This is just stunning. Of the cities that I’ve visited, Vancouver is one of my favorites. I look forward to seeing it featured this winter during the Olympics.
1.21.2010
Jim Wallis On The The Daily Show
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Jim Wallis | ||||
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Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street — A Moral Compass for the New Economy, CEO of Sojourners and blogs at www.godspolitics.com.
1.19.2010
In Tribute to Doctor King
Acceptance Speech
The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr’s Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964
“Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that We Shall overcome!
This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.
Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.
Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.
So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live - men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization - because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.
I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners - all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty - and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”
From Les Prix Nobel en 1964, Editor Göran Liljestrand, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1965
1.16.2010
The One Where I Share How Awesome it is to Have Many Views on a Post, But Secretly Wish I Had Posted it Here
So yeah, this post has over 1,300 views and counting and for some reason, thought so little of it, that I relegated it to my newish and still not sure what to do with it yet, Posterous in the Zeitgeist blog. Good news: It’s gaining attention for a wonderful, biting and needed commentary; Bad News: I lost those views and analytics for my primary blog… uhm, this one. So yeah, kicking myself a bit but honestly just glad people are sharing this and found Robertson's “theory” so insane, ugly and abhorrent.
Read the Satan Responds to Pat Robertson’s Claims Posterous post.
Happy Religious Freedom Day
Our founding fathers established a religiously neutral nation, and a tragedy of our time is that so many people are striving to undo all that was accomplished by the wisdom of the founding fathers who framed for us a constitution that would protect the religious freedom of everyone regardless of personal creed.
An even greater tragedy is that they many times hoodwink the public into believing that they are only trying to make our nation what the founding fathers would want it to be.
Separation of church and state is what the founding fathers wanted for the nation, and we must never allow anyone to distort history to make it appear otherwise.
I’ve studied history, America’s and the rest of the World. I know the oppression and evil that can occur when a religion becomes the State or vice Versa. Some of the more heinous and memorable acts under a Religious State include: Drowning and burning heretics and witches in the colonies including the murder of Quakers; the Catholic Church’s burning Nicholas Copernicus at the stake and imprisoning of Galileo for life for the crime of claiming the Earth was round; The Crusades; The Spanish Inquisition; the burning of the library at Alexandria; Selling indulgences; and The Church Tax that was collected throughout Europe whether you believed or not. We have only to look at Iran or Afghanistan under the Taliban to see the dangers in our own time.
So celebrate your religious liberty today. Say a prayer, a chant, an incantation, a meditation or just a friendly nod to this very important freedom. This means you have the right to practice or not practice any religion you choose. It means the United States government may not force you to practice or support a religion or church that you don't want to support.
That is what a right is. It is a sphere of activity in which the citizen may participate without interference from the government. As such, you are free to practice your own religion or lack thereof.
As President Obama said in his proclamation:
On Religious Freedom Day, let us pledge our constant support to all who struggle against religious oppression and rededicate ourselves to fostering peace with those whose beliefs differ from our own. In doing so, we reaffirm our common humanity and respect for all people with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth.
1.15.2010
The Latest Palinism From Lady BlahBlah
Palin From the January 14 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
"I think he (Reid) is driving a bus that is headed towards a train wreck in America; and he, Pelosi and Obama want us to be on it… ."
I enjoyed this comment on the Media Matters site, I had to share it.
“by RKAllen (January 14, 2010 10:30 pm ET)
I am struggling with this metaphor...
"... driving a bus that is heading for a train wreck that is going to happen in America..."
So, are we supposed to be the bus...? America I mean? Or is the bus a metaphor for a program that Reid is pushing that is heading us to a catastrophe that has already happened... i.e. the train wreck? And why are we stopping at a train wreck? And this train wreck... is it supposed to be a metaphor for something that has already happened and we are going to be witnesses to its aftermath as we pass by in the bus?
Is... is Reid promoting a National bus tour of famous train wrecks...?
... a little help? Anyone?”
1.12.2010
My Favorite Tweet Of The Week
This tweet made me literally LOL and then just made me sad and a little mad. I mean, other than being the daughter or an (alleged) war criminal, what gives Liz Cheney any reason to be a well listened to or respected pundit?
1.10.2010
Let's Fire Up the Wayback Machine, Shall We?
This is a very well preserved, and amazingly well shot film of Moscow Clad in Snow (Moscou sous la neige) from 1908. It was filmed by Joseph-Louis Mundwiller (1886 - 1967) an Alsatian cinephotographer who worked in French Cinema most of his 25 years in the business. It was shot for Pathé Frères, and the music is Aleksandr Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880). Enjoy.
1.09.2010
My Favorite Movies of 2009
- Up
- Star Trek
- Food Inc.
