Issue 133
News: Actually, you can pray in schools.
I recently saw a video on Youtube where William Murray, son of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, debated with a member of American Atheists, about school prayer. Of course, after the opposing side stated that school might not be the right time and place for prayer, Murray decided to use this remark and use his use of "situational ethics" to compare his opponent to Hitler. I also found a website which shows a lot of statistics which purport to show how much America is going to Hell in a handbasket for abandoning school prayer (even though coorelation is not necessarily causation, as I'm sure that statistics of more stridently secular countries would show). Fundamentalist bull-headedness aside, I must note that, believe it or not, PRAYER IS LEGAL IN SCHOOLS! It's just not legal for the faculty to lead the prayers (because they are here to teach children what is and not just what many people in America believe to be true), and is highly frowned upon for the students who pray to be too disruptive to what everybody's actually here for (i.e. babbling like an imbecile and handling snakes, or on the less stereotypical level, praying by singing hymns loudly for long periods of time like Nusrat.) Anyway, I fail to find any legitimate grievance in the Fundamentalists' argument. As Dennis Miller said in one of his rants, if a parent feels that prayer is an important character-builder, then they should pray with their kids themselves and stop fobbing off their responsibilities as a parent on the public school system. And even looking at it from a religious perspective, you need look no further than the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus advises against praying in public at all (Mt. 6:5-6). So, from any perspective, the arguments for school prayer have no real validity whatsoever.
Band Name of the Day: None.
Film Idea of the Day: A man attacks a woman while singing a Rossini aria and her husband and young son are forced to watch, and afterwards, the son grows into an opera singer and takes a master class with another singer. When she coerces him into singing that same aria, he proceeds to act out the same actions that happened to his mother on his teacher. Violence begets Violence. I'm currently writing this as a monodrama.
Review of the Day: Scarface. I had seen the 1932 version before, but yesterday was the first time I saw the 1983 version. I must say that it is now coming close to becoming one of my favorite movies, and there is no doubt that at least some of it is due to the similarities between this and my favorite movie, A Clockwork Orange, and one need only listen to the similarities between the synthesized Purcell music that opens ACO and "Tony's Theme" from this movie to prove my point. Perhaps after a few more viewings, it may make my top spot go from a tie between ACO and Taxi Driver, to a three-way between them.
Quote of the Day: "All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don't break 'em for no one."
__________Tony Montana
Link of the Day: The semi-official site of a TV show I've been a big fan of for more or less my entire life.
Note: Please don't be surprised if I go for a long period of time without updating my blog. Well, at least I seem to be updating more frequently than Strong Bad seems to have been.
I recently saw a video on Youtube where William Murray, son of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, debated with a member of American Atheists, about school prayer. Of course, after the opposing side stated that school might not be the right time and place for prayer, Murray decided to use this remark and use his use of "situational ethics" to compare his opponent to Hitler. I also found a website which shows a lot of statistics which purport to show how much America is going to Hell in a handbasket for abandoning school prayer (even though coorelation is not necessarily causation, as I'm sure that statistics of more stridently secular countries would show). Fundamentalist bull-headedness aside, I must note that, believe it or not, PRAYER IS LEGAL IN SCHOOLS! It's just not legal for the faculty to lead the prayers (because they are here to teach children what is and not just what many people in America believe to be true), and is highly frowned upon for the students who pray to be too disruptive to what everybody's actually here for (i.e. babbling like an imbecile and handling snakes, or on the less stereotypical level, praying by singing hymns loudly for long periods of time like Nusrat.) Anyway, I fail to find any legitimate grievance in the Fundamentalists' argument. As Dennis Miller said in one of his rants, if a parent feels that prayer is an important character-builder, then they should pray with their kids themselves and stop fobbing off their responsibilities as a parent on the public school system. And even looking at it from a religious perspective, you need look no further than the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus advises against praying in public at all (Mt. 6:5-6). So, from any perspective, the arguments for school prayer have no real validity whatsoever.
Band Name of the Day: None.
Film Idea of the Day: A man attacks a woman while singing a Rossini aria and her husband and young son are forced to watch, and afterwards, the son grows into an opera singer and takes a master class with another singer. When she coerces him into singing that same aria, he proceeds to act out the same actions that happened to his mother on his teacher. Violence begets Violence. I'm currently writing this as a monodrama.
Review of the Day: Scarface. I had seen the 1932 version before, but yesterday was the first time I saw the 1983 version. I must say that it is now coming close to becoming one of my favorite movies, and there is no doubt that at least some of it is due to the similarities between this and my favorite movie, A Clockwork Orange, and one need only listen to the similarities between the synthesized Purcell music that opens ACO and "Tony's Theme" from this movie to prove my point. Perhaps after a few more viewings, it may make my top spot go from a tie between ACO and Taxi Driver, to a three-way between them.
Quote of the Day: "All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don't break 'em for no one."
__________Tony Montana
Link of the Day: The semi-official site of a TV show I've been a big fan of for more or less my entire life.
Note: Please don't be surprised if I go for a long period of time without updating my blog. Well, at least I seem to be updating more frequently than Strong Bad seems to have been.
Labels: Religious Right
posted by DerekAxe at 8:22 PM
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