Aside From The Obvious

I realize that this may date me, but my parents di...

2012-05-21T07:10:48.249-04:00

I realize that this may date me, but my parents did not have my grandparents permission to marry... so the church/clergy would not marry them. They were married in a "civil ceremony" by whoever (j.p. or ?). You're correct! The clergy/church has no business being an agent of the state!

Good for you! We need to have a sensible wedding s...

2012-05-20T20:59:34.943-04:00

Good for you! We need to have a sensible wedding system that protects everyone's rights.

I'm sending your link to several groups of fri...

2012-05-20T20:43:20.256-04:00

I'm sending your link to several groups of friends who have been discussing the same issue. There have been at least two completely secular weddings in my own close family, and the average duration was equivalent to those "blessed" by clergy.

Beautiful. Insightful. And...absolutely true.

2012-05-19T18:06:49.901-04:00

Beautiful. Insightful. And...absolutely true.

As the libertarians are fond of saying, "Free...

2012-05-06T10:50:04.752-04:00

As the libertarians are fond of saying, "Freedom is not free.". I think one of the little understood and overlooked costs of freedom is the responsibility we have to each other to use those freedoms wisely. The quality of public discourse today certainly reflects a deficit of wisdom.

A thoughtful requiem for an exceptional woman, who...

2012-04-10T21:13:50.091-04:00

A thoughtful requiem for an exceptional woman, whose battles and hymns accompany her in her wild dance with her external and internal challenges. I don't know Adrienne Rich, nor do I know of Ryan Harper. But Harper engages the reader with palpable images and struggles. Topsy turvy, soft and funny, disconcerting and sad, this earth holds us all with its gravity. Thank goodness.

Thank you Fred for your humility and wisdom, along...

2012-04-02T13:02:31.211-04:00

Thank you Fred for your humility and wisdom, along with your honesty and sometimes uncensored words. You give me deep thoughts that linger for days or more. To the other extreme (and there is plenty in between) you share fun moments and actions. Sometimes I even get a hug. You can't seem me now, but imagine me giving you a long and deserved standing ovation.

Fred, you're being shared on Facebook with thi...

2012-03-17T09:23:32.577-04:00

Fred, you're being shared on Facebook with this.
And rightly so.

Fred, whenever I think of it I am now posting the ...

2012-03-16T11:55:48.809-04:00

Fred, whenever I think of it I am now posting the link to the radio show at my "UU - Faith of the Free" Facebook page. Hopefully others there will join me in listening online.

Ron Stevens
Summerville, SC

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unitarian-Universalism-Faith-of-the-Free/83274552762

I'll grasp for the slim chance when it comes t...

2012-03-06T13:09:32.325-05:00

I'll grasp for the slim chance when it comes to a treatment that means life or death for a loved one.

My step-brothers grasping for a chance slimmer than slimmer right now for his son. A chance that will likely not be available come Obamacare.

As long as the choices are ours, and not the governments and their expert panels, I'm for it.

Speaking very early in the morning (my time) and j...

2012-03-06T08:42:07.033-05:00

Speaking very early in the morning (my time) and just finishing the first cup of coffee, I'd say this has a good plausibility rating.

Well I have been saying that the U*U Emperor has n...

2012-02-28T15:23:03.708-05:00

Well I have been saying that the U*U Emperor has no clothes for some time now Fred. . .

UUA President Peter Morales has refused to call Rev. Cynthia P. Cain out on her anti-Republican intolerance, more proof of his moral cowardice.

I was unable to find an e-mail address for you on ...

2012-02-15T10:43:17.505-05:00

I was unable to find an e-mail address for you on the radio program's web page or this blog so I hope it will be OK to post here in the comments. I wonder if you ever have guests on your program? I am a Michigan author and I will be in the Grand Rapids area next month to take part in a book club discussion at the Plymouth Book Club of my novel Angel which deals with the role of LGBT people in the church. It seemed as though the topic and your program's focus might be a good fit. I can be reached at lauralee@speechwriting.com if the idea sparks interest.

William O. Douglas said it best in United States v...

