NADA - New American Dark Ages

The Bible in Georgia’s Public Schools

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Teaching the Bible in Georgia’s Public Schools – New York Times By BRENDA GOODMAN

Georgia is about to become the first state to approve the use of the Bible as a textbook in public schools.

On Monday, the State Senate passed a bill providing money to high schools that offer elective classes in the Bible, and setting specific guidelines for those classes. The bill was approved by Georgia’s House of Representatives last week.

Gov. Sonny Perdue is expected to sign the law.

The bill creates two courses, the History and Literature of the Old Testament Era and the History and Literature of the New Testament Era, that can be offered as electives. It gives the state’s Department of Education a year to approve the curriculum, but it requires that the Bible itself, not a textbook, be the core material used. Supplementary materials can also be used.

Other state school systems offer classes in the Bible, but Georgia’s law would be the first to require that the Bible be the core text. Legislators in Alabama and Missouri are considering similar measures. …

The closest thing to a Bible-as-literature class Georgia schools now offer is an elective in comparative religion, and Education Department officials said it is not in great demand. Only 800 students out of 400,000 in state high schools signed up for the class last year, they said. …

The Christian Coalition of Georgia has strongly supported the legislation. The group’s chairwoman, Sadie Fields, said the courses were “another way to help students think critically.” [mjh: LOL. ‘Bible literalism’ encourages critical thinking? When there is only one truth and no others, “critical thinking” means learning how to reject all other views.]

State Senator Williams disputed predictions of the classes’ popularity among Georgia students.

“Where it’s been taught, it’s my understanding it’s a very popular course,” he said. “It’s a very interesting book, by the way.”

Georgia School Superintendent Kathy Cox visits Walker schools Eric Beavers

State School Superintendent Kathy Cox said Wednesday she’s solidly behind a measure that would allow the Bible to be used as a textbook in Georgia’s public schools.

“I think this is much ado about nothing,” Cox said about controversy over the issue, as she toured three Walker County schools. “I was a world history teacher for 15 years, and in world history you teach Greek mythology, you teach Buddhism, you teach Judaism, you teach Confucius — you teach all the world’s religion as part of world history, including Christianity.”

NADA - New American Dark Ages

‘War’ on Christians Is Alleged

I can’t be the only one creeped out about how Evangelical Christians have completely immersed themselves in a war-mindset. It makes them a great tool for fascism. mjh

‘War’ on Christians Is Alleged
Conference Depicts a Culture Hostile to Evangelical Beliefs
By Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Staff Writer

The “War on Christmas” has morphed into a “War on Christians.” …

Among the … speakers [at the two-day conference in Washington on the “War on Christians and the Values Voters in 2006”] were former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) as well as conservative Christian leaders Phyllis Schlafly, Rod Parsley, Gary Bauer, Janet Parshall and Alan Keyes.

To many of the 400 evangelicals packed into a small ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, it was a hard but necessary look at moral relativism, hedonism and Christophobia, or fear of Christ, to pick just a few terms offered by various speakers referring to the enemy.

To some outsiders, it illuminated the paranoia of the Christian right. …

“This is a skirmish over religious pluralism, and the inclination to see it as a war against Christianity strikes me as a spoiled-brat response by Christians who have always enjoyed the privileges of a majority position,” said the Rev. Robert M. Franklin, a minister in the Church of God in Christ and professor of social ethics at Emory University.

White evangelicals make up about one-quarter of the U.S. population, and 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. But three-quarters of evangelicals believe they are a minority under siege and nearly half believe they are looked down upon by most of their fellow citizens, according to a 2004 poll. …

In a luncheon speech yesterday, DeLay took issue with the “chattering classes” who think there is no war on Christians.

