First, before I write anything else: Congratulations, President Barack Obama. Your winning election to the office of President is indeed historic, and I hope you understand why I want everyone else to get over their mania at the historicalnessicity of it pretty quick.
See, I never thought it was impossible that a black man could get elected President of the United States. I'm one of those silly saps who believes the rhetoric about America being a land of opportunity for everyone. Some of us don't live up to that promise, and yes, their are some racists still out there -I just think that the racism commonplace to the 1950's and 1960's has gone the way of, Edsels and free love and, well, just about everything else from that era. John Kennedy was the first Catholic President, but nobody remembers that fact as "historic" anymore. I hope your election gets everybody past "the race thing." Good luck.
Now, on to your inauguration speech...
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
No surprise...
I’m not voting for Barack Obama for President.
No, I’m voting for John McCain, a decision I made in the first week of March 2008, when he became the Republican nominee. I wasn’t thrilled about it then, and though my enthusiasm for his candidacy has ticked up a bit since, I’m not going to rejoice if he wins, nor weep if he loses.
I’m a weird kind of conservative –comfortable with Barry Goldwater, nostalgic for Ronald Reagan- who would rather wage a fiscal war than a cultural one. I’ve been called a RINO, a squish, a Libertarian, a war-monger, a nihilist, a deluded victim of popular media and a typical liberal. And that was just at Thanksgiving dinners! I remember when Georgia Republicans could hold their meetings in a phone booth, and if there are any of those contraptions left, that may be where I’m going to be for the next four years.
I’ll admit, Obama almost had me a couple of times. He is smooth and glib and gifted with a beguiling and hypnotic voice. (The one advantage of smoking.) I listened to the soaring rhetoric, and found myself nearly lulled into acceptance. “Tax cuts for 95% of Americans,” “Change” and “These are not the droids you’re looking for,” had me nodding along in agreement, until I realized, sadly, he was only lying.
There were several of these near-GHB moments for me, watching Obama scratch and claw his way across the finish line of the Democratic nominating process, bedeviling the Clinton machine with a finesse that must have made Newt Gingrich weep with appreciation and envy. I watched those speeches and considered carefully if McCain was really the right choice for me. Obama’s pretty promises to change the way Washington worked had an appeal –“Yes!” I shouted –change it! Eliminate the Department of Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Millenium Challenge Corporation and the Agricultural Marketing Service and fire every other federal employee who’s not either firing a weapon for America or sending bullets to those who do!
That wasn’t the sort of change Barack had in mind.
His idea of change, apparently, was to make a serious promise -then divert from the promise and speak poetically to obscure with his rhetoric the fact that he had not kept his promise. Example: He said he would accept public financing of his campaign. When it became advantageous to do otherwise, he did otherwise. In my neighborhood, that’s called telling a lie.
All politicians lie, of course, but this was a lie from a man whose entire brand was built on being beyond politics as usual. He was supposed to be post-partisan –that’s what he said.
He sealed his fate and removed all doubt with his pick for vice president. There’s not much nice to be said about that office –“not worth a bucket of warm spit” as Cactus Jack put it- but it does have its moments of necessity, as we have seen eight times. But if you had any doubt that an Obama presidency would be a an expansion of everything that has gone wrong in this country for the last 44 years (save 1980-1988) you need only look at Joe Biden and those doubts will become ironclad fears. Terrors, even.
Joe Biden is an abomination to everything that America is supposed to stand for. He is duplicitous, deceptive, and dishonest at his core. He stole Neil Kinnocks words to puff himself up -as he had done in law school. He makes things up on the spot, lies with aplomb, and has only cowardly excuses when things don’t go his way. He inflates his own accomplishments and sulks like a whiny teenager if you don’t swallow his entire persona. He’s been in Washington DC as a Senator since 1972, and hasn’t changed jack shit since then. Say what you want about Sarah Palin’s lack of experience, that’s an easy problem to fix. Given some time, everybody gets experience. But you can’t teach a six-term senator new tricks, and Barack Obama demonstrated a callow disrespect for the American people by picking Joe the self-aggrandizing liar as his running mate.
