Liberal Politics USA

Why the U.S. Economy is Stagnating and Failing

2011-06-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

Why, oh why, is President Obama not listening to U.S. economists and academics who obviously have the answers to restoring the U.S. to economic vibrancy and some semblance of the American Dream, which is fairness?

The Truth About the Economy in less than three minutes, by respected economist, Professor Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Clinton. This is a must-watch!

Will Sarah Palin Pics Be Banned in Tennessee?

2011-06-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

"A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to 'transmit or display an image' online that is likely to 'frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress' to someone who sees it. Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to $2500 in fines," reported ARS Technica.com this week.

Does this include all things Sarah Palin? Because her brash ignorance, delusions of grandeur, and seething ambitions frighten the hell out of me...

Republican Debate: Middle-Aged White Guys Ignoring the Issues

2007-05-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

Last's night debate of the Republican candidates for the 2008 race for the White House looked like ten wealthy, middle-aged white guys dressed up for the Saturday social event at the local country club.

I have to agree with David Gergen's analysis that the debaters, sadly, ignored the issues of the day. None of the candidates articulated a plan or vision for the future.... other than itching to bomb Iran. They mainly quibbled over unsolvable "social (sexual) issues" and rehashed the past (Teri Schiavo, Scooter Libby, etc.).

Here's my take on the particpants in that debate, moderated by MSNBC's Chris Matthews .

(See my Profile of MSNBC's Chris Matthews at About.com Liberal Politics.)

Sen. John McCain - Angry and creepy, while waving his arms , scrunching his face and squinting his eyes. He looked disoriented. Maybe nerves?

Gov. Mitt Romney - Slick slick slick. Clever and smart. And more slick. This man could sell ice cubes to snow-bound Eskimos, and then convince them that they're still warm.

Gov. Rudy Guiliani - A New York Republican, whatever that might be... The only Republican on-stage who could siphon votes from Democratic candidates.

Sen. Sam Brownback - Perfect candidate for a church search committee for a conservative evangelical pastor. A straight-shooter and a nice man with a good, albeit, conservative heart. Not presidential material for these times.

Rep. Tom Tancredo - Xenophobia in an expensive suit.

Rep. Duncan Hunter - A San Diego hypocrite on immigration reform (support employers; pursue and punish undocumented workers). Otherwise, a respectable, bona fide conservative. Has presidential charisma.

Gov. Tommy Thompson - Said that companies should be allowed to fire employees for being gay. I believe he also said that a few thousand U.S. soldiers have been injured in Iraq. (Answer: Over 25,000 U.S. soldiers have been very seriously wounded.)

What's left to say about someone so out of touch with constitutional rights and the most urgent issue of our day?

The Others - Who the heck are they???

(Also read Liberal Politics at About.com)

Daily YouTube: Karl Rove in 1972, Working for Nixon

2007-04-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsefld, Karl Rove... they all got their first national political experience working in the Nixon administration.

And when Richard Nixon fell from public grace, they were determined to return to power, and to implement their strong-arm vision of neoconservative, anti-democratic governance.

And they did, 25 years later, under George W. Bush. The legacy of Richard Nixon lives on in the Bush administration...

Here's a fascinating 1972 video clip of Karl Rove, then 21-year-old GOP College Director of the Republican National Committee

CBS 1972 report on the Nixon Campaign, featuring Karl Rove

Daily YouTube: Men Are Not Clueless Goofballs

2007-04-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

I detest the way that men are so often portrayed in the media... on TV sitcoms, in ads, even in films... as clueless goofballs and loveable idiots.

TV examples of this condescending trend includes King of Queens, ABC's According to Jim and CBS's Two and Half Men. (For an intriguing perspective, see Slate 2005 article, Why are fat sitcom husbands paired with great-looking wives?)

