Displaying 4,381 To 4,410 Of 5,146 Comments I find it profound that he never shied away from what was dangerous but instead made it safe. How did he DO that? He had very conservative people on his program, and he treated them well, and they revealed so much! He was amazing. He will be missed. I want him to live many years and prosper and enjoy his retirement in good health. He has earned it! » Posted By choicelady On April 20, 2010 @ 7:25 pm AdLib – thank you for defining Moyers as what he has become, a voice for moral sanity. Back when he was LBJ’s press secretary, most of us of (cough) a certain age had grave reservations about him. He is/was a Methodist minister (like Bob Edgar now head of Common Cause) but as a younger man, willing to make a pact with not the devil but, well, convenience. Since then, he has grown, much as Jimmy Carter has grown, into a man of such profound core beliefs about decency, morality, and commitment to the common good that yes, even I, profoundly judgmental bitch that I can be, have not overlookd but in fact have forgotten his past. And who among us has NOT had that kind of past? Moyers raises up the issues, the perspective, the questions that so necessarily need to be asked. In the world of faith advocacy, our strongest statement is that we must “speak truth to power”. That is the daily life of Bill Moyers. Those of us in the faith biz are especially drawn to Moyers. He has lighted our way more than once. I am growing older. I want someone to be there to help lighten MY load as I move forward doing what needs to be done. I’m exhausted by my own fights for justice, trying to mobilize people (often ages older than I) to speak up for what needs doing. I’m running out of energy – so why should I be surprised Moyers is as well? I mourn his removal from PBS and the public view, but most of all I envy him the time and the peace to do what HE wants to do. This pursuit of social justice work is exhausting, and I cannot begrudge him the time he has foresaken for all of us. But damn. I will miss him. He has been a presence and force for the best that lies within us, regardless of religion or absence thereof – he has TRUSTED us to do the right thing. Always. No matter who we are. And he’s given us the ideas, the words, the sources, the courage, the energies, the allies – and I will miss that SO much. So have a great and long retirement, Mr./Rev. Moyers. I will do my best to honor you by keeping on keeping on. But come out once in awhile, will you, Mr. M,? We need to be reminded that this is an ages old struggle, and we cannot lay our burdens down, not yet. We will need you though, to remind us we can do it. That’s what you gave us, and we may need a refresher now and then. Hope to see you. Take care. » Posted By choicelady On April 20, 2010 @ 6:28 pm Are You Biased Even Though You Do Not Know It? Lise – uh-oh. I’m biased against sushi. Sorry! Was an Asian Studies minor in college and ate it for all our class and group studies events until one day I realized I HATE this stuff, and I’ve never eaten it since. It’s a dislike born of experience, not ethnic prejudice! Don’t like liver or beets either, and my family did. Some things, especially food preferences, just should not be a test of character! I got trashed once by a man from Manhattan who recoiled in HORROR that I put ketchup AND mustard AND relish on hamburgers – I’m Midwestern, and that’s what we did. And my reaction to him was – what’s it to YOU? But he insisted it “mattered”. I did not like him for a lot of reasons, and it was not his food presence but his insistence that he had the right to tell me how to eat that put the cap on it. Enjoy the sushi! To each… » Posted By choicelady On April 18, 2010 @ 10:52 am Kalima – I think that sort of “take” is what brings us to the Planet. I once figured out that for me race is as relevant as height in whether I do or do not like someone. Kindness, reliability, honor, humor – all reasons to like someone. Meanness, narrowness, unreliability, sour disposition – all reasons NOT to like someone (among MANY other factors, of course). Race is so often NOT relevant, and many of us have noted people who, upon knowing someone well, do not have those racialist attitudes toward them even as they persist in having racist feelings toward the larger group. Too bad we cannot generalize the good as quickly and deeply as we generalize the bad. Ugh. » Posted By choicelady On April 18, 2010 @ 10:46 am I suspect I’m a secular humanist working for a progressive Christian organization! On the whole, I’d rather not have that confirmed – at least until I retire!!!! » Posted By choicelady On April 18, 2010 @ 10:40 am Hi Dildenusa – had NOT seen this story at all. My one thought is why give the supremacists energy at all. The best thing ever is ignoring them. Now they feel empowered because they feed, like Pod People, off our energies and anger. I am in agreement that after taking three tests, I now know how to take the test. I came up neutral on age and race, and with a slight preference for Obama over Clinton. I thought the only interesting thing was the ending statistical bar graph – rather distressing to see how many people had strong or slight preferences for white people over Black. But I’d like it culled for the race of the participants since I’m wondering about the fact that the “faces” of Black people all seemed more tense, and I think that could skew the result. The white faces had less tension around the eyes. I’d also like to see how it plays out if some faces were clearly laughing and others not, equally divided. On the other hand, I know all too well