Let me be clear about this: I oppose Barack Obama’s policies and call him out on all his bullshit rhetoric. But I will take a bullet for him to keep Joe Biden from becoming President.
That’s why I’m voting for McCain.
No, I’m voting for John McCain, a decision I made in the first week of March 2008, when he became the Republican nominee. I wasn’t thrilled about it then, and though my enthusiasm for his candidacy has ticked up a bit since, I’m not going to rejoice if he wins, nor weep if he loses.
I’m a weird kind of conservative –comfortable with Barry Goldwater, nostalgic for Ronald Reagan- who would rather wage a fiscal war than a cultural one. I’ve been called a RINO, a squish, a Libertarian, a war-monger, a nihilist, a deluded victim of popular media and a typical liberal. And that was just at Thanksgiving dinners! I remember when Georgia Republicans could hold their meetings in a phone booth, and if there are any of those contraptions left, that may be where I’m going to be for the next four years.
I’ll admit, Obama almost had me a couple of times. He is smooth and glib and gifted with a beguiling and hypnotic voice. (The one advantage of smoking.) I listened to the soaring rhetoric, and found myself nearly lulled into acceptance. “Tax cuts for 95% of Americans,” “Change” and “These are not the droids you’re looking for,” had me nodding along in agreement, until I realized, sadly, he was only lying.
There were several of these near-GHB moments for me, watching Obama scratch and claw his way across the finish line of the Democratic nominating process, bedeviling the Clinton machine with a finesse that must have made Newt Gingrich weep with appreciation and envy. I watched those speeches and considered carefully if McCain was really the right choice for me. Obama’s pretty promises to change the way Washington worked had an appeal –“Yes!” I shouted –change it! Eliminate the Department of Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Millenium Challenge Corporation and the Agricultural Marketing Service and fire every other federal employee who’s not either firing a weapon for America or sending bullets to those who do!
That wasn’t the sort of change Barack had in mind.
His idea of change, apparently, was to make a serious promise -then divert from the promise and speak poetically to obscure with his rhetoric the fact that he had not kept his promise. Example: He said he would accept public financing of his campaign. When it became advantageous to do otherwise, he did otherwise. In my neighborhood, that’s called telling a lie.
All politicians lie, of course, but this was a lie from a man whose entire brand was built on being beyond politics as usual. He was supposed to be post-partisan –that’s what he said.
He sealed his fate and removed all doubt with his pick for vice president. There’s not much nice to be said about that office –“not worth a bucket of warm spit” as Cactus Jack put it- but it does have its moments of necessity, as we have seen eight times. But if you had any doubt that an Obama presidency would be a an expansion of everything that has gone wrong in this country for the last 44 years (save 1980-1988) you need only look at Joe Biden and those doubts will become ironclad fears. Terrors, even.
Joe Biden is an abomination to everything that America is supposed to stand for. He is duplicitous, deceptive, and dishonest at his core. He stole Neil Kinnocks words to puff himself up -as he had done in law school. He makes things up on the spot, lies with aplomb, and has only cowardly excuses when things don’t go his way. He inflates his own accomplishments and sulks like a whiny teenager if you don’t swallow his entire persona. He’s been in Washington DC as a Senator since 1972, and hasn’t changed jack shit since then. Say what you want about Sarah Palin’s lack of experience, that’s an easy problem to fix. Given some time, everybody gets experience. But you can’t teach a six-term senator new tricks, and Barack Obama demonstrated a callow disrespect for the American people by picking Joe the self-aggrandizing liar as his running mate.
Let me be clear about this: I oppose Barack Obama’s policies and call him out on all his bullshit rhetoric. But I will take a bullet for him to keep Joe Biden from becoming President.
