Isebrand.com

Christians' target practice

Teach 'em young. PromisedLand.com.

Teach what exactly, I'm not 100% sure. But, if you have a Kerry/Edwards '04 bumper sticker on your car, carry any visible contributor appreciation gift from your local Public Televsion station, wear a turban (easily mistaken as Muslim head dress by the likes of Ann Coulter), or speak Spanish as your first language, I'd stay away from the Promised Land just in case.

Oh, and target practice on non-Christian New Yorkers is being alluringly offered by the new Left Behind video game. (No, this isn't a joke. It's for real.)

In NY? Join the gatherings Tuesday night!

After two years of litigation, the final legal stage of New York State marriage cases is being entered: The week of Sunday, May 29th oral arguments begin before NY State's highest court, the Court of Appeals, concerning whether gay New Yorkers have a constitutional right to marry.

In support of gay marraige, there are gatherings across New York on Tues. night, May 30. Please turn out for this show of support if you're near one of the 6 gathering locations.

It is time for all Americans to get behind the commonsense proposition that same-sex couples ought to be allowed to enter into legally-recognized, life-long commited relationships with the same rights and responsibilities expected of married men and women. It's good for the couple, it's good for their extended families, it's good for the economy, it's good for work productivity; it harms literally no one and no thing. It's the right thing to support for an ever stronger and more stable American society.

If you're in New York City, the gathering is at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, 257 W. 88th St (btw Broadway & West End Ave.), 7pm - music, testimonials, meeting our neighbors, call to action.

Bingham Cup

Don't forget, The Bingham Cup, named after 9/11's flight 93 hero, Mark Bingham, is this weekend in NYC. (Image: a photo spread by Kobi Israel from an Attitude article on gay rugby.)

Bush's non-apology = winking @ his base

The BBC World News this morning (EST) was still reporting on Bush's apology on May 25 for using unsophisticated language.

What the BBC is missing in their coverage--mainly because the BBC consists of journalists raised in the UK (or a Commonwealth nation) where education is valued--is that this is no apology at all. The U.S.'s most enduring national characteristic is anti-intellectualism, steeped in part in particular Pauline injunctions that evangelical Christianity is so fond of, and also in the "rugged individualism" mythos and its attendant romanticizing of the "plain-spoken" American frontiersmen. (At least one conservative evangelical admits this...and suggests it's not a good thing.)

When I hear Bush admitting that he used unsophisticated language, I hear him essentially celebrating that fact with his political base--voters who are self-assured not only in the knowledge that Bush is God's chosen president, but that the universe was created in 6 days, gay people are a curable conspiracy, global warming is a lie, and the liberal arts are effectively a form of treason.

1st same-sex wedding for RCMP

Constables Jason Tree and David Connors (in front of their house in Meteghan), will wed on June 30 It will be the first same-sex marriage in the history of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (Photo by Darren Pittman of The Chronicle Herald)

As my friend Wayne said-- It makes you proud to be a North American. : /

Lessons for Victory

Learn about People for the American Way's toolkit, "Lessons for Victory."

Kingdom Coming

I am a Michelle Goldberg groupie.

I read everything I can that Michelle Goldberg writes about the Religious Right. You might have read her articles on Salon.com. You might have followed links from this site or from Religious Right Watch to one of my favorite articles of hers, "Fundamentally Unsound," written in 2002. It's about the Left Behind novels.

Michelle's first book is out, and I urge you to buy it. Buy it, buy copies as gifts for friends and family members, too. It's entitled, Kingdom Coming.

Thank you, Michelle.

Lambda event raised >$1million

According to a contact active with the May 8 Lambda Legal event at Metropolitan Pavilion, more than $1,000,000 was raised--a record for Lambda. Congratulations! Among the evening's Liberty Awards recipients was Prudential Financial. More than 1,000 people attended the dinner.

Making gasoline obsolete

My hometown is in the news. Hydrogen Engine Center Inc. in Algona, Iowa has developed a hydrogen engine named Oxx Power.

Listen to State of Belief on Sunday

This Sunday, May 21, State of Belief on Air America in conjunction with Talk To Action--a site oft-mentioned on Isebrand.com and which I occasionally contribute to--covers the coordinated effort to "undermine mainline Protestantism...and render America's largest denominations incapable of standing up to right wing politics."