- Dead Snow (Norwegian Død Snø)
- Coraline
- District 9
- Paranormal Activity
- Inglorious Basterds
- Wonder Woman
Tie for 10th:
The two that didn’t quite make the list
Watchmen, Moon
Movie that I wish had been better than it was
Wolverine
“She’s Real”
I was listening to The Slate’s Culturefest podcast and they mentioned this New York Review of Books review for Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue by Jonathan Raban, and it is amazing. It’s an exceedingly honest and downright devastating analysis of the Palin phenomenon that has swept America in the past year. It clearly, logically explains the demonizing effect Palin has had on America and political discourse, without ever using the word demonizing. Here’s an excerpt:
Her nasal voice, pitched in the upper register, with the upsy-downsy, singsong delivery of a kindergarten teacher, became, rather improbably, a great electoral asset. Her diction and accent were shaped more by class than region, and spiced with faux-genteel cuss words like “dang,” “heck,” “darn,” “geez,” “bullcrap,” and “bass-ackwards.” It was a voice unspoiled by overmuch formal education and boldly unafraid of truisms and clichés; a perfect foil for Obama’s polished law-school eloquence. In the narrative of the McCain campaign, she was the exemplary real American, Obama the phony one, and when people are now interviewed in the interminable lines for her book signings, by far their most common remark about her is “She’s real.”
Alaska, the particular reality from which Palin hails, is so little known by most Americans that she was able to freely mythicize her state as the utopian last refuge of the “hard work ethic,” “unpretentious living,” and proud self-sufficiency. Her anti-tax rhetoric (private citizens spend their money more wisely than government does) and disdain for “federal dollars” were unembarrassed by the fact that Alaska tops the tables of both per capita federal expenditure, on which one in three jobs in the state depends, and congressional earmarks, or “pork.” So, too, she mythicized the straggling eyesore of Wasilla (described by a current councilwoman there as “like a big ugly strip mall from one end to the other”) as the bucolic small town of sentimental American memory. Listening to Palin talk about it, one was invited to inspect not the string of oceanic parking lots attached to Fred Meyer, Lowe’s, Target, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot, or the town’s reputation among state troopers as the crystal meth capital of Alaska, but, rather, the imaginary barber shop, drugstore soda fountain, antique church, and raised boardwalks, seen in the rosy light of an Indian summer evening.
Now, Go read the whole thing.
1.06.2010
Jon Stewart Slams Brit Hume
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Temple of Hume | ||||
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Perhaps there are a few Million Buddhists out there Chanting for Brit? Who knows? Though maybe not Lisa Simpson….
My Favorite Book of 2009 – A Review (with Steampunk Zombies)
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
My rating: ★★★★★
This book contains all the standard tropes of Steampunk, including airships, goggles, and mad scientists but makes something fresh of it by adding in alternate history and Steampunk Zombies. It's primarily entertainment -- the literary equivalent of an action movie. But, a very good book and a very good action movie.
In this tale, the American Civil War has bloodily dragged into the late 1880s, the Klondike Goldrush happened earlier, and Seattle (Washington Territory) is home to tens of thousands of settlers. Due to an experimental earth-drilling invention that went awry, (the Boneshaker) a vein of gas (known as the Blight) has infected downtown Seattle. The town has to be walled off from the Outskirts. Within the walled city are roaming bands of rotters (think zombies), and some people crazy enough to venture inside and eke out a living among the rotters and Blight gas. When 15-year-old Zeke sneaks into the city to clear his father's good name. His mother, Briar, heads in after him and that's when things get really interesting. The Mother and son combination reminded me a bit of Sarah and John Connor (minus the world-saving destiny part), and the subsidiary characters were plentiful, clearly realized and interesting. As always, Preist's women are three-dimensional and strong. Tor's printing and book design (cream paper with sepia-brown ink) shows real care and thought. Priest's storytelling shows the same. She has, as proven by her Civil War tales, a wonderful grasp of the American Victorian Era, and being somewhat knowledgeable of that time myself, only added to my enjoyment of it.
My very favorite book of 2009. Not the best book I read, but absolutely a wonderful, fun and even interesting diversion. View all my reviews >>
Zombocalypse Now – A Review
Zombocalypse Now by Matt Youngmark
My rating: ★★★★★
As a child of the late 70s/early 80s, I loved the choose your own adventures books so when I read about this book on some Geek site a while back, I HAD to do it. It was awesome!!
You're a snarky, chain smoking chainsaw wielding stuffed pink bunny. You're in the middle of a Zombie-apocalypse, living in a world where stuffed animals walk, talk, and intermarry with the human population. There's even a moment where you let out the battle cry "Leeeeeeroy Jenkins!"
I was killed by ponies, deer, mackerels, kittens and a pack of Catholics. I teamed with a cop named Mittens (who isn't a stuffed animal) and survived only once. The author states that there are 112 different endings (only 7 that you don't die). Go buy, rent or borrow it now! View all my reviews >>
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