That’s why I’m voting for McCain.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Liberals: I don't speak your language.
Over at Georgia Women Vote!, Amy Morton has singled out Governor Sonny Perdue for special hysteria for hosting a fish fry fundraiser while, in her words, "Georgia schools crumble," because of a "republican-led gutting public education." Sounds terrible, right? Ohh, those evil Republicans and their misplaced priorities!
Apply a few facts and shine a little perspective on this situation:
Bibb County Schools educates "nearly 25,000" students -according to the Bibb BOE website. Their budget for FY 2009 is $186 million. Back of the envelope, please! -Roughly $7,400 per student. That figure presumably includes the $10,000 per month Bibb BOE has been paying to a consultant -for the last SEVEN years- to figure out stuff like how project enrollment, manage bond issues, re-organize staff, handle redistricting and all the other stuff school superintendents do. (Did I mention that Bibb County also has a superintendent? I don't know what she does.)
Also, of those "nearly" 25,000 students, 9,500 will be eligible to transfer out of their low-performing schools into a higher performing school, because their schools did not make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind act. (NCLB is a separate debate I'm not going to get into right now.) The back of the envelope says: About 38% of Bibb's 25,000 students aren't getting an education worth the $7,400 every homeowner in Bibb County is paying for.
Clearly, the problem is a lack of funds. That's why the BOE approved NOT raising property taxes. See, they're only projecting revenue of $172 million, and need to spend $186 million. So they voted to $8.3 million from the reserves to cover the shortfall.
(Back of the envelope says: You're still $5.7 million shy.)
So what do you make of a school system that spends more than $7,000 per student, does a crappy job with nearly 40% of those students, pays a consultant $10,000 per month to do the job the superintendent is supposed to be doing, doesn't raise their property taxes, and contrary to what Ms. Morton says, manages to hire 200 new teachers?
Blame the Governor, of course. Not the superintendent. Not the school board. Not the teachers. The Governor. (Oh, and the State School Superintendent Kathy Cox, for "remaining silent.")
What's wrong with a 7.5% across the board cut? What would be so wrong about raising your taxes and spending what it takes to get your county's kids out of their failing schools? Why whine about the "cuts" from the State -when education is still the biggest part of Georgia's budget?
Liberals are literally surreal: A fantasy full of incongruous juxtapositions.
Apply a few facts and shine a little perspective on this situation:
Bibb County Schools educates "nearly 25,000" students -according to the Bibb BOE website. Their budget for FY 2009 is $186 million. Back of the envelope, please! -Roughly $7,400 per student. That figure presumably includes the $10,000 per month Bibb BOE has been paying to a consultant -for the last SEVEN years- to figure out stuff like how project enrollment, manage bond issues, re-organize staff, handle redistricting and all the other stuff school superintendents do. (Did I mention that Bibb County also has a superintendent? I don't know what she does.)
Also, of those "nearly" 25,000 students, 9,500 will be eligible to transfer out of their low-performing schools into a higher performing school, because their schools did not make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind act. (NCLB is a separate debate I'm not going to get into right now.) The back of the envelope says: About 38% of Bibb's 25,000 students aren't getting an education worth the $7,400 every homeowner in Bibb County is paying for.
Clearly, the problem is a lack of funds. That's why the BOE approved NOT raising property taxes. See, they're only projecting revenue of $172 million, and need to spend $186 million. So they voted to $8.3 million from the reserves to cover the shortfall.
(Back of the envelope says: You're still $5.7 million shy.)
So what do you make of a school system that spends more than $7,000 per student, does a crappy job with nearly 40% of those students, pays a consultant $10,000 per month to do the job the superintendent is supposed to be doing, doesn't raise their property taxes, and contrary to what Ms. Morton says, manages to hire 200 new teachers?
