Now this is a Defense of Marriage Act! If Republican party politicians really gave a rat’s ass about defending the institution of marriage, this would be the first piece of legislation they would pass. But they’re not, never have been, so we don’t need to worry about it showing up in Congress anytime soon. But in Michigan it’s a problem.

In a ruling sure to make philandering spouses squirm, Michigan’s second-highest court says that anyone involved in an extramarital fling can be prosecuted for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to life in prison.

“Technically,” he added, “any time a person engages in sexual penetration in an adulterous relationship, he or she is guilty of CSC I,” the most serious sexual assault charge in Michigan’s criminal code.

The second piece of legislation the gutless, pandering wimps would pass if they really cared about the institution of marriage would be to make all divorce illegal, regardless of any reason, in these United States.

I’m not holding my breath.

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1732 Wife of Ultra-Orthodox man who kissed Ahmadinejad…
1040 No Reply
1027 “The Pressure to Cohabitate”
0825 The super collider in my basement
0752 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
0739 “Laundry Day”

I know lots of people who play the Did-you-know-they-were-Jewish game? The idea is to identify famous people who are Jewish that no one knows is Jewish. Aussie Dave has been posting some real gems to Israelly Cool, but this morning’s offerring caused me to spew coffee all over my laptop. (Can you get coffee-spew insurance?)

Mystrey Jew No. 6:

Was a minor league baseball catcher in the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox prior to his professional wrestling career

Released a rap album that was met with scathing reviews (including: the album “defies the laws of physics by blowing and sucking at the same time,” and the vocals sound like “Nick Nolte after a whiskey and sandpaper binge”)

You’ll have to visit the post to find the answer.

Is what ever Joel Stein has catching? Was there a dead-tree media convention where there was something in the water? Did Dick Feagler host a party? The New York Time’s David Carr decided that since he has a blog (gasp! a bona fide journalist with a blog!) that he should let his readers know not to panic. In fact he told his readers that they should:

think of one as a large yellow Labrador: friendly, fun, not all that bright, but constantly demanding your attention.

Somebody please get the man a clue.

In celebration of Martin Luther King Day, Sherry Chandler pointed to a one of the many speeches by Dr. King that I’ve never heard (he did make a lot of speeches after all). This one rings a particularly targeted bell as our nation allows its leaders to propose more war as a solution to war. The field of poppies is all too real.

I want to say one other challenge that we face is simply that we must find an alternative to war and bloodshed. Anyone who feels, and there are still a lot of people who feel that way, that war can solve the social problems facing mankind is sleeping through a great revolution. President Kennedy said on one occasion, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.” The world must hear this. I pray God that America will hear this before it is too late, because today we”re fighting a war.

This is why I felt the need of raising my voice against that war and working wherever I can to arouse the conscience of our nation on it.

I miss you, Dr. King.

What is the difference between thinking that the other is flawed, less than acceptable and thinking that you are superior to the other? Is there a difference? In my Walk About I’ve learned one thing about the World’s faith systems: they all incorporate some form of The Golden Rule, but can we generalize from the specific to the global?

What got me thinking about this morning was a post from Brian on Lessons.

Once upon a time, I worked with a super-liberal group of people, where we regularly debated issues of racial, gender and sexual orientation equality. My first week on staff, I attended a weekend retreat to discuss race as it related to HIV prevention and care.

That means I’m racist. I buy that. But it”s what I do with that racism that makes me a good or bad person. When a racist thought crosses my mind, I need to process where that comes from. When I make a joke that might offend, I need to weigh the value in hurting someone simply for a laugh. It’s something I will have to do for a lifetime.

The Power construct is an interesting one. A friend once shared an observation from an uncle: I may be a poor ignorant farmer, but at least I’m White.

Would being White in say Congo make you less racist? How much power do you have to lose before your Racism is reduced to Prejudice?

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

2006 – Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

(For the record, I graduated from Warren High School in 1973 and I have no doubt that this is true.

When Pat Robertson expressed concern over Global Warming, I wrote it off to a lame and passing attempt to garner some press atteniton. But then I read this morning that the National Association of Evangelicals wants to team up with Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment to protect the Earth. Is this bad brown acid?

No, but I do think it’s payback. After promising a ring for so many years, the Republican party has left Christian evangelicals at the alter and they’re doing something about it. If Republicas dissed you and you wanted to hit back, forget screwing them at the polls, hit them where it really hurts: oil.

Representatives met recently in Georgia and agreed on the need for urgent action. Details on the talks will be disclosed in Washington on Wednesday.

Eric Chivian, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, agreed, saying: “Scientists and evangelicals have discovered that we share a deeply felt common concern and sense of urgency about threats to life on Earth and that we must speak with one voice to protect it.”

Republican politics do make strange bedfellows.

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings: Recipes and reflections by Edward Espe Brown.

“When you wash the rice, wash the rice; when you cut the carrots, cut the carrots; when you stir the soup, stir the soup,” Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. p. 4

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1634 Welcome Crain”s

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

2006 – Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

(For the record, I graduated from Warren High School in 1973 and I have no doubt that this is true.

Yesterday as part of my own observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, I took my students through a discussion of Dr. King, his ties to rabbis Arthur Lelyveld and Heschel, Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. I had read Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience in my early teens and had forgotten its opening line.

When I read it to my students, it gave me pause.

I heartily accept the motto, – “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe,-“That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

Can there be a better expression of the Conservative Soul that Andrew Sullivan wishes to reclaim?

The rabid right has unleashed the dogs proving that once again the dangers of free-thought and questioning the wisdom of President George Bush. (Can it really be as simple as a lust for tax breaks that drives these people?) Andrew Sullivan nominates Dan Riehl’s slobbering and gnashing attack post on Rod Dreher for a Malkin Award.

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Traveling Mercies, Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott.

“Whatever you use to keep the pain at bay robs you of the flecks and nuggets of gold that feeling grief will give you.” p. 72.

Everyone knows that there’s nothing ironic in Alanis Morissette’s song Ironic. Right? But what if you could rewrite the song for the linguistically challenged Angry Girl and really make it ironic? That’s what one writer has done and the results make for a lousy song –it doesn’t scan and you sure as hell can’t dance to it — but the changes are still fun.

An old man turned ninety-eight. He won the lottery and died the next day… of chronic emphysema from inhalation of the latex particles scratched off decades’ worth of lottery tickets.

Rain on your wedding day… to Ra, the Egyptian sun-god.

Now that’s ironic.

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

0824 What consumers need: Time
0841 Panning Wal-Mart on a blog: Sign of crisis?
1500 “I KNOW THEY”RE PREDATORS… I WANT THEM…”

Internet quotations being what they are I’m only 80 percent certain that it was Sir Winston Churchill who said: Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains. The brains, it seems, are coming a little later and in a way that Sir Winston did not anticipate.

National Public Radio’s Rod Dreher illustrates the point. (Hat tip to Daily Dish.)

I had a heretical thought for a conservative – that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word – that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot – that they have to question authority.

On the walk to the parking garage, it hit me. Hadn’t the hippies tried to tell my generation that? Why had we scorned them so blithely?

Because there is nothing so certain as youth and inexperience. We learned that lesson well.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Scenario: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.

2006 – School goes into lockdown, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

(For the record, I graduated from Warren High School in 1973 and I have no doubt that this is true.)

[Update — I love it when reality jumps in to make your point.]

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from Traveling Mercies, Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott.

“I was terribly erratic: feeling so holy and serene some moments that I was sure I was going to end up dating the Dalai Lama. Then the grief and craziness would hit again and I would be in Broken Mind, back in the howl.” p. 72.