Hope remains for Trinity United

Preacher appeals to Sartre.

That'll show 'em

How dare they: Some followers of Muhammed bomb an embassy for depicting some followers of Muhammed as bombers.

Priorities, People of America

There are at least two things I don't quite get about my adopted home, the United States of America: religion and hockey (in Canada, they're one and the same thing).

Last night I had occasion to serve as doorman/bouncer at Brass Bell Music's Battle of the Bands, a judged competition* between seven local high school outfits, the first prize for which is a slot at Summerfest. I did it as a favor, but I didn't mind because the kids are usually pretty good, and there were some really fine bands playing there last night. Plus they're a good gang of folks down at Brass Bell.

James, who works in accounting, pleaded with me for several days to take his place at the hall entrance collecting the six dollar cover charge. After I finally relented, on the condition that I didn't have to wear a bright green Battle of the Bands polyester t-shirt, James sent an e-mail to Tristann, who owns the store, indicating that I had "enthusiastically volunteered" the substitution. Wiseguy.

I'm not sure why James needed the escape route; maybe it had something to do with being annoyed at a bunch of teenage brats yelling "BULLSHIT!" at him over the cover charge last year. I didn't get any of that, only one punk who tried to get in without paying by deploying the old "I'm just looking for my friend" ruse.

Hey kid, I was born at night, but not last night.

"All these other people, who are doing exactly what you're doing right now, paid six bucks," I informed him. "You don't need to be a dick about it," he said. "Sure I do." He paid, and made quite the little hissy show of it. "Best six bucks evar," said Tristann.

The only other problem was, the fourth game of the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Final Series was on at the same time as the Battle. Fortunately the event was held at the Shorewood Legion, and "Legion" means bar and television set (singular, as it turns out).

Everybody has done this when, for example, you have to attend a wedding reception during the World Series or something, and you case the joint in advance to find out where the teevee is.

Turns out there was a Brewers game on last night as well, but the bartender assured me that the Legion patrons wouldn't be paying all that much attention to it, so whenever I wanted to come downstairs and check on the hockey game, she'd flip over to NBC for me.

The series, between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins, has been some superb hockey: constant end to end action, great goaltending, and outstanding bodychecking. While Detroit won the first two games at home, the Penguins edged out a hard fought 3-2 win in the third game, so last night's contest was a bit of do or die for Pittsburgh before the series returns to the Motor City.

I checked in on the game a few quick times during the first and second periods. They're a very nice bunch down at the Shorewood Legion. One of the bartenders even stood a couple of the other Brass Bell boys a shot of Jameson's (I ain't mentioning no names). I'll have to head back for the Friday Fish Fry some time.

So anyway, the Brewers game safely over and the doorman/bouncer gig more than well in hand with only two bands left to Battle, I figured I could catch the last few minutes of the third period.

It was 2-1 Detroit, with the Red Wings in the midst of killing off a penalty in the face of a ferocious offensive attack by the Penguins led by 20-year-old Sidney Crosby of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, the best player in the League and who many consider the heir to the great Wayne Gretzky.

And you know what? One of the patrons grabs the remote and changes to the channel to ... not the NBA, not the Sports Illustrated video swimsuit edition, not even NASCAR: Women's College Softball.

Women's. College. Softball.

Somebody needs to explain this phenomenon to me one of these days. And also that whole Obama thing.

* I didn't hang around long enough to find out who won, but I was rooting for that one punky all-girl band.

Economist endorses Bob Barr

Okay, so it's more of a backhanded endorsement.

A dysfunctional minor party's grumpy ex-Republican, most famous for his poor judgment and sour temper. Among his achievements: drafting the federal Defense of Marriage Act and licking whipped cream off two strippers' breasts.*

Mr. Barr's running mate, Wayne Allyn Root, is the author of a self-help book entitled "The Joy of Failure!"

Bob Barr FAQ.

* Barr's defense: 'They were married.'

Your plaice or mine

Fish sex predates even John McCain.

But see: McCain older than Spam™.

Experience

The wisdom of Jonah Goldberg

Two conservatives pay money to hear Jonah Goldberg speak in May, 2008, both report the following as a highlight: "If you write it in an email IN ALL CAPS, it has to be true." [Cue guffaws circa 1994.]

