my fondest memories of the Fourth of July are when my family would go see the Cleveland Orchestra at their summer home, Blossom Music Center - the giant clam-like amphitheatre:) - they'd play Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, among bombastic things - and then at the end, there were fireworks - when i was a toddler, i screamed and screamed during them - but, as i got older, i enjoyed them immensely - i still do - i never forget what they signify, but i love fireworks - if NZ didn't have Guy Fawkes day, i'd miss them entirely:)

thie article below has some info about this US day of celebration that you may or may not know

it's storming here - hope it doesn't rain on any of your fireworks across the ocean:)

6-30-01

Top 5 Myths About the Fourth of July!

By HNN Staff

#1 Independence Was Declared on the Fourth of July.

America's independence was actually declared by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776. The night of the second the Pennsylvania Evening Post published the statement: "This day the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States."

So what happened on the Glorious Fourth? The document justifying the act of Congress-you know it as Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence-was adopted on the fourth, as is indicated on the document itself, which is, one supposes, the cause for all the confusion. As one scholar has observed, what has happened is that the document announcing the event has overshadowed the event itself.

When did Americans first celebrate independence? Congress waited until July 8, when Philadelphia threw a big party, including a parade and the firing of guns. The army under George Washington, then camped near New York City, heard the new July 9 and celebrated then. Georgia got the word August 10. And when did the British in London finally get wind of the declaration? August 30.

John Adams, writing a letter home to his beloved wife Abigail the day after independence was declared (i.e. July 3), predicted that from then on "the Second of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival." A scholar coming across this document in the nineteenth century quietly "corrected" the document, Adams predicting the festival would take place not on the second but the fourth.

#2 The Declaration of Independence was signed July 4.

Hanging in the grand Rotunda of the Capitol of the United States is a vast canvas painting by John Trumbull depicting the signing of the Declaration. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams wrote, years afterward, that the signing ceremony took place on July 4. When someone challenged Jefferson's memory in the early 1800's Jefferson insisted he was right. The truth? As David McCullough remarks in his new biography of Adams, "No such scene, with all the delegates present, ever occurred at Philadelphia."

So when was it signed? Most delegates signed the document on August 2, when a clean copy was finally produced by Timothy Matlack, assistant to the secretary of Congress. Several did not sign until later. And their names were not released to the public until later still, January 1777. The event was so uninspiring that nobody apparently bothered to write home about it. Years later Jefferson claimed to remember the event clearly, regaling visitors with tales of the flies circling overhead. But as he was wrong about the date, so perhaps he was wrong even about the flies.

The truth about the signing was not finally established until 1884 when historian Mellon Chamberlain, researching the manuscript minutes of the journal of Congress, came upon the entry for August 2 noting a signing ceremony.

As for Benjamin Franklin's statement, which has inspired patriots for generations, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall hang separately" … well, there's no proof he ever made it.

#3 The Liberty Bell Rang in American Independence.

Well of course you know now that this event did not happen on the fourth. But did it happen at all? It's a famous scene. A young boy with bond hair and blue eyes was supposed to have been posted in the street next to Independence Hall to give a signal to an old man in the bell tower when independence was declared. It never happened. The story was made up out of whole cloth in the middle of the nineteenth century by writer George Lippard in a book intended for children. The book was aptly titled, Legends of the American Revolution. There was no pretense that the story was genuine.

If the Liberty Bell rang at all in celebration of independence nobody took note at the time. The bell was not even named in honor of American independence. It received the moniker in the early nineteenth century when abolitionists used it as a symbol of the antislavery movement.

If you visit the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, encased in a multi-million dollar shrine (soon to be replaced by an even grander building), a tape recording made by the National Park Service leaves the impression that the bell indeed played a role in American independence. (We last heard the recording three years ago. We assume it's still being played.) The guides are more forthcoming, though they do not expressly repudiate the old tradition unless directly asked a question about it. On the day we visited the guide sounded a bit defensive, telling our little group it didn't really matter if the bell rang in American independence or not. Millions have come to visit, she noted, allowing the bell to symbolize liberty for many different causes. In other words, it is our presence at the bell that gives the shrine its meaning. It is important because we think it's important. It's the National Park Service's version of existentialism.

