Big fucking deal...

There, I said it.



Is it really so scandalous that Vice President Biden did too?

Death Knells of Democracy: Mayor Goodman

Rejecting the President

The President will be in Las Vegas Thursday and Friday of this week but the mayor has refused to see him.

In continued backlash to comments Mr. Obama made about "blow[ing] a bunch of cash in Vegas," Mayor Oscar Goodman (Independent) has stated that "I've got other things to do quite frankly for my constituents here in Las Vegas [than meet with the President]".

Power to the mayor, seriously. Mr. Goodman's job title says "Mayor of Las Vegas" not "Sycophant to the President".

Candid is the new cool

Penn State coach Joe Paterno when asked to comment on the allegations that the University of Michigan has exceed NCAA regulations on summer practices: "I don't read the newspapers."

After a summer in DC, it's a good reminder that some people don't feel the need to pretend to care.

Detroit manager Jim Leyland on whether or not Tigers' pitcher Jeremy Bonderman was ready to play after being recalled from Triple-A baseball: "He better be, or else he could have stayed down there and gone walleye fishing."

All hail candidness. Two points in one night.

Obama and Racism: Can't we all just get along?

The elephant in the room: That's the only way I know how to describe the racial tension that permeates the majority of black and white relations. There is something present of which no one dares to speak.

I wish I could write off the recent drama involving President Obama, Professor Gates, and Sargeant Crowley as mere miscommunication or foolishness. Unfortunately the root lies closer to ignorance, intolerance, and self-righteousness.

This issue requires much thought and dialogue. In lieu of a post I am not ready to write, I leave you some words from political commentator Andrew Breitbart. His entire column can be read online at WashingtonTimes.com.

Less than a month after being confirmed as the nation's attorney General, Eric H. Holder Jr. called out the American people as "essentially a nation of cowards" for refusing to talk openly about race....

Americans, especially nonblacks, are deeply fearful that [racial interaction] is predicated on an un-American premise: presumed guilt. Innocence, under the extra-constitutional reign of political correctness, liberalism's brand of soft Shariah law, must be proved ex post facto.

Think not? Ask the Duke lacrosse team, which had 88 of the school's professors sign a petition that presumed their guilt before their side of the story was known. Even though the white athletes were exonerated and the liberal district attorney who pushed the case was dethroned, disbarred and disgraced, the professoriate that assigned guilt to its own students still refuses to apologize.

Those signatories constituted 90 percent of Duke's African and African-American Studies Department, the subject-matter domain of Mr. Gates, Michael Eric Dyson, Cornel West and other tenure-wielding, highfalutin, iambic-pentameter-filibustering race baiters, and 60 percent of Duke's women's studies department, another hotbed of victimology posing as intellectualism....

What Makes a Religion Good?

The Stoning of Soraya M: Part I

I went and saw a movie Saturday night. It made me think...

The Movie

A lot of people are going to watch The Stoning of Soraya M and write the film off as insensitive or stereotypical in its treatment of Islam. I disagree.

All the film's characters are Muslim. Some do terrible things and some do good things, but the film isn't about religion. In a nutshell, it sets misogyny in an Iranian village—Islam just forms part of the cultural fabric.

Nevertheless, the film is based on a true story and therefore begs the question: What does Islam have to do with it? Does the religion lend itself to violent injustice?

Never fear to ask the question

Islam confuses westerners. The European response has been largely aggressive and has focused on Islam's fundamentalist elements. Yet while the months following 9/11 witnessed an increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, such attitudes have been largely overwhelmed by the call for tolerance and understanding (reflecting a focus on civil rights).

Still, few people seem eager to discuss the issue, but not for lack of motivation. Violent protests following the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper, hundreds of terrorist cells worldwide, genocide in Sudan, the fallout after Iran's recent elections, rejection of the historicity of the Holocaust... Injustice across the globe can be linked to varied strains of Islam.

(Please, I beg you, don't regurgitate the same worn-out line that Islam isn't the only religion connected these types of things. In modern times, no other religion can be linked to travesties of such gravity.)