No mention of:

P1. Hitler enjoyed health food
P2. Liberals enjoy health food
C. Therefore, liberals are Nazis

P1. Fast food isn't fast enough
P2. Conservatives drive F350s
C. Therefore, conservatives prefer Arby's

Another "Reverend" goes bananas

And promptly apologizes, with condemnations and recriminations all around. What's to apologize for? Seems like fair comment to me.

Just not subtle enough, I guess:

Such a sense of entitlement and maternalism was bound to turn nuclear when an unapproved minority candidate decided to run, especially an Obama with far greater wit, savvy, and rhetorical skills than Hillary.

— some National Review character.

More lachrymosity: Bush wept.

Poor Mike Gableman

It's been some time since we've encountered Daniel Suhr, the fresh young GOP fellow in the robin's egg sweater vest combo.

Now it seems that Master Suhr has taken special umbrage at Adam Liptak's description of renowned conservative Republican Mike Gableman as "a small-town judge with thin credentials" in the pages of the New York Times. "This East Coast elitism is just rancid," moans the young GOPer.

First of all, Siren, WI is a small town by any measure.

But it's simply not true, Suhr 'argues,' because Mike Gableman's "four years as a front-line prosecutor is more than [Wisconsin Supreme Court] Justices Abrahamson, Bradley, and Butler have combined." Naturally, young Daniel doesn't mention that Justice Butler has been a judge — on three different courts — for longer than Mike Gableman has been a lawyer.

And a highly effective front-line prosecutor Mike Gableman was. So effective that he sat on a homicide case for two years, one so cold blooded that the criminal complaint indicated the alleged perpetrator blew a hole in his wife's back with a shotgun as she fled away from him, and the county where Mike Gableman toiled as a prosecutor refused to elect him to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, despite every surrounding county's determination to the contrary.

Likely because Ashland County is where they know "front-line prosecutor" Mike Gableman the best. And by the time charges were filed by Gableman's successor in office, after Gableman high-tailed it to an administrative position at a 20k per annum pay cut thanks to his political connections with former Republican governor Scott McCallum, the defendant removed himself from the gene pool.

And Mike Gableman had the temerity to claim repeatedly, during one of the most disgraceful political campaigns in recent memory, that he was a righteous advocate for victims of crime.

"I was mad as hell," the victim's cousin, Jerry Bauch said. "I was frustrated because the case simply went nowhere during the three years that [Mike Gableman] was district attorney."

That's some quality victim advocatin' right there.

However, it is true that Gableman won Burnett County fairly handily, because after all, that is where Judge Mike Gableman "presided over" 9,000 uncontested traffic tickets.

And that is no thin credential. It's enough to wallpaper Siren, WI.

"There's no need to insult the man," sniffs college Republican Suhr, who, via some particularly laughable contortions, depicted Justice Butler as a clear and present danger to the "safety, prosperity, and health of the citizens of many states, especially Wisconsin."

No, there's no need to insult the man, he just earned the privilege.

Mark Belling's unnatural man crush

"Lying ... lying ... lying ... liar ..."

h/t James Rowen.

(Belling occasionally sits in for Rush Limbaugh.)

Do say hello to my friend

Irony Metrics

A worthy debut (as expected):

Scott McClellan Agonistes

(Although he is totally lying about at least one of the people
"smarter than him.")

Lawyers for Jesus decry NY edict

Governor directs State agencies to recognize same-sex unions

"It’s a perfect example of a governor overstepping his authority and sidestepping the democratic process," said Brian Raum, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a national organization opposed to same-sex marriage. "It’s an issue of public policy that should be decided by the voters."

And that is a perfect example of an advocate putting his argument cart before the constitutional horse, because I'm certain New York ratified this, 220 years ago come July 26:

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.

There is a State public policy exception to the Full Faith and Credit Clause, but its erosion pursuant to the issue of same-sex marriage frightened the pants off of even Antonin "Some of my best friends are homos" Scalia in the course of his Lawrence v. Texas dissent.

From the Alliance Defense Fund's "What We Believe":

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, with equality across racial, gender, and class differences.

What's the problem, then. Or is that only for "believers."

