Moving to the right

From a story on the internet: "PARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Muslim burqa would not be welcome in France, calling the full-body religious gown a sign of the "debasement" of women. In the first presidential address to parliament in 136 years, Sarkozy faced critics who fear the burqa issue could stigmatize France's Muslims and said he supported banning the garment from being worn in public. "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause at the Chateau of Versailles, southwest of Paris. "The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement — I want to say it solemnly," he said. "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."

It appears that there is movement towards the political right behind the scenes. With either France or Germany taking the lead, Europe will go radically towards the right, while the U.S. moves left. What do I know? Nothing. I'm just guessing.

Church and State again

Well, now the saga between the pope and the newly re-instated bishop and the Jewish council in Israel has escalated to include the German government. Whatever happened to separation of Church and State? The pope has even asked the wayward bishop (in Argentina) to recant, which I'm sure he won't do. This will get dicey for sure, though the Vatican is very good at diplomacy. (See post of January 28 - Bishops and Rabbis)

Gene Roddenberry

Gene Roddenberry was born on this day in 1921. I was doing research on something else when I found this tidbit of information. He was born in El Paso but his family only lived here a couple of years after he was born. He was the creator of Star Trek in the mid sixties and was involved in almost all of the Star Trek movies that came much later. Gene started out as a writer but held different jobs (including one as a policeman in the LAPD) while he waited for his writing career to give him enough money to eat. He was also an airline pilot. Many people have said he was difficult to work with. I never knew him personally. That's not him on the left - that's my grandpa. He was born in the eighteen hundreds.