Gimme a freakin' break...

Sarah Palin has apparently thrown her support behind Tom Emmer, one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates in Minnesota.  From the supportee:

"It's a significant endorsement," Emmer said. "Sarah Palin is the gold standard of grass roots politics in this country."

Errmm...  Gold standard?  Spare me.  This from the guy who has lately praised Arizona's recently enacted "immigration reform" law (read, racial profiling law).  Sigh...  These people make me tired.

More dangerous numbskullery from the vatican...

The pope's Underboss made a disturbing statement yesterday, apparently in an effort to deflect criticism with regard to the recent surge in abuse allegations aimed at the vatican. Says he:

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia," he told a news conference in Santiago.

Blame homosexuals.  That's just lovely.  Ignorant, stupid, and criminal.

"This pathology is one that touches all categories of people, and priests to a lesser degree in percentage terms," he said. "The behavior of the priests in this case, the negative behavior, is very serious, is scandalous."

Yeah, no kidding, it's serious.  And please provide those percentages.

It's not a hard task to condemn the catholic church when they so willingly condemn themselves.  I think the question that should be asked is why the church attracts criminals?  The obvious answer is that the church harbors and protects them.  Hell, it's a criminal organization from the top down.

Tea Party?

My take on what they must be thinking:

Amerka. I tell you what, I shore wish nothing would change. Ever. I wish things were EXACTLY the way they were at the moment the Constitution was signed. It’s really a damn shame ‘bout the slavery thing going away. I also miss smallpox. Too bad about all them paved roads. And why do they have to plow ‘em in the winter? And clean drinking water too – what a waste of money! I shore wish I could pee, poop, and puke in a outhouse ‘stead of a warm bathroom. Stupid wastewater treatment plants and sewer mains have rooned everything. Bummer about the CDC, USDA, FDA, FAA, FCC, USPS, Social Security, Medicare, the armed forces, etc. Damn socialist organizations. Shore wish there wasn’t any stupid groups like the state police or the local police or the fire department. Wish I HAD to wear six-shooters when I walked out the damn door every day. And damn that pesky public transport and rail system. Who needs it – any of it?! Oh, for the days of yore…

Labels...

I absolutely detest labels. It is the bland generalization of a label that disturbs me so. I’m not talking the label on your frozen burrito or jar of pickled pig’s feet. I’m talking about the labels we place on our human selves – black, white, male, female, married, single, liberal, conservative, pragmatist, idealist, gay, straight, christian, atheist – these are some big ones. These code words are so limited in their description of a person, even in combination with other labels. Why do we abide this practice of labeling? To be sure, these words are descriptive; perhaps even necessary (male, female) when describing oneself or another. There seems, however, to be a general willingness to let a word or two in combination suffice as basis for a full description of an individual. What’s worse is that some labels connote something particular to you, and something particular to me. There’s no true consensus. This causes problems.

On the other hand, labels make things easier for us. For instance, I could tell you that:

I’m a male human of Irish, German, Italian & Romani descent. I’m sexually attracted to female humans, but have an appreciation of the beauty in both the male and female human form. I have been with the same partner for nine years, but we have yet to sign a contract formalizing our partnership. I am at times an artist, a musician, and always an aficionado of the creative spark. I have a strong work ethic, and believe that if a person needs to work to support oneself, that person should work! I typically vote democrat, but reserve the right to pick whoever I deem best for whatever position is in contest. I strongly support things like marriage equality, green and conservation initiatives, health care reform, and higher taxes for improved services. I attempt to live a life based on reasoned observation of the universe I inhabit. I require evidence for phenomena I cannot explain with simple observation; therefore, I have no belief in the supernatural (but I still like reading ghost stories…).

Or, I could say:

I’m a single white straight male liberal atheist.

And, damn! That’s much easier. It just doesn’t give the full picture. But neither does the longer-winded description.

So, this is really a long way of saying that though labels are irritating, limiting, and occasionally offensive, in our world, we need a simple indicator to tell us how to proceed. That’s the function of these types of words. It pays, though, to look past the word and find out what’s behind it. Sort of the, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” idea.

Having now given myself permission to use labels as needed, I have to say, the wingnuts were out in force in my home state of Minnesota last night.

[Jerry Holt / Minneapolis Star Tribune]

Please, please, please, oh denizens of my beloved Minnesota, vote with your minds and not with your hearts. Get rid of the stupid once and for all!