The Curse of Ugly

Do pretty people get all the breaks? According to a recent study, yes - and it begins when we're babies. The report is kind of sketchy, but still interesting. Maureen Dowd - one of my liberal guilty pleasures - has posted some interesting comments on the report. Perhaps this is why I am underpaid in my profession - or maybe it's because I work for the United Methodists who are renowned for underpaying their staff, but that couldn't be it - it must be because I'm ugly.

No More Dirty Cheerleading

Texas the land of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders has passed a ban on "sexually suggestive cheerleading routines" for high school squads. Allow me a little leeway here, but if I try to remember being a high school boy - just seeing the cheerleaders in their uniforms was sexually suggestive. The routine was just bonus for my overly hormone-d self, and I honestly don't think that I was the exception. I'm sort of torn with whether this is a good development or a bad one. The prude in me sees it as a good thing, because kids really don't need to be exposed to more sexually suggestive entertainment (that's right I said cheerleading was entertainment and not athletics). But on the other hand I wonder if this is a case of government trying to do what parents and schools should be doing in the first place. I have no idea why I am following this story - I've been following it since the bill was first announced - but it's strangely interesting or at least oddly funny.

Op-Eds

Two peices from the NYT. One interesting but less important about Laura's comments and how they've confused Democrats. The other, more serious, is about the Darfur region and the continuing lack of action.

Orson Card: Thank God Star Trek is Dead

Heresy! Blasphemy!! Insightful!!! Uh, I mean, uh... Orson Scott Card has dared to suggest the unspeakable - that maybe it is time for Star Trek to die. I don't agree - I think Enterprise had a lot of life left in it - but then I have always been one for lost causes.

Here's what I think: Most people weren't reading all that brilliant science fiction. Most people weren't reading at all. So when they saw "Star Trek," primitive as it was, it was their first glimpse of science fiction. It was grade school for those who had let the whole science fiction revolution pass them by...Now we finally have first-rate science fiction film and television that are every bit as good as anything going on in print.

Oh, and as my friends already know, I bristled at the mention of "Being John Malkovich" as "a great sci fi movie." It is a horrible movie and perhaps the most morally reprehensible film of our time. If you don't know why, you haven't really thought about it enough.

With Friends Like These

Let it be noted that I don't buy 9/11 conspiracy theories. I don't think the Saudi's are the most evil people on earth or that they were implicit in the attacks. However, I firmly believe that our relation with them needs to be based on more positive improvements in their own record. Consider that at the same time that President Bush was busy holding hands with a member of the royal family, 40 Christians were arrested for their beliefs in Saudi Arabi.

I believe that we need to have open discussion with all the countries of the world and that when they come forward to help in the WOT, we should take them up. However, agreeing to help fight against terror must include provisions that you work within your own borders to ensure freedom. Otherwise, we'll end up with a coalition of countries jumping on board with us just so that they can get a free pass, much as Saudi Arabia does now. If that were to happen, we'd be no more useful than the UN has been in fighting terror.

Dumb Conservatives

We have tools, dumb DU'ers, frogs, and all other manner of people we poke fun at. I guess it's only fair to reflect on how Pat Robertson can keep up with the best of them.

Dawkins and the Power of Science

Joe from the Evangelical Outpost corners Dawkins on some of his assumptions in a worthwhile read. The piece is great, and the comments after offer some more good thoughts as well. For a man who is supposedly one of the greatest minds of our time, he certainly seems rather small in imagination. His desire to hold to his belief makes him every bit as falliable as the Christians that he apparently looks down upon, yet he fails to realize this.