Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #94

Posted on April 24, 2011 in Roundup

The word liberal comes from the word free. We must cherish and honor the word free or it will cease to apply to us. -Eleanor Roosevelt

As I write this, it is Holy Saturday and I am giving hard thought to the state of the nation. Traditionally, this is the day of the [[harrowing of hell]], when Christ paid Satan a visit and made him remember just who was boss in the Universe. Lately, I feel that it is the good people who have been harrowed by the hell-spawn of the Tea Party. It seems to me in this age of megachurches that the number of True Christians has dwindled. Witness how some preachers quote the atheist [[Ayn Rand]] approvingly from their pulpits and speak against the Word. Others, too, feel this despair. Agnostic me thinks this is a fine tragedy that we are in when people fail to trust in God and choose instead to take the side of the worldly and the wealthy. What will [[Easter]] bring? I just have to remember how dark things looked for [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]] and [[Martin Niemöller]] in the middle of the [[Nazi]] repression. Is there rebirth due? Will we rediscover the wisdom of the [[Gospels]]? Sorry if I scare my compassionate atheist friends with this, but as a freethinker, I may reflect on these things.

• A Progressive Christian approach to Easter, Jesus & the Resurrection — I think the term “progressive” should be replaced by “True”.
• Let’s not be Civil — Paul Krugman tells the Democrats to tell it like it is and take the Republicans by the horns for victory in 2012
• Pay your taxes? These 10 companies didn’t.
• The unique performance of Iceland’s Democracy — Voters said that they won’t be responsible for the shenanigans of their banks. And why should Americans be so?
• Ayn Rand: Sociopath as Mentor to the Far Right — This is the kind of stuff that the Randians don’t like you to hear about. Also see this which mentions her drug abuse. (When you cite fact, they cry “hatred!” Funny that.)
• Entitlement Hater Paul Ryan Was A Social Security Baby — They also don’t want you hearing about this.
• A Misleading View on Corporate Taxes — You know US Uncut is making an impact when they have to publish false facts.
• Madness: Right-Wingers Are Serious About Trying to Undermine Child Labor Laws — Suffer the little children, be our wage slaves?
• Feminists now completely own the funny — It’s not about how women dress, but about how men behave
• All those tweets, apps, updates may drain brain — There could be something to this….bzzz!
• Oldest toothache found in reptile — And it must have hurt!
• 10 coolest solar power projects — It grates me that there are people who try to prevent the rest of us from living efficiently like this
• 10 bizarre side effects to common medicines — Can’t tell blue from green? You must be taking Viagra….
• How Reintroducing Once Eradicated Giant Tortoises Has Restored an Island’s Ecosystem — Ebony trees doing better now that tortoises have returned
• Learning to tolerate our microbial self — Raises the question “Do patients get sick because their immune systems reject bacteria that they shouldn’t reject?
• Neurological basis for embarassment described — I seem to have a delayed embarassment trigger when I am in mania. Then it won’t go away.
• Why can’t we call ourselves patients instead of consumers? — What am I? Some kind of health glutton? Or ~not~.

Indian Paintbrush 4/20/2011