The magnolias are in bloom in Washington. The magnolia blossoms that grow most frequently here look like tulips, so most people call them “tulip trees.” I took a quick walk at lunchtime yesterday, and saw the tulip trees in the park in front of the building where I work, then walked over to Farragut Square, down to the White House and back to work. What a beautiful day!
-
Mideast Peace
-
Creative Commons License
Elizabeth Edwards’s Profile of Courage
When Elizabeth Edwards announced on March 22 that her terminal cancer would not derail her husband’s campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, she raised the standard of political debate for next year’s election and for the coming years. She has shown us that ideas and ideals are worth fighting and dying for.
Snarky harradins like Ann Coulter have become the face of Republican polical discourse during the Bush White House years, as they spew one-liners such as Coulter’s infamous anti-gay slur to refer to John Edwards. No more. The gig is up, Ann. Your shallow meanness is seen by the American public for what it is: cheap, nasty, and irresponsible. You have been outclassed by a woman of conviction, true intelligence, and unstoppable courage—qualities no one will ever accuse you of possessing.
» Read the rest of this entry »
God of One-Size-Fits-All? If both of us think alike, one of us is unnecessary
Harold Myerson’s piece entitled “God and His Gays” in the Washington Post, in which he addresses the blog post last week by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, is troubling and thought-provoking — but in a good way, I think. I suggest you read the entire piece because there’s not a wasted sentence, but here are a couple of excerpts:
…Mohler’s deity, in short, is the God of Double Standards: a God who enforces the norms and fears of a world before science, a God profoundly ignorant of or resistant to the arc of American history, which is the struggle to expand the scope of the word “men” in our founding declaration that “all men are created equal.” This is a God who in earlier times was invoked to defend segregation and, before that, slavery…
…Mohler’s conundrum: how to reconcile a God who creates homosexuals with a God who condemns practicing homosexuals to hell? A mysterious God may be well and good, but a capricious or contradictory God can inspire so much doubt that He threatens the credibility of the entire religious enterprise…
Andrew Sullivan on Episcopal Church: “An astonishing act of conscience”
“An astonishing act of conscience and Christian witness from the leaders of the Episcopalian church” — hat tip to Andrew Sullivan:
…We fully understand that others in the Communion believe the same, but we do not believe that Jesus leads us to break our relationships. We proclaim the Gospel of what God has done and is doing in Christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion, and peace. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church. We proclaim the Gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of God. The Dar es Salaam Communiqué is distressingly silent on this subject… » Read the rest of this entry »
Wayne Besen on The Daily Show
Wayne Besen’s parents and my parents have been friends for many years. The last time Buckley and I were in South Florida to see my parents, we went to spend an afternoon with the Besens in Miami Beach. (Wayne was in New York.) Buck and I are somewhat older (and stodgier) than Wayne, and I admit I bust his chops when I think he’s out-of-line. Sometimes the things he says or writes make me cringe, but most of the time he makes me proud to know him just the same, and the video below made me laugh. This video is a segment from Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, and may be a little “out there” for some of our regular viewing audience, but the rest of you will likely laugh hysterically like I did. Way to go, Wayne!
[Note: Comedy Central split it into two parts, so you’ll have to watch them both — you’ll just have to!]
Scientists muzzled, Congress told
In the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald:
The Bush Administration has run a systematic campaign to play down the dangers of climate change, demanding hundreds of politically motivated changes to scientific reports and muzzling a pre-eminent expert on global warming, the US Congress has been told…
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Unwittingly, [General Pace] dropped the façade…”
Cynthia Tucker in yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
The nation’s top military officer, Gen. Peter Pace, has expressed regret for comments he made recently about gays serving in the armed forces. But it’s better that he said what he believed out loud and on the record…
Unwittingly, the general dropped the facade that has covered the homophobia rampant among the top officer corps. That’s progress. Now, the White House, military officials and congressional leaders can have a frank discussion of the risks of allowing simple bigotry to dictate fitness for the armed forces…
Truth be told, most top officers already know that gay troops don’t undermine efficacy, disrupt unit cohesion or erode discipline. One of the dirty little secrets of current Pentagon policy is its hypocrisy: When soldiers are needed for battle, when the military is desperate for “boots on the ground,” the purges of gay men and women drop significantly, as countless studies have shown. That’s been true in every conflict since World War II…
Moral waivers allow rapists, murderers to join U.S. military
The U.S. military grants thousands of moral waivers a year to allow people into the military who would otherwise not be eligible.
Gen. Peter Pace said last week, “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.” If he does not condone immoral acts, how does he sleep at night knowing that, while he is forcing gays out of the military, at the same time violent criminals are allowed to serve in the military in order to make up for the shortfall caused by forcing gays out?
The military allows moral waivers for these offenses and more: Murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, indecent assault, sedition, riot, “carnal knowledge of child under 16″, arson, criminal libel, extortion, adultery, fornication, prostitution/solicitation, resisting arrest, vandalism.
Last March, a soldier allowed into the army under moral waivers, Private Steven Green, admitted to raping, murdering and burning the body of a 15 year old girl in Iraq, then murdering several members of her family. It is insanity to forbid people from serving in the military when they have committed no crimes but are judged immoral by some, and then replacing them with known violent criminals who are judged as immoral by all. Stop sending American criminals into the military to become emissaries to the world. Stop issuing moral waivers now.
The Attack of the Biblical Illiterates!
Did you know that Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc? Amazingly, only 30% of American Christians can name ONE of the four Gospels. About the same number know who gave the Sermon on the Mount. (No it wasn’t Martin Luther King, Jr.) With Easter around the corner, I shudder to think what people believe.
In a country that professes itself to be Rabidly Christian, we are Biblically Stupid. A new book by Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, has a great new book about the importance of religious literacy.
And no, it wasn’t Thomas Edison who said, “Let there be light.”
Read his OpEd in the Los Angeles Times of March 14.
Also, there is a good review of his book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t in the Washington Post, March 4.
Pace: “We should not condone immoral acts” yet military issues moral waivers
Yesterday, General Peter Pace, chairman of the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts.”
Ironically, they serve alongside openly gay soldiers from other countries in Iraq and Afghanistan. So much for gay soldiers causing problems in unit cohesion and morale: Our soldiers have been fighting alongside openly gay soldiers for years, it’s just that those openly gay soldiers belong to the British or Austalian military. Gay soldiers are allowed to serve in the U.S. military but only if they lie about being gay.
Even more ironically, the Baltimore Sun reported a month ago that the number of “moral waivers” granted by the military to convicted felons has more than doubled in the last three years alone in order to meet recruitment needs. » Read the rest of this entry »
Former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson: “Overturn the ban on gay service in the military”
Great opinion article in today’s Washington Post by Sen. Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming:
As a lifelong Republican who served in the Army in Germany, I believe it is critical that we review — and overturn — the ban on gay service in the military. I voted for “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But much has changed since 1993.
New dollar coin: On the cutting edge
“Several inscriptions traditionally found on the face of circulating coins have been moved to the edge [of the newly issued one dollar coin], making these coins unique among U.S. circulating coins. They are ‘E Pluribus Unum,’ ‘In God We Trust,’ the year of minting, and the mint mark.” Click on “Edge Lettering” and turn the coin around with the control to see the edge.
