The Christian Extremists Behind Roy Moore.

Right Wing Watch has a comprehensive rundown of all those backing Roy Moore. In case you don’t remember Moore, here are two posts from last year, when Moore made a mess of his career at the time: one, two. Now that Moore is running for a senate seat, the religious reich is fervently backing him.

…Some better-known Religious Right groups, including the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council, have recently gone all-in for Moore. He has also been getting serious financial support in the form of outside spending from groups like Ken Cuccinelli’s Senate Conservatives Fund and from Alabama activist Stan Pate, who has been funding ads attacking Strange.

And Moore has also quietly been getting support from some of his most extreme allies, who see him as a chance to give their Christian nationalists views the biggest megaphone yet:

Michael Peroutka is a local Republican politician in Maryland who has used wealth from a set of debt-collection businesses to bankroll Christian nationalist causes across the country, most notably by funding the career of Moore. Peroutka has funded Moore’s Christian nationalist ventures and political campaigns for decades; he gave Moore’s Senate campaign $2,500 in June and his wife Natalie gave the same amount in early August, each nearly maxing out on their individual contribution limit for the initial Republican primary.

Peroutka is a former member of the neo-Confederate League of the South—he quit when the association started to cause him trouble in his campaign for office. As recently as 2012, he was on video leading a League of the South gathering in a round of “Dixie,” which he calls the “national anthem”; in a 2004 speech to the group, he said he was “still angry” that Maryland didn’t join the Confederacy and said that his daughter had the nickname “Beth Booth,” as in “John Wilkes Booth.”

Peroutka, who runs a group called the Institute on the Constitution, advocates an extreme form of Christian nationalism, saying for instance that the Maryland legislature had ceased to be a legitimate governing body when it violated “God’s law” by passing a marriage equality bill. Last year, he presented on his theocratic view of the law to Operation Save America, an extreme anti-choice group that is trying to get government officials to defy laws on abortion rights and ultimately charge women who have abortions with homicide. (OSA has its own relationship with Moore, which we discuss below.) Along with his longtime support for Moore, Peroutka has helped to fund the campaigns of Tom Parker, Moore’s protégé on the Alabama Supreme Court, who has been trying to establish a legal framework for extreme anti-choice “personhood” laws.

Rusty Thomas, the head of the extreme anti-choice group Operation Save America, contributedjust over $200 to Moore’s campaign in three separate contributions in July and August. Although Thomas’ financial contribution is relatively small, he has been a stalwart ally to Moore throughout his tribulations on the Alabama Supreme Court.

In the summer of 2015, as Moore attempted to fight the Supreme Court’s landmark marriage equality decision, he accepted an award from OSA at the group’s gathering in Montgomery, telling them that “America is under attack” as it moves away from God and adding, “I’m sorry but this country was not founded on Muhammad. It was not founded on Buddha. It was not founded on secular humanism. It was founded on God.”

Moore responded to criticism of his association with OSA by saying: “You know, some told me ‘you know they’re a radical group.’ I said yeah. They are radical for God.”

Like Peroutka, Thomas and OSA promote the theocratic worldview that laws that they perceive to be ungodly are null and void. OSA’s main text for this belief is a book called “The Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates” by OSA activist Matt Trewhella, one of the anti-choice radicals who signed a statement in the 1990s declaring the murder of abortion providers to be justifiable homicide; in presenting the award to Moore in 2015, Thomas prayed that God would use him to “set an example for lesser magistrates throughout the United States of America that it’s time to say no to the federal beast!”

That’s just a little bit. There’s video, many links, and background on these supporters, including Anita and Mat Staver, Steve Hotze, Ken Eldred, and Eugene Delgaudio at RWW. I think a bit of fear is setting into the religious reich at this point, about how long they may have their stooge in office. Their efforts are seriously ramping up when it comes to getting as many religious reich fanatics as possible into government positions.

Glenn Beck’s Revolutionary Design.

Glenn Beck has an excruciatingly long facebook post about his revolutionary redesign of GB everything. By golly, no one has ever thought of this, in all of history, no sir. And no one has ever done this, either, nope! I get the feeling that Glenn doesn’t read much.