that white people pay less attention to content and context when it comes to Black people. Kids horsing around and clearly (if you listen) having fun will be reacted to neutrally by passers by if the kids are white and fearfully if the kids are Black or Latino. It was a huge source of trouble in western NY – and it had everything to do with perceptions by white adults and far less to do with what actually was occurring. I was witness to several incidents reported to the police as “violent” when they were nothing of the kind. They were just energetic, laughing kids. Who then, because they were Black, got banned from the downtown mall. Same thing holds true though for white kids with punk/Goth/whatever garb. They are also perceived as “dangerous”. We white adults need to do the growing up! » Posted By choicelady On April 18, 2010 @ 10:38 am FAscinating, KQ! I’ve done two – age and race – and appear to have no particular preferences, but it was challenging. Part of the issue is lack of coordination, I think; hard doing the reverse hand on things (proving I’m more set in my ways than I’d like to think!) but I do think, overall, it’s revealing. I think your revelations are fascinating. I’m now moving on. » Posted By choicelady On April 17, 2010 @ 3:04 pm No Compassion – the American Terrorist still lives WTS – I’m fascinated by “Gaviotas” though this is the first I’ve heard of it. In CA, at the bend in Hwy 101 is the settlement of Gaviota where, some years ago, there was an enchanting restaurant and shop that was part of a sustainable cooperative community that grew the food and made most of the wares sold there. It’s gone – entirely – now. Wonder if there is a link? I’m interested as well by your comment that we have too many people, especially in cities. I have a friend who lives in a Rust Belt city, teaches at the local university, but is nevertheless under siege from community do-gooders who are, for whatEVER reason, getting the city to cut healthy mature trees so they can plant new twigs. The leader is a computer engineer (white professional) doing this to a middle class neighborhood but without involving the neighborhood. It’s the outgrowth of a “plan” imposed on the city by PolicyLink that comes into communities, imposes ‘policy’ recommendations that have no link to that community at ALL, and leaves people to be “do gooders” without actually doing good. They believe they know best for all others. And that is what PolicyLink encourages – and it comes down to yet another form of outside control, no accountability, and a rape of neighborhoods that are being made less healthy rather than more. So it’s not just the restless youth that do harm – it’s the self-aggrandized elites as well. And we wonder why disaffected, undereducated Black and Latino kids don’t jump on the bandwagon? No one likes democracy – it’s messy. Bush reflected way too many people’s secret belief that a dictatorship (benevolent, of course) is better. I think Americans never got over wanting a King, even during the Revolutionary War for independence. We are not fit to govern ourselves if we do not honor each other. And we do not. » Posted By choicelady On April 17, 2010 @ 11:36 am LOL!!!! I will NEVER doubt the strength of “The Secret” again – at least from Ch. 6 on!!! Marvelous! » Posted By choicelady On April 17, 2010 @ 11:26 am WTS and kes – I tried to read “The Secret” and it simply stuck in my craw. The poem khirad noted, Invictus, is the 19thC. example of this hyperindividualism – the master of my fate, the captain of my soul. By jumping on magical thinking, we comfort ourselves, but at that 11th hour, how can we be anything but horrified that it did not work? If it then permits us to disconnect from everyone around us and permits massive social injustice, then it goes well beyond the personal. Kes – I am so sorry for your friend both for the cancer and the illusion. How awful! My query – what will it take to bring us to a state of caring for one another both personally and with respect for humanity? I am seriously well motivated by examples of the poorest people gathering together (no hyperindividualism makes this work) to create change. David Hawkens’ book, “Blessed Unrest” and reports from Grameen Bank and many, many other SUCCESSFUL efforts to build a vibrant and inclusive self-sustaining society really give me hope. I see things back where I lived in Buffalo, NY and other rust bucket communities that also give hope. They have no other choice but to come together in novel ways to rebuild a most damaged economy and society. But – nationally – what WILL it take to have us work together instead of blowing each other up? » Posted By choicelady On April 16, 2010 @ 3:40 pm Hi Cher- You always keep me honest – it’s not all liberals, because of course many are really good, get involved, care about others. But over the last 15 years, I’ve been increasingly horrified at the self serving dismissal of “the other” by those who do claim to love humanity – it’s people they can’t stand. I know the types you mean, who give money but demand fealty. To see academics dismiss centuries of racism and genocide with the idea that somehow people just did not fight hard enough for their rights – appalling! My point is that the narcissism of a Tim McVeigh can and does have its counterweight even among liberals, not that ALL liberals think that way. My concern is the narcissism and what it leads to in dismissing people and thus demonizing them and even killing them or creating policies that throw them on the trash heap. I just don’t understand what happened to caring and concern and how so many of us, from different points of view, came to see other people as unimportant. