Why is it that whenever I strike out on a fact-finding mission about a subject I’m curious about, people automatically assume I have self-seeking motivations for it?

For example: when I say I want to find out more about Catholicism, people instantly think that I want to join the Catholic church. Err, no, I don’t. I would just like to know a little more about their customs and the meanings behind some of their rituals. I suppose one could say the same thing about someone who’d like to know more about Islam or anything else, for that matter.

I also suppose that to most folks there’s no difference between being curious and being involved in something, which I find annoying. There is a difference, though, in being knowledgeable and being ignorant about something. Too often, I think people would rather stay ignorant than learn something new.

How boring.

…to Creative Slips.net! Get comfy and admire the scenery. (You may thank this man for the wonderful design. Personally, I’m glad he helped me set up CS.net and all the parts that go with it - else, this site wouldn’t've gone live for another two months or so.)

The poetry section is out of commission and I’m working to get it updated and live - that probly won’t happen for another day or two.

More delightful text and other stuff to come. In the meantime, I’m glad you’re here.

My Christmas List:

1. Some answers.
2. Snow (hey, a girl can always hope, right?).
3. A debt-free, worry-free year off from college. Heck, how ’bout my diploma?
4. A fireplace. A spice rack and some cabinets for my kitchen. Bookshelves!
5. A lifetime’s supply of Hershey’s Cocoa Powder and other baking ingredients so we don’t have to spend half of our weekly budget shopping for these items every freakin’ Tuesday.
6. The courage to do a poetry reading at some obscure coffee shop in downtown San Francisco.
7. A kitten.
8. A digital camera. 3-megapixels, 3 zoom options.
9. Focus.
10. No more headaches.

Inspired by this guy.

What’s yours?

I just love CNN.

News headline: “Bush will get vaccinated.”

That says a lot, dontcha think?

Blurb: “President Bush announced Friday that he is ordering 500,000 military personnel and others in high-risk parts of the world receive the smallpox vaccine. He said he will also receive the vaccine. ‘As commander-in-chief, I do not believe I can ask others to accept this risk unless I am willing to do the same,’ Bush said.”

So now taking a vaccine is a risk. Well, don’t that beat all!

One more day of school. Heck, less than half a day of school. Make that two and a half hours. YES. School’s the main reason I haven’t blogged since last week, but now I’m back.

Things to look forward to: Christmas. Getting my Xmas shopping done. The premiere of Two Towers. Moving CS to a new home. (Yes, you heard me right on the last one.)

All is right with the world.
With my world, anyway.

And I thought the LAPD had had enough corruption problems…now it’s the SFPD’s turn.

Ken Layne’s blog parody of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is rockin’!

I got to meet Mark Fiore tonight. He’s a political cartoonist with a lovely (read: sarcastic) sense of humor, and tonight he was part of a five-journalist panel on Media and War that our journalism department hosted. Some of the topics discussed included anti-Americanism overseas, the Pentagon’s boot camps for journalists, advertising, journalism as a business, and the “hijacking of patriotism” in the news. The panel fielded questions from the students afterwards, but alas, there was not enough time to catch everyone. One of the last questions put forth by the moderator, our department head John Burks, was what publications the panel members read to stay updated on coverage of the “War on Terror” and the Iraq situation. I’d heard nothing mentioned in their responses about weblogs and online media sources and had wanted to ask the panelists if they used the Net much (especially weblogs) to stay on top of news events. Oh, well - I did get to ask Mark afterwards if he’d ever tried to pull ideas for his cartoons from weblogs (I had InstaPundit in mind while asking this) - he said he was too busy trying to keep editors off his back or fielding emails from well-meaning people with cartoon ideas of their own. But at least he’s aware of the blogosphere’s existence…

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has posted the complete text of Dr. Hashem Aghajari’s speech that is the reason for his current death sentence (which I wonder whether it’ll be in effect for much longer) and the resulting Iranian student protests that have made recent headlines. After a quick read through his speech, I thought the Iranian mullahs make the Pharisees of Jesus’s day look pretty tame. (via Instapundit)

