Look, it's no mystery why John McCain keeps mentioning Iran's lack of "Judeo-Christian values". He's so old the only thing that gets his little flyboy to stand to attention is that sweet, sweet war porn. He wants to get it on with Iran, bad, and this is his way of telling the Clash of Civilization folks that he's pretty sure they wouldn't mind hitting that either.

This also applies to his repeated references to Georgia's long history of Christianity or his equally repeated confusion about Shiite Iran's involvement with Sunni al Qaeda. McCain knows that his target demographic believes that they're locked in a religious battle for supremacy against the Islamic crescent and, well, apparently against the godless Rooskies too. Anyway, they want a justification for going to war, and he's all too happy to oblige, using religious reasons or whatever's handy.

More to the point, perhaps, it's McCain's way of giving a wink-wink to John Hagee's people. He may have had to drop their pastor like a bucket of warm spit, but by God, he'll never give up their cause.

And inasmuch as "their cause" works out to welcoming Armageddon by glassing Iran or whoever Likud tells them is today's threat to Israeli security, this may be the kind of thing our elite media gatekeepers may want to figure out between now and November. But since the media narrative declares that the only religious story worth covering this year is whether Democrats have done enough to appease the kind of people who want to take away a woman's ability to control her own body, I wouldn't hold my breath.

What, you were expecting Mrs. P or something?  The Pastorfam's still on vacation, you know.  Let the good times roll!

And boy are the times good:

(Bumped by brillig 'cause Coffee Hour belongs on the front page. Thanks, Thirst!!)

Proof that there is a God:  Rachel Maddow gets her own TV show!

Wanker of the Day: Conservative radio host Mike Gallagher for arguing that lesbian adoptions will inevitably lead to the legalization of adoptions by pedophiles.

Majority of middle class supports progressive policies.

I couldn't have said it better

[editor's note, by PoliSigh] early morning for me--see you later!

Today's Meditation:

   COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   When upon life's billows
   You are tempest tossed
   When you are discouraged
   Thinking all is lost
   Count your many blessings
   Name them one by one
   And it will surprise you
   What the Lord has done


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   Are you ever burdened
   With a load of care
   Does the cross seem heavy
   You are called to bear
   Count your many blessings
   Every doubt will fly
   And you will be singing
   As the days go by


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   When you look at others
   With their lands and gold
   Think that Christ has promised
   You His wealth untold
   Count your many blessings
   Money cannot buy
   Your reward in heaven
   Nor your home on high


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


   So, amid the conflict
   Whether great or small
   Do not be discouraged
   God is over all
   Count your many blessings
   Angels will attend
   Help and comfort give you
   To your journey's end


   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your blessings
   See what God has done
   Count your blessings
   Name them one by one
   Count your many blessings
   See what God has done


~ Johnson Oatman, 1897

There's more....

I am filling in for Deb Brown--she and her family were lucky to get tickets to see Sen. Obama--can you imagine her leaving us for that?  Yup, me too.  I worked and then Mom and I went to Marshall's where I scored some really great looking lamps and end tables for the living room.  The end tables I have right now are about as old as I am--so they are pretty close to being antiques!  I have a pink lamp and 2 off white ones that look like pottery--very 1990s--time for a change!  I can hardly wait to get this all together.  

Some college presidents are calling for the drinking age to be lowered again.  It seems silly to consider at 18 you are an adult in every other way--and sometimes earlier.  The drinking age was 18 when I was that age--although the states could decide for themselves, so there was a patchwork of often odd laws across the country.  New Jersey allowed 18 year olds to vote, Pennsylvania stayed at 21.  I went to college in Pennsylvania!  Ohio allowed drinking over 20 and from 18-20 they could drink 3-2 beer as it was called--3.2% alcohol.  That was a difficult law to watch.  Drunk driving deaths increased, but some of that was due to the need to drive to neighboring states to drink.  It made it easier for younger kids to get alcohol since they were more likely to know an 18 year old rather than a 21 year old.  We drank our lunches during High School a few times--we got served at 17..... I wish we didn't make drinking such a forbidden fruit.  If it wasn't a big deal, I don't think we would see so much binge drinking.  It is a nightmare to deal with under-aged drinking in colleges across the country.  Students have no idea just how stupid they act and look when they drink too much.  There seem to be so many more predators today--we had great guy friends who took care of us, who would never take advantage.  

So, what are you up to?  What are you eating and drinking and thinking about?  Pull up a chair and chat for a while.

Markos Moulitsas: Taking On The System: Rules For Radical Change In A Digital Era

For reasons that should become clear, this will be necessarily a brief review.

Promoted by Rain

Do white men really travel to Indian reservations with the intent of raping Native American women?

Yes.

“(N)on-Native perpetrators often seek out a reservation place because they know they can inflict violence without much happening to them.”

From the Amnesty International report: Maze of injustice: The failure to protect indigenous women from violence (.pdf warning)

Doesn't this diary title overstate the problem?

No.

Data gathered by the United States Department of Justice shows Native American women are more than 2.5x likely to be sexually assaulted/raped than other women in the United States. 86% of Native American survivors report that the perpetrator was white.

Is there something I can do today - right now that will make a difference?

Yes. Keep reading.

I just finished reading the new book by Thurston Clarke, The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days that Changed America.  I was literally unable to read more than ten pages at a time, alternatively weeping and cheering as I went.

