Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Sierra Club Rejoices Christmas Gift from Senate Democrats

Released today by the Sierra Club....











(Read my other political site at US Liberals at

Sunday, December 18, 2005

2005 Persons of the Year: Time Magazine Places Compassion Over Politics

Praise God for Time magazine's public recognition of compassion over politics.

My prayer is that it inspires a new public movement within the United States, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, to reach out to the world's poor, hungry, homeless, uneducated and ill, both at home and abroad.

My pledge, and 2006 resolution, is to actively do my part.

Time Honors Bill and Melinda Gates, Bono by Desmond Butler, Associated Press Writer








Time said Bono's campaign to make rich countries address the debt of poorer ones has had an equally impressive impact on the world. In 2005, "Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest," the magazine said.







(Also see my site at US Liberals at, a New York Times Company)

Monday, December 12, 2005

George Bush Lives in a Dome, Not a Bubble!

From Reuters today.....




No, I never thought George Bush lived in a bubble.


Saturday, December 10, 2005

What Is Conveyed by a Forced "Merry Christmas" ?

If Christians insist on others greeting them in a specific fashion in order to help the Christians hold onto their own faith, then it's not much of a deeply-held faith.

If Christians insist on others greeting them in a specific fashion in order to teach those others, what the Christians have taught others is inflexibility, narrow-mindedness, self-absorption and anger during a sacred season.
A tongue-in-cheek New York Times op-ed from today.....

O Fight, All Ye Faithful by JOHN TIERNEY

'Tis the season when even the most blasé agnostic finds something special to fight about. But the Christmas battles are so complicated this year that you may be reluctant to join.
Don't let that happen. Honor the season. To get in the holiday spirit, you just need to arm yourself with the answers to a few basic questions:

Where is the "war on Christmas" being fought?

On many fronts. Retailers and politicians refer to fatally wounded evergreens as "holiday trees." The White House has sent out cards wishing a happy "holiday season," incurring the wrath of conservatives worried that secularists are "taking Christ out of Christmas." And the White Witch has cast Narnia into perpetual winter without Christmas, an assault not only on Santa Claus but on ecosystems vulnerable to climate change.

Is there any link between the White Witch and the White House?

Nothing proven, but Patrick Fitzgerald is still investigating the "Turkish Delight Connection."

Why do some Christians object to the term "holiday tree"?

Because it hides the ancient link between the tree and Christianity, found in an original Christmas gospel:

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon shepherds abiding in the field, and the angel said unto them: "I bring you tidings of great joy. On this Christmas go forth and smite a mighty tree, a Norway spruce with pleasing boughs, and place it in your home, and adorn it with candles and red balls and strands of silver."

And the shepherds were sore afraid and said unto the angel: "What is this spruce you speak of? What is Norway? Wouldst thou allow a small palm tree?"

And the angel said: "Whatever. Only place on its highest point a star of gold, or, better yet, an angel."

Please note, the angel did not call it a holiday tree.

Is that "original Christmas gospel" in the New Testament?

No, but never mind where it comes from. That's the kind of cynicism that's ruining Christmas. As a matter of historical fact, people in the ancient Middle East did put greenery inside their homes in December.

To celebrate the birth of Jesus?

The Egyptians put date palm leaves into their homes to celebrate the return of the sun at the solstice. Romans honored the god of farming with evergreens and gifts during the Saturnalia, their weeklong solstice festival.

Did the Romans say "Happy Holidays" to one another?

No, the traditional greeting was, "Io, Saturnalia" (the first word was pronounced "yo"), which meant roughly, "Ho, praise to Saturn." Scholars suggest that the date of Christmas was picked in the fourth century to coincide with the Roman holiday.

Did Roman pagans complain that Christians were taking Saturn out of Saturnalia?

Perhaps, but in those days there were no conservative all-news channels. The pagans in northern Europe must have complained about their traditional Yule solstice festival. Christians not only co-opted customs like burning a Yule log, but also turned Yule into a synonym for Christmas.

They took the Yule out of Yule?
And put it into Christmas. For all we know, some Norse lumber merchants tried appeasing both pagans and Christians by marketing "holiday logs," but the term didn't stick.

Why are today's Christians having such a hard time holding on to Christmas?

In some cases because of ridiculous political correctness, like not allowing the singing of traditional Christmas carols in public schools. But it's mainly because they're up against retailers who don't want to offend their many non-Christian customers. That old seasonal admonition of good will to all means more sales.

Does the moral fable of Narnia offer any way to resolve these religious differences over Christmas?

