Oh, I have a new favorite HGTV show, too -- Freestyle! They just rearrange the people's existing stuff. Cool.

My concern is the political power of the religious right although really the concern isn't so much for the religious agenda as it is for the pro-corporate agenda that is riding it. I do worry about attacks on contraception, sexual education, science education, gay rights, and censorship but I don't think that the religious right has been all that successful in those areas. What they have done is help elect people who have gotten us into a unnecessary war, ballooned the deficit, weakened environmental laws, expanded executive power to crazy levels, and generally set the country back IMO.

I'll add something to this - the successes that they've had in the religious agenda - contraception, sexual education, science education, gay rights, and censorship, as you say, are issues where, long-term, they're losing. I don't mean that they're not having some success right now - I'm a bit less sanguine about that than you are, I think. And I think the short-term (10-20 year) consequences may be awful.

But. Frankly, on these issues, they're on the wrong side of history. They're panicked and hysterical about these issues for a reason. It's the less obvious stuff, the things that require a little more understanding and thought, the things that are tied in to the most rapacious elements of capitalist economics, that really hold the danger. Splitting those two strains apart is possibly the most important thing facing us today.

I like Freestyle too -- and I've been enjoying this Design, Inc show because they show the design process really well, I think.

Will someone come clean my house for me?

Will someone come clean my house for me?

Yes! If you pay them. I've just found one that does the ironing too. How cool is that?

Oh, ION, I just discovered that my firm's employees include the world champion bog snorkeller. I feel so proud.

Hmm. My firm's employees include...well, we drink alot. Does that count for anything?

Interesting discussion.

I do worry about attacks on contraception, sexual education, science education, gay rights, and censorship but I don't think that the religious right has been all that successful in those areas.

They've been pretty successful on contraception and sex education, I think. How many school districts still teach sex ed? Kat, Kristin, does LAUSD still teach it? My friend says Santa Monica schools don't. And then there's passing laws to allow pharmacists to not dispense Plan B, even getting people to discuss Plan B as an abortifacient, not contraception, etc.

They've been pretty successful on contraception and sex education, I think.

Heh. I'll have more information on this in a few weeks, since it's what my persuasive essay for school is about (yay, school!), but I do know, from what I've found, that from 1996 to 2006 (IIRC), federal funding for abstinence only programs had quintupled, while the same sort of funding for comprehensive sex-ed has remained the same.

(Still working on sentence structure. I should do that tutorial right about now.)

How was your interview, Aimee?