The most recent example of husband-as-childish-idiot is the following offensive TV ad:

Burger King Commercial with Outlandishly Childish Husband

The men in my life... husband, sons and son-in-law, father and father-in-law, brother and brother-in-law and nephews, as well as friends, pastors, doctors and the like... are not clueless goofballs.

They're serious, loving, responsible, funny, interesting, imperfect people... just as women are.

Can you imagine the angry outcry if women were portrayed in a similarly demeaning manner in the media?

I grew up with men portrayed on TV as middle-aged, suit-wearing Wise White Fathers... Father Knows Best, Ozzie & Harriet, Leave It to Beaver and the like.

Thankfully, we've grown past that shallow 1950s stereotype.

When will we grow past the 21st century impulse to devalue men, and instead, value them with the gratitude they richly deserve?

As I watch my sons learn to make their ways in a confusing stressed-out world... to build careers, support families, uphold responsibilities... I realize anew that it's not easy to be a man, anymore than it is to be a woman.

Why make life harder via a mean-spirited media campaign demeaning men?

It's wrong... just wrong.

Daily YouTube: Elizabeth Hasselbeck Is a Moron

2007-04-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

"The View" is loud, raucous and occasionally offensive. And so is moderator Rosie O'Donnell. In particular, she blurts her truth in a way that bothers men and some conservative women.

Rosie may offend... but she's usually correct. She's dead-on correct in this March 29, 2007 video in which the women "discuss" the Iraq War and 9/11.

And in my opinion, Elizabeth Hasselbeck is a close-minded, stubborn, moron... which is amply illustrated in this video. On many occasions on "The View", she's proudly voiced a complete lack of understanding of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. It's frightening that young people might listen to her uneducated nonsense.

No wonder the Bushies admire Elizabeth, send her Christmas cards, and invite her to White House events. She's a perfect fit with Bushie women ....

The Women of "The View" Wrangle Over Iraq and 9/11

Also read my article, Profile of Rosie O'Donnell, Activist & Talk Show Host .

(See Liberal Politics at About.com )

Daily YouTube: Anderson Cooper, Stuffed Shirt or Serious Journalist?

2007-03-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

Anderson Cooper takes his journalism seriously, yet he doesn't seem to take himself too seriously. All things considered, that's no small task for an attractive, successful man born with a Vanderbilt silver spoon in his mouth...

But does this YouTube video (below) reveal him to be a stuffed shirt or an above-the-fray, conflict-of-interest free journalist?

I vote responsible journalist. Cooper makes an excellent point about too-close fraternization between the White House and the supposedly objective press.

What do you think?

Anderson Cooper on Karl Rove's Rapping

(Also read Liberal Politics at About.com)

Related Reading
Profile of Anderson Cooper, Journalist & CNN Anchor

Daily YouTube: John McCain's Baloney on Iraq

2007-03-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

No wonder John McCain is experiencing problems raising funds for his stalled 2008 run for the White House. Seems the Straight-Talk Express has a proverbial flat tire.

Sen. McCain was admired for his forthrightness... his unflinching grasp on reality, and his perceived compulsion to face and state the truth.

But judging by this CNN clip from March 27, 2007 , McCain has lost touch with the reality-based world, much like the White House has, on the Iraq War.

John McCain without honesty is just another old, angry, cynical politician. And we have too many of those already...

John McCain's Baloney on Iraq, Debunked on CNN

(Also read Liberal Politics at About.com)

Daily YouTube - Elizabeth Edwards: "Decency Costs Nothing"

2007-03-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

This touching YouTube video illustrates why I admire Elizabeth Edwards.

On this day that she announced a recurrence of her breast cancer, take a minute to appreciate her insightful message, originally broadcast on CBS News in December 2006.

Decency Costs Nothing by Elizabeth Edwards

Daily YouTube: Paul Simon & George Harrison Duets?

2007-03-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

Two extraordinary duets, guaranteed to bring sweet memories to the baby boomer soul...

by Paul Simon and George Harrison!

Absorb. Soar. Smile....

