tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:06:13 +0000Where tag lines would only get in the wayhttp://stripey7.blogspot.com/stripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)Blogger186125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-3370876256417801065Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:02:00 +00002009-11-21T14:06:13.839-05:00http://www.labornotes.org/2009/12/mexican-electrical-workers-hold-out-against-government-raidhttp://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/11/help-mexican-electrical-workers-under.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-7912610786922571769Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:34:00 +00002009-11-11T21:00:46.344-05:00I was disappointed this morning to hear a portion of President Obama's speech at Ft. Hood, in which he condemned the "twisted motive" behind the mass murder there. He made very clear that he assumed this motive was religious. This was extremely premature in my view.The only evidence I've seen for this assumption is that the alleged shooter was in contact with a fundamentalist cleric, but http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/11/obama-jumps-gun-on-ft-hood.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-5384371605662272896Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:10:00 +00002009-11-11T20:34:09.705-05:00I know better than to expect Dan Savage to be consistently bland and uncontroversial. Nonetheless, his response last week to A Caring Loving Uncle went decidedly overboard. Given my own past experience with sexual intimidation, I had to respond:Dan, I must strongly object to part of your advice to ACLU. I don't think it is ever beneficial to threaten physical violence other than as self-defense http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/11/savage-gets-too-savage.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-3230940476943396132Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:12:00 +00002009-11-02T01:03:50.539-05:00Starting a few months ago, with the prodding of a therapist, I've been struggling to make a regular habit of going out to clubs and trying to meet people. It was a struggle chiefly because of the social anxiety disorder I've been coping with since early adolescence. I was extremely apprehensive about approaching strangers and trying to start conversations, especially with a sexual object in mind.http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/11/ive-passed-tipping-point.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-1106972636075295891Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:39:00 +00002009-11-01T16:41:39.948-05:00The recent multiple scandals exposing sexual hypocrisy on the part of South Carolina's politicians seem to have done nothing to diminish their repressive impulses. The latest example involves an assistant deputy attorney general named Roland Corning who was found by a police officer spending his lunch break in his car with a stripper. The officer himself acknowledged that no illegal activity was http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/11/just-say-no-to-south-carolina-ags.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-1327839457843004660Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:24:00 +00002009-10-24T19:51:18.819-05:00I took part today in the International Day of Climate Action organized by 350.org. This is a campaign to get the world's governments to agree on strong measures to bring the global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration down to 350 parts per million, believed by environmental scientists to be the maximum level consistent with climate stability (the current level is 390 ppm).The Philadelphia http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/10/part-of-large-number-for-lower-number.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-6742112779783862685Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:06:00 +00002009-10-25T20:21:48.097-05:00I've received an email from Cindy Sheehan, informing me that she will have Professor Noam Chomsky on her radio show shortly and inviting listeners to submit questions for him. I've submitted this one:"Hi! Here's what I'd like to ask Professor Chomsky:"'In light of Hustler magazine's long history of offering both editorial and financial support to antiwar causes; in light of the fact that most of http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/10/question-for-noam-chomsky.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-3921464868694713693Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:22:00 +00002009-10-09T21:24:13.882-05:00Actions are being organized nationwide for Saturday, 10 October 2009 to protest the denial and belittlement of sexual violence that has been exhibited by many in connection with the Roman Polanski case. They are taking place at movie theaters and you can get information for your area at http://promotingawarenessvictimempowerment.wordpress.com/nationwide-cities/The information is presented in a http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/10/protest-rape-at-movie-theaters-tomorrow.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-1779225490251189162Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:24:00 +00002009-10-04T14:02:15.360-05:00Having recently had occasion here to mention George Hansen's book The Trickster and the Paranormal, I've written a comment on it for Powell's Books:This book was sometimes fascinating, frequently maddening. On the up side, the author proposes a number of correlations to exist between paranormal beliefs and experiences on one hand, and seemingly unrelated cultural factors on the other. Some of http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-trickster-and-paranormal.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-1128918530821626789Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:50:00 +00002009-10-04T13:54:36.549-05:00Most inexcusably for NPR, their news briefs have often mentioned that he claims the incident was consensual, yet don't mention that the victim told a grand jury just the opposite. Since he's described as having pled guilty only to "having sex with a 13-year-old girl," this leaves the listener (including me, until I saw Deb's link about it on facebook) with the false impression that this case http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/10/thanks-to-my-friend-deborah-seeley-for.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-8395259021739426728Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:45:00 +00002009-10-04T11:53:13.293-05:00This evening I saw an advance screening for a film, thanks to a text message from some promotional firm. It was called Bird's Eye View and it promoted the most far-fetched theories about crashed saucers and aliens among us, combining documentary-style interviews with a fictional storyline that bore a suspicious resemblance to The X-Files. In this case, the character played by the filmmaker had http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-movie-is-for-birds.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-2059431371071201426Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:36:00 +00002009-09-24T23:36:24.845-05:00That's the question on some billboards I started seeing this week for a movie evidently called simply 2012. Others say, "We were warned."I believe a frightening prospect does confront us in the very near future. I predict that soon the Earth will be engulfed in an enormous tidal wave of pseudoscience. The only way to escape this tsunami will be to avoid cineplexes at all cost!I further predict http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-will-you-survive.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-3852334075673984967Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:52:00 +00002009-09-26T12:49:24.984-05:00Today's Morning Edition had an interview about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Like previous discussions of this event on NPR (and other major media), and despite my having written them more than once on the matter, they once again accepted the myth that US aid to the fundamentalist/feudalist/tribalist reactionaries known as the mujahedin began in response to the invasion, when in http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-twist-in-nprs-lie-of-omission-about.