I was out at a city park today to play some racquetball. While taking a break, I noticed four guys playing handball nearby. They were playing a hard-fought game. But wait a minute! What is that tobacco-y smell? Why, it's tobacco! Two of the handball players were smoking cigarettes (the coffin nails were actually in…
The Republican Party may have its share of PR problems, but common knowledge and polling data agree that the party still holds the upper hand on the issues of terrorism and national security. Polls also suggest that national security has a place close to the average American’s heart, especially after recent close-calls on national airlines.
But, as with so many other matters of partisan policy, the Republicans don’t really have any advantage over their political adversaries at all. Again, the Democrats seem to desperately struggle not with positions, but with effective marketing.
Take for example the 9/11 Commission’s report card, issued back in December of 2005. The report card reviewed the Bush Administration’s response to the bipartisan Commission’s list of well-researched recommendations, and it gave fairly dismal scores. I think the report card bears repeating, even some eight months later:
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One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a
Cheshire cat in a tree.
‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Then,’ said the cat,’ it doesn’t matter.’
Lewis Carrol: Alice in Wonderland
One thing fundamentalists have that many of us lack is a well-practiced response to why they exist and what life is all about. Their response goes something like this: “I am here to serve Jesus Christ so that I can join Him in heaven. How do I serve him? I follow these Ten Commandments.”
Pretty slick, eh? The entire purpose of a human life boiled down to ten seconds.
What about the rest of us? What would we say if someone asked us for our “purpose”? Would we even claim to have “a purpose.” If forced to answer, many of us might say that we’re “trying to get by” or that we’re simply “doing the best we can” or that we try to follow the golden rule. But most of us don’t have anything resembling the simplistic formula of fundamentalists. At first glance, that fundamentalist formula makes fundamentalists look decisive, strong and admirable. This succinct certitude probably gains lots of converts among the many people who join up. In reality, though, such a simple statement of purpose serves only as a mere placeholder that raises (or should raise) hundreds of questions among honest and thoughtful people.
I haven’t worked out any succinct statement regarding …
The mainstream media missed another big story recently: The President has been screwing around with our Constitution and the nation's largest association of lawyers has called him on it. On August 8, 2006, American Bar Association, a national association of 410,000 lawyers, condemned President Bush's widespread practice of writing exceptions to…
OK, so ten years ago I had this idea of writing a short story about a high school attended by praying mantises. The prom was coming up and many of the boy mantises were nervous. Actually all of them except for a reticent bespectacled boy mantis named George who had…