Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. People don't become inured to what they are shown...because of the quantity of images dumped on them. It is passivity that dulls feeling.

Apologists claim reality TV isn't sexist because no one forces these women to appear on these shows. But the impact on the shows' participants is almost beside the point: The real concern is the millions of viewers, scores of whom are young girls, who take in these misogynistic spectacles uncritically, learning that only the most stereotypically beautiful, least independent women with the lowest carb-diets will be rewarded with love, financial security, and the ultimate prize of male validation.

Perhaps saddest of all, real love is almost wholly absent from these artificial mating dances. What little girl dreams of being whisked away by a callous, egotistical dimwit who sticks his tongue down 15 other women's throats before he reluctantly settles for her? After all the happily-ever-after buildup, every bachelor has dumped his "chosen girl" shortly after their series wrapped production. That's the thing about fairy tales ... they're not real. In the end, these programs represent a trivial and depressing depiction of the concept of love itself. The equation Fat Wallet + Skinny Chick = Love robs us all of our humanity, and erases the possibility of true emotional connection.

LONDON - Jan. 24 is the worst day of the year, with bad weather, debt, fading Christmas memories, failed resolutions and a lack of motivation combining to depress people. This is the contention of Cliff Arnalls, a part-time university tutor in Wales. The Cardiff university instructor has come up with a formula to measure the winter-time blues, the BBC reported.

According to Dr. Arnalls' equation, 1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA, misery peaks next Monday, Jan. 24, a month after Christmas.

JANUARY BLUES DAY FORMULA
1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA. Where: W: Weather D: Debt d: Money due in January pay T: Time since Christmas Q: Time since failed quit attempt M: General motivational levels NA: The need to take action

Arnalls calculated the effects of cold, wet – in the case of Britain – and dark January weather after the cosiness of Christmas coupled with extra spending in the sales.

Any energy from the holidays had worn off by the third week of January, he said. By Monday, most people will have fallen off the wagon or abandoned the nicotine patches as they fail to keep New Year's resolutions.

That compounded a sense of failure and knocked confidence needed to get through January.

The fact that the most depressing day fell on a Monday was not planned but a coincidence, Arnalls said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has scrapped its list of Iraq allies known as the 45-member "coalition of the willing," which Washington used to back its argument that the 2003 invasion was a multilateral action, an official said on Friday.

The senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the White House replaced the coalition list with a smaller roster of 28 countries with troops in Iraq sometime after the June transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government.

The official could not say when or why the administration did away with the list of the coalition of the willing.

"A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought, within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Happy Inauguration, George. The world is watching, and we'll be holding you accountable for these next four years (and history has a longer memory than 52% of the American public).

On the heels of electoral victories barring same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.

"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday night at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies to celebrate the election results.

SpongeBob needed no introduction. In addition to his popularity among children, who watch his cartoon show, he has become a well-known camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick and likes to watch the imaginary television show "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."

Now, Dr. Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. The makers of the video, he said, planned to mail it to thousands of elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes tolerance for differences of "sexual identity." [...]

"We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids," he said. "It is a classic bait and switch."

Could James Dobson be heading back to the fringe? His organization, Focus on the Family and another Christian conservative group, the American Family Association, are targeting the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants, as well as Barney the Dinosaur, Arthur, Dora the Explorer, JoJo, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Big Bird and Bob the Builder as part of an "insidious" gay plot to manipulate and potentially brainwash kids into thinking gayness is okay. Dobson's charge comes after the character's creators lent him to a multi-cartoon video promoting a "tolerance pledge" created by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The pledge includes tolerance for different sexual identities, but is not included on the video, and can only be found on the SPLC website. The video's creators maintain that the project was intended to foster multiculturalism after 9/11 but Dobson is not convinced, saying, "'It is a classic bait and switch.'"

Just what were the personality and the teachings of Jesus? I'll admit it's the heart of the controversy over the Christian religion: -- aside from the fact that, of course, most people believe in a church because they were born to it. But the essential query is: Did Jesus -- if the Biblical accounts of him are even half accurate -- have a particularly noble personality, and were his teachings particularly original and profound?

You know it's almost impossible to get people to read the Bible honestly. They've been so brought up to take the church interpretation of every word that they read into it whatever they've been taught to find there. It's been so with me, up to the last couple of years. But now I'm becoming a quarter free, and I'm appalled to see that I don't find Jesus an especially admirable character!

He is picturesque. He tells splendid stories. He's a good fellow, fond of low company -- in fact the idea of Jesus, whom the bishops of his day cursed as a rounder and wine-bibber, being chosen as the god of the Prohibitionists is one of the funniest twists in history. But he's vain, he praises himself outrageously, he's fond of astonishing people by little magical tricks which we've been taught to revere as 'miracles.' He is furious as a child in a tantrum when people don't recognize him as a great leader. He loses his temper. He blasts the poor barren fig-tree when it doesn't feed him.