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-8701533597799781560Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:44:00 +00002009-08-17T21:37:44.992-05:00A friend, Dr. Robert Kay, recently passed out a flier at a meeting of my atheist Meetup group, headed, "Jane -- Recant!" You can see an image of it here. I found it pretty disappointing, especially considering it's issued in the name of "The Committee for Clear Thinking."Addressed to Dr. Jane Goodall, it says she "appear[s] to have made a major error when you assumed that there exists, in both http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/08/exercise-in-fuzzy-thinking.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-6471241513643325367Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:02:00 +00002009-08-11T21:02:10.423-05:00 In the Radiolab show just broadcast, I heard them make a rather common error in describing the idea of evolution. I wrote them this letter to point out the error, and why it matters:   Your program on laughter described chimps as "our ancestors." Similarly, it spoke of our having "inherited" something from them.   Chimps are not our ancestors; they're our cousins, with whom we share a common http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/08/to-defend-evolution-one-must-understand.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-8739929438585041942Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:53:00 +00002009-08-09T23:41:18.680-05:00The latest edition of This American Life told the story of a man who was railroaded for an alleged terrorist conspiracy that was completely a creation of the Federal government. The program unfortunately made it sound as if this kind of tactic had only started after 9/11. I wrote them to correct this false impression, and also point out some implications that are often overlooked:The policy of http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/08/entrapment-government-as-mind.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-4725722550279502134Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:08:00 +00002009-08-07T20:28:45.572-05:00The other day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a statement about her visit to Somalia. In it she expressed her concern that the al-Shabab group was not only importing foreign weapons to the country, but also "foreign ideas."This is appalling. Since when do ideas have a nationality? If I condemn the ideology of al-Qaeda, it's because their beliefs are inhuman, not "un-Somali" or "http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/08/madam-secretary-ideas-know-no-borders.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-7404060179288742281Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:22:00 +00002009-08-05T22:26:12.371-05:00The only principle on which liberalism is fixed is moderation: believing in compromise and the middle road, it makes a virtue of falling between two stools. In actual fact, an extreme position may be nearer to truth than a middle position, and more close to effective practice than one that stops half way. -- Lewis Mumford, "A Preface to Action"http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/08/quote-of-month.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-1992580567323413787Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:33:00 +00002009-07-26T08:45:38.221-05:00The latest Speaking of Faith featured another discussion of values in relation to the economic crisis, this time with Quaker intellectual Parker Palmer. I was moved to submit the following comment:I just read Sidney Hook's book Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx: A Revolutionary Interpretation, and it's got me fired up about reasserting certain truths. And this applies very much to today's http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/07/limits-of-ethics.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-6266641644476424265Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:05:00 +00002009-07-23T19:31:30.547-05:00Whatever the drives and impulses which constitute his animal nature, man's human nature is revealed only in a socially determined context, in which the biological pattern functions as only one constituent element of the whole .... [S]elfishness is selfishness, and power is power; but a selfishness and power that assert themselves in a system ... in which the legal right to prevent others from http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/07/quote-of-month.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-1673963639375387073Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:47:00 +00002009-06-17T18:47:38.601-05:00Friday night I took part in an effort to alert people to the hazards of taking advice from "psychic" Sylvia Browne or believing in her purported powers. Here's a report by the organizer:On Jun 12th, Sylvia Browne came to Philadelphia as part of a "Farewell Tour" (which could not have come soon enough) and a promotion of her latest book. A group of concerned individuals, inspired by similar eventshttp://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/06/browne-d-out_17.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-8158525165414684937Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:40:00 +00002009-06-09T18:10:53.380-05:00This past Friday I took part in an open-mike event at Voltaradio in Center City Philadelphia. It was organized by The Philadelphian Project, a Meetup group that aims to help local performing artists get seen and heard. I sang Phil Ochs' song "What's That I Hear?" A little later another great local singer named Joe Mack also performed.I'm told they have a tape of my performance and I plan to get http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-am-now-recorded.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-7401370962097285034Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:12:00 +00002009-06-06T14:22:43.254-05:00I just heard something on PRI's The World that got my goat. I wrote:In your discussion of President Obama's Cairo speech, it was stated that he showed "respect" for Muslims by referring to the Middle East as where Islam was "revealed," rather than where it was "born." This was said to be respectful because it seemed to imply that he accepts Islam as having come from a divine source.To me, it is http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/06/ecumenical-idiocy-atheist-view.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-289354632093640905Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:42:00 +00002009-05-31T22:49:29.008-05:00Quote of the month: "This page is based upon true events. Only the names, places, and events have been changed." -- Justin DanielsI'll be singing again this Friday, June 5, 7 pm at The Philadelphian Project's First Friday open mike event at Voltaradio, 249 Market Street. For more on the event, visit their page at Meetup.com.I plan on singing one protest song, my filk song "Trinity," and the love http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/05/quote-of-month-this-page-is-based-upon.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38144889.post-502665729198897592Mon, 25 May 2009 19:49:00 +00002009-05-26T21:49:45.357-05:00I recently read a couple books I'd acquired over the years pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. My curiosity about it had initially been stimulated by conversations I had with John Judge while in college. He co-directed an anti-militarist project that was housed in Penn's Christian Association. (I wasn't Christian, but had taken a work/study job there for 1981-82 because http://stripey7.blogspot.com/2009/05/case-closed-er-open-er-whatever.htmlstripey7@yahoo.com (stripey7)0