IN Commentary

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Did Not Support Prayer in Public Schools

Posted on Saturday, February 4th, 2012 @ 3:00 PM  |  Comments Off

Dr. King supported the various Supreme Court decisions prohibiting government-sponsored prayer in public schools. In a January 1965 interview with Playboy magazine, Dr. King was asked about one of the rulings. Not only did he back the court’s decision, he added that his antithesis, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, stood on the other side of the argument.

“I endorse it. I think it was correct,” King said. “Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in God. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right. I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to nullify the decision. They have been motivated, I think, by little more than the wish to embarrass the Supreme Court. When I saw Brother Wallace going up to Washington to testify against the decision at the congressional hearings, it only strengthened my conviction that the decision was right.”

Rob Boston also notes that, in a time when some states still made it illegal to buy, sell or use birth control, Dr. King was in favor of greater access to it and was a strong progressive when it came to economics, health care, and poverty. He was also, of course, a fierce opponent of the Vietnam War.

 
IN Commentary

2012 Is The Year of the Bible in Pennsylvania? Are You Shitting Me?

Posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2012 @ 7:21 PM  |  Comments Off

House Resolution 535 in Pennsylvania, sponsored by Rep. Rick Saccone (R), declares:

That the House of Representatives declare 2012 as the “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania in recognition of both the formative influence of the Bible on our Commonwealth and nation and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the holy scriptures.

Read resolution 535 and choke on your own bile here.

I’m all for people reading the Bible in order to understand what’s actually in it. I have a feeling that it may wake a few people from their ignorant Judao-Christian slumber. But is it really a necessity for people in our country to accept this mythos as part of our governance model?

Saccone doesn’t even try to take a secular route in explaining it:

“As not only Pennsylvania, but the United States, continues to face great tests and challenges, House Resolution 535 serves as a reminder that we must look to our faith in God and the Holy Scripture to provide us with the strength, wisdom and courage to conquer these great trials,” said Saccone. “All over the Pennsylvania Capitol, one can easily see the tremendous influence that Christianity and the Bible have had over our founders and predecessors. These images and quotes illustrating the beliefs and morals that have shaped our great Commonwealth must never be forgotten.”

So the next time we’re faced with horrible adversity, let’s all pray for it to magically go away. Yeah, that works. Has anyone noticed that when people pray for these selfish miracles, their prayers go unanswered? If I were wrong, we’d live in a world where everyone’s favorite sports team wins every game every year, and we’d all be 30 pounds lighter and having sex with super-models atop our piles of lottery winnings.

And if 2012 is the ‘Year of the Bible’, what was every single year before this? Should we expect a ‘Year of the Koran’ in the future? In its own way it, too, shaped our nation. Personally, I’d like to see a ‘Year of the Kama Sutra’. That’s something I could get behind.

But the worst part is that the resolution passed 193-0; without a single voice of dissent. So foreign theocracies are bad, but good ol’ fashioned American theocracy is just what we need! Yeah, the bible can help bring back the good old days of slavery, subjugation of women, and pork-less Sundays. Unbelievable.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation can’t believe it either.

“Our constitution grants sovereignty not to a deity or a ‘holy book,’ but to ‘We, the People.’ There is no reference to God, the bible, the Ten Commandments or Jesus in the U.S. Constitution, just as there are no references to ‘consent of the governed,’ ‘civil liberties’ or ‘democracy’ in the bible. Those who have truly studied the bible realize that it is a moral quagmire, a behavioral grab bag, which has been used to justify automatic rule, tyranny, slavery, the degradation of women and gays, child abuse, war, atrocity and mayhem,” noted FFRF.

 
IN Commentary

I Was Once Big in Canada

Posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 @ 5:17 PM  |  Comments Off

Back in the late 1990′s I had a shareware (software) side business named M2 Software, which was later rebranded as PocketKaos. Shortly after the year 2000 Scott James, the host of the Cyberworld.ca radio show, called to let me know that he was going to review one of my apps. It was named Zipcat Pro and was a media cataloging tool. Back then people used CD’s, Zip disks, and other media to store their software and data, and needed a tool to search for things without having to insert each piece of media in order to find something.

So I got my minute of fame, but it was in Canada. Does that even count? I wonder if I’m still big there. Anyway, you can listen to the one-minute spot here: The Zipcat Pro Radio Spot.

 
 
IN Commentary

Cee Lo Green Ruins Lennon Classic, Panders to Religious Imperative of Conversion

Posted on Sunday, January 1st, 2012 @ 3:03 PM  |  Comments Off

Bestowed with the honor of singing Lennon’s famous solo-era tune on NBC’s New Year’s Eve show shortly before the ball dropped in Times Square, Green changed the lyrics from “Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too” to “Nothing to kill or die for, And all religion’s true.”

Seriously, Cee Lo Green? Changing the lyrics to John Lennon’s “Imagine” is wrong on countless levels. Let’s focus on two.

  1. Artistic Integrity. You don’t change an artist’s work. And unless Josh Krajcik on FOX’s “X Factor” is a “hot-blooded woman”, he deliberately sang Alanis Morissette’s “Uninvited” keeping said reference to being female in order to maintain this integrity.
  2. Intended Message. John Lennon generally had a secular (though spiritual) message in his works. This one, in particular, was a message that the abolishment of all organized religions would yield a better, more peaceful world. Cee Lo Green’s is the opposite, and wrong I might add. As the artist, only Lennon has the right to make such a fundamental change.

It’s hard to tell if this was a gaff by someone who simply didn’t know or remember the lyrics well enough, or if it was a deliberate attempt to pander to those in the viewing audience who believe in Christian mythology. It could have even been an attempt by Cee Lo Green to change the lyrics deliberately such that it became more religiously inclusive. Perhaps he thought that he knew better than John Lennon, with regard to how a message of peace and love should be delivered within the context of a song by John Lennon.