I was back on the Rocky Mountain Ride this week where Aaron and I talked Imus, abortion, and Fox News. If those words alone don't give you indigestion then listen to the show (my audio does clear up, dang VOIP). Aaron and I will also be doing a weekly religious show. All of these shows can be called in to, so give us a ring, Saturday at 11:00 pm EST for politics and TBA for religion.

Michael Righi was arrested after failing to produce his license to a cop after calling the cops when he was detained by a Circuit City store manager for not showing the contents of his bag.

As I headed towards the exit doors I passed a gentleman whose name I would later learn is Santura. As I began to walk towards the doors Santura said, “Sir, I need to examine your receipt.” I responded by continuing to walk past him while saying, “No thank you.”

As I walked through the double doors I heard Santura yelling for his manager behind me. My father and the family had the Buick pulled up waiting for me outside the doors to Circuit City. I opened the door and got into the back seat while Santura and his manager, whose name I have since learned is Joe Atha, came running up to the vehicle. I closed the door and as my father was just about to pull away the manager, Joe, yelled for us to stop. Of course I knew what this was about, but I played dumb and pretended that I didn’t know what the problem was. I wanted to give Joe the chance to explain what all the fuss was for.

I reopened the door to talk with Joe and at this point Joe positioned his body between the open car door and myself. (I was still seated in the Buick.) Joe placed his left hand on the roof of the car and his right hand on the open car door. I asked Joe if there was a problem.

Read the whole thing. In a way I think he was begging for something like this to happen. Now hear me out, I don't mean that in a bad way. He knew his rights and was prepared to stand up for them. I hadn't thought of this before but as a friend pointed out, you really are giving up some small portion of your rights when you submit to a bag search.

Joe wasn’t able to name the law that gives him, a U.S. citizen and Circuit City employee the right to examine anything that I, a U.S. citizen and Circuit City customer am carrying out of the store.

And his subsequent arrest was defintely ridiculous. That someone would get arrested for failure to produce a license (when by state law he shouldn't have to) is egregious.

Thoughts?

I got the opportunity to meet with philosopher, mathematician, semi-frequent commenter and all around cool frood Sid Faiwu yesterday. We ate good food, drank better beer, and talked about religion, science, how much extremism sucks for everyone, whiskey, and all sorts of things. It gave me food for thought and more importantly for blogging.

Future posts from this meeting?

- Are we truly better off now than we were in the past?
- God: Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent, which two is he?
- The problems/advantages of the English Language
- Passions vs. Paychecks
- Neo-whatever: Is there anything truly new in the world of theistic/atheistic though?

All this and more coming at you when I get around to it!!

Take this Civics Test.

College Seniors Failed a Basic Test on America’s History and Institutions. College seniors know astoundingly little about America’s history, political thought, market economy and international relations.

The overall average score for the approximately 7,000 seniors who took the American civic literacy exam was 54.2%, an “F.” That is consistent with the overall average of 53.2% posted by seniors last year. Not one college surveyed can boast that its seniors scored, on average, even a “C” in American civic knowledge.

Harvard seniors scored highest, but their overall average was 69.6%, a “D+.” That is almost identical to the 69.7% earned by Harvard seniors last year. Yale and Princeton seniors averaged only 65.9% and 61.9%, respectively. At 18 colleges, the average senior scored less than 50%.

The average senior failed all four subjects, scoring less than 60% in each.

ht to Familyhood Church

In as far as eleven questions can tell you who you should pick.

In this post (and perhaps subsequent posts as this one is getting long already) I will outline some of the reasoning behind why I'm still a Democrat and how I reconcile that with being a Christian. Why do I want to do this? Well it's my long held belief that some of my brethren on the Right have branded Christianity as the official Republican religion. I won't go so far as to say that they have highjacked the faith, but they have certainly cast aspersions on anyone that claims to be simultaneously a Christian and a Democrat.

Okay so no you pretty much HAVE to vote for Huckabee.