Of those willing to consider the situation, a plurality seems to conclude that the links between Islam and such injustice are no mere coincidence. They suggest that practicing Muslims perceive Allah as distant and cold. Such a relationship, they conclude, contributes to the development of radical fundamentalism.

I'm skeptical, and certainly not knowledgeable enough to comment. I'll leave that to the theologians and offer this instead.

Basic Islam

At its most basic level, Islam offers human beings another avenue to express their belief in a God or gods. A reflection of a near-universal human experience, only since the Enlightenment have significant numbers of people begun to exclude the notion of the divine from their lives. Nevertheless, even such atheism or agnosticism cannot ignore fundamental questions about life, its meaning, humanity, its direction, and so forth. Islam offers one answer.

Moreover, my limited knowledge of the Qur'an informs me that the Muslim holy book includes passages concerning charity, kindness, justice, and peace. The review of these elements of that faith doubtlessly uplifts humanity. The same can be said for the positive impact of Islam's moral code.

The Lovely Zahra

Only one character in the film has a religious experience worth mentioning. To her, religion transcends the cultural. She longs for God.

As Soraya approaches death, Zahra stands by her side and demands the dignity due her. Just before her execution, she tells her "Pray, pray with all your might. God and paradise are waiting for you." And in response to Soraya's fear of dying, she offers: "You are innocent. God knows it. He will take care of you. He will give you courage."

Zahra's religious faith approaches the furthest reach of human optimism. She stands with those who steadfastly hope in a God of love and mercy; those to whom God cannot be sterile, cold, or apathetic. And it is this faith that carries her when human strength fails—this faith that allows her to stand by Soraya.

Good Religion

Even skeptics of religion ought to agree that any faith which inspires human beings to acts of heroic love has real value. In fact from the secular perspective, a religion is only valuable inasmuch as it helps its followers to uplift humanity.

The recognition of the 'Golden Rule' does not make a religion special. An examination of one's own heart reveals the truth therein. No, a religion is special when it supports the limits of human optimism. A religion has value when it sustains our most desperate hope that love will triumph.

I doubt Islam is the problem, but unless its doctrine consistently inspires true self-giving it is hardly the solution.

"Legalize Gay"

Umm...this is funny.

The Lost Lenore

I really wanted to write a post on Gran Torino but I didn't have time to watch it again last night so I'll have to delay.

I was going to hold up Carrie Prejean as an example of people/topics that will never be covered by this blog, but there is one detail that bears mentioning.

Okay, in a nut shell, Miss Prejean supposedly lost the Miss USA title because, when questioned about her stance on gay marriage during the Miss USA Pageant, she replied as follows:

You know what, in my country, in my family, I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.

Needless to say, the quote has caused quite a stir. The whole controversy has now been seemingly laid to rest with Miss Prejean being 'fired' from her post as Miss California USA yesterday for allegedly 'breaching contract'.

(That's the stuff I don't get into. Honestly, I don't care what Donald Trump said or who did what. Carrie didn't know anything about it, but her lawyer says she did? What!?! Seriously...? For information of this nature I advise pinkisthenewblog.com.)

Moving on. I need some feedback on this next bit here. This is not the time for my own views on gay marriage, but I do need to air a frustration of mine.

It really disappoints me that so many people have come down on Miss Prejean for her remarks. I can't stand it when people of opinion (left/right, up/down, I don't care), get up in another person's face for having an opinion on something.

The logical flaw looks something like this:

• A: I believe in tolerance and free speech. I think people should be able to say whatever they think.


• B: I think this about topic X.


• A: OH… MY… GOSH!! Did you HEAR... what B said? What a bigot/commie/ignoramus. That idiot should keep his mouth shut before that kind of crap escapes again.

I can't stand that. This is especially true when the person making the comment has no intention of being inflammatory or of offending another person. Miss Prejean spoke her mind. She knew that what she said would not be popular but said it because she held it to be true. That is to be commended.

But quoth the raven: "Nevermore..."