Author: Robert Barrimond

Whose Religion Is This, Anyway?

Whose Religion Is This, Anyway? | The American Prospect:

“The tension of being an Orthodox dove is partly sociological. Most Israeli Jews with whom I could pray don’t share my political views. Most Israelis who share my politics do not understand why I enter a synagogue. More basically, the presumption of the society in which I live is that one cannot be an Orthodox critic of the occupation. That matching up of the political divide and the secular-religious one is a mistake. For a religious dove, however, there is an additional dimension to the argument about territories, settlements, and peace: The stakes are not only the future of one’s country but also of one’s religion.”

(Via The American Prospect.)

I find myself in the same situation with my Christianity and homosexuality. It’s why politics is bad for religion. Every political idea starts to become an article of faith. You can’t have absolutism with equivocality without giving evil has an opening.

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Sacrificing the Public Option

Sacrificing the Public Option | The American Prospect:

“Because the public option has stood no realistic chance of being enacted in the form it was conceived, its main value all along this year has been as a bargaining chip. The proposal will now have served a valuable political purpose if, by sacrificing it, the White House is able to provide enough cover to Democratic senators from red states to get a bill out of the Senate Finance Committee, through the upper chamber, and into conference with the House.”

(Via The American Prospect.)

To quote Denzel in Training Day, “This shit is chess; it ain’t checkers!”

Health Care Explained On The Back Of A Napkin

Health Care Explained On The Back Of A Napkin (SLIDESHOW):

Healthcare Napkins All

View more documents from Dan Roam.

(Via The Huffington Post.)

Frank Talk

Barney Frank Refuses to Talk to Dining Room Table | The Colbert Report 05114 | ColbertNation.com:

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Barney Frank Refuses to Talk to Dining Room Table
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

(Via The Colbert Nation.)

And this is why I can never be a politician.

Slavery needs more than an apology

Commentary: Slavery needs more than an apology – CNN.com:

But here’s the funny thing: While we white Americans are busy establishing our innocence, it turns out that many black Americans are not personally angry at us for slavery. Many do want authentic acknowledgement of what happened, but not for the sake of guilt-tripping. I’ve witnessed a generosity of spirit that I have been humbled by.
Meanwhile, many African-Americans are upset about the disparate outcomes that persist and want to see everyone step up to address them. There are so many lingering ‘structural inequalities,’ as President Obama put it — ones without clear racist villains but that are embedded, like the fact that schools are funded with property taxes, so poor black neighborhoods, the legacy of earlier eras of discrimination, are not able to fund the quality schools that we say all our children deserve.

(Via CNN.)

Justice is the sound love makes when spoken in public.

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Right Wing Crazy has a Split Personality

Rick Perlstein — Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage – washingtonpost.com:

“So the birthers, the anti-tax tea-partiers, the town hall hecklers — these are ‘either’ the genuine grass roots or evil conspirators staging scenes for YouTube? The quiver on the lips of the man pushing the wheelchair, the crazed risk of carrying a pistol around a president — too heartfelt to be an act. The lockstep strangeness of the mad lies on the protesters’ signs — too uniform to be spontaneous. They are both. If you don’t understand that any moment of genuine political change always produces both, you can’t understand America, where the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and where elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests.”

(Via The Washington Post.)

Once again, ignorance and fear are exploited. “You been bamboozled! You been hoodwinked!”

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Rick Perlstein — Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage – washingtonpost.com

Rick Perlstein — Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage – washingtonpost.com:

“So the birthers, the anti-tax tea-partiers, the town hall hecklers — these are ‘either’ the genuine grass roots or evil conspirators staging scenes for YouTube? The quiver on the lips of the man pushing the wheelchair, the crazed risk of carrying a pistol around a president — too heartfelt to be an act. The lockstep strangeness of the mad lies on the protesters’ signs — too uniform to be spontaneous. They are both. If you don’t understand that any moment of genuine political change always produces both, you can’t understand America, where the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and where elites exploit the crazy for their own narrow interests.”

(Via The Washington Post.)

Once again, ignorance and fear are exploited. “You been bamboozled! You been hoodwinked!”

The Word – Hippie Replacement

The Word – Hippie Replacement | Colbert Report 05105 | ColbertNation.com:

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word – Hippie Replacement
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Meryl Streep

(Via Colbert Nation.)

That “sleeping giant” has corporate sponsorship.

A New Outlook on Office

Microsoft: Next Mac Office due late 2010 with Outlook | Business Center | Macworld:

“However, Apple’s next version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, will include native support for Exchange Server when it’s released next month, which means business users can connect to Exchange data via Apple’s built-in Mail, iCal, and Address Book applications. With this move imminent, Microsoft’s inclusion of Outlook in Office for Mac at the end of next year might be too little, too late, he said.”

(Via Macworld.)

Competition is magic.

How to Not to Take Privacy Seriously

Palm Pre debacle highlights location privacy issues | Security | iPhone Central | Macworld:

“On Wednesday mobile application developer Joey Hess wrote in his blog that the Pre periodically uploads location data to Palm. He was widely quoted, and the information left some readers upset.”

(Via Macworld.)

Duh.