Thursday, October 21, 2004

Redeem the Vote To counter the influence of MTV's Rock the Vote, Christian evangelicals have formed Redeem the Vote, a just-as-hip campaign (Don't believe me? Check out the photos on the site.) to encourage Christian evangelicals to vote this November. And guess who they've recruited for promotionals? President Bush's re-election campaign is getting a boost from powerful Christian groups, which are enlisting entertainers such as actor Jim Caviezel of "The Passion of the Christ" to cajole millions of evangelicals into voting. One of the newest groups is Redeem the Vote, the religious community's answer to MTV's secular Rock the Vote. The group is touring battleground states with Christian rock groups and voter-registration drives that organizers say are putting the fear of God into Sen. John Kerry's supporters. "This is really scaring Democrats," said Redeem the Vote founder Randy Brinson."This is major, major news that the major media have ignored because we're not liberal." Mr. Brinson persuaded Mr. Caviezel, the actor who portrayed Jesus in Mel Gibson's hit film, to appear in a Webcast imploring Christians to vote. Although Mr. Caviezel never explicitly endorses the president, his message is designed to remind Christians that Mr. Bush shares their opposition to abortion, judicial activism and homosexual "marriage." "In this election year, Americans are faced with some of the most important issues in the history of our country," he said. "In order to preserve the God-given freedoms we each hold dear, it's important that we let our voices be heard." Perhaps Rove can get him to promise to perform some miracles in exchange for their participation in the election. Postscript: Did you catch the quotation marks around marriage in the penultimate paragraph of the quoted passage? 2:02:52 AM    comment [] Electric toads Scientists recently concluded the Global Amphibian Assessment, and the results serve as a warning sign for the rapid decline of the environment: The world's amphibian species are under unprecedented assault and are experiencing tens of thousands of years worth of extinctions in just a century, according to the most comprehensive study ever conducted. . . Over the past three years, scientists analyzed the distribution and conservation status of all 5,743 known amphibian species -- which include frogs and toads, salamanders, and caecilians. Of these, 1,856 -- or 32 percent -- are now considered threatened with extinction. In addition, sufficient data are lacking to accurately assess the status of nearly 1,300 other species, most of which scientists believe are also threatened. Amphibians are widely regarded as "canaries in the coal mine," since their highly permeable skin is more immediately sensitive to changes in the environment, including changes to freshwater and air quality. "Amphibians are one of nature's best indicators of overall environmental health," said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International (CI). "Their catastrophic decline serves as a warning that we are in a period of significant environmental degradation." In reading the depressing news, I was reminded of the concluding chapter of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: "What do you have in the box, Rick?" "A toad." "Can I see it?" She watched as he untied the box and removed the lid. "Oh," she said, seeing the toad; for some reason it frightened her. "Will it bite?" she asked. "Pick it up. It won't bite; toads don't have teeth." Rick lifted the toad out and extended it toward her. Stemming her aversion she accepted it. "I thought toads were extinct," she said as she turned it over, curious about its legs; they seemed almost useless. "Can toads jump like frogs? I mean, will it jump out of my hands suddenly?" "The legs of toads are weak," Rick said. "That's the main difference between a toad and a frog, that and water. A frog remains near water but a toad can live in the desert. I found this in the desert, up near the Oregon border. Where everything had died." He reached to take it back from her. But she had discovered something; still holding it upside down she poked at its abdomen and then, with her nail, located the tiny control panel. She flipped the panel open. "Oh." His face fell by degrees. "Yeah, so I see; you're right." Crestfallen, he gazed mutely at the false animal. It seems the day of electric toads approaches. . . 1:40:58 AM    comment []

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