At the very same time that Amer­i­ca as a nation chose to enter the 21st Cen­tu­ry, the cit­i­zens of Cal­i­for­nia have cho­sen to shame and dis­hon­our them­selves. Propo­si­tion 8 — a loath­some vio­la­tion of fun­da­men­tal moral law, passed in that state. This is the infa­mous ban on gay mar­riage. The deci­sion pre­vents gay cit­i­zens of Cal­i­for­nia from exer­cis­ing their most basic of human rights. It attacks and des­e­crates the prin­ci­ples of a free soci­ety, and equal­ly attacks and des­e­crates civ­i­liza­tion, love and mar­riage. By this dis­gust­ing step, Cal­i­for­nia has aligned itself with the forces of evil, and cho­sen to dupli­cate the immoral­i­ties of Com­mu­nist and Tal­iban dic­ta­tor­ships. Read more »

“Way cool, Amer­i­can dudes.…”

Over the last few years, in this web­site, I’ve tak­en many crit­i­cal swipes at Amer­i­can pol­i­tics and cul­ture. Like most Cana­di­ans, I have a some­what ambiva­lent and jaun­diced atti­tude towards our south­ern cousins. Some­times this can get car­ried away. When times are at their worst, we tend to respond with the frus­trat­ed anger of some­one who has learned that his admired broth­er has turned into a drug addict or been brain­washed by the Moonies. For the times I’ve been intem­per­ate in my crit­i­cisms, I duly apol­o­gize. But let me say this: I have always admired Amer­i­ca, as most Cana­di­ans have always admired it, for the obvi­ous rea­sons. Those rea­sons can be found in the quin­tes­sen­tial­ly Amer­i­can works of art, music, phi­los­o­phy and lit­er­a­ture that are as much a part of me as the red maple leaves blow­ing in the street out­side my door are part of me. Tomor­row the Amer­i­can peo­ple will decide whether their nation is over and done with or will con­tin­ue and renew itself. If McCain is elect­ed, every­one in the world will know that Amer­i­ca is washed up, fin­ished. Nobody will ever take any Amer­i­can seri­ous­ly again. But it appears that the tide is turn­ing. Amer­i­ca seems to be re-dis­cov­er­ing itself. I have faith in the Amer­i­can peo­ple. Tonight, I’ll read Whitman.

Ever won­der about that “three mil­lion dol­lar ear­mark for an over­head pro­jec­tor” that is such an impor­tant talk­ing point in John McCain’s elec­tion cam­paign? Accord­ing to an arti­cle in this week’s Sci­ence News, it turns out that the “over­head pro­jec­tor” is the Zeis star pro­jec­tor in the ven­er­a­ble Adler Plan­e­tar­i­um in Chica­go. Like the oth­er two major Amer­i­can plan­e­tar­i­ums in New York and Los Ange­les, the Adler must replace its fifty-year old instru­ment, which the orig­i­nal Ger­man man­u­fac­tur­er will no longer ser­vice. As with the oth­er two, the request for fed­er­al fund­ing is rou­tine, and no politi­cian would dream of vot­ing against it. The three plan­e­tar­i­ums teach the fun­da­men­tals of astron­o­my to mil­lions of urban school chil­dren who have nev­er seen a clear night star-filled sky, and are basic ameni­ties of major cities. The cost of a few mil­lion dol­lars amor­tized over half a cen­tu­ry is triv­ial. No politi­cian in any of the three states involved would have vot­ed oth­er­wise. Could any­thing bet­ter demon­strate the dis­hon­esty and the mind-bog­gling igno­rance of the McCain campaign?