The Poison Flesh

This week a coffee shop was burned down in Maine. The police have confirmed that it was artificially started, and report that passers-by seem pleased that the shop was destroyed.

What did the shop do that was so heinous? It was topless.

It offered both men and women delivering your coffee without a shirt. Keep in mind that shlepping hot coffee around without a shirt is bold, and you have to be dextrous to avoid a nasty burn. I'm sure that these women were hard-working, and happy to have a job in this economy. Yet the place was burned.

Why is female flesh such an affront to some people? Interestingly, it is often other women that get riled up. Is it mere jealousy? Is it fear that their men are so uncontrollable that a shirt that hangs a little too low will bring out their inner troglodyte?

What happens to young girls that are told that they should be hidden away, concealed, unfit for view, an unacceptable topic in polite conversation? I can see two options. She may struggle ever harder to reach that impossible goal, driving herself into anorexia or other disorders. Or she may act provocatively in an effort to gain approval from strangers that she wasn't getting at home.

Is it a straight line between these two actions? No, probably not.

But I see nothing but good (including lower rates of abortions and teen pregnancy) if we admit that people have bodies.

As Shallow As It Gets

So, Ms Prejean, Miss California, seems to have been barred from the Miss America title because she expressed her opinion on gay marriage. Already this is a non-event, an irrelevant bit of fluff.

But where there is the hint of scandal, some will stir it up. So it came to be that some worried that Ms Prejean shouldn't be allowed to keep her Miss California title and crown.

Step in Donald Trump. He studied the issue, and decided that her opinion was worthwhile, and even called a press conference to announce his decision. And what did he base his decision on? Her "great beauty." Yes, that's right. Those were his words. He effectively stated that ugly people weren't worthy of having opinions.

Forget the specious reasoning. Forget the vapidity of the pageant. Forget Trump's good past judgment of women.

Just savor the irony.

He thinks that only attractive people should be allowed to have opinions. But by that standard, the ogreish Trump shouldn't be allowed to speak. How ironic.

Seeing a pattern

I'm actually feeling a bit sorry for the Republicans lately. All their chickens are coming back and biting them in their ass.

Bobby Jindahl scoffed that part of the budget included volcano monitoring. Within weeks, a volcano was erupting in Alaska. And, being from Louisiana, Mr Jindahl should be aware of the benefit of knowing about natural disasters.

Republicans stripped hundreds of millions of dollars that would have gone towards disease prevention from the stimulus package. Within weeks, swine flu was killing people in Mexico, and has currently been confirmed in half a dozen states.

Has the Republican name become a toxic asset in need of a bailout? It seems so. Consider Jim Jeffords, Lincoln Chaffee, and now Arlen Spector. All changed their affiliation away from that big R.

They had a common complaint: they didn't leave the party, the party left them.

I wonder if they can survive.

Tea & Irony

So, there were protests on April 15th by people thinking that their taxes are too high.

This isn't new. It happens every year, usually with sporadic results. It is the sort of active public participation that the Constitution specifically protects.

So why is this year notable? Fox news sponsored and promoted the events, even calling them 'FNC Tax Protests.' Given their past positions, there is little doubt that this was orchestrated as a way to protest the stimulus package in general, and more specifically the Democratic President. This is childishly partisan.

Where were the protests when Bush bailed out the banks? That was billions of dollars for Wall street fat cats. Where were the protests over unaccounted for billions of dollars that disappeared in Iraq? That wasn't even in our own country.

Ironically, one of the reasons the budget looks so grim is that Obama included the wars in his budget. Now we have an official way to track what we are spending, and how to pay for it. It was easier for Bush to look like he had a balanced budget, because
he chose not to put large expenses in it, but Obama's approach is more mature and responsible.

If you want to protest that your taxes are being spent on things that you don't approve of, go ahead. I approve; it is your right.
But for Fox to try and portray their event as a grass-roots movement is disingenuous.

Seasonal Greetings

So today is Easter Sunday, and in honor of the occasion, there is an interesting letter in today's newspaper. The letter writer calls out- by name- a person that dared thank the newspaper for running an article about a recent survey that showed that religion was on a decline and that non-believers were now 15% of the population.

The letter writer suggested that he leave the country and find a hotter one, since he would be spending eternity there.

Now, I know that true believers come in all strengths. I know that some are well-mannered, intelligent, articulate, and merely see the expanse of the universe in a different way than I do. I have no qualm with them; it is usually intellectually invigorating to speak with them, and I think we are both stronger for it.

But to those that see the devil in the shadows...

Well, I'm sure that isn't what Jesus meant by 'Love your neighbor.'

Saving the Dinosaurs

So, Detroit is crying because they are feeling the financial pinch and want Federal bailout money.

Tough.

I sympathize. I really do. Everybody is hurting, and the lure of piles of money is tempting. But what they want the money for is so that they can continue doing things the same old way.

Back in the 1980s, Japan started coming out with extremely fuel-efficient cars. Why? Because they saw what happened in the 1970s, and decided to prevent it from happening again. Detroit put up a fuss, trying to prevent the cars from being allowed in the country. Why? Because people were buying them! Rather than adapt and improve, their instinct was to circle the wagons.

Fast forward to current days. Japan retains their reputation for safe, reliable, efficient cars. Detroit continues to bank on large, inefficient vehicles it sells by waving a flag in their commercials. Toyota got so frustrated at Detroit's slow progress, that they actually lobbied for an increase in the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards.

It shouldn't have taken a collapse to show this is what the world needed, and Detroit had two decades to prepare. Part of the problem was that unions were entrenched, and it is near impossible to deal with them. When automobile leaders wanted to cut wages rather than lay off people, the unions refused, necessitating a larger bailout.

The most vivid example I have of their refusal to change is Saturn. It was touted as a new, better way to build cars, and for a while it was. It got rave reviews from analysts and consumers. Then GM brought them back into the fold, and the rave reviews stopped. Now, GM has just announced that it will stop making Saturns- the car that was supposed to save Detroit.

What do I suggest? Let them die. Let Detroit dry up and fade away into history; the environment will thank us. It will be painful, I have no illusions about that. But I think the stimulus money would be better spent starting a new company that will begin where Detroit hopes to end up. Let us put our billions into hydrogen cells, or hybrids, or vegetable oil, or solar. It will only be painful in the short run. The long-range benefits will be worth it.

And it will be a great example for the future: improve, adapt, or get out of the way.

Don't blame them; they're only human

So, Pope John Paul II excommunicated four bishops. Pope Benedict XVI reinstated them, claiming that it hadn't been done correctly. Then it was pointed out that one of the bishops was a Holocaust denier, and Benedict reversed himself, and re-excommunicated him.

So much for Papal Infallibility...