onegoodmove: Links With Your Coffee

For congressman, humanism matters - The Boston Globe
But perhaps it was also because of Stark's appraisal of the situation through the prism of politics. Politicians invoking the Bible and faith, he said, do so because of politics, not religious conviction. He told of the time that a Democratic colleague omitted the reference to God while saying the Pledge of Allegiance, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as liberal as they come, "gave him what-for" because, in Stark's opinion, she was worried about losing votes among religious Americans.
YouTube - The Courage of Mayor Jerry Sanders There is nothing like personal experience to change minds.
Monday Musing: Pets and Persons
There are two kinds of people: there are the kooky kind who will spend $4,000 on dialysis for their cat whose kidneys are failing (substitute some significant expenditure of resources for individuals in differing financial circumstances—you know what I mean), even if only to extend its life briefly; and then there are the kind who will make fun of the former (or even regard them with moral disapproval—that money could have been used for better purposes, etcetera). Recent events surprised me by showing that I belong in the first category. And now that I know I belong there, I am going to attempt an explanation or at least hazard a conjecture, a speculation, a plain guess, at what puts some people there.
Kids' Sex Ed Book Under Fire in Maine - 9/21/2007 7:44:00 AM - Publishers Weekly
Library association embraces Banned Books Week - JACKET COPY - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com
Teacher: I was fired, said Bible isn't literal
"I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job," Bitterman said.
(tip to Steve)

Comments

andy | September 25, 2007 9:06 AM | Reply

I hope that mayor Sanders can campaign for a larger California resolution. Even though my personal stance on the subject is that marriage shouldn't be regulated at all and we should have nothing but civil unions (gay or straight), I have to agree with his statements about "separate but equal" and think that this was a very brave move.

BTW, there's an update to the Bitterman story: http://tinyurl.com/3byggf

TeaForTheTillerman | September 25, 2007 4:11 PM | Reply

Re: mayor Sanders: every time you rally and cheer for a political figure attempting an end-run around the democratic process for your own personal gain, you reveal a little more of your true nature. This is no heartwarming moment of political sainthood. It's a man who was emotionally blackmailed by a family member to back a special interest group. It's precisely what we're supposed to eschew in our system.

Understand that every time your side tries something underhanded, it will be met in kind. Expect the Constitutional amendment discussions to start again.

Want civility? Follow the rules.

Erick | September 25, 2007 4:25 PM | Reply

Emotionally blackmailed? More like rudly awakened to their own hypocrisy.

rudely*

k517 | September 25, 2007 5:36 PM | Reply

Why does everything in America have to boil down to a fucking lawsuit? The college is more concerned with the legal ramifications than they are with intellectual honesty, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion (or the freedom to NOT be religious, as the case may be).

This is what worries me most about becoming a teacher in this country. You feel as if you constantly have to watch your back lest you offend someone and provoke a lawsuit and get fired.

This could be one of the (many) reasons why we have such a shortage of quality teachers in our public schools.