
11/01/2006, 1:30 p.m. Update: The Memphis stomp reference via the "misuse" link above has been corrected, but the Google cached error remains here. The editor was late on the uptake.
Corker also stopped in Wilson County, just east of Nashville, to support an elementary school that faces a lawsuit for allowing a group called Praying Parents to meet there.
"I think any school would be so pleased to have parents who gather once a month - not in the presence of students - praying to give the faculty and students strength and guidance," Corker said.
"We all know the strength that comes from prayer; I pray 10-12 times a day on the campaign trail," Corker said.
The flaws with Charter Amendment 3 are more serious than you note. The Mayor proposed a selection method for the auditor that would have provided insulation from the political process; the Council amended it so that THEY are the ones who choose the auditor, and stacked the committee so they have more votes. This new auditor will be beholden to the political whims of the Council -- and is anyone happy about that? Watch for a Council Member Near You to be handed the auditor position sometime soon if this passes, as political payback.Now I regret my vote. We do indeed need to keep our eye on how council members line up on the audit committee and who lands the auditor position.
We believe that there's a biblical standard that is set in the Word [a.k.a., Bible], that the gay and lesbian lifestyle is not condoned or encouraged in the Word of God.The problem with this point of view is that Ms. Jacobs, who seems to embrace the Bible as authoritative, is in fact only pulling out certain scriptures to use on her behalf, while ignoring others that do not serve her.
How would we know this? Because first of all she is a woman in the role of a pastor at Trinity Family Church. The Bible she claims to embrace includes the following:
I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression. [St. Paul]So, her very position in her church shows that she ignores some scripture in favor of others.
We also know of her selective use of scripture when she tells News 2 about her church's vision:
Our vision of our church is how to successfully train and teach people to live successfully in their generation.The overwhelming bulk of scripture says nothing about success and more times than not addresses the way that the poor and other social outcasts are treated. In fact, the New Testament tends to characterize success as the path to hell (for example: "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to get into heaven"; and from St. James: "Come now,you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you"). Again, by emphasizing success, this pastor is ignoring large portions of the Bible that consider such accentuation to be perverted.
Here are some other Bible teachings that conservatives tend to ignore:
If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. [Exodus]
Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. [Jesus]
Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none. [John the Baptist]
Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.[Leviticus, which is the same book that religious conservatives like the Columbia pastor quote to condemn interaction with gays and lesbians]
Germantown Partners will be present at a [Wednesday, November 1st, 5:30 p.m.] meeting with the neighborhood to discuss their project at the northwest corner of 5th and Monroe. The architects on the project from Bauer Askew Architecture will be there to present thr project. They will also discuss the details of their current request for variances on that lot.
The Germantown Neighborhood Association will be holding a [Monday, October 30th, 6:00 p.m.] meeting with the developers who are planning the project at the corner of 4th & Monroe. All neighbors are invited.Germantown has down the model for developers meeting with neighbors as they plan their projects.
The developers, Joey Smith and Randy Chastain, have refined the architecture and will present their schematics to the neighborhood.
He also let go unchallenged her definition of gay and lesbian orientation as a "lifestyle," as if being attracted to the same sex was more like choosing between ski boats and less like being subject to hormonal and emotional drives.
The mission of the Water Center is to educate the public about how the precious element of water is collected, used, and often wasted in our contemporary world. Founded by the Cumberland River Compact and sited at the Neuhoff Development north of downtown Nashville, the H2O Center is a living model reflecting the scapes of both the natural and built environments. As a visitors and educational center, the programs include exhibition spaces, a 100 seat lecture hall, offices, a riverfront caf�library [café/library?], and a store for selling merchandise related to the phenomena of water and urban ecologies.
But most importantly, the green roof and it soft undulating geometry literally captures rain water to irrigate the rooftop plant material and to channel water into various pools and small wetland ponds. The low profile building allows the visitor to reflect on the runoff, recycling, reclamation, and consumption of water. Even during dry times, the building circulates both gray and clean water around the interior and exterior spaces, creating a descriptive process of how water moves and is collected.
Last night this school district voted an eight and a half percent raise for the Director of Schools. That’s all the teachers want.
- -MNEA President Jamye Merritt to the Nashville City Paper
While the social conservatives are trying to promote teach-to-test incentives for teachers in order to erode public education, Pedro Garcia's pay raise looks more like a bid by local business community leaders to encourage a corporate model in which salary and job security is scaled up at the top and a few throw-them-a-bone incentives scatter along the bottom of the education food chain. The social conservatives erode public education; the corporate conservatives erode institutional fairness. It's a one-two punch, and further proof that if the teachers do not have a union, then no one else will represent their interests when the School Board divides the pie.Taking up one's cross refers specifically to Rome's instrument of intimidation and execution. It reminds us again that following Jesus' liberating way puts us on a collision course with oppressive regimes and institutions, which will resort to any means necessary to crush resistance. By voluntarily and deliberately facing the prospect of death, one is freed from its power as a deterrent. "Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence," taught Gandhi, "so one must learn the art of dying in the training for non-violence" [Engaging the Powers, 1992].Religious conservatives who bemoan the government taking their tax dollars or who gnash their teeth that public school teachers cannot lead their classes in Evangelical Protestant prayers can only be judged to be speaking metaphorically about being threatened by government. The literal threat of the government taking our inalienable rights and detaining and torturing is now on top of those citizens who oppose the Bush Administration (even on Christian grounds).
The sparse and skeleton-like playground features sit a mere stones-throw from the granite, stainless steel and bamboo custom finishes of Morgan Park Place.
The combination slide & jungle gym looks to be Jetsons-era.
Not exactly Dragon Park.
I think that this is supposed to be a sandbox. It looks more like a trash-burning pit.
Histrionics, exaggerations, and braying political proclamations [of bloggers] are signs of overwhelming self-importance and an easy way to ruin a thirst for knowledge.
- - Reporter Jason Shawhan, who could have just as easily been describing a couple of past Nashville Scene articles I've read
... and as if judging the "Best of Nashville" was not itself a braying exercise in self-importance. Excuse me while I button the flap in my pajama bottoms.The proper operation of democratic government requires ... that members of the metropolitan council in the exercise of their official functions be independent, impartial, and responsible only to the people of Nashville and Davidson County.
- - The Code of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County
And yet, Council Member Jim Gotto is introducing two bills next week that contravene state immigration laws in hopes of lobbying Tennessee's General Assembly to change its laws:Gotto acknowledged these limitations [that his bills if passed cannot be enforced] but said he hoped the measures would still spark dialogue and put public pressure on the state legislature [to change their laws].So, rather than introducing bills based on his legislative responsibilities in Nashville and Davidson County, Jim Gotto is resorting to what we might call "legislative activism," i.e., attempting to use his seat of power to influence the public into lobbying state legislators to follow his own political agenda.