What minds people have! They hear preachers proving by the Bible the exact opposites, that the Roman Catholic Church is divinely ordained and that it is against all divine ordinances, and it never occurs to them that far from the Christian religion -- or any other religion -- being a blessing to humanity, it's produced such confusion in all thinking, such secondhand viewing of actualities, that only now are we beginning to ask what and why we are, and what we can do with life!

Just what are the teachings of Christ? Did he come to bring peace or more war? He says both. Did he approve earthly monarchies or rebel against them? He says both. Did he ever -- think of it, God himself, taking on human form to help the earth -- did he ever suggest sanitation, which would have saved millions from plagues? And you can't say his failure there was because he was too lofty to consider mere sickness. On the contrary, he was awfully interested in it, always healing some one -- providing they flattered his vanity enough!

What did he teach? One place in the Sermon on the Mount he advises -- let me get my Bible -- here it is: "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven," and then five minutes later he's saying, 'Take heed that ye do not cast your alms before men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.' That's an absolute contradiction, in the one document which is the charter of the whole Christian Church.

Oh, I know you can reconcile them, Phil. That's the whole aim of the ministerial training: to teach us to reconcile contradictions by saying that one of them doesn't mean what it means -- and it's always a good stunt to throw in 'You'd understand it if you'd only read it in the original Greek!'

"Telling and consuming stories is a fundamental and universal human activity [...] Most of us cannot evade the deep intuition that identifying with characters in stories can exert a powerful influence on the quality and content of our own lives. It is this perspective -- stories as an influence on ethos, or who we become -- that makes ethical criticism necessary."

"I contend, however, that ethical critics tend to make explicit what nearly everyone else does either implicitly or in non-ethical terms, and that it is only reprehensible when it is done badly, that is, when it is done unintelligently or dishonestly or manipulatively [...] Ethical critics want to bring the discussion of ethical presuppositions and potenial ethical effects out into the open where the claims about them can be criticized, contested, and improved."

Men are more likely than women to say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time. A recent Gallup Poll finds that 51% of men are satisfied, and 48% are dissatisfied. Among women, only about 4 in 10 are satisfied, while a majority, 56%, are dissatisfied with the current state of the nation. [Jan 3-5, 2005]

January: Oh to have this type of New Year's kiss...

February: Attention advertisers: As of today, I'm officially in a new age bracket, 26-34.

March: It's March already. I'm so behind in everything. EVERYTHING. (le sigh)

April: Of "dynamic purses," not-so-faggy Gap polos, and Crate & Barrel pepper mills...

May: Hah, I almost forgot. I wonder what Ayn Rand would think of The Corporation?

June: Maybe it's because I just heard a presentation on Ellison's Invisible Man, but lately I've been wondering what it would be like to be a nameless, invisible girl.

July: Oy, going non-stop again. Off to party at Jordon and Wendy's. He's even set up a web cam to catch all of the festivities.

August: I've had quite the full day today. It started by my attending a church service. I was doing quite fine up until the sermon part of the service -- and then my heretical/rebellious/non-conventional anntenae went up and sorta derailed me for the rest of the time there.

September: Guess who's covering the RNC for USA Today? Yeah, he's totally self-aggrandizing, but part of me really loves the fact he's covering the convention.

October: Yikes. It's October already.

November: Thanks to Marc's skillful tracing and cutting out abilities (along with Ang's photography skillz), please observe our 2004 festive jack-o'lantern. Oh and thanks to the Brothers Chaps as well!

December: Happy December already. I'm not quite as "ostrich" right now. Perspective is a fragrant lit Fir tree in your living room and a puppy on your lap as you type on your thesis.

In February 2003, Christianity Today featured Bono, lead singer for the rock group U2, and his campaign for the church to become more involved in the fight against AIDS. Bono emerged as a star example of the unchurched Christian.

Having once been involved in a loosely structured Irish fellowship, Bono now seldom goes to church. He does pray. He likes to say grace at meals. He has a favorite Bible translation. But he doesn't want to be pinned down.

"I just go where the life is, you know? Where I feel the Holy Spirit," Bono told Christianity Today's reporter, Cathleen Falsani. "If it's in the back of a Roman Catholic cathedral, in the quietness and the incense, which suggest the mystery of God, of God's presence, or in the bright lights of the revival tent, I just go where I find life. I don't see denomination. I generally think religion gets in the way of God."

I completely agree with the sunglassed-one. The author of the article doesn't, and continues:

We do not need to condemn those alienated from the institutional church, but to help them reconsider. By keeping away from church commitments, they miss out on life essential.

