Facepalms Abound.

Oh, all the Religious Reich is getting het up, over this, that, and everything. One hissy fit after another. I’ve chosen two for now, Bryan Fischer and Jim Bakker. Bryan Fischer is one nasty piece of work, a tremendously poisonous and hate filled person. Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall attracted Fischer and those like him, as Marshall was running against Danica Roem, a transgender woman. [Danica Roem won, YES!] Marshall took the time on election day to call into Fischer’s program.

“I’m asking your listeners to pray the prayer that King David did when his son Absalom was in rebellion,” Marshall said. “He prayed that his counselor would not give solid advice. We need to, one, proceed first with prayer, then thought, then action. You can’t be a sideline Christian and think you’re going to keep your rights in a society that’s becoming ever more secular every day.”

Aww, guess the prayin’ didn’t work. How, exactly, does a person who happens to be transgender interfere with your rights? How, exactly, does that interfere with you being a christian of any flavour? I can’t stand you self-righteous, hateful assholes with your hypocritical piety, but I’m not going around announcing my rights are being taken away because you exist. Anymore, I find myself thinking that the monastic system is ripe for a big comeback – let us fund monasteries, a monastery for everyone! You can have family monasteries, monasteries for men, for women, for all the different flavours of fanaticism christianity. Then we would see if you’d put your money where your mouth is, and you would all retire from this evil world and concentrate on the next life, which is what is supposed to matter more to christians. I’d be happy to help fund monasteries, if it would get you immoral idiots where you belong, on your knees and out of the way. No more television. No more internet. No more newspapers. No more politics. Nope, just concentrating on how well you’ll do in the next life. (You’ll have to pardon me, I’m doing a great deal of monastic reading right now.)

I’d be willing to bet not one of you, not a single one, would take up a monastic life. You’re addicted to your wealth and you crave power so much, it consumes you. The mere fact that other people exist does not infringe on your rights in any way. If you feel that other people existing does infringe on your rights as a person, then really, a monastery is where you need to be, because you are not capable of being a good member of society.

The full mess is at RWW.

On to Jim Bakker, who is throwing yet another fit:

“Trump is not crazy,” Bakker bellowed. “They want him to be crazy because they want to impeach him. There is nothing they can impeach him over because this thing with the collusion with Russia they can’t prove, but they want to say this man is crazy. They’re trying to get doctors to say the president is crazy.”

No, Trump isn’t crazy. He is a malignant narcissist, which is not a good thing. As for the collusion with Russia, well that is being proved, Jim, every day. More and more proof is just piling up. There are a lot of people concerned about the Tiny Tyrant’s mental state, beyond his being a fucking moron, many of those concerned are those who make up his staff, and work with him every day. The Tiny Tyrant is bad enough, we don’t need a repeat of Reagan’s Alzheimer years.

“I’ll tell you what,” he continued. “If they go through with that, there will be a riot in the United States of America and you’re going to find little old ladies rioting, you’re going to find the church people out rioting because they’re not going to take it any more. This is stupid and insanity what is going on in our country right now.”

Really? Who cares? Just so I have this right, protesting, if done by anyone interested in social justice, is wrong and immoral, but rioting is wonderful and moral if done by christians. Just be sure to conduct your riot on the sidewalks, because blocking the streets is really, really wrong and terrible. Oh right, unless it’s done by christians. Are you going to set fire to your churches? That might be entertaining. I do agree there’s much stupid going on these days, most of it is sitting like a lump in the white house, and the rest of it are all the sitting lumps of his base, including you, Mr. Bakker.

RWW has video of the tantrum.

That Explains A Lot…

Nicole Wallace re-visited Trumpholes one year after the election, and this is part of what she heard:

“We always see the Harrison Fords that play the president who is tough, punches the bad guy in the face. Now we have one of those people and he is going to get things done and I think it is good,” Lock explained.

That explains a lot. These fucking idiots think government is a movie. They also seem to think that the Tiny Tyrant is a real life movie hero. When, exactly, has Donny gone around ferreting out the bad guys and punching them? Talk about being seriously out of touch with reality.

Raw Story has the full article.

The Legend of the White Snake.

Image from the Summer Palace, Beijing, China, depicting the legend – Wikimedia Commons.

Medievalists has a fascinating look at the Chinese legend of The White Snake, and its evolution from a cautionary tale where the monk was the good guy, to a sympathetic love story where the monk is a shit stirrer.

…This may well be the fate of Xu Xuan, Madam White’s human husband, if he is not rescued by a powerful Buddhist monk. The first written version of the White Snake legend is found in a collection of novella composed in the first quarter of the 17th century. Including forty different stories, the collection is titled ‘Stories to Caution the World’ and the White Snake tale ‘Madam White Imprisoned under the Thunder Peak Tower’ (some editions also translate the novella as ‘Eternal Prisoner under the Thunder Peak Tower’ or simply ‘The White Snake’).

[…]

…The emphasis, however, is shifted to her devotion to Xu, as well as her sympathy towards humankind. The once righteous Fahai, now entering the scene as a troublemaker who simply cannot just mind his own business, tricks her into revealing her true form to Xu.

The full story is at Medievalists.

The Day After.

It’s the day after pain clinic, and I have the best pain people ever, they take great care of me, and it’s always nice to see them, tell stories, and catch up. For all that the visits are good, the days after aren’t so grand. I’m having trouble sitting, and I hate taking pain meds so early in the morning, so I’m going to wander off and have a very quiet day not sitting. I’ve reached the ‘Spirits of Malice’ section of The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters, by Scott G. Bruce, where monks have given in to writing more salacious accounts of the undead, so that will keep me occupied.

I’ll leave you with a forensic account of someone who was in considerable pain prior to a vicious killing blow, a young Danish Medieval Warrior. A summary is at Medievalists, the full paper is available from Scholars Portal. I’ll see you all tomorrow. I think.