Tainted Milk?

China 2008 ... New York City, 1858 ... in New York, thousands of babies died when fed "swill milk" - only government regulation and the passage of the Food and Drug Act, 1906.

The similarities between China today and New York 150 years ago shouldn’t come as a great surprise. Adulteration on such a scandalous scale occurs in societies with a toxic combination of characteristics: a fast-growing capitalist economy coupled with a government unable or unwilling to regulate the food supply. In such get-rich-quick societies, there is a huge temptation to tamper with food, particularly when margins are low. The rewards are instant, and it’s not always easy for consumers to detect the difference between the pure and the doctored — particularly with a substance like milk, which we have been taught to trust implicitly.

Check out this thoughtful article HERE.

Such scandals are not bad luck. They are symptomatic of a deep failure of politics. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s hasty gestures — punishing the dairies, forcing the head of the food quality agency to resign — have done nothing to deal with the underlying regulatory vacuum.

A simple reminder that good societies are regulated by good government ... when left to themselves, markets always exceed the boundary and begin to cannibalize themselves, leaving us to pick up the pieces.

The Free Market System is never free ... but costly beyond compare, in lives lost and hopes broken when the system fails, as it always does, like an adolescent on a spending spree.

Southern Baptists and "Female Preachers"

Just when I think I've heard it all, get this: more than a 100 Southern Baptist bookstores have removed a magazine featuring the work of "female pastors."

Gospel Today was snatched from more than 100 Lifeway Christian Bookstore racks because the women on the cover are church pastors.

For this incredible story, click HERE.

Are we living in the same century?

What does this say about their ideological climate?
And speaking of climate, I'll give ya' one guess about their take on global warming ...
And maybe another guess on McPalin ...
And creationism?
And guns?
And gays?

This kind of "christianity" is so far off the beaten path, it boggles the mind.
What's the difference here between Nazis burning books and artwork in Berlin, 1933?
This kind of control, manipulation, twisting of reality - for what purpose?

Some kind of arcane doctrine?
A misreading of the Bible?
Misogyny?

Wasn't it the women who first entered the empty tomb?
Were they not given the first commission?

Were not women co-workers with Paul?

The few texts that allegedly prohibit women from speaking have been accurately re-interpreted by evangelical women who are helping the entire church understand these few texts (and why would a few texts, anyway, be used to exclude an entire gender from the life of the church?) and how men have twisted the reading and bent the interpretation to maintain a male hierarchy dismantled by Jesus and Paul.

See Christians for Biblical Equality for more on how evangelical women are re-reading these texts.

The Enemy Within

Conservative churches are preparing to challenge the IRS ruling that prohibits congregations from endorsing specific candidates.

A spokesperson for the group told the Christian Science Monitor that he was endorsing McCain and had told his congregation they couldn’t vote for Obama because of Obama's stance on abortion.

The pastor defends his position by saying his positions are “according to Scripture,” and he has a constitutional right to share his political views with his congregation.

Well, yes, he has right to share his views, but the IRS wisely keeps the wall of separation in good repair by prohibiting a congregation from becoming a political pawn.

And doesn’t it seem reasonable that a healthy congregation would have a diversity of voices within its ranks?

And how can anyone be so sure of knowing what the Scriptures say, and is this what the Scriptures are all about anyway?

As you might guess from what I’m writing, I have a very different take on this.

And suggest to you, the thoughtful reader, that some conservative religious groups are opposed to our democratic freedoms, and if given their way, would create a religious state similar to the more conservative Muslim nations.

We have to keep the wall of separation in good repair, to preserve the integrity of both our religious institutions and our American freedoms of thought, choice and behavior.

The conservative group behind this “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” is dangerous to the well-being of the Republic. The Alliance Defense Fund, though describing itself as a defender of liberty is anything but. In a heartbeat, the ADF would strip away our freedoms, control our thoughts, and tell us what to do, because they “know the Bible and what it teaches” – without question, without doubt, and, I might add, without thought!

Such groups pose a real and present danger to America. They are the enemy within.

Palin Update ...

Did she say anything?

Interview with Katie Couric is laughable ... check HERE and HERE.

And a little bit more ... HERE ... yikes.

Katie Couric, in the comments on the interview, demonstrates a great deal of restraint, but body language and demeanor say it all - Ms. Couric was not impressed with McPalin.

