Bush is a man sent by God?

Song: "Fuck Authority" by Pennywise

"George W Bush is a man sent by God to lead this nation in challenging times."

This is an actual quote by Florida Republican chair Carole Jean Jordan, stated at a meeting of the state's delegates as the Republican national convention got underway. Frustration and disappointment builds within me as I read these words. I'm so sick of hearing phrases such as "God Bless America" and "one nation under God" strewn throughout the speeches of our nation's leaders, displayed prominently on our nations currency, and chanted mechanically by youth throughout the nation every morning of every school day. For a nation which has been explicitly built upon the ideals of separation of church and state, this is completely unacceptable and inappropriate. Unfortuantely, it doesn't seem like a trend which is remotely close to shifting.

The most recent legal precedent regarding the subject was recently dismissed by the California courts. An Elk Grove father -- and atheist -- challenged that "under God" was an unconstitutional establishment of religion. How is this not an establishment of religion? Unfortunately, the courts denied his claim stating, basically, that the phrase is unoffensive and the child is not required to recite the phrase with the rest of the class. Unoffensive? Fine by me, I'm going to start performing all my actions verbally in the name of Lucifer. Hey, I have an idea: how about we start reciting the pledge of allegiance with the phrase "under Allah" instead of under God. I bet the phrase would be removed before G.W. could say "we have smote the axis of evil that has invaded our pledge."

Here's something to ponder. For those unaware, "under God" is not a legacy phrase which celebrates the origins of our nation. In fact, most of the founding fathers were atheists and deists (look it up if you don't know what it means... Christians need not apply -- if you could learn new things, you wouldn't be a Christian). The phrase "under God" was added at the height of the cold war to further illustrate our separation from those damn atheist bastards (see Soviet Union)... grrrrr. Interesting...

While I'm bitching about social policy, dare I venture into the oh-so-fabulously-popular issue of gay marriage. Why not? Does it make your marriage any weaker? Do you now feel less free to exercise your right of straight marriage? Or perhaps it contradicts your religious beliefs... oh wait, we don't care because we are the state, not your church, so shut-up and sit down. Lastly, and my personal favorite, marriage is traditionally stated to imply union between a man and a woman. Holy shit... is this even an argument? Can you imagine if we were debating the issue of slavery and somone stood up and said, "well, colored people have traditionally been freely exploited (and beaten and traded and... ) to support our agricultural economy, and abolishing slavery would contradict that tradition." Or actually, it would be more like, "Them thar negros hav bun pickin my and y'alls cotton since ours pappy's was little, and that's hows its always dun, and we'all dont wanna change it." If anyone could offer a reasonable explaination of why homosexual couples should be denied the basic rights afforded to a straight couple, could you please enlighten my feeble little mind. I'm out...

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff

Song: "Timberwolves of New Jersey" by Taking Back Sunday

So I spent a large part of my day finishing a book I've been reading - "Lamb" by Christopher Moore. Absolutely hilarious... I'd recommend it to anyone; although, it helps a bit to have a fairly solid knowledge of Christian mythology (yes, it's mythology... but ANYWAY). It's basically a very fictional account of the life of Jesus told from the perspective of his hilariously obnoxious and lude best friend, Biff. I'm going to have to cut this account a tid-bit short though because I'm teaching the SO how to use blogger. I'll need to elaborate later...

Song: "Bliss" by Muse

Day 2 of Operation No Meat. So my SO (significant other, also refer to her jokingly as "the wife" at times, although no such agreement has been reached... marriage, blah) and I went to dinner last night at the Tied House, and I ordered a portabello mushroom dish. I was a bit skeptical, looking around at all the juicy steaks, but the ego triumphed over the id and some terriyaki portabello mushrooms arrived at my table shortly thereafter. Unbelievably good. My girlfriend kept eating mine (which made me feel better about it), so it couldn't have just been my subconscious effort making it taste better. So day 1 is down! I'm curious how long I'll last, but we'll see...

Euphoria = Vegetarians?

Song: "Float On" by Modest Mouse

So as I was driving home from work, I found myself in one of those euphoric states. Probably just a little Friday on the brain... that Friday stuff just goes straight to the head. It was refreshingly comforting. I know it sounds lame, but I feel like often we don't celebrate life enough. We mourn our existence (I blame the Catholics). Randomly, I had a rather abrupt epiphany and somehow became a vegetarian somwhere between the Lawrence Expressway exit and Highway 101. I guess it's just my way of celebrating life, but I won't get into that... rather, I'm just going to go eat something that wasn't force-fed up to the day it ceased to exist on the floor of a slaughterhouse with a severed jugular (so that I can eat a burger).

The Quintessential First Blog Entry

Song: "New Slang" by The Shins

Why is it that everyone finds it necessary to start their blog with an entry discussing their motivations for blogging? "I'm working on my writing skills, and I thought a blog would be the perfect..." or "This is a place where I will record my thoughts on current political blah blah blah..." Seriously, I (and the rest of the world) don't care if you are working on your writing skills, just stimulate my needy mind already. Even worse are the people who explain what their blog will be about. Just post an entry and give us the benefit of the doubt that we'll figure out what you're talking about. Seriously, we're pretty smart (well, not most of us but I digress...). Anyway, by bitching about other people's first blog entries, I have just posted my first contribution to the already long list of shitty first blog entries. Nowhere to go but forward from here...