COFFEE BREAK 162

+ updated at 2:33pm ESDT on Wednesday, March 31, 2010

+ TruthOut offers "Welcome to Glennbeckistan" by Chip Ward. It begins: "What if the Tea Party ruled? Imagine a land, let's call it Glennbeckistan, where white, patriarchal, religiously zealous, Tea Party-type patriots hold a super-majority in both houses of the legislature, sit in the governor's mansion, and control most local governments. It's a place so out of sync with the rest of the nation that states' rights and even secession are always on the agenda. It's a place where gun-ownership trumps all other rights, climate change is considered an insidious socialist conspiracy, and a miscarriage can be investigated as a potential crime. Welcome to Utah."

+ CNN offers "Christians from political left and right sign 'Civility Covenant'" by Dan Gilgoff. It begins: "A group of more than 100 prominent Christians ranging from evangelical minister Jim Wallis on the political left to Nixon White House aide Chuck Colson on the right released a document Thursday calling for an end to the fight club tone of the national political discourse."

+ Democracy Now! offers "Rage on the Right: Christian Militia Raided in Michigan; Tennessee Skinhead Pleads Guilty to Obama Assassination Plot" in video or audio or transcript format.  Excerpt: "Well, earlier this month, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report called 'Rage on the Right: The Year in Hate and Extremism.' It tracks a major rise in domestic right-wing extremist groups in the United States. According to the report, the number of right-wing militias tripled last year to 127. Two chapters of the Hutaree militia, one in Michigan, the other in Utah, were included on the list. Mark Potok is director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, and that’s where he joins us."

+ I have done more planning for our trip to Germany in June.  See "Germany 2010 -- 7" at The Abundancetrek Travel Blog.

+ Democracy Now! offers "International Uproar over Uganda Anti-Gay Bill, Study Finds American Evangelicals Encouraging Homophobia" in video or audio or transcript format. Excerpt: "In the report that you have done, Reverend Kapya Kaoma, you say in the United States the renewal groups are the problem in the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church USA, the Presbyterian Church USA, US conservative evangelicals and the Institute on Religion and Democracy, the neoconservative think tank that for decades has sought to undermine Protestant denominations’ tradition of progressive social justice work." 

Plutocrats fund the IRD and many of these so-called renewal groups which poison the atmosphere of our mainline denominations.   

+ Spirituality and Practice offers a review of the animated film, My Neighbor Totoro.  Excerpt: "The haunted house is not a scary place filled with terrible creatures but a space inhabited by beings we cannot understand or control. When they make their presence known, they are accepted by Satsuki, Mei and her father. Here the world of spirit is taken seriously, perhaps because of the pervasive influence of Shintoism in Japan where nature and all her mysteries are reverenced."