In between speeches, conversations in MA this weekend, I am working with the content and product team on last minute adjustments for THE BEGINNING of a new way to deliver news and information on theBlaze.com.

We are soft launching a new front page and a new approach to news Monday.

SOMETHING NEW

I want to get out of the “news and opinion” business and focus on “facts and perspective”.

News is breaking. Let others be first. I want to be driven by facts. I want us to be right and without the hype.

Facts are solid and must be our foundation if we are going to survive as a culture.

Opinion, is something that literally everyone has. Not all opinions are thought out, backed with facts, or even valid. In fact most are not. Some are just flat crazy and are dangerous.

Everybody knows that their opinion needs to be SHOUTED louder or more brutal if they are to be heard over all other opinions. “I am right and you will listen”.

Louder, meaner, crazier.

Perspective, on the other hand, is not something that everyone can offer. It is an invitation to look at an event from a new and unique way. “Have you looked at it from this angle?”

Opinions are shouted. Perspective is ‘offered’

An offer to engage in an intellectually honest and vigorous conversation based on the facts.

WORD GAMES?

Perhaps it is subtle to most but not to me and I hope not to my team. It isn’t just word play. It is a different way to write, speak and behave. To succeed we can’t just say it, we have to live it every second of everyday.

We have been working hard all summer and have had to turn this thing 180 degrees in approach – there is no one modeling this so we all are hoping we get it, but it is going to take us a couple of months. (Thus, the soft launch.).

That’s just a bit of the post. As you can see, Glenn is just boggled that there is absolutely no modeling of this type of approach, not anywhere, ever. This whole perspective business, it’s completely new! A point of view isn’t at an opinion, no, and it’s not possible for anyone to shout their perspective, because it’s so darn different from those angry opinions! I hate to break it to you, Glenn, but everyone has perspective on everything, and it’s generally expressed a zillion times a day by a zillion peoples. I’d offer Glenn a dictionary, but I’m not sure he’d know how to use it.

The full revolutionary process is here.

Oh Yeah, World’s Gonna End. Again.

We have until the 23rd this month, people. We’re all scared to death, right? Right? :yawns: Personally, I’d be thrilled if this bit of the christian mythos were true, bye christians! Unfortunately, the christian god(s) remain a no show.

Joe My God has this completely covered, and if you feel like rotting your brain a bit, here’s a video:

Sunday Facepalm.

Bill O’Reilly went to Breitbart to opine about us awful lefties and promote his latest book, which I hope will end up remaindered. Bill seems to think that the whole business with confederate statues is tied up with the constitution.

On this morning’s edition of “Breitbart News Daily,” O’Reilly spoke about his new book about the American Revolution before pivoting to discussing progressive protesters who have recently called for cities and states to remove Confederate monuments in the wake of a violent white supremacist Alt-Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month.

Oh my. So O’Reilly fancies himself a historian now. That book has to be one gigantic near-fatal eyeroll. I’ll have to content myself with imagining the unholy mess it will be, because I’ll never read it.

“There’s no question in my mind that it’s the Constitution that they ultimately want to overturn,” O’Reilly said. “The statues are just a wayside to get to the Constitution.”

“They never say it, but that’s what it is,” O’Reilly continued. “The statues are just symbols, and I said very early on when I saw this controversy in Charlottesville , ‘Hey, it’s not going to stop with Robert E. Lee or the Confederate generals.’ This is going to go into the fabric of our country.”

Actually, Bill, they don’t have anything to do with one another. That said, other countries have never had a problem with updating their versions of constitutions, recognizing that times change and progress marches on in spite of people like yourself. That’s a mark of a healthy society. Instead, in this country, there’s an extreme sickness called constitution worship, which makes it damn near impossible to update the worn out, fucked up document at all. Any healthy society would look at it and say “yes, it’s time for changes, let’s get that re-write done.” I don’t have the least bit of trouble envisioning those who wrote it going back over the years, and deciding it was time for a change (Thomas Jefferson wanted it to be torn up every 19 years*). I doubt they thought anyone would be stupid enough to preserve it for hundreds of years. And yet, here we are, with a most outdated document, which politicians ignore and constantly sidestep, unless someone they don’t like is doing the same, then they scream about their constitution love. Right now, there’s an argument before the court which says that wedding cakes deserve first amendment rights, but queer people don’t. I think that’s a fair indicator that it’s time for the constitution to go, because it’s used the same way christians use the bible – it’s there to be twisted into supporting every evil viewpoint they can come up with, it’s there to support hate.

