Charity Begins at Home: Thanks, President Bush!
I'm greatly impressed that President George and Laura Bush and Vice President Dick and Lynne Cheney gave large amounts to charity in 2004. It's nice to see those to whom much has been given, give at least some of it to organizations that operate for the public good.

Of course, just giving to a non-profit organization, in my opinion, is not necssarily a good thing. I believe that it is not "charity" to give money to an organization that directly benefits you personally: for example, giving to the Arthritis Foundation when you have arthritis strikes me as being self-serving. Of course, others will benefit from your donation, so it's not really so bad.

However, giving money to your church so that it can cover it's operating expenses is extremely selfish: even more so when you the money you're giving is going to grandiose schemes and plans, rather than helping others find their moral compass: for example, Lakewood Church here in Houston is spending one million dollars per year to rent the Houston Rockets old basketball stadium - is that really a good use of "charity dollars"? And is it really charity to give to a church whose primary mission is to stand on street corners with bull horns and yell at people: I believe giving to Westboro Baptist Church and their "God Hates Fags" mission is a sin.

I'm also not sure that non-profit agencies such as The National Center for Public Policy Research are charities that deserve any praise: why would a charity that is a "research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today's public policy problems" need to pay $5,000 for a congressman's golf game? What, in the name of capitalism, does that sort of charity "buy"? Of course, I think you know the answer...
04.27.05 @ 12:29 PM CST [link] [No Comments]

Republicans: let's leave some more children behind

Texas Republicans have passed a law that would prohibit gays and lesbians from being foster parents. This would make Texas the first state to do so. And it's not as though there is a surplus of foster parents: 27,931 children were in the foster care system in Texas in 2004 and there are 680 foster homes and 2,495 foster/adoption homes.

The "research" against adoption is ludicrous pseudo-science: based on 30 newspaper articles in 13 years that describes child abuse in foster homes; using terms like "traditional common sense"; and counting obvious pedophilia (i.e., when the foster parent molested both boys and girls) as "homosexual". Compare this with the American Psychological Association report recommending no changes to existing foster parent laws and its extensive supporting empirical studies and its clear delineation between "facts" and "conclusions". Some laws are clear examples of homophobia.

Democracy for the Vatican now!
Since President Bush and the Republicans have given up trying to say that Iraq/Hussein actually posed any sort of threat to the United States via weapons of mass destruction or connections to Al Qaeda and are now indicating that the reason for Iraq was to bring democracy to an oppressed people, I believe it is time that the President and the Republicans must be consistent in their actions and immediately declare war on the Vatican. After all, there is no better time to proactively attack a country than when they are mourning the loss of their despot leader. Not only is the leader of the Vatican not elected democratically, even the electors are appointed by the leader. The people of the Vatican oppress women, denying them jobs, and have oppressed all sorts of other religions in the past (nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition!) It's time for an invasion: a few well-placed cruise missles should bring them to their knees. Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell can be the interim president until all one billion Catholics are allowed to cast a vote for the new pope.

04.05.05 @ 11:11 PM CST [link] [1 Comment]

Dad wins the lottery again
Yes, it's true. My dad is headed to the Indiana "Millionaire's" lottery again. Last time he won $45,000. Who knows how much he'll win this time?
04.05.05 @ 10:59 PM CST [link] [No Comments]

Vacation Time: Rhapsody of the Seas
We went on a cruise out of Galveston on the Rhapsody of the Seas. You may want to look at the pictures.
04.05.05 @ 10:23 PM CST [link]