Leaning French

I'm always amazed by the rhetoric of Republicans. They will change the name of French Fries to Freedom Fries and poor perfectly quaffable French burgandy into the streets in juvenile attemps to rally the good ole' Americana Wearing Patriot. Yet, BushCo. is behind a guest worker program? That's so French. (a cursory study of the riots in Paris last fall should give anyone with a mind for social systems a clue why guest worker programs fail.)

Let's just go ahead and call it what it is: a caste system, a class system. No upward mobility. No American dream. Second class non-citizens. Sounds like a great idea to me.

And yesterday, half a million marched in Dallas. 1 arrest: for public intoxication. That's a great figure for the "all illegals are criminals" crowd to hang their hats on.

A Step

Women, here's your chance to make a stink. Call you representatives and Senators and ask that they support this bill. Do you want your pharmacist denying you access to birth control?

The bill would ensure you have access to all of your prescriptions- no matter what a pharmacists particular beliefs on the issue are.

I'm most perplexed by Karen Brauer, president of the Pharmacists for Life, who told Reuters she believes doctors will begin ordering patients to abort deformed children. She was quoted as saying, "They'll force women to kill their children ... It will be like China. It's the next logical step."

The next logical step? Um... Brauer lady, I think there are more than a few illogical steps between taking a pill to prevent unwanted pregnancy and being forced to abort a wanted child.

Lordy... I'm so glad Karen Brauer is the spokesperson for the other side. She makes me laugh.

Go Thank a Patriot

Do you ever watch someone on television voice exactly what your thoughts, emotions or opinions are on a certain issue? I can recall several times when The Lawyer and I sat in our recliners, yelling a loud "thank you" to Simon Cowell for expressing exactly what we were thinking on any given performance.

In case you missed it, at a Bush event this week, a gentleman named Harry Taylor took the scripted event off the page. You can read the transcript or watch the vidoe here. Here's my favorite bit of what Mr. Taylor said:

You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I
listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my
telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from
breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a
woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about
whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf.

Now, guess what, if you read the whole thing, and agree with what he said, you can send him a thank you! Take a few moments and send Mr. Harry a thank you for being eloquent, polite and expressing what I say - not so eloquently- everytime I get up in the morning.

Faith Based

I'm a liberal Democrat and I'm a Christian. Why does this make me an albatross to Republican Christians and my non-religious friends alike? I guess it's evidence of how prevalent the Christian right is in our society. Everyone assumes that all Christians:
- are pro-life
- hate gay people
- dislike birth control (or sex in general)

I'm a Christian because of my upbringing. However, God has many names. I'm not particularly dogmatic in my faith. I was raised Catholic. In college, I strayed away from religion completely. This will sound very trite, but through yoga and a few, very moving personal experiences, my spirit began seeking something. The Lawyer and I landed in an Episcopal church in Fort Worth. (I have a friend who likes to say you cannot walk into an Episcopal church without shaking hands with a doctor or a lawyer... which has been very true in my experience.)

My liberal political beliefs are solidified because I am a Christian. Jesus said love one another. Jesus said blessed are the poor. Jesus said render to God what is God's and Ceasar what is Ceasar's. Jesus Christ was the liberal of his time. He took a religion that was sheltered in law, restriction and rules and showed the people that faith was for all. He ministered to lepers, prostitutes, the poor, sick, blind and healthy alike.

I often wonder WTFWJD (What the fuck would Jesus do) about the state of things today. Our current policies abandon the poor, shrink the middle class and balloon the rich. Bush's mixing of faith-based programs and religious rhetoric to boost support for his policies reaks of tax collectors in the temple and mixing God and Ceasar. Using a war to create political capital and paydirt for contracting companies while ignoring atrocities in the Sudan is deplorable to me.

It's because of Christ I choose to be a liberal. I believe contraception and abortion are personal choices - and God is with women who make choices on both sides of these political fences. Being heteorsexual is not a prereq for going to heaven.

I'm curious how literal interpreters of the Bible choose what to interpret literally and what to discard: i.e.- homosexuality is totally wrong, but the death penalty is justified despite what Jesus said about turning the other cheek. The Bible condones slavery, yet most Christians would say today that slavery is morally unacceptable.

Yet, I've come to accept the literal bible freaks for what they are. For some, in order to stay on a path, they need absolute rigidity, black and white scenarios. Some are not comfortable in shades of gray. It's like me and sugar- I can either have none of it or crave all of it, so I opt for none. There are some areas of life where faith, Bible and politics bleed gray. Instead of thumping againt the gray with rigid Bible versus, I choose to embrace it and think Jesus walked there himself.

I'm sure I'll get back to faith and politics one of these days, but this post is dedicate to Mary. (my friend, not the Holy Mother.)