Jesus Hearts Healthcare

So I have been thinking. (Yes, yes dangerous I know!)

What have I been thinking about? You might wonder. I have been thinking about how to get healthcare reform legislation passed in this country. No big deal, really.

Obviously, if you have been paying attention to the news you know that the main problem is a very loud, very conservative minority. Turns out all the rational people gave up caveman-like behaviors somewhere around the time the species started walking upright, but a few stragglers have held on through interbreeding with the drunk and stupid to create a hybrid race of humanoids now commonly referred today as the “Republican Right-Wing”

Since we can’t kill em, and we can’t keep them from procreating I suggest using our higher intelligence to trick them into supporting healthcare. How can this be done? The answer lies in the observation of the group itself. Ask yourself this, what do Republicans like more than guns and abstinence education? (Barring celibacy enforced by guns, of course) the answer is Jesus (isn’t it always?)

We are fooling ourselves if we think that religion does not enforce public policy on a daily basis in this country, but where as “Conservative Christians” see it as an ends, I advocate it as a means to an end, a tool, used by logic and strategy to achieve a goal for the betterment of our country. Lets put that well-ingrained Puritan guilt to good use people!

So here is what I propose. Why not depolarize the issue by tying healthcare to Christian morals? That whole “Love thy neighbor” thing sounds catchy.

Or how about

“WWJD…About healthcare?”

SUPPORT IT!

and

Jesus <3 healthy living. Support a public option.

It may not be the most sophisticated strategy, the most ethical, or even constitutionally viable, but sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire. Hellfire, that is.

Fun.

Aim and Ignite

So if you are a regular visitor to this blog, my twitter, or facebook you know that I am a little obsessed with The Format. Of course I was heart broken when they broke-up, but a while ago Nate Ruess announced that he was in a new band and they were releasing an album…well I may be a little late (distractions, what distractions?) in realizing it, but Fun is here! I realized this when I watching AMtv this morning and they showed a bumper with a weathe map (a bumper is a short promo clip between commercial breaks and shows) featuring a voice that was incredibly familiar and a tune that was incredibly catchy. Of course MTV is silly and doesn’t list the artists in their bumpers ANYWHERE, but I recognized Nate’s voice and found Fun (great name!) on myspace and learned that the song is called “Walking the Dog”  and is on their new album Aim & Ignite.

Here are the lyrics:

Walking alone ’cause the night is dead
Crossed my mind when I crossed the bridge

How you lost your mind and your wrist got bruised
And you wanted better love well it’s sleeping in your bedroom
Hold on, stay on my side, don’t go

If you could see me whoever I am
It’s not like the movies it’s not all skin and bones
So come on love(come on, come one, come all and go)
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
I will not let you go

Now I’m walking alone ’cause the night is dead
My feet don’t glide like they did back then
When I would call you up so we could shoot the moon
These days I’m left to howl in tune

Hearts do break and I must admit
I’ve got a better set of chords so I might have been faking it
Think I might have only cried just once

If you could see me whoever I am
It’s not like the movies it’s not all skin and bones
So come on love(come on, come one, come all and go)
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
[ Fun Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ]
I will not let you go

After all the show, after all the boys of summer had gone
Amid all the confusion, these friends I’ve been losing
I always thought from the start I’d be the one moving on
I guess I’ll never know where all the boys of summer will go
But I’ll miss what we made, all the days were not wasted
There are some things I may never know

How you lost your mind and your wrist got bruised
And you wanted better love well it’s sleeping in your bedroom
Hold on, stay on my side, don’t go

If you could see me whoever I am
It’s not like a movie it’s not all skin and bones
So come on love(come on, come one, come all and go)
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
I will not let you go

If you could see me whoever I am
It’s not like a movie it’s not all skin and bones
So come on love(come on, come one, come all and go)
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
I will not let you go

busy semester

busy semester, originally uploaded by Judea Jackson.

This is what my semester looks like. Oh, to be a senior!

The New Face of Philanthropy

Check out this great TED talk by Katherine Fulton on how philanthropy is changing in our networked social world.

more about “The New Face of Philanthropy“, posted with vodpod

“Saved”

I have always had a problem with the idea of people getting “saved.”

What exactly are we being saved from? Ourselves? Some shadow evil? The dark side of the force? The Matrix? Eachother?

yes. no. maybe.

I should be writing a history paper, but for some reason tonight I really just had to think about this. Really sit, and make myself think about it. Like if I didn’t, I would miss it forever.

What if we do need saving from ourselves? Not because human kind is wicked, but because we are scared and lonely and disconnected from what is real. Who cares how we got here, but we are here. What if the whole idea behind this radical concept of  “a loving God” is that it is much easier to believe in ourselves if someone else does too.

Maybe it’s not about loving God, maybe its about A loving God, making it easier to love ourselves. When we love ourselves we value life. We value life in others. We love others. Maybe it’s not about loving others to love God, what if it’s about letting God love us so we can have the guts to feel like if we love others it might be worth something. Not to us. Not to God. To them. No one wants to be loved by losers. Maybe being loved by God gives us a feeling of worthiness to love others. Like we aren’t losers anymore. Like people might want to be loved by us. Maybe I’m just screwed up and I’m the only one who thinks of stuff like this.

But then again, what if I’m not?

“Christmas in June” Pasta

For a hearty, healthy summer dish, great hot or cold, try this savory and sweetly refreshing pasta dish that will have you feeling full and happy with subtle tones of classic holiday spices and fresh summer veggies!

