Don't even get me started

This a really a post for when I have more time, but let's just get it started with this mini preview . . . I think gay, lesbian, and transgender rights are the biggest civil rights issue of our day.

Read this:
Newsweeks cover story Published Dec 6, 2008 - Our Mutual Joy: Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.

By Lisa Miller
Excerpt: "Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script? Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so."

Watch this:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

And Listen to this:
NPR What's the Word?

And I'll get back to you with more . . .

The New Years Reading List

This is just a taste of what I plan on reading in the new year. I'm having a blast getting to read something not required by school . . . and yet some how all roads lead to social work . . .





















Give Me Liberty by Naomi Wolf
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
Global Capitalism by Jeffery Frieden
Propaganda and the Public Mind by Noam Chomsky

What else do I want to read in the new year . . . .

Here's NPR's Best Books for a Transformative New Year list:
- The Tribes of America: Journalistic Discoveries of Our People and Their Cultures, by Paul Cowan
- Hunger of Memory, by Richard Rodriguez
- American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century, by Gary Gerstle
- The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell

And here's NPR's Best Political And Current Affairs Books Of 2008 list:
- The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins
- An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the Twenty-First Century, by James Orbinski, M.D.
- Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, by Rick Perlstein
- The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer
- The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century, by Steve Coll

And of course, last but certainly not least, I want to read Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America by Paul Tough. Nashville could really benefit from a program like the Harlem Children's Zone, can I get an Amen!