Multi Medium

Purity

Perhaps I’m just imagining it, but the enemies of womens’ choice seem to be a lot more universally opposed to the Nelson “compromise” in the Senate bill than liberal healthcare advocates are to its lack of a public option.  Despite the fact that Nelson is a lot closer to Stupak than No Public Option is to Public Option, and the fact that reconciliation could be used to pass the public option, but not to pass Stupak.

At any rate, I certainly don’t see a whole lot of bishops or Blue Dogs saying, “Come on!  This is a historic once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to roll back women’s rights!  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!”

I really really hated having to choose between choice and the public option, but choosing between choice and forcing people to buy crappy private insurance policies they probably can’t afford to use isn’t very difficult at all.  But one that, amazingly, Obama and the Democrats are still on the brink of getting wrong.

It’s a double epic fail.  Like saying that everyone has to give up their bathroom privileges in exchange for mandatory shit sandwich lunches every day (”But look! Now everyone gets a lunch! Isn’t that awesome?”).

Add comment March 18th, 2010 at 07:25am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Yet another reason why it sucks to be Jesus.

We’re going to need a lot more Jesus.

Add comment March 14th, 2010 at 06:18pm Posted by Eli

Desmond Tutu Is Awesome.

Tutu says what desperately needed to be said, and not just to Africa.  I usually try not to quote an entire column, but, well…

Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity — or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

It is time to stand up against another wrong.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God’s family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

Uganda’s parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.

These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.

Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.

And they are living in hiding — away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said “Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones.” Gay people, too, are made in my God’s image. I would never worship a homophobic God.

“But they are sinners,” I can hear the preachers and politicians say. “They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished.” My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?

The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.

More Tutus, fewer Hagees.  And Warrens.  And Dobsons.  And…

9 comments March 13th, 2010 at 12:36pm Posted by Eli

News Flash For The Vatican

Condom machines don’t encourage teenagers to have sex.

Being teenagers encourages teenagers to have sex.

Add comment March 12th, 2010 at 07:10am Posted by Eli

Were You Aware Of It?

Apparently all Protestants are rich white guys.

Who knew?

Add comment March 11th, 2010 at 09:54pm Posted by Eli

Juxtaposition Of The Day

Today’s NYT Op-Ed page:

It is not unusual for members of Congress to arrange group rentals in Washington to share housing costs…. What is highly unusual, and unjustifiable, is the tax-exempt status as a religious institution enjoyed by a boarding house called the C Street Center that caters to conservative Christian lawmakers.

The $1.8 million townhouse came to public notice last year when three recent tenants — Senator John Ensign; Mark Sanford, the South Carolina governor and former congressman; and former Representative Charles Pickering Jr. — were embroiled in marital infidelity scandals. Mr. Pickering was accused by his estranged wife of entertaining a mistress at the house.

The center soon lost most of its city tax exemption, after District of Columbia officials decided it was a residence, not a church. And now a coalition of mainline Christian ministers is demanding that the Internal Revenue Service end the center’s federal tax exemption and its shield of nontransparency. The coalition is rightly concerned that the center is exploiting, and thereby cheapening, the constitutional protections guaranteed legitimate religious institutions.

The Week profile of Joseph Stack:

Why was Stack so furious at the IRS?
He was apparently busted in the 1980s for claiming his home was a church to avoid taxation — a protest scheme he says cost him “$40,000+” and “10 years of my life.”

Not that I’m trying to compare conservative Republicans to a crazy man who hated taxes so much that he flew his plane into an IRS building, of course.  That would be uncivil.

Add comment March 1st, 2010 at 06:57pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Diety Blogging

Lunch with John The Baptist: Apparently not a whole lot of fun.

Add comment February 28th, 2010 at 04:33pm Posted by Eli

Miss Beverly Hills Achieves The Impossible

…She makes Carrie Prejean look good:

Ashley told Fox News that not only is she against same-sex marriage, but that she thinks it is divine law that gays should be put to death because “the Bible is pretty black and white“:

Carrie Prejean isn’t the only beauty queen open to expressing her objection to same-sex marriage. Miss Beverly Hills 2010 Lauren Ashley is also speaking out in support of traditional nuptials.

“The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman. In Leviticus it says, ‘If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.’ The Bible is pretty black and white,” Ashley told Pop Tarts.

“I feel like God himself created mankind and he loves everyone, and he has the best for everyone. If he says that having sex with someone of your same gender is going to bring death upon you, that’s a pretty stern warning, and he knows more than we do about life.”

Despite her strong words about homosexuality, Ashley also told Fox that she “has a lot of friends that are gay,” and that there’s “no hate between [her] and anyone.”

