The latest round of healthcare reform legislation in America has created a revival of the abortion debate, due in large part to the inclusion of the Stupak amendment, within the bill (HR 3962) passed in the House of Representatives, which excludes abortion coverage under any healthcare format/… Read full post »

In Missouri, a few parents were offended, on religious grounds, by a non-religious t-shirt design worn by Smith-Cotton High School band students.  The school district bought all the t-shirts and banned the t-shirts from being worn.  Each year the high school’s band gets/… Read full post »

Capitalism and Profit:

Antithesis to Quality Healthcare

One of the main arguments put forward by opponents of a single-payer public healthcare system is the supposed increased cost to taxpayers.  That argument deceitfully avoids the fact that many or most of those taxpayers are cu/… Read full post »

I continue to see comments from Obama supporters that express the hope that Obama is “positioning himself” for some future move that he supposedly will make at just the right moment.  I think people who make the argument that Obama is “positioning himself” s… Read full post »

A story in Courthouse News, Judge Finds It Legal for Police to Taser Suspect to Get DNA Sample, reveals some interesting new developments in the torture debate and how it is affecting our basic rights as citizens: 

“New York Supreme Court Judge Sara Sperrazza ruled it was not unco… Read full post »

Many think President Obama and Judge Sotomayor did the right thing in retracting her now-controversial statement from her 2001 lecture, A Latina Judge’s Voice.  Well, they may be right on one level – the level of political pragmatism – and they may be wrong on an… Read full post »

Monster/Suicide/America

Words and music by John Kay, Jerry Edmonton, Nick St. Nicholas and Larry Byrom

(Monster)

Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of kingdom and… Read full post »

A fear in your life will not go away by ignoring or denying it, it will only be overcome by facing it and accepting it.  – Ganesh

At this moment in the unfolding of the Obama presidency there is much discussion about investigation of the… Read full post »

In November of 2008, the United Nations passed a measure titled Combating Defamation of Religions.  Is it possible to “defame” religion?  The term has very specific legal meanings, which are entirely inappropriate with regards to questioning religion.

Defamation:

&middo… Read full post »

My wife loves watching movies.  She especially loves romantic comedies, but she likes anything about love and romance.  Happy endings are particularly important in her enjoyment of these movies and she really dislikes sad endings.  Sometimes she will even avoid watching a movie/… Read full post »

I just got hit by a computer virus call “Antivirus 360”.  I was surfing the Internet when several pop-up windows appeared.  All the pop-ups indicated I was at serious risk from various forms of computer viruses.  I knew it was a scam, and quickly clicked the close window &l… Read full post »

American reluctance to make issues of lies in the face of truth is astounding. 

This video shows two separate instances in early and mid 2001, prior to the 9/11Trade Center attacks, in which Colin Powell and Condi Rice both state quite clearly that Iraq no longer has any… Read full post »

Society Lives…

This post is partially inspired by Monte Canfield’s account of his experience with killing at age 10, which can be found here.  His story reminded me of my own similar experience at the same age, and I realized that it fit nicely into this post.

Read full post »

 “Dignity” is a word we hear often in a variety of contexts.  And while we all probably think we know what dignity means, there seems to be a lot of disagreement about what constitutes dignity and what does not.  What is a dignified life as opposed to an undignified… Read full post »

Once upon a time I wandered into the land of OS looking for its renowned Wizard; the Wizard of OS.  I traveled link after link, over rough terrain and smooth, but to no avail.  I encountered many interesting people, many peaceful exchanges and many difficult conflicts,/… Read full post »

Washingtonpost.com has the story of charges of manslaughter being filed today against Blackwater Guards for the 2007 murders of Iraqi civilians.

The prosecutors’ claim that manslaughter is the proper charge seems to contradict their description of the crime:

One man was shot in the ch… Read full post »

One day I noticed, as I was driving, that someone new had moved into a house that had been vacant for a short time. The house was located between a quarter mile and a half mile upriver from the little mom-and-pop grocery store in which I was working, located… Read full post »

I recently read an article by Henry D. Schlinger entitled, Consciousness is Nothing but a Word.  The article dealt with the problems in “explaining”, and more specifically defining, consciousness.  The author said:

In my view, we aren’t expla… Read full post »

Okay, the 101-word game: I'll play, too.  Everyone else has done such a nice job with this that I doubt I'll measure up, but I'll play anyway.

My girlfriend shocked me; told me, “Move out,” unexpectedly.

I found a new place; new roommate; new life; unexpectedly. … Read full post »

WSJ.com reports that Obama will most likely leave Bush’s intelligence policies in tact, which would equate to a betrayal of those who voted him into office to reverse many of the Bush administration’s illegal spying policies. 

The article says:

"He's going to take a… Read full post »

I recently ran across this article about new scientific research that promises to eventually relieve one of the most frustrating aspects of brain and spinal cord injury.

The article says, “In a mouse study published in the November 7 issue of Science, researchers temporarily silenced genes… Read full post »

Well, we have finally arrived at the point from which we can start to see glimpses of the post-Bush era.  I’m still numb, and what I feel more than anything else at this moment is relief; relief that we will soon have a thinking man representing our nation instead of/… Read full post »