Blame the Governor, of course. Not the superintendent. Not the school board. Not the teachers. The Governor. (Oh, and the State School Superintendent Kathy Cox, for "remaining silent.")
What's wrong with a 7.5% across the board cut? What would be so wrong about raising your taxes and spending what it takes to get your county's kids out of their failing schools? Why whine about the "cuts" from the State -when education is still the biggest part of Georgia's budget?
Liberals are literally surreal: A fantasy full of incongruous juxtapositions.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Let’s see if I can still do this:
Dunwoody- Catcalls, cheers, and applause peppered a two-hour debate over details of the proposed city of Dunwoody in a forum hosted by the DeKalb League of Women Voters at Georgia Perimeter College Thursday evening. The cityhood measure will be voted on by residents of the northern section of DeKalb County on July 15.
Two panels squared off on a stage in an auditorium in front of an audience of about 300 people. State Rep Jill Chambers (R-Dunwoody) along with area homeowners Lilli Wong and Brian Pierce, on the “no” side, raised questions about the estimated budget and tax rates for the new city, cast doubt on the accuracy of the studies used to support the arguments for cityhood and issued ominous warnings about threatened lawsuits against Dunwoody by a vindictive DeKalb County government.
The pro-Dunwoody panel of Rob Augustine, Oliver Porter and Tom Taylor defended the studies as prudent, the estimated $18 million budget as fiscally conservative, and the proposed service levels as a 25 to 30% improvement over what DeKalb currently provides.
The motivation for creating a city was clearly anger at the DeKalb County government, which was repeatedly attacked as non-responsive to residents requests for additional police protection, tighter restrictions on new apartments and more road repairs. DeKalb’s controversial CEO Vernon Jones was acknowledged by both sides as a source of residents’ resentment. Wong, in accented English, drew applause and laughter when arguing that her neighbors weren’t mad at DeKalb government, “just Vernon Jones. But he [will] be gone very soon.”
Augustine, former president of the Dunwoody Homeowners’ Association, countered with reams of data showing that Dunwoody’s property tax contribution to DeKalb’s budget vastly exceeded what area residents received in parks, police patrols and road repairs. Denny Shortal, vice-President of the advocacy group Dunwoody Yes! implied Chambers received a favor for living on a street that was resurfaced last year while more than 45 miles of County roads in Dunwoody needed repairs more.
“Let me tell you a military principle, Ms. Chambers: The troops eat first!”
Rep. Chambers did not have an opportunity to respond.
At least one member of the audience described the event as a tie.
“They had a lot facts, but those facts are subject to interpretation,” said Sue Wilton, a 14-year Dunwoody resident who favors cityhood. “I don’t think it changed anyone’s mind.”
That's the story I would have filed if I were still a newspaper reporter, and had been assigned to cover the Dunwoody forum Thursday night.
Here's what Atlanta's local paper published. Feel free to compare, contrast and criticize.
Off-topic: I wonder why newspapers, in their online versions, don't provide links to their sources. Would it really be that hard?
Two panels squared off on a stage in an auditorium in front of an audience of about 300 people. State Rep Jill Chambers (R-Dunwoody) along with area homeowners Lilli Wong and Brian Pierce, on the “no” side, raised questions about the estimated budget and tax rates for the new city, cast doubt on the accuracy of the studies used to support the arguments for cityhood and issued ominous warnings about threatened lawsuits against Dunwoody by a vindictive DeKalb County government.
The pro-Dunwoody panel of Rob Augustine, Oliver Porter and Tom Taylor defended the studies as prudent, the estimated $18 million budget as fiscally conservative, and the proposed service levels as a 25 to 30% improvement over what DeKalb currently provides.
The motivation for creating a city was clearly anger at the DeKalb County government, which was repeatedly attacked as non-responsive to residents requests for additional police protection, tighter restrictions on new apartments and more road repairs. DeKalb’s controversial CEO Vernon Jones was acknowledged by both sides as a source of residents’ resentment. Wong, in accented English, drew applause and laughter when arguing that her neighbors weren’t mad at DeKalb government, “just Vernon Jones. But he [will] be gone very soon.”
