The US military has gathered up a collection of soldier’s bibles…and destroyed them. No word yet on whether Satan’s imps were observed dancing in the flames; I’m sure the wingnut news services will soon be melting down with hysterical tales.
The other day, I read this fawning review by Andrew O’Hehir of Terry Eagleton’s new book, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, and was a little surprised. I’ve read a smattering of Eagleton before, and the words “brisk, funny and challenging” or “witty” never came to mind, and the review actually gave no evidence that these adjectives were applicable in this case. I felt like ripping into O’Hehir, but was held up by one awkward lack: I hadn’t read Eagleton’s book. Who knows? Maybe he had found some grain of sense and some literary imperative to write cleanly and plainly.
So I was in New York the other day, and was offered a copy of Eagleton’s book, and took the first step in my imminent doom by accepting it. Then I tried to fly home on Saturday, one of those flights that was plagued with mechanical errors that caused delays and long stretches locked in a tin can, and also flights that were packed tightly with travelers…so crammed with people that they actually took my computer and book bag away from me to pack in the cargo hold, and I had to quickly snatch something to read before the baggage handlers took it away. I grabbed the Eagleton book. Thus was my fate sealed.
I was trapped in a plane for 8 hours with nothing to read but Eagleton and the Sky Mall catalog.
This is an account of my day of misery.
The advertising copy is right: Bali does sound like an exotic wedding destination. But wouldn’t you know it, there is a hitch:
All couples who marry in Indonesia must declare a religion. Agnosticism and Atheism are not recognized. The Civil Registry Office can record marriages of persons of Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian-Protestant and Christian-Catholic faiths. Marriage partners must have the same religion; otherwise one partner must make a written declaration of a change of religion.
The Trophy Wife will not be thrilled to learn that our marriage would not have been valid in Indonesia. The requirement that both partners in the relationship must have the same religion is also weird — there are probably a lot of people out there who have perfectly stable ‘mixed’ marriages who would be surprised.
And it’s gorgeous. Holbo has found a set of scans from a 1972 biology textbook (and an associated blog) that will blow your mind, baby. Here are some eukaryotic cells.
I think this is a very trippy metaphor for the synapse.
I like it. It’s got style. I’m going to have to cruise some used bookstores to see if I can find a copy of Biology Today. If nothing else, I can imagine using some of those illustrations for talks…I’m also going to have to get a polyester suit with very wide lapels and a paisley print shirt, let my hair grow out, and shave the beard, but keep the mustache. Oh, I remember the 60s and 70s!
My prior post on Missouri’s bill permitting pharmacists to neglect their responsibilities was incorrect on one point: the bill has not been passed. The bill has only been proposed. It’s the usual situation:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives are, to a member, well and truly insane. Â They offer all manner of idiotic bills and amendments that will never see the light of day, and Emery attaching his bill as an amendment to SB 296, legislation dealing with professional registration, is merely supporting evidence of same.
And it’s…Obama!
Ho hum. I was kind of let down. I keep hoping for a big surprise, like that it’s a squirrel living in downtown Des Moines, or that it’s Jan Crouch, but yeah, it’s always the Christian politician who isn’t quite Christian enough for the wingnuts.
Let me just say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHRGGGHG. It’s the last week of classes here; I have to finish a big pile of grading, and there’s a hogshead of administrative work hanging over my head. I also chose, freely and of my own irresponsible will, to flit off to New York for a pleasant weekend with a mob of science nerds and English majors (and unholy chimeras of the two), which has put me even further behind. I’m stepping away from my thin metal and glass interface to the universe of the interweebles to get some work done. You’ll just have to chat among yourselves about something or other for a while.
I will be back later. I’ve got a long post in the works about my horrendous evil flight back home that I’ll have to share with you. Well, the flight itself wasn’t so bad, but it had Eagleton and Fish and Samuel L. Jackson in it, so it got ugly for a while. I shall purge myself of those evil thoughts once this pile of earnest, thoughtful student labors is converted into soulless but judgmental rows of numbers in a spreadsheet.
Jenny McCarthy, dangerous quack and ignorant fraud, has just signed a contract with that professional peddler of pablum, Oprah Winfrey, to put on a syndicated talk show, among other media puffery. It’s quite a step up. Oprah only spreads a kind of fuzzy mind-rot, but McCarthy actually promotes death and disease.
They’re dangerous and destructive, and erode the mission of our soldiers — and they also seem to be remarkably stupid. In the latest incident, people in Afghanistan are unhappy with the Christian evangelism that accompanies the US military. I can’t blame them.
In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, tells soldiers that, as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility “to be witnesses for him”.
“The special forces guys – they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down,” he says.
“Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That’s what we do, that’s our business.”
I think it’s the business of the secular officer corps to hound these vermin with courts-martial.
