A Baptist minister wonders this week in a USA Today opinion piece “What if we’re wrong about homosexuality?”

1. Duh
2. OK. Now spread the word.

I hope Oliver “Buzz” Thomas does talk to other religious leaders about the mounting scientific evidence and setting the record straight (so to speak) as he mentions in his article. It takes people willing to speak compassionately in the language of their peers in order to crack hardened views. Given the interesting title of his upcoming book, 10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can’t Because He Needs the Job), it looks like he is willing to be one of those people.

The minister says:

Religion’s only real commodity, after all, is its moral authority. Lose that, and we lose our credibility. Lose credibility, and we might as well close up shop.

I’m not sure this is true. Maybe this is just his fear because he has been taught and teaching this for so long. There are liberal religious and non-religious traditions that maintain credibility without an attempt to claim moral authority. Ethics and justice don’t look for the same sort of One True [fill in the blank] as do the religions of moral authority.

Even John McCain has said this week that homosexuality is not a defect, contradicting a recent Department of Defense document on “Physical Disability Evaluation” for troops separating from the military.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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Listening to Seymour Hersch this morning on Democracy Now made so much news I read and listen to seem like the playful circus it is. This goes far beyond Hersch’s article this week on the likelihood of the U.S. going to war with Iran. In talking to Amy Goodman, Hersch connects dots and brings a knowledge of the past political generation that many may not be familiar with. This is no sound byte with a smile. Hersch takes the time to weave together threads of conduct of the Reagan administration during the Iran-Contra era with the two Bush administrations in their Middle East wars.

I would gladly trade 24-hour fake news for a few hours weekly with my copy of The New Yorker.

If you read only two stories this week, make them Seymour Hersch’s New Yorker article “The Next Act” and a little AP story on a review of 866 studies relating to climate change. What else matters?

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First Annual Solstice Synchronized Global Orgasm for Peace

The mission of the Global Orgasm is to effect change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy. Now that there are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti- submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!

The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace. The combination of high-energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers.

The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.

Don’t forget to read about the science of the Zero Point Field or Quantum Field and how human consciousness can (may) effect the field, showing up (the organizers hope) on Princeton University’s Random Event Generators.

I’m not even sure if this is legal in Utah.

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Do you depend on net neutrality to make connections to other people, to learn what is going on in the world, to express yourself, or even to make a living? Maybe you don’t know whether you depend on net neutrality or you don’t know exactly what it is. If you run a small business and depend on search engine traffic or you reach others with your thoughts through a noncorporate site, believe me, you depend on net neutrality.

Please consider joining the Coalition to Save the Internet. Just read the Statement of Principles, and join.

Now that we have a better idea of the make up of the new Congress, we can work to maintain net neutrality with new telecommunications policy. Learn about it now, follow the issue and talk to others, and don’t be caught by surprise when the issue comes up in legislation. While you are at it, see where you Senator stands. If they stand on the side of big telecommunications companies, let them know what you think of that.

• Net Neutrality Showdown roundup of news and issues on c|net.
• Google’s Guide to Net Neutrality.
• Wikipedia article on Net Neutrality includes links to the fake grassroots sites that make this sound like a libertarian hands-off-my-internet issue—funded by telecommunications monsters, of course.I love Wikipedia. I want to kiss it all over.

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The idea of a Department of Peace been around for a while (since George Washington, apparently). There are a couple of organizations working hard to push Congress to address bills on a federal, cabinet-level Department of Peace.

Dennis Kucinich made the Department of Peace part of his 2004 Presidential platform. The “Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act” was introduced in both the House and the Senate last year, and activists expect to see the issue addressed by the new Congress.

Long shot? Probably. Making the switch to a nonviolent approach takes work. One doesn’t just drift into it.

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