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Contrasting Points of View from the Same Material

I just read a rebuttal to Lisa Miller's Newsweek article about religion and gay marriage.  Interestingly enough, the author used almost the exact same points, just interpreted them in a different way.

That just goes to show:

The bible is like statistics- they both can be used to justify any point.

Saturday's puzzle

Actually didn't finish this one because there were too many questionable fills (which I actually ended up guessing right but not entering).  Ironically enough, I spelled CADUCEI with an S.  Never heard of JASPER FFORDE so that stopped me dead.  And A POP didn't come, either, if I'd had to fill in something, I would have gone with SOP for 35A.  Oh well, live and learn.

I could have done without LDS in my puzzle, especially on the same day as the nationwide protest that their church brought upon itself.  And calling it a denomination is being generous, at best.  It's the world's largest cult started by a guy who just wanted to bilk a publisher's wife out of some money.  So instead they're bilking millions of sheep out of their hard-earned 10%.

Where were you when this was going on?

Join the fight for marriage equality!

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March for marriage equality Saturday, Nov 15.  Marches are taking place in all 50 states.

Some random thoughts

I didn't get to do the whole puzzle today as I only had limited time this morning before heading out to drive to Vegas (this time for a conference on Age Management Medicine).  So instead of crossword-inspired commentary, I'll just add a little off the top of my head about the election.  It's late so I'll keep it short.

Yay, Obama!  Finally, the country has a chance to pull itself out of the doldrums that it's been in for the past eight years.  I really feel that with your cool confidence, generous spirit and even-handed, intelligent leadership many positive things are about to happen.  For those people who feel like they have to defend Shrub, please give me one good thing that's happened to the country in the past eight years.  And no, the judges will not accept "the country is safer" as an answer (who can forget the classic "I believe the memo was titled 'Al Qaeda Determined to Strike in US'" spoken by the other dingbat, Condi?).  Remember, in the 1960s we went to the moon.  Given our progress in technology, etc., in that same time period in the 2000s we should at least by now have clean, renewable energy.

To Sarah: your fifteen minutes are way up.  Pack your bags and head back to Wasilla and let's hope we never hear from you again.  You've got a special needs kid who needs a mother (maybe you should spend some time researching that topic).  I've gotta give you credit for moxie, though- you're like a second-year medical student who first decides to hang out a shingle as a neurosurgeon and then decides to be the Chief of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins.

To the "Yes on 8" people: Kiss my married ass!  This has nothing to do with religion (the bible is like statistics- you can make it agree with any point), nothing to do with children (they're just fine being raised in any loving household), nothing about trampling your rights (how you think my being married affects you in any way still floors me).  What does this have to do with?  You're grossed out by the fact of gay marriage.  Pure and simple.  The rest, like your precious Creation Museum (which I've visited, horrified), is nothing more than rationalization.  You're nothing more than hypocrites masquerading as "Christians"- hypochristians.  You and your divisive ways certainly don't stand for anything Jesus preached.  Ever hear of "do unto others"?  How about "live and let live"?  I didn't think so.  Now go crawl back into the dirty, slimy, money-lined hole from which you wriggled out of and leave us to enjoy our lives in peace.

Religion neatly summed up

From an article on the paranormal in the November 3, 2008 Newsweek: 

"The universal human need to find meaning and purpose in life is stronger and more basic than any attachment to empiricism, logic or objective reality."

There!  Religion explained in one sentence.

Something funny that was sent to me

Thursday, Sept 25, 2008- Victor Fleming

This one gave me a few fits.  Of course, the fact that I was doing it while I was chatting with an online friend didn't help, either.  Who knew that "draw" had so many definitions?  I did find this puzzle to be enjoyable and all the theme fills were respectable and different from each other.  GETS CARDS was the hardest for me to INFER but I did finally get it.  In fact, the whole NE was just a big mess for me and I stared at a whole lot of blank squares (except STEFAN and  SST) for some time.  Finally, OPTICAL [scanner] appeared and then the rest fell easily enough.  I did have to guess at the LEELA/ILENE cross but it did seem better than Leera.  Speaking of guesses, I also had to guess at SPURGE/GRETNA (kept wanting "spruce" instead) but again, GRETNA seemed to be the logical choice.

Other random comments:

TOGAE?

Nice to see Cheryl TIEGS in the puzzle.  Ditto for Christine LAHTI.

Nice clue for SNAKED- all I kept coming up with was "zigged" or "zagged".

I can just hear Gerard Butler yelling "SPARTA!" over and over in my mind.

Lots to be prompted on from this puzzle.  Let's start with "Isn't HE A bit like you and me?" from "Nowhere Man".  And who's the Nowhere Man?  McCain, with his flailings about that are going nowhere and making points with nobody.    He doesn't seem OPEN TO much of anything these days, other than low ways of slinging mud at his opponent.  He's become a real HEEL.  I have to say, he used to STAND for something but that's all in the past.  He's not showing POLISH or too many leadership qualities lately, SEE SAWing in his approach to the financial bailout.  Let's be HONEST here- is this the hothead you want running your country?  Man, I could just go on and on but I have to draw a line somewhere!

Wednesday, Sept 24, 2008- Lynn Lempel

Today's puzzle had a theme I've seen before: a quote, the quoter and what the quote was referring to.  It was a typical Wednesday for me- no linear solving, just jumping around (pretty willy-nilly) until the puzzle was filled in.  The last letter I placed was the first B in BIMBO.  That whole NW area gave me all sorts of fits, mostly because I couldn't get "Touch me [in the morning]" out of my head.  Finally the --US gave up its IMUS treasure and that was enough to finish up.  I think BIMBO goes nicely with FOR SURE in the SE.

Toughest clues for me today were 25A[Unpaid factory worker] = ROBOT (just couldn't wrap my mind around that one), 43D[Protein-producing substance] = RNA (RNA doesn't produce protein, it merely provides the template for it.  Ribosomes produce the protein.)  Oops, I forgot that ribosomes are made out of RNA.  Duh!

I was also pleased to get DAHL and SIR GALAHAD, even though I was unfamiliar with both of the titles as clued.  At least LABS wasn't clued doggy-style this time.

Fave clue/answer: 66A[Trip provider?] = LSD  (Although, was the ? really necessary?)

So that was the puzzle.  With the presence of BIMBO, that gives me free rein to lash into Sarah Palin aka Caribou Barbie.  What is the deal with her and why is America letting her get away with it?  Her ascendency to VP candidate is like someone going right from high school into a medical practice.  Just as a talented high school senior may have the intellect to be a doctor, Ms. Palin may (or may not) have the qualities of a VP but with absolutely no knowledge, training and experience, those qualities are useless.  Why has she been allowed to duck the media and duck any substantiative questions at all (Charlie Gibson interview aside).  And even then, she flubbed some questions and still was given a "pass".  I don't know about you but I don't want a leader who eked by with a C-, I want someone who got an A+.  Even Legally Blonde Elle McPherson went to law school first.  Palin should have been ready from DAY ONE to address the press and the public's concern.  (To bring us back around to today's puzzle.)  I demand that she allow close scrutiny by the media and public.  What are you afraid of, Sarah?