Religion: Why?
Maybe the human brain evolved faster than technology so that becoming sentient created abstract thought - especially about things for which there were no immediate answers. This, I think, was the...
View ArticleLet's take Sarah Palin up on teaching creationism in the schools
When I first heard that Sarah Palin believes creationism should be taught in the public schools right alongside evolution, I was horrified. It was bad enough to learn during the primaries that Mike...
View ArticleThe Monkey's Paw
"Be Careful What You Wish For" is a common theme in storytelling. You can find it in the stories of evil djinn in Eastern fables, in the old European tales like the story of Rumplestiltskin, in...
View ArticleMythmaking, democracy, and the hegemonic media
This diary was originally a comment in tote's excellent insider diary about ACORN. I've decided to repost it as a separate diary, because it's really not about tote's topic (ACORN) but about another...
View ArticleFanatical Follies
Billy Clyde was up in the hilly woods, working on his corn experiment, when he noted a bear about as close as his shotgun. He reached the weapon, drew back the hammers, and heard a resounding click...
View ArticleHow a Woman Becomes a Goddess: Demeter and Persephone
This is part of a Wednesday series on Goddess spirituality and political activism.A slightly belated happy Ostara to all of you. Ostara or Eastre is the celebration of the spring equinox, when the...
View ArticleA capsule Obama bio - family and myth - from Bob Dylan!
This was just highlightedby David Kurtz over at TPM, so I'm sure some of you saw it, but for those who didn't, I thought it was worth a diary. Maybe especially because there have been so many...
View ArticleThe Source of American Mythology.
It's hard for a guy in his sixties who often poohpoohs the kinds of movies that show up for the masses as latent garbage to admit it, but I sat in a theater surrounded by teenagers watching STAR TREK...
View ArticleOur Destiny
Certain myths upon which our society is founded perpetuate lesser myths which, whole being no less true, can be much more harmful. The biggest myth of all is our creation myth. It is told to us...
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"I see nothing good having come from the Internet. Period."
These words were spoken by Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures.What I would like to know is, who the fuck does he think he is, trying to suppress information and dumb down the American Public? The sad...
View ArticleProgressive Mythology
From birthers to Birchers, torture to racism, cataloguing the spurious and damaging mythology of wingers is easier than shooting fish in a barrel.Unfortunately those wrongly calling themselves...
View ArticleSometimes I Wish Louis Armstrong Were Still Alive
Louis Armstrong opened the door to jazz for me. Mr. Morgan, my sixth grade music teacher, pushed me along further with a video of a Harry Connick, Jr. concert that he brought in to our class one Friday...
View ArticleThere is No Superman
No Tooth Fairy. No Easter Bunny. No Count Dracula, no Bigfoot, no Santa Clause, no Loch Ness Monster.And there is no progressive Democratic party.
View ArticleExplaining sports to nonfans: mythology, politics, and policy
Today, football season will end with a champion. In just a few weeks, pitchers and catchers will report for spring training and another baseball season will begin. I already know what will happen in...
View ArticleMusings on Mythology...and Education??
Are the two even related?? Yes, both pedagogically (meaning that the subject of Mythology is something that I have had the pleasure of teaching in the past), and, oddly enough as I found two nights...
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Be Heroes.
In the perpetual melee between Orwellian history revisionists and guardians of the sacred past; propagandists and journalists; storytellers and purveyors of unadorned truth; opinion-makers and...
View ArticleReclaiming Rand: The World Is Wrong
This diary is cross-posted from my blog, Reclaiming Rand, which attempts to examine the themes and ideas in the writings of Ayn Rand from a liberal point of view. This is a new project for me, and this...
View ArticleMonday Musing #15: Religion in "Deep Time"— Impossible?
Pretending that evolution is the biggest threat science poses for religion is just tossing a red herring. A far greater challenge comes from the concept of Deep Time: seeing ourselves against the...
View ArticleKyl's concept of Christmas
It's just impossible not to comment on this. TPM reports today that To Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is attacking Harry Reid for proposing to call the Senate to order a week after Christmas. Reid's proposal,...
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