Why is it that I never hear any gays or minorities saying that some of their best friends are bigots?  I mean, there are more than enough bigots claiming to be friends with them…

2 comments February 25th, 2010 at 07:18am Posted by Eli

Texas School Board: Mission Accomplished!

Looks like all that hard work on shaping textbook content is really paying off:

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

(…)

• 38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”

• Asked about the origin and development of life on earth without injecting humans into the discussion, and 53 percent said it evolved over time, “with a guiding hand from God.” They were joined by 15 percent who agreed on the evolution part, but “with no guidance from God.” About a fifth — 22 percent — said life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time.

• Most of the Texans in the survey — 51 percent — disagree with the statement, “human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.” Thirty-five percent agreed with that statement, and 15 percent said they don’t know.

• Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don’t know.

That’ll do, Texas School Board.  That’ll do.

(h/t WT)

2 comments February 17th, 2010 at 09:29pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity is Confronted By Paradox.

Add comment February 14th, 2010 at 05:27pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Apparently the human brain isn’t upgradable.  Shame about the flash memory being so expensive; if Mr. D could have just waited a few more years…

Add comment January 17th, 2010 at 12:45pm Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Month

Pat Robertson is an inhuman monster:

Today on his 700 Club television show, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson highlighted the tragedy and said that his network will be there “to help the people.” However, he then tried to offer an explanation for the earthquake, blaming Haiti’s own people for once making a “pact to the devil”:

ROBERTSON: [S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.

(…)

This is the same person who said that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had a stroke in 2006 because he was “dividing God’s land” and claimed that God sent Hurricane Katrina as punishment for the country’s sins, such as legalized abortion.

…And, of course, the same person who couldn’t agree with Jerry Falwell fast enough when he blamed 9/11 on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays… and the ACLU”.  So apparently his first response to a great tragedy is not compassion for the victims, but rather to try to figure out who God must be punishing.

Can someone point me to the chapter of the Bible where Jesus reacts to some human tragedy by saying, “Nyah nyah, they brought it on themselves”?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Anyone?

I also like the little “True story” he threw in there about how the Haitians “got together and swore a pact to the devil.”  So either he was there, or he has really old videotape of it, or Satan bragged to him about it personally.  Or perhaps he just doesn’t distinguish between voodoo rituals and Satanic pacts.

In any case… yeah.  What a horrible, horrible un-Christian little man.

If you would rather throw the Haitians some help instead of blame, you can give via Save the Children, Unicef, TransAfrica, the AFL-CIO, Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti, and of course, the Red Cross.  And in what I believe is a brand new technological innovation, the latter two actually allow you to make small quick donations via text message: If you text “Yele” to 501501 or “HAITI” to 90999, $5 or $10 (respectively) will be charged to your phone bill to contribute to the relief effort.

Add comment January 13th, 2010 at 09:40pm Posted by Eli

Uganda Reveals Christian Right’s True Colors

You may think Prop 8 was a huge triumph for the fundie homophobic right, but it appears that they view it as a consolation prize compared to how they really want to deal with “the gay agenda”:

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

(…)

One month after the conference, a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result, has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.

Donor countries, including the United States, are demanding that Uganda’s government drop the proposed law, saying it violates human rights, though Uganda’s minister of ethics and integrity (who previously tried to ban miniskirts) recently said, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights.”

The Ugandan government, facing the prospect of losing millions in foreign aid, is now indicating that it will back down, slightly, and change the death penalty provision to life in prison for some homosexuals. But the battle is far from over.

Instead, Uganda seems to have become a far-flung front line in the American culture wars, with American groups on both sides, the Christian right and gay activists, pouring in support and money as they get involved in the broader debate over homosexuality in Africa.

I can certainly understand gay activists doing everything they can to help fight against this, but it’s absolutely despicable that so-called Christians are sending money to support this kind of heartless evil.  Oh, but wait – it’s all just a big misunderstanding, they had no idea that the Ugandans would actually take them seriously, they totally love gay people:

The three Americans who spoke at the conference — Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several books against homosexuality, including “7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads “healing seminars”; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality” — are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.

“I feel duped,” Mr. Schmierer said, arguing that he had been invited to speak on “parenting skills” for families with gay children. He acknowledged telling audiences how homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals, but he said he had no idea some Ugandans were contemplating the death penalty for homosexuality.

“That’s horrible, absolutely horrible,” he said. “Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people.”

You see?  They may believe that gays are immoral pedophiles who want to convert children to their satanic lifestyle… but some of them are really very nice!  Well, I’m sure that makes all the difference in the world, and I look forward to some of these anti-gay fundamentalists going back over to Uganda to explain that executing or imprisoning people just for being gay just goes way too far… unless, of course, they think it’s a-okay.

