The Rock won't endorse

In 2020 the Rock (Dwayne Johnson) endorsed Biden.  He said he won’t endorse anyone this year because of the “cancel culture.”  He said he wants to bring people together, not drive them apart.

He’s dead to me.

The Pope plays God

The Vatican released a document yesterday on gender fluidity and surrogacy.  The sex you are at birth is an “irrevocable gift” from God.  “Any sex change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”  If you try to change your sex, you are succumbing “to the age-old temptation to make oneself God.”

So what does the old guy know about this?  And what does a sex change have to do with reducing human dignity?  And who is playing God here?

Tooth problems

I didn’t post last night.  I don’t feel like it tonight, either.  My tooth started to hurt on Friday night and got worse on Saturday.  Atheist that I am, I’m praying my dentist can make time for me tomorrow.

I’ve had tooth problems all my life.  Could someone explain to me why they always occur on the weekend.

Last night I was able to work a shift in the phone room for the Carbon County cancer telethon.  Every year the Democrats and the Republicans take a shift on Saturday night.  Rocky, who was manning the phone next to me, took in a pledge for $2000.  I think that might have been the one that put us over the Republican take.

By the way, did you ever think that the fear and explanations of a solar eclipse that primitive people believed would be surpassed by millions in the U.S. in 2024, including, by the way, members of Congress?

With a little help from our friends

I talked to René from New York earlier this week.  He’s an award-winning film maker who has helped in presidential campaigns in Carbon County since the first Obama race.  Tonight I had a conversation with Lois from Marin County who also has assisted in Democratic presidential campaigns.  Both plan to be here this fall.  New York and California are safe for Biden, but Pennsylvania needs help.  

Lois and René are part of a larger movement.  Massachusetts Democrats have already addressed over a thousand hand-written postcards to Carbon Dems.  Our nation turns its worried eyes to us, and we appreciate the help.   

Frank Bruni on Biden v. Trump

You have probably noticed that Trump seems to have more vigor than Biden.  He can hold a crowd, hawk bibles and sneakers, and seems to have more pep.  Columnist Frank Bruni had a few words about this a few days ago.  I will quote the whole paragraph:

Really, how many people say to themselves:  Heck, Biden may be the guy with a proper respect for democracy, won’t blow air kisses at murderous tyrants and doesn’t sound like a fascist, but that Trump sure can shout louder, talk faster and clomp around more thuddingly!  He’ll bring the vim to trashing democracy that Biden can’t muster for preserving it.  I guess I’ll go with Trump! 

Congratulations to the voters of Enid, OK

A white nationalist who attended the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” Rally and was seen carrying a Tiki Torch was recalled from the Enid, Oklahoma, city council after his past activities were publicized.  The recalled councilman, who belongs to one of those weird hate groups, said his ouster was inspired by “leftists and moderates.”  The woman who replaced him on the council is a Republican.

The recall margin was quite large.

Giving whales personhood

Indigenous leaders of New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands recently signed a treaty that recognizes whales as legal persons.  The treaty was signed on Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands.  

Many indigenous people of the Pacific believe they can trace their ancestry back to whales.  Whale migration patterns also guided their journeys to islands of the Pacific.  

The signatories hope that their actions will increase protections for the whales.  

One of the chapters in my Ph.D. thesis centered on the Cook Islands.  And I think whales, being mammals, are our kin.  This is a step forward.

Info for this post came in part from Remi Tumin, “Whales Given ‘Personhood’ By Indigenous Polynesians,”  New York Times, (Mar. 31, 2024), p. 13.