What I Believe — Steve Martin

Early heroes of the blogosphere

During [Thomas Paine's] years in Lewes, a great and endless political struggle captivated the entire nation, and its central figure was John Wilkes. Son of a maltster, parliamentarian for Aylesbury, and member of the notorious Hell-Fire Club, Wilkes loved nothing more than to attack King George III and his ministers — along with George's very own mother — in the pages of his newspaper, the North Briton. The government replied by having Wilkes thrown into the Tower, but the lord chief justice ruled this a violation of the parliamentary privilege, and he was released. Asked at the time to define the limits of free speech in Britain, Wilkes said, "I cannot tell, but I am trying to find out."

The government would not be stopped. While Wilkes was visiting his daughter in Paris for Christmas (and recovering from a duel), Lord Sandwich led a successful campaign to have him expelled from the House of Commons. Now stripped of privilege, Wilkes was quickly tried and convicted of seditious libel and, when he decided not to return from France, declared an outlaw. After running out of money, however, he was forced to come home, where he immediately won a seat in Parliament for Middlesex and turned himself over to the authorities, who responded with a sentence of two years' imprisonment. Wilkes sought a pardon, and Whitehall arranged to expel him from the Commons once again. His bravery against the state had made him one of the most popular figures in Britain, however, and he was immediately restored to his seat by the voters of Middlesex.

The story of John Wilkes was a dramatic illustration of government corruption abridging the sacred and traditional rights of a free Englishman, and it would resonate strongly with the American founders, including Thomas Paine. Additionally, Paine would seem to inherit something of Wilkes's style of provocation, with the bon mots of both men passed along at every level of society. While attacking George III, Wilkes was invited to play a game of cards. He replied, "Do not ask me, for I am so ignorant that I cannot tell the difference between a king and a knave." When Sandwich predicted that Wilkes would die from the pox or the gibbet, Wilkes responded, "That depends, my lord, whether I embrace your mistress or your principles."

— Craig Nelson, Thomas Paine, pp. 41-2.

Uh huh.

The appropriate sanction to be imposed here is a public reprimand. Any discipline less severe than a public reprimand would not adequately convey the gravity with which this court views Judge Ziegler's violation of a bright-line rule of the Code of Judicial Conduct. Any discipline less severe would not comport with fostering public trust and confidence in the judicial system.

The only discipline less severe is no discipline at all, unless you
count a stern finger wagging around a private conference table.

In re Ziegler.

Warren Jeffs' slippery slope

This is what happens when you legalize gay marriage:

Petitioner's Exhibit # 2

"Prophet, Seer and Revelator."

"Darwinism cannot explain gravity"

This is a placeholder for an interview between two of the most insipid morons on the planet, Glenn Beck and Ben Stein. It aired last night, but I think what's turning up at the link at the moment are older broadcasts, but the latest will be there soon enough, I'm sure.

Stein alleges that Richard Dawkins, whom Stein interviewed for his cinematic creationist propaganda piece, Expelled, claimed to have "dumbed down" his discussion with Stein because Stein is too stupid to comprehend the bigger picture. That seems about right.

At one point in the most recent interview, Stein mocks a non-god believer for his skepticism that life continues after death yet moments later, in claiming that German doctors prescribe massive doses of barbiturates for those wishing to take their own lives (exactly what this has to do with evolutionary biology is anybody's guess), Stein says, 'What if the pill taker is just having a bad day and regrets his decision? Because by then, he's dead and it's all over.'

Don't watch any of it unless you can stand forfeiting a few dozen IQ points (which is to say, viewers who would take this pair of complete and utter ignoramuses seriously, can't).

And yes, Ben Stein actually does criticize "Darwinism" for not being able to explain gravity. Nor can it — or a fish — ride a bicycle.

Bill Maher Watch: Day 26

Did American TV just essentially blow (off) crazed Marquette University professor John McAdams and his low rent, medium wave enabler, Milwaukee reverberating cranium Charlie Sykes?

Yesterday afternoon I found myself playing the piano in the gymnasium at Burleigh Elementary School in Brookfield — long story — and had occasion to stop by Brookfield Square where a number of large steel and glass displays are set up, including at least one giant one advertising comedian Bill Maher's July 24 appearance at the Riverside Theatre in downtown Milwaukee.

The lead sponsor for Maher's gig is American TV, and its logo still figures prominently, featured in its distinctive lettering right next to Maher's smiling visage. You can't miss it.

As for the delightful children of Burleigh Elementary School, I have rarely seen a more considerate and well behaved collection of youngsters. Any group of educators that can get several hundred kids to gather for an assembly and sit attentively and appreciatively through 45 minutes of, in large part, unaccompanied violoncello improvisations is clearly doing something right.

