Religion

Is any useful purpose really served by trying to chase religion out of the military? ACLU acknowledgment of reality:

. . . midshipmen are reluctant to "begin their career by suing the Navy."

First, Pat Robertson said he was misquoted and didn't really mean "assassinate him" when he said "take him out." Given the transcript of his remarks, that seems doubtful, so he finally apologized for his bonehead remarks, but not before galavanting busybody Jesse Jackson got into the act.

Too bad. I had already been trying to figure out exactly what Robertson meant by "take him out":

I hope I can say that Pat Robertson sometimes talks like an idiot without angering Christian Conservatives, because, well, Pat Robertson sometimes talks like an idiot. A lot of the righty blogs are expressing outrage because the mainstream press is piling on Roberts without bothering to mention that El Presidente Chavez is, indeed, a tinpot dictator whose continued existence above the ground is not in the best interests of the United States. OK, fine, point taken.

Should we make application of the death penalty swifter by shortening the appeals process? We have another execution scheduled for Aug. 31, which would contribute to our record-setting year. It's not that the state has suddenly become bloodthirsty, but that a lot of appeals are running out at the same time; the guy next up committed his crimes back in 1985.

This is good news for civil liberties, religious freedom and the rights of stupid parents. If courts started grading people on what children are taught in the home, millions and millions of people would be in big trouble. Wonder if the couple cast a spell on the court to make the case go their way?

President Bush really didn't call for the teaching of Intelligent Design in science classrooms as a viable alternative to evolution, although a lot of friends and enemies of the adminsitration are saying he did, each group for its own peculiar reasons. Here's a pretty interesting discussion of the issue.

Religious fanatics who hate Western culture and think any violence done to us is God's will. Al-Qaida? No, unfortunately, home-grown nuts; but it's hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

Until every last severely mentally ill person in this country is on vitamin therapy instead of deluding themselves that medication and psychiatric care will help, I feel I must keep you up-to-date on the antics of Tom Cruise and his fellow, fun-loving Scientology madcaps. As the New York Post reveals, they're very civic-minded.

One of the nice things about old friends is that you don't feel the need to fill all the conversational voids with mindless chatter. You can just enjoy each other's presence in companionable silence. Favorite movies can be like old friends. You don't have to pay attention to the action -- you've seen it a dozen times or more. Having the movie on in the background while you read the newspaper or fold the laundry makes you feel like you're in the neighborhood you grew up in or with old high school buddies you hadn't thought of in awhile.

People can't seem to figure Bill Frist out. Is he putting politics above princple, abandoing George Bush on the stem-cell dilemma because of his own presidential ambitions? Or is he, in fact, putting princple above politics, taking a position his medical experience tells him is the right one, despite the fact that it will anger the religious right that is important to those seeking the Republican nomination? The best evidence we have is what the man himself says, and I found his speech on the subject convincing.