I’m going to let all the things I could say about Palin’s speech pass today, and let FactCheck.org (and Media Matters and The Progress Report) point out lies and distortions, of which there were many. There was a whole bunch of snideness, and even more dishonesty. But… I’m on board in one way. Why? Because there is one thing she said that gives me long-term hope. She encouraged people to stand up and speak, and if some do, so will…
Sites for Recovering Jehovah’s Witnesses to Explore Scroll to the bottom if you’re not in the mood for this! Over the years, I’ve noted that the quality and helpfulness of former JW sites varies quite a bit. Some are very angry, while others are more compassionate. Some are able to create spaces to share insights with one another, some are more combative with peers. Some are focused on biblical interpretation, others on issues like abuse and shunning. More recently, I’ve…
The figure of the “evil other” is a pre-ethical fixation for the religiously-minded paranoid. Everything that one most dislikes or finds threatening can be projected upon others and (usually symbolically) murdered in the age-old tradition of the scapegoat. Such projection engenders – and feeds upon – symbolic (and real) violence. Predatory on the people who cannot bear to examine themselves, leaders of such movements play on fears of contagion, defilement and stain from without – from the evil others –…
I love humor, even when it’s aimed at my heroes. Jacques Derrida was hopelessly misunderstood by much of the American audience, but there is a grain of truth in much of this: The World’s Shortest Philosophy Books Dennett’s Philosophical Lexicon Philosophers’ Cause of Death Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? Fair enough. But really… let’s think about intellectual courage… Yeah, Derrida has a lot going on. He is sometimes very difficult to read. And it’s easy to make fun…
125,830 People I’m so sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ve spiked a fever at 105 degrees, and hovered around 100-101 most of the rest of the time. Vertigo and light-headedness. Fatigue and balance problems. Coughing. Sneezing. Aching, but I can’t rest (and I won’t take that medicine). Crossing my fingers that it doesn’t go into bacterial pneumonia like in many other cases. It’s been a week now, and I’ve racked up five sick days at work. That’s…
Bev – one of my very best friends ever – was so amused by my birthday narratives that she sent me this in the mail today. Hee-hee.