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A Magnitude of Horror, Inhumanly High

One of our human failings is that there are plenty of things we can know intellectually without feeling them viscerally.

You can go to a dozen funerals, and not be very deeply touched by it all, until someone you really love dies. You can read or hear about the Holocaust in high school history class, and even see pictures of death camp inmates, and not really have any least idea about what the whole thing means until you walk through the Holocaust Museum, holding the card of a little kid who was sucked into the horrible maw of it, touring through the nightmare exhibits and waiting to see whether YOUR child lived or died. Continue reading “A Magnitude of Horror, Inhumanly High”

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Coincidence? I think NOT.

After Neil deGrasse Tyson posted a request on Facebook on Monday, asking for things he might say to President Obama on Tuesday …

I hardly ever ask questions on this wall, but I feel compelled: Tuesday I’ll be at the White House. If you had one sentence for the President, what would it be?

… and I replied on Monday with my ABCD by 2023 idea …

Mr. President, let’s amp up U.S. science education by devoting ourselves as a nation to an Apollo-type program in medicine: Launch “ABCD by 2023” to discover even more effective treatments – or cures! – for Alzheimer’s, Birth defects, Cancer, and Diabetes.

(As I explained: “Not only would it save millions of our loved ones, it would give education a shot in the arm. It would provide huge numbers of jobs. It would get America investing in itself again through advanced research. It would underscore the value of attracting and retaining bright young minds from all over the planet. And it would provide the major spin-off of a fantastic body of new knowledge.)

… Today — just one day after Tyson met with the president — the news carries this story:

HHS to Boost Alzheimer’s Research Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration plans to increase federal funding for Alzheimer’s disease research and caregiver support by more than 25 percent over the next two years, the Department of Health and Human Services announced today.

Man, when you’ve got an electrifying idea, things happen! It’s like President Obama LEAPED to the phone the instant the words were out of Tyson’s mouth.

God, I love making a difference.

And I’m sure the president will get to the BCD parts in the next few days. He’s probably easing his way into it.

And thanks, Neil, for listening.

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Israeli Women: Accomplished … and Unclean

Generally, I’ve kept my mouth shut about Israel. Honestly, I haven’t taken the time to really delve into the country’s history, or its politics. My hands-off-ness grows out of that – I know I’m not well-enough informed to hold strong opinions about it all. I’m sure there are some larger issues I don’t understand.

Still, there have been news stories over the years that have sometimes made it difficult for me to feel friendly toward the country.

Mostly, I like the joke I heard years ago, that the world would be better off if we’d given the Jews a homeland in New Jersey rather than the middle East. Continue reading “Israeli Women: Accomplished … and Unclean”

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… When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands

A Facebook friend posted a link to this Slate article Free Willy: Should prison inmates have the right to masturbate?

I clicked over to it because it sounded funny. Not only did it turn out to be interesting, it touches on (you see what I did there?) a real point of human rights.

While you might think of masturbation as a sort of last refuge for the incarcerated—a truly inalienable freedom, given the happy proximity of the sex organs—that is not the case. In fact, a number of state prisons regard jerking off as a rule infraction.

The fight against the practice apparently has a long history: Continue reading “… When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands”

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Pat Robertson is a Lying Sack of Shit

Praying? Or taking a dump? Nobody knows for sure.

I have a certain amount of sympathy for most Christians. Because I believe that, no matter what they say and do, they aren’t really in full control of their thoughts and actions. Because of this powerful fear they’ve been taught, they’ve given over control of their lives to others, people they hope really understand how to live and act.

In fact, I feel this same way about great numbers of religious ministers. I can barely imagine how torturous it must be to not really know what’s true or not true, and to have to pretend to your flock that you know exactly what you’re doing and that you have every right to be there telling THEM what’s true and not true, what’s good and not good. Continue reading “Pat Robertson is a Lying Sack of Shit”