As for the “fabric” of our country, well, when fabric is old, worn, frayed thin, with a zillion holes in, it’s time to replace it. Any idiot ought to be able to grasp that one, including you, Mr. O’Reilly.

Via RWW.

ETA: Apparently, this is Constitution Day. A flag wavin’ holiday no less. Point fuckin’ proved. Christ.

They Aren’t Laughing At Me Now!!1!!

Jim Bakker’s Yuck in a Bucket.

Jim Bakker seems to be under the impression that no one is laughing at him anymore. It won’t take very long to dispel that notion.

“These things, when God does them, God doesn’t fool around!” Bakker bellowed. “Yesterday, I almost lost it. You know, for the last several years, preachers—even in this city—and evangelists have beat the you-know-what out of me and made fun of me because we store food.”

“They preach about it,” he claimed. “Whole revivals just preaching about Jim and Lori, ‘Ha, ha, ha, they’re storing food, that stupid Jim Bakker.’ I just came from the flood zone! Nobody was laughing at me! They all wanted the crazy preacher’s food!”

“When the crisis comes, you people that are ready, your kids that laughed at you won’t laugh any more,” Bakker added. “And I want to tell you something: You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

I had no idea your fellow christians were beating the shit out of you all the time, Jim. You must have a great make-up person. I fully expect they teased you no end, because oh gods, that yuck looks disgusting, and I doubt people who weren’t in a dire situation would want anything to do with it. Considering how many people there are in this country who go hungry every day, seems to me the christian thing to do would be to distribute your yuck in a bucket to those who are just that damn hungry. But we all know what matters to you, don’t we, Jim? Almighty Money Money Money. People are still laughing, Jim. They’ll be laughing more in a moment…

On Thursday, Jim was opining on how he could be shot for wearing a ball cap with a cross on it. (I saw it, it’s in the bucket of yuck video, plain brown with a small white cross on the front). That’s just how gosh darn horrible it has gotten for christians. A fair number of people are running around wearing various moronic Trump hats, draped in confederate flags, and they aren’t getting shot. There are degrees of offensiveness, and while I’m not a fan of christians constantly waving their favourite method of execution around, it’s not terribly offensive. Crosses are fucking everywhere, no one is going to get that bent by a little white cross on a cap. It would actually go quite a long way in protecting you from all the really nasty folk, like Trumpholes, so let’s lose the persecution game, Jim, you suck at it.

Bakker went on to declare that “everything God’s ever spoke to me has come to pass” while fuming that society has made Christians afraid to share their faith. But Bakker refuses to be controlled by that fear, even though he knows he could be killed simply for wearing a Christian hat in public.

“I wear them out in public and I know I could be shot,” he proclaimed. “I know that. There are crazy people out there, but I’m not going to deny the cross. I will not deny the cross! I won’t.”

Who asked you to deny it? Does anyone give a fuck? Because I’m pretty sure no one does, Jim. I don’t care if you dress up as a furry cross, dude. Whatever floats your boat and all that. I would not be remotely surprised if in the near future, Bakker pays someone to shoot him, in a non-fatal manner, of course. Or shows up with a bullet hole in his cap, claiming a miracle.

Via RWW, one, two.

“Evolution is fake science, it is not true.”

Long live evolution, Yehrin Tong.

Dave Daubenmire is frothing again, this time about things he doesn’t understand. Well, to be fair, Dave never seems to understand what he’s talking about.

“Evolution is fake science, it is not true,” Daubenmire said. “Do you know how much government money goes into science research? If you want to get a government grant, you have to make sure that the research that you do is going to support the positions of the government.”

