The End Times Shopping Network. Yep.

You all knew this was Jim Bakker, didn’t you? Who else would it be? It’s actually ‘PTL Shopping’.  Jim’s desperation for money, money, money is ridiculous, and it should be ridiculed at every opportunity. For someone who preaches end times nonsense, Jim doesn’t seem to believe in it much. His ‘shopping network’ is hawking all manner of crap, most of which has nothing to do with religion at all, like garden sprayers and camp showers. It all seems to be stuff which couldn’t be sold in the first place, and Bakker is trying to sell it all a cut rate. Mostly. Ol’ Jim is also selling crap like this:

With this special offer you will receive one (1) 16 oz. Activz™ Silver Solution Liquid, one (1) 4 oz. Activz™ Silver Solution Gel, one (1) 3.4 oz. Activz™ Silver Facial Cream, one (1) 3.4 oz. Activz™ Silver Hand Lotion, one (1) set of applicator bottles, one (1) Activz™ Silver Lozenges, one (1) 4 oz. Activz™ Silver Toothpaste Gel and one (1) Silver: Nature’s Natural Healer book along with Unlocking the Keys to an Ageless Body Seminar with Dr. Sherrill Sellman DVD, Patented Nano Silver: Nature’s Healer Seminar with Dr. Sherrill Sellman DVD and The Healing Miracle of Silver DVD.

for $90.00 – anyone who buys this crap will turn a not so lovely, permanent shade of blue gray. To say selling this crap is irresponsible is an understatement. I’d definitely place this in the highly unethical category, but Jim doesn’t care about ethics. Or morals. There’s money at stake, dammit! I doubt he’s stupid enough to take it himself, but at least he’d be more entertaining if he turned blue gray. He’s also selling crap ‘detox’ packages for 60 dollars. Perhaps that’s for people who buy his yuck inna bucket. Someone needs to flood him with this song. Damn near tailor made.

ETA: I went back to grab the descriptor of all the silver, and the video started playing (have I mentioned how much I hate autoplay?), and there was Jim, claiming all the silver shit was a daily staple in their house.

PTL Shop / Faith Based Shopping Network.

Books.

If you like well researched historical fiction, engaging characters, and well plotted and often challenging mysteries, Oliver Pötzsch has you covered with his The Hangman’s Daughter series. So far, the books, in order are: #1: The Hangman’s Daughter, #2: The Dark Monk, #3: The Beggar King, #4: The Poisoned Pilgrim, #5: The Werewolf of Bamberg, #6: The Play of Death. (I stacked them wrong, sorry.) The 7th book will be out early in ‘018.

The main characters are members of the executioner dynasty of the Kuisl family of Bavaria. The author is a descendant of the Kuisl family, and is a meticulous researcher. The books are set in the mid to late 1660s. They are altogether engaging and interesting, with a host of recurring characters, many of the likable; many of them detestable, all of whom you get to know quite well. Most of these characters are various inhabitants of Schongau. The character of Johann Lechner brings Havelock Vetinari to mind, just a bit, albeit with a more Medieval sensibility, which is not always a good thing.

There are, obviously, distressing events in the books, but for the most part, they are kept on the somewhat low key side.  The one exception to this is the prologue in The Hangman’s Daughter, which is both horrifying and very grisly. Mercifully, it’s short. These books are in no way any sort of paean to torture or the like. Altogether, they are grand books, recommended.

A Nod To Lunacy.

Liz “Red Shoes” Crokin is at it again, and oh my. This is a descent into, well, I’m not altogether sure. This morning, PZ posted about a bit of conspiracy laden irrationality from a site called MAGA Pill, which Red Shoes is all excited about as well, because the Tiny Tyrant tweeted this nuttery, which according to her, is a confirmation of all things bugfuck. In a tweet (which can be seen at RWW), she wrote:

President Trump legitimizes Q anon & child sex trafficking! The storm is HERE!!

That left me nonplussed, because I had no idea of what Q anon might be, and of course, her method of writing could easily be taken another way altogether. She’s also quite prone to overusing emojis, which I can’t stand. I’m just going to excerpt a rather small amount here, because there’s only so much batshit I can cope with this early in the day. Or any other time of day. First, some clarification about the Q-anon business:

Crokin said that she had long suspected that an anonymous poster known only as “Q” who posts seemingly insider information about Trump and his administration on 4Chan forum boards may in fact be Trump himself and/or one of his high-ranking advisers. Those who follow Q’s posts are said to be “following the white rabbit” and Crokin excitedly claimed that Trump’s MAGA Pill tweet was confirmation of Q’s insider status and the accuracy of his information.

Ah well, what could possibly be more legitimate than 4Chan? FFS, this level of credulity is near to unbelievable. This is way beyond any sort of honest gullibility, this is the willful embrace of a terrible irrationality. To give an example, some of the ‘insider info’ includes assassination attempts. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure journalists would be jumping all over such a thing. Even if you posit a thorough hush hush cover up, does anyone honestly think that Trump would be capable of keeping his mouth shut? The man suffers from severe verbal and twitter diarrhea.