We offer perilous advice when we urge people to "find Christ" anywhere but in a local congregation. Can you imagine Paul arriving in a city, finding the local congregation not to his taste and simply staying away? For Paul, a Christian without his church is as unthinkable as a human being with no relatives. A person may quarrel with his kin, but he cannot leave them—they are his own flesh and blood. So it is with the church. And furthermore, they are Jesus' flesh and blood.

People need people. God's people need God's people in order to know God. Life in Christ is a corporate affair. All God's promises were made to God's people—plural. All the New Testament epistles address Christians in churches. The Bible simply does not know of the existence of an individual, isolated Christian.

The church is the body of Christ, and it carries his wounds. To know Christ is to share in the fellowship of his sufferings—even if the suffering comes at the hands of the sinners who sit in the pews or preach from the pulpit.

How can we communicate this to unchurched Christians? The only way I know is to preach it. We need to tell them, even if it goes against the grain of our culture. We need to tell them, even if talking so frankly goes against our philosophy of outreach.

If people commit themselves to the church, they will undoubtedly suffer. The church will fail them and frustrate them, because it is a human institution. Yet it will also bless them, even as it fails. A living, breathing congregation is the only place to live in a healthy relationship to God. That is because it is the only place on earth where Jesus has chosen to dwell. How can you enjoy the benefits of Christ if you detach yourself from the living Christ?

Americans who honor the U.S. Constitution’s strict separation of church and state are now genuinely alarmed. Agnostics and atheists, as well as observant people of every faith, fear — sensibly — that the religious right is gaining historic political power, via an ultraconservative movement with highly placed friends.

But many of us feel helpless. We haven’t read the Founding Documents since school (if then). We lack arguing tools, “verbal karate” evidence we can cite in defending a secular United States.

For instance, such extremists claim — and, too often, we ourselves assume — that U.S. law has religious roots. Yet the Constitution contains no reference to a deity.

The Declaration of Independence contains not one word on religion, basing its authority on the shocking idea that power is derived from ordinary people, which challenged European traditions of rule by divine right and/or heavenly authority. (Remember, George III was king of England and anointed head of its church.)

The words “Nature’s God,” the “Creator” and “divine Providence ” do appear in the Declaration. But in its context — an era, and author, Thomas Jefferson, that celebrated science and the Enlightenment — these words are analogous to our contemporary phrase “life force.”

Jerry Falwell notoriously blamed 9/11 on “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians … [and other groups] who have tried to secularize America.” He’s a bit late: In 1798, Alexander Hamilton accused Jefferson of a “conspiracy to establish atheism on the ruins of Christianity” in the new republic. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence William Boykin thunders, “We’re a Christian nation.”

But the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli — initiated by George Washington and signed into law by John Adams — proclaims: “The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion.”

Offices for “Faith-Based Initiatives” with nearly $20 billion in grants have been established (by executive order, circumventing Congress) in 10 federal agencies, as well as inside the White House. This fails “the Lemon Test,” violating a 1971 Supreme Court decision (Lemon v. Kurtzman): “first, a statute [or public policy] must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute [or policy] must not foster ‘excessive government entanglement with religion.’”

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has stopped searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- one of its key reasons for invading the country -- and a report saying there are no such weapons to find there will likely stand, the White House confirmed.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that for the Iraq Survey Group, which was leading the search for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, "a lot of their mission is focused elsewhere now."

McClellan said a report authored by the survey group's head, Charles Duelfer, which is to be released to the US Congress in the coming weeks, will be similar to a September draft in which he said there were no such weapons. "(Duelfer) is continuing to wrap things up at this point. ... My understanding is that it is not going to fundamentally alter the findings of his earlier report," McClellan said.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq ended before Christmas.

Don't judge me
I will judge myself
I will lie in my bed at night wide awake or asleep
I will feel pain
When I know I have given it
Everything I put out to the world I know comes back to me

But when angels hear the devils' call
And my vision's unclear I got no sense at all
I'm just hoping I will obey my conscience
I want to learn how to be righteous

I saw it on a TV show
I bought the book you know
Paid attention when I thought the preacher was talking to me
But it's not easy, no
To get over, let it go
All these feelings that are burning and building up inside of me

But when angels hear the devils' call
And my vision's unclear I got no sense at all
I'm just hoping I will obey my conscience
I want to learn how to be righteous

Well I'll look at all I have and I will claim it
Won't let anybody else ever tell me who I should be
I'll look in the mirror and gaze in my children's eyes
And I will not give a damn what anybody else thinks of me

And when questions come, I will answer right
Be true to myself, need be put up a fight
Will not heed to greed, I will obey my conscience
I want to learn, I need to learn how to be righteous

So when angels hear the devils' call
And my vision's unclear I got no sense at all
I'm just hoping I will obey my conscience
I want to learn, I need to learn how to be righteous