A quick update and a quick rant

Again, for you "Produce Department" fans, all episodes have been located as well as some great extras for the DVD. No idea when it'll be completed, but hang in there. It is everything you ever thought it was and worse. I think I have a temporary neck spasm from all the cringing I've done watching these tapes.

Completely unrelated, check out this article from the New York Times Magazine that a friend passed along.

I'm not in any position yet to agree or disagree with anything the writer said. Heck, I won't even be in the same country. But for those of you worried about our increasingly "socialist" tendancies here in the US, you ought to give this article a serious look and consider the following point:

There is another historical base to the Dutch social-welfare system, which curiously has been overlooked by American conservatives in their insistence on seeing such a system as a threat to their values. It is rooted in religion. “These were deeply religious people, who had a real commitment to looking after the poor,” Mak said of his ancestors. “They built orphanages and hospitals. The churches had a system of relief, which eventually was taken over by the state. So Americans should get over ‘socialism.’ This system developed not after Karl Marx, but after Martin Luther and Francis of Assisi.”

I am constantly irritated with this rush to label increased social-welfare as "socialism." Call it what you will, but refusing to help your fellow man strikes of serious hypocrisy from a group often (but not always) associated with "Christian values."

I am on the verge of a serious rant here. But it is late and I need some sleep. I also don't want to alienate anyone. At least not yet, anyway. If you get a chance to read that article, feel free to share your thoughts here.