Newly reelected Judge Roy Moore is back in his old seat as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, where he can declare that lesbian women should be put to death to his heart’s delight. He went on a wingnut radio show recently and declared that evolution is to blame for the alleged destruction of …
Monthly Archive: December 2012
Dec 26 2012
The All-Powerful Personal Anecdote
One of the hallmarks of the fundamentalist mindset is a reliance on anecdotes rather than evidence. They love their stories, especially fake conversations, and they cling to them like they were made of gold. Here’s a classic from young earth creationist Ken Ham:
Dec 26 2012
‘Prophets’ Admit Election Mistake
Prior to the election we had a steady string of “prophets,” most of them association with the New Apostolic Reformation, offering a steady stream of dreams and visions that showed them that Romney would defeat Obama. Now that it’s over, they’ve got some splainin’ to do. Rick Joyner, you’re up:
Dec 26 2012
Rios Uncovers Important Conspiracy
A new front has been opened in the War on Christmas and the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios has sniffed it out. Those sneaky Democrats have been pushing important legislative battles in Congress at Christmas time to distract people from the baby Jesus:
Dec 25 2012
Merry Christmas
A friend asked me a couple days ago if I had any profound thoughts about life and death during the last week as I faced open heart surgery. I said that while I’d like to say that I had discovered Christopher Hitchens-style insights during my travails, the answer is no. I was certainly terrified but …
Dec 25 2012
War on Christmas? Yep, It’s the Jews
You knew it had to come down to this, right? If there’s a war on Christmas, you just knew that it was the Jews behind the whole thing, running it all from their seats of extraordinary power in the banking and entertainment industries. But Burt Prelutsky can say that, because he’s Jewish:
Dec 25 2012
Boehner’s Embarrassing Night
I’m a little late with this; you might have noticed I’ve been a bit busy. But even through a haze of morphine, it was fascinating watching Rep. John Boehner’s thoroughly humiliating attempt to pass a bill that would raise tax rates only for those who make more than a million dollars a year.
Dec 25 2012
No, Video Games Do Not Cause Violence
In the aftermath of every major episode of violence, we get the inevitable explanations trotted out anew. Perhaps the dumbest and least supported claim is that violent video games and movies cause people to be more violent and provoke such spasms of murder and mayhem. Nope.
Dec 24 2012
Saying Goodbye to Robert Bork
While I was in the hospital, Robert Bork died. Perfect timing. I have made no secret of my dislike of Bork. I consider the nation to have dodged a huge bullet when he was kept off the Supreme Court in 1987. He would have been Clarence Thomas to the third power, the most dangerous and …
Dec 24 2012
Inequality and the War on Drugs
Conor Friedersdorf has a bone to pick with David Frum, one of his fellow voices of relative sanity among conservatives, on the question of the war on drugs and its clearly disproportionate effect on the poor and minorities. Frum is confused by those who are concerned about inequality but want drugs legalized:
Dec 24 2012
The Media Hack List is Out
I like Alex Pareene’s annual list of media hacks. I like it because it’s as objective as such analyses can be, going after hacks on the right and the left, and because it also rightly goes after those middle-of-the-road, play-it-straight beltway analysts who can be relied on to say next to nothing and pretend it’s …
Dec 24 2012
Aww. The Breitbart Kids are Fighting
This could make a good segment on wingnut on wingnut crime. Right wing loon Dana Loesch — truly one of the most vile voices on the right, rivaling Ann Coulter — is suing Breitbart.com, demanding that she be released from her contract and given $75,000 for not publishing her stuff and not allowing her to …
Dec 24 2012
College Admin Loses First Amendment Appeal
You may remember the case of Crystal Dixon, a human resources administrator at the University of Toledo who was fired for writing an anti-gay op-ed column for a local newspaper. She filed a First Amendment lawsuit, lost at the district court level and now the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld that ruling. You …
Dec 23 2012
If I Had a Million Dollars…
After my open heart surgery on Tuesday, my brother had a brilliant idea. He said, “This is your big break. All you have to do is claim to have seen a bright light or talked to Jesus in a near death experience, write a book and you’d be a big star immediately and make a …
Dec 23 2012
How Can You Help?
I’ve had many people ask how they can help in my recovery from open heart surgery. First, you’ve already helped just by caring about me and being part of this community. So thanks for that. About 20 years ago, my stepdad had a quadruple bypass and my mother sat in the waiting room with the …
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