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 4:40 pm It shocks me, BT, that we have this intersection. I certainly did not know McVeigh, but he crossed my path a couple of times though I did not know it until later. As of your post on Miss Laura, this suddenly takes on an entirely new weight – this is not about abstractions, this is about known people killing other known people. Your story, more than any I’ve read, brings home the enormity of what one fanatic can cost a world. I think I’ve mentioned before that I have known 5 people – friends and acquaintances – cut down by RW extremists. That is insane. I don’t live in a manner that would make sense of that – I’m not a violent or dangerous extremist myself. So how could this be true in America? These acts of extremity defy all our known standards of what we expect in this country. Good bye to peace of mind and happily ever after. Welcome to the coo-coo nest. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 4:02 pm I realize there is a pathology among the really violent, but there are mentally ill homeless people I’d trust way more than people such as McVeigh. In one passage of American Terrorist, the authors note that McVeigh went to Area 51 (the supposed UFO landing site) to challenge the feds on their ‘stay out’ orders. He was minimally armed, and he entered the fenced in area only to encounter a blackhawk helicopter. He waved, and it left. He was never arrested or even accosted. Now, rather than assume that the federal government actually did NOT shoot people down for being in that area, he assumed he had outwitted them, shown his superior force (one skinny guy with a rifle?), and that it proved he was better than the entire U.S. government. He the MAN! OK – when you’re THAT much of a megalomaniac, there is probably something so wrong inside you cannot be fixed, but that is what is happening here. I would not be surprised to learn that Andrew Stack thought he could fly his plane into the IRS building and walk away. In 2001 a guy drove his truck into the CA capitol building out of frustration with the DMV. He was terrified of fire – and by fire he died. He wedged his doors closed in the building alcove and when it burst into flame, he could not get out. And I will always believe, due to notes he left, he thought he’d walk out, too. Magical thinking meets political zealotry. Bad mix. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 3:51 pm That’s it – thanks! I’m not sure they’re OK either, but at least they’re challenging the dominance of the language and issues dredged up by the tea bag folks. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 3:41 pm LOL!!! I read that there is a group infiltrating the TPs doing something of that sort. I wish I could recall where I read it, but the guy leading it says if you see a wacko in a gorilla suit with a weird, extremist sign, it MAY be one of his group. If that same wacko is throwing stones – definitely NOT his group. They are trying to make the covert racism and other sentiments open and above board. Don’t know how I feel about that, but there is something kind of funny about it! » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 2:56 pm dilden – you are so correct! That lack of commitment from the feds to dealing with American Terrorists has caused this nation no end of grief. I may not be recalling it correctly, but I can remember only a handful of violent acts during the anti-war period: the bombing at U. of Wisconsin that took a life; the SLA actions; the failed attempt of the Weather Underground; the townhouse in NYC that cost the perpetrators their lives. When it comes to the Right, however, their acts get dismissed as ‘lunatic fringe’ rather than part of larger movements. The Right works very hard to pretend they have no role in motivating the violence that is hugely more frequent and lethal than anything the “left” ever did. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 2:53 pm Tea Party Ingredients: Old Hateful White Males on Social Security Sacramento local media just reported that the crowd at the Tea Party outside the Capitol was 2500-3000, down from 5000 last year. In the Sacramento Bee, one man was quoted as saying there were no ‘birthers’ or other wackos, but in the electronic blog, one said he was there and went into a total rant about “no birth certificate”. So much for participant observation by the Tea Party attendees. Glad I stayed in the office with y’all. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 4:33 pm What happened to “Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten”? Share. Play fair. Don’t hit. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take what is not yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone. When you go out in traffic, hold hands and look out for each other. How did those rules all get shoved into the rubric of “Socialism” and dismissed? » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 4:17 pm boomer- they loved him! He was one of their own – indifferent to others, lazy, self-indulgent, selfish, greedy, and chewed with his mouth open. What’s not to love? » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 4:13 pm Pepe – I’ve not gone over to the Capitol in Sacramento to see, but last year I was there, and it was downright scary. The numbers of furious signs with racial overtones and outright racist remarks was horrifying. But the anti-government sentiments are maybe more scary since we’ve already seen the waves of violence these people are capable of inflicting. If Dick