The Mormons seem to have made a lot of gay people angry with the California Proposition 8 bidness. And, though the "prayer" involved might turn you a particularly lime-y shade of green (absolutely not one for the easily offended), what a riposte: in response to the Mormon habit of post-mortem baptism to turn the non-Mormon into Mormon, one particular fellow of a lavender persuasion has decided to turn deceased Mormons into the gay. Woah. Wouldn't want to read his email the next few days.
PS–Return of the blog barnacles, baby! They have to do something to give things the glow of meaning. Watch the bumper car action as straw men burst into flame, tangents sprout like kudzu, and "a" leads to "zed" with a scintillating Goldwater-Gingrich moranotropism! Always an embarrassing mash-up of nonsensical excess.
11/21/08
When Lefties attack
Denizens of the far left are often well-informed, reasonable, sometimes wickedly intelligent. But if you stir any pot, something is going to come to the top of the soup that surprises you. Me, I know a thing or three in the firsthand department about Christian fundamentalists, especially of the Southern Baptist stripe.
So I watched in a dismay as the very fine folks over at Daily Kos lost their collective nut about a fairly sophomoric Newsweek article asking if Obama is the Antichrist. It seems clear that the article is meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek. It didn't do a good job of that, but it still seemed clear that was the half-realized intent.
But the Achilles heel of many on the left is earnestness. Once I published a piece of satire in the Advocate praising the complete un-funding of the arts proposed by Republicans in several states. I said we should do the same and instead use that money to fund a missile shield around Smith College. Apparently that wasn't enough of a screaming siren blaring "satire." The artists of the Valley were nearly united in decrying my insensitivity and lack of appreciation for the arts. They were willing to believe the Arts Editor of the Valley Advocate didn't support funding for the arts. (And I've got a Visual Arts degree and two Master's degrees in Creative Writing, for heaven's sake.) Some of them didn't even cease their fervent outpourings once they were informed it was satire. Sheesh.
But anyhow. The Kossacks have similarly roundly denounced Newsweek, writing letters to the editor so unpleasant they echo the reactionary spewings of the far right. Not what I've generally witnessed on such sites, but there it is. It's quite irritating to see otherwise intelligent people rant so rabidly about something they know not of.
My friend Fred Clarkson, whose very fine site talk2action covers such matters well, is probably where one should start in understanding just how deeply dangerous apocalyptic Christians are. They really believe the world is about to end. And they believe it is their duty to take over the country. Sarah Palin is an unbridled moron. But she also is a deep drinker from the well of insane fundamentalism. These folks are making their plans now for her future ascendancy and the complete Christianization of our secular state.
I'm not exaggerating here, folks. Not at all. I wrote about my personal experiences and the extensive ties the Bush administration has to these fundamentalists back in 2003–it's one of the stories I'm proudest to have written. We ignored them and laughed at them for years, and then suddenly they had the ear of the president from 2000-now. From my 2003 article:
Richard Land (president since 1988 of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Capitol Hill lobbyist, friend of Presidential advisor Karl Rove, and now Bush appointee to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom) told the Christian Science Monitor before his nomination, "In the Reagan administration, they took our calls," but with Bush, "sometimes they call us."
They are not going to go gently into that good night. If we ignore them, we will get surprised again. If we pay attention to them, we can fight it. It's all ha-ha funny, all the Antichrist numerology and the expectation of the mark of the beast (now downgraded to 616 rather than 666, according to earlier New Testament manuscripts than were previously extant). But there is serious intent behind it. Certain of these folks, the Dominionists, are in my opinion the biggest danger to our Republic we have so far faced. They want far more than mere secession of the South.
Anyway. Just saying. You owe it to yourself to get informed about these folks. This is in no way a knock on mainstream Christianity–these people are a growing minority that reflects poorly on the rest of us. But we cannot ignore them.
11/18/08
Marvels from the Department of Redundancy Department
Many is the time I've hit the treadmill and figured, "Wouldn't it be really great if I had one of those cool screens they used to have in driving school, where the road unfolds before you just like when you're driving?" But then I got an actual car, and the dream died. Just like my dream of being able to use nothing but Farah Fawcett posters for wallpaper, and my other dream of making a real light saber.
Well, some other geniuses have come up with an idea whose awesome overwhelming genius is awesome and overwhelming. Now you too can hop on your treadmill and simulate running down the street while actually running down the street. The market for this is going to be huge, fellas! And at the weight of this prototype, you can jet around your neighborhood impressing the many ladies in bikinis at two miles an hour or more. The video at the link is a brain-exploding treat–wait till you see the tandem! It's a special relationship just waiting for a speedbump. On the other hand, somebody finally found a use for the 1986 Korg keyboard demo track they've been saving up in the back of the A/V closet for just the right occasion.
This is a bummer for me, because it's really going to cut into the market for my swimming pool boat (seen here in very early testing).
I'm also, just as an aside here, still awaiting delivery of my Moller sky car. Does anybody know anything about that?
11/17/08
Free time amusement for the politically spent
New game for those at loose ends politically: Yes folks, it's Fantasy Cabinet!
Who would you put into play as Secretary of State? Why bother limiting yourself to, like, real people? This is Fantasy Cabinet, after all. Feel free to offer your own suggestions. Perhaps we'll cook up something for the winner–maybe a gift certificate from Leo's Tire and Cheese Shop in Muncie, Indiana.
A few suggestions:
Secretary of Getting the Party Started Right Flavor Flav
Secretary of Defense Space Ghost
Secretary of the Treasury Smaug
Head of the EPA Tom Bombadil (I know, I know, double Tolkien, making me a double geek, but he would be so good at it, as long as he didn't sing too much.)
Secretary of Saturn Sun Ra
More?
11/17/08
