EVOLUTION/CREATIONISM:
“We just asked this two weeks ago, on one’s belief when it comes to evolution versus creationism. A three-part question that’s been asked off-and-on in slightly different formats by Gallup over the last couple of decades, that asked respondents whether they believed that man was created . .
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D. This article was distributed by email to the membership of The Metaphor Project email list. It is reproduced at greaterdemocracy.org by the kind consent of Susan C. Strong, Ph.D. On Monday someone suggested to me that we should reframe the Bush administration’s phrase, "the ownership society," right away. I had been [...]
Are political parties obsolete? I don’t think so. I think they can serve an important role in connecting people, building community, and providing a sense of membership. … The Democratic Party hasn’t done a good job of it, so perhaps the question ultimately isn’t whether political parties are obsolete, as much as it is why isn’t the Democratic Party doing this key part of its job
Often, when people are confronted with a problem, they fall into what is often called Black and White thinking. They find themselves confronting a dilemma, and they think there are two possible and contradictory solutions. Even the word ‘dilemma’ implies two possible solutions.
I have just watched the first two hours of the BBC program “The Power of Nightmares.” Very powerful, just as Thom Hartman recently wrote on Common Dreams. Originally broadcast in England in October, it is, in fact, a much stronger and more useful analysis of the Neocon/Radical Islamist movements, opposite sides of the same bad penny, than Fahrenheit 911. The Power of Nightmares does an excellent job of tracking the two germs seeds as they emerged from just two individuals in the 1940s. Would that The Power of Nightmares were as widely distributed and as easily available for study as F/911.
According to Tim Appelo in Seattle Weekly, “the Bush church is Antichristlike indeed. It is institutionalized deception, anti-American ugliness with a beguiling face, a neocon job.” Appelo writes a careful, well-documented consideration of the history of fundamentalist Christian beliefs: Though the story of the Beast and various other biblical verses are associated with the Antichrist, [...]
Cynicism is the mortal sin of my generation.
We had a lot to be cynical about. Vietnam, Nixon, sex, drugs, and all the rest. Every institution we looked to in our youth failed us.
So we grew into adulthood without ideals, and now America pays the price for that. Because when you don’t really believe in anyone, you’re bound to fall for anything. This sounds like a contradiction but it’s not.
When you have solid values you can measure what you’re told against what you trust. When you lack that foundation you will buy false promises.
Those who know the value of a dollar are frugal, which is the route to economic success. Those who fail to value a dollar are spendthrifts, which is the route to ruin. We grew up without that value and are spending ourselves broke.
Those who grow up with religious faith may question it, even reject it, but we measure faith against faith and make a rational choice. Those who feel they’re without faith will take it like hard liquor, become drunk on faith, which is what Mao was saying, and what “mega-churches” are selling.
One of my favorite artists is Brian Andreas, the creator of StoryPeople, which are an imaginative combination of art and poetry. We’re fortunate enough to have 10 of his sculptures dancing on our living room wall. And one of my favorite Story People is called Imagining World:
The talk today is about how Oregon DNC member Mary Botkin has been unseated by Jenny Greenleaf! Blue Oregon has particularly good coverage of this….
As I read more about this, I spent time reading through a blog entry about the campaign. This is a fascinating read. Both Jenny and Mary contributed comments. I believe it serves as a good model for people to discuss politics, and I would love to see similar blogs in future elections.
Davidson Loehr of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin has published a sobering sermon called Living Under Fascism. He refers to an article called Fascism Anyone by Laurence W. Britt, originally published in Free Inquiry Magazine, which documents an analysis of seven fascist regimes (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Francos Spain, Salazars Portugal, Papadopouloss Greece, [...]