Sunday Article Round-Up
For this week's Sunday Article Round-Up, let me start with some refreshing news...Only 974 days remain in the Bush presidency.Now onto the stuff you should have, but may not have, noticed this week...
The Church and Politics
In Britain, the Archbishop in call for action on age of false celebrity. I'm not sure the deaf ears heard it, but the timing of the statement on the same day as the newest Big Brother show was good media awareness. It is also something that everyone knows is right. It brings relevance back to the message of Jesus.
According to the Washington Post, Religious Liberals Gain New Visibility. I hate that headline. I'm socially-liberal, I'm not a religious liberal. Religious Liberalism is the Unitarian Church. I'm an orthodox Christian with socially liberal views. That needs to be kept straight.
In another apparent confusion, Evangelicals Tight-Lipped on Immigration. Again they mean socially-conservative evangelicals. Socially-liberal evangelicals aren't so tight lipped. We know what we want. We want a clear path to citizenship and no criminalization of undocumented workers already in the US. Socially-conservative evangelicals have yet to make up their minds if they are with the aliens and fatherless or xenophobes.
Pollster Pete Ross poses the question, Can Dems Win Evangelical Votes?. He is pretty positive about it, saying, "It is doubtful that Dems will win a majority of self-described evangelicals. Yet it is quite possible that they can win a healthy slice of the evangelical vote this year and in '08."
International News
In Egypt, Ayman Nour's sentence is upheld, which is a real hit at attempts to democratize Egypt. More info here.
According to a British poll, the French are rudest, most boring people on earth. Italy was voted the world's most cultured nation with the best cuisine, while the United States was named the most unstylish with the worst food. Having lived in both Italy and the US, I have to concur...
After the embarrassing spectacle that was Ayaan Hirsi Ali's near explusion from the Netherlands, the Washington Post calls it like it sees it with "Intolerant Netherlands." For those that think Europe is a socialist utopia that has national health care and loves everyone, let this be a serious eye-opener.
Hopefully without violence, Montenegro, Smallest of Ex-Yugoslav Republics, Votes Sunday on Independence. I tell you, democracy is on the march...
In the "you had to see it to believe it" category, Finnish monsters rock Eurovision. Go watch, it is rather entertaining.
United States Domestic News and Politics
Through the magic of a FOIA request, this week we learned just how political the .xxx domain really is. Honestly, can someone explain the social conservatives' argument to me? That the .xxx domain will bring porn to the web? Uh, Hello! Check this out if you think that is the case!
The DLC has made it even easier to follow how they would go about Defeating Jihadism.
According to a Home Growth Forecast: Two Washington State regions, Wenatchee and Mount Vernon, are in the top 3 nationally for forecasted growth in equity. Unfortunately, if you buy a house there, you'd have to live there. My former stomping ground Seattle's prices are forecasted to growth 10.5 percent during the next four quarters. Not bad, unless the Pat Robertson predicted tsunami washes everything away. The man is certifiably crazy!
Matt Yglesias makes a fine point about the weakness of the invasive and probably illegal domestic spying by the Bush administration.
A Judge Strikes Down Okla. Gay Adoption Law and Gays see shift in momentum toward acceptance in Alabama. Good news all around on that issue and probably no Constitutional amendment.
In a humourously written, most cringeworthy story, a woman in Philadelphia single-handedly ripped her husband's scrotum off. "I used to think the good times outweighed the bad times, but something like this, you can't get over," aggrieved husband said. "I'm going to prosecute." I've got nothing to add.
Bush hits new lows in latest poll and a Growing Number of GOP Seats In Doubt. Smiles all around, then?
House Panel Reverses Bush Cuts in Family Planning Aid. Good news: "A House appropriations subcommittee yesterday approved a foreign aid budget for next year that would reverse the deep cuts President Bush proposed for international family planning programs he himself once described as among the best ways to prevent abortion." Bad news: The committee will "substantially scale back Mr. Bush's ambitious plans for his new foreign aid agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which provides large aid packages to poor countries considered to be well governed.
And finally, if you thought today's partisan rhetoric was devise and mean, check out what John Stuart Mill said about Conservatives, "I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it,"
Miscellaneous
The Internet Monk goes to The Da Vinci code and hates it. The Telegraph gives us a Tongue-in-cheek list of 15 things you didn't know about the Da Vinci Code.
Jollyblogger has a quote from Page 132 favorite, Dallas Willard's book, The Divine Conspiracy about the Joy of Being God.
Division of Labor has dug up a quote from the NY Times about funding schools. He says, "It is a common place to suggest that more teachers, more schools, and more money will cure the "problems" of the public education system. How common? Let's try for the last 100 years or so." Go through to read the 100 year old quote about school funding. Everything that is old is new again.
According to a survey in England, Teen behaviour 'better than 1985'. It just seems that they are louder, more disrespectful and thuggier than when we were kids.
The latest concern of the rich and mobile - Is it OK to fly? I'm torn on this one, but there doesn't seem to be any other option.
This Week on Page 132 Last Year
I posted a popular photo of Jesus as my Homeboy, wrote about the farce of abstinence-only education, tried to rally support for MakePovertyHistory, gurufrisbee linked to two articles reminding us that God is not a Republican, I wondered about the future of environmentalism and praised Lion King - the musical.
Ok, so let me have it. Where am I wrong, what did I miss and what shouldn't have made the Round-Up?. I'm man enough to handle it. Let me have it...I'll see you in the margins.
Technorati Tags: Christianity, Current Events, Democracy, Environment, Immigration, News, Politics
posted by Expat Teacher @ 1:00 PM