Armey, Michelle, Glenn, Rush, and even Sarah are thinking they are immune, I think they are wrong. Their greed and money will eventually be objects of envy and then hate by the very forces they have unleashed. All the BS rhetoric against ‘privilege’ will NOT render them free from wingnut hates. I’m very scared for our nation. I think the tea party people are probably less likely (LESS likely, not NOT likely) to inflict violence, but they are giving aid and comfort to the militias with this rant. Tim McVeigh would not have been in the tea party crowds, but he drew from the mainline mentality of loathing the poor and people of color and NRA screeds. I dread next week. April 19th has been, over and over, an opportunity for violence. Not only OKC but several movements have given rise to action on that date – or the 20th which is Hitler’s birthday – so I won’t rest easily until May. America the weird. I think we will see worse before this subsides. I hope dildenusa is right and that the people who have suffered in the downturn are really finding the tea party and militia rants unbearable, and that eyes will be opened by those who might otherwise have been supporters. Those who support Ron Paul do so at their peril – among other things, he wants a return to the gold standard that is the death knell for open credit for small business and ordinary homeowners. They do not know that their own historic precursor, William Jennings Bryan who WAS a populist, demanded an end to the gold standard (his “cross of gold” message). This contemporary group is pitiful. Theirs is a pretend populism, and if you listen to the messages today, they are NOT populist but support continued privilege. Back to the original premise: you can’t fix stupid. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 1:42 pm AdLib – we must have had a shared brainstorm this morning! I totally agree that this group at least has reduced everything to: Just so I got mine. In a way, I am GLAD they are being portrayed as above average white folks because it makes them look really stupid. They lose nothing, are not unemployed or bankrupt, they take government supports (we ALL pay taxes to the government, even the poor) but don’t want anyone else to get help. They support the ‘great risk shift’ of having handouts to the rich and to corporations – they are NOT the people who have real problems. They are utterly selfish, utterly narcissistic. Damn their eyes. They are the people who still think Reagan is a saint, think they ‘made it on their own’ – NOT, and think white is right. Disgusting people. » Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2010 @ 11:47 am Hey Pepe – ain’t it the truth? If a Reep had won, it would have been trumpeted to the skies as a repudiation of Obama. Now that a Dem has won BIG time, ho-hum, barely worth noting. This is HUGE since it shows that even in “Keep the Government Out of My Medicare” Florida has many more sensible people than the media and the Reeps believed. I am wondering just how WRONG most of the pollsters and punsters are about the “big” midterm losses. As the months go on, I hope the Prez plays up the successes of health care and consumer rights (should we actually pass that) and the recovery of the economy, which, while slow, is steadily gaining. I realize Sue is right about the coming commercial property crash, but with any luck, we will have new regs in place before that happens to prevent the bottom falling out once again. I worry however, that we still need to make headway with the stupid so-called “progessives”. I just took myself off a list wherein the woman who sends stuff (she is independent, not a formal listserve) to those of us who worked against torture. She has decided, without a shred of evidence, that Obama sanctions and uses torture, and she has not a single fact to back that up. She also has decided that Obama leaves his appointees “twisting in the wind” – when it’s the Republicans who hold up appointments. This kind of cynical disenchantment speaks once more to the people who thought Obama would be a miracle worker who would do it all, and we’d have to do nothing but gloat. They may be the undoing of America. » Posted By choicelady On April 14, 2010 @ 1:15 pm Let’s All Give Thanks for Bob McDonnell Marion – you make a wonderful, humane point indeed! Not everyone is weird just because they’re from (fill in the blank.) I lived in Tullahoma, TN in 1968 when King was brutally murdered. Sure, there were wackadoodles celebrating – but there were people who came out of the woodwork to support a letter I and my then husband had in the paper mourning his loss. We were scared to do it, but nothing awful ever happened. GOOD people are everywhere. And there are BAD people in CA, land of the free thinkers. I think Virginia is gorgeous – nothing more elegant than flying over the Blue Ridge and low to the ground heading into Dulles; nothing more majestic than the Blue Ridge Parkway. Monticello, the entire countryside – spectacular. Racism is everywhere, humanity is everywhere. The worst of the worst may be here in CA where everyone is convinced of their superiority when, in fact, they are ridiculously uninformed but arrogant and unwilling to learn. MT has amazing people. The original “Not in My Town” PBS program about responses to hate crimes, was about Billings, MT’s reaction against the white supremacists/anti-Semitic actions in that city. The whole city rallied to support its small Jewish population – everyone put pictures of menorahs in their window to protest the vandalism that had been done to a few homes during Hanukkah. One of my greatest allies headed