“I would like to see the government do this,” he continued, “why doesn’t the government fund research into whether or not there is really a God? Wouldn’t that be good? Let’s dump a lot of money—rather than dumping all this [money into research] proving there isn’t a God, let’s fund some scientists to do some research to see if there is a God.”

Oh FFS. I am not in any way involved in science of any kind, but even I know there are plenty of organizations funding such moronic “research”, the Templeton Foundation probably being the most recognizable. In research of the past, there were scads of people attempting to prove “god”, “angels”, and “souls”. Didn’t work out. I’d like to take a moment though, to focus on Dave’s wording: “to see if there is a God.” Words matter. Seems Dave doesn’t understand that, either. So, Dave’s apparently not sure there is a god, and which god ‘science’ might uncover, if only the government would give it a chance.

As far as I know, there isn’t any money being unceremoniously dumped into proving there isn’t a god. Money goes to research all the magnificent and wondrous things around us. That’s a lot of stuff, Dave, and biology research is hardly limited to evolutionary studies. Biology would be one of those BIG fields.

A small suggestion, Dave – shut up, get on your knees, and start praying. Hard. I’m sure if you ask nicely enough, and long enough, why that monster of yours might consent to proving it exists, shouldn’t be a problem, right? What if that won’t happen because you don’t have enough faith, Dave? Ooops.

Via RWW.

Silly College Kids, Voting Is Not For You!

Ann Coulter, who is part of a trifecta of evil speakers, will be at Berkeley this month, but right now, Ms. Coulter thinks it’s fine to rant away about how college students should not be able to vote.

On yesterday’s episode of the “Howie Carr Show,” Coulter vented about The Washington Post’s debunk of claims that massive voter fraud is taking place in New Hampshire; the Post found that many of the alleged fraud cases were actually out-of-state college students from casting legal ballots in New Hampshire.

Coulter first explained to Carr that she didn’t think students should be voting in states where they attend college if they don’t establish permanent residency in that state, but then said that it would be  “outrageous” for a college student to change her residency to her college town.

Oh right, you can’t manage to refute the WP’s finding, and you can’t manage any reasonable response, so the answer is “college kids shouldn’t be able to vote! they are too stupid brainwashed!” So, Ms. Coulter, why do you think it’s worth your time speaking at colleges, if it’s not an attempt to radicalize young people into being mindless ragebigots? That is the point, right? After all, you and Bannon and Yiannopoulos aren’t going to Berkeley to whip up a nice froth of hate just to be followed by a “hey, kidding! you’re too young and dumb to matter, thanks for the money, bye.”

On the social level, where humans in general lag way behind in forward movement, things tend to get better with each new generation. Each new generation tends to be more thoughtful, more mindful, more accepting, and more involved in what’s happening in their various worlds. Me, I think that’s a good thing. Us older folks, we have to be careful our brains don’t rust shut while we weren’t listening. It’s important to keep our brains and our viewpoints exercised, and I would never once consider stripping young adults of their right to vote, ffs, that’s barbaric. And damn stupid. Not to say it can’t be a challenge, listening to young people, but y’know, you need to remember that enthusiasm you had long ago before life pounded you into the ground a thousand times.

Coulter then reached the conclusion that “college kids shouldn’t be voting” at all.

“It’s just to get the results of 13 years of Chinese-style brainwashing,” Coulter said. “I don’t think that people should be able to vote until they’re 30.”

Yeah. Could this be retroactive? After all, if you want to strip years of voting eligibility away from young people, then all the voting you did for that 12 years, well, those need to be taken away. Let’s have decades of recounts! Then we could just fuck all the rules, and put certain people in office, or back in office, for periods of time. Fun, right? Calling this nonsense stupid is an understatement. Of course, given that Ms. Coulter is over 30, that makes things very convenient for her, doesn’t it?

Via RWW.

Sunday Facepalm.

Oh Kevin Swanson, the religious extremist’s extremist. He’s at it again, pouring down Jehovah’s wrath in the form of hurricanes, natch. Mr. Swanson has a solution to Hurricane Irma eating Florida, though!

Kevin Swanson declared on his radio program today that the Supreme Court should immediately reverse its Roe v. Wade and Obergefell decisions before God unleashes his judgment on America in the form of Hurricane Irma.