One of my favorite rock bands got written up by the Telegraph last week. On the real, yo: they’ve put out great worship albums, but I have to say that sometimes their music is even better during their live shows than when you hear ‘em on the stereo. (via Orrin Judd)

Saved By Piercing is back! I dig his motto: “Actions speak louder than Jesus fish.” (via DYL)

I love today’s Christian Quotation of the Day: “The conduct of disputation by verbal brickbat, by innuendo, and by light-fingered intellectual dexterity, is a mordant reminder of the time when controversies were settled by faggot* and sword. The truth is hardly less the loser because the inquisitor has altered his methods. All of us who seek to explore the wide reaches of God’s revelation, and strive to bring the thinking of others under the domination of Christ, do well to seek first to bring our own rhetorical techniques under that same dominion – under the discipline, that is, of love.” (Lester DeKoster)

*faggot here = bundle of wood or metal tied together (read: torch, maybe?)

Christophine responded to my tolerance post on another site with a bit of criticism about one aspect of the example I used:

…I have to disagree with some of the things in your entry.
One in particular actually, though I suppose that some could call it just a quibble.

It has consequences (AIDS and HIV).

…That statement bothers me, because it makes it sound like AIDS and HIV are a problem only in the gay community. Those aren’t consequences of being gay. Those are consequences of lack of caution. AIDS and HIV strike across all sexual preferences. As a matter of fact, since so many persist in thinking of it as something homesexual catch, the largest segment of the American population that has AIDS or is HIV positive these days is straights. The largest number of new AIDS and HIV cases reported for the last seven or so years in the US has been among straight teens.

AIDS is heavily associated in the American mind with homesexual sex. Its original name in the US was even GRID… Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. But the fact is that it was already endemic among all orientations in Africa before we ever heard of it. The only reason it began here in the gay community is that a gay man from the US, an airline steward, was infected in Africa these many years ago. It could just as easily have been someone bisexual or straight.

There’s a movie that shows how the early researchers were trying to track down where AIDS came from. It’s called And the Band Played on. It’s a very sad movie, but I recommend it nevertheless.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve picked up the idea that AIDS is primarily a disease of the gay community, or it it was simply a poorly chosen set of words. But the biggest way to spread AIDS and HIV is through ignorance, and someone reading that could take it as confirmation of their conviction that AIDS is a gay disease. It promotes ignorance to put it like that.

I’ve lost friends to AIDS. Gay, bi, and straight. I know people now who are HIV positive, and they too will probably eventually suffer and die, even though they seem to have it under control right now. I have friends who are at high risk, because they are promiscuous and are convinced that it can’t happen to them, so they have unsafe sex. There’s a very good chance that I will be watching them die, too. And there is no one sexual preference in these groups that has a hammerlock on being most likely to catch it. The only thing I’ve seen them have in common is the ignorance and stubborness to believe that they aren’t (or weren’t) the ones at risk, until too late.

The Dane also weighed in on the TB with an article that has an interesting take on gay marriages and his own commentary on said article. Check it out.

Mind you, when I first did that post on tolerance I certainly didn’t set out to do it with attacking homosexuals in mind. The responses to that post have been very interesting nevertheless.

Waitaminnit! CUT, CUT, CUUUT! Not totally set to blog here yet, but I just wanted to thank Jason for the lovely design and for setting up my blog.

Posting will start here at some point when I lose the headache, finish the last school project, and hope the laundry dryers downstairs work again (and that’d better be soon!). Otherwise, if you are aware of this site’s existence (and obviously you are if you’re reading this), feel free to leave comments.

My sister Murm (er, Miriam, that is) dropped a bombshell on me last week: she’d wanted to join the Army right after she’d graduated from high school. She admitted to me last night that that was partly why she’d graduated early - heck, she could’ve graduated with me, just to get out of high school faster. Her ultimate goal was to become a Green Beret.

