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Current stuff...
Slow week for blogging...a little busier than usual--but also there hasn't been much to write about...
A few current news items:
Surprise, surprise: religious men have better attitudes about marriage than non-religous men.
'Slippery slope' watch: Utah Supreme Court allows peyote use for members of the Native American Church--even non-Native American members. Will probably stand up to constitutional scrutiny, but could be easy to take advantage of. How easy is it to join the 'Native American Church'? (Do you even need to? The article says the peyote was passed out to 'visitors' as well...) How hard would it be to organize your own 'branch' of the Native American Church in your own town and just invite your buddies over for a 'church meeting' once a week?
One of the Baron's TV Pet Peeves: So-called TV 'news' programs who prostitute themselves off as thinly veiled ads for other shows on that network. Dateline NBC had 'special reports' on Friends and Frasier immediately before their respective finales. The local Fox 13 news here in Utah had 'reports' on the American Idol results every week. Ditto CBS and 'Survivor'... The Baron is on a strict TV diet of sports, Sportscenter, and Simpsons reruns--and I don't foresee it changing anytime soon.
Obligatory Simpsons quotes:
Homer: When will I learn? The answers to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle! They're on TV!
Homer: How can you say anything bad about TV, Marge? It gives so much and asks so little.
Marge: Homer, we don't think you're slow. On the other hand, it's not like you go to museums or read books or anything.
Homer: You think I don't want to? It's those TV networks, Marge: they won't let me. One quality show after another, each one fresher and more brilliant than the last. If they only stumbled once, just gave us thirty minutes to ourselves, [puts head on table, pounds fist] but they won't! They won't let me live! [sobs]
June 24, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink
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Comments
The Simpsons rules! :)
Posted by: danithew | Jun 24, 2004 2:02:32 PM
Baron: You might be interested to know that your peyote fear has caused the LDS church no end of grief & forced us to waste tithing dollars fighting for legislation to protect religious liberty.
Strip the Indians of the peyote...no harm to you, right? Wrong!
Because of a similar case (Smith) decided in 94' (?), the LDS Church has decreased levels of religious liberty & our zoning fights, etc. for temple building are worse than ever.
Posted by: lyle | Jun 25, 2004 7:34:33 AM
Of course, the LDS Church has a vested interest in protecting religious liberty...but the more liberal the 'exceptions' are for drug laws, the more people are going to abuse them. I didn't actually say I didn't think Native Americans shouldn't be using peyote AT ALL, only that this new ruling allows non-Native American people to participate at will, by being (or pretending to...) a NA church member (or even visiting the church, it seems...) The more broad you make exceptions to the laws, the more abuses there are going to be (see medicinal marijuana...)
You can argue that allowing religious liberties to other churches will help our own...but I would argue that the more people who abuse religious liberties for non-religous purposes will be just as damaging. As abuse increases, the people who are genuinely doing it for religous purposes will be blocked out by the others who are 'along for the ride' and religion in the public eye will soon be seen as just a convenient cover for illegal behavior (with so many examples to choose from) which will affect attitudes towards ALL religions.
Posted by: The Baron | Jun 25, 2004 8:29:48 AM
