A Third Rail Touched

How Do You Spell Motivated Youth Vote? D-R-A-F-T

Savannah, Ga. Today at a Sen. McCain rally in Las Cruces, NM, at the end of a heart-felt and poignant statement made by a member of the audience concerning our Nation's disgraceful treatment of our Veterans, a raw nugget of political plutonium flared into life and entered the Presidential contest. Given the abusive treatment extended to our all-volunteer military vets in health care, housing and access to same, the attendee asked the Arizona Senator how we will fight in the future absent a draft? McCain's response:

"Let me say, [applause] I don't disagree with anything you said."

See for yourself:


I'm just barely old enough to have sweated the Vietnam draft. Few events focused a (then) young man's mind and motivations than the prospect of being sent to war. The generation subsequent--not to mention their parents--has never faced such an imperative or obligation. We are content to allow others--'volunteers'--to fulfill our national security military needs. Contentment will morph into resentment, protestation and civic disobedience dormant and unseen in America for 40 years. There is no single issue or precipitating event which carries with it the potential for societal upheaval as does a return to a military draft.

I wonder if John "Bomb, bomb Iran" McCain was really listening to what was being said.

Fairytales meet Reality

Idiots

Savannah, GA. Fundamentalist Christian soldiers within education just don't get it. Their bible may be the unerring word of god for themselves and their ilk, but for ordinary civilians, it is just one of many Good Books. This week that fact was never truer than when U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles rejected claims of religious discrimination, siding with the University of California's decision to deny certain high school credits from certain Christian schools whose textbooks reject the theory of evolution and declare the bible infallible.

Thanks be to Odin, Zeus, and Vishnu for some common sense.

Attorney Jennifer Monk of Advocates for Faith and Freedom huffed:

"It appears the UC is attempting to secularize private religious schools."

Actually, it appears the good lawyer and AFF expect their high school graduates to enter real-world secular college biology courses believing mankind walked amongst the dinosaurs. What next? Flat-Earthers demanding credit for UC geography classes? Fundamentalist xtian geology students claiming--with a straight face--the Grand Canyon was the result of Noah's Flood?

Called on their bullshit, Charles Robinson, the university's vice president for legal affairs, said the ruling:

"Confirms that UC may apply the same admissions standards to all students and to all high schools without regard to their religious affiliations. What the plaintiffs seek, is a religious exemption from regular admissions standards."

According to Judge Otero's ruling, one of the rejected texts, Biology for Christian Schools, states on the first page:

"if [scientific] conclusions contradict the Word of God, the conclusions are wrong."

Welcome to the fundamentals of Science, Fundamentalists.

NSFW! WTF?

Get a clue

Savannah, GA. Casually viewing blog offerings out there in Web-log Land, I'm often surprised by the warning proviso: "NSFW" or the less emphatic: "caution--may be NSFW" before a particular YouTube video or .jpeg. This is usually a guarantee that after the break, something salacious is coming down the pike. The thing I love about this is the fact all the players are in on the game and know what's up. The poster knows; the reader knows--you are about to view something your boss (or Ms./Mr. Tight-Sphincter over in the next cubicle) ain't gonna find appropriate. It's something that's, well, Not Safe for Work.

This beggars the critical question: Why aren't these slackers, well, working? Why are they on company time (or company servers, for that matter) flitting about in the snarkosphere, when they presumably should be earning their pay? My favorite bit of delightful idleness is when some sluggard pitches a self-righteous fit in the comments section when one of these NSFW posts unzips itself unlabeled. "Dude, I could get fired!" One could only hope.

Facebook and MySpace? Shopping? Let's not even go there.

And, btw, regarding the computer I use at work--I haven't, don't and won't. That's why god made personal computers and personal smartphones.