Input Junkie - February 26th, 2008
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][User Info]
|
08:52 am
[Link] |
Too many great details for a headline
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002487
This has it all. Disgraceful behavior by the Bush administration, major Republican going after it, false case (bad law and faked evidence) against a Democrat, pathetic attempt at news blackout in northern Alabama, and a reason to be dubious about the AP.
Link thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) supergee.
|
|
12:10 pm
[Link] |
On being of good cheer
When I just posted about an out(r)age, my tone was rather chipper, and there's a reason.
Earlier in the current administration (may its name be wiped out), it seemed as though a lot of my friends were despairing. America was on a vertical slide to dictatorship, though with some question of whether it would be mostly theocratic or mostly plutocratic. The country was in the hands of Rethuglicans, and membership in that party (past some date after which people Should Have Known Better) was proof of incorrigible evil.
After a while, it occurred to me that the country was showing signs of resiliance. Even a very bad administration isn't the whole story about a nation, and a political party is not completely defined by the people in charge of it. America has a lot of both individual and structural resistance to going completely bad. This was perceptible even before the balance in congress tipped.
So, while you can look at that news story and be primarily focused on how disgracefully the current administration is behaving, what I mostly see is that neither the public nor members of the administration's own party is putting up with it.
|
|
06:32 pm
[Link] |
"Unaffiliated" is the fastest growing religious choice
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/26/MN18V8DHG.DTL
Twenty-eight percent of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised, switching to another religion or no religion at all, according to a national survey of religious affiliation.
In addition, adults who claim no ties to any religious institution have grown into the fourth-largest category of religious identification, a trend led by California and other states in the West, according to a report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Researchers said the large number of immigrants who have come to California from Central America and Asia have had an effect on the question of religious affiliation in the state as well as the makeup of particular denominations, especially Catholics. While 10 percent of U.S. adults have left the Catholic Church, an influx of Catholic immigrants has kept the church's population stable.
Partly because the numbers of the unaffiliated have grown, Protestants, who have historically been the majority in the United States, are on the verge of losing that status. Only 51 percent of American adults describe themselves as Protestant.
I've talked with a few people who got disgusted with religion in general what with 9/11 and the religious right, but I don't know if that's an important part of the trend.
|
|
10:12 pm
[Link] |
Free Triha Hamlin ticket for Wednesday night
http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=2214
Singer-songwriter at the World Cafe upstairs, 8PM, 3025 Walnut St.
Let me know if you're interested.
enegim recommended the ticket contest.
Addendum: I've handed that ticket back--I'm going to be out for most of the day, so I won't be able to keep track of replies.
|
|
