I about had a fit a couple weeks back when everyone was talking about how Bush was ahead by 11 points following the Republican convention. There are good reasons why this isn’t the case.
For one, that was only one poll from one out of a dozen pollers. (One pollster had Kerry ahead by a point.) Bush was probably ahead that week, but not by 11 points.
Two, pollsters are not taking into consideration the trend of ditching the land line and going with only a cell phone. This leaves a lot of poor minorities and urban hipsters out of the poll sample, which can only skew the results toward Bush. Click to continue reading “Bush probably not (all that) ahead”
From this post over at the Ladies Village Improvement Society, it seems that even though every knee will bow and every tongue confess, the name of Jesus takes a distant second to someone singing show tunes on the NY subway. Priceless.
Earlier this week I attended a public panel on US-Islamic relations. I have to say that my people (that is, liberals) have a long way to go.
1. If your central point it that “we must look US history square in the face,” you cannot catalog only US actions of colonialization/oppressision/etc., ignoring US actions on behalf of human rights, for example. By definition, this lopsided view is precisely not looking history square in the face.
2. The argument “because the US has done x, y, and z evil things means it cannot be trusted” will get you in trouble. What nation, judged by such criteria, could be trusted then? Perhaps we should not trust you either, assuming you wish to be judged by the same criteria.
3. Perhaps the unstated backdrop to #2 is the belief that it is appropriate to judge the US more sternly because of its own mythologies of “manifiest destiny” and “the city on the hill.” But for that to hold, wouldn’t you need to show that other ascendant nations have not used similar self-serving metaphors? Click to continue reading “Looking my people square in the face”
I got to see the new musical adaptation of The Color Purple here in Atlanta this weekend. Reading the program during intermission I noticed that one of the cast members thanked her angels and spirit guides in her bio.
This intrigued me. Growing up with a strong dose of charismatic/Pentecostal Christianity, I know all about angels (and even more about demons). But spirit guides—this was new to me.
So I did the only thing I could do. Upon returning home that night, I took a journey to My Secret Happy Special Place Where No One Else Can Go. It was there that, for the first time, I met my spirit guide.
My spirit guide is a lemon. He sits atop a popsickle stick. He wears a bow tie. And his name is Courtney.
My friend Mark wants a refund from Zell Miller, and that right soon. Is it too late to issues a “Buyer Beware”? Could someone call the Better Business Bureau? We Georgians were not given what we were sold.
Or maybe we should just challenge him to a duel.
From the Happy Tutor at Wealth Bondage:
“Why do you hate our Freedoms?”” asked Pilate. And Jesus responded, “My Kingdom is not of this Market.”
