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April 29, 2006
A Few Links
A few stories I came across on the blogosphere:
Kudos to these representatives who were arrested for demonstrating against the atrocities in Darfur.
Anybody hear Rush Limbaugh was arrested? It's been settled, and he won't serve any time, but it's still a little funny for me.
Finally, this will be no surprise, but read Scotty lie about Fox being in the channel of choice in the Bush White House.
Posted by mattalexander at 8:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 28, 2006
Nazbo Fo Life, Ya Heard?
My alma mater making me proud. (Does this help atone for James Dobson?)
Thanks to Charlie for the link.
Posted by mattalexander at 7:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
HIV/AIDS Special on CNN
Today I got to attend a taping of an HIV/AIDS special for CNN with President Clinton. Also in attendance was Paul Farmer, my international health hero, and Richard Gere (among others). It will air Saturday and Sunday at 8 and 11 eastern. It's also online here. It was surprisingly relevant and hopeful. I'm glad to see this topic getting some coverage in the MSM. Check out a couple pics I took below. (Sorry for the sketchy quality.) The first is Bubba chatting during a break. The second is him talking with Paul Farmer. Seriously, those two could solve the world of AIDS if they had the resources and people took what they say seriously. Here's to that statement being more than naive optimism. Please watch this show and encourage others to do the same. I doubt I was ever on camera, so it ain't about me. It's an important topic worth watching.
Posted by mattalexander at 5:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 22, 2006
Net Neutrality
Check out this video. Then go here to take action. It's fast, and it can help. Thanks.
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April 16, 2006
Interesting Post
I saw this on Daily Kos. Certainly some theological holes and a few objectionable assumptions, but I find it a compelling post. I find at times it's good to look outside the fold of believers to learn a bit more about how Christians live out the Gospel.
Posted by mattalexander at 11:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 14, 2006
Iran
Pastor John has a great post on the administration's spin of the Iran situation. It's scary how this is a remix of the leadup to Iraq, and people are still falling for it. I really have nothing to add to his comments except that the Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker on the issue is fantastic. Hersh, who essentially broke the Abu Ghraib story and detailed Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld's (how's that for an axis of evil) leadup to the war in Iraq, is one of the few reporters out there still seeking to cover the important topics and resist spin labeled "fair and balanced." Please take the time to read both.
Posted by mattalexander at 2:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 12, 2006
Some Good News
Thought I'd link to a couple news stories that brought some warmth to this social justice advocate's heart. The first regards questions before several courts about the potential cruelty of lethal injection. Given that this method is often assumed by far the most un-cruel form of capital punishment, maybe we're making our way to a moratorium on the death sentence in a few states. Certainly would be nice. Also heartening about the story was that the uber-conservative AMA is insisting on the violation of physicians' ethical standards by assisting or attending lethal injections. It seems some judges are looking to mandate the presence of doctors if lethal injection is going to be considered un-cruel, but doctors really can't do that. (I guess they really did want us to take the "do no harm" part of the oath seriously!) Physicians might find themselves in a position to take a stand on a very important pro-life issue. Let's hope they find the courage to do so.
Also, there was a glimmer of hope in immigration talk; read here. While there is still a lot to be concerned about, at least the hardline anti-immigrant types have backed off on making it a felony to enter the country illegally. Hopefully the bible-thumping zealots who use Leviticus to "protect" marriage will not neglect Leviticus 19:33-34.
Posted by mattalexander at 11:19 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
April 9, 2006
Happy Palm Sunday
My apologies to my eight readers regarding my lack of posting as of late. I just made it through the hardest portion of the first year (and all four years, according to some--one can only hope!) in med school at Columbia. Now that I'm done with that madness, I've had a bit of trouble motivating myself to blog. But I thought Palm Sunday was an appropriate place to reconvene. What follows is pretty long, but I hope you'll bear with me.
