Just when I think we're making progress, we go and pull the one-step-forward-ten-steps-back trick. First, a friend tells me about how her daughter was treated recently in a suburb of New York City. The daughter is 17 and African-American, although my friend is Caucasian. Her daughter was adopted from Sierre…
Thailand's major airports have been taken over by protesters, as reported by the L.A. Times: Hundreds of protesters seeking to topple Thailand's prime minister seized Bangkok's international airport terminal Tuesday, forcing cancellation of all flights. Members and supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy stormed through police lines at Suvarnabhumi…
…but do I give a toss?
Recently, atheist bus ads have popped up in the UK and the US to much acclaim from freethinkers and much tiresome bitching & moaning from the usual suspects. Buses are so hot right now! However, an attempt by an Aussie atheist group to have their own ads on our buses has been unsuccessful. The Atheist Foundation of Australia wanted to buy ad space, the ad company, APN Outdoor, refused to sell it to them. And it seems they didn’t explain why. I certainly don’t see the harm in slogans like “Sleep in on Sunday mornings” or “Celebrate reason”, but I guess APN have their reasons. Such as – they’re a pack of bastards with double standards higher than Israel’s separation wall. So, yes, it’s disappointing. Even annoying! And refusing to take someone’s freely-offered money is just damned un-Australian.
Not to mention that glaring double-standard: the article explains that APN had buses in Adelaide plastered with the Bible verse John 3:16 – that’s the one about God loving the world so much that he had himself (in the form of his hippy son) tortured & executed to forgive us all of our sins, especially the original sin committed by Adam & Eve, the guilt of which apparently extends several millennia onto every last one of us, from birth – conception – no less, giving us no damn choice but to accept the hippy as our saviour. Nice. World’s oldest protection racket – “Say, that’s …
This local news article has me pondering. They are almost halfway through revamping the main interstate through town. They closed it for 2 years. While it is closed and accessible, they are not putting a light rail route along the busiest corridor in the area. That's my main overall peeve.…
This past Saturday afternoon, after doing my dance duty at the annual "Dancing in the Street" at Grand Center, across from Powell Symphony Hall, I wandered the booths of the adjacent "Green Homes and Renewable Energy Festival" going on in Grandel Square behind the stage. There were plenty of solar…