Diary: Rob's Blog: religion, freedom, Fear, Moneygrubbing

What Kind of God Do You Conceive?
The Baylor religion survey is making big news. We have two links to it in todays newsletter. Keep in mind that it was created by evangelicals. Having created two polls myself (with Zogby) I know how easy it is to influence the result based on the way you ask the questions. For example, the four kinds of god the poll offered survey participants to chose from. They could have had three or five different kinds of god "personalities."

Still, it's an interesting survey worth checking out. To see how different media are reporting on this study, here are the results of a google news search.

"They hate our freedom
That's the refrain Bush keeps saying. What freedom? Freedom to send evangelists to destroy their culture? Freedom to expose their culture to western movies, TV, advertising-- another way to destroy their culture? Freedom to support the dictators and monarchs who prevent democracy in Arab lands? Freedom to foment hate of Muslims among misguided Christian fundamentalists?

George, you dumb lump of guano, they hate us because you and your ilk act like chronic rectal cavities!

Keeping terrorism out of the USA
They brag that there have been no terrorist attacks in the US since 9/11. But if we look at the rhythm of previous attacks, we see that there was an eight year hiatus from the 1993 WTC attack and the 2001 attack. Maybe Bush and his idiot appointees have had NOTHING to do with the lack of further attacks.

OpEdNews housekeeping: Emailing writers
We've changed our system so, to email a writer on OpEdNEws, you have to sign up as a member. The idea is, we're a community. We welcome communication, sharing of ideas, conversation, but we want to make it feel like we're in it together, with a future, not hit and run messages. So, we figure, if you sign up as a member, you'll be more likely to join in more conversations. Also, when you send a message to a writer, the website will ask you if you also want to post your message as a comment. That way, a lot more people will see what you have to say.

So sign up as a member if you haven't yet and start joining in the conversation. Check out Mary Lou Byrd's article. She remembers when the WTC was hit AND when Pearl Harbor was hit.

Thank Steve Jobs
I'm still really incensed over what Disney/CBS did, with their doculie on 9/11. One reader told me Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder of Disney. Interesting.

The solution is not to boycott ABC advertisers. It's to get them to equally advertise on media with a left perspective. With that in mind, I'm starting on a project that aims at helping encourage and support advertising balance. More to come on this. If you have ideas or want to help support this, let me know.

Neuropsychology of Fear
I run a conference on the brain and was talking with a speaker yesterday about one of his talks-- the Neuropsychology of Fear. He observed that fear narrows focus and attention, decreases creativity. No wonder it's one of the main "weapons" in the Republican armament.

The Money Grubbing Part of the OpEdNews E-mail
One new reader accidentally sent me an email meant for a friend, in which he described progressive sites that ask for money as money grubbing.

So be it. We need to have funding to survive. OpEdNews is attempting to increase our monthly budget for software development. How does it manifest-- in images of commenters and writers, icons that make it easier to subscribe to writers, subjects,etc, tools to make it easier to cross post articles on other sites, so you can get the word out further on progressive ideas.

Is it money grubbing to want to be paid for work done? So be it.

Is it money grubbing to believe that the work we do for progressive causes is worthy of your financial support? So be it.

Now, the guy who sent the accidental email apologized when I sent him a courteous reply, and told me he appreciates what we do. But campers, the reality is, we depend on YOU... YOU for our survival. If even one percent of our readers gave us as much as the price of a subscription to Time or Newsweek, we'd be in great shape. But it's not happening yet. But I believe in what we're doing and believe that we'll get there. So I keep doing what I'm doing, and if you consider it to be money-grubbing-- so be it. I could be earning a comfy salary-- or two, since I often put in 16 hour days and then, I wouldn't be money grubbing. Our volunteers-- Amanda, Joan, Russ-- they could be doing other things too. Our fund-raising provides funds to build them better web tools for editing and managing article submissions. OpEdNews is one of the few progressive sites on the web that actually respond to unsolicited article submissions.

So.., here it comes. Ready for the money grubbing? Please help keep OpEdNews strong. Contribute Now.

BTW, if you have noted an ounce of apology for "money grubbing" you're mistaken. Frankly, I got up at 5:30 AM the last two days and came right to my desk to start working on OpEdNews. I work harder, smarter and more creatively when I don't have to worry about paying bills.

Have a great day,

Rob Kall
PS I really didn't have any hard feelings for the guy who accidentally sent me the email.