8 Ways to Sunday

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network is promoting today as the 12th annual Day of Silence. The idea is that you help promote awareness of gay rights by not talking about anything all day… including gay rights.

Considering the centuries that homosexuals have been forced into silence by society, this strikes me as the most ironically ineffectual protest idea ever. They have sincerely good intentions, but I can’t imagine how something like this can produce any good results.

According to ReligiousTolerance.org, for example, a fundamentalist Christian group took advantage of a recent Day of Silence to stage their own “Truth Without Interruption Day.” By remaining silent, supporters of gay rights were unable to make any counterpoints against their opponents. That, of course, was the whole idea behind TWID.

Oscar Wilde — the famed wit imprisoned for homosexuality in 1895 — probably said it best:

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Congratulations, GLSEN, on your fatal overdose of sincerity.

Just finished watching a subtitled foreign-language film, and I’m reminded of something a South American exchange student told me in (I think) high school.

He said the way native English speakers talk reminded him of a typewriter. Each word is the snap of a key, the end of each sentence a carriage return.

He contrasted it to native Spanish speakers, who flow their words all together. There was no judgement in his passing observation.

Clackity chkt click, snap. Vrrrrrt!

Last night on CNN Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s former press secretary, had this to say:

There’s no doubt that Republicans hope to — we pray every night — to run against Hillary Clinton.

Nothing would energize and unify Republicans like having Clinton has the Democratic nominee. All the scandals of Bill Clinton’s administration and Hillary’s previous failed attempt at health care reform will present a huge target for the Republican party’s weapons of mass distraction. Hillary Clinton has many devoted supporters, but she also has the highest negative poll ratings of any candidate in this race on either side. That means she has the farthest to fall in the general election this November.

Democrats should think about this, and about whether they really want another four years of the same disastrous policies, when they’re deciding who to support in the next round of primaries and caucuses.

This evening I found myself on a political commentary site called The Constitutional Matters Project. CMP lets authors on both sides of American politics post articles, apparently the more far out and divisive the better. I usually avoid these name-calling competitions, but someone had pointed to this site as having a cleverly-implemented comment form. I was there to check it out as inspiration for a site I’m developing, and ended up reading an article about patriotism.

The article, written from the “conservative” perspective, was typical of the kind of Radical Right nonsense that’s practically self-parody. What motivated the article, however, was a fallacious far-Left argument that I’ve heard repeated ad nauseam. It makes me just as mad as it made the right-wing CMP author, but my reaction is very different.

This post started out as a comment on CMP about true patriotism and its incompatibility with blind party allegiance. It became almost as long as the original article, so I ended up posting it here. Warning: mild rant ahead. (more…)

Can’t we all just get along?

My previous post — about David Miscavige’s alleged comparison of Tom Cruise to Jesus Christ — drew some interesting comments. Perhaps inevitably, some of those comments focused on the controversial beliefs of Scientology.

I said that the belief system of Scientologists doesn’t bother me at all, but I find the policies and practices of the Church of Scientology (the organization itself) disturbing. One of the other commenters followed up with a statement that was interesting enough to explore in a separate post:

‘Wackos’ says Elizabeth. Why? because of their beleifs? look at Jesus’ story. isn’t it nuts?

This is an excellent point. Is Scientology’s legend of Xenu, the alien overlord, pretty weird? You bet. But what about the symbolic ritual cannibalism that Christians practice every time they take Communion? I mean, that’s a doozy! (more…)