(Liberal Politics at About.com)

Daily YouTube: John Edward's Narcissism on Display

2007-03-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

John Edwards and his gorgeous head of hair.

Just because I'm a Democrat doesn't mean I don't find this hilariously, and frighteningly, narcissistic...

Thanks to Mark Daniels for the YouTube clip tip.

(Liberal Politics at About.com)

It's Good to Be a Californian, Politically

2006-08-31T14:33:00.000-07:00

I'm back. My double-duty at About.com is done (I was temp blogging About.com's diabetes site for the past few months), and I can return to fulltime focus on writing on my sites, and at US Liberals at About.com
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I'm a native Californian, and a lifelong resident.

Like all Californians, I occasionally threaten to move to someplace (pick all that apply) quieter, cleaner, less crowded, with lower housing costs.

But honestly... I'm continually proud of our state's unique, forward-thinking political environment. It's hard to imagine a place where I would politically fit in more contentedly.

What brings this to mind anew are a handdful of headlines from today's Los Angeles Times:

State on Verge of Greenhouse Gas Restrictions
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders agreed Wednesday on a plan to cut by 25% the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from California electric power plants, refineries and other sources by the year 2020... It would make California the first state in the nation to fight global warming by slapping caps on carbon dioxide and other emissions.

Sweeping Changes in Elder Care Pass
Responding to wrenching reports of elder abuse and neglect, the state Legislature on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the most far-reaching changes to California's conservatorship system in nearly three decades.Lawmakers endorsed a package of reforms that would require licensing of professional conservators, who care for the state's most vulnerable adults. It would also require greater supervision of their work by probate courts.

A Vote to Quit the Electoral College
Lawmakers sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill Wednesday that would make California the first state to jump aboard a national movement to elect the president by popular vote.Under the legislation, California would grant its electoral votes to the nominee who gets the most votes nationwide — not the most votes in California. Get enough other states to do the same, backers of the bill say, and soon presidential candidates will have to campaign across the nation, not just in a few key "battleground" states such as Ohio and Michigan that can sway the Electoral College vote.

It's good to be home!

Celebrating the 4th of July: Beautiful America

2006-07-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

Katharine Lee Bates wrote the original version of America the Beautiful in 1893. She wrote the 2nd version in 1904. Below is her final version, written in 1913.

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America ! America !
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,for man's avail
Men lavished precious life !
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

(Also read US Liberals at About.com)

GOP and Immigration Reform: Shame and Xenophobic Sham

2006-06-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

An eloquent editorial from today's Los Angeles Times....

The GOP's immigration shame

How can you tell when a governing party is running out of steam? When it controls all branches of government yet abandons even the pretense of addressing an issue most members claim is a "crisis."

That's what the GOP-led House did Tuesday in announcing that discussions over reconciling its enforcement-centric immigration bill with the Senate's legalization-focused version will be pushed back to September at the earliest, and only after completing more hearings. Instead of naming negotiators and attempting in good faith to bridge the chasm between the bills, House leaders are busy naming locations for "field meetings" that can deliver maximum demagogic effect in the run-up to the November election.

These meetings are nonsense. Congress held more than a dozen hearings on immigration last year before passing HR 4437. That punitive bill filled the streets with millions of protesters angry that it did little to address the nation's need for a legal supply of labor or the estimated 11 million-plus illegal residents of this country, besides turning them into felons.

The Senate version, a flawed piece of work in its own right after too many compromises, at least offered a system (however torturous) by which millions of underground workers could finally come into the open without fear of immediate incarceration or deportation.

Most of the last-minute amendments to the Senate bill brought the legislation closer to the version passed by the House. But Republicans there prefer clinging to the dangerous fantasy that a massive, militarized wall must be approved before discussions can even begin over what to do with the millions of indispensable, but vilified, workers already here.