2012-02-06T10:38:09.517-05:00

William O. Douglas said it best in United States v. United Auto Workers, 352 U.S. 567 (1957):

The principle at stake is not peculiar to unions. It is applicable as well to associations of manufacturers, retail and wholesale trade groups, consumers’ leagues, farmers’ unions, religious groups and every other association representing a segment of American life and taking an active part in our political campaigns and discussions. It is as important an issue as has come before the Court, for it reaches the very vitals of our system of government.

Under our Constitution it is We The People who are sovereign … It is therefore important—vitally important—that all channels of communication be open to them during every election, that no point of view be restrained or barred, and that the people have access to the views of every group in the community.

In United States v. CIO, Mr. Justice Rutledge spoke of the importance of the First Amendment rights—freedom of expression and freedom or assembly—to the integrity of our elections. “The most complete exercise of those rights,” he said, “is essential to the full, fair and untrammeled operation of the electoral process. To the extent they are curtailed the electorate is deprived of information, knowledge, and opinion vital to its function.”

What the Court does today greatly impairs those rights. It sustains an indictment charging no more than the use of union funds for broadcasting television programs that urge and endorse the selection of certain candidates for the Congress of the United States. The opinion of the Court places that advocacy in the setting of corrupt practices. the opinion generates an environment of evil-doing…

[E]ndorsing a candidate for office does not, however, deserve to be identified with anti-social conduct. Until today political speech has never been considered a crime. The making of a political speech up to now has always been one of the preferred rights protected by the First Amendment. It usually cost money to communicate an idea to a large audience. But no one would seriously contend that the expenditure of money to print a newspaper deprives the publisher of freedom of the press. Nor can the fact that it costs money to make a speech—whether it be hiring a hall or purchasing time on the air—make the speech any the less an exercise of First Amendment rights….”

The People who are sovereign: not those who take it upon themselves to muzzle the noisy.

This 2008 article from George Washington U Law Rev...

2012-02-06T01:31:13.399-05:00

This 2008 article from George Washington U Law Review is pertinent, wit respect to equal time, the airwaves, and cable.http://groups.law.gwu.edu/LR/ArticlePDF/76-4-Janow.pdf

This 2008 article from George Washington U Law Rev...

2012-02-06T01:30:49.877-05:00

This 2008 article from George Washington U Law Review is pertinent, with respect to equal time, the airwaves, and cable.http://groups.law.gwu.edu/LR/ArticlePDF/76-4-Janow.pdf

I don't know much about Sodomites or the Sisti...

2012-01-06T11:36:56.062-05:00

I don't know much about Sodomites or the Sistine Chapel, but the motto of the Chicago Regular Democratic Organization, including President Obama's 8th Ward (Emil Jones Committeeman) as always been per Mike Royko "Ubi Est Mea -- Where's Mine?"

Obama's use of the "Take Back" frame was always novel, because the usual frame is not let any of the boodle go in the first place.

Just picture the Sistine Chapel-- what's the m...

2012-01-05T08:10:29.533-05:00

Just picture the Sistine Chapel-- what's the most famous image? Anything that doesn't fit that image of white hetero male supremacy is "other." It's the First Photo in the Bible. So, you're not really surprised by "Take Back.... Anything," are you? Anything, anyone outside the First Photo is less than, other than, outside of what is real and legitimate. Tell me, Dear Rev., with what will we replace that First Photo? Too many of us are still infantile picture book readers, and I use the word "reader" in jest. We're "lookers," sitting on the lap of a beautiful green and breathing planet, having that same picture book read to us, over and over and over again. We are devoted to that story, just as my daughter was devoted to The Berenstain Bears picture books.

I don't mind if anyone is devoted to the First Photo, mind you. Just don't ask me to keep it in my Album. That's the difference between Dictators and Democrats, isn't it? What photos do you have in your album, Rev.? Let's make an online Album of First Photos that are anything but the Sistine Chapel. How about it?

I for one agree with the intimated accusation... I...