“We are after all a society that abides abortion on demand, that has killed millions of innocent children, that degrades the institution of marriage and often treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition. Seen from this perspective, of course there is a war on Christianity,” he said. [mjh: let me be the first to call Christianity a first-rate superstition]

I watched part of Ron Luce’s Battle Cry on the Christian channel 23 (you’d be shocked how much time I spend on that channel — my wife certainly is — but I feel you’ve got to know what this particular group is up to; besides, it’s always cool to see TDJakes). Battle Cry addresses teenagers as being attacked by their culture and forced to sit in a pen with pigs (me, maybe you). It uses hip-hop and skateboard culture to reach the youngins. Reminds me of that King of the Hill episode when Bobby joins a bunch of Christian skateboarders. mjh

Evangelical teens rally in S.F. Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

“This is more than a spiritual war,” [Ron] Luce, [whose Teen Mania organization is based in Texas,] said. “It’s a culture war.”

Military metaphors abound in Luce’s descriptions of the struggle. He tells young people of how “an enemy has launched a brutal attack on them.” At a pre-Battle Cry rally Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, Luce told his mostly teenage audience that “terrorists of a different kind” — advertisers — were targeting them and that they were “caught in the middle of the battle.” [mjh: “Terrorists”? Aren’t we overusing this term?]

“Are you ready to go to battle for your generation?” he asked, and the young people roared “yes!” and some waved triangular red flags flown from long, medieval-looking poles.

Dump Duhbya

Democrats Detail Security Policy

Democrats Detail Security Policy By Chris Cillizza and Dan Balz, Washington Post Staff Writers

Democrats unveiled a national security platform [3/30] for the midterm elections that stresses renewed focus on capturing Osama bin Laden, reducing the U.S. presence in Iraq and stepped up protection at home. …

Declaring that the administration’s “dangerous incompetence has made America less safe,” Reid said, “We are uniting behind a national security agenda that is tough and smart, an agenda that will provide the real security President Bush has promised, but failed to deliver.” …

Albright decried the Bush administration’s “rank incompetence” on such issues as the Iraq war and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Albright called for a security plan based on “facts not fantasy.”

Dump Duhbya

Old News Rediscovered

I ran across these two linked articles by chance and did a double-take when I saw the dates were nearly a year ago. I remember Curveball, but don’t remember the American press calling him a crazy drunkerd, as the Brits did. I don’t recall the Blackwater controversy at all. mjh

The Observer | International | US relied on ‘drunken liar’ to justify war Edward Helmore in New York
Sunday April 3, 2005
The Observer

An alcoholic cousin of an aide to Ahmed Chalabi has emerged as the key source in the US rationale for going to war in Iraq.

According to a US presidential commission looking into pre-war intelligence failures, the basis for pivotal intelligence on Iraq’s alleged biological weapons programmes and fleet of mobile labs was a spy described as ‘crazy’ by his intelligence handlers and a ‘congenital liar’ by his friends.

The defector, given the code-name Curveball by the CIA, has emerged as the central figure in the corruption of US intelligence estimates on Iraq. Despite considerable doubts over Curveball’s credibility, his claims were included in the administration’s case for war without caveat.

Fury at US Security Firm’s ‘Shoot for Fun’ Memo by Mark Townsend

One of the biggest private security firms in Iraq has created outrage after a memo to staff claimed it is ‘fun’ to shoot people.

Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that ‘actually it is “fun” to shoot some people.’

Dated 7 March [2005] and bearing the name of Blackwater’s president, Gary Jackson, the electronic newsletter adds that terrorists ‘need to get creamed, and it’s fun, meaning satisfying, to do the shooting of such folk.’

loco

It’s the Effing Zeitgeist!

Warning! I hope anyone can enjoy most of my site. I do feel that written profanity is a little harsher than spoken, but this entry is about profanity and may require some. I can’t bring myself to write “frick” or “f-word” beyond this sentence.

A poll about profanity is bound to inspire lots of jokes and a fair amount of swearing.

I don’t remember my mother or father swearing much. My Mom said “damn” when she was really frustrated — I find myself doing the same thing and long considered that the most powerful curse.

I remember the first time I said “fuck” in front of my Mom (I was about 16). She covered her ears, winced as if struck and cried, “oh, my virgin ears!” I don’t think she ever got comfortable hearing it.