Swanson, who just last week said that Hurricane Harvey was the judgment of God on Houston, said that these “God-ordained disasters” are a warning to this nation to repent for its myriad of sins.

Now, Swanson said this on the 7th this month, and I have to say, it would be a fun experiment, if you could get the Supreme Court to say, okay, the law is suspended until such and such a date, and see if it would magically wither Irma. We all know it wouldn’t have the slightest effect, and the religious reich would claim that Jehovah got all sniffy ’cause it wasn’t a permanent reversal. Of course, it doesn’t take much to make Jehovah all sniffy and pissy.

“God is in control of what is going on,” he said, “and whether or not Irma is going to do $200 billion worth of damage in Miami … is all in the hands of God. Those winds are going to blow where they are going to blow, but they’re going to blow in the direction that God ordains them to go. Friends, God is in complete control and utter control of what is going on with these hurricanes.”

Well, the wind is gonna go where it goes, but Jehovah is in control, you betcha! So, that’s why Mar-a-Lago and other overblown McMansions of conservative assholes are right in the path, and that’s why we’re all getting taxed for the federal coverage of Pres. Pinchpork’s palace. So, one could go with the assumption that Jehovah isn’t upset about gay people, but conservative assholes. Unfortunately, Jehovah’s aim has always been notoriously bad, so a lot of good people are gonna get screwed over here, but Jehovah has never been one to care about ‘collateral damage’.

“The wrath of God against this nation is intense,” Swanson continued. “I wish that American leaders would sit up and pay attention … The Supreme Court of the United States needs to reverse Roe v. Wade and Obergefell now, this afternoon, before Irma does her damage. It would be a good thing if the Supreme Court of the United States understood that God is in control of these things and God is a personality and God is offended by the sins of this nation.”

Oooh, Jehovah is a personality. A psychopathic one. Yeah, I’m not shaking in my boots over your non-existent psychopath, Mr. Swanson. Climate change, on the other hand, there’s reason to be scared shitless.

Via RWW.

Fetuses for Ba’al!

The stele of Baal with Thunderbolt found in the ruins of Ugarit.

Mark “can’t be too lurid” Taylor, self-styled prophet, is at it again. How does this man manage to do anything like eat? He never shuts up. This time, it’s Baal (Ba’al). Well, Ba’al and people who believe in bodily autonomy and reproductive choice. On to the lurid idiocy!

After repeating his prophecy that God is going to supernaturally remove five Supreme Court justices so that President Trump can replace them and overturn Roe v. Wade, Taylor warned viewers not to be fooled by those who claim they support a woman’s right to choose.

“People have to realize the strongman over America is Baal,” he said. “Baal is a very violent entity, he is the second in Satan’s triune, he is the second in command, he is the counterfeit Christ. It feeds off the blood of the innocent, which is the aborted babies. This is why Baal is the strongman, because the aborted babies are the food source that is empowering Baal.”

Sigh. What a fucktonne of nonsense. In the first place, Ba’al is a placeholder, much like god, in this case, meaning Lord. The actual god was Hadad, a storm and weather god. Things changed over the years, and Ba’al became the name rather than the epithet. Ba’al is mentioned in the bible, more than once, as a rival god to young Yahweh/Jehovah. Ba’al’s worshipers got right up Jehovah’s nose, and he called for them all to be slaughtered, more than once. Ba’al never had anything to do with Lucifer, or his triune, whatever that might comprise. Lucifer wasn’t the convenient fall guy of Ba’al. Different gods, Mr. Taylor. Try reading something, like, oh, the bible. Now, Ba’al is a fertility god, with a particular enmity toward snakes, so I think if he was going to feast on blood, it would most likely be snakes or the local river god. Ba’al was also the patron of sailors and sea going merchants. Not such a bad god. He certainly didn’t hate his worshipers and everyone else like Jehovah. Oh yes, Ba’al’s conflict with Yammu is now generally regarded as the prototype of the vision recorded in the 7th chapter of the Biblical Book of Daniel. Yet another god the bible writers happily thieved.