As for the famous crack … it was a badly designed bell and it cracked. End of story.

#4 Betsy Ross Sewed the First Flag.

A few blocks away from the Liberty Bell is the Betsy Ross House. There is no proof Betsy lived here, as the Joint State Government Commission of Pennsylvania concluded in a study in 1949. Oh well. Every year the throngs still come to gawk. As you make your way to the second floor through a dark stairwell the feeling of verisimilitude is overwhelming. History is everywhere. And then you come upon the famous scene. Behind a wall of Plexiglas, as if to protect the sacred from contamination, a Betsy Ross manikin sits in a chair carefully sewing the first flag. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is where Betsy sewed that first famous symbol of our freedom, the bars and stripes, Old Glory itself.

Alas, the story is no more authentic than the house itself. It was made up in the nineteenth century by Betsy's descendants.

The guide for our group never let on that the story was bogus, however. Indeed, she provided so many details that we became convinced she really believed it. She told us how General George Washington himself asked Betsy to stitch the first flag. He wanted six point stars; Betsy told him that five point stars were easier to cut and stitch. The general relented.

After the tour was over we approached the guide for an interview. She promptly removed her Betsy Ross hat, turned to us and admitted the story is all just a lot of phooey. Oh, but it is a good story, she insisted, and one worth telling.

Poor Betsy. In her day she was just a simple unheralded seamstress. Now the celebrators won't leave her alone. A few years ago they even dug up her bones where they had lain in a colonial graveyard for 150 years, so she could be buried again beneath a huge sarcophagus located on the grounds of the house she was never fortunate enough to have lived in.

So who sewed the first flag? No one knows. But we do know who designed it. It was Frances Hopkinson. Records show that in May 1780 he sent a bill to the Board of Admiralty for designing the "flag of the United States." A small group of descendants works hard to keep his name alive. Just down the street from Betsy's house one of these descendants, the caretaker for the local cemetery where Benjamin Franklin is buried, entertains school children with stories about Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration, who is also credited with designing the seal of the United States. We asked him what he made of the fantasies spun at the Betsy Ross house. He confided he did not want to make any disparaging remarks as he was a paid employee of the city of Philadelphia, which now owns the house.

The city seems to be of the opinion that the truth doesn't matter. Down the street from the cemetery is a small plaque posted on a brick building giving Hopkinson the credit he rightly deserves.

As long as the tourists come.

#5 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Died on the Fourth of July.

Ok, this is true. On July 4, 1826, Adams and Jefferson both died, exactly fifty years after the adoption of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, which the country took as a sign of American divinity. But there is no proof that Adams, dying, uttered, "Jefferson survives," which was said to be especially poignant, as Jefferson had died just hours before. Mark that up as just another hoary story we wished so hard were true we convinced ourselves it is.

Have a Happy Fourth!

so, keep in mind a few things

1. i am a huge sci-fi/fantasy geek - and proud of it
2. i would rather be made to listen to "Ice, Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice for 12 hours straight than watch a minute of the Sex and the City movie - alternatively, you would have to pay me a minimum of the price of one pair of Carrie's Manolo Blahniks (i can buy a lot of books with that - for me or to give away) before i'd watch the whole movie - and then i'd still need to detox with a Star Trek: The Next Generations marathon, or Firefly, or Babylon 5, or Stargate: SG-1, or the extended versions of all three LOTR movies in a row, or Farscape, or even the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (clocking at over five hours)

my rant at the end will not be so surprising to any of you who know me

Iron Man (2008)

Iron Man, directed by actor and director, John Favreau is a slick and well-paced ride from beginning to end.  Favreau has never directed a picture on this action scale before, having previously worked on movies such as Elf and Zathura: A Space Adventure.  It is to his credit that he cast Robert Downey Jr. to play the title role.  Downey Jr. certainly embodies Tony Stark a brilliant inventor, unapologetic weapons manufacturer, and billionaire playboy, who finds his conscience and makes a really freakin' cool robo-suit out of necessity after he is captured by a fighting faction in Afghanistan, who is apparently using "his weapons" to blow people up.  Well, that's in addition to the American military, who is already using “his weapons” to blow people up in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

 
While the whole playboy billionaire thing seems to be popular, wishful-thinking fodder for comic book writers to base their superheros on (Batman, Green Arrow, etc.), Downey Jr. brings something new to this role, and is rather magnetic (no pun intended).  He is emminently watchable - full of brashness, humour, arrogance, intelligence, and charm.  Robert Downey Jr. really made the movie.

