospect of a terrorist attack using biological agents or, less likely, a nuclear device, as the greatest danger facing the United States."
Does believing in God relieve pain?
The
Times of London reports that "People are to be tortured in laboratories at Oxford University in a United States-funded experiment to determine whether belief in God is effective in relieving pain.
"Top neurologists, pharmacologists, anatomists, ethicists and theologians are to examine the scientific basis of religious belief and whether it is anything more than a placebo."
Funding is from the John Templeton Foundation whose mission is "to pursue new insights at the boundary between theology and science through a rigorous, open-minded and empirically focused methodology, drawing together talented representatives from a wide spectrum of fields of expertise. Using "the humble approach," the Foundation typically seeks to focus the methods and resources of scientific inquiry on topical areas which have spiritual and theological significance ranging across the disciplines from cosmology to healthcare."
Apparently their mission doesn't include torturing Americans.
Here's how to defeat the enemy
New Scientist Magazine reports that ...
"THE Pentagon considered developing a host of non-lethal chemical weapons that would disrupt discipline and morale among enemy troops, newly declassified documents reveal.
Most bizarre among the plans was one for the development of an "aphrodisiac" chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other. Provoking widespread homosexual behaviour among troops would cause a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale, the proposal says."
Make love, not war, huh?
Boston's SEIU and GBIO
The Boston Herald had
an editorial called SEIU's motives are pure politics in the paper yesterday (paid subscription required to access an editorial).
In it, the editorial implies that the Service Employees International Union in the Boston area has taken advantage of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization with respect to a workers "Bill of Rights" that GBIO is calling on nursing home directors to sign demanding workplace standards that - says the editorial "are mostly mandated by state guidelines already".
"Would the marchers have shown up if they knew it was really all about building [ SEIU's national leader Andrew] Stern's political empire? " asks the editorial.
Good question - and I wish I knew the answer to it. My church is a founding member and active supporter of the GBIO. While it's no secret that the GBIO is pro-union, I would be incredibly upset if it turned out the SEIU had an ulterior motive in asking ministers and church members to try to persuade nursing home administrators to sign on the dotted line.
5,500 have deserted since the invasion of Iraq
An article in
News.telegraph (a UK news site) says...
"American Army soldiers are deserting and fleeing to Canada rather than fight in Iraq, rekindling memories of the thousands of draft-dodgers who flooded north to avoid service in Vietnam.
"An estimated 5,500 men and women have deserted since the invasion of Iraq, reflecting Washington's growing problems with troop morale."
I seem to have missed that story in the U.S. press.
Privatizing Social Security
Discussions on the President's plan to privatize Social Security are taking over the political blogsphere these days. Here's an article by
Ryan Lizza in The New Republic Online - here's how it starts:
'It is getting increasingly difficult to find any Democrat who backs President Bush's plan for partially privatizing Social Security. Private accounts are now officially out of favor even among New Democrats, the most obvious source of potential administration support. The Democratic Leadership Council and a new centrist policy shop called Third Way both recently announced their opposition. Over in the House, many have been eyeing Adam Smith, the leader of the New Democrat Coalition, which has 67 members in the House. But, in an interview with The New Republic, Smith for the first time ruled out support for any proposal that includes private accounts funded through a carve-out of the Social Security payroll tax. "Social Security is a safety net. That's what it's there for. It's there to be the safest portion of your portfolio," he told me. "It's a guaranteed benefit for a reason, and, for that reason, I don't support private accounts." Smith doesn't speak for every moderate Democrat, but, he added, "I think there is broad consensus among New Democrats that you must not privatize the system." '
A Democratic Blueprint for America's Future
Here's
a speech given by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy at the National Press Club.
In it, he says: "I categorically reject the deceptive and dangerous claim that the outcome last November was somehow a sweeping, or a modest, or even a miniature mandate for reactionary measures like privatizing Social Security, redistributing the tax burden in the wrong direction, or packing the federal courts with reactionary judges. Those proposals were barely mentioned - or voted on - in an election dominated by memories of 9/11, fear of terrorism, the quagmire in Iraq, and relentlessly negative attacks on our Presidential candidate."