House GOP leaders can barely conceal their preference for divisive politics over sound policy. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois has reportedly conveyed to President Bush that hard-line enforcement politics is polling particularly well this season. One Republican congressional aide told the Associated Press: "The discussion is how to put the Democrats in a box without attacking the president." This is what passes for Republican leadership nowadays.

Summer and fall will be gut-check time not just for Bush, who has tried in his vague though periodically eloquent way to make immigration reform his signature domestic accomplishment this year, or for pro-reform GOP senators such as John McCain of Arizona, but for the American people. When the vulnerable party in power chooses to adopt a campaign strategy that demonizes a class of people, how it fares will say much about who we are.

Twelve years ago, Republicans were swept into Congress on a platform bursting with energy and ideas, with many measures enacted within the GOP's first 100 days in power. If inaction and xenophobia are all the party has left, this could be its last 100 days.

(Also read US Liberals at About.com)

And the Losing Word Is....Weltschmerz

2006-06-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Finola Mei Hwa Hackett of Canada, the second place finisher in the 2006 National Spelling Bee, lost when she stumbled last night on this word:

"Weltschmerz is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that the physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind. This kind of pessimistic world view was widespread among several romantic authors such as Lord Byronn, Giacomo Leopardi, François-René de Chateaubriand, Alfred de Musset, Nikolaus Lenau and Heinrich Heine.

It is also used to denote the feeling of sadness when thinking about the evils of the world.

The modern meaning of Weltschmerz in the German language is the psychological pain caused by sadness, that can occur when realizing that someone's own weaknesses are caused by the inappropiateness and cruelness of the world and (physical and social) circumstances. "

Take heart, Finola. Lately, we all feel a bit of loss via weltschmerz.....

Decline of Religion Leads to Simon Cowell?

2006-05-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a tiny portion of fascinating blog post with all sorts of new insights, from Stumbling and Mumbling....
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"I’ve said before that religion has utilitarian value. On further consideration, I think this might be even truer than I previously thought. Here’s a theory which, if even only partially correct, represents an argument for Christianity so strong as to swamp everything else.

It’s: The decline of religion is responsible (in part) for the existence of Simon Cowell.

When we stopped going to church, we lost something valuable – the ability to sing. Going to church every week from an early age gave us regular singing practice. It also gave us a collective body of music which was transmitted from generation to generation, which allowed parents to teach children singing and musicianship. And religion was a major reason why countless families, in the UK and US, had pianos, fiddles and guitars and family sing-songs.....

The result of this that music is no longer something we do, but something we consume. Music has become commodified. What’s more, because singing is a skill we’ve lost, we are disproportionately impressed by those who have retained it. So we turn people who would once have been averagely good choir singers into pop stars – a process greatly aided by recording technology.

So, the decline of religion has given us Simon Cowell....

So, every time you moan about the plastic inauthentic second-rate pop peddled by the likes of Simon Cowell, just remember the role the decline of religion has played in its emergence. "

Read the entire post here at Stumbling and Mumbling.

US Ranks Poorly in Infant Mortality

2006-05-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

This story, from AP via MSNBC is heartbreaking and deeply disheartening. But we need to know and face the truth.
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U.S. gets poor grades for newborns' survival :Nation ranks near bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia

"America may be the world’s superpower, but its survival rate for newborn babies ranks near the bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia.

Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia’s rate is 6 per 1,000.

“We are the wealthiest country in the world, but there are still pockets of our population who are not getting the health care they need,” said Mary Beth Powers, a reproductive health adviser for the U.S.-based Save the Children, which compiled the rankings based on health data from countries and agencies worldwide.

The U.S. ranking is driven partly by racial and income health care disparities. Among U.S. blacks, there are 9 deaths per 1,000 live births, closer to rates in developing nations than to those in the industrialized world.

“Every time I see these kinds of statistics, I’m always amazed to see where the United States is because we are a country that prides itself on having such advanced medical care and developing new technology ... and new approaches to treating illness. But at the same time not everybody has access to those new technologies,” said Dr. Mark Schuster, a Rand Co. researcher and pediatrician with the University of California, Los Angeles.