Today at church Rev. Forbes referenced a new book by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week : A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem. I'm not as familiar with Crassen as I am with Borg, whom I consider puzzling yet compelling, although I think much of his scholarship is not bad. Regarding Palm Sunday, Borg and Crossan write that two, rather than one, processions had that day. The first is that which we often hear about--the procession by Jesus, attended by throngs of peasants affected by his teaching and ministry, waving palm branches and throwing garments for him to walk upon. The other procession is one that has been neglected in typical teachings--the procession by Pontius Pilate and all his attendants into Jerusalem, looking to maintain order in the name of the empire. It turns out Palm Sunday was a juxtaposition between the haves and the have-nots.
Rev. Forbes discussed how today's gospel reading, the story of Jesus overturning tables in the temple, fit into this juxtaposition. During Passover, the temple in Jerusalem was more than a center of religious activity; it also hosted much imperial activity. The Roman rulers of the time shrewdly noticed the throngs coming to the temple, so they would set up shop to collect taxes and carry out other government affairs. Read within such a framework, Christ's actions have a largely political element to them, an element of defiance to the status quo. (Indeed the wannabe Radical Orthodoxy scholar in me wants to chime in here that the perceived status quo is really just a parody of the Kingdom of God. In truth, Christians countering the government, etc. are not the reactionary ones; they merely seek to live out the truth of the Gospel, yet it appears recalcitrant to those in the world lost from the Church.) Today's sermon ran with this contention of confrontation in Jesus' life, particularly during holy week. Rev. Forbes inspiringly called for Christians to live true to the Gospel in opposing those who mete out injustice and war, particularly in light of all too often complicity among Christians in the country to such actions.
And that brings me to the Iraq war, upon which I have been ruminating a lot the last few weeks thanks to the three year anniversary of the invasion. What most troubles me is the anemic amount of action against the war by Christians in America. One intriguing development I came across the last few weeks was the founding of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. How badly has Christianity lost its message in this country when the military is assumed by most within it to be an evangelical Christian body? One of the urgent issues for this foundation is a legal battle to end imposition of evangelical beliefs and practices on cadets at the US Air Force Academy. Am I the only one troubled by this?
Another story that troubled me was this story about Tommy Franks' boredom and lack of patience for those concerned about casualties in Iraq. Remember, this is the same man who emphatically stated, "We don't do body counts," but I was amazed to see that he didn't even care that much about American casualties. What troubled me was not the callousness of a grizzly war veteran, but my memories of numerous Christians I know to be smitten with Franks for his patriotic, hard-nosed style in leading the troops. I find it so disheartening that this war and most of the government's blunders were headed by a imperialist plutocrat only concerned with rewarding cronies and padding the pockets of the rich. (Recently we learned Bush was determined very early to go to war.) While Halliburton, et. al are making out like bandits, Joseph Stiglitz (yay Columbia!) and others have shown us costs of the war have hit one trillion dollars--that's $1,000,000,000,000, for those who need to see zeros--and that might be a conservative estimate. (Although I'm not sure anything associated with Stiglitz could be considered conservative. Teehee.)
While quiet capitulation seems to be the popular approach for most American Christians, I was thrilled to hear Rev. Forbes' sermon on the truth that often Christians are called to confrontation. At least those awesome activist nuns haven't given up. Peace of Christ to all of you during this holy week.
Posted by mattalexander at 9:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 3, 2006
Bye Bye Bug Man
So, I thought today was going to be all bad. In the sports world I occupy, today was ugly: two of my most beloved teams, the SF Giants and UCLA Bruins, lost their opening and closing games of the season tonight. I rarely get to watch either on TV, but tonight I had the special (dis)pleasure of watching both struggle. But then... upon checking my RSS news stories, I saw this. Tom Delay's corruption has finally caught up to him so much that he is withdrawing from his congressional race. And, true to tacky form, he's doing it by innocently transfering residency to the DC area so that he's no longer eligible to run. What an enormous coward. Oh how the mighty fall. Okay, I know I've been away for a while, and political hack post is not the way I wanted to return, but this is priceless. I promise to provide something more substantive in the near future. But for tonight, let's smile at the demise of the bug man.
Posted by mattalexander at 11:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
