Role models, glove puppets and Intelligent Design
There were some weird news stories coming at us this week - a few of them inspiring, some tragic and quite a handful plain, damn funny.
First we learnt about the pros and cons of Turkey Waste Fuel. These days, about half the new stories seem to be about what stuff we put in our cars and the other half about what all the shit that comes out of the car will do to the planet and us.
Anyway, one of the positive side effects of Turkey Fuel that wasn’t mentioned, was that if you would use it like this, at least this would put an end to the embarrassing and quite tedious discussion about it joining the European Union.
Then, there was very mixed news from another ongoing and very tiresome soap series: yes indeed, the Guantanamo gore fest. So, the good news was that the Bush administration got a bloody licking, when even one of their own military judges immediately threw out the case against two Guantanamo prisoners.
The bad news was that, with all the other problems these prisoners already have, scientists revealed that Guantanamo-style interrogations can have very serious and potentially deadly consequences.
There were also some disturbing stories about the lack of proper role models, these days. We have become quite used to the fact that celebrities can no longer be trusted to do that job but these days you can’t even trust ordinary parents to lead by example - like this guy from Germany who proved to be a bit more than a spitting distance removed from the business of good parenting.
Even religious organizations are at it, like this church that thought (or pretended to do so) that holding an, excusez le mot, honest-to-God minstrel show was a fine way to celebrate black culture.
(Mind you, we probably don’t even want to know what the family values crowd made of the news that even the good, old Klan can’t be trusted to defend the good, old American family any more.)
Still, there was also some highly amusing news. Libby got sent to prison for lying. Obviously, it’s not a huge story - but it’s like that old dead lawyer joke: a good start. For wouldn’t it be nice, if all politicians who got caught in a lie, would automatically be sent to prison?
If politicians, like celebrities, can no longer be trusted to be positive role models, at least in this way they could function as abject object lessons.
Talking about role models and object lessons, it’s almost too cheap to mention - a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, really - but hey, we can’t all be like Jesus, turning the other cheek and all the other fine things He’s famous for, so here goes anyway:
That great puppeteer and glove puppet duo, Dick Cheney & George Bush, will not be welcome at the GOP 2008 convention.
A prophet in his own country and all of that.
(Not that this particular prophet is more popular abroad, of course. Even after speeches about the values of democracy, his minders don’t allow him to answer questions from the international press any more - and during his visit to Bulgaria the people weren’t even allowed to hang out their clean linen, in order to spare Bush’s blushes.)
Anyway, with the latest Guantanamo disaster, the Libby thing and that ongoing car wreck called Bush, it’s not been a great week for far right evangelical Christians.
So, it’s with great joy that we can throw them at least one bone - namely, that Japanese scientists have shown that there is, after all, quite convincing proof that Intelligent Design should be taken very seriously indeed.
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