Several folks have asked whether I am aware that I misspelled one of the words, crumudgeon, in the title of my blog. I am aware that the correct spelling is curmudgeon, but believe it or not youngcurmudgeon was already in use. I liked the title and figured I'd just spell it the way I think it should be spelled and then write a humorous piece explaining how/why I'm right. Stay tuned for said humor.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Religion, lovely religion

Been slacking on the posting, so thought I'd post something to feel better about myself. Seems sort of redundant to say that, as having a blog is presumably all about engaging in activities in the general realm feeling better about yourself.

Nevertheless, working on a post that, like all my other posts, is much longer than I anticipated. I'm such a long-winded gasbag. Anyway, I wanted to draw attention to a couple items in the media from the past couple days that caught my eye.

First is a great piece in yesterday's (Sept 13) NY Times Sunday Magazine on the advocacy/activist/lobbying group J-Street. J-Street is pro-Israel group that acts as an alternative to AIPAC and other such hawkish, neo-con, anti-Palestinian/Arab/Muslim groups. As Founder & Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami said in the piece

We’re trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel. You don’t have to be noncritical. You don’t have to adopt the party line. It’s not, 'Israel, right or wrong.'

You should check out the piece and contribute to the work J-Street is doing.

The second piece is from Friday's online version of the Daily Telegraph. The piece discusses the difficulties a British film about Charles Darwin is having finding a distributor in the US because folks in the film industry think the subject is too controversial. In other words, the US is too religious and conservative to understand and appreciate a film about a man whose scientific discoveries came at a time after a profound crisis of faith. Or, and perhaps more to the point, too many Americans believe in magic, people returning from the dead, giant boats that housed two of every animal, and talking shrubbery (ie are dumb as shit) to even see a movie that may question their beliefs.

And you thought the tea party dumbasses were an aberration? Come on now.

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