Less healthy than Britain The Save the Children report, released Monday, comes just a week after publication of another report humbling to the American health care system. That study showed that white, middle-aged Americans are far less healthy than their peers in England, despite U.S. health care spending that is double that in England.....

I strongly encourage you to Read the rest HERE.

Elvis Presley in Search of Jesus

2006-05-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

"...The book he took to the bathroom just before he died was either The Force of Jesus by Frank Adams or The Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus, depending on various accounts...

Elvis never made a public profession of faith in Christ, was never baptized, and never joined a church.

Pastor Hamill, former pastor of First Assembly of God in Memphis, says that Presley visited him in the late 1950s, when he was at the height of his rock & roll powers, and testified: "Pastor, I'm the most miserable young man you've ever seen. I've got all the money I'll ever need to spend. I've got millions of fans. I've got friends. But I'm doing what you taught me not to do, and I'm not doing the things you taught me to do" (Steve Turner, Hungry for Heaven, p. 20)."

--- from The Religious Affiliation of Rock and Roll Pioneer Elvis Presley, which is part of Famous Members of the Assemblies of God

Once Again I Wonder...Why Did she Marry Him?

2006-05-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Once again I wonder....why did she marry him?

From AP, via BreitBart.com:

Laura Bush has a knack for making it known when she doesn't agree with her husband. But on the subject of belting out "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish, it's not clear whether the first lady is in President Bush's camp or not.

A Spanish-language version of the national anthem, called "Nuestro Himno," which means "Our Anthem," debuted last week. It features artists such as Wyclef Jean, Carlos Ponce and Olga Tanon and has stirred controversy because it rewrites some of the English version.

President Bush fed the debate with a terse "No, I don't" when asked last week whether the anthem holds the same value when sung in Spanish.

"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English," he said. "And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."

Asked her opinion on Wednesday in an interview with CNN's John King, Mrs. Bush said, "I don't think there's anything wrong with singing it in Spanish."

She noted that "we are a nation of many, many languages" and that the country has already heard many versions of the anthem "like at the Super Bowl."

"What people want is it to be sung in a way that respects the United States and our culture," she said.

But when it was pointed out that this position differed from her husband's, Mrs. Bush had a different answer. "Well, I think it should be sung in English, of course," she said.

She compared it to hymnals including translations into other languages. "I love it when I look at the bottom of `Amazing Grace' and there are the words in the Methodist hymnal in Swahili," Mrs. Bush said.

Lunch Period Poli Sci by David Brooks

2006-04-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

OK...I recently said less politics, more faith here at Heart, Soul & Humor.

But today's David Brooks op-ed in the New York Times is too clever to pass up.....
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Lunch Period Poli Sci by David Brooks

College is still probably a good idea, but everything you need to know about America you can learn in high school. For example, if you want to understand American class structure you'd be misled if you read Marx, but you'd understand it perfectly if you look around a high school cafeteria.

The jocks sit here; the nerds sit there; the techies, drama types, skaters, kickers and gangstas sit there, there and there. What you see is not class in the 19th-century sense, but a wide array of lifestyle cliques, some richer, some poorer, but each regarding the others as vaguely pathetic and convinced of its moral superiority.

Similarly, when it comes to politics, high school explains most everything you need to know. In 1976, Tom Wolfe wrote an essay for Commentary in which he noted that our political affiliations are shaped subrationally. He went on to observe that especially when we are young and forming our identities, we make sense of our lives by running little morality plays in our heads in which the main characters are Myself, the hero, and My Adolescent Opposite, the enemy.

"Forever after," Wolfe writes, "the most momentous national and international events are stuffed into the same turf. The most colossal antagonists and movements become merely stand-ins for My Adolescent Self and My Adolescent Opposite.

