December 2010Monthly Archives

Americans can give thanks in this Christmas season for an end to the reckless and destructive 111th Congress. This is the Congress that passed Obamacare, against the wishes of a substantial majority of the public, on Christmas Eve of last year. In the dead of night, Democratic lawmakers stuffed the monstrous 2,700-page bill with special-interest goodies and political payoffs like the “Cornhusker Kickback” and the “Louisiana Purchase.” As we have learned since, most members were still ignorant of the bill’s contents three months later, when it gained final passage in the House. No surprise that its immediate results — both intended and unintended — have been almost uniformly bad.

The old Elizabeth: Diana Mina, the first Afro-Colombian Miss Bogota in real life; she resembles the squeaky clean all-American beauty I imagined monogamous, Christian Elizabeth to be.

The New Elizabeth: In Luisa’s script she is no longer black, now described as “sizzling” hot, and a whoring bisexual no one can trust.

Today we will discuss the way my average, healthy, normal lesbian character, Elizabeth Cruz, was possibly and probably (can’t say) not only de-Africanized (described only as “a sizzling Colombian” in the script) for the TV adaptation of my bestselling novel, THE DIRTY GIRLS SOCIAL CLUB, by Luisa Leschin and Ann Lopez in a development deal with NBC, but also how her sexuality was intentionally made pathological.

wonderful:)

Very talented friends of mine have this setup that gets more amazing each year:)
(Linux, natch)

Close your eyes, breath in that gingerbread aroma and listen to the silver bells ting-a-linging… now picture Santa Claus in your mind. He’s overseeing his junior United Nations in his extraterrestrial palace, isn’t he? He’s winding up his white, mechanical reindeer who’ll turn to dust with the slightest exposure to sunlight, right? And, of course, he’s getting counsel from two of his most-trusted servants, Merlin the wizard and the Roman god, Vulcan. 

The Santa you grew up with. Exactly.

As a special present, you Screened heads are getting another weird movie this week – - 1959′s Santa Claus. If you were expecting Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, you should first feel embarrassed for not expecting this feature to dig deeper than that. Then, you should prepare yourself for a Santa flick that makes that one look positively plain by comparison…    

Religious teachings promise us a deeper understanding of reality, more meaningful lives, morally superior conduct, and such benefits as rightness with a Supreme Being or liberation from earthly attachments. One way or another, the world’s religions offer spiritual salvation, or something very like it. If any of their teachings are rationally warranted, it would be good to know which ones.

At the same time, however, religious teachings can be onerous in their demands; if they can’t deliver on what they promise, it would be just as well to know that. I take it, then, that there’s a strong case for rational scrutiny of religious teachings. Even if reason can take us only so far, it would be good to explore just how far.