Yes. The pro-Christmas side forms an army and destroys the opposition.

Are there any other ways?

Well, non-Christians could tolerate a few Christmas traditions, and Christians could recognize they're not the only group in the mood for lights and festivities on long December nights.

So what's the right greeting?

If you want be safe - or sell anything - go with "Happy Holidays." Otherwise, say anything you want.

What's your choice?

Yo, Saturnalia!

Sunday, December 04, 2005

The Christian Materialism Movement and "Merry Christmas" at Malls

There's name now for this new, odd phenomenon.....the Christian Materialism movement. Wikipedia, the widely respected, online encyclopedia, defines it as follows:

"Christian materialism is the combination of the theology, concepts, and holy writings of Christianity with the philosophy of materialism, which places primary importance on material objects and their interrelationships.

Historically, materialism and Christianity have generally been at odds. This is due on the one hand to anti-materialist passages in
Christian scripture; and on the other to the denial by most materialist thinkers of the existence of the kinds of spiritual realities that were fundamental to the traditional Christian church....

...Christian Materialism quietly emerged from the earlier 'fundamentalist' movement in the late twentieth century, in a bold takeover that went largely unnoticed outside the religious community. The key to the worldview was the development of a Mechanism that closely paralleled that of Materialism (in order to compete effectively with Materialism).

The explicit goal of the resulting movement was to reverse the social decline that had accompanied the rise of Individualism and the breakdown of traditional communities. In order to do this, however, it sacrificed the spirituality and Christian Idealism that had become a drag on the popularity of Christianity, and embraced the tenets of Materialism.

The final step marking the change from fundamentalism to Christian Materialism was a cross-pollination of evangelical ministry and capitalist marketing techniques. To support this, a set of new consumer goods was created that paralleled mainstream consumer goods, but with a (often uneasily) grafted-on Christian message.

This was the root of the emergence of Christian rock, Christian heavy metal and Christian rap, as part of a deliberate effort to shift popular trends in teenage culture wholesale into an alternate, Christian universe."


An editorial observer column from the December 4, 2005 New York Times.....

This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else by Adam Cohen


















Thursday, December 01, 2005

Actor-Activist Tim Robbins Disses Hillary's "Ridiculous" Statement on Iraq

This morning, actor and liberal activist Tim Robbins lashed out (on AIR AMERICA'S 'Morning Sedition') about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's recent statement on why she voted for the Iraq War, but well, didn't exactly, really mean it........."Hillary Clinton can kiss my butt... That ridiculous, ridiculous statement she's made on Iraq."

So you can judge for yourself, here's Hillary's complete statement on the War in Iraq, which I received a day or two ago. It's a political masterpiece in CYA-ing, clever double-speak and convenient history revision.

(I've read it twice, and still have little grasp of what she's saying. As a writer, though, I'm a tad amazed at her excessive overuse of "I." Extreme overuse of "I" is the sure sign of a narcissist.)

November 29, 2005

Dear Friend,

The war in Iraq is on the minds of many of you who have written or who have calledmy office asking questions and expressing frustration. When the President addresses the nation tomorrow on the war, the American people want and deserve to know how we got there, why we are still there, how we have executed the war and what we should do now. In short, the President must explain his plan for the war in Iraq.

There are no quick and easy solutions to the long and drawn out conflict this Administration triggered that consumes a billion dollars a week, involves 150,000 American troops, and has cost thousands of American lives.


In October 2002, I voted for the resolution to authorize the Administration to use force in Iraq. I voted for it on the basis of the evidence presented by theAdministration, assurances they gave that they would first seek to resolve the issueof weapons of mass destruction peacefully through United Nations sponsored inspections, and the argument that the resolution was needed because Saddam Hussein never did anything to comply with his obligations that he was not forced to do.

Their assurances turned out to be empty ones, as the Administration refused repeatedrequests from the U.N. inspectors to finish their work. And the "evidence" of weapons of mass destruction and links to al Qaeda turned out to be false.


Before I voted in 2002, the Administration publicly and privately assured me that they intended to use their authority to build international support in order to get the U.N. weapons inspectors back into Iraq, as articulated by the President in his Cincinnati speech on October 7th, 2002. As I said in my October 2002 floor statement, I took "the President at his word that he will try hard to pass a U.N.resolution and will seek to avoid war, if at all possible."

Instead, the Bush Administration short-circuited the U.N. inspectors - the last line of defense against the possibility that our intelligence was false. TheAdministration also abandoned securing a larger international coalition, alienating many of those who had joined us in Afghanistan.