If My Opposite, my natural enemy in adolescence, was the sort of person who seemed overly aggressive, brutish and in love with power, I identify him with the 'conservative' position. If My Opposite, my natural enemy in adolescence, seemed overly sensitive, soft, cerebral and incapable of action, I identify him with the 'liberal' position."

And so it goes. In every high school there are students who are culturally and intellectually superior but socially aggrieved. These high school culturati have wit and sophisticated musical tastes but find that all prestige goes to jocks, cheerleaders and preps who possess the emotional depth of a cocker spaniel. The nerds continue to believe that the self-reflective life is the only life worth living (despite all evidence to the contrary) while the cool, good-looking, vapid people look down upon them with easy disdain on those rare occasions they are compelled to acknowledge their existence.

These sarcastic cultural types may grow up to be rich movie producers, but they will remember their adolescent opposites and become liberals. They may grow up to be rich lawyers but will decorate their homes with interesting fabrics from the oppressed Peruvian peasantry to differentiate themselves from their jock opposites.

In adulthood, the former high school nerds will savor the sort of scandals that befall their formerly athletic and currently corporate adolescent enemies — the Duke lacrosse scandal, the Enron scandal, the various problems that have plagued the frat boy Bush. In the lifelong struggle for moral superiority, problems that bedevil your adolescent opposites send pleasure-inducing dopamine surging through your brain.

Similarly, in every high school there are jocks, cheerleaders and regular kids who vaguely sense that their natural enemies are the brooding poets who go off to become English majors. These prom kings and queens may leave their adolescent godhood and go off to work as underpaid sales reps despite their coldly gracious spouses and effortlessly slender kids, but they will still remember their adolescent opposites and become conservatives. They will experience surges of orgiastic triumphalism when Sean Hannity eviscerates the scuffed-shoed intellectuals who have as much personal courage as a French chipmunk in retreat.

Because these personal traits are so pervasive and constant, Republican administrations tend to be staffed by people who are well-balanced but dull, while Democratic administrations tend to be staffed by people who are interesting but neurotic. Because these rivalries are so permanent, nobody has ever voted for a presidential candidate they wouldn't have had lunch with in high school.

The only real shift between school and adult politics is that the jocks realize they need conservative intellectuals, who are geeks who have decided their fellow intellectuals should never be allowed to run anything and have learned to speak slowly so the jocks will understand them.

Meanwhile, the geeks have learned they need to find popular kids like F.D.R. to head their tickets because the American people will never send a former geek to the White House. (Bill Clinton was unique in that he was a member of every clique at once.)

The central message, though, is that we never escape our high school selves. Vote for Pedro.

U2 Rocker Bono on the Old and New Testaments

2006-04-26T22:50:00.000-07:00

"There's nothing hippie about my picture of Christ. The Gospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes divisive love, but love it is.

I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that's why they're so relatable. But the way we would see it, those of us who are trying to figure out our Christian conundrum, is that the God of the Old Testament is like the journey from stern father to friend. When you're a child, you need clear directions and some strict rules.

But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal.

The combination is what makes the Cross. "

--- U2 rocker Bono in an interview in March 2004

Walt Disney on Prayer

2006-04-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

" Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life. I have watched constantly that in our movie work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether it deals with fable or with stories of living action.

This religious concern for the form and content of our films goes back 40 years to the rugged financial period in Kansas City when I was struggling to establish a film company and produce animated fairy tales. Many times during those difficult years, even as we turned out Alice in Cartoonland and later in Hollywood the first Mickey Mouse, we were under pressure to sell out or debase the subject matter or go "commercial" in one way or another. But we stuck it out -- my brother Roy and other loyal associates -- until the success of Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies finally put us in the black.

