Phlegma weblog

The Case for Closing Churches

Ever since the Catholic church came to Norway a thousand years ago, people have been building churces. Now it's time to tear some of them down.

There was a time when it made sence to build and keep all the churces, that every little community had their own congregation. But not anymore.

If you go into any given church on any given sunday, you'll notice that the congregation is small - and consist mostly of elderly people. When you add the fact that several churches have to close down during winter to save power, and others turn off the lights to save a quid or two.

As our society gets more and more secular, fewer and fewer attends church for anything other than baptisms, communions, weddings and funerals. So the only solution is to close them down. Not all, but many.

We have means of transportation other than our feet, horses and rowing boats. We can go to a church that is more than a couple of kilometers away. And the effects of closing down some churches can only be positive. The economy of the church will improve, the congregation will become bigger and more versatile, and we may again see churches that are open at all times - and we may actually see them.

Naomi Klein: Anybody but Bush

Naomi Klein, the author of No Logo, has got a piece in the Guardian.

This madness has to stop, and the fastest way of doing that is to elect John Kerry, not because he will be different but because in most key areas - Iraq, the "war on drugs", Israel/Palestine, free trade, corporate taxes - he will be just as bad. The main difference will be that as Kerry pursues these brutal policies, he will come off as intelligent, sane and blissfully dull. That's why I've joined the Anybody But Bush camp: only with a bore such as Kerry at the helm will we finally be able to put an end to the presidential pathologising and focus on the issues again.

That's also a reason to vote Kerry.

Masters of the Word

When one looks at big conventions like the Democratic convention in Boston, you see that there are some politicians that are masters of the word, like State Senator Barack Obama:

...there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America—there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.

It's sad that the Democratic candidate John Kerry isn't one of them:

I was born in Colorado, in Fitzsimmons Army Hospital, when my dad was a pilot in World War II.  Now, I'm not one to read into things, but guess which wing of the hospital the maternity ward was in?  I'm not making this up.  I was born in the West Wing!

This coming from a man who are viewed as brahmin and elitist in the first place. He - or his writers - has made some pretty bad choices when it came to this speech.

Bush vs Kerry video

JibJab has got an very funny video. Bush and Kerry goes after each other - check it out.

Sex for democracy

A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald is quite an interesting read. An organisation offer sex for a non-republican vote in the upcoming election. So far, the website boasts eight models prepared to drop their pants in the name of anti-Republicanism. The website, believe us, is only suitable for adults, and open-minded ones at that.

[CDL ringleader Nathan] Martin insists the project is aimed at showing what little value Americans place on their votes. These days, he says, many voters will simply go for the better-looking candidate. "CDL contends that with such frivolous reasons for voting, why not give voters a more legitimate reward for voting?" Martin asks. "Since giving money is illegal, why not the next best thing that all politicians know and love themselves: sex?"

Thanks to perfect.co.uk for the link.

The real reasons Bush went to war

John Chapman has got a piece in the Guardian.

There were only two credible reasons for invading Iraq: control over oil and preservation of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Yet the government has kept silent on these factors, instead treating us to the intriguing distractions of the Hutton and Butler reports.

Thanks to perfect.co.uk for the link.

Billionaires for Bush

Billionaires for Bush is a strategic media and street theater campaign whose combustible mix of humor, savvy messaging, grassroots participation, and cutting edge internet organizing tools will flush out the truth about the US government's disastrous economic policies and help turn the fatcats out of power in November, according to their own website. And it looks real enough:

John Kerry is a class-traitor who wants nothing more than to scrap the incredible progress our nation has made over the last four years and return America to the grubby hands of the unwashed middle-class masses. It is our sacred duty as guardians of privilege and power to defend the Bush administration from this barbaric electoral challenge.

But it's all a gimmick.

Economic justice arguments tend to get dismissed as "class warfare," but the Billionaires — by impersonating the super-wealthy in a boosterish, over-the-top manner, and cheering on George Bush and his economic policies — are able to paint the President as a friend of the wealthy with surprising effectiveness. It's a back door that allows class issues to be aired in surprisingly sharp terms.

A fine gimmick that is. Because it shows who really wins with a repiblican victory.

Thanks to Tim at Bloggerheads for the link.

Bowling for Columbine

I rented Bowling for Columbine this weekend. A little late, I know. But the film was very good. Provoking, but good.

I felt a little bad about Charlton Heston in the movie. He seemed a bit redused mentally, and he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease,. From a journalistic view, you can argue that he should be protected from him self. But he was the head of the organisation, and if he was fit to run it - he was fit to defend its views.

One thing strikes me. Why is it that these right wing, gun nuts fail to see that there is a link between availability of guns and gun related murders?

British parents taught to play with the kids

Parents will be issued with instruction manuals showing them how to teach traditional playground games such as hopscotch, skipping and hide-and-seek to their children in a new move to tackle soaring levels of obesity among young people. Guardian

Quite shocking that parents need to be taught how to play - or the need for children to play.

Blair admits another lie

Tony Blair have admitted another lie.

On 14 December Blair repeated the claim in a statement issued by Downing Street in response to the arrest of Saddam Hussein and posted on the Labour party website that: 'The remains of 400,000 human beings [have] already [been] found in mass graves.'

The admission that the figure has been hugely inflated follows a week in which Blair accepted responsibility for charges in the Butler report over the way in which Downing Street pushed intelligence reports 'to the outer limits' in the case for the threat posed by Iraq.(Guardian)