Augustine, former president of the Dunwoody Homeowners’ Association, countered with reams of data showing that Dunwoody’s property tax contribution to DeKalb’s budget vastly exceeded what area residents received in parks, police patrols and road repairs. Denny Shortal, vice-President of the advocacy group Dunwoody Yes! implied Chambers received a favor for living on a street that was resurfaced last year while more than 45 miles of County roads in Dunwoody needed repairs more.
“Let me tell you a military principle, Ms. Chambers: The troops eat first!”
Rep. Chambers did not have an opportunity to respond.
At least one member of the audience described the event as a tie.
“They had a lot facts, but those facts are subject to interpretation,” said Sue Wilton, a 14-year Dunwoody resident who favors cityhood. “I don’t think it changed anyone’s mind.”
That's the story I would have filed if I were still a newspaper reporter, and had been assigned to cover the Dunwoody forum Thursday night.
Here's what Atlanta's local paper published. Feel free to compare, contrast and criticize.
Off-topic: I wonder why newspapers, in their online versions, don't provide links to their sources. Would it really be that hard?
Friday, June 06, 2008
Would you? Could you?
64 years ago, in a rolling, pitching sea, 73,000 Americans pushed up against a beach in Normandy and ran toward machine guns. They jumped into waves and waist-deep water and ran and swam their way to a beach where those guns cutting them down were dug in and fortified. They watched their buddies to their left and right shot down, and ran past 6,000 of their bodies to achieve the mission -to secure a beachhead and begin the final assault on Nazi forces. Victory would not come for another eleven months.
War is the worst of organized human activity. But never mistake the warrior for the war.
Could you have run to the sound of the guns while those around you were cut down? Could you have charged across a beach full of mines, dodged a fusillade of bullets and fired back while you waited for your only strategic hope, which was more men like you, brave enough to face the fire, run at it, shoot back and wait?
Sixty-four years later, I can only pause, thank them, and go on. I don’t know if I could ever do what those men did. I hope I never have to find out.
War is the worst of organized human activity. But never mistake the warrior for the war.
Could you have run to the sound of the guns while those around you were cut down? Could you have charged across a beach full of mines, dodged a fusillade of bullets and fired back while you waited for your only strategic hope, which was more men like you, brave enough to face the fire, run at it, shoot back and wait?
Sixty-four years later, I can only pause, thank them, and go on. I don’t know if I could ever do what those men did. I hope I never have to find out.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Last published April 18, 2008.
Last published April 18, 2008.
Dear God, that's embarrassing. So, where to begin?
Apologies will come later. That's first.
Second: Thank you Grift, for not giving in when the demons told you to. Writing is a bitch and nobody's ever going to tell you to keep going. Ever.
Also: Thank you Democratics in Georgia and all of America for giving me (the worst political junkie you've never net) the greatest primary season EVAR! You Rock! No, seriously, if I ever thought your party would be caught up in an especially divisive argument about race vs. gender for the nomination for Democratic candidate for POTUS, I'd have thought I was dreaming. I mean, Democratics being shown for what they are? Total fantasy!
Instead, I get a nightly treatment of how your sh--ty philosophy is tearing your party apart while you argue whether the woman or the black guy is entitled to the the Presidency. I have deviated my septum laughing at you trying so hard to miss what should have been a lay-up for total control of the White House and Congress for at least 8 years. You're blowing it! Paging Nelson Muntz:
You deserve all the national derision you're getting, and your only consolation will be that we conservatives will have to eat a big poop sandwich for at least four years of a McCain presidency.
Dammit.
Dear God, that's embarrassing. So, where to begin?
Apologies will come later. That's first.
Second: Thank you Grift, for not giving in when the demons told you to. Writing is a bitch and nobody's ever going to tell you to keep going. Ever.