From the start of the war, I have been clear that I believed that the Administration did not have an adequate plan for what lay ahead. I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the President and his Administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war.

Given years of assurances that the war was nearly over and that the insurgents were in their "last throes," this Administration was either not being honest with theAmerican people or did not know what was going on in Iraq.

As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I heard General Eric Shinseki, the Army Chief of Staff, tell us that it would take several hundred thousand troops to stabilize Iraq. He was subsequently mocked and marginalized by the BushAdministration.

In October 2003, I said "In the last year, however, I have been first perplexed, then surprised, then amazed, and even outraged and always frustrated by theimplementation of the authority given the President by this Congress" and "Time andtime again, the Administration has had the opportunity to level with the American people. Unfortunately, they haven't been willing to do that."

I have continually raised doubts about the President's claims, lack of planning and execution of the war, while standing firmly in support of our troops. After my first trip to Iraq in November 2003, I returned troubled by the policies ofthe Administration and faulted the President for failing to level with the American public.

At the Council on Foreign Relations, I chided the President for failing to bring in enough international partners to quell the insurgency.I spoke out often at the Armed Services Committee to Administration officials pointing out that the estimates they provided about the war, its length and costlacked even basic credibility.

And I challenged Secretary Rumsfeld more than once that he had no benchmarks to measure actual progress which would lead us to believe we had a strategy that was working.

Last month, I signed a letter with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and dozens ofother Democratic Senators voicing strong concerns that, without a solid plan, Iraqcould become what it was not before the war: a haven for radical Islamist terrorists determined to attack America, our allies and our interests. The letter asked the Administration "to immediately provide a strategy for success in order to prevent this outcome."

Just a few weeks ago, I joined a bipartisan majority in the United States Senate in voting for an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill calling upon the President and his Administration to provide answers and a plan for the war.

It is time for the President to stop serving up platitudes and present us with a plan for finishing this war with success and honor – not a rigid timetable that terrorists can exploit, but a public plan for winning and concluding the war. And it is past time for the President, Vice President, or anyone else associated with them to stop impugning the patriotism of their critics.

Criticism of this Administration's policies should not in any way be confused with softness against terrorists, inadequate support for democracy or lack of patriotism.I am grateful to the men and women of our armed forces and have been honored to meetthem twice in Iraq. They honor our country every day with their courage, selfless dedication, and success in battle.

I am also grateful to the thousands of unknown men and women in our security forces and around the world who have been fighting thelarger war against terrorism, finding terrorists’ cells, arresting them and workingto prevent future attacks. And I applaud the brave people who have been riskingtheir lives every day to bring democracy and peace to Afghanistan and Iraq.

I recently returned from visiting Israel and Jordan, seeing first hand the tragedyof spreading terrorism. As a New York Senator, I believe New York has a special bond with the victims of such terrorism, and we understand both the need to fight terrorism and the need for a clear plan in Iraq so that we can focus our resources in the right ways to prevent it from again reaching our shores.

America has a big job to do now. We must set reasonable goals to finish what westarted and successfully turn over Iraqi security to Iraqis. We must deny terrorists the prize they are now seeking in Iraq. We must repair the damage done to ourreputation. We must reform our intelligence system so we never go to war on false premises again. We must repair the breach with the Muslim world. And we must continue to fight terrorism wherever it exists.

Like all Americans, I hope the Iraqi elections are a true expression of democracy,one that is committed to majority rule, minority rights, women's rights, and thebasic rule of law. I hope these elections will finally put the Iraqi people on theroad to real security and independence.

If these elections succeed, we should be able to start drawing down our troops, butwe should also plan to continue to help secure the country and the region with a smaller footprint on an as-needed basis. I call on the President both for such aplan and for a full and honest accounting of the failures of intelligence –something we owe not only to those killed and wounded and their families, but to all Americans.

We have to continue the fight against terrorism and make sure we apply America'sbest values and effective strategies in making our world and country a better and safer place. We have to do what is right and smart in the war against terrorists and pursuit of democracy and security. That means repudiating torture which undermines America's values. That means reforming intelligence and its use by decision makers. That means rejecting the Administration's doctrine of preemptive war and their preference to going it alone rather than building real international support.

I know when America leads with its values and fearlessly faces the facts, we make the best decisions. That is what is missing at the highest levels of our government,and what we desperately need now – answers to the questions about Iraq that only the President can provide.

I hope he will level with the American people and provide us those answers in his Annapolis speech and give us the plan that has been sorelylacking.

Sincerely yours,
Hillary Rodham Clinton