....whatever success I have had in bringing clean, informative entertainment to people of all ages, I attribute in great part to my Congregational upbringing and my lifelong habit of prayer. To me, today, at age sixty-one, all prayer, by the humble or highly placed, has one thing in common: supplication for strength and inspiration to carry on the best human impulses which should bind us together for a better world. Without such inspiration, we would rapidly deteriorate and finally perish. "

---- Walt Disney in a 1963 anthology, Faith Is a Star

A New Direction for Heart, Soul & Humor: More Faith, Less Politics

2006-04-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the extended absence. I've been pondering a new direction to take this blog....and God laid the answer on my heart today: more faith matters, less politics. And you can now make comments, too! So here starts a new chapter.....
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“My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block. I don’t know what kind of God the rest of y’all are serving, but the God I serve says, ‘Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I’m gonna make sure you’re doing that’.”

--- Mega-popular singer Mary J. Blige, posted on April 18, 2006 to the MSNBC site

What Do Republicans Believe?

2006-03-23T17:28:00.000-08:00

New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks often gets it quite wrong.....but today, he got it exactly right.
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A Vision, Bruised and Dented by David Brooks

The big question in Democratic circles is, Who can win? The big question in Republican circles is, What do we believe? The setbacks in Iraq, the failure to limit the size of government and plummeting poll numbers have changed the way Republicans talk and govern.

If you wanted to put these changes in a nutshell, you'd say the Republicans have gone from soaring Bushian universalism to nervous, dumbed-down Huntingtonism.

Just over a year ago, Republicans were thrilling to the lofty sentiments of President Bush's second inaugural: that freedom is God's gift to humanity, that people everywhere hunger for liberty. To explain his efforts to democratize the Middle East, Bush hit all the high notes of the American creed, while not dwelling much on the intricacies and stubbornness of foreign cultures.

Today, many Republicans have lost patience with Bush's high-minded creedal statements. Like the Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, they have come to believe that culture matters most. Lofty notions about universal liberty splinter on the shoals of Arab customs.

Heartfelt convictions about reducing the size of government disintegrate inside the culture of Washington. Many Republicans have lost faith in efforts to transform patterns of behavior, and come to believe that we shouldn't exaggerate how much we can change.

In the realm of foreign affairs, we have seen the rise of what Richard Lowry of National Review calls the " 'To Hell With Them' Hawks." These, Lowry writes, "are conservatives who are comfortable using force abroad, but have little patience for a deep entanglement with the Muslim world, which they consider unredeemable, or at least not worth the strenuous effort of trying to redeem." They look at car bombs and cartoon riots and wonder whether Islam is really a religion of peace. They look at the mayhem in the Middle East and just want to withdraw. After all, in his book "The Clash of Civilizations," Huntington didn't want to change the Muslim world — he just called for less contact with it.

In the field of immigration, Republican sentiment seems to be shifting away from the idea that the United States is a universal nation, where immigrants come from across the world to work, rise and join in the pursuit of happiness. Now Republican rhetoric emphasizes how alien immigrant culture is; how slowly the Mexicans assimilate, if at all; how much disorder and strain their presence creates.

There is a chance that in the next few weeks, the G.O.P. will walk off a cliff on the subject of immigration. In the desperate effort to win back their base, Republican senators may follow Bill Frist and embrace a draconian enforcement-only immigration bill (which will lose them Florida and the Southwest for a generation).

Finally, there is the issue of domestic poverty. Hurricane Katrina rekindled a brief resurgence of compassionate conservatism, at least for President Bush. But Republicans in Congress were having none of it. They appropriated the money they had to, but they had no confidence that the federal government could do anything effective to transform the culture of poverty: the out-of-wedlock births, the family breakdowns and so on.

In short, Republicans seem to have gone from believing that culture is nothing, to believing that culture is everything — from idealism to fatalism in the blink of an eye.

Recently, I've spilled a lot of ink stressing the importance of culture as we think about poverty, development and foreign affairs. But it's dismaying to see so many Republicans veer overboard into a vulgarized version of Huntingtonist cultural determinism.