"I had to find real stories about real people and tell them in practically real time."You'll never get that. Keep going.
Also: Thank you Democratics in Georgia and all of America for giving me (the worst political junkie you've never net) the greatest primary season EVAR! You Rock! No, seriously, if I ever thought your party would be caught up in an especially divisive argument about race vs. gender for the nomination for Democratic candidate for POTUS, I'd have thought I was dreaming. I mean, Democratics being shown for what they are? Total fantasy!
Instead, I get a nightly treatment of how your sh--ty philosophy is tearing your party apart while you argue whether the woman or the black guy is entitled to the the Presidency. I have deviated my septum laughing at you trying so hard to miss what should have been a lay-up for total control of the White House and Congress for at least 8 years. You're blowing it! Paging Nelson Muntz:
You deserve all the national derision you're getting, and your only consolation will be that we conservatives will have to eat a big poop sandwich for at least four years of a McCain presidency. Dammit.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Why so quiet? Cuz you're doing it wrong!
Grift fell quiet for a week, and the Atlanta blogosphere suffered. Apparently, he's put off with politics. Rusty at the Radical Georgia Moderate has been ambivalent about politics recently as well.
Awww, poor puddins! Seriously though, it's a shame they have opted for radio silence, because when those two are on their game, there's no better opportunity to read some good writing and good arguments and good old-fashioned disagreeableness. Maybe I can goad them back to life.
First: Fellas, you can't swear off politics because of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," Ben Stein's movie that opens today. Expelled is a documentary promoted with the tagline:
Basic premise of the movie: "Big Science" does not permit any discussion of God. Scientists who are also Christians have been fired for trying to merely discuss the possibility of God as the "designer" of life, the universe and everything. There's a secular humanist plot disguised as knowledge trying to convince children that there is no God. (nb: I haven't seen the movie, but I will and if that description isn't accurate, I'll change it.)
My reaction: HOW DARE YOU? How dare you insult my faith by measuring the metes and bounds of the universe and telling me that God is a mere fact, the sum of a calculation, the product of a sharper pencil? Who are you to tell me that 2,000+ years of spirituality has somehow been inadequate, and must now be re-marketed under the guise of being "just as good as" scientific theory? How weak is your own faith that it requires proof? Screw. You.
My more rational reaction: Intelligent Design is not science. Nor is it economics, nor sociology, nor architecture nor landscape design nor figure skating. It is a philosophy (teleology) that explores the idea that the complexity of natural world indicates a purpose to all life; that purpose indicates intention; that intention indicates a being capable of having intention; ergo God. That's fine. I have no problem with that -I actually have a degree in that sort of thing, a BA in Philosophy that permits, no, authorizes me to describe Intelligent Design as NOT SCIENCE. It's one way of answering the big questions, and only becomes offensive when it tries to do less than it should. You may discover a belief in God through Intelligent Design, but if you think you need to discover God through science, you don't understand faith.
Bottom Line: You can believe God created life, the universe and everything in it, or you can believe that life began because of lightning in the mud and against all odds we evolved to where we are today. Either belief is as staggering as the other.
Now, Rusty and Grift: ID is not politics, either. Get off the mat, you sissies! We have so much political shenanigans that demands y'alls opinions, to wit:
Clayton County continues to melt down because of incompetent boobs on the school board. (And the Sheriff. Don't forget the Sheriff.)
Lithonia redefines worthless as a city in new and unexplored ways.
Cobb County Commissioner Annette Kesting has a hard time putting up with evil white women. (Are they "bitter," too?)
DeKalb County gets a budget together after three tries, a veto, two false starts and some posturing.
But the DeKalb commissioner who wanted to raise my taxes is having trouble paying his own. (Paging Nelson Muntz.)
A judge in South Georgia finds that his black robe is not, in fact, a license to steal.
