Mom sings me to sleep while Daddy playsHappy Mothers Day!Be very good to your Mom today, if you're lucky enough to have her with you. Don't forget to tell her that you love her. Life is short. Moms are the best and a mother's love is one of life's greatest gifts.
A special Happy Mothers Day greeting to all the Blogger Moms.
West Genesee High School Makes Newsweek's "Top Schools" ListCongratulations go out to the administrators, staff, students, and parents of West Genesee High School in Camillus, which made Newsweek's Top 1000 Schools in America list (at 828, tied with Grosse Point North, MI).
Way to go, West Genny!
Dan Gillmor: Human Rights Watch Makes Appeal to BloggersAccording to Dan Gillmor, Human Rights Watch is "asking bloggers to help 'prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, protect people from inhumane treatment in wartime, and campaign to bring offenders to justice.'
Gillmor comments:I trust this will annoy the pro-torture community.
Human Rights Watch RSS feeds
Conyers Circulates Letter Asking Bush to Explain Memo AllegationsAccording to a Knight Ridder news report, an anonymous aide has said that Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the leading Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is circulating a letter among fellow Democrats asking President Bush for an explanation of the leaked (highly classified) British memo's charges that he was determined to ensure that US intelligence data supported his Iraq policy.
Worst "News" Article I've Seen in a Long TimeI've just read one of the worst, most biased accountings of the CUNY conference written by an AP journalist and published in the Akron Beacon Journal. I wouldn't complain so loudly had I not been a witness to the conference myself. The article is so one-sided that it seems to me that Mr. Ostling was at a different place altogether.
From the misleading title:"Academics on left bash evangelicals"
to the opinion-laden statement:"The book table sold assorted Bush-bashing titles."
..it is an example of terrible, terrible journalism by Richard N. Ostling. The book table, by the way, was filled with a wide variety of political and spiritual titles. Bush-bashing is an incredibly subjective term for someone who claims to be a journalist of independent thinking. He does the average reader is disservice by filing this as "news".
Mr. Ostling has a fine reputation for reporting on issues relating to religion, but he really missed the boat on this one. I was at the conference both days and I'm telling you - he was biased and sloppy on this story. We can learn nothing from it except being led to believe it was a bunch of intellectuals bashing the poor evangelics with their venomous fangs bared. Such was NOT the case. The tired old stereotyping is indicative of clear bias. I cannot see it as anything else.
Listen to Ostling referring to the spirit of the conference:"...it offered a fresh example of how venomous America's conservative-liberal religious split has become and how entangled faith is with politics."
I was there. It was not a "venomous" atmosphere at all. The speakers were not frothing secular extremists. There were quite a few people of active faith, including Rev. Bob Edgar and Rev. Joseph Hough, who spoke at the conference. There was advice given by some of them for political debaters to cease the urge to call evenagelical Christians names like "wingnut"; to stop pushing the envelope by saying over-the-top things, in the course of debate, to those of a more conservative faith, to talk to people of every faith at 'the middle-level', to engage far right religious leaders at a political level, and to listen carefully to what they have to say. Actual facts were given. (Unlike Ostling's totally unfair "news" article, unfortunately.)
Ostling says:"..the chief targets were evangelical Protestants."
Once again, Ostling has left out something very important and has misled his readers. The facts issued were about the LEADERS of the Religious Far Right. There was never an ill word spoken or a negative view given about the people who make up the evangelical congregation."No speaker representing religious conservatives was invited to offer a rebuttal."
Journalists suffer from the curse of even-handedness - the feeling that they must have two polar sides presented in order to be able to report a news story - and Ostling is no different. If this conference was just going to be another example of Fox News-style "fairness", I would not have attended.
What the heck is this supposed to mean?"Nor did conferees clarify what religious lobbying is proper or improper."
I'd be utterly ashamed to own up to writing this piece and calling it "news" if I were Ostling.
I question the journalistic integrity of the Akron newspaper for giving it print and trying to pass it off as news!
"God has blessed the mission of Vision America...Beloved, the forces we fight are not of this world, and Satan never gives back what he has stolen without a fight. We are in a culture war for the soul of America."
-From Patriot Pastors/Theocrats
Warning: Patriot Pastors are NO PATRIOTS
The Patriot Pastor Network is a misnomer if there ever was one. Any Pastor who would seek to remove the checks and balances which keep our American Judiciary independent is NO PATRIOT! He (or she) would be a traitor to the spirit of American democracy. Their effort to exert and influence political power to impose a religious test on judicial nominees runs AGAINST the U.S. Constitution!
