Day: June 27, 2024

I Tried; I Failed

Fandango29 Comments

I had planned on watching the entire debate. I couldn’t. After about 20 minutes, I had to turn it off. Donald Trump was setting the new world’s record for lies and misinformation per minute. Biden sounded old and sometime confused, like he said that he “beat Medicare.”

The CNN moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, let Trump get away with every lie he told (like when Trump said that Democrats — and Biden — support “post- birth abortions”).

Quite honestly, it was painful to watch. So I stopped and went back to watching “DCI Banks” on BritBox. Once it’s over, or maybe tomorrow, I’ll read what some of the political journalists I respect have to say.

On America Becoming a Christian Theocracy

Fandango17 Comments

Just four days ago I published a post about how the state of Louisiana had just enacted a law mandating that the Ten Commandments be prominently displayed in all public school classrooms grades Kindergarten through 12th grade and in all state-funded universities, making Louisiana the first state in the nation issue such a mandate.

Today, on my iPhone’s newsfeed I just saw this headline:

Oklahoma state superintendent orders public schools to teach the Bible in grades 5 through 12

Oklahoma’s top education official ordered public schools today to incorporate the Christian Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, the latest effort by conservatives to promote the Christian religion in secular, public school classrooms. The order sent to districts across the state by Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters says adherence to the mandate is compulsory and immediate and strict compliance is expected.

“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” Walters said in a statement. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction.”

The directive drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and supporters of the separation of church and state, with some calling it an abuse of power and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a statement. “This is textbook Christian Nationalism: Walters is abusing the power of his public office to impose his religious beliefs on everyone else’s children.”

The directive is the latest salvo in an effort by conservative-led states to target public schools: Louisiana has required them to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, while others are under pressure to teach the Bible and ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

I know that a lot of Christians believe that the United States either is or should be a Christian nation. But the fact is that the United States is a secular nation and it says so in the very first line of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

Requiring public schools to teach the Christian Bible is tantamount to the promotion of the Christian religion above any and all other religions, as America’s national religion. Will the next step be to ship Jewish kids, Muslim kids, and children having been brought up in non-Christian households to “Christian Indoctrination and Reeducation Camps”?

Can we count on the far-right, Christian fundamentalist majority on the Supreme Court to find that such an order is in clear violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? I’m not holding my breath.

Thursday Inspiration — The Math of Love

Fandango6 Comments

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to respond to this challenge by either using the prompt word “nothing,” or going with the above picture, or by any song about a guy who declares his love for the girl he wants in his life, or going with anything else that we think fits.

What I think fits is not so much about a guy who declares his love for a girl, but about a guy who wants to know what she brings to the table. The song, “Nothing From Nothing,” by Billy Preston, is about a man telling his lover that she needs to bring more to the relationship than she’s bringing.

From its opening salvo, the song’s meaning is fairly straight-forward: Nothin’ from nothin’ means nothin’. You got to have something if you want to be with me. Preston is saying that he can only get into a relationship with someone who already has money:

I'm not tryna be your hero
'Cause that zero is too cold for me, brrr
I'm not tryin' to be your highness
'Cause that minus is too low to see, yeah

Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
And I'm not stuffin', believe you me
Don't you remember I told ya
I'm a soldier in the war on poverty, yeah, yes, I am

Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin' if you wanna be with me, oh baby

Preston started writing this song one night in the dressing room of an Atlanta nightclub where he was performing. He wanted to write a song based on the saying, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.” He explained, “The saloon piano gave it character, and I had a feeling it would be a hit because it was a sing-a-long kind of thing.”

And he was right, it was a hit. The song was co-written by Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher and was recorded by Billy Preston for his 1974 album The Kids & Me. It reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in October 1974, becoming Preston’s second solo chart-topper in the United States (following his 1973 hit “Will It Go Round in Circles”). It spent four and a half months on the chart.

Interesting factoid: Preston performed this song on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live. He and Janis Ian were the musical guests on the show’s October 11, 1975 debut.

Six Sentence Story — We’re Not on the Same Wavelength

Fandango14 Comments

We are two very different individuals entangled in the delicate dance of love, but our frequency never quite aligns.

I am the practical one, a pragmatist, an analytical type who revels in precision, logic, and outcomes, with little regard for emotional flourishes and no time for drama.

You are the artist whose heart is a canvas splashed in vibrant hues, who speaks in rhymes, metaphors, and similies, who dances to unheard melodies, and who dreams in poetry.

Our mismatched wavelengths are becoming more apparent every day, with me focusing on the details of the activities of daily living, while you are orchestrating imaginary music in your head and whispering wishes of harmony to the stars at night.

Checking my watch to see what time it’s not, I say that love is merely a chemical reaction, while you, gazing at the star-studded sky, postulate that love is a cosmic collision.

Are our differences irreconcilable or can we find a way to overcome the dissonance, each composing our own melodies to create a beautifully harmonious symphony that defies any practical considerations and permits us both to dance to the rhythms of our hearts?

Written for the Sunday Six Sentence Story prompt from Girlie on the Edge, where the prompt word is “frequency.” Photo credit: awarenessact.com.

Writer’s Workshop — Shit or Get Off the Pot

Fandango8 Comments

For his Writer’s Workshop this week, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that (or those) prompt(s). I chose two prompts for this week: (1) use the word “ignore,” and (2) write a post in exactly 8 sentences.

Tell me you love
Or tell me you don’t
Embrace me, kiss me, hug me
Or just walk away

Be all in with me
Or be all out
One way or the other
But don’t you dare ignore me


Badge by Patty, http://anothercookieplease.com

AI artwork from ideogram.ai