I’m pretty sure that medical waste incinerators are not made in the form of Ba’al, with all medical personnel and people who are pro-choice suddenly Ba’al worshipers.

Taylor said that “if you’re listening to these politicians and they’re telling you, ‘Oh, we’re pro-choice, it’s all about a woman’s right to choose, it’s all about women’s health,’ you’re being duped, you’re being lied to.”

“They don’t care anything about you,” he said. “All they want from you, as a woman, is to be a breeder for that food source, for you to abort that baby to feed their god called Baal. They don’t care anything about your right to choose, they don’t care anything about your health, all they want is that baby aborted as a sacrifice because every time you abort a baby, it’s a sacrifice to their god called Baal.”

Oh. Apparently, Mr. Taylor does think we’re all worshipers of Ba’al. Well, there are worse gods, to be sure. Topping the list would be that psychopathic monster Mr. Taylor worships, who has a most serious problem with women, along with his followers. Terminating a pregnancy is about not breeding, Mr. Taylor. You want women to be forced to breed and birth, with nary a thought for any woman’s health or welfare, and we all know you couldn’t give a shit about the children, either.

Via RWW.

With Christians Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Screengrab.

There’s been no end of people blaming the people of Houston for the flood, all of them christians. Now, Joyner and Bakker have joined in, with Bakker hawking his horrible ‘food’ inna bucket.

Joyner asserted that the storm had nothing to do with climate change because “the real issue with the weather and everything else on the earth has to do with sin and wickedness.”

“The whole earth will cry out because of the shedding of innocent blood,” he said. “That’s what throws nature off more than dumping CO2 or anything.”

I’ll just assume Joyner is yakking about abortion here, and not the endless imperial wars Amerika starts, or all the brown peoples who get murdered by homicidal cops every day, or anything like that. The earth we walk on, every single day, is blood and bone of all those who have gone before, and that’s a bunch, to say the least. Some of us realize that, and it leads us to respect. Apparently, it leads christians to the conclusion that climate change is no thing, no. My idea of wickedness differs a great deal from theirs. I think they are wicked assholes. Not that it would affect climate change in any way.

“The whole earth” is all manner upsetty by what people in Houston are doing. Amazing. One of the very worst aspects of many Americans is that they think the world begins and ends with Amerika.

That prompted Bakker to declare that he felt that “this flood is from God, it’s a judgment on America,” and Joyner agreed, noting that “these kinds of things don’t happen by accident.”

Oh FFS. Yeah, uh, climate change, dipshit. And yes, these things do happen at random. Always have done, but we’re happily accelerating it all.

Joyner said that Key West, Florida, had been hit by a hurricane “on the day they’re supposed to have the Day of Decadence parade” and another hurricane hit New Orleans right before it hosted another Day of Decadence festival.

“Coincidence? I don’t think so,” he said. “We have to stand up against the perversion of our times and call it what it is.”

Once again, Amerika, it’s not the whole world. Other countries have such fun celebrations, and they aren’t being flooded (something that psychogod of yours promised to never do again. Of course, there was that qualifier about not wiping out everyone via flood. I guess spot flooding is still good) or otherwise wiped out. Gosh, I wonder why not. See if you can figure that one out.

Bakker agreed, saying that the former mayor of Houston “ordered all the preachers to turn in their sermons before they preached them.

That doesn’t sound right at all, and I’ll go with the assumption it’s a lie. Anyone know about that?

Just remember, God gets the last word. God gets the last word. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.”

I mock Jehovah all the damn time. Still here, still intact. People all over the place mock Jehovah. They’re okay, too. You can add sloth to the list of your god’s sins.

Via RWW.

Sunday Facepalm.

Janet Mefferd is all manner upset over a protection in place for LGBT seniors living in long term care. Honestly, I would have thought this would have been too much, even for asshole Christians to target, but no. So many people walk this life in a quiet and often desperate quest for basic acceptance and respect. It’s not an awful thing to expect the barest acceptance and respect to at least be proffered at the end of life, but no, this is a major problem.

On yesterday’s episode of Janet Mefferd Live, Mefferd discussed an article published by The Daily Signal that claimed that the California bill violated the First Amendment rights of doctors and staff working with aging LGBTQ patients. Mefferd also claimed that the bill was offensive to Christians.