Faith and Religious Illiterates
NewDonkey.com discusses a commentary in the L.A. Times called
"A Nation of Faith and Religious Illiterates".
"We live in the most religiously believing and observant advanced industrial nation, but our level of actual knowledge about religious doctrines -- our own and others -- is significantly lower than in religiously indifferent countries elsewhere."
Timeless messages from John Quincy Adams
From when he was Secretary of State: ""Whenever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions and her prayers. But she does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the wellwisher to freedom and independence for all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She well knows that by once enlisting other banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extridition, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom....She might become the dictress of the world but would no longer be ruler of her own spirit....Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy."
From when he was President: "It is the responsibility of government to improve the conditions of life for those who are subject to its authority: otherwise government can never accomplish lawful ends."
Now if we could only persuade our current administration to learn from the past ...
The myth of partisan gridlock
Robert Kuttner in the Boston Globe writes "Republicans are in the hands of theocrats and fiscal radicals so keen on dismantling government that they don't care how high the deficit goes. Meanwhile the average elected Democrat today holds roughly the views of yesterday's moderate Republicans like Elliot Richardson or Ed Brooke."
U.S. Government financial health
How's the health of the U.S. Government? Pretty bad, according to a report by the
General Accounting Office.
It starts by saying "As in the seven previous fiscal years, certain material
weaknesses in internal control and in selected accounting and financial reporting practices resulted in conditions that continued to prevent us from being able to provide the Congress and American citizens an opinion as to whether the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government are fairly stated in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles."
And goes downhill from there.
Just One Person
An article on BeliefNet says "Don't buy into the myth that one person can't make a difference.". A great article that should be read in its entirety.
One small portion: 'Sometimes we convince ourselves that the "unnoticed" gestures of "insignificant" people mean nothing. It's not enough to recycle our soda cans; we must Stop Global Warming Now. Since we can't Stop Global Warming Now, we may as well not recycle our soda cans. It's not enough to be our best selves; we have to be Gandhi. And yet when we study the biographies of our heroes, we learn that they spent years in preparation doing tiny, decent things before one historical moment propelled them to center stage.'
Dean's Letter to the DNC
MyDD quotes
Howard Dean's letter to the DNC announcing his candidacy for the Chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.
In it, he says "That word -- 'values' -- has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe. But when political calculations make us soften our opposition to bigotry, or sign on to policies that add to the burden of ordinary Americans, we have abandoned our true values."
Another country bites the dust
The
International Herald Tribune reports that "Ukraine's outgoing president ordered officials on Monday to draw up plans to withdraw the country's 1,600 troops home from Iraq in the first half of 2005 after eight of its soldiers were killed in a blast."
What liberal media?
Atrios in Eschaton says that the CBS / 60 Minutes document story proves there's no such thing as liberal media.
Damaging the right to organize
The New Republic, in an article called
Labor Pains, says "For 45 years, the [National Labor Relations] Act [of 1935] worked reasonably well. The ranks of labor swelled without threatening the profitability of U.S. business. The gap between rich and poor, which had widened in the 1920s, was reduced. The AFL-CIO, courted by Republican and Democratic administrations, became part of the Washington consensus. But, in the 1980s, that consensus began to fall apart when the Reagan administration drastically cut the NLRB's funding -- causing huge backlogs of cases--and when its appointee to the board chipped away at employees' bargaining rights and at penalties for unfair labor practices. Bill Clinton tried to undo some of the damage, but George W. Bush has resumed Reagan's approach. Since becoming a majority in 2003, his appointees to the NLRB have taken business's side in more than 25 controversial cases. None of these rulings was earthshaking, but together, they presage an erosion of workers' ability to organize.
Pentecostalism, not Fundamentalism, fastest growing
According to
The New York Times (free registration required), "The world's fastest growing religion is not any type of fundamentalism, but the Pentecostal wing of Christianity. While Christian fundamentalists are focused on doctrine and the inerrancy of Scripture, , what is most important for Pentecostals is what they call "spirit-filled" worship, including speaking in tongues and miracle healing."
