I thought that it was pretty funny to watch the videos of President-Elect Barack Obama and his wife Michele visiting the Bushes at the White House the other day.
Watching Barack and Georgie’s body language made me laugh. I don’t know if you saw what I did, but it seemed to me as though the two men were comparing their you know whats to see whose was bigger. Figuratively of course.
There was W walking with his usual swagger. Then there was President-Elect Obama patting 43 on the back and motioning his elder to go before him, just like one would do for an elderly uncle.
Men will be men.
Not long ago I celebrated another birthday. On that day, and since then, I have been the beneficiary of many wonderful gifts. Our youngest sent me some wonderful stories he wrote, some new software I had been wanting for my computer, and a disc containing video and photos of his wedding.
Amongst the other gifts from my eldest and his wife and girls, was another gift. My two eldest granddaughters, with the help of their father, made me a scrapbook filled with photos of their recent trip to DC.
My fellow Americans elected a new president and gave me new hope. I'm a happy mom.
While composing my own post about liberalism, I discovered a cool blogger, Pat Denino from Ohio, who appears to have several blogs. It is late here, and maybe I am a bit confused, and maybe these posts are actually written by two different people. Nevertheless, I am impressed by both.
Here is the writer's post on being a Bleeding Heart Liberal.
This is an excellent post about the evils of homophobia.
Isn't the internet great?
This week a deliveryman brought a package to our home which was addressed to me. The return label only let me know that had been sent from Woot. Upon opening the package, I discovered that someone had sent me a pretty little blue t-shirt. Embossed on the front was a red heart, a single red tear, and the word ‘LIBERAL’.
This gift made me smile, and when I saw it, I let out a little laugh. ☺
Since there was no note to reveal the sender, it took me some time to figure out exactly who had sent me this sweet little gift.
Earlier this year, as more and more people had began to speak about the issues of the day and of the upcoming election, I had started admitting that, "Yes, indeed, you might call me a “Bleeding Heart Liberal”.
This admission often made people’s eyes widen with surprise. Some years ago the Republican word masters began to use the word 'liberal' as a pejorative. When the term is used these days, it is usually used to indicate someone with foggy unrealistic thinking.
Those blankety-blank so called ‘Conservatives’ just love to take perfectly good words and change their meanings to advance their beliefs. And since they always seem to have an evil ‘other’ to blame for all ills, they love to in toss in code words, malignant word bombs, in order to conger up a fearful image of their opponent.
While waging their war of words against anyone who does not share their ideology and agenda, they have a habit of labeling those who do not share their beliefs as something "other". And so, some years ago, the Republicans changed and distorted the perfectly good word, 'liberal', to mean an unrealistic other. Because their campaign was so successful, and because so many Democrats let themselves be frightened away by the Big Bad Elephants and their war of words, it is no longer fashionable to admit to ‘liberal beliefs’.
But, because I am stubborn, and way too set in my ways to be willing to give in to the other party's definition of perfectly good words that I value, when I hear the charge that someone is a BLH, I remember that other neat little saying that it is certainly ‘better to have a bleeding heart than to have none at all”.
Disclamer: I do not actually believe that people of the other party do not possess good hearts. As a good liberal, I will only accuse them of being misguided. :-)
But back to the main mission, to discovering my mystery benefactor, I tried to remember just with whom I’d been talking when I admitted my beliefs. One by one, as I thought of the friends with whom I’d shared my little joke. One by one, I realized that it was unlikely that any of them had sent me the gift.
Then it hit me that though most of my friends are generous and like-minded folk, none of them are likely to even know what Woot is. If I didn’t have techy sons, I wouldn’t either. It was then that I knew who had sent me the gift. It was the person who often introduces his parents to new things. It was our eldest son.
I was touched by the gift and touched also that he sees him mom as little and petite. I can’t quite fit into the little t-shirt at the present time, but I am going to wear it or somehow frame it and put it on a wall or at least pull it out every once in a while to make me smile.
So thank you dear son, I love it.
Please don't tell me that something is true because it is in The Bible. I was appalled when first read the entire King James Version of the Bible for a class at UCLA when I was 20 years old.
If you don't know what it says, I suggest that you actually read the Bible. Yes, that is what I said. Go read it. Start with Genesis. Read what God told His people to do.
Most of it is pretty creepy. Very little loving kindness stuff, very big on rules, killing and and judging stuff. If you don't wonder if the God of the Bible as a sadist, then I question your judgment.
I once learned that the most important religious holiday of observant Jews was Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. The holiest day of the year. That makes sense to me. A day of fasting, reflection and atonement for one's sins.... It is good to look back, and reflect, and resolve to do better in the future. Our family always held a large dinner to break the fast after sundown on the evening of Yom Kippur.
Our family also always celebrated The Passover, and though we were a generally secular family, we repeated the traditional prayers at the Passover Seder as Jewish families have done over the centuries. But lately I have been considering some of the awful stuff related in the Bible, the whole thing seems pretty gruesome.
The story of The Passover goes somewhat like this. The Jews had been held in bondage in Egypt. The Pharaoh would not let them go even after Moses told him that Egypt would be visited by plague after plague if he did not. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not let Moses' people go.
After the Lord cause Egypt to be visited by the first several plagues, water turning into blood, frogs, gnats, flies, beasts, pestilence, incurable boils, hail, locusts, and darkness, the Pharaoh of Egypt remained unbowed.
Only the Egyptians were affected by these plagues and the Israelites remained protected by the Lord. These terrible plagues did not come to the land of the Goshen where the the Israelites lived.
Then Moses came to Pharaoh and told him that if he did not let the people go, all the first born males of the Egyptians would die. The Lord caused the Pharaoh's heart to remain hard and he would not let them go. To prepare for the coming plague of the death of the first born, the Israelites were told to mark their doors with the blood of a sacrificed lamb so that the Lord would pass over their homes. They did.
When the night came, the Lord took the life of all of the firstborn sons of Egypt, but he passed over the homes of the Israelites and their firstborn sons remained safe and were spared.
The Pharaoh, in his grief over the death of his son, finally let the Israelites go. With all of their belongings the former slaves began their long trek to find the Land of Milk and Honey.
Soon after they left, the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart once again, and in his fury over the death of his son, he and his army began to chase the former slave to the Red Sea. The Lord cause the sea to open up to let the Israelites pass though, but when the Egyptian Army began to follow them into the sea, the Lord closed the sea over the Egyptians and it goes on from there.
The moral of most of these stories, I guess, is Don't Mess With God!
The i report talks about Traditional Marriage here
My feeling about this issue has evolved over time as I learned more about history and considered the complexity of life. The trouble with religion is that so many believers want to impose their religious belief upon everyone else. It is usually the people whose religion is overly concerned about sin and an "evil other" that wants to do the imposing.
My feeling is this: If you don't believe that members of the same sex shouldn't marry, then don't marry someone of the same sex. Period!
We are living at an interesting time.
We will either forge ahead and make meaningful changes that will bring about an exciting bright new tomorrow, or we will take a step backward and experience even more dark and difficult days. It is up to us.
And, by the way. Let's Go Green!