In Money We Trust

Someone sent me this chain email today:

“Here’s your chance to let the media know where the people  stand on our faith in God, as a nation.  NBC is presently taking a poll on “In God We Trust” to stay on our American currency.  Please send this to every Christian you know so they can vote on this important subject. Please do it right away, before NBC takes this off their web page. Poll is still open so you can vote: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

This is not sent for discussion. If you agree forward it, if you don’t, delete it. By my forwarding  it, you know how I feel.  I’ll bet this is going to be a surprise to NBC.”

I have many problems with this:

1.  Here’s the survey.

	Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from U.S. currency?
		Yes. It’s a violation of the principle of separation of church and state.
		No. The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion.

My answer is None of the above.  Do I think it should be on currency?  NO.  Do I think it should be removed?  NO.  We have much more serious problems to concern ourselves with and more critical issues to waste our money and resources on.

2.  85% said no.  Now here’s where you need to pay attention.   The email says “Here’s your chance to let the media know where the people stand on our faith in God, as a nation.” But the answer is “No, because it has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion.”  That’s a VERY different reason.  I agree with the statement that “it has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion” but I still don’t think it should be on our currency.  I don’t think you can get much farther from God than when you are spending money, unless you happen to be dropping it in the collection plate or doing something charitable with it or bringing joy to someone else’s life.  I don’t get why it’s on money….the root of all evil, right?

3. The email also says to hurry before NBC removes the survey.  I checked the source code for the webpage and it has been there since 2005.  It looks like it came about when that atheist from the Sacramento area made a big stink about his daughter doing the Pledge of Allegiance at school.  If NBC were going to do anything with the survey data, that milestone has surely come and gone.

4.  The email says “I’ll bet this is going to be a surprise to NBC.” It absolutely will not.  The 85/15 split is pretty standard for the ratio of believers vs. non-believers.  The thing that the hardcore Christians don’t seem to get is that while many Americans don’t actually practice the tenets of Christian doctrine, most people believe in it.

5. Finally, DO NOT send me a email with YOUR religious views, and tag it with the line “This is not sent for discussion. If you agree forward it, if you don’t, delete it. By my forwarding it, you know how I feel.” Well why should I read about how you feel, but you don’t care about how I feel?  What kind of Christianity is that?

No offense to the sender, as I realize it was a forwarded chain mail, but prepare yourself for a rebuttal if you are going to send your political or religious views.  Sometimes I actually reply all and rebut.  Ask a couple of my friends  🙂

The Blahs

Yep, I’ve got em.  Those cooties that have been going around.  They appear as non-specific chronic aches, then a fever and a monster sore throat, then it turns into a cold. I’m on the way out of the fever/sore throat phase.  I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend but it became a bit more horizontal than I planned.  I watched a lot of TV and some movies.  Mike returned the favor from last week when he was sick–he waited on me and cooked for us.

So, not much to report and my brain is rather muddled.  I had to work today so need to get some rest.

A Relaxing Evening? Or the Dumbing Down of America?

Tonight I made us some dinner and cleaned up a bit. My poor angel has a really bad cold and has been horizontal all day, he didn’t go to work, so I am playing nursemaid tonight and taking care of him. We watched the Mike Judge movie Idiocracy, which is a satire about the dumbing down of America, and now we are bouncing back and forth between various flavors of reality TV carnage.  Lately I get immobilized every time I see “Toddlers and Tiaras” when I channel surf.  I don’t understand the child beauty pageant culture at all.  I watch mesmerized, expecting Ashton Kutcher to jump out and say “Punk’d” but it never happens. Instead I see a mother spend $2000 on bridgework for her 6 year old (who is wearing hooker-caliber makeup and a padded bra) so they can hide the kid’s missing front teeth from the judges.  I think Mike Judge’s movie was more realistic than I find comfortable.

Food Porn #3: Mike Edition

Mike’s chicken and veggies with apricot teriyaki glaze over rice was a winner.  Served with green tea.

I’m A Little Teapot…

My only SF purchase, from Japantown…mmm, fresh green tea from real leaves.  And cute cups.  Meow.

It’s Been a While

I thought I posted this from my iPhone on February 4th…but apparently it only saved as draft.