The New Monkey Trial
Salon.com (registration required) says "By persuading the Dover, Pa., school board to teach creationism, Christian zealots have provoked a showdown over the status of not just evolutionary theory, but science itself."
Bush: pig-headed guy
Maureen Dowd in the New York Times (free registration required) says "The president prides himself on being a pig-headed guy. He is determined to win in Iraq even if he is not winning in Iraq.".
"So get ready for a Mohammedan mountain of spin defining victory down. Come what may - civil war over oil, Iranian-style fatwas du jour or men on prayer rugs reciting the Koran all day on the Iraqi TV network our own geniuses created - this administration will call it a triumph.
"Even for a White House steeped in hooey, it's a challenge. President Bush will have to emulate the parsing and prevaricating he disdained in his predecessor: It depends on what the meaning of the word "win" is.
Did Clinton Destroy the Democratic Party?
From
NewDonkey.com ...
'In the new issue of
Atlantic Monthly, National Journal political columnist Chuck Todd adds his not-insignificant voice to a bit of emerging Conventional Wisdom about recent political history: the idea that Bill Clinton was responsible for the decline of the Democratic Party over the last decade or so, especically at the non-presidential level. He concludes by suggesting that Democrats begin their recovery by avoiding close association with anybody or any organization contaminated by excessive identification with "Clintonism." '
Personally, says Paul, I'd treat that hypothesis with a grain of salt.
Faith-Based Funding Recipients, 2003
Here's a list of
Faith-Based Funding Recipients for 2003, broken down by state.
The Associated Press notes that "These are organizations that the Bush administration believes to be faith-based. Some of these organizations dispute that characterization."
Catastrophe vs liberation
Derrick Z. Jackson in the Boston Globe compares death and destruction in the area the tsunami hit with death and destruction in Iraq.
He closes by saying: 'Powell said of the tsunami, "The power of the wave to destroy bridges, to destroy factories, to destroy homes, to destroy crops, to destroy everything in its path is amazing." He said, "I have never seen anything like it in my experience."
Yes, he has. It was in Iraq. The tsunami was us.'
Fox News and the tsunami
According to
Salon.com, "Fox's weak coverage of the tsunami in South Asia proves that when it comes to stories with global significance, the nasty, partisan network isn't ready for prime time."
"Two things have become obvious to news consumers in the aftermath of the tsunami. The first is that even when faced with covering a global humanitarian crisis, Fox News is incapable of turning off its robotic partisanship, not to mention its ever-present sense of victimization. Secondly, Fox News can barely call itself a serious news-gathering operation."
White House paid commentator to promote law
USA Today says "Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same".
"Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."
But he did subsequently apologize.
Message and Messenger
Do the Democrats lack a compelling message or a compelling messenger?
NewDonkey.com discusses this important issue.
10 ideas for liberal candidates to campaign on in 2008
Pericles says: "By the time a campaign starts, it's too late to put a completely new idea into the heads of a majority of the electorate -- especially a broad new theme or a major reframing of an issue voters think they already understand. At that stage, a candidate can do little more than agree or disagree with ideas that the public already knows. President Bush, for example, didn't invent the family-values theme or the strength-makes-you-safe theme or the tax-cuts-create-jobs theme. He just aligned himself with them; that's why his campaign seemed so simple.
So what ideas will liberal candidates be able to campaign on in 2008? The ones we start developing and promoting now. I have ten suggestions.
Savage on the tsunami: "I wouldn't call it a tragedy"
Media Matters for America says:
"During nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage's December 31 broadcast -- his first since the December 26 tsunami resulting from an earthquake in Southeast Asia -- Savage said that the tsumani was "not a tragedy" and that the United States should not be sending any aid to the affected countries because they are "hotbeds of radical Islam." Savage added: "We shouldn't be spending a nickel on this, as far as I'm concerned. ... I am sick of being bled to death by every damn incident on the earth."
