(no subject)

My boss is still giving me a ride to work while my car remains in the shop. He does this even though, as he told me last week, he feels uncomfortable driving through my Irish Channel neighborhood.

Since I'm dependent on him in this way, while I'm riding with him doesn't seem like the best time to argue politics as forcefully as I might otherwise. If I was on even ground with him I'd have little fear of jumping in there and mixing it up. But there's such little benefit from such discussion I'd rather have his goodwill. So I have generally picked responses to his comments that have been diplomatic in the extreme.

I considered taking up an argument this morning, though, when we heard an item on the news about a police officer on the North Shore (of Lake Pontchartrain) who had been indicted for sexually assaulting a stripper after a traffic stop.

His comment: "That's probably the other way around, and she attacked him."

Time for a civics lesson? I contemplated it, decided against it. If that's his attitude towards sex workers I'm not going to change it in the space of five to ten minutes.

So, I held my tongue, and felt vaguely dirty for having done so.

(no subject)

"So am I saying that we are going back to the days of Boss Tweed and Mark Hanna? Gosh, no -- those guys were pikers. One-party control of today's government offers opportunities to reward friends and punish enemies that the old machine politicians never dreamed of."

Paul Krugman on privatization as a spoils bonanza for Republican supporters


"The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said Vision TV had been wrong to show an episode of 'Power Today' hosted by U.S. evangelist R.W. Schambach in which he talked about those possessed by demons.

"'They don't like me to air this on television. But I don't care what they like! I am not politically correct! God's given me power to cast out devils and if you are a homosexual, I can deliver you! And I can set you free!' Schambach said. 'Homosexuality is not another lifestyle. It's a demon spirit. In the beginning God made Adam and Eve. He didn't make Adam and Steve.'"

Canada TV Rapped for Saying Gays Gripped by Devil

Mixed feelings, mixed blessings

A banner ad on Beliefnet shows Bishop John Spong proclaiming "The Vatican just doesn't get it."

It turns out he's hawking his "insights" on a weekly for-pay e-newsletter. Billing himself as "the Authoritative Voice for Believers in Exile," he almost sounds like he wants to be Moses, bringing "Christian refugees" such as yours truly to a Promised Land of liberal Christendom.

I've gotten quite a few insights from his books, but this... just seems cheap to me.

I've been saying to friends for some time that there really needs to be a prominent liberal Christian voice in the media, someone to prove to America that not all Christians are Jerry Falwell. But it seems to me that Bishop Spong, while intelligent and articulate, has been bitten by the polemic bug and is not the best choice to lead this charge. He dedicates no small amount of space in his books to rants proclaiming conservative Christianity misguided or even absurd.

Whatever one's opinions about conservative Christian beliefs, dishing out vitriol is no way to win people to your cause. It's not necessary, considering that anyone actually reading something he's written is likely to consider his evidence and arguments. It also gives ammo to his critics.

Tim Freke and Peter Gandy are likely candidates for the Liberal-Gnostic voice, but Jesus and the Lost Goddess, their follow-up to the excellent and evenly-toned The Jesus Mysteries, has a fair bit of vitriol in it too.

(no subject)

No matter how delicate, sympathetic, and concerned the tone is, it is still the same message of rigid intolerance that drives people away from God in droves.

OnceCatholic.org