podcasting in Morgantown

As you know, for the last several weeks I have been talking about how I am entering the studio today to start the sessions for the podcasting of my works.

I pick up the Dominion Post this morning (Morgantown's only newspaper) and lo and behold...there's a big article in it about the dearth of podcasts from Morgantown.

Irony or sign from God? Maybe both.

(laugh)

Anyway, I'll make sure to include Morgantown as one of the search arguments when I post the podcasts. And, considering the volume of material available to me, if anyone wants to sponsor future 'casts, drop me a line...I'm always willing to accept $$$. Logical sponsors would include bookstores, churches and adult novelty shops.

Had a brief discussion around the breakfast table about politics and religion as it relates to abortion. My Mom, God love her, took the position that no Christian can support abortion. Having read the Bible a few times, I added that no Christian can support war or the death penalty. This did not go over well. (laughing) What can you do?

I have yet to meet someone who can quote, in context, anything in the Bible that attacks abortion...but Jesus himself condemned violence and even disarmed his disciples in the face of imminent threat in the Garden of Gethsemane (turn the other cheek? anyone remember that? I do. Yes, it isn't very pragmatic if your goal is a healthy stock market and a new car, but Christianity is the most demanding of religions. Not because of rituals and rules, but because to follow the path is almost 180 degrees opposite to our natures, which are selfish and violent).

Guess it comes down to whether or not I want to follow the lead of a handful of millionaire TV evangelists in subverting the very Constitution that protects them from taxes, or God. Tough choice, hm? For too long we have been taught that our conscience is the voice of God, which it is not. Then, it is a matter of a simple leap of faith to tell people that their gut instincts are the voice of God (protect the unborn, kill Muslims)...which they aren't. I do not honestly believe that, if I were a woman, I could have an abortion. But, you know, I don't drink, never have, but I don't firebomb distilleries or tell the victims of date rape that it was their own fault if they were drinking.

On that divergent topic, a small vent. There was a local band called the Moonset Quartet that put out CD that was well-reviewed by the student newspaper at West Virginia University, the Daily Athenaeum (who have been very kind to me over the years)...but there was a song on the CD entitled "Night on the Town" about a girl geting date-raped. The DA mentioned that song but referred to it as being about a "one night stand". WTF? Have we become so inured to the notion of date rape in our society, particularly on the collegiate level (I think FX is planning a new competitive relaity series entitled "Date Rape Challenge" where your goal is to sexually assault as many women as possible each week...they guy with the fewest "conquests" goes home, the one with the most, at the end of the series, gets a raging case of herpes, a case of Coors and 5-15 in federal prison, where he can have "one night stands" daily) that we consider it equivalent to consensual sex? As I recall, the reviewer was also a woman, which makes this glaring mistake even more comment worthy.

To quote the great (before he went raving conservative) Dennis Miller, "stop me before I subreference again".