HT to Two Guys from Quantico

I've been wanting to tackle this, but Pyromaniacs' own Dan Phillips takes an excellent stab.

Religion is stacking up to be quite the topic during this election cycle. When questioners bring up the matter of religion, or try to pursue it very far, one of the common preferred responses is, "My religion is very private. I keep it separate from my politics. My religion will not influence me one way or the other in office."

To which Dan says:

This response — if it means anything at all — can only mean one of three things:

The speaker is a liar
The speaker is a hypocrite
The speaker can't rub two live neurons together

I'd say that's pretty fair. Go read the article then come back and we can discuss.

This is old but it's AWESOME.

I was Googling myself (oh like you've never done it) and I ran across an article I wrote for Nations Punched, an offshoot of Chud. Since I believe in recycling I'm reposting it here. Enjoy!

Okay, soapbox time. I don't ordinarily do the political thing here. I've got like maybe ten posts of the 360 (as of this post) on this blog. That's like 2.8%. But I've been seeing things that make me see red (blue? purple?) and this is on both sides. I've heard people say that if you're an X (democrat, libertarian, republican, Whig) then you’re obviously Q (crazy, childish, a hater of America/our troops/girl scouts). If you support Y (McCain, Obama, Paul, George, Ringo) then you don't understand Z (supply side economics, the immigrant problem, how to drum in 8/6 time). This, to say the least, burns my britches.

Look, I'm a democrat. I am going to vote for Obama for president given that option. If Hilary gets the nom, I just don't know. I can't personally vote for her. I'm not gonna hate you if you do. I'm not gonna hate you if you vote for Romney. I don't hate you if you voted for Bush. Heck the woman I married voted for Bush. I love her in spite of anyway. So don't hate on me. Don't treat me like a child or the village idiot. I don't eat babies. Neither do the folks at Fox News or any of the liberal alternatives. We're all people. Hopefully we're all adults. We need to act like it. Especially if we're Christians.

The majority of my brethren disagree with me. I accept that. I think abortion should be legal. I don't think it's moral. I actually think it's something that the states should decide. Using rhetoric like talking about the holocaust isn't helping! It's not convincing anyone. Like it or not we all have to live in the same country. Like it or not politicians need to not only need get along, but ...wait for it... here it comes... WORK TOGETHER. And so do we. That's right, you and I. Disagree with me about anything else I don't see how you can get around that.

And I'm not saying that you shouldn't feel strongly or passionate about what you believe. God knows I do. If I didn't I wouldn't be writing this. Just don't lose perspective that it's not all about you or your freaking idealism. It's about a country. We're supposed to be united on that point. That's the big U word on the front of the name of our country.

Here, just a refresher:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

There's a catchy little song that can help you remember it.

Go watch it. Memorize it. Live it. Do you think the Founding Fathers agreed on everything? I'll help you out here. No. I'll bet they even thought that some of their peers were morons, but they slugged it out. For that matter go read the Declaration of Independence. It's a good read.

Now, understand that the people to the left and of the right of you (figuratively AND literally) are more than likely aware of these documents and love them and what they stand for as much as you do. None of us are going to agree perfectly on just how these things should be lived out/interpreted/etc. In that way it's a little like religion. So I'm guessing what I'm calling for (and desperately hope we are capable of) is some level of love, ecumenism, American brotherhood. That probably sounds a little hokey. I can live with that. It's okay, I'm a big boy.

Let the process work and in the process... don't be an ass. Yeah, that's it. That's what I'm trying to ultimately say. That's a pretty good rule for just about everything. Okay, I feel better now. Rant over. I now return you to your regularly scheduled life.

Edited to add - if you're a Christian and you think less of someone because of how they vote explain to me how that makes you more like Christ and how then politics is not an idol for you.

Obama says "I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ." and addresses abortion and the lies going around via email. It's brief, but worth reading. He's gotten a lot of flack over a lack of substance and being a "newby" and you know what? I get that, I really do. But given the other alternatives I don't see how I can make a different choice. Of course if he doesn't win the nomination I guess I'll have to punt, because as I've said before I just don't see me voting for Hillary.

