For all the crazy deity worship that the Right surrounds the memory of Ronald Reagan with, the man had some good ideas. Ideas that are being completely ignored by Republicans.
We are free to speak our minds, to enjoy an unfettered and vigorous press, and to make government abide by the limits we deem just.
(emphasis mine)
Lest we forget, we, the people, control this nation.
No, the book is not nearly as good as the cover in this case.
This bursts out of Britan's UK Gay News, gay Jesus flames rocketing it across the pond. It appears that the BBC aired a staged version of "Jerry Springer - The Opera" (yes, I was as surprised as you - not in my town yet?). Someone watching was horribly offended by someone saying "Jesus is a little bit gay" and filed a lawsuit of blasphemy.
Whatwhat? A lawsuit of blasphemy?
You betcha:
Blasphemous libel claims can still be brought against the publication of any matter that insults, offends, or vilifies Christ or the Christian (principally Anglican) religion – whether the publication intended to be blasphemous or not.
Whacked. But the point of this post was to mention that "The Christian think tank Ekklesia has today renewed its call for the repeal of the UK’s archaic blasphemy law."
I spend a great deal of time butting up against some of the more archaic beliefs of organized religions, specifically sects of Christianity. I just want to recognize a completely reasonable group of Christians making all the rest of them just look good.
Virginia Heffernan has an excellent piece in the NY Times about Volume 1 and 2 of "Sesame Street: Old School" being released on DVD, focusing primarily on how non-PC those original episodes were, and how those characters got from there to where we can still see them today (e.g., Snuffleupagus could be seen by everyone in 1985 as not to exacerbate Big Bird's condition into full-blown mental illness).
What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.
The only part of the article that didn't ring true to the spirit was a single snippet on the first page:
Live-action cows also charge the 1969 screen — cows eating common grass, not grain improved with hormones. Cows are milked by plain old farmers, who use their unsanitary hands and fill one bucket at a time.
The point of running through the grocery list of "atrocities" was to show how PC we've become, but the single farmer's careful handling his organic milk is something that rings PC/"social conscious" true in the light of today's Big Box stores and farm factories.
Excuse my literary nitpicks. Read the article. It's worth the walk down memory lane and stuffed full of things I was never aware of concerning a show that helped me grow, read, write, and eventually become this blogger that you're reading right now.
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