One thing that stung in comments with the survey was the claim that swearing indicates a limited vocabulary. Well, fuck that! Even allowing for some self-delusion and ego-inflation, I’m a pretty fucking articulate guy — no shit! And I don’t need a god-damn thesaurus, thank you very much. I enjoy expressing myself in many ways, some subtle, some coarse. I wonder what those who think “it’s the vocabulary, stupid!” think of the ubiquitous cool — enjoyed by all ages — one of the few exclamations I use more than “fuck.”

I’m really surprised that age predicts swearing, or more specifically, that 35 is the dividing line between foul and fair. Remember the Simpson’s Geriatric Profanity Disorder. I’m over 50 and I’m certain I say fuck many times a day, as do my wife and many of our friends (though I never write it as much as I have here). It’s just what we say. What the fuck happened to our peers — how did so many people grow up to become their own grandparents?

The Bill Bennetts and like-minded puritans will see this as further evidence of the decline of civilization. Obscenity may be a symptom, but so is burning abortion clinics and shooting doctors or judges. Evil sometimes wears nice clothes and a smile.

I’m not saying the world is a better place because of swearing. The real issue is one of anger and potential violence, which has risen immensely in my lifetime. I’d rather get cursed at than shot at. “Jerk!,” screamed at you may actually be worse than “asshole” said with less venom. Just as a thrust finger is harsher than a “what the fuck?” It’s tone, don’t you know.

Still, as the Mothers said, “it’s fucking great to be alive.” mjh

Results of AP-Ipsos poll on profanity

The Associated Press-Ipsos poll on public attitudes about profanity is based on telephone interviews with 1,001 adults in the United States from all states except Alaska and Hawaii. The interviews were conducted March 20-22 by Ipsos, an international polling firm.

Results were weighted to represent the population by demographic factors such as age, sex, region, race and income.

Demographics and details of profanity poll

Some demographics and details about the AP-Ipsos poll on attitudes about profanity.

alBAHquerque, other voices

Cell Hell

We’ve probably all witnessed behavior similar to that which is described below: people being oblivious because of their cell phone addiction.

Of all the many bad examples, the ones that disturb me the most are like what I saw in the grocery today. A mother was on her cell phone. Her son pointed to a product and said something. His mom responded with “I’m on the phone!” Nice lady. God forbid you spend a moment in real contact with your child.

A few months ago, I saw a father pushing a cart around the store with his daughter riding facing him. He was glued to the phone. She was staring dully. Think she’ll remember fondly those trips to the store with dad?

If your kids hate you, won’t talk to you, or won’t get off the god-damned phone themselves, you only have yourself to blame. mjh

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Locals Worship Their Cell Phones

CELL PHONES have officially taken over the world, and nobody has even noticed yet. Mostly because they are all too busy talking on their cell phones. If only they could see the irony of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” playing as their ring tone.

I work at a local retail store, and the ratio of people that I check out who are on their cell phones during the entire transaction is two-to-one. I feel as if I need to call them in order to ask to see their identification when they hand me their credit card.

I drive home from work, which is only a few blocks from my house, and someone who is busy yakking away at their cell phones cuts me off at least twice a night. The obscene amount of cell-phone usage has reached the point of becoming an epidemic.

When people are having a conversation with an actual human being, they should have the decency to unglue their cell phone from the side of their face for five seconds.

When they get in their car, they should have courtesy and respect for others’ lives and call them back later. They are not the center of the universe. Their cell phone is not God. If they don’t answer it, but rather call the person back later at a more convenient (time), the cell phone will not smite them. They will not die. I promise.

ANGELA BINGHAM
Albuquerque

I oppose cell phone towers as dreadful visual pollution. I oppose most public cell phone use as auditory pollution. I oppose most public cell phone users as selfish loud-mouths.

Wireless Action Network, NM concerns itself more with the ill health effects of cell phones. If you want to give yourself a brain tumor, fine. But those nasty towers may be spewing poison to all of us.

Gotta go — phone’s ringing. [Kidding — everyone knows I hate all phones.] mjh

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams