A few weeks ago there was a bunch of hoopla over John Kerry's Hollywood Star-studded cash bash when personalities like Whoopi Goldberg and John Mellencamp made derogatory statements about President Bush and the administration. John Kerry said at the end of the night that "Hollywood conveys the image of America" which many neocons saw as absurd and insulting. Michael Moore (not a Hollywood insider) is the right's whipping post for how the film industry misrepresents American culture and valu...

The current political hysteria over the menace of Lefty marriages in the U.S. and the threat it poses to our Righty society has now reached the point where many church and social leaders want to pass a Constitutional Amendment banning Lefties from marrying. The language of the amendment: "We hereby define marriage as a union between two right handed people." fits scriptural reasoning in the old testament because we read in Exodus when God speaks to Moses at the burning bush, "Go and tell Pha...

The debate over how to deal with terorism and more specifically "terrorist entities" (organizations like Al Qaeda, countries like the old Afghanistan and Iraq) centers around 2 central themes. The first approach is that the U.S. and the coalition of the "dragged along" (those who will not oppose us) should decide which places need to have their people subjegated or destroyed. The second approach is that we must learn to deal with cultures different from our own, accept their right to be wha...

The new Michael Moore film is being painted two distinct colors, black and white. The 9/11 Committee has been called both wrong and superb. The foes of Mr. Cheney claim he is a vile blasphemer and unworthy of being Vice-President, the friends say his tirade on the Senate floor was long overdue. Why are people taking all of these things so seriously? Have we truly lost our moral compass of respect for the other guy that says the concept of free speech is for both sides of the argument? ...

Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, is a Republican from Pennsylvania where he has served as a conservative representative for over 20 years. Specter is generally considered to be fiscally conservative and has fought against government expenditure for such programs as healthcare for many years. Democrats are said to see him as less moderate than many in the Senate but someone who can be reasoned with on matters of substance. But Specter has "pro-choice" stamped on his...

"I think the price is above what's justified by the fundamentals of the marketplace," John Snow said. "It's out of line with the fundamentals, and there will be a movement back toward the fundamentals, which means a lower price." John Snow, Secretary of the Treasury, is George Bush's point man on the economy who seems to think (noting the quote above) that oil is overvalued relative to the supply and demand in the worldwide economic system. The oil market this morning reacted to this ...

My wife and I were talking with some friends this weekend and the discussion turned to the election. The other couple, who are good people and whom we care greatly about astonished us by saying that they believe that if John Kerry is elected that the Bible will be banned from public places. It took me a moment or two to "process" this as it was so extreme a statement I knew they couldn't have made it up themselves but had to be a "talking point" from some conservative radio or tv program th...

Another day brings still another set of reports from across the political spectrum, including FOX news this morning on the deteriorating situation in Iraq. More deaths (American servicemen numbering now into the thousands, the Iraqi death toll reported to be over 30,000) and reports of beheadings and hostages taken. A Canadian Report last night (CBC) said that less than 15% of Iraq is under control of either the Americans or the Iraqi interim government and that fighting was too widespread ...

Vladmir Putin, Czar of Russia announce today sweeping measures designed to centralize his authority politically and is stating that "terrorism" is now the number 1 problem in Russia. He said "Over the 15 years of its new life, civil society in Russia hasn't really awakened," Izvestia said. "And the president has decided that in conditions demanding fast, effective, and often urgent decisions, it's better not to have such a society -- because the authorities are uncertain of the results of wa...

Probably the most heavily scrutinized individuals in the history of politics are George Bush and John Kerry. Not a day goes by that someone doesn't e-mail me a political cartoon on one or both. They are, if you looked at them the way their critics do, personifications of evil and good, Christian and unholy, ready to lead us into battle or ready to run for the hills, ready to take on the challenges that face us in terms of social security, education, terrorism, the black plague and children ...

There are 2 months before the national elections and one of the two main issues is American Foreign Policy, especially as witnessed in Iraq. The Bush Administration notes that since 9/11 we have destroyed the dictatorships in Iraq and Afghanistan and tightened American security to lessen the threat in the United States. I'm not sure how we will know we are safer (regardless of how many times the President tells us to think it) until terrorists are actually caught in some stage of trying to ...

I attended a recent showing of "Outfoxed" which was billed by those that I had heard speak of it as a left wing attempt at bashing Rupert Murdoch and Foxnews for right wing bias in editting the news to fit the propoganda mechanism that is the current right wing administration. There were descriptions that included "poor quality filming and camera work" as well as "editting issues" that made the film in part unwatchable. However, the film raises several issues that should be considered rega...

Quite often in my conversations on-line the topic of terrorist attacks comes up because around the country it is a unifying theme about how we live our lives today. People are somewhat to very concerned that before the election there will be an attack. They have surmised (rightly or wrongly) that homeland security is very difficult to do, that there are holes in the safety net that protects us and they think Al Qaeda must make a statement soon in order to remain relevant as a "topic of disc...

(I wrote an article "There Ought to Be a Law" to express the opinion that I felt that maybe our society should pull back a bit on making sports such a central feature of our kids life and provide a level playing field for maybe (if their parents chose) getting them involved in Sunday Schools by making Sunday mornings sports free. Many respondents (and I appreciate all views, even those 180 degrees opposed to mine) expressed outrage about interference into their lives by doing something like...

(This article reflects my sense of anxiety over what is a religious issue in a sense. However, I decided to put on the Politics Forum because it is about using laws to promote values in society.) Recently a long time friend invited me to a meeting of the education committee at my church. I no longer have children (well, she's 25, so, sort of, but not really) and spend most of my time in trying to encourage young families whom are seeking God to come and see what our church is all about...