Thursday, July 24, 2008

Tiny Turtles Toddle Tentatively Towards Tomorrow

I went to the beach last week. North Padre Island National Seashore. I saw baby Ridley Kemp's Seat Turtles released into the ocean. Away, away! There they go - tiny flailing flippers scurrying down the sand. Run, run, run for 10 seconds, and then stop. Are they waiting to be devoured or are their little bodies just exhausted from covering 1 foot of beach? Then they continue - run, pause, run, pause. They hit the water and off they go into the Gulf.

Into the Gulf where they no doubt met the weather pattern known as Dolly.

I hope they survived.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Just let him shoot the damn gun already!

Pentacostalgon

This is my new word for the day. Apparently the US military has become (or perhaps always was and just now are people realizing it) a bastion of Christian solidarity and fundamentalism. Which, okay I guess I can see how people that may or may not be dying on any given day might want to have faith in a higher power - particularly as the secular higher power sort of sucks since it's sending them out to die - but why that faith has to be Christianity don't really know. And say, perchance, that after 2 tours of duty they decide that maybe they don't have that faith anymore - they realize that it might be their own efforts at self-preservation that saved them instead of fervent prayer or please to the almighty - why can't they just believe that? Why do they need to be harassed or otherwise disregarded for that belief? Does it ruin other people's faith somehow? Is atheism or agnosticism contagious or something?

In any case, apparently this attitude has become SO pervasive in todays military that lawsuits have been filed. That there is a group - the Military Religious Freedom Foundation - which has been contacted by over 8000 people complaining about religious discrimination by the religious right inside the Pentagon. Hence my word for the day: Pentacostalgon.

god(dess) bless America!