[I haven’t posted in a few days, obviously. I’ve been super busy (and haven’t had time to post at work, lol). We went to a Superbowl party on Sunday. The game was decent, commercials sucked, food was awesome.  This weekend we downloaded and played the demo for Resident Evil 5 over the weekend…it is fantastic.  It is going to be my all-time favorite console game, I can already tell.  We also downloaded and watched all the current season episodes of The Guild.  Monday night was the season premiere of Heroes; interesting where it is going.  We cleaned house and did laundry last night (seven loads…argh!) in preparation for Mike’s mom’s arrival tonight.  Tonight he is working late and picking her up at the airport, while I make dinner. Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes and baby zucchini. I’ll take a photo if it looks good 🙂]

So anyway…we spent the weekend in San Francisco. We had a fun time with Mike’s mom. The Chinese New Year’s Parade was interesting to see live.  We had a spot right on the curb so we saw everything. We walked around Union Square, went to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, and went down to Fisherman’s Wharf for clam chowder. Saturday night after Mike’s mom went to bed, we went out. The SF Indie film fesitval is going on, and they had a Big Lebowski party for it.  It was fun but we didn’t get to see any of the films, other than Lebowski. Lots of people at the party were in costumes from the movie, and they had a little bowling setup and a flying carpet you could ride.  White Russians were the cocktail of the evening. We also went to Japantown twice, we ate Japanese fondue and I got a little porcelain tea pot for loose tea leaves.  We dropped off his mom tonight at the airport.  Unfortunately I had to work three hours tonight, as I am already going to be swamped at work this week, so hopefully I’ll get in some exercise and relaxation too.

So Far, Good Saturday

What a nice Saturday morning. We got up early and walked to Midtown for brunch with our friends we don’t see often, Esteban and Katie. It was good to see them. We ate at Bistro 33.  (The crab omelet was delicious!)

We took our time walking home, back through Capitol Park, looking at all the trees.  They have over 2000 species of flora represented in Capitol Park.

Now Mike is restringing and tuning his guitar, and I have been organizing our pictures. We are going to drive over to Bogle Winery this afternoon with our friend Shane for wine tasting.

Speaking of pictures…I posted a fraction of our New Orleans pics, and some from a November visit to SF with my mom and cousin Kristi. You can check them out at Flickr

Food Porn #2: Baked Salmon with Green Goddess Sauce

Served last night with a Beaujolais and chilled leftover Green Bean and Tomato Salad.  Added some Caraway Havarti cheese to the bean salad.

Year of the Ox

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the Year of the Ox.  What is your Chinese zodiac animal? Do you think you fit the description of the sign?

I am a Dog.  Some rings true, some…not so much.

I agree with this:

“Dogs are determined individuals; always wanting to master a new subject before moving on and always finishing what they start.”

This, not so much, but I’m working on getting there:

“Dogs spend money wisely, passing on luxury goods in favor of practical items. Dogs also prefer saving money to cover future expenses.”

This applies:

“Dogs at times can also be temperamental, narrow-minded and stubborn. When this happens, the Dog takes off alone in order to make things right again inside its head. Dogs can benefit by learning to relax and being more rational.”

And this does too: “A happy Dog is a healthy Dog and it’s easy to tell by the Dog’s sad or depressed appearance that it’s not feeling right. Dogs are resilient, especially when fighting illness.”

I guess this is mostly true: “Although Dogs are trustworthy, they have trouble trusting others. It can take a long time before a Dog feels at ease with another person. When Dogs don’t build trust they’re judgmental and rough towards others.”

I have been looking into the Chinese New Year traditions because next week, Mike’s mom is coming to visit us for a few days and we are taking her to San Francisco to see the Chinese New Year’s Parade. I have always wanted to go to that celebration. And I enjoy spending time with Mike’s mom, we have quite a bit in common. She used to be a social worker, she likes movies and books, and she is knowledgeable about and likes to discuss many different topics.

(Thanks to Jen for the Chinese New Year’s link!)

Food Porn #1: Tenderloin with Shiitake-Port Sauce

A new feature of my blog showing things I cook. ( I snagged the name Food Porn from another blog. Sue me.)

Today’s Food Porn: Tenderloin with Shiitake-Port Sauce and Green Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad. It was pretty easy, and healthy. The sauce was superb.

I’ll work more on the presentation and camera focus next time 🙂