the MT Council of Churches, and she is great beyond measure. My biggest problem is the ‘classification’ game – the tarring with one brush of people in (fill in the blank) place, occupation, religion, race, whatever with no regard for the diversity of opinion OR the real problems that said group may honestly be facing. We need to rebuild our humanity. We need to stop classifying people. Do WE want to be dismissed as “fern bar liberals” any more than steel workers what to be considered knuckle dragging women haters? I had reason to work closely with police and FBI on a hate crime case – and I had women friends tell me how AWFUL that was since, obviously, ALL police were abusive, racist, violent people, and I should never EVER associate myself with them. Pure stupidity. Virginia IS more conservative than I’d like to associate myself with – driving through the countryside, I rarely saw one of the denominations I serve out here, but lots of New Light of the Heaven types of Pentacostal churches that make me uncomfortable. But they are people, too. Hey, when I lived in Tullahoma years ago, it was next to Estill Springs, home of the rattlesnake handling churches. But you know – those folks are OK. If they are snakeless. Some good folks can be found everywhere. Not everything about the South is “Deliverance”. Thank you for reminding me and all of us that there is diversity wherever you look, and good people wherever you look. » Posted By choicelady On April 11, 2010 @ 8:05 pm A new low for Christian crazies Now I think of THEM using the facilities, I think I won’t use them! Eeeuuuuwwww! Gives a whole new meaning to “holy shit”. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 7:01 pm I agree Rarest – that’s how I grew up. I joined a Methodist church because my best friend belonged and was very involved for years until the minister disparaged Catholic kids being told to urge their parents to vote for JFK – and then he urged us to tell OUR parents not to. Since I was for JFK, that did not sit well. Then I became an Episcopalian and have been a ‘revolving door’ member for several decades, loging the music and most of the ritual and leaving every time they do something stupid, returning when they don’t. Today I work for an ecumenical Christian advocacy organization – and belong to no church. I cannot explain why, but there’s none that calls out to me at all. I am very devoted to my organization and my job, I’m in and out of churches all the time, but… Faith is too special to be a matter of inculcation. It is profoundly within one’s heart and gut – kids have to be allowed to work it out. Doctrine is half the reason I do not belong, even within the most progressive denominations, since I’m pretty anarchic with respect to “it all”. But there are churches where I feel comfortable, and ones where I do not, and I can never tell you the reason for either. So I go with the flow. Or stay home and read the comics and garden. Either way is good. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 7:00 pm In May one of the Anglican bishops from Uganda who supports gay rights AND marriage equality will be in Sacramento and other parts of CA. I’ll post the schedule when I get it. He is married for 46 years, has 11 kids, and is a GREAT ally for especially gay men and a huge opponent of this disgusting law advocating the execution of gay men and women. He and Desmond Tutu are huge forces pushing back against not just the religious right in Uganda but the right within their own church. They are most courageous! » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 6:53 pm And me, too!!!!! – your own resident progressive Christian voice of SANITY. (This is me dancing around the edge hoping you’ll notice.) I hate that working with secular progressives means ALWAYS having to say I’m sorry! No, we don’t hate GLBTQ people, we support absolute equality, no we don’t think women should be denied reproductive choices including abortion, no we don’t think only Christians go to heaven ’cause, among other things, what’s heaven? No we don’t support the death penalty, no we don’t hate other people. And on and on and on. It’s really a bummer especially since we exist in equal numbers (in CA) with the conservatives. The wingnuts, of course, are a total minority of even the minority. But we had a huge impact in passing the health reform (got that straight from Nancy Pelosi’s office) and do the hard and heavy lifting of pressing for GOOD policy and GOOD laws and educating people on the essential issues of our day so they don’t have to fear our government. Anymore. Unlike the religious right, we’re not partisan. We speak ‘truth to power’ any time, anywhere. And who the bloody hell cares when you have idiots like these people worrying about cross-over bathrooms. Lord save us from us. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 6:50 pm Oh my – let’s definitely stay out of their way! » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 3:34 pm I once stumbled across a chat room with Phred Felps in a total spitting wrath. He is OBSESSED with the details of gay sex. Wants all the particulars, and he makes up stuff to foment over and gets in a major fury if others don’t provide totally graphic details. If you think lust comes from the Devil but you feel no lust for women (Godly) and do for men (Satanic), then of course you can justify this obsession. However… » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 3:32 pm Yup. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 3:28 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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