And when the said cellist, Matt Turner, asked whether the kiddies had any questions about the performances or the performers, at least one-third of the little arms shot up. Excellent questions, too.

Obviously public education is working out in Brookfield so the next time Sykes starts bitching and moaning about it, tell him it's idiotic blowhards like him that are fomenting the trouble, not the dedicated teachers and administrators, and especially not the great little kids.

You tell him, because I refuse to listen to that crap. Me and the cool kids at Burleigh Elementary prefer music to pointless noise any day.

Uzi had a very busy Tuesday

Not the storied Israeli submachine gun, but Uzi Aharon, the deputy mayor of a town near Tel Aviv, reports the Jerusalem Post:

In the morning, a story ran on how he organized to retrieve and burn hundreds of New Testaments given to Ethiopian Jews in his city by local messianic Jews. By 9 a.m. he was on an Army Radio news-talk show defending his actions, which he called "purging the evil among us."

At 10:30 he was on a morning news show saying that Ethiopian immigrants were being encouraged to go against Judaism by messianic Jews.

But by the early afternoon he had already been interviewed by Russian, Italian and French TV, explaining to their highly offended audiences back home how he had not meant for the Bibles to be burned, and trying to undo the damage caused by the news (and photographs) of Jews burning New Testaments.

But then he also told The Associated Press that he didn't condemn the Bible burning, calling it a "commandment."

Uzi sounds more conflicted than the Jews for Jesus he's battling against. Local authorities are to investigate the possible violation of two Israeli laws intended to prevent people from inciting religious violence. I guess you would need those in "The Holy Land."

In other Messianic Jew news, Connecticut wankee Joseph I. Lieberman is scheduled for a July Kibbutz with John McCain's "crazy" pastor, John Hagee. The countdown to Armageddon continues.

James T. Heresy

Yesterday cheap chuckles were had by all after Mike Mathias of Pundit Nation linked to an intemperate little screed delivered by Milwaukee medium wave radio "personality" James T. Harris.

Entitled "White Guilt on Parade," Harris admonished some Baptists in England who went on a trip to Jamaica to meet their Caribbean counterparts and formally apologize for the slave trade. Harris described the Baptist contingents as "white, guilty and stupid."

Apparently Harris learned of this outrageous mission from Christian Today (Harris calls it "Christianity Today," an entirely different publication based on an entirely different continent), which mentions six of the "white, guilty and stupid" Baptists by name.

Unfortunately for Harris, four of the six "white, guilty and stupid" individuals are black. It's unclear whether they remain, nevertheless, guilty and/or stupid.

Mike Plaisted informs us that Harris's dismembodied voice wafts out occasionally on weekends over the 50,000-watt AM station 620 WTMJ, into which its corporate patriarch, Journal Communications, has screwed an array of 40-watt bulbs.

WTMJ also maintains Harris's blog which, in happier times, was falsely labeled "The Hip Musings of James T. Harris," where he used to casually dismiss the greatest geniuses of American jazz music and — perhaps most memorably — criticize modern climatologists while insisting that Noah's global flood was an actual historical event, complete with indigenous Mesopotamian kangaroos and llamas and the subsequent drunken, incestuous repopulation of the Earth.

Because of that, I had thought Harris was some kind of professional scientist, but it turns out that he's actually a motivational speaker when nobody's listening to him on WTMJ. And, according to Plaisted, Harris was formerly a frequent caller to another WTMJ meathead, Charlie Sykes, as "James from Sherman Park," although you have to travel further east along Burleigh St. to find the river and the van.

Anyway, the indefatigable Mike Mathias rummaged up a few more Harris bon mots later in the day, this time comprising a scholarly and compelling repudiation of the distinctly heretical notion that Jesus of Nazareth was kind of a peaceful and compassionate guy. The said notion was proffered by one Nathan Johnson, writing in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student paper.

Fortunately Nathan Johnson is not "white, guilty and stupid," but his piece is "poorly written, illogical and vapid," says Harris, by way of demonstrating John 8:7. Not only that but Johnson has written a "hapless leftist screed" that presents Jesus as a "milk toast [sic], limp wrist pacifist," and a "Jimmy Carter style liberal."*

"Would Jesus be an American soldier?" Johnson posits, and cites a number of remarks attributed to Jesus for the contrary proposition. No, Harris agrees, Jesus wouldn't be an American soldier, but because — and here comes your non-vapid "logic" — he is Jesus.

