Women with Opinions

Oh, oh, trouble. Obama's an apostate.

One argument that has been advanced for electing Barack Obama to be president instead of Hillary Clinton is that Obama would be so  much more popular in the Muslim world.  Afterall, Obama's father was Muslim, right?  (Nevermind that he turned into a nonbeliever later on.)

That argument sounded resonable to me until I read Edward N. Luttwak's op ed in the New York Times today.   As Luttwak points out,  Obama was born to a Muslim father, which under Muslim law made him a Muslim.   But, here's the bad part:  Later on in life, Obama became a Christian, which under Muslim law makes him an apostate.   

How I Spent My Saturday Afternoon

What more could you ask for?  A film about a road trip AND a love story.   And it gets better.  This is not another of those  guy-takes-a-road-trip pictures.  This one's about a gal taking a road trip. Norah Jones (Yes, the singer.) has branched out, trying her hand at acting.  Jude Law and Natalie Portman also star.    

"My Blueberry Nights" was the opening film at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.  The French, you know, love those love stories, unlike Americans who can't get their fill of action pictures.  This is director Wong Kar Wahl's first English language film.  I liked it.  It's playing now at the Pittsford Plaza Cinema.  Here's a trailer.

Susan Faludi Gets It: Hillary's a Contender

In the Indiana and North Carolina Democratic primary races, white males went to  the polls in droves to vote for, guess who.   Hillary, the female candidate. This was a shocker for many who  assumed that those type  voters wouldn't give Hillary the time of day.

The pundits have decided that the only explanation for this strange phenomenon is that white men hate blacks more than they hate women.  Well, hold your horses, Chris Matthews and Tim Russert.  Susan Faludi has another explanation.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Critiques the Christian Church

“For the supposed crimes of heresy and witchcraft, hundreds of women endured such persecutions and tortures that the most stolid historians are said to have wept in recording them; and no one can read them to-day but with a bleeding heart. And, as the Christian Church grew stronger, woman's fate grew more helpless. Even the Reformation and Protestantism brought no relief, the clergy being all along their most bitter persecutors, the inventors of the most infernal tortures.

Thumbs Down on the D&C's Dumb Idea

Mildred Loving died this week.  Her obituary was in the New York Times.  She was 68.  Who was Mildred Loving?  A black woman who fell in love with a white man  back in 1958 and had the audacity to marry him even though the law said no, that was forbidden.

Mildred and Richard Loving married in Washington, DC, then moved back to Virginia where the law said that a marriage between people of different races was invalid even though it was performed in a place where it was legal.

Who You Callin' Bitter, Obama?

National Day of Reason Replaces National Day of Prayer. Thank God.

Evangelicals, as we know, are hell-bent on turning the good, old USA into a Christian Nation, and they've made great headway since they installed George W. Bush in the White House.  Take, for instance, the Christian conservatives' campaign to stamp out sex among teenagers.

Thanks to $1 billion dollars spent on their abstinence-only sex education classes, a quarter of teenagers in this country (and half of African-American teenagers) are now infected with sexually transmitted diseases.  Ignorance, it turns out, is not always bliss.

McCain & Misogyny: Yikes!

Back when John McCain (R, Arizona) was running for president the first time, the Arizona Republic ran an editorial in which the paper  questioned whether McCain had the right temperament for the presidency.  Here's part of what was said in that editorial:

"If McCain is truly a serious contender for the presidency, it is time the rest of the nation learned about the John McCain we know in Arizona. There is also reason to seriously question whether he has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States."

Progressive Blog is Sour on Jon Powers; Gives Thumbs Up to Alice Kryzan

Here's what the blog "Progressive Democrats WNY"  has to say about Jon Powers and Alice Kryzan who are running for the Congressional seat being vacated by Tom Reynolds:   

"As a point of interest this Blog will not endorse nor support Jon Powers in the upcoming primary campaign.  In response to questions he indicated that he does not support the basic progressive concept of National Health Care choosing the Republican theme of affordable health care - how does one achieve that in a free market economy where the number of physicians, health care plans, technologies, and medications has not driven costs down but up. The tradition progressive position of a national health policy was only supported by Alice Krysan.

Mr. Powers has also come out in favor of what could be a prolonged stay in Iraq and possible conflict with Iran. Both Alice Krysan and Jack Davis disagreed with him on this area.

Looking to the local economy, all three candidates advocated pursuit of a Green Economy and development of a locally based green production production program.
I have been a frequent attendee at local alternative energy, green industry, and green technology programs sponsored through out the area.  Alice Krysan has usually been in attendance while Mr. Powers and Davis have not.

I believe that Ms. Krysan is better suited to be the candidate more than willing to lead the community in changing a firmly entrenched conservative mindset to doing business, government activity, and political leadership that has held the area back over the years."

What's Right With Our Media? Helen Thomas

We hear a lot these days about what's wrong with the media in this country, how journalists are failing us, choosing to entertain  instead of inform.  Helen Thomas is of the Old School.  In this clip, Helen  asks the administration hard questions about  torture: