Archive for March 10th, 2009

Here is the next installment of Simpsons haiku. Enjoy.

Lisa Simpson

Constantly playing
Her stupid saxamaphone.
Too intelligent

Otto Mann

While the kids field trip
You absolutely trip balls.
Horns up, Zeppelin rules!

Mayor Joseph Fitzpatrick Fitzgerald Fitzhenry “Diamond Joe” Quimby

“Miss Springfield” affairs,
Tropic fact-finding missions
And-aaaa vote Quimby

Ralph Wiggum

Was told to burn things
His cat’s breath smells like cat food.
Non sequitur king

I hope you enjoyed the new batch. I’m going to clarify something about my Troy McClure haiku. For those of you that didn’t understand the final line (Artie blames Andy), Artie Ziff is the recurring character who always tries to get Marge. He took her to prom and was originally played by John Lovitz. John Lovitz blames Andy Dick for the death of Phil Hartman (who played Troy McClure). Lovitz claims that Dick got Hartman’s wife into cocaine after she had been clean for 10 years, messing her up and contributing to Hartman’s death at her hands. John was so mad at Andy that he even beat him up. Just thought I’d clear that up for anyone who didn’t understand what I was talking about.

Enjoy Watchmen.

Adam Feser

Sorry, the post on Saudi Arabia wasn’t meant to be my final post.  I thought it was interesting and related.  My main point is that religion can be a guide for someone in their personal lives, but they cannot force other people to use it as a guide. Of course there should be a separation of church and state. Of course you cannot legislate religion. It would be impossible because not even all Christians agree on interpretations of the Bible. Not all Muslims agree on interpretations of the Qur’an. Some Buddhists believe there is a god while others do not. How can we legislate that which even the religions cannot agree on? It isn’t just which religion is the right one, it’s also which sect or denomination is the correct one?

All of that being said, sometimes we forget about the human aspect of it. Your wife made an excellent point, Dr. What if your child was gay? Would you not want the child to live a full life, one in which our government recognized him or her and his or her partner as equals? It is understandable that people in our area of the country will be less accepting of homosexuals, at first, because simply based on population there are not going to be as many homosexuals. But that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because homosexuals will not want to stay in a place where people do not accept them. The point I’m trying to make is that they are simply people, and that is often forgotten when we discuss them as though they are a hypothetical thing somewhere far away.

This hasn’t really been a closing argument, I’m just sort of trying to bring closure to the discussion. I honestly did not expect this entire debate to focus on religion. I was okay with debating it from that perspective, but I was surprised and pleased that the debate became about the place of religion in government. Perhaps I won the key battle in any form of politics, which is framing the debate. Generally speaking, I don’t think anyone was disrespectful, even in the comments, which is good. I’d say the first debate was a success (though I definitely feel I dominated you doc).

I think we should definitely get another debate going. Here’s the old list:

• Funding stem cell research – Feser – affirmative; Dr. – negative
• Offshore drilling – Dr. – affrimative; Feser – negative
• Gay marriage – Feser – affirmative; Dr. – negative
• Universal Healthcare – Feser – affirmative; Dr. – negative
• Racing as sport – Dr. – affirmative; Feser – who cares? scratch this one, I’ll just agree
• South Dakota stuff

I think aks would love to see us debate stem cell research.  You may bring up religion, but I don’t even see what the religious argument is there.  Offshore drilling would be a good debate.  Perhaps we should throw all of the options in a poll and let the readers decide.  At any rate, just let me know what you think, doc.

Also, the poll was 32 yes on gay marriage, 20 no.  That’s quite a few voters, and I doubt there were as many double votes as there were on my poll.  Not bad.

Enjoy the Simpsons haiku, because there are plenty to come.

Adam Feser

Ok, well we best not talk about abortion, mercy killing, ect. because I will site religion on several of those points. Really what we should have talked about is does religion have a place in Gov’t. But that is that.

What’s next. Where are you on the recent smoking ban? Me: YAY! You pick the next topic and I will go first.

Harldly Working, Making no difference

DR