Snellville Mayor tries to install a former Mayor (with a conflict of interest) as city manager. Because Caligula's horse was not available.
The recent session of Georgia's General Assembly proves that sometimes less is all you can do.
It is a crime to "loaf and linger" near prison inmates in Telfair County. At least for now.
Step 1. Get elected to something in Atlanta.
Step 2. ?
Step 3. Profit!
Step 4. Go to jail.
That's a target-rich environment for snark-meisters. Rusty and Grift, consider yourselves weapons free.
Awww, poor puddins! Seriously though, it's a shame they have opted for radio silence, because when those two are on their game, there's no better opportunity to read some good writing and good arguments and good old-fashioned disagreeableness. Maybe I can goad them back to life.
First: Fellas, you can't swear off politics because of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," Ben Stein's movie that opens today. Expelled is a documentary promoted with the tagline:
"Big Science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom.
What they forgot is that every generation has its rebel!
Which indicates clearly that this is fiction. "Big Science?" Excuse me while I laugh my butt off. There is no such thing as "Big Science," any more than there is a "Big Poetry," "Big Justice," or "Big Literacy."
Basic premise of the movie: "Big Science" does not permit any discussion of God. Scientists who are also Christians have been fired for trying to merely discuss the possibility of God as the "designer" of life, the universe and everything. There's a secular humanist plot disguised as knowledge trying to convince children that there is no God. (nb: I haven't seen the movie, but I will and if that description isn't accurate, I'll change it.)
My reaction: HOW DARE YOU? How dare you insult my faith by measuring the metes and bounds of the universe and telling me that God is a mere fact, the sum of a calculation, the product of a sharper pencil? Who are you to tell me that 2,000+ years of spirituality has somehow been inadequate, and must now be re-marketed under the guise of being "just as good as" scientific theory? How weak is your own faith that it requires proof? Screw. You.
My more rational reaction: Intelligent Design is not science. Nor is it economics, nor sociology, nor architecture nor landscape design nor figure skating. It is a philosophy (teleology) that explores the idea that the complexity of natural world indicates a purpose to all life; that purpose indicates intention; that intention indicates a being capable of having intention; ergo God. That's fine. I have no problem with that -I actually have a degree in that sort of thing, a BA in Philosophy that permits, no, authorizes me to describe Intelligent Design as NOT SCIENCE. It's one way of answering the big questions, and only becomes offensive when it tries to do less than it should. You may discover a belief in God through Intelligent Design, but if you think you need to discover God through science, you don't understand faith.
Bottom Line: You can believe God created life, the universe and everything in it, or you can believe that life began because of lightning in the mud and against all odds we evolved to where we are today. Either belief is as staggering as the other.
Now, Rusty and Grift: ID is not politics, either. Get off the mat, you sissies! We have so much political shenanigans that demands y'alls opinions, to wit:
Clayton County continues to melt down because of incompetent boobs on the school board. (And the Sheriff. Don't forget the Sheriff.)
Lithonia redefines worthless as a city in new and unexplored ways.
Cobb County Commissioner Annette Kesting has a hard time putting up with evil white women. (Are they "bitter," too?)
DeKalb County gets a budget together after three tries, a veto, two false starts and some posturing.
But the DeKalb commissioner who wanted to raise my taxes is having trouble paying his own. (Paging Nelson Muntz.)
A judge in South Georgia finds that his black robe is not, in fact, a license to steal.
Snellville Mayor tries to install a former Mayor (with a conflict of interest) as city manager. Because Caligula's horse was not available.
The recent session of Georgia's General Assembly proves that sometimes less is all you can do.
It is a crime to "loaf and linger" near prison inmates in Telfair County. At least for now.
Step 1. Get elected to something in Atlanta.
Step 2. ?
Step 3. Profit!
Step 4. Go to jail.
That's a target-rich environment for snark-meisters. Rusty and Grift, consider yourselves weapons free.
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