Ingrediants:

About 2 and 1/2 handfuls of feticini noodles OR about 3 cups of bow-tie pasta

1 small tomato ( I prefer Roma for cooking)

I small white onion

1 cup of zucchini choped into 1/4 inch pieces

1 cup of chopped summer squash in 1/4 inch pieces

1/4 cup of dried cranberries

1 egg white

1/2 cup of tomato paste

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of orange juice

1/4 cup of water

butter

about 2 table spoons of sugar

cinamon

oregeno

ginger

nutmeg

sage

salt

Boil pasta

Carmelize onions in butter, sugar, and spices.

add chopped tomatoes, cranberries and 1/4 of the milk

Bring to a simmer

add egg white, stirring continuously

add rest of the milk and the other chopped veggies

stir and cover on low for about 2 min or until the mixture is reduced to a saucy not soupy mix

add tomato paste and orange juice

add a dash of sugar

stir until thoroughly mixed

let simmer on medium until a thick sauce

drain noodles and add to large bowl, cover with chunky sauce

serve with pecan pieces and orange slice on top

Enjoy!

Opening Lines

Okay so I am a very S L O W writer, when I don’t have a deadline. But I am pushing myself to be more proactive with my writing. Because of this I am both revamping old pieces and starts, as well as writing new material. 

A few of the opening lines to various projects are bellow:

 

“Luckily, my parents were hippies before they were Christians.”

AND

“I once knew a girl who fell in love with a chili dog. Okay, I fell in love with a chili dog.”

AND

“I arrived at La Guardia Airport at around 5pm on a Tuesday night in mid December 2004. The city skyline illuminated by the setting winter sun, the glares, bouncing off of shiny buildings, and the harbor and her lady Freedom quickly zoomed in and out of site as the small plane I had hopped in Philadelphia, glided down slowly and with great care, to land shakily, as I suppose is the norm. “

ALSO

“I have always had an independent streak, or in my case maybe it’s a mile.”

THIS TOO

“I’m standing in Egypt, arguing with a man half my height about the daily rate for a camel. How on earth did I get here? “ 

PLUS

 

“My mothers family history is steeped in the deep southern heritage of several decades of Scotch-English immigrant grit and whisky.”

“Her green cargo pants plumed and billowed and folded around her ankles.”

 

“Jim was determined. This would be the year. The year he would finally do nothing.  ”

 

“Eager faced 9^th graders talked loudly of high school ambitions and expectations, while the shyer freshman pretended to be busy by looking in notebooks, or peering into the vastness of book-bags, or sharpening and re-sharpening pencils. “

 

“I always had it figured that I would like Sue Allen White much better with a bullet between her eyes. In 1919 I found out I was dead right.” 

 

“Eons before now….

Chaos, the real, awoke and saw that they were empty, and because of the chaos was creative and destructive they birthed a dark, unknowable, swirling, vibrating, cloud of energy.”

 

“Today I went to the park and sat by the river. Pretending I was a romantic, I let myself soak in the fading sun, its streamers of spring promise waving like a little girl twirling ribbons of light and warmth across the green St. Augustine.”

Summer Reading List

Kurt Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions

Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird

Madeleine L’Engle: Walking On Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

Tom Wolfe: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

The 10 year plan ( ha, funny right?)

Step 1: Graduate from college

Step 2: Get awesome internship/job/assistantship

Step 3: Learn EVERYTHING about photography and design

Step 4: Make rock star friends who let me take their pictures

Step 5: Become a rising super star of the photography world

Step 6: Move to someplace amazing like New York, San Diego, or Portland

Step 7: Get hired by major magazine to shoot a story of the latest installment of Star Trek.  Meet Zachary Quinto at the shoot, try to stay professional despite his obvious flirting, eventually give in to his pursuits on the promise of spock ears of my own and agree to have drinks with him after the shoot. Fall in love over chi lattes talking about The Death if Ivan Ilych, our mutual dislike of Ani DiFranco’s music and subsequent indie guilt, and of course our appreciation for Margaret Burke-White’s photographs.

Step 8: Wedding in a redwood forest.

Step 9: Buy a house in Ocean Beach, San Diego or Provence, France or somewhere equally awesome.

Step 10: Adopt two huge mutts named something like Wordsworth and Joe Namath and/or get started on 5 adorable Scotch-Irish/Jewish kids.

My Generation

It seems as though each generation has something that they really excel at. A defining moment in time where the pinnacle is reached in some way or another, most of the time this is only solidly nailed down by the generations after it, for retrospect is “give me the highlights, only.” The Renascence, though about so much more than just art, is most discussed in reference to it’s impact on visual creativity. Ask anyone what the most lasting impression from 1960’s is, and they will say it was the pinnacle of rock & roll. True, not so “stick it to the man” but rather “why care about the man?” blissful and deliberately executed musical experimentation.

Punk AND Disco were necessary epilogues. Defining the boundaries can only be done by crossing them.

But I wonder, what will my generation go down is history for?

Most people I hear on news shows etc, say that we are the information generation. That what we excel at is generating, organizing, and publishing information on a world-wide scale. But with more and more of the traditional sources, like newspapers, going under one has to wonder if we aren’t generating something other than straight information.

My theory is that we are a generation of commentary. Blogs have become the free press, digital cameras have revolutionized visual reportage, and sites like twitter and facebook are created specifically for self-publishing. Self-publishing commentary not really information. The very question “what are you doing?” is proof enough. I twitter continual throughout my day, sending my little 140 characters of thought, opinion, and the occasional fact through the webverse several times a day. But I have been thinking. If my generation is going down as the best commentators of history, isn’t that kind of missing the point?

We will have the most commentary on the least amount of unique subject matter. They will remember our generation as the generation that talked a whole lot, but said very little.

Case in point- This blog post is a commentary on commentary.