“Here is why this matters,” Crokin said. “I know for a fact that President Trump doesn’t just retweet random accounts. He vets all the people that he retweets, he vets websites that he retweets, he has his people look into these people, he has his people look into these accounts and their websites. There is absolutely no way in hell President Trump didn’t know that @MAGAPILL promotes the white rabbit, promotes Q, has been following Q. There is no way that President Trump didn’t know that MAGA Pill’s pinned tweet was a video of me—sorry, Hillary—talking about Hillary Clinton’s sex tape.”

“President Trump is very thorough,” she continued. “He is very sophisticated and he is very strategic and everything that he does has multiple meanings and he drops clues and messages and hidden messages all the time. That is how he operates, alright?

Holy shit. How does anyone willingly disconnect themselves so much from reality? Trump doesn’t vet a fucking thing. He wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to do that, not properly anyway. He also doesn’t know how to do one damn thing on the net; it’s long been disclosed that Melania does all the net trawling for what people might be saying about him, he doesn’t even know how to use e-mail. He knows how to tweet. On his phone. That’s it.

Thorough? Sophisticated? Strategic? :chokes on tea: Oh, I don’t think so. I’m afraid the Tiny Tyrant is none of those things, and reality based people are well aware of it. He’s a fuckin’ moron. A willfully ignorant one.

So I firmly believe President Trump retweeting @MAGAPILL was a nod to MAGA Pill, was a nod to myself, was a nod to literally all the people that go on 4Chan, all the people that have been following the white rabbit, all the people that have been talking about Q, all the people that have been exposing pedogate, Pizzagate, child sex-trafficking, Uranium One, you name it. This was a nod to us, this was a nod to this community, this was President Trump giving us a thumbs-up.”

My, my, my. No. The Tiny Tyrant is, at best, only marginally aware of the larger world, or what’s going on at any given time, if it’s not focused on himself. He tweeted that nonsense because he thought it was about his “accomplishments”, and he’s a sucker for that sort of thing, which has been confirmed over and over and over and over and over again. He’ll swallow any ineffable twaddle if someone labels it “Tiny Tyrant’s accomplishments”, of which, there have been none, unless you wish to count all the destruction he’s wrought. I suppose that’s an accomplishment.

“That was his way of letting us know that Q is real,” Crokin said, “and I also believe that this is his way of letting us know Pizzagate is real, the child sex-trafficking is real and, yeah, those disgusting sex tapes exist.”

There may well be sex tapes somewhere, and they may well concern the Tiny Tyrant. Is his behaviour not disgusting enough as it stands? I’m not exactly happy to have a rapist and serial sexual assaulter in office. The only pizza anything which is real is actual pizza, which is often delicious. It’s no secret that child sex trafficking is real, and that very little is done about it. As to claims that the Clintons are involved, all I have there is a somewhat despairing laugh, that idiots such as yourself are so invested in your beliefs.

This is obviously willful irrationality, but it’s running headlong into willful insanity, with the rush to openly embrace paranoia, delusions, and the most threadbare ‘connections’ in the attempt to create a massive platform of conspiracy. Politics is a dirty game, and that’s no secret either. There’s more than enough bad and fuck ups to go around, without creating this sort of lunacy, and welcoming it, as you plunge headlong down your rabbit hole.

There’s more at RWW, including video, if you so desire.

Earthworm Pavilion.

Nature Concert Hall is an interactive, educational multi-media event on nature and sustainable development held each year in a different location in Latvia. Every year is curated with a particular species as its “mascot” and Didzis Jaunzems Architecture was asked to base this year’s pavilion on the earthworm.

The architects responded with a structure designed to tell the story of the earthworm and its underground world. Three openings cut into the pavilion imitate worm-holes, while the sinuous patterning on the dark background reflects the creatures in their subterranean habitat.

[…]

“After the event there are absolutely no marks of the event that happened at the site day before – a completely empty and clean floodplain is left, contrary to the garbage-covered fields that are left after any other traditional festival,” added the architect.

The various elements of science, visual art, music, and dramaturgy included in the festival work holistically to tell the story of the earthworm in nature, ultimately aiming to not only give visitors new knowledge about nature, but to also motivate them to take action for environmental protection.

You can read all about this fascinating project here, and there’s video! Have a wonder filled wander.

Luna Day Mood.

Seether – Saviours. This one goes out to all the evangelical asshole christians.

You think you know what this world is about
But nothing grows in the desert when you covet the drought
And you believe everything is alright
It’s plain to see you’re pretending now with all of your might

And I hope you wither out
Fuck you and your fake adoration

Hooray for the saviours who prey on the prayers
And drink of the well as they give fuel to the fire
Your selfish behaviour – a taste that you savour
You worship yourselves, you’re all just bigots and liars

You kick and scream when you’re being ignored
But no-one heeds aberration when the act is a chore
And I believe we have been here before
It’s plain to see you are everything I hated you for

And I hope you wither out
Fuck you – you’re a poor imitation

Hooray for the saviours who prey on the prayers
And drink of the well as they give fuel to the fire
Your selfish behaviour – a taste that you savour
You worship yourselves, you’re all just bigots and liars

I hope you wither out
Fuck you – you’re a poor imitation

Hooray for the saviours who prey on the prayers
And drink of the well as they give fuel to the fire
Your selfish behaviour – a taste that you savour
You worship yourselves, you’re all just bigots and liars

Hooray for the saviours who prey on the prayers
And drink of the well as they give fuel to the fire
Your selfish behaviour – a taste that you savour
You worship yourselves, you’re all just bigots and liars.