Monday, May 16, 2005
Prejudice, Religion, Evolution, Dr. Phil
So last week Danica Patrick recorded the fastest time in qualifying at Indianapolis. I am no racing fan but I do love when things happen, anywhere, that piss off ignorant white males. Now before you get flustered, I am a white male, but I am not ignorant, and by no means are all white males ignorant, but the ones that are seem to be very vocal and, therefore, annoying. It is just that niche that makes racist, sexist, and generally ignorant remarks that irritate me so. For example, a few years back I was rooting for Sammy Sosa to top Mark McGuire in the home run race for no other reason than to upset the ignorance on my college campus that made the statement they were rooting for McGuire simply because he was white. Stupidity is all around I suppose. I couldn’t make this shit up, the truth is way stranger than fiction.
Speaking of truth vs. fiction, I saw the trailer for the film “Last Days” by Gus Van Sant. The only movie I have seen from him so far has been Elephant, which I loved. Being an avid Nirvana fan as you know from a previous post, I am eager to see this movie.
Let’s talk happenings: What’s the deal with the proposed US military base closings? It will reduce the American military presence in the world ( maybe a good thing ) but will cost people around the world jobs, not to mention force many American military personnel to be shuffled around. This is being backed by both Reps and Dems in Congress and will no doubt cause some resentment. Head’s Up for the 2008 election when the Reps do a 180 on this issue and come out looking like the saviors of jobs and such even though it was Rumsfeld initiative. Oh those tricky Republicans. And before you dismiss me as “Liberal” (not a bad thing by the way) I’ll have you know I am a registered Progressive due to reaching a personal limit on the bullshit I could swallow from the two party’s in power in the US.
On the lighter side: the Associated Press reports that in Minnesota a priest is under fire for denying communion to parishioners sporting rainbow sashes. Apparently the sashes are a support symbol by the Rainbow Sash Alliance, which supports the rights of gay Catholics. Ah the poor Catholic church. We keep thrusting them into the media for their clinging to 19th century ideals. Heaven forbid they move their thinking into the 21st century and allow equality for all…but this is the organization that openly excludes women from positions of power and openly dismisses and excludes gay followers as sinners. How an organization can operate in this day and age and express this kind of thinking is beyond me. But let’s face it, this is organization that threatened to execute Galileo for heresy if he published his discoveries that the Sun was the center of the universe (I am stretching this one, it wasn’t Catholicism specifically, but some form of Christianity).
In keeping with the religion topic, in Topeka Kansas a local school board is wrestling with the issue of teaching evolution. Here are the two sides of the debate in a nutshell: the “intelligent design” theory supporters argue that the universe is so vast and complex that a higher being must have created it. To embrace this logic, a higher being also created my wife’s thought processes, HTML and Dr. Phil fans. We all know the scientific approach of Darwin. I will refrain from what I believe here, and simply ask why creationism and Darwinism can’t both be taught as theories? Since neither one is 100 percent provable, present them both and leave it as that, or does that make too much sense? Why the uproar that if we provide kids with theory and let them decide what to believe on their own that that is SO terrible. I think we need to let people think for themselves, isn’t it bad enough that we are bombarded daily with slanted media everywhere we look? On that note, I will leave you today with a quote that I got from most college professors in my undergrad years (sure it was drilled into my head, but I think its apropos here) “Those who do not study and learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
Speaking of truth vs. fiction, I saw the trailer for the film “Last Days” by Gus Van Sant. The only movie I have seen from him so far has been Elephant, which I loved. Being an avid Nirvana fan as you know from a previous post, I am eager to see this movie.
Let’s talk happenings: What’s the deal with the proposed US military base closings? It will reduce the American military presence in the world ( maybe a good thing ) but will cost people around the world jobs, not to mention force many American military personnel to be shuffled around. This is being backed by both Reps and Dems in Congress and will no doubt cause some resentment. Head’s Up for the 2008 election when the Reps do a 180 on this issue and come out looking like the saviors of jobs and such even though it was Rumsfeld initiative. Oh those tricky Republicans. And before you dismiss me as “Liberal” (not a bad thing by the way) I’ll have you know I am a registered Progressive due to reaching a personal limit on the bullshit I could swallow from the two party’s in power in the US.
On the lighter side: the Associated Press reports that in Minnesota a priest is under fire for denying communion to parishioners sporting rainbow sashes. Apparently the sashes are a support symbol by the Rainbow Sash Alliance, which supports the rights of gay Catholics. Ah the poor Catholic church. We keep thrusting them into the media for their clinging to 19th century ideals. Heaven forbid they move their thinking into the 21st century and allow equality for all…but this is the organization that openly excludes women from positions of power and openly dismisses and excludes gay followers as sinners. How an organization can operate in this day and age and express this kind of thinking is beyond me. But let’s face it, this is organization that threatened to execute Galileo for heresy if he published his discoveries that the Sun was the center of the universe (I am stretching this one, it wasn’t Catholicism specifically, but some form of Christianity).
In keeping with the religion topic, in Topeka Kansas a local school board is wrestling with the issue of teaching evolution. Here are the two sides of the debate in a nutshell: the “intelligent design” theory supporters argue that the universe is so vast and complex that a higher being must have created it. To embrace this logic, a higher being also created my wife’s thought processes, HTML and Dr. Phil fans. We all know the scientific approach of Darwin. I will refrain from what I believe here, and simply ask why creationism and Darwinism can’t both be taught as theories? Since neither one is 100 percent provable, present them both and leave it as that, or does that make too much sense? Why the uproar that if we provide kids with theory and let them decide what to believe on their own that that is SO terrible. I think we need to let people think for themselves, isn’t it bad enough that we are bombarded daily with slanted media everywhere we look? On that note, I will leave you today with a quote that I got from most college professors in my undergrad years (sure it was drilled into my head, but I think its apropos here) “Those who do not study and learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