From ReligiousFreaks.com:

This morning I received a plea for help from Chris Weber, a PhD candidate at Stony Brook University. Chris is conducting a survey for his dissertation in Political Science and could use our help. I know it’s political in nature, but religion and politics go hand-in-hand these days :(

If you’re interested in helping please read the following from Chris:

The purpose of this survey is to examine how people think and feel about the political issues, parties, and candidates in the upcoming election. In the survey, you will be asked a series of questions about two political candidates, John McCain and Hillary Clinton. We are very interested in how individuals that find information on the web think about politics, and your participation would be greatly appreciated. In total, the survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey is completely anonymous and you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

Please take it. It's a good survey and won't take you long. Election 2008 Survey

I heard this on the radio this morning and Pat saved me from having to look for it.

Aaron and I waxed political on his BlogtalkRadio show. First time I've been on in a while. We talked about corruption, Hillary, Obama, bias, all sort of good stuff.

I hope to blog about the following this week:

1. The birthday trip we took this week to Pilot Mountain. (My wife's b-day)
2. Why I am a Democrat Pt. 2
3. More entries in the ongoing story I'm calling The Cage

See you round!

Since there are no good political blogs out there, Pat decided to start one that appeals to our sensibilities. Spitball Politics is what we're calling it for now. It's got a bit of whimsy to it. Check it out. We're both DINOs in the sense that we aren't your typical liberal mouth foamers. Pat is a former right wing nutcase. I'm just a recovering slacker.

If you want cutting edge politcal commentary, the latest news on the election, or snarky bi-polar headline mongering (whatever that means) then I suggest you check out DailyKos, LittleGreenFootballs, BigTent, FoxNews, Hot Air (I think that's one and if it isn't it should be)...

If you want to see what happens when two moderate democrats (one of them a former Republican still in recovery from Kool-Aid withdrawal) try and figure out what will stick to the proverbial political chalkboard, then hit the Politics!! link up there at the top of the page. We're having sooo much fun, but it would be funner with you!

Soooo, I feel the need to update the ol' bloggy-blog but don't have one solid thought. Thus you get the following.

- "Auditioned" for a part in The Metamor City Podcast. I had a couple of chapters recorded for a podcast novel of my own and sent him those.

- I will start posting said novel by this weekend and will do so weekly. Sunday seems to be a good day. Watch this space for updates.

- Speaking of updates there are none on my wifes condition. The wait, while not fatal, is certainly maddening. Keep praying.

- MCF has posted his second tier brackets and I made it. I'm going up against the Unseen Blogger an ultraconservative Catholic with whom I agree with rarely, but who generally makes interesting posts.

- I am officially addicted to Twitter. You should join. It doesn't hurt and doesn't change your personality... much.

- I love Jango

- You should really be reading Spitball Politics. It will make you smarter, better looking, and quite possibly liberal.

- Go buy Infected. It will make you cringe and laugh. Possibly at the same time.

That is all.

So this is sort of a half formed thought inspired by Carter talking to Hamas and a post on Casey's blog. I really am looking for feedback here and accept that I could be waaaaaaaay off base. Also keep in mind that my theology places zero weight on the current geo-political nation of Israel.

My comment:

...are you saying that because Israel exists as a state (thanks in no small part to a bunch of our money and perhaps a small dash of luck) it has a right to continue to exist in spite of the fact that there are people that lived where Israel now is and were forcibly removed?

I mean I’m no expert but having a group of outsiders who come in and kcik out the locals, declaring that they have a right to live there and backing that with some degree of force doesn’t strike me as (you should excuse the expression) kosher.

Also I’m no fan of Hamas (not really a big fan of Israel either) so don’t think I’m excusing the acts of terrorism they’ve committed, but aren’t they trying to take back their homes? What lengths would you go to in that instance?

Thoughts?