 
The fantastic Terence Howard plays a military man and Stark's best friend.  I quite enjoyed seeing him on screen, and I expect he will have a bigger role in the upcoming sequels.  The last time I saw, rather, heard Jeff Bridges was as the surfing guru in the animated Surf's Up.  I enjoyed him in Iron Man as well. (I think the baldness was a new look for him, and it worked for him here.) In addition, I would like to mention that I was quite impressed with the Pakistani/American actor, Faran Tahir, who played the leader of the guerilla faction in Afghanistan (also sans a hair on his head).  He was definitely a presence, and will be seen next in JJ Abram’s upcoming Star Trek movie.

 
If there is one problem I have with the movie, it is with the female characters, which were sadly underdeveloped and disappointing.  These two women fell into the very convenient, but hardly original categories of “madonna” and/vs. “whore” - characterizations far to simplified and shallow for what they could have been.  The intrepid reporter, Christine Everhart, played by Leslie Bibb of TV's Popular and Crossing Jordan, actually is the woman who asks Tony Stark the "hard questions", but is treated rather harshly by the writers (and, therefore, by Stark's female personal assistant), simply because of the fact that she sleeps with Stark on the “first date”.  Of course, Pepper might simply have been jealous.  Gweneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, Stark's personal assistant, or as I like to call her, his anachronistic "Girl Friday", who supports her "Mr. Stark" through all his dastardly military dealings, never once questioning anything until he has his change of heart (again, no pun intended).  Apparently, what is most important about her is that even though she is completely besotted with him, she keeps her legs welded shut till the bitter end and beyond.  But, she still manages to keep the snarky comments to a maximum.  Also, color me annoyed to notice copious shots of her spiky footwear (product placement, anyone?) throughout the movie - while she goes on a dangerous fact-finding mission, and even during the climactic battle.  Why does Hollywood rarely put a woman in sensible shoes during the action in such a movie?  Yes, that's a rhetorical question.  But, please, it's just plain idiotic.  In addition, Pepper whines so much about why Stark has to go out and risk his life, be a hero, and save the world, that I could only wonder if the writers have ever attributed such traits as honor, sacrifice, or valor to women.  I have, and I was not amused.  I look forward to the day Hollywood, again, can turn out female characters in the action movies I wish I could be entirely proud of.

However, despite this rant, Iron Man is highly enjoyable and not a movie to miss, especially if you are a fan of the action/superhero genre, or of Robert Downey Jr.

Don S. Davis From 'Stargate SG-1' Dies

Davis was a co-star during the first seven years of "Stargate SG-1." As a result of a medical condition, he cut back to making guest appearances on "SG-1" until the show wrapped at the end of its 10th season.

He also brought Gen. Hammond to several episodes of "Stargate: Atlantis."

His final franchise appearance will be in the upcoming direct-to-DVD film, "Stargate: Continuum," scheduled for release on July 29.

He appeared in numerous films, including "Far Cry," "Woodshop" and "Vipers," all of which are in post-production.

He guest-starred on several television shows, such as "Supernatural," "The Dead Zone" and "Flash Gordon."

Davis met fellow Stargate star Richard Dean Anderson during work on "MacGyver" when Davis served as a stunt double for Dana Elcar.

He was born in Aurora, Mo., in 1942, and served in the U.S. Army. An accomplished artist as well as actor, Davis married Ruby Fleming-Davis in 2003. They were residents of British Columbia.

His family released a statement that said "so many of you have been touched by not only the work and art of Don S. Davis, but by the man himself, who always took the time to be with you at the appearances he loved, that it is with a tremendous sense of loss I must share with you that Don passed away from a massive heart attack on Sunday morning, une 29.

