Revolution

I saw a very touching video segment on the Rachel Maddow Show. People in Iran yelling from one rooftop to another, at night, "Allah Akbar—"God is Great") to show their opposition to the phony Iranian election.

The video, I think a cell phone movie, of course was smuggled out via the internet, as the authorities have done everything they can to keep information from escaping, not only to the outside, but to other Iranians.
At last the internet is actually providing a significant service to human development—as opposed to being a vehicle for computer games, pron, illicit music downloads and my cat photos.

The old radical in me is really stirred by this example of resistance to the ruling class.

So what's the biggest problem in your life tonight, eh?

Oh, if we could have had something like this in this country in 2000, how different the world would be today.

In the meantime, the Obamarama is still waffling on the "Don't ask, don't tell" thing. Now, the GLBT spouses, or significant others, of federal employees are eligible for the same benefits as federal heterosexual significant others. An advancement in human evolution, but not the biggest one that could be taken.
Getting relocation allowances is not the same as having your marriage recognized as legitimate.

Where is the repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell" we were expecting? Why is the Obama Justice Department defending the so-called "marriage protection" law?
What is this "marriage protection"?

I was just at my daughter's marriage. She didn't need any protection for her marriage. The ability of gay people in massachusetts to marry didn't disuade her from taking the vows with her BOYfriend. I didn't see that she needed any "protection."

This whole foofaraw around marriage is just annoying and I wish I could ignore it. But people I love are involved. I have a good gay male friend, someone whose presence made working in a place I didn't really like bearable, and a wonderful lesbian minister and friend who has meant a lot to my life in the last few years.
I will defend their right to live their lives as they see fit without interference from obsessional, deluded people who feel that they have the only way to truth and to God.

I've said before, it's funny (as in "odd" not as in humorous) that the biggest concern of right-wing Christians is with sexual issues, while Jesus himself said so little about that, but boy, did he talk about the evils of riches. Ask your local evangelist if he (it most likely will be a "he") preaches more about sex or about riches and see what answer you get.

My reading of the New Testament suggests that Jesus was concerned about people's attachment to worldly things, and certainly an obsession with sex would fall into that category, but he saw that the biggest obstacle to humanity was it's attachment to worldly wealth.

As John Ensign, John Edwards and Elliot Spitzer can attest, sex is more likely to bring you down than illicit monetary gain, or political chicanery, at least in this country.
And the reason for that is that we, the collective "we" of the US of A, feel that you should be loyal to your spouse, and to your constituents (if you can't be good sexually how can you be good governmentally?)

Geez, so much hypocrisy and so little time to complain about it. I'm not getting any younger…



Jesus was a Socialist.
Get over it.