“When you consider that we are not to bear false witness as Christians, we cannot call people by the opposite pronoun that they really are,” Mefferd said. “We can’t. It’s lying. It’s engaging in a fiction that is dishonest, and the government cannot compel you to lie.”

Oh my oh my. All of a sudden, you just can’t bear false witness! When it comes to lying, you really have a hard time beating religious people of all types. Christians excel at lying, but of course, if you’re lying for Jesus, it’s okely dokely. Christians lie every damn day, it’s nearly part of the creed, along with stretching, twisting, and battering their own “biblical truths” on a regular basis. We won’t even get into the mass lies of creationists and ‘intelligent design’ proponents. Goodness me, you gotta refer to people by their pronoun of choice! The sky will fall down any moment now.

To be quite clear, using any given person’s pronouns of choice is not a lie. They have let you know who they are, that’s all. Think of it like infants – there’s a reason people ask about infants, you can’t really tell, and they prefer to be respectful. Why not be that way with all other ages? It’s no skin off your nose, and when you offer basic respect to others, you’re much more likely to get it back throughout your life, even when you find yourself in long term elder care. On the other hand, declaring other peoples’ lives to be a fiction is a poisonous evil, and one which should be stopped at every turn. Aged Reasoner has a post up in which it’s stated that you can’t truly know what goes on in someone else’s brain, and I agree with that. We do our best to communicate with others, but in the end, we have to take most people at face value, and go by not just words, but also actions. It is not up to Ms. Mefferd to blithely declare anyone else’s life a fiction; to determine that what happens in their brain to be a lie; to decide that a very person’s life is a lie. There is no attempt to deceive on the part of LGBT people, quite the contrary.

“The fact that they will make no religious exemptions shows the fury with which they view us,” Mefferd continued. “And that’s really not an overstatement, by the way.”

Sigh. No, it’s not fury. Rather the opposite, Ms. Mefferd, but christians aren’t exactly good at figuring out this whole respect toward others business, they think it’s something owed only to themselves. It’s always all about them, and their beliefs. And yes, that’s one fuck of an overstatement, Ms. Mefferd. You don’t get to opt out of the basic rules of a civil society when you like, and of course, that makes you about nuts with spiteful anger. You always want exceptions “give us an exemption!” Then you turn to your wailing and gnashing of teeth, claiming this, that, and the other is persecution. It’s not persecution. You’re simply expected to be inclusive and respectful, which I do realize is christian bane. Go off and create your perfect christian utopia, where you can treat all people like shit, and busy yourself with shoving your nose of judgment everywhere. You’d be happy, and so would everyone else to be shot of you all.

Via RWW.

Yeah, about that Charlie Hebdo cover…

Mano Singham has a good post up about all the upset. As for me, this was my comment there:

Y’know, I don’t really see how this is different from noisy christian assholes saying ‘god’ was punishing Texas for having a gay mayor and allowing abortion. Yet that’s acceptable, and the mockery on the part of Hebdo isn’t.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/kevin-swanson-hurricane-harvey-is-gods-judgment-on-houston-for-having-a-very-aggressively-pro-homosexual-mayor/

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dave-daubenmire-hurricane-harvey-is-judgment-on-houston-for-abortion-and-having-had-a-lesbian-mayor/

They are saying it’s the victims’ fault, too. No one is yelling about that.

I can’t get all that worked up about the cover. Is it nice to mock victims of a not so natural (climate change) disaster? No. Are there lots of people in Texas, who while they may not be outright nazis, share many a view with them? Probably. Is the United States swirling down the drain of fascism fair game? Yeah, I think it is. When you’re presenting a HUGE fucked-upness on the world stage, you have to learn to take it now and then, and before reacting, at least give yourself a few moments for thinking.

I gave two examples of people who consider themselves to be patriots, conservatives, and christian. They are pointing their minatory finger, and that of Jehovah straight at Texas, and all those victims of the flood. Oh yes, goddidit, and it’s all their fault. They are unabashedly placing the blame on the victims, and yet, not even a whimper of protest, let alone a roar. Until all those fine, outraged Americans find enough spine to spit in the face of their fellow christians hollering judgment, I think you should sit down and be quiet. Look to home, and deal with all the assholes and wannabe terrorists right here. They are everywhere, all around you. Try to have something to say about that.