Add comment January 5th, 2010 at 11:39am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging – Holiday Edition

Mr. Deity presents conclusive evidence that magic is real.

Add comment December 27th, 2009 at 11:15am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Just because you can punk Pat Robertson, doesn’t mean you should.

2 comments December 20th, 2009 at 03:10pm Posted by Eli

Nice Try, Religious People.

See if you can spot the flaw in their reasoning:

Leaders of the group, called the Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care, met with Lieberman on Monday but said he maintained his opposition to the public option.

Their latest attempt to lobby the senator will appear in newspapers across the state today, an advertisement featuring a letter from Norwalk Rabbi Joseph Ron Fish describing the imperative of multiple faiths to seek the welfare of everyone, particularly the meek and vulnerable. The advertisement includes the signatures of 240 Connecticut religious leaders and will argue that Lieberman must support “real reform” as a matter of conscience, according to the group.

(…)

One religious leader, the Rev. Joshua Mason Pawelek, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society in Manchester, said he hopes the advertisement, along with the work of other groups lobbying Lieberman, will convince the senator to reconsider his position on the public option.

“Hopefully he will get the message that his constituency … supports health care reform,” Pawelek said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday. “Hopefully he would understand that and have his heart moved and change his mind.”

Joe’s constituency isn’t the people of Connecticut, it’s Aetna and the health insurance industry.  You know, the people his wife is a professional lobbyist for?

2 comments December 10th, 2009 at 11:23am Posted by Eli

Rick Warren, Defining Christianity Down

What a truly repellent excuse for a human being, much less a Christian:

Now Warren’s on the defensive again, this time for his affiliation with Martin Ssempa, a Ugandan pastor who has endorsed proposed legislation in Uganda that makes certain homosexual acts punishable by life in prison or even, in some cases, death. Ssempa has made appearances at Saddleback and has been embraced warmly by Warren and his wife, Kay.

In October, Warren distanced himself from Ssempa and the Ugandan legislation, saying, “Martin Ssempa does not represent me; my wife, Kay; Saddleback Church; nor the Global PEACE Plan strategy,” a reference to Warren’s work in the developing world and Africa in particular. “In 2007 we completely severed contact with Mr. Ssempa when we learned that his views and actions were in serious conflict with our own.

(…)

But Warren won’t go so far as to condemn the legislation itself. A request for a broader reaction to the proposed Ugandan antihomosexual laws generated this response: “The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations.” On Meet the Press this morning, he reiterated this neutral stance in a different context: “As a pastor, my job is to encourage, to support. I never take sides.” Warren did say he believed that abortion was “a holocaust.” He knows as well as anyone that in a case of great wrong, taking sides is an important thing to do.

So Warren thinks abortion is  “a holocaust,” but when it comes to some madman advocating imprisonment and execution for gays, or actively facilitating the spread of AIDS, he suddenly decides that it’s not his affair and he shouldn’t take sides?

I guess Warren considers fetuses to be more precious than actual gay people – I wonder if he’d be okay with aborting gay fetuses.

Add comment December 1st, 2009 at 07:19am Posted by Eli

Grotesque Irony Of The Week

How. Dare. They.

Citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to civil disobedience, 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples.

“We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says.

These bastards actually invoked Martin Luther King’s name in their mission to oppose civil rights.  That’s even more monstrous than Dick Armey studying Saul Alinsky.

Add comment November 20th, 2009 at 10:49pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Death is a bit disgruntled, apparently.

4 comments November 15th, 2009 at 02:04pm Posted by Eli

They’re Called “Representatives” For A Reason…

Bishop Tobin seems a little unclear on the concept.

Look, if Kennedy’s constituents are pro-choice, then Patrick Kennedy is not doing his job if he opposes it.  Remember when his Uncle John had to reassure the American people that we would be his boss, not the Catholic Church?  Isn’t that still what we want from our elected officials, that they’re accountable to the voters first and foremost?  If Kennedy’s constituents don’t want freedom of choice, then they can vote him out.

Add comment November 12th, 2009 at 06:44pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

It’s like the Mr. Deity version of Who’s On First:

And by “First”, of course I mean “Golgotha”.

Add comment November 1st, 2009 at 12:50pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity’s science adviser suggests a time-saving (or at least labor-saving) alternative.

Add comment October 18th, 2009 at 11:21am Posted by Eli

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

No, really, this sounds like a brilliant idea…

The guys at Conservapedia (aka, “the trustworthy encyclopedia”) have launched a project to retranslate the Bible, because, they say, “liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations.” They want to “replace liberal words like ‘labor’” with terms conservatives like better, and “explain the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning.” This takes crazy to a whole new level.

