blah blah blog

So.

Here it is, my first real BLOG. Where to begin...

It's 2004. The twenty first century. I'm in America. America is supposed to be the most progressive nation in the world. The land of the free. The only true bastion of individual freedom - of speech, of religion, of the pursuit of happiness. Let's start with speech.

Howard Stern was just ousted from all radio stations owned by Clear Channel - owner of somewhere around 40% of all radio stations in the country [someone correct me on that if I'm wrong...]. Also, on-air personality [and Stern wannabe] "Bubba The Love Sponge" [can you think of a more assinine name? me niether] was just fired by CC from his syndicated show. CC did this as part of their new indecency policy. The message I'm getting here is that if Clear Channel doesn't like it, a large portion of Americans won't hear it, be it words of music. Clear Channel is also the proud part-owner of XM satellite radio, SFX [owner of many large venues nationwide including Connecticut's Meadows Amphitheatre and Oakdale Theatre] and countless billboards [through SFX, I think]. I imagine they own more than that and are probably setting their sites on television next. They are dangerously close to a monopoly of the radio waves at this point and are working hard to become one. And they are censoring with extreme prejudice [read: zero-tolerance policy] all of their many media outlets. Cleaning up radio. Censoring speech. In America. In 2004. I'll just let that hang in the air.

Religion. This is admittedly a sore subject with me - a non-christian, non-jew, non-muslim, anti-organized religion kinda guy. America was founded on the principle of religous freedom - by christians. I'm guessing that they had no idea in the 1700's that there would be any qualms about this - that there would be a need to take into account all ideologies - including atheism. It seems as though many christians feel, to this day, that they have some special divine right to this nation and it's laws. In God we trust. Big *wink* from the government on which God we're talking about here. One nation, under God. Big *wink*. Here we are in the 21st century, and the term "creationism" is actually still in use. In classrooms. Science classrooms. In America. What the fuck?
My thought is this: if you're going to teach creationism as a possible scientific explanation for the creation of our planet, you must meet 3 criterion:
1) You must teach creationism based on all of the world's major religions.
2) Before teaching this, you must prove that all of these are scientifically plausable, as science has done with evolution and the various hypotheses regarding the formation of the universe. The resultant syllabus must first be published and pass scientific muster by an independent panel of scientists before being taught.
3) you must also teach the current scientific reasoning [ie: evolution etc.] alongside these other "theories", allowing your students to debate the merits of each.
Once you [as a science teacher] have met these criterion, you are free to teach creationism as science all year long. I think this is the only fair way to teach "creationism" [I shudder just typing the word...], as it does not favor any one religion [read: Christianity] over another, and forces a teacher to account for his or her teachings as more than a weak interpretation of Christian gospel.
Of course, this will never happen. You know why. Because our government, from a local level upward to the presidency, is mostly christian. My point? Church and State are inexorably joined here, as everywhere else in the world. There's no getting around it. This needs to change. I'll write more about this as I think of it.

The pursuit of happiness... if you're straight. Enough said there, see directly above for the reason why gays are being shut out of marriage in the US.

Well, I'm going to end this first BLOG on a positive note. Krista and I have a child. A beautiful 2-year old daughter named Maia. She will never think her God [if and when she chooses one] is better than yours. We will teach her this. Amen.

posted by Greg @ 10:49 AM  

Well, now. Wasn't Sex and the City nice last night? You writers did a nice job with the ending - now please, ditch the idea of a movie. We don't want to have it all spelled out for us. Thank you.

The X-Files, that does not apply to you. You never spelled out a damn thing.

In the news today, parents of Colorado University football players blasted the press and supported Coach Gary Barnett in the ongoing investigation of six alleged rape charges against his players. My favorite quote from one parent, on CNN.com, is:

"It's not fair that when they walk through the mall they have to take off all of their CU stuff because they're looked at as a rapist or a sex offender," Gordon said.

Is that really supposed to elicit sympathy? Six women may have been raped, but I should feel bad that 200+ lb. football players feel uncomfortable wearing their letter jackets to the mall? Let's see...I'm digging...I'm trying to find that one shred of sympathy...nah. I can't.

posted by krista @ 8:50 AM  

I'm looking forward to this new blogging adventure! Right now, however, it's Sunday night, I've had some drinks, and I'm tired. I'll be posting soon...
Greg

posted by Greg @ 10:37 PM  

What to write, what to write. I guess I don't get what all the hate about same-sex marriages is these days. If the church - any church - doesn't want to endorse it, fine - don't perform them. But why is the government getting involved in this at all? When will Religion get it's greedy fingers out of Politics' pot, and when will both of them leave Science alone? There is so much I could write on this subject, but most of it already seems trite after weeks of public debate. On the subject of the sanctity of marriage, I'll just leave it at the next five words: My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance.

I'm so happy to have today off, even if it means spending all of it painting. Walls, not art. And it's already 10:30, so I'd better step to it.

posted by krista @ 10:20 AM