Metacentricities

Why I am awake at 2:30 AM when I’m this tired is a question - but in any event, here I am. I don’t often get real insomnia - when I’m wide awake, with no hope of sleep. I guess it’s that there is so much going on, and so much that seems to need to be done, that my brain can’t slow down.

Recap: condo closing a week from Friday. Big moving sale this weekend. Utter chaos for at least a week. And, a blog break. I won’t have time to blog between now, and the middle of next week, so I’ll be on hiatus from writing in any of the blogs. I hope that you’ll be patient wating for part III of the Intellectual Property series.

Anyway, there will be plenty to read in the blogosphere while I’m on hiatus.

I’d not read this clearly laid out before - this post on the Christian Alliance for Progress’ blog outlines a theological approach to abortion rights. In a nutshell, as usual, the right focuses on specific passages in the bible (which are fairly nebulous,) and neglects to mention others (which, in fact, are fairly clear.)

So if you are ever in a debate with anti-choice people, ask them about Exodus 21, where, in the authors paraphrasing, "And the answer that God gives Israel in its law is that [the fetus] is not a person. If the fetus dies, Dad gets a check. If Mom dies, however, the perpetrator gets the death penalty, because Mom is a full person, while the fetus is not, and because Mom’s death represents an assault on the sanctity of the community which cannot be tolerated, while the death of the fetus is simply understood to be an economic loss for which the father must be compensated."

Yeah, I know, the patriarchial nature (as well as the invocation of the death penalty) of that passage makes me cringe too, but the point is, if you want to argue with anti-choice people on their own terms, pull this one out of your hat.

A report released Friday suggests that as many as a half-million people could die of a bird flu pandemic in the US. The article is a sobering read. While we’re busy pouring money into the Iraq and homeland security money pit, we’re letting our health care system languish, and are completely unprepared for something like this.

Thanks to AmericaBlog for this one.

I know, putting Gary Bauer in my list of "People who are out of their minds" is not at all a surprise. Here’s a new one. The UCC has three resoultions on the table at their Synod, geared toward issues of peace in the Middle East. Gary wants people (I assume his constituents) to sign a petition urging the UCC to vote against these resolutions.

And, further, they are saying that divestment from Israel is racism. Yup. Out of their minds.

This is an amazing article, by Arlie Hochschild, who is a professor of sociology at University of California, Berkeley. Everyone should read it. It’s a well reasoned article, about why, specifically lower- and middle-income men will support current economic policies of Bush, like the tax cut. It is along the lines of (but much more incredibly well done than) my post on class a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks again to Jesuspolitics.

Not exactly a prayer I’d say, but it’s worth a read. From a Daily Kos journal.

Thanks to Jesuspolitics for this one.

You might have noticed a couple of days ago a link appear under "My Stuff" labeled "Pearlbear’s Technology Desk." I decided to create a new blog. I hope you like it. I just posted the first in my series on intellectual property from my perspective.

I just found out that GA will have streaming video of the main events. It doesn’t replace being there, but it will be nice to at least be able to see something.

I am getting upset by the whole Karl Rove brou-ha-ha and subsequent storm in the blogosphere. For those of you who are wisely not watching the news, Karl Rove said some things in a conservative forum last night, and is being raked across the coals by democrats. He said, among other things,

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers,"

Dems, and lots of bloggers (Kos, Liberal Avenger, AmericaBlog, Wonkette, Atrios, TalkLeft,  Crooks and Liars, and whole hosts of others) are talking about it, some calling for his resignation. Of course, the White House is defending him.

Primarily, what’s getting people’s goats is that he is using 9/11 to try and prop up the president, who is not doing so well popularly speaking right now. Even Families of September 11 are annoyed. This is, for sure, reason for his dismissal, although I can’t imagine it happening.

But there is something else here, in the democrats comments. From the LA Times:

"In seeking further to refute Rove’s charge, Democrats also noted that just three days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Senate voted 98-0, and the House voted 420-1, for a resolution authorizing Bush to "use all necessary and appropriate force" against those behind the attacks. They also pointed to the president’s statement after the vote, in which he praised Congress for being "united so powerfully" while sending a clear message to America’s enemies."

So Democrats didn’t want to appear like cowards, and were angry that Karl Rove said that liberals wanted to "prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers".

Guess what? That is, in fact, the compassionate, progressive response to an attack like 9/11. I’m not at all ashamed that I thought that we should approach 9/11 with criminal investigations to bring those responsible for the attacks to justice, help and support for those who were victims, and a careful look at why it happened in the first place, to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I don’t think that barreling into a country with guns drawn and bombs flying, killing hundreds or thousands of innocent civilians (some estimates suggest as many or more innocent civilians were killed in Afghanistan than were killed in the World Trade Center,) is going to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Let alone going into a country that had nothing to do with it.

Why is it that we have two parties that try to one-up each other on how brutal and violent to be? It makes me sick.

I’m quite interested in finding out the results of this survey. If you’re a blogger, take it!