Then Harris goes on to reference not the alleged sayings of Jesus himself, but rather the Rambo-Christ portrayed in the phantasmagorial hallucinations of the Book of Revelation, as conservative Christians are wont to do, most successfully Tim LaHaye, author of the "Left Behind" series of loving Christian bloodbaths and one of the truly creepiest people in America.

So, there you have it. Yes, I agree that Jesus would not be an American soldier, but what I'm agreeing with is poorly written, illogical, and vapid, and here's some pre-refrigeration, ergot-fueled dream sequences for your consideration.

It's a classic move by conservative Republicans self-describing as nominal Christians, when confronted with the teachings of Christ that contradict their Hobbesian dog-eat-dog worldview, to drag out every piece of the Bible, no matter how dubious and obscure, that contradicts the apparent moral disposition of their own personal Saviour.

Since for every "god breathed" proposition a contradictory yet likewise "god breathed" one can be dredged up from among the Bible's 66 books (give or take, depending on your denomination), it's pretty much a mug's game anyway. But that doesn't stop Harris from making a fool of himself, since that's what WTMJ pays him to do.

* Another Christian, last I checked.

Blame Canada

Why was it pushing 90 degrees* yesterday but in the low 40s this morning? "Canadian high pressure," said Greg Davis. That's it, we're taking Sidney Crosby back. (He's not doing anything anyway.)

* "Fahrenheit," whatever that is.

NASA lands probe in Sudbury, Ontario

.View north from Spruce and Simcoe Sts. (NASA/Canadian Press)

Stompin' Tom Connors — Sudbury Saturday Night

Hip, dumb, and color blind

Follow the first link in Pundit Nation's post this morning:

It must be so hard to be white, guilty and stupid.

Then go here and view the delegation of U.K. Baptists who are traveling to Jamaica. See, it's not so hard to be stupid.

Especially when you're a Milwaukee AM radio nitwit.

Republican sold for parts

Romney, 2 others get McCain's ear

Pencil Neck Geek

Bob Barr: No crazy ass pastors

Maggot!

That explains it

John McCain diagnosed with benign positional vertigo.

That is, a highfalutin medical term of art for flip flopper, "benign" being the operative Republican code word for "denial."

"Insane and characteristically American"

Adam Liptak has a piece in today's NYT on judicial appointments vs. popular elections, which focuses on last month's Wisconsin travesty.

In an interview, Justice Butler said the past few months had tested his commitment to elections. "My position historically has been that there is something to be said for the public to be selecting people who are going to be making decisions about their futures," Justice Butler said.

"But people ought to be looking at judges’ ability to analyze and interpret the law, their legal training, their experience level and, most importantly, their impartiality," he continued. "They should not be making decisions based on ads filled with lies, deception, falsehood and race-baiting. The system is broken, and that robs the public of their right to be informed."

Amen, brother.

And not just the campaign ads, but virtually everything written and shouted by the most obnoxious, dissembling conservative Republicans in the State.

Judge Gableman did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.

Not surprising. If I were he, I'd lay low also. Why get up now.

Bushey lawyers up

State: Bishop Bushey leads a cult.
Defense: Bishop Bushey is a man of the cloth.
State: No, he leads a cult.
Defense: Man of the cloth.
State: Cult.
Defense: Cloth.
Mediator: What the hell's the difference.
State: Tastes great?
Defense: Less filling.

Bishop Bushey Bond Bated.

Wisconsin cougar in Chicago

I met some Chicago cougars in the Hilton Milwaukee bar last night. Reciprocity, or something. Sadly, I'm too old for them. [rimshot]

Pretty distressing, for a self-aggrandizing male egotist.

Somebody you don't have to speak to

Bob Dylan, who turns 67 tomorrow, will be doing it onstage not in New York or Los Angeles or Hibbing or Paris but in, of all places, St. John's, Newfoundland. Then it's off to Reykjavik, Estonia, and Lithuania. The Never Ending Tour, indeed.

According to Bill Pagel's massive database at BobLinks.com, the last time Dylan performed on his birthday was in Dresden, Germany in 2000, where he played seven encores and remarked, "I'll be remembering this birthday for awhile."