ETA: Oh, we have another fine example! Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos (R-TX):

Quebec’s Minister of International Relations Christine St-Pierre called Pablos to express her sorrow and condolences on behalf of the people of the Canadian province. She also offered equipment and manpower.

Pablos turned it down. Instead he asked for “prayers from the people of Quebec,” the minister relayed.

Understandably, the neighbor to the north was shocked.

“It was a conversation about how devastating the situation is and we want to express our support to the people of Texas,” she told CBC News in an interview.

Isn’t that just splendid, Americans? Goodness, how those republicans do look after your best interests. We deserve every drop of fucking mockery directed our way. Via Raw Story.

A Satanic Frequency Changes Your DNA!

Self-styled ‘prophet’ Mark Taylor is at again, resurrecting all the old shit, Illuminati, Freemasons, and so on. He seems to favour the ultra-lurid flavour of bullshit, while his colleagues in christianity are busy placing the finger of “god” blame for Hurricane Harvey mostly on Houston’s Mayor. That would be a serious case of overkill, but that would be Jehovah’s style. [one, two.]

“I believe what happened on November 8 is the enemy has literally sent out a frequency,” Taylor said, “and it agitated and took control, basically, of those who have their DNA turned over to the enemy. That’s what’s happening. The Illuminati, the Freemasons, all these people, their main goal is to change the DNA of man and they’re doing it through these frequencies.”

So boring. I recently read The Ritual by Adam Nevill, which early on mentioned the Goat of Mendes. I hadn’t heard that particular appellation before, so I looked it up, only to be so disappointed it was only Baphomet, a creation of bloodthirsty christians in their hatred of Muslims back in the good ol’ days, y’know, crusades. (Still a good book, guaranteed to give seasoned hikers one fit after another). This current crap being pitched by Mr. Taylor, it’s so old, and still moronic nonsense. Even the satanic frequency silliness isn’t new. I didn’t listen to the show, but I am curious as to how this particular frequency is being beamed out. Maybe it’s Facebook! Twitter! The evil internet itself! Cell phones! Music! Fox News! It’s Fox News! Uh oh, those electricity poles look suspicious… lock yourself in your closet, now.

Taylor claimed that he is getting “bombarded with emails” from Christians who are being isolated by their friends and families because of their support for Trump and that is “because their DNA is being controlled by the enemy.”

Someone needs to be kind enough to send an extremely basic biology primer to Mr. Taylor. He doesn’t seem to understand how all that biology stuff works. Does the mere mention of DNA still scare christians? I thought that went the way of old nonsense quite a long time ago. Christians who adore Trump aren’t being isolated because “friends and families DNA is being controlled by some nebulous and nefarious enemy” – you said it yourself, Mr. Taylor, it’s their support for Trump that’s doing the trick. You’re the bad guys. That’s why people are turning away. That, and listening to idiots drool adoration of the Tiny Tyrant is nauseating. Easier to wander off and not pay much attention to Uncle Chuck anymore.

Taylor said that the media is broadcasting its audio at 440 Hz, which has been found to “damage your body organs” and “also changes your DNA, which is the goal of the Freemasons, the Illuminati; they want you part of that Illuminati bloodline.”

:falls over laughing: This idiocy is near as old as the hills, I expect Mr. Taylor will soon try to get in on that luscious tinfoil hat money. Although I expect the usual “solution” to Luciferian switched DNA is the usual: prayer. Maybe exorcisms, there’s money to be had there by the ever unscrupulous. I would like to know just how DNA is being changed. What changes are being wrought? Will people start poofing into archangel form, perhaps? Or will they become Overlords, a la Childhood’s End? I imagine Mr. Taylor doesn’t know about those who deeply desire transhumanism and the singularity. I’m sure if he finds out, he’ll manage to work it into his current shtick.

Via RWW, where you can listen, if you so desire. You might want to put a tinfoil cap on first.