Bobby Kennedy's last campaign, the 1968 campaign for the Presidency, was a marvel of the 19th-century campaign system.  He didn't really run on TV, except in the form of free (or "earned") media, he went from place to place, asking people for their votes in places like Kokomo, Indiana, and Pine Ridge, South Dakota.  He was positively reckless - described by Clarke and contemporaneous observers on numerous occasions as a "reverse demagogue" - someone who told people the opposite of what they wanted to hear.  Every time he said that there was violence in black communities that had to be stopped, he spoke out against the injustice that motivated the violence - at least one time calling the violence "a misguided and self-destructive attempt by blacks to announce their self-worth and dignity as human beings."

He was, in short, a modern-day Micah, refusing to comfort the afflicted because his intent was to afflict the comfortable until they realized their own responsibility to comfort the afflicted.

The scary thing, though, is that with Barack Obama's campaign we may be seeing what would have happened, had Bobby lived.  Obama, as you may recall if you haven't been asleep for the last year, was seen by some of his supporters as transformational, as being a prophet of progressivism, "A New Hope" if you will.  Now that he has won the nomination, he has suddenly become very different - seemingly more calculating, to some more "centrist," and in general avoiding statements that might lead some to think he's "dangerously liberal," although there are those (such as my uncle with whom I spent the last week) who would believe that Obama was dangerously liberal unless he became Zombie Ronald Reagan.

I can't help but wonder whether Bobby would have done the same.  Would he have "moved to the center?"  There's a strong sense of "maybe" to that.  There were times when Bobby's message emphasized the "law and order" side of his message - that violence had to stop.  There were other times when he emphasized the need for injustice to be redressed.

But ultimately, Bobby wasn't the sort of candidate in '68 who considered the politics of what he said.  He just said it, and said it so well and so convincingly that he brought along even his opponents.  My best guess is that he wouldn't have become "just another candidate" had he won the nomination.  

The lesson for Obama, I hope, is this: there was a reason that you were being treated like a rock star during the primaries.  There was a reason that you were drawing in the hopes of millions.  There was a reason that people thought they might be hearing a distant echo of gunfire when they watched you - they were hearing it echo from 1968.

Embrace that.  Accept that.  Decide that if you are to make an end on this campaign, let it be such an end as will be spoken of forever.  Be Bobby.  Be Barack.  Be our hope.

Welcome to Coffee Hour. Grab a glass of lemonade or iced tea (sweet or unsweetened, check the pitcher label!). If you're looking for a bit harder, there's margarita and mojito makings over on the side table. I've got some amazing roasted corn/jalapeno salsa left over this weekend, and Mr. Brillig whipped up a batch of guacamole, so grab some chips and a chair and tell us what's going on in your world today.

On Saturday Casa Brillig took our annual trip up to my friend Peter's house. His family's cabin on the lake, to be exact. He's been throwing a party there for 20+ years for his college friends. I met him at a friend's wedding in 1990 and thus get invited even though my undergrad was elsewhere. Over the years it's evolved from a weekend blowout with much alcohol, gaming and a trek into Boston to dance, to a heavy-on-the-bottled-water day party because the kids have to be in bed at a decent hour :-). We missed last year's because some conference was happening in Chicago and we decided to go :-),  so it was great to see all these people we never see otherwise.

I'm determined to be better about keeping contact with everyone during the year; I was reminded on Saturday just how nice they are. Finding smart, caring, sane, interesting friends with similar values is not easy, and to have them and not deepen those friendships, now that's just a waste. I have another interested party in this... Kid Brillig made friends with another of the Next Generation, and it would be nice to let them be in touch.

Do any of the friends of your youth have any sort of similar gathering? Can friendships be meaningful even if the contact is infrequent? And most importantly, what do you eat and drink at these sorts of things?!

Yup, it's an Open Thread, so feel free to chat about anything!

The Monetary-Industrial Complex

So there you have it. When a Republican is president, the Fed eases interest rates in election years by much more than the objective economic circumstances dictate. Conversely, when a Democrat is president, the Fed tightens interest rates in election years by much more than the objective economic circumstances dictate. And for a while, anyway, the economy responds. And so do voters.

Nice little racket, eh?

Top CEOs Give 10 Times More To McCain Than Obama; McCain Promises Huge Tax Breaks For Them In Return

Today's Meditation: thanks to poetseers.org

My Song


This song of mine will wind its music around you,
my child, like the fond arms of love.


The song of mine will touch your forehead
like a kiss of blessing.


When you are alone it will sit by your side and
whisper in your ear, when you are in the crowd
it will fence you about with aloofness.


My song will be like a pair of wings to your dreams,
it will transport your heart to the verge of the unknown.


It will be like the faithful star overhead
when dark night is over your road.


My song will sit in the pupils of your eyes,
and will carry your sight into the heart of things.


And when my voice is silenced in death,
my song will speak in your living heart.


~ Rabindranath Tagore

" I touch God in my song
   as the hill touches the far-away sea
     with its waterfall.
The butterfly counts not months but moments,
   and has time enough."


~ Rabindranath Tagore

There's more:

Well, to be honest, me either.

So what do you think about the Democratic National Convention opening with a service by a Pentecostal minister? Apparently some Atheists are not so pleased and have written to ask that they be included in the "interfaith" service. The minister does not appear very receptive to the idea:

"Atheists speaking at an interfaith service ... does that work?" Daughtry asked this week. "I don't quite know. But they're part of the party, you treat them with respect. I'll give them an answer."

Personally, I advise Reverend Daughtry to consult with a certain pastor of my acquaintance. That pastor has managed, as a Christian minister, to oversee interfaith services which included Buddhists, Atheists, Muslims, Pagans, Jewish and... well, that's all I can think of but I'm sure there were more. How does it work? It just works.

To her credit, Reverend Daughtry already plans to include Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist speakers.

What do you think?