God's Cruel Joke

Pastor Claims "God's Cruel Joke" Not Funny
TUPELO, MS -- The sexuality of a Christian activist came under attack Wednesday, when two teenagers called Tim Wildmon, "a homo." Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, dismissed the comment aimed at his son as proof of "the breakdown of America's acceptance of Christians," and blamed the comment on the television and the teenagers' parents.

"The liberal media has had a steady flow of harassment, directed at the Christian religion," said Don Wildmon, "it is really nothing new. That's the reason we founded [AFA] in the first place. But, I still blame the parents too."

The observant teens have not been the first to raise the question about Tim Wildmon. Websites such as planetout.com and pridedepot.com have both expressed their appreciation of Tim Wildmon being, "a gay man in a straight man's world." Although, neither site could actually confess to knowing the "true sexual identity" of America's prodigal son, they said they could "simply tell by looking at him."

When asked to comment on his son's flamboyant clothing, lisp, and use of the phrase "you go, girl," Wildmon said "I have no doubt my son's sexuality is in accordance with God's written law, the Bible, and if my son is one of them fancyboys, this must be God's cruel joke on me. But it's not that funny."

Tim Wildmon was unavailable for comment.


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Irrelevant Magazine
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Our Growing Interstate System

I have an old National Geographic (February 1968 -- Vol. 133, No. 2) that talks about the Interstate Highway System in America. It is pretty interesting to see. According to the article ("Our Growing Interstate Highway System"), 65% of the 41,000-mile system was completed as of Feb. 1968. It was scheduled for completion in 1975. "Nationwide, 750,000 pieces of property are being claimed for right or way under the power of eminent domain. Owners usually accept the amount that appraisers consider fair market value. Boards of appeal and the courts are open to those who are dissatisfied."

It is a very lengthy article, but I typed out a small part of it that I find fascinating. I love to read about some of the "cutting edge" ideas of 1968.

Robert Paul Jordan article: Our Growing Interstate Highway System
Signs alone along the Interstates will cost some $200,000,000. Many run more than $10,000 each; particularly large ones, suspended from trusses across several lanes, can cost up to $35,000. One gargantuan example, to be built over the Long Island Expressway in New York City, will cost nearly $50,000.

All signs must be highly visible, understandable, and uniform. Traveling at 60 miles an hour, you cover 88 feet a second, which gives you about 11 seconds to read and interpret a sign 1,000 feet away.

It should be sufficient time. But I have taken enough wrong turns on Interstate Highways to conclude that "signing" is an imperfect art. Surprisingly, federal highway planners agree with me; indeed, they say that signs themselves are obsolescent.

Within a year or two the Bureau of Public Roads will test -- at a cost of three to five million dollars -- an electronic system designed to supplement signs and even road maps. Already successfully demonstrated by manufacturers, it allows a motorist to insert a card coded for his destination into a device in his car. Thereafter, electronic checkpoints beside the road -- each with its own computer -- pick up signals from the car and instruct the driver where and when to turn. Of course, such a system is years away.

Meanwhile, for safety, many states are replacing rigid highway signposts with breakaway signs. When struck by speeding cars, the posts fly up and out of the way, minimizing the impact and resultant damage. Safety tudies by the Texas Transportation Institute led to development of these signs, which are now required for all new federal-aid highway construction.

The institute, along with other groups, also is seeking ways to soften collisions with fixed objects like bridge abutments. Crash-easing devices being studied include foam-plastic barriers, 55-gallon drums stuffed with tin cans, and containers filled with water.

Other devices are in the offing. The head of the country's newest Cabinet department, Secretary of Transportation Alan S. Boyd, described some of them for me: "Multilevel highways -- with trucks using one level, cars another -- will become commonplace in cities. And within a decade I expect dramatic breakthroughs in development of a cheap, useful electronic automobile for local use."

The Cabinet Member charged with overseeing what President Lyndon B. Johnson has called "the web of Union" went on to outline how a simple arrangement of lights on the rear of a car can indicate speed changes to the following driver, reducing spacing by a third. Electronic sensors in roadbelts will signal drivers -- through devices installed in cars -- when they may safely pass other vehicles on curves, hills, or narrow roads.

Still, congestion promises to get worse before it gets better. "I'll speculate," the Secretary concluded, "that within five or ten years we may have to book starting times on some major highways, just as golfers now arrange tee-off times on crowded greens."

It was a pretty expansive article overall, well-balanced in looking at the "benefits" of highway building and some of the problems that urban areas had already encountered thanks to the "power of eminent domain." It is interesting and informative, if a little fantastic at times. I checked National Geographic's site for an online copy of the article to link to, but they didn't have one, unfortunately.

Metaphysical Ethers of Delusion

"Here in my car I feel safest of all..."

I love this guy....

Has the world noted that the conservative establishment in America -- including the always prim George W. Bush and his buttoned-down minions, the heavenly hosts of mass-market evangelism, the zillionaire retired CEO authors of how-to-get-rich books, and the media tub-thumpers like David Brooks of the New York Times -- I repeat, has the world noted that they all preside over the most slovenly, undisciplined, and reckless economy the world has seen since mankind started bathing regularly?

Many are amazed at the levitation of a financial system with no remaining reality-based understructure of value creation. Zero-percent financing. Loans to anybody with a pulse. Instant conversion of hallucinated house value appreciation into speedboats and Hummers, college kids declaring bankruptcy on graduation at unprecedented rates, the explosion of "creative" financial instruments conjured out of the promises of millions to pay back money that they will never earn, and swapped in a spiral of casino-like wagers into metaphysical ethers of delusion -- things like that. I sort of left out the pretend money that Mr. Bush's government itself affects to disburse, and the bond racket linked to that affectation.

We're a country with no discipline, led by fake scoutmasters, moneygrubbing ministers, chiseling accountants, and oversexed schoolmarms. The new national motto: Something for Nothing. The new spiritual capital: Las Vegas.

The rest of James Howard Kunstler's August 8, 2005 journal update can be read here.