Since there's been yet more controversy over same-sex marriage again lately, here's a number that some Dylanologists have surmised to be about a gay man. I'm not sure whether Bob has either confirmed or denied that interpretation, but it makes sense.

Not as an admission by one of the most notorious skirt chasers of all times, but rather as a bit of compassion.



Happy Birthday, Mr. D.

(And Mr. F. and Mr. R.)

ACLU more dangerous than terrorists

According to the followers of religious nutcake D. James Kennedy. Although, "apathetic/uninformed Christians" are marginally more dangerous than colleges and universities. Whew.

h/t Joshua Rosenau.

Speaking of danger, somebody told me that people from Mequon are afraid to visit the Grand Avenue Mall even in broad daylight.

Is that true? I've lived downtown for going on six years and only been mugged once. Mind you, that was at 2 a.m. on the corner of 27th and Kilbourn. I can't say the Judy's Red Hot I went there to have was worth the 40 dollars I was subsequently relieved of.

It was pretty tasty though.

Must. Stop. Homos.

It's for your own good, sinners.

The Alliance Defense Fund is asking the [California] Supreme Court to rehear the case on a single issue. The group argues that the ruling should be stayed until after the November elections, when voters are likely to consider a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

In a 21-page legal brief, the defense fund argues that freezing the ruling would avoid chaos around the state as couples move to capitalize on their newfound legal right to marry by rushing to clerk's offices to get marriage licenses between now and November.

"Marriage trampled in California," asserts the ADF's website, which also contains the following "Statement of Faith":

Those who die in a state of sin and unbelief suffer the punishment of Hell.

I'll be sure to save them a seat, unless they get there first. In which case, toast me a marshmallow or three and give my regards to Mahatma Gandhi, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Jefferson.

Today's informative headline

Dem Strategist Sees Challenges For Obama

CBS News.

Remembering Falwell

All the hubbub over the "Reverend" John Hagee has overshadowed the recent (May 15) one-year anniversary of "the discovery of the carcass of Jerry Falwell on the floor of an obscure office in Virginia."

Take it away, Christopher Hitchens:

Cooper: Do you believe he believed what he spoke?

Hitchens: Of course not. He woke up every morning pinching his chubby little flanks and thinking, 'I've got away with it again.'

Cooper: Whether you agree or not with his reading of the Bible, you don't think he was sincere in what he spoke.

Hitchens: No. I think he was a conscious charlatan and bully and fraud, if he read the Bible at all, and I would doubt he could actually read any long book.

Chaucerian frauds (YouTube, 5:21).

Asked and answered

Why are so many godmen in this country such out-of-control nuts? — Posted by whatever

"Reverend" Hagee says he was taken out of context.

Sure you were, out-of-control godman. (Who exactly "reveres" these "reverend" people, by the way?) And the Straight Talker reminds us that he didn't sit in John Hagee's pews for 20 years. What a circus.

McIlheran patronizes socialist state radio

"I'm listening to the CBC streaming some Debussy."

— Patrick McIlheran

Oh sure, help yourself to some free health care while you're at it.

h/t Brew City Brawler.

Earlier: I Will Dare (from Let It Be).

"WOO ... Sweet God!"

Hitler was sent by Jesus to "hunt" Jews.*

Says John McCain's pastor, John Hagee.

* Jeremiah 16:16.

Grumpy atheists on teh intarwebs

My internets friend Thomas Joseph has been putting together an eminently thoughtful series at his blog related to the ongoing donnybrooks over creationism and biological evolution and, mostly, the dispositions of the various more celebrated participants.

Whether you agree with him or not (I do some and I don't some), Thomas J. is a most excellent writer and he relates a number of very worthwhile observations. I started working on something of a response but at the moment it resides in a folder with several other dozens of unfinished posts that I need to get back to one of these rainy days.

In the meantime, check out T.J. (only the titles are in Latin):

Primum non nocere* Part I
Primum non nocere Part II
Primum non nocere Part III

* First, do no harm.

Tasteful

I didn't know that 620 WTMJ carries this asshole.

h/t capper and James Rowen.

God returns to Tennessee public schools

Tennessee State Senator Roy Herron (a Democrat) has managed to wrangle a bill through the legislature to the Governor's desk that establishes a "state funded elective course consisting of a nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, culture, and politics."

