Should God Let Women Drive Cars?

A BIT OF BACKGROUND:  I wrote this brief rant in response to a troubled woman's rights website.  Apparently in Saudi Arabia there is some serious sentiment backed by religious arguments (!) against women driving cars.  Now I've from time to time teased my wife about this subject, ever since she backed into that tree (she claims it maliciously jumped over a few feet and smacked our car).  Still, it is no joking matter in Saudi Arabia, and though I don't live there, I felt compelled to side with these women, who can never experience the thrill of zipping along with the convertible top down and the wind in their hair, much less the ordinary convenience of driving to the market rather than walking, which, in my own personal value system, certainly should be their right.

Looking around me, from what I see, the 'will of God' appears to be everywhere and in every case subject to human interpretation. To my mind this raises the probability that it is not the actual, undiluted will of Almighty God but rather, at least in part, the subjective (even if at times well-meaning) will of the less-than-almighty interpreters.

A belief system that mandates that "all things are by the will of God" is a good one for maintaining the positions of those who are in the perhaps relatively comfortable positions to interpret the Eternal Will; to cite an analogy, their situation is a bit like that of a small select bunch of happy minnows who have somehow convinced the rest of the minnows that they alone have interpreted the will of the great whale.

Laying 'the way things are' on 'the will of God' is one way to set aside the challenges of human growth. If one judges that all good will always be good and all evil will always be evil and there is nothing a person can do, then of course the next leap is to presume the will of God is to have it so. I personally do not think like that. That is not humility. That is supreme vanity far beyond what is allowed a human being, to presume to have absolute knowledge of the will of God in all things.

Now if it is the interpretation of some 'official interpreters' that God has mandated women should not be the lawful equals of men, then of course they should not drive cars. But I am suspicious of this interpretation. And further, in a world where the will of God once was that there were no cars, and now there are cars, how can it be that God willed that only men, the possibly fallible interpreters of God's will, men only may have the privilege to drive them? Forgive my suspicious nature, but this sounds terribly self-serving. Next, are we to believe males only can gather together at will to drink wine and gamble and lust and do other happy things that God has supposedly dictated that only men may do? Are we to believe men, no matter how individually stupid, are to be the masters of women? Why, minnows, why?

I don't think that we are straying from the question of everywoman's right to get behind the wheel of a Ford or a Ferrari, but rather that we are inquiring as to the heart of why things are as they are, half the world living in societies where women are treated less than as equals to men, subject to unspeakable atrocities, and even where some women are forced to seek justifying doctrines for why this must be so.

As for me posting here, I do not think you should put too much faith in my thinking. I am just a simple person, a moderately educated man, true, but just a simple person who looks for common sense solutions to everyday problems. This world we share is not as confusing as it seems, but it is a very difficult time made dangerous by the shrinking globe and the clash of cultures. We are all on a journey of exploration into the unknown. I say to you all, as I do at the end of my radio show, Be thoughtful, be kind, be patient, be true...and be safe comrade travelers...

Begging The Choosers

I suppose all candidates for public office pitch for pennies one way or another.  It's just that I find the continuing stream of Send Money Right Now! emails from Ron Paul particularly annoying.  You want me to vote for you--and for some undefined reason I'm also supposed to give you money?  Mr. Paul is a particularly erudite man on constitutional matters, has America's interests at heart, and is doing better than he's ever done before.  But it would be foolish to send him money, for he is not going to get the Republican nomination to run for President, and he can blame no one but himself.  It's his personality, you see, or rather, his lack of it.  Ron Paul has an eerie resemblance to William H. Macy in The Cooler.  All he has to do is open his mouth and he sucks enthusiasm out of the room.  And he doesn't stop talking until you've forgotten the question.  With the sheer force of his non-personality, he overpowers you to change the channel.or head out into the parking lot to find your car.  The Grand Old Party wouldn't dare put Mr. Paul in a Presidential Debate with President Obama; it would be like throwing some noble stag in tight quarters with a hungry wolf.  Hey, give Obama that--he may not have any real ideas and certainly doesn't have your back, your front or your sides, but the fellow sounds his big, empty drum with all the smug confidence of  a black Alex Baldwin, if you can imagine.  Why do I blather on about my petty annoyance?  Time is short and you already know these things.

Progressive or regressive thinking?.

Talking politics with a liberal is like trying to discuss religion with a bull-headed Baptist or a rabid Muslim.  Believe me, working in show biz, one tires of it.  I've come to realize nobody can make a true believer think logically or clearly.  Emotional thinkers argue from feelings, not reality. They will insist their feelings are the reality.  Since there is no evidence to back such claims, their voices rise, their comments become personal and belittling, and eventually they wander off to find someone of like mind to bind their wounds.  Sometimes the need for survival will provide them a clarifying knock on the head, and occasionally a wandering progressive or religious follower may make it out of the swamp of pure blind empathy, recognize how badly they have been duped, and wander off, completely insane, to howl at the moon.  This new state of mind is an improvement, for it allows hope back in the equation.  

Social Networking

Connectivity is like brackish backwash, a current moving
entire generations toward tribalism.  To my own shame, I have
personally found it easier to be foolish or cruel in a mob.

VIDMAKER 101

That's the name of my new How To manual.  I'm writing it, about 2/3 finished.  It gives away many secrets and tips on how to create professional, award winning, low budget films and videos.

The Friends of Steve McQueen Charity Event JUNE 3-4, 2011

I'm back home  from the Friends of Steve McQueen charity event in Chino Hills.  On Friday night they ran a 15 minute documentary I wrote and produced a long time ago on 'the making of Le Mans', Steve's racing picture.  I gave a brief intro speech talking about Steve's vision of what his film was intended to be, and met Steve's son Chad for the first time since 1970 when he was a young kid on the set in France.  Jonathon Williams, Ferrari racing car driver was there and we renewed our friendship.  (You will hear about him in my book on survival in Hollywood, TINSEL WILDERNESS, in the story Jonathon Williams' Lucky Walnut)  Also, there was a car show and book signing the next morning.   Biographer Marshall Terrill (has written 3 books on Steve) was sitting on my right and automotive historian Michael Keyser on my left.  As I'd contributed slightly to both their works, I was signing their covers right and left.  Down the line Jonathon and Hal Hamilton (actor in the Le Mans movie) and Victor "Quick Vic" Elford, winning race car driver. 

New First TP Article: Come Out Of The Closet!

http://1stturningpoint.com/?p=6431