Desmond Tutu: Religion is Morally Neutral
In an
article in Newsweek, Desmond Tutu, the 73-year-old Anglican archbishop, says ...
"I keep having to remind people that religion in and of itself is morally neutral. Religion is like a knife. When you use a knife for cutting up bread to prepare sandwiches, a knife is good. If you use the same knife to stick into somebody’s guts, a knife is bad. Religion in and of itself is not good or bad—it is what it makes you do… Frequently, fundamentalists will say this person is the anointed of God if the particular person is supporting their own positions on for instance, homosexuality, or abortion. [I] feel so deeply saddened [about it]. Do you really believe that the Jesus who was depicted in the Scriptures as being on the side of those who were vilified, those who were marginalized, that this Jesus would actually be supporting groups that clobber a group that is already persecuted? That’s a Christ I would not worship. I'm glad that I believe very fervently that Jesus would not be on the side of gay bashers. To think that people say, as they used to say, that AIDS was God’s punishment for homosexuality. Abominable. Abominable."
Is Bush the Antichrist?
Seattle Weekly (described by
Holy Weblog as an alternative paper) asks this provocative question
The article says that "The Christian right and the Christian left are engaged in a debate over who 'owns' Jesus—and whether Dubya is a force for good or evil.".
Beyond Belief
An article by Hanna Rosin of the Washington Post in
The Atlantic says "the real religious divide in the United States isn't between the churched and the unchurched. It's between different kinds of believers."
Read more about the article (which is only available in full to Atlantic Subscribers), here at GetReligion.
Researcher Says Children's 'Tolerance' Video Promotes Homosexuality
The
American Family Association, protector of, among other things, traditional marriage, "is accusing homosexual activists of using popular children's TV characters to indoctrinate young children into their lifestyle. Specifically, the group is questioning the intention of a new children's video featuring those characters.
"SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney the Dinosaur, Arthur, Dora the Explorer, JoJo, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Big Bird, Bob the Builder -- those and many others are among the characters starring in a music video remake of the 1970s song "We Are Family" that is designed to promote diversity and tolerance in the classroom. A special DVD version will be distributed to 61,000 public and private elementary schools nationwide, along with lesson plans for teachers. Distribution of the DVD is being donated by FedEx."
Whatever you do, don't go to the We Are Family website which produced the video because you'll be "given the full pitch about homosexuality."
Down with Diversity, I say! Don't tolerate Tolerance!
God Will Remove Supreme Court Judges Quickly
According to
Media Matters for America, "On the January 3 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, Reverend Pat Robertson, host and Christian Coalition of America founder, made predictions for the New Year based on what he said God told him during a recent prayer retreat. Robertson said that God told him: "I will remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly, and their successors will refuse to sanction the attacks on religious faith." Robertson also said that he "heard it from the Lord" that President Bush will have Social Security and tax reform passed and that Muslims will turn to Jesus Christ."
Must be nice to have your own conduit into seeing the future.
Buying Catholic Church Property: Conflict of Interest?
According to
Bettnet.com," a company called The Follieri Group was formed in 2003 for the express purpose of buying church properties, renovating them, and re-selling them. That wouldn’t be especially noteworthy, except for one thing.
"The site says: “The members of The Follieri Group’s management team are Pasquale Follieri, Raffaello Follieri, Richard Ortoli, Vincent Ponte and Andrea Sodano.” Is that last name familiar? The page goes on: “Because of the Follieri family’s deep commitment to the Catholic Church and its long standing relationships with senior members of the Vatican hierarchy, The Follieri Group understands very well the imperatives of the Church and is sensitive to its needs.”
See the posting which says this may be more than what it seems.
The Academic Left and the Christian Right, Part II
As noted in
GetReligion, "William J. Stuntz, whose "Faculty Clubs and Church Pews" essay drew a year-end endorsement from New York Times columnist David Brooks, now lists the issues on which he believes the secular left and the Christian right may cooperate: abortion, poverty at home, poverty abroad and spreading freedom/nation building."