Among the reasons Herron was inspired to sponsor the bill is he's had citizens complain to him for years that “they’ve taken God out of our schools,” which is not exactly an academic or a scholarly complaint (not to mention an implied denial of God's omnipresence).

One of the bill's provisions prohibits the "teaching of religious doctrine or sectarian interpretation of the Bible or of texts from other religious or cultural traditions."

Breaking through that series of disjunctions, we get a prohibition on the teaching of texts from other cultural traditions. Even if it means the prohibition is against sectarian interpretation of texts from other cultural traditions, the same problem inheres, as I see it.

Because that apparently means the course can only be designed to study the Bible and the Bible's influence, but not the Bible's own folkloric antecedents. I don't know whether that's constitutionally problematic, but it's certainly problematic as a question of scholarship.

What this bill allows is for Tennessee public school teachers to, for example, discuss the creation and flood myths in the Book of Genesis but doesn't allow them to discuss the earlier Sumerian mythology — an "other cultural tradition" — upon which Genesis is based, as if the Bible just appeared out of nowhere.

That's almost laughable, and probably has poor old E.A. Speiser spinning in his grave. I'm all for teaching a course on the Bible but if it's truly not just a vehicle for proselytizing or furthering our own American "Christian Nation" myth, then it should be comprehensive.

Laws like this may be challenged on constitutional grounds in two ways: on the face of their language, or "as applied," that is, as implemented. According to Tennessee's Attorney General, the bill's language is constitutional on its face, but obviously it remains to be seen what manner of zealots end up preaching teaching the course.

And on the eighth day, litigation ensued. (Gen. 2:3.5)

h/t Religion Clause (which is where all the links are at).

Not a bad idea

Perhaps we should cover our troops and vehicles in Qur’ans. Sounds like it would be better than armor.

And a bit of trenchant sarcasm:

Dear Iraqis, I’m sorry we got rid of your murderous, insane dictator. I’m sorry we’ve spent five years bleeding our country dry so yours doesn’t fall apart. I’m sorry that one of our soldiers showed the disrespect towards Islam that you institutionalize towards Christianity and Judaism. Please forgive us. If it will appease you we will gladly throw this soldier to the wolves.

Defusing a Koran shooting — NYT

Opines a Randian Zionist:

GIVE HIM A PROMOTION! I am sure Christiane Imamwhore is weeping uncontrollably ...

That must be the Louis XIII Cognac of Hate Blogs.

Not for the kids, but for the rabbis

Two ordained Brooklyn rabbis avoided a federal fraud trial yesterday by pleading guilty to embezzling $75,000 from a school lunch program for low-income families.

This is why we need to post the Ten Commandments in school.

h/t BOP Watch

American TV welcomes Jim Gaffigan!

Offended Christian: I'm mad at that guy, who the hell does he think he is? If he's Catholic, what are we supposed to do, pray him into Heaven? Is that it? I'm very offended.

Jim Gaffigan: Are you sure you don't have an abortion doctor to kill or something? Lady, look, the applications for the Third Reich are over, alright?

American presents Jim Gaffigan.

Where's the outrage?

Earlier: American TV welcomes Stephen Lynch!

McCain = Jesus, USA = God

'I meant John McAmerica, not John McChrist.'

Georgia Republican Party chairwoman Sue Everhart said Saturday that the party's presumed presidential nominee has a lot in common with Jesus Christ.

"John McCain is kind of like Jesus Christ on the cross," Everhart said as she began the second day of the state GOP convention. "He never denounced God, either."

Everhart was praising McCain for never denouncing the United States while he was being tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"I'm not trying to compare John McCain to Jesus Christ, I'm looking at the pain that was there," she said.

Because saying someone is "kind of like" someone else is not a comparison. Or at least, not an attempt at comparison. Got it.

And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death. — Leviticus 24:16

However, it's the other comparison that the self-described "jealous God" YHWH might have a small problem with. Aren't Republicans the ones who want the Ten Commandments plastered everywhere? That's so they can familiarize their own selves with them, apparently.

It's a Republican thing. They like the Bible, they just don't read it.

Did you know?

George H.W. Bush by presidential proclamation declared the 1990s "the Decade of the Brain." The Decade of the Brain safely over, son George W. Bush sought the presidency in 2000.

The sickness unto theocon bioethics

How did the United States, the world's scientific powerhouse, reach a point at which it grapples with the ethical challenges of twenty-first-century biomedicine using Bible stories, Catholic doctrine, and woolly rabbinical allegory?