2012-01-05T02:14:11.647-05:00

I for one agree with the intimated accusation... If you voted democrat, your politics are illigitimate! Do you really think God is going to give the current gang of unscripturally-minded democrats the wisdom to guide a nation of 300+ million people when they are the ones responsible for throwing Him out of our schools, instituting nation-wide baby murders and using my taxes to pay for it, AND pushing through legislation that legitimizes sodomites and their anti God agenda against our Christian culture?!?! I got wise back in 1980 and withdrew my support of any democrat who approved of abortion. That is a very SOLID litmus test of how far the democrats have drifted away from our Christian heritage. We once were the shining city on the hill, for all the world to see. Now we are just as corrupt as any other nation. I believe democrats are largely responsible for that. Republicans have not been the heroes riding to the rescue morally either. The last time around, I voted for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. I am not a one-issue voter. But the morally corrupt democrat party makes it easy for me to know who to avoid voting for. Murderers and sodomites will NEVER get my vote. Obviously they do not know the Mind and Heart of their Creator!!!

President Obama's Take Back America Speech was...

2012-01-04T12:32:39.229-05:00

President Obama's Take Back America Speech was one of his most famous http://obamaspeeches.com/077-Take-Back-America-Obama-Speech.htm

I think Mitt's just turning it back on him a bit.

I had some sciatica trouble, not sounding as painf...

2011-12-31T14:23:33.346-05:00

I had some sciatica trouble, not sounding as painful as yours, but a simple change helped. Whenever I lay down, and to a certain extent when I sat, I made sure that the painful leg was lower than the other one. So, lying in bed on side, always had the painful knee below the other one. The trick to this is remembering to do it while you're asleep! Meantime, I'd agree with massage and a kind of yoga that involves stretching.
Good luck!

lovely poem. And in fact my great grandmother Sam...

2011-12-24T12:45:38.155-05:00

lovely poem. And in fact my great grandmother Samantha Martha Marker was a native of Winchester, when it was still just Virginia.

I remember this tone from the West Virginia story,...

2011-12-24T12:23:09.060-05:00

I remember this tone from the West Virginia story, based on your imaginings driving through on the interstate, that you told from the pulpit your first year in Austin. There is a long legacy of social workers and missionaries come to save Appalachia, a region of great cultural variety named as an entity by those outsiders. We were both the noble mountaineers, always free, preserving the pioneer culture and values in the sanctity of the mountains, or depraved and inbred, people left behind and in need of being saved. We are neither and we are not Other.

Poverty in West Virginia or anywhere else in Appalachia is no more tender than on a reservation, in the Rio Grande Valley, Baltimore, or Grand Rapids. And West Virginia is no more the world your ancestors, or mine (two hundred and fifty years worth who lie buried here), knew, than any of those places.

We are indeed a place of great natural beauty. We are also a place of coal mines and chemical plants, steel mills, glass and china factories, and lumbering. We are the Bureau of the Public Debt, the FBI White Collar Crime Center, and NASA, plastics, pharmaceuticals, wind turbines. We still have more small farms than anywhere, but we are not a romantically decaying landscape resigned and regretful but somehow more authentic.

Here is a poem by a guy just up the ridge from me that I think captures this year's Christmas spirit:
http://www.vianegativa.us/?p=14670

"I crave the broken hearted tenderness that o...

2011-12-24T10:33:55.452-05:00

"I crave the broken hearted tenderness that old hills and tired houses and worn lives call up, the sort of world my ancestors knew, the sort of world Galilean peasants two thousand years long ago lived in and through."
Thank you for the nostalgia. I,too, have felt the tug of rememberances of "Olden Days" only to remember the hard scrabble, grinding poverty, and the disparity of income when nostalgia tugs too hard.It was a hard life, but the holidays always meant there was something to look forward to...Like the promise of a child which would bring peace and justice to all. Happy Holidays to all of you!

Just saw this story from the AP: http://news.yaho...

2011-12-15T13:33:29.098-05:00

Just saw this story from the AP:

http://news.yahoo.com/census-shows-1-2-people-poor-low-income-054325860.html

If half of Americans pay no income tgax, maybe it has something to do with their being too poor. So, which is worse? That they rich ay too much or the poor have too little to pay? Either way, this is not healthy for as a society.