Author: lux

Religion and Politics Don’t Mix

I let slide the recent report that the GOP is trying to get churches in PA more actively involved in politics, but taken together with this report about Bush’s trip to the Vatican it’s a disturbing trend.

It’s no secret that regular church-goers are significantly more likely to vote Republican. And as the Times pointed out, African-American churches are frequently strongly involved in ‘get out the vote’ efforts for the Democrats. So in that sense, why should this matter?

It matters because this administration has tried in numerous ways to blur the line between religion and politics. And as a member of a minority religion I find that profoundly threatening. The more talk I hear about Jesus in the public sphere and from elected officials, the less I feel like this is my America too.

Gorbachev calls W A Commie

Mikhail Gorbachev got off a good shot at George W Bush tonight on Nightline. It’s too soon for a transcript, but roughly here’s what he said:

The desire to bring democracy to countries that have other customs and traditions … it’s a very primative form of thinking, like what the old-line Bolsheviks would do.

In other words, Gorbachev called W a commie.

I’ll update tomorrow when a transcript is available.

Best Bit from the Day

The best quote from the Ronald Reagan funeral – perhaps from the entire week – belonged to Ron Reagan Jr today:

Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly religious man. But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage. True, after he was shot and nearly killed early in his presidency, he came to believe that God had spared him in order that he might do good. But he accepted that as a responsibility, not a mandate. And there is a profound difference.

Thanks Kevin Drum and the Washington Post for the pointers to a transcript.

Yay TiVo

Have had the blahs the last day or so, maybe I’m a bit blogged out. Here’s a bit of good news to those of us with multi-TiVo households:

TiVo has cut their monthly rates for the 2nd through 5th TiVo in the household. That’s $72 less I have to pay them.

My feeling?