Answer: It elected a shitload of conservative Republicans.

Leon Kass is crazier than a fish in a car wash — Steven Pinker

h/t folkbum's r&r.

Manimal29 fails Logic 101

How embarrassing.

Accusing one's interlocutor of "refusing to accept Aristotelian definitions" whilst simultaneously refusing to accept Aristotelian definitions one's own self is not the most effective debating tactic.

Particularly where the said accusation is deployed as an alleged premise to a non sequitur during an argumentum ad hominem.

Fortunately a rational animal is still an animal.

Onward, Gay Crusaders

It didn't take long for the usual crowd of homophobes and religious fanatics to get to preening and drama queening over California's same-sex marriage decision yesterday.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a.k.a. The Church of Latter Day Pharisees, is Hell bent on writing a State constitutional amendment that would forbid Stuart Gaffney from marrying his partner of 21 years.

Twenty-one years is 183,456 hours, or 3,336 times as long as Britney Spears's first 55-hour marriage lasted, yet the blessed nuptials of the ethically disheveled Pop Tart are the ones the Latter Day Pharisees would prefer the government to exclusively consecrate.

Even Mathew Staver, the self-appointed Florida attorney for Jesus with a record of shameless dishonesty that would stun an ox, wants everybody to know he's outraged, calling the decision "magical." Magic and necromancy, at least, Staver would know.

California's Catholic bishops too, are incensed (pun intended). Why in the world would a conspiracy of celibate old men care about marriage? I've decided not to eat Kraft American Cheese Food Slices, so it doesn't bother me whether they're individually wrapped or not.

Nobody has ever given even a halfway decent reason why the government should forbid gay people from marrying each other. The best that appears in the various State court decisions on the question is that the government has an interest in preserving some allegedly "sacred tradition."

And political conservatives actually support this ephemeral notion as a legitimate function of government? Conservatives sure aren't like they used to be. Somebody needs to be conserving the real conservatives before they all disappear.

It's a sacred tradition, the Alliance Defense Fund claims, that dates back to "Eden." (And Eden dates back to Gilgamesh, except the ADF's religious mythology is highly selective.)

The California Supreme Court took an enlightened step forward yesterday, in treating human sexual preference as a classification akin to "race" and ethnicity for the purposes of scrutinizing government actions aimed at separating the foregoing into socially acceptable and non-acceptable castes.

That heightened scrutiny is appropriate because sexuality, like skin color and ethnicity, exists on a continuum of subtleties. Any line drawn on the continuum is bound to be arbitrary, and laws can't be arbitrary and not violate a State's Equal Protection Clause.

The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures. — Junius

Religion is afforded the same heightened degree of scrutiny, even though today's Orange County Evangelical could be tomorrow's Santa Monica Scientologist and whereas if you're hounding after women at Bar Louie tonight, you're unlikely to be doing your best full drag Liza Minnelli impression at La Cage on Saturday.

Conservatives object to all this, mistakenly believing that the will of the government and/or the electorate can override an equal protection clause, and judges must unfailingly defer to the legislature and the electorate. That's ridiculous, obviously, as a fundamental matter of U.S. constitutional law.

And that's why Milwaukee medium-wave think tanker Charlie Sykes wants you to replace all judges committed to equal protection under the law with reliable GOP cronies and underachieving rubber stamps.

As if conservatives never go running to the courts to try and invalidate legislation they don't like. Mitch McConnell filed for an injunction against McCain-Feingold before the ink was even dry.

Today's convenient Republican devotion to direct democracy is nothing but a smokescreen for a desire to enforce subjective religious principles through state coercion and a prurient fascination with the mechanics of — male, especially — homosexual relations.

Another great big gay crusader, Ted Haggard, proved that already.

Simple, really

Seeking to preserve by State statute the allegedly "sacred" nature of marriage as defined in the Book of Deuteronomy is not a compelling government interest.* Why do conservative Republicans insist that it's all about the gay bum sex? It's like they're obsessed with it or something. That doesn't seem natural.

* It's not even a rational one.

A chip and fall off the old Bork

I mentioned John McCain's vacuous platitudes* and his laughably hypocritical "Justice Advisory Committee" previously here.

Now meet Randy M. Mastro, advisory committee member.

* No redundancy, they're vacuous even by platitudinous standards.