"On behalf of his family and wife, Ruby, we thank you for your prayers and condolences. A family memorial where Don's ashes will be scattered in the ocean will take place in a few weeks, and should you wish to, please make a donation to the American Heart Association in Don's memory."

"Stargate: Atlantis" executive producer Joseph Mallozzi told reporters during a conference call July 1 that Davis would certainly be missed.

"He had a bigger heart and was even nicer than the Hammond character that he played," Mallozzi said. Fans "would approach him in the sense that they were approaching Gen. Hammond. but once they got to know him, they got to know Don Davis, a very warm-hearted, incredibly self-deprecating man, who sadly will be incredibly missed by not just the fans, but anyone who worked with him."

MANY THANKS TO ebtblue - i poached the below from her blog

i read - a lot - i mean - i read a ridiculous amount of books - ever since i learned how, i've been staying up at all hours of the night reading - i don't think i ever got a full night of sleep when i was in school - i'm very much still a book fiend - i've been known to take out 12 books from the library and read one a day - some things never change - and, i wouldn't want them to:)

1st - my favorite books of all time

The Song of the Lioness Quartet - Tamora Pierce
The Trumpet of the Swan - E.B. White
Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
How to Travel with a Salmon and other Essays - Umberto Eco
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan

i don't really pay any attention to which books are on the NYTimes whatever or anything - and i mostly read Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mysteries, Historical Fiction, and then anything else i may find interesting - here's the top 100 as determined by the National Endowment for the Arts (US) - do we have books in common? - don't worry about doing the check things and stuff - it's not mandatory - tell me about some of the books on this list that you've read and what you thought about them

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Put an asterisk * next to the books you'd rather shove hot pokers in your eyes than read
5) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.

6) i put an exclamation mark ! after those books i read and would rather poke out my eyes with a hot poked than read again, because i read books over and over again when i do like them

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible !
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell *
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald !
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky !
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy *
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden *
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding !
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan *
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez !
61. *Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov *
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville *
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce *
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath !
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom !
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad !
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

um... apparently, the British did this 1st - this is the the BBC's The Big Read - a list determined by votes from it's viewers - fun to compare the list - you guys don't have to do this:) - just want to know what you think of any, some or all of the books on either list

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller !
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell *
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald !
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goonight, Mr. Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy *
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
61. Noughts and Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden *
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding !
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind *
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman in White,Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce *
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake  (i saw this BBC miniseries - Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was amazing in it!)
85. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vickey Wilson, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo *
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez !
98. Girls in Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

the goal is to fast for 40 days and pray for 100 days

for a ban on gay marriage

sorry, when i did pray (granted, that was a long time ago) it was for GOOD things to happen to me, or to other people - NOT for bad things to happen to other people - that would be wrong

this is wrong

Pastor Jim Garlow is planning to mobilize ministers and their congregations in California to fast and pray for a ban against gay marriage, in response to the recent California Supreme Court decision

California has reached a place where "our culture got in such a mess" that gay weddings are happening.

really - i grinned so widely when i read the news about the court's decision, that my face hurt - because, now, one of my very best friends in the whole wide world (who lives in California), can have a wonderful day, just like i did over a decade ago

oh, the lengths to which people will go! - oh the sacrifice! - STARVING THEMSELVES simply in an effort to keep gay people from getting married

a call to arms

frankly, i hope they all get really, really sick

haven't they heard?

Karma's a Bitch

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-pastors26-2008jun26,0,5293276.story?track=ntothtml

San Diego County pastor rallies clergy against gay marriage

By Jessica Garrison
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 26, 2008

Eight years ago, when an initiative to ban gay marriage was on the California ballot for the first time, Pastor Jim Garlow of the 2,500-member Skyline Church in San Diego County barely mentioned it from his pulpit.

But same-sex marriage wasn't legal then. This time around, he said, will be different, and he hopes other ministers will agree.

On Wednesday, Garlow took a first step toward organizing clergy in the state, convening a conference call in which more than 1,000 ministers, most from evangelical congregations, discussed tactics for passing a fall ballot initiative that would amend California's Constitution to ban gay marriage.

The strategy session, which included input from lawyers and political consultants, was the opening of what conservative religious leaders hope will become a massive Christian outpouring of support for the proposed amendment.

