Please Don't Beat Me Up for My Opinion

We're off to Disneyworld soon, and I'd like to wear this shirt, but Americans frighten me.

Republicans and Dementors

If they could get them, I'm confident that the Republicans would enlist Dementors to aid their nefarious work. Imagine Guantánamo Bay or Abu Graib. But that wouldn't be as much fun for America's finest Haji-bashing former weekend warriors and would-otherwise-be-working-at-Wal-Mart-if-the-military-hadn't-lowered-its-standards "volunteer" solders. Never mind. The ironically-named Departments of "Justice" and "Homeland Security" could keep as many as they could get quite busy with enemies of the Reich, er, Freedom.

The religious right, the defiant ignorant, NASCAR fans, NRA members, anti-choiceers, gay-bashers, border-patrolling-Minutemen, chickenhawks, and Yellow Elephant college Republicans (imagine that Venn Diagram--probably quite a lot of overlap) would stand on the sidelines and cheer when the Dementors would come to visit folks like me.

Actually, I suspect the government would lease the Dementors from Halliburton. Let us not forget that every opportunity should be taken to enrich those who hold the strings. Or contribute to the cause.

Pejoratives R Us

When I heard a fellow take umbrage at the use of the word Fundamentalist as a pejorative, I wondered why so many folks who consider themselves in that category use "feminist" or "environmentalism" as negative terms. I'm still waiting for somebody to explain to me why believing that the natural world should be protected or that women should be treated equally is a bad thing. I guess the same could be said of any number of terms that are used negatively. I've heard my mother rant too often about "them."

I think justice is easier when we recognize that we're all just us.

Fundamentalism and Fear of Complexity

It has occurred to me that fundamentalism, whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish,. or whatever, may have its roots in people's inability or unwillingness to cope with increasing complexity. When the simplistic worldviews encoded long ago are challenged by advances in science or thought, it seems to be the fundamentalist's response is to resist progress and hold fast to positions and superstitions written in times when religion provided the only available answer to great questions of life, the universe, and everything.

The more comfortable an individual is with ambiguity, the less likely he or she is to take a fundamentalist position on anything. Or, for that matter, try to hurt somebody who disagrees.