natalie's narrative

Justice Ginsburg rocks

I just read over the Supreme Court decision that came down yesterday regarding the New Haven Caucasian firefighters' discrimination lawsuit.  I especially liked Justice Ginsburg's dissent and her reference to "empathy."  She is great!  Although, I may be affected by the fact that one of her former clerks taught my constitutional law class last semester!

Can't stop listening...

...to The Rescues' Crazy Ever After.  Love love love this album and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it! 

 

Guns and the gospel of peace

I read an article today about a pastor encouraging his parishioners to bring their guns to a church service tonight (contingent on the pastor finding a new insurance carrier, as their current one canceled their coverage for today!!).  

This flies in the face of what Jesus said were the two greatest commandments.  I cannot reconcile supporting gun rights with loving your neighbor.  A different pastor who was shot in a different church while preaching is completely disgusted by the pro-gun pastor's actions, and commented:

“I don’t understand how any minister who is familiar with the teachings of the Bible can do this,” he added. “Jesus didn’t say, ‘Go ahead, make my day.’ ”

I heart I Heart Huckabees

I just finished watching I Heart Huckabees.  It was weird but funny.  I loved the dinner scene with the Christian family and the Sudanese refugee!  "Jesus is never mad at us if we live with Him in our hearts."  Tommy Corn: "I hate to break it to you, but He is - He most definitely is."  If you ever want to watch an offbeat, philosophical film that skewers our society, I recommend this film.  The Shania Twain element was cracking me UP!

Now I'm not so embarrassed...

...about reading the Twilight series and watching the movie over and over.  The final scene of the movie includes an Iron and Wine song!  They are one of my favorites. 

Twilight and the telenovas my husband and I watch are the two things of which I don't allow myself to perform a feminist critique.  One of these days I'm sure I can enjoy a good story without getting miffed about how women are portrayed...

I'm orange

The Accidental American

I read The Accidental American by Rinku Sen and Fekkak Mamdouh earlier this year.  It's about Fekkak's journey of immigrating to the US, working in the restaurant industry, and organizing immigrant workers to fight for their rights, but it's also about immigration in general.  Although a bit disorganized, the book does provide one of the most succint and helpful explanations of why we are in this situation today, especially with regard to immigrants from Mexico.  I still have a copy if anyone would like to read it.

Racewire has a video up of Fekkak.  It can be found here.  I like his comment that we cannot ship the restaurant jobs to China.  A lot of our jobs have been moved elsewhere, where the pay is less and the labor conditions are less stringent.  But it is impossible to ship labor in the hotel/restaurant sector, construction, and other service industries overseas, which is why we need to be vigilant about making sure workers are not being exploited.

What a post-fundamentalist will not be teaching her children...

This is awesome.