Now I know why they won't let the media have at her!

Bush Administration and the Tactics of Fear

The Bush Administration has presided over the dismantling of America to profit the few.

Now that all of this has come crashing down around their ears, they're threatening us with imminent disaster and further woe if we fail to give them a blank check to bail them out.

The President - buffoon that he is - took to the airwaves and used the language of fear again. If it's not 9/11, then it's the melt down of the economy. Is fear the only thing Bush knows?

Fear is the only thing Karl Rove knows - it's a tired tactic, but I'm afraid it works, though in this case, threats about the economy are likely to be met by skepticism because we all know who did this to us.

The very man warning us about dire consequences if we fail to act is the man who engineered the final chapter of Reagan's play book, coached by folks like Rove and cheered on by the Great Idiot, Rush Limbaugh.

And what's this with Rice:

Senior Bush administration officials held a series of meetings in the White House in 2002 and 2003 to discuss allowing the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods on Al Qaeda detainees, according to a written statement Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently provided to Senate investigators.

Rice's written response to investigators on the Senate Armed Services Committee marks the first time a high-ranking White House official has formally acknowledged the White House discussions, which led to the CIA's use of waterboarding and other coercive methods.

Shame on all of them.

Not only did Bush give us the current economic mess, but he and his cronies, criminals they are, gave us the tactics of a Central American jail.

It's time for America to say no to the manipulators, those who would use us to further their own agenda - a Neo-Con agenda of empire and oil linked with an "evangelical" agenda of guns, god and gays - amassing untold wealth for the few on the backs of millions of good, hard-working, Americans.

And what's up with McPalin? Off to Washington to fix the mess? So he can repeat the Keating Five episode? McPalin has been a man of feigned integrity, a man without a center, if you will, so he relies on his war experience to create an image, a front, inconsistent with his life, a life of scrambling to the top of the heap, marrying women who can further his career, taken chances without reason, and reasoning without logic.

Touting the "fundamentals of our economy," and when subsequently queried, defining the "fundamentals" as the working men and women of our nation - yeah, sure, as if they mean anything at all to the repubs - who have screwed the average American out of jobs, benefits, health care, education and hope.

Shame on Bush, shame on Rice for her total lack of courage and integrity (she should have quit long ago like Colin Powell did), shame on McPalin - a team made in hell.

Obama and Biden represent a healing of our nation - men of accomplishment and intelligence, who can see the needs of the many, who can deal with the leaders of the nations and help us recover our character, rebuild our economy, honor working women and men, restore the health of our military and build us up again.

White Privilege

If it weren't for race, Obama would be ahead everywhere by 20 points.

Sadly, race is still a factor in this nation; it's the elephant in the living room, the hidden current beneath the calm surface. Just ask any person of color, and if they're in an honest mood, they'll tell you the truth - racism in America remains profoundly subtle and pervasive.

Tim Wise offers the following article ... in a timely way, he reminds us how privilege spells a huge difference for the way we look at people and life.

Read carefully ... and prayerfully ...

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor, and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’ re somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

By my posting of this is in no means saying Barack Obama is a flawless candidate, but I think he has a lot more upside than the Republican candidates running against him. Please let me know what you guys think by posting in the comments section. I think this article is a perfect catalyst to start a real dialogue about the going-ons of this the presidential election and the general make-up of race relations in America.

By Tim Wise

George Will on McCain

"The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said without even looking around." -- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

So begins George Will's thoughtful column on John McCain's response to the economic crisis at hand.

Will's last paragraph says it well ...

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Will, of course, writes from a conservative perspective, but the kind of conservatism once the bedrock of the GOP - when the Greedy Old Party was once the Grand Old Party.

A kind of conservatism that wanted to save a few dollars, promoted a strong military, could work the other side of the aisle, whose bark was worse than its bite. When it comes to the GOP as it should be, I recall the Senator from Illinois: Everett Dirksen, with his unmade-bed hair and his annual plea to make the Marigold the national flower. Without his cross-aisle work, it's doubtful if Lyndon Johnson could have succeeded passing his landmark civil rights legislation.

What has happened to the Greed Old Party is nothing less than tragic, becoming a sham under the hammer of the far right.

I can appreciate how difficult it must be for a man like George Will to raise these kinds of questions about McCain, but McCain, whatever he might have been, is now ensnared in the Rovian Universe of the Queen of Hearts.