And you know what? I think she would’ve made a very good one.

“Would’ve.” Why isn’t she in the Army, then? you ask. Two things: our mother, and old P.E. injuries (hairline fractures on one kneecap and hipbone) that could’ve worsened during the Army stint.

I still think she would’ve made a great Green Beret, though.

And speaking of the military, visit Operation Dear Abby and send an e-mail to a serviceman overseas. You’ll be glad you did.

(My thoughts go out to Luke, who, last time I checked, was stationed somewhere in Afghanistan. Buddy, you are always in my prayers.)

I’ll make this short and sweet because I think a long ramble will turn a lot of readers off. ‘Sides which, tolerance on its own spins off to so many different tangents that I could probly spend the rest of the day just raving about this one subject.

So.

Tolerance.

A lot of folks have become so used to the politically correct environment in our society that they’ve become intolerant of it, which makes me wonder why no one created boundaries for the PC goodness that permeates American life back when political correctness was an in thing. Is it because PC has always been around, just under different psuedonyms?

What was once taboo (getting an abortion, coming out of the closet, etc.) is now acceptable. And what was once acceptable (religious symbolism of any sort in public places) is now taboo.

Just another vicious cycle, yeah?

My main complaint regarding tolerance is its place in religion. I admit to being a born-again Christian, and I also admit that yes, maybe some of our doctrines are not acceptable to non-believers.

All right, but so what?

Prime Example: The Bible states clearly that homosexuality is a sin. “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” yadda yadda yadda. I believe homosexuality is a sin, and I disapprove of homosexual behavior. It has consequences (AIDS and HIV). I will not support legislation that calls for the recognition of civil marriage unions for gay couples by the state.

But I will not call homosexuals any known slurs ("fags,” “faggots” or “queers"), nor do I avoid homosexuals or turn my nose up at them. I do support legislation that prosecutes hate crimes against homosexuals. I do think some health policies leaning towards homosexuals should be promoted, especially for those suffering from AIDS. I also read weblogs written and maintained by homosexuals. Why? We are told to love the non-believer just as much as we love our sisters and brothers in Christ. (Besides this, I’m not sure what suddenly makes homosexuality a “bigger sin” than telling a lie. Sin is sin. Period.)

And yet I am called “intolerant” and “narrow-minded” because of my stance on gay policies and issues.

Obviously we walk a fine line between what should be tolerated and what shouldn’t. You can call me intolerant, judgmental and narrow-minded all you like, but when you try to restrict my basic freedoms just because I don’t go along with the PC-generated rhetoric you spout, you’re crossing that line. You’re not only crossing that line, you’re getting me ticked off.

I know what I believe. But I am also ever questioning some of my beliefs - especially beliefs I was raised on and taught as a child - and some of the widely-known doctrines that come attached with them because I don’t understand it all. I don’t want to be a blind follower. I pray for guidance when searching. I like to hear others’ views on important (and even not-so-important) issues that are ever debated in public forums because I want to know what’s being said, for and against. Others who don’t agree with me I especially like to hear from. At some point, I will agree to disagree with them, because to go any further will just make both sides frustrated and even angry, and being personally attacked in a debate is not something that I’m sure anyone enjoys.

So…tolerance? I can tolerate a lot of things. I can tolerate being called intolerant because my beliefs sound or seem utterly ridiculous.

But I can’t tolerate seeing our political system being used to outlaw what some other narrow-minded idiot thinks is “intolerant.”

I know, I know - I was s’posed to post something on tolerance Friday. Well, I’ll blame it on the turkey.

No, honest, it was the turkey. A couple friends have told me that something in that bird makes you drowsy, and after the dinner Thursday and then trying to finish off all the leftovers during the weekend, I had no inclination whatsoever to post about tolerance or pretty much anything else. So I’ll try to post my thoughts on tolerance later today. Promise.

In the meantime, here’s an interesting story on locker room blather - and how reporters decide what blather to report on.