God's Politics
Elizabeth A. Castelli, in Slate, reviews
the new book by Jim Wallis called
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.
Labor Board's Critics See a Bias Against Workers
The
New York Times (free registration required) says "The rulings of the National Labor Relations Board have poured out one after another in recent months, with many decisions tilting in favor of employers.
"The Republican-dominated board has made it more difficult for temporary workers to unionize and for unions to obtain financial information from companies during contract talks. It has ruled that graduate students working as teaching assistants do not have the right to unionize at private universities, and it has given companies greater flexibility to use a powerful antiunion weapon - locking out workers - in labor disputes."
Fascism Anyone?
In a recent sermon, our Affiliate Minister quoted
an article by Laurence W. Britt in which he cites fourteen common threads that link fascist counties in recognizable patterns of national behavior and abuse of power:
- Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
- Disdain for the importance of human rights.
- Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
- The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
- Rampant sexism.
- A controlled mass media.
- Obsession with national security.
- Religion and ruling elite tied together.
- Power of corporations protected.
- Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
- Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
- Obsession with crime and punishment.
- Rampant cronyism and corruption.
- Fraudulent elections.
Any of this ring any bells?
Hating Swedes
It was even tough to come up with a title for this posting.
The Westboro Baptist Church, home of GodHatesFags.com, wants us all to thank God for the tsunamis and 5000 dead Swedes.
There's no comment I could possibly make.
Evangelical Leader Threatens to Use His Political Muscle Against Some Democrats
The
New York Times (free registration required) notes that "James C. Dobson, the nation's most influential evangelical leader, is threatening to put six potentially vulnerable Democratic senators "in the 'bull's-eye' " if they block conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.
"In a letter his aides say is being sent to more than one million of his supporters, Dr. Dobson, the child psychologist and founder of the evangelical organization Focus on the Family, promises "a battle of enormous proportions from sea to shining sea" if President Bush fails to appoint "strict constructionist" jurists or if Democrats filibuster to block conservative nominees."
Ann Coulter's "Christian" values
Renee in Ohio writes in
The Village Gate:
"The following is from Names and Faces in the Washington Post
And we leave you with a belated and un-Christmasy Christmas thought given to us by none other than that the liberal-blasting, knock-you-off-your-seat Ann Coulter, as posted on her Web site last week. Stand back, people, here it comes: "To The People Of Islam: Just think: If we'd invaded your countries, killed your leaders and converted you to Christianity YOU'D ALL BE OPENING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS RIGHT ABOUT NOW! Merry Christmas." When we asked Coulter what the response was to this little ditty, she e-mailed us: "It's a big hit!" We bet."
A Creation Story For Evolutionists
Kos has a
Creation Story For Evolutionists.
It starts ...
"Perhaps....
...the beginning, God was no size at all. Because there was no Space. And no age at all, because there was no Time.
God just was.
And perhaps God was lonely -- and did something extraordinary.
Perhaps God grew.
And when God grew, Time and Space exploded into being.
Stuff at colossal temperatures shot outwards, clumping into clouds of burning gas and splashes of red hot liquid. Suddenly God was everywhere, because there was everywhere to be.
And God called Time and Space her Universe."
Some disasters are a warning, others aren't
Hesham A. Hassaballa ("A Midestern Muslim") says, in Beliefnet,
"Last summer, when hurricanes devastated Florida, I heard a disconcerting sermon at a local mosque. The imam said that such disasters should be taken as a “warning.” I’ve heard other imams say that after America is beset with a tornado, or a hurricane, or an earthquake, that it is "God's justice for America's wrong done unto Muslims."
So far I haven't heard of any imams preaching a similar message about the victims of the tsunami."
Philocrates asks: 'As long as we both shall love'?
He quotes 2 articles - in UU World and Harvard Magazine - examining marriage. One intriguing question by William J. Doherty, who heads the University of Minnesota's marriage and family therapy program: "I am at once proud of and bemused by our current denominational work on behalf of same-sex marriage. Given our collective silence on the value of marriage until recently, I wonder sometimes if we believe in marriage or just in the right to get married."
