Sunday, February 20, 2005


Richard Misrach
Battleground #1
1999
Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro


4:25:58 PM    comment []

Really, is there a weaker argument against the Founders' intentions as to the separation of church and state than the refrain that the phrase itself doesn't appear in the Constitution? N&R contributor Michael Skube trots it out this morning (unposted). Yawn. I haven't addressed the complete and purposeful secularity of the Constitution in, oh, a week: "This irreligious Constitution -- a forest in which the First Amendment is just the highest tree -- proves most inconvenient to people who want to argue that the Founders didn't intend for there to be separation of church and state."

Skube also nets a red herring about Jefferson being a reference point for advocates of a secular government, pointing out that Jefferson didn't write the Constitution. Right, but ridiculous -- the Constitution wasn't imposed on America by its author, it was approved by the several states. But just for fun, Skube, here's a quote from James Madison, the guy who did write the Constitution: "Strongly guarded as is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States."

Speaking of authorial intent...it's no coincidence that the author removed the religious language from a key source document when writing the Bill of Rights.

Facts is facts, people. You are free in this country to practice your religion in large part because of the separation of chuch and state. Why in the world would you want to pretend that it doesn't exist?


1:04:18 PM    comment []

"I didn't make him for you," as the alien transvestite mad scientist said, and if you are a regular at this page I probably didn't make this morning's newspaper column for you.

I want you to read it, yes I do, but it's really for people who are just discovering blogs, a suggestion of some entry-points through which they may discover what all this noise is about.

The N&R is planning to do some marketing of its web efforts once its new software is in place (soon), and that should do great things for local blogging. In the meantime, columns like mine, and like Nancy McLaughlin's column from yesterday (unposted) are pushing the message out to print readers. Also yesterday, the first letter to the editor I've seen in the paper concerning its blogs.

Here's my beginner's guide to the blogosphere.


9:28:17 AM    comment []

Glocal Man,written by Doug McGill, reports on the nexus of global and local news found in our own communities. (via Jay Rosen)

Greensboro bloggers and reporters could probably break international news without leaving our polyglot city.


8:06:12 AM    comment []

Anton Zuiker wants the UNC j-school to show a little more respect for blogs: "Because you sure wouldn’t know by looking at the j-school's website that the school was a sponsor of the highly successful Triangle Bloggers Conference, where journalism was an important topic of the dialogue."

I've made a similar argument, and been told I don't know what I'm talking about.


7:59:26 AM    comment []

The North Carolina Democratic Party has a spiffy new site, with a bloggy front page and tools for local action.


7:49:53 AM    comment []