The effort will include a 40-day fasting period leading up to election day, along with 100 days of prayer. On the weekend before the election, Garlow told the ministers, the goal would be to fill Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and other amphitheaters with people praying for a ban on gay marriage.

Opponents of the amendment were quick to downplay the significance of Wednesday's call to arms.

"There are certainly thousands of people of faith who are supportive of the freedom to marry," said Kerry Chaplin, the organizing director for California Faith for Equality, a coalition of more than 2,000 faith leaders and congregations supporting same-sex marriage.

Although some religious leaders, particularly Catholics and Mormons, were involved in passing Proposition 22, the 2000 initiative that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman and that was overturned by the state Supreme Court in May, strategists predicted a much greater involvement by evangelical churches in this election.

"We are working with all the churches who are willing to work with us," said Frank Schubert, the campaign manager for the initiative. "It's woven together to form what we hope will be the largest grass-roots campaign in California history."

Organizers said the ministers on the call lead congregations totaling about 1 million people.

The dueling messages of the state's clergy reflect passionate divisions in many faiths about the question. But in the political arena, there is no question that opponents of same-sex marriage will rely heavily on religious leaders to carry their message about marriage and to mobilize their congregants to vote.

Although pastors cannot urge parishioners from the pulpit to back specific candidates for office, the law does allow advocacy for legislation or initiatives. Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony and six Roman Catholic bishops in Southern California have already issued a statement opposing same-sex marriage.

Political analyst Tony Quinn said the involvement of the pastors could be significant, especially because many conservatives are relatively disengaged by the election this year. "This . . . could bring people to the polls that would not otherwise vote. The churches can do that," he said.

Several ministers said they felt inspired by the coming political campaign.

"Maybe we can have an impact that will actually affect our state, and California affects the whole country," said Pastor Scott Pearson of the 1st Baptist Church in Taft. He set up a speaker phone in a Sunday school classroom and invited 10 other ministers to listen in.

At times, Pearson said, he feels like his "circle of influence is pretty small." After all, he said, Taft is "just one little town in the Central Valley." But the conference call made him see that he could be part of a broad movement.

That is what Garlow and other conference call organizers had hoped would happen. Garlow, who provides radio commentary to 629 stations each day, said he began the call by saying that religious leaders in California need to do more to move the larger culture and to express "repentance" that California has reached a place where "our culture got in such a mess" that gay weddings are happening.

The goal, he said, "is to create a climate, a culture of fasting and praying for our state.

you know, while i am not surprised that this stuff is happening in the US, i was hoping that that NZ would not be interested in dumbing down their students - "Intelligent Design" is not science - it is religion - and as such, should not be taught in school, period the end of it

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4599856a10.html

Christians challenge teaching of evolution

A Christian group promoting intelligent design theory over evolution has sent teaching material to schools that critics say is religious propaganda and sloppy pseudoscience.

The Education Ministry says the unsanctioned material does not breach the Education Act and there are no plans to ban its distribution.

But officials stress the theory of evolution underpins the science curriculum and schools have a responsibility to teach theories that are subject to accepted scientific scrutiny.

Focus on the Family has sent The Privileged Planet CD and booklet to 400 high schools, asking that they be made available to science teachers and school libraries.

Waikato University biological sciences senior lecturer Alison Campbell says the material champions creationism - the belief that God created the world as described in the Book of Genesis - claiming the universe is too perfect to have been produced by chance so must be the work of an intelligent designer.

It represented a religious viewpoint, she said, not a scientific one, and had no place in science classrooms.

"It's an underhand way of getting creationist material into schools."

Similar debate in the United States led the Supreme Court to ban public schools from teaching creationism. In 2005 a court banned the teaching of intelligent design at a Pennsylvanian high school.

Focus on the Family's executive director Tim Sisarich said the material was intended to expose pupils to an alternative theory of cosmology.

"We're a Christian organisation so we believe that God made the planet and God made the cosmos ... Science takes a theory and tries to establish it as the truth, and that's all this is."

Education Ministry senior manager Mary Chamberlain said parents had a right to withdraw children from religious instruction.