European conservatives from Edmund Burke to Michael Oakeshott usefully remind us of the power of culture and tradition. But American conservatives — from Hamilton to Reagan — have never taken that path precisely because they believe in the power of the American creed, precisely because they have an Enlightenment faith in the power of reason to change minds.
Whether in Iraq or the barrio, history is not a prison. Culture shapes people, but cultures are changeable.

Fortunately, there is a great Republican leader who understood the balance between culture and creed: Abraham Lincoln. In this spring of Republican discontent, his approach and governing method will make a good subject for a future column.

Fighting for Fairness in an Immigrant Nation

2006-03-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

An extraordinary op-ed in today's New York Times by Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los angeles, the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the US with 5 million Catholics in 283 parishes.

You can also read about Cardinal Mahony's remarkable fight against HR 4437 at Catholic Cardinal Mahony Rebukes Bush on Immigration, Pledges to Defy Proposed New Law.

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Called by God to Help by Roger Mahony

I've received a lot of criticism for stating last month that I would instruct the priests of my archdiocese to disobey a proposed law that would subject them, as well as other church and humanitarian workers, to criminal penalties. The proposed Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives in December and is expected to be taken up by the Senate next week, would among other things subject to five years in prison anyone who "assists" an undocumented immigrant "to remain in the United States."

Some supporters of the bill have even accused the church of encouraging illegal immigration and meddling in politics. But I stand by my statement. Part of the mission of the Roman Catholic Church is to help people in need. It is our Gospel mandate, in which Christ instructs us to clothe the naked, feed the poor and welcome the stranger. Indeed, the Catholic Church, through Catholic Charities agencies around the country, is one of the largest nonprofit providers of social services in the nation, serving both citizens and immigrants.

Providing humanitarian assistance to those in need should not be made a crime, as the House bill decrees. As written, the proposed law is so broad that it would criminalize even minor acts of mercy like offering a meal or administering first aid.

Current law does not require social service agencies to obtain evidence of legal status before rendering aid, nor should it. Denying aid to a fellow human being violates a law with a higher authority than Congress — the law of God.

That does not mean that the Catholic Church encourages or supports illegal immigration. Every day in our parishes, social service programs, hospitals and schools, we witness the baleful consequences of illegal immigration. Families are separated, workers are exploited and migrants are left by smugglers to die in the desert. Illegal immigration serves neither the migrant nor the common good.

What the church supports is an overhaul of the immigration system so that legal status and legal channels for migration replace illegal status and illegal immigration. Creating legal structures for migration protects not only those who migrate but also our nation, by giving the government the ability to better identify who is in the country as well as to control who enters it.

Only comprehensive reform of the immigration system, embodied in the principles of another proposal in Congress, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration bill, will help solve our current immigration crisis.

Enforcement-only proposals like the Border Protection act take the country in the opposite direction. Increasing penalties, building more detention centers and erecting walls along our border with Mexico, as the act provides, will not solve the problem.

The legislation will not deter migrants who are desperate to survive and support their families from seeking jobs in the United States. It will only drive them further into the shadows, encourage the creation of more elaborate smuggling networks and cause hardship and suffering.

I hope that the Senate will not take the same enforcement-only road as the House.
The unspoken truth of the immigration debate is that at the same time our nation benefits economically from the presence of undocumented workers, we turn a blind eye when they are exploited by employers. They work in industries that are vital to our economy yet they have little legal protection and no opportunity to contribute fully to our nation.

While we gladly accept their taxes and sweat, we do not acknowledge or uphold their basic labor rights. At the same time, we scapegoat them for our social ills and label them as security threats and criminals to justify the passage of anti-immigrant bills.

This situation affects the dignity of millions of our fellow human beings and makes immigration, ultimately, a moral and ethical issue. That is why the church is compelled to take a stand against harmful legislation and to work toward positive change.

It is my hope that our elected officials will understand this and enact immigration reform that respects our common humanity and reflects the values — fairness, compassion and opportunity — upon which our nation, a nation of immigrants, was built.

(US Liberals at About.com)