Maybe they’ll explain how when Jesus said “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”, what he really meant was “Thou shalt tell thy neighbor to go fuck himself and get a damn job.”  That is, assuming Jesus even makes the cut.  I’m expecting one of the conservative Bible “translators” to say something along these lines:

After we studied it for a while, we finally realized that we could achieve about 90% of our objectives by simply removing the New Testament.  We took an informal poll amongst ourselves, and found that none of us ever really liked that sissy Jesus crap anyway.  Except Revelations, which totally stays.  That shit is THE BOMB.

Add comment October 7th, 2009 at 07:24pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity goes over Adam’s wife contract.

I never realized the side effects were so… alarming.

Add comment October 4th, 2009 at 11:57am Posted by Eli

The Crazy Goes Up To 11!

Wow, this sounds like an awful lot of batshit in one building at the same time:

Conservatives gathered at a Hilton hotel in St. Louis over the weekend for the “How to Take Back America Conference,” a Phyllis Schlafly-hosted gathering where the faithful gathered to discuss issues such as “How To Counter The Homosexual Extremist Movement,” “How To Stop Socialism In Health Care” and “How To Recognize Living Under Nazis & Communists.”

Among the prominent speakers who traveled to St. Louis for the conference were former Arkansas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Republican Reps. Tom McClintock, Tom Price, Steve King and Michele Bachmann, and “Joe the Plumber,” aka Samuel Wurzelbacher.

(…)

Schlafly went on to suggest that Americans are “waking up” and that they don’t want “our country to be run by czars,” which she called “a Russian idea.” She said of her organization, Eagle Forum, “fighting feminists is still our main object,” arguing that feminism is “the most destructive force in the world.

(I sure hope the agenda features a debate between Schlafly and Jerry Boykin, who said that “there is no greater threat to America than Islam”…)

On the conference’s Web site, there is only one section available under the “listen & take action” tab: “HOMOSEXUAL EXTREMIST MOVEMENT.” There, Liberty University School of Law Associate Dean Matt Barber writes that “the sin of homosexuality is the bunker-buster bomb in this war against morality.”

“The very firm response by defenders of Biblical truth to the homosexual lobby’s relentless assault on our nation’s Judeo-Christian tradition is indeed a defensive reaction, not an act of aggression,” he says. “The sheer mechanics of homosexual conduct very naturally elicits revulsion in most rational folk. Therefore, most of us would prefer not to even imagine it, much less struggle to defend against its wholesale promotion. But regrettably, our hand has been forced.”

Oh, and Mike Huckabee wants to jackhammer away the part of Manhattan with the UN on it and float it out to sea.

It never ceases to amaze and terrify me that there are millions of people who take these backward freaks seriously.  Has America always had this many crazy/stupid people, or did the GOP somehow perfect the science of wacko husbandry?

(h/t WT)

2 comments September 28th, 2009 at 08:56pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Skeptic Michael Schermer appeals his… assignment.

Add comment September 20th, 2009 at 09:35am Posted by Eli

WWJPFTDO? (Who Would Jesus Pray For The Death Of?)

This is just beyond appalling – I don’t understand how declaring that you hate Barack Obama and want him to die of cancer can be considered Christian in any way.

A Phoenix-area pastor has started to draw protesters to his congregation after he delivered a sermon titled, “Why I Hate Barack Obama,” and told his parishioners that he prays for President Obama’s death.

Pastor Steven Anderson stood by his sermon in an interview with MyFOXPhoenix, which reports that the pastor continues to encourage his parishioners to join him in praying for the president’s death.

“I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today,” he told MyFOXPhoenix on Sunday. He called his message “spiritual warfare” and said he does not condone killing.

(…)

In Anderson’s controversial sermon, delivered at his Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe before Obama arrived for a speech in Phoenix earlier in the month, the pastor said he wants the president to “melt like a snail” with salt on it.

“I’m gonna pray that he dies and goes to hell when I go to bed tonight. That’s what I’m gonna pray,” he told his congregation.

(…)

The Anderson sermon also drew concern after it was reported that one man carrying an assault rifle outside the Phoenix arena where Obama spoke was a member of Anderson’s church.

Anyone recall any liberal pastors praying for Dubya to die of cancer?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Anyone?

Add comment August 31st, 2009 at 09:53pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity shows Lucy the awesome gifts he’s giving his people.  Believe me, we couldn’t be more grateful.

Bonus Larry/Deity interview at the end.

Add comment August 23rd, 2009 at 03:40pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Jesus has a bit of trouble reconciling the four Gospels, plus a very helpful public service announcement on how to find extra money.

2 comments July 26th, 2009 at 01:25pm Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Hooray for magic!  And ignorance!

Add comment July 12th, 2009 at 01:03pm Posted by Eli