Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Focus on the Family promotes new FCC website for broadcast indecency complaints;

Reality-show fundamentalist fake-candidate to run for House;

Fundamentalist evangelical ministry-based foster care house losing so far in fight to keep state funding;

Air Force Academy sued by graduate over religious harassment - he's Jewish, talks about coercion to convert;

Ohio "Choose Life" plate lawsuit (funds go to anti-abortion counseling groups) - where NARAL, the ACLU, and others sued because no abortion-rights plates were offered - dismissed from Federal court over jurisdictional issues;

FotF article on lawsuit against Massachusetts's law prohibiting marriage for non-resident citizens challenge - notable because it doesn't use scare quotes around the word marriage;

FotF article endorsing Marriet Miers because she's a "deeply committed Christian" - the irony about using a religious test to support a candidate after railing about supposed religious tests to oppose candidates is lost on them. Most of this is from the show I transcribed;

FotF derides new group opposed to creationism and its proxy, intelligent design;

CWFA article: "homosexual activists are recruiting kids into homosexual sex and a “gay” identity, using “tolerance” as a ruse";

CWFA links to LA Times article about RU-486 lawsuit;

World Magazine profile and discussion about Harriet Miers;

Traditional Values Coalition attacks "pornographic" Victoria's Secret window display in Virginia as "half-naked," "sexually suggestive," and "lesbianism" - CWA has also run items against it;

TVC: ‘Time’ Magazine’s ‘Gay Teen’ Cover Story Written By Homosexual;

TVC attacks Associated Press as "normalising gender-bending" by teens.

( Articles and excerpts )

How to revive the worker movement, lesson one

Delphi corporation - the auto parts maker spun off from GM - just declared bankruptcy with intent to reorganise and continue operations. The plan is emerge in 2007.

Delphi management did this because they couldn't win the 74% total value giveback they were demanding from the union employees. You read that right: 74% total value giveback. This giveback was to be made up of a 63% pay cut (from $25-27/hour to $10/hour or so average), a near-quadrupling of the cost of participating in the company health plan, reduced retirement benefits, cut holiday and vacation time, and a bunch of other things.

Astoundingly, the unions wouldn't go along! Now, with bankruptcy protection, if management can get a court to approve it, they can just impose those changes and tell their employees to fuck off.

Meanwhile, on the same day, they announced severance package bonuses for their top executives worth an average of about $1 million each, in the event those executives are let go.

HAS EVERYONE (in management) GONE COMPLETELY INSANE?!

Are they trying to revive the worker's movement? Do they want some sort of Smoot-Hartley revival? Have they decided that with a cronyist Republican party in power, they can just get this kind of stunt rubber-stamped?

Have they forgotten every lesson of Henry Ford?

Look, people; if you want socialism to start to make sense to workers, please: go right ahead and live down to every Marxist stereotype about ruling-class economic warfare. Keep kicking them in the head, particularly while they're down. But isn't that, I dunno, deeply stupid? Isn't that playing against your own goddamn best interests, at least if you look further ahead than the next two quarters?

Aren't you worried at all about losing skilled workers to Burger King? Or is that okay now? Is it all just a big ploy to move everything to China in one fell swoop? Because even that makes more sense than this bullshit. Seriously.

I've been wondering exactly what would keep American capitalism in line after the fall of Communism as an even apparently-quasi-viable alternative economic system. Because while I am sure as hell no Marxist, I am deeply aware of the abuses committed by moneyed interests using the leverage of purchased government to further their aims. And I've wondered for more than a little while whether the threat - no matter how remote - of a different system kept the worst elements from behaving too badly. Not directly, of course; there wasn't going to be a serious Marxist movement in America, not one with any power - but the propaganda opportunities had to be prevented, so they couldn't be used in countries where such ideas were being taken seriously, leaving the Marxists to come up with such stupid ideas as differential economics - where it didn't matter if the overall standard of living went down, as long as the gap between rich and poor got smaller, you were okay. Or, as the Vietnamese put it, succeeding in "spreading poverty equally" mattered more than ending poverty for some.

I sincerely hope that the answer is not actually "nothing whatsoever." Because honestly, this is the kind of abuse that engenders thoughts of black-hat villains laughing maniacally as they twirl their mustaches. And if I'm getting images like that, what must the workers of Michigan be thinking?

( References below )

what am i thinking?

Edited to add thoughts on a LOST hypothesis below.

See, now, I think Morning Glory is pretty. A lot of people dislike it because it's, well, it's kind of a problem - it grows too well and is called "bindweed" for a reason - but I really like the flowers. Sure, they're single-colour - white - but it's not as simple as all that, if you look. For example, c'mon, how can you not like this flower?


Unholy Alliance

I took that one along the walk to the shops. Here's another picture on the same walk, just for lyonesse - we've seen a lot of these recently, so even though this particular shot is a couple of weeks old, it's still current:


Nothing To See Here, Move Along

I also found a couple of opportunities for desktop pictures. Here's one I rather like:



(Click through for 1024x768, or here for 1280. Copyright © 2005 me, no commercial use, do not redistribute but feel free to point people here.)

I saw some leaves on Thursday that were the most astounding set of reds and orange and yellow - all in a single leaf. They were just maple leaves, but with a richness of colour you rarely see. Sadly, spazzkat has his camera with him, so I didn't have it with me and couldn't take a picture. Hopefully there will still be some examples when he gets back!

Thursday's miles: 2.5
Friday's token: 0.2
Saturday's miles: 2.5
Miles out of Hobbiton: 479.0
Miles out of Rivendell: 19.2
Miles to Lothlórien: 447.2

( A hypothesis about LOST )

( And now, your moment of quiz )