Super Bull

     It’s not yet football season, but I’m already hearing rumblings, and I’ve seen news bits on the the Rams cheerleaders.  But since, to my mind, all professional sports is of a fabric, some worse than others, I thought I’d post this essay I wrote some time ago, with modifications.
     An acquaintance asked me a while ago if I intended to watch the play-offs and I responded–automatically and immediately–with “what play-offs?”
     Such honesty can get you seriously dissed in this country.  But, yes, Virginia, there are people in the United States who know virtually nothing about pro sports.  Or semi-pro.  Or amateur.  Nothing about sports.
     When the Cardinals (my home team) are in the play-offs or whatever, heading for a pennant–which they do more regularly than I care to recall–I suffer at work, because suddenly none of the radios are playing music, but carrying the do-or-die commentary on the day’s Game.  People move about rivetted.  They have a glazed look in their eyes.  I’ve seen that look in others–religious fanatics in the grip of glossolalia.
     I don’t get it.
     No, wait.  Let me be clearer.  I don’t GET IT!
     Is it possible to grow up in this culture and not have an appreciation for athletics?  Sure, but that’s not what I don’t get. And for the most part, I’m not sure most sports fans have such an appreciation themselves.  I mean, I don’t think all those people who tuned in to watch the Team of the Month take another Super Bowl …

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Why Religion & Science Don’t Mix

This link is to the district court ruling in the Dover, PA trial about so-called Intelligent Design. It is worth reading in full, especially in light of the recent survey publish in Science about our understanding–lack of, actually–of biology.  Basically, the judge threw out the claim by the defendants, that evolution is “merely a theory” and that Intelligent Design is somehow legitimate science.

This, of course, settles nothing in the long run. The true believers who pulled this stunt to begin with will not be persuaded, nor will they long shut up. That’s fine, that’s their prerogative, and it’s as should be in this country. My hope is that this will not be the last shot fired in defense of science and reason, against irrationalism and spiritual chicanery.

The critics of Judge Jones’ decision have come out screaming that he has overstepped his authority. He has written a pretty scathing and detailed decision. I can certainly see that he has hopes it will be used in other districts, as a means to settle this–at least legally–where and when it crops up. I personally see his response as fairly restrained, considering the clear frustration behind it. He has invoked the ground state complaint of the conservative–it has been a waste of tax payer money.

The profoundest irony, politically, is that Jones is a George W. Bush appointee. The right-wing Jesus faction of the Republican Party must be seized with apoplexy at this. One of their own–one anointed by their own prophet-in-power–has …

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Banking laws for sale

Most American citizens believe that voters elect our state and federal legislators.  They would be wrong.  Elections are rigged by the massive amounts of money that fund them, and legislators are bought and sold in accordance with their campaign fund contributors.  This money does not come from you or me.  We could never hope to contribute enough to sway an election, we just don’t have enough to compete.  The money comes from corporations.  How do I know (besides from the minimal reports politicians must file)?  I know from the end result, from the laws that result.

Imagine yourself a working mother or father.  You work hard everyday.  You earn your paycheck, and like nearly everyone, it is spent when you get it.  If you are a poor family, maybe your optional luxuries include pizza out one night.  If your family is a little better off, maybe it means a real dinner out.  Then a little ‘hitch’ arises.  The electric bill comes in, and because it has been so hot, it is more than anticipated.  Or maybe the car needs new brakes.  Or maybe, heaven help you, someone gets really ill and you have bad or no health insurance.

So you borrow money.  You go to the payday lender down the street.  You know the kind, they are popping up all over the place.  Despite this kind of lending being legal (or thought up) only for the past couple of years, there are already more payday lending stores in this country …

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Iraq is a domestic issue.

The Nation explains that Ned Lamont was successful tonight because he was much more than an anti-war candidate.  Lamont continually pointed to the domestic losses caused by the diversion of big money to finance the Iraq occupation: How did Lamont succeed where others – including 2004 presidential contender and current Democratic…

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War and Rumors of War

[Note: I wrote this piece in 2003, shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq].
 
The trouble with writing these opinion pieces is they require such intense emotional energy to write.  It’s a very exhausting business.  But then, so is life these days.  We all go about our lives quite admirably, but the low hum of threat, the “war and rumors of war” is wearing on us all.  

The intense emotion that I’m experiencing these days is sadness, produced by the news, produced by the innocence of so many of our students who are willing to fling themselves into the fray in the name of God, president and country.  It’s all too reminiscent of those equally innocent boys who threw themselves, during my parents’ lifetimes, into the defense of God, king and country.  One way or another, those boys were not innocent for long.

What amazes me is how surprised some of us are by all this, and I’m including myself in the “us.”  I shouldn’t be surprised.  After all, my parents survived two world wars in Great Britain and described the horrors of the second in vivid detail.  I think, though, it’s only been since September 11, 2001, I’ve truly understood what my parents experienced.  The stories they told me when I was a child enthralled me, kept me spellbound as they recounted them to me.  But I, too, was innocent.  The stories were family saga, not reality, shrouded in the mists of mythology for me.

My parents described the adventure …

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