A pedophile believes that his "right" to molest physically and mentally handicapped boys is protected because it stems from his religious belief: Phillip Distasio, who said he is the leader of a church called Arcadian Fields Ministries, represented himself at his pretrial hearing Wednesday. He is charged with 74 counts including rape, pandering obscenity to minors and corrupting another with … Read More
Gimme That Ol’ Time Religion
Shakespeare’s Sisters shine a spotlight on this video in a post entitled "Holy Laughter and Spiritual Drunkenness". The Youtube description on the video reads: The late Kenneth Hagin and not-late Kenneth Copeland are seen here during a pastor’s conference in which the crowd was worked up into quite a state. "Holy Laughter", "Spiritual Drinkenness", dancing, thrashing about, falling out, speaking … Read More
How Digital Filming Changes Acting
Interesting post here about how acting for film is changing. In the old days (i.e., from the early 1900’s until, like, a few months ago), screenactors would rehearse and then do a "take" (or two or three or 26 takes). The main reason? Celluloid is expensive. And that pressure to "get it right" while the film was rolling resulted in, … Read More
Sanity Returns To Kansas
Less than a year ago, a conservative majority on Kansas’ State Board of Education adopted state science standards on how to teach modern biology. Or in Kansas’ case, how to avoid it — the standards adopted by the state board represented the broadest challenge to evolution in the country. Democrats and moderate Republicans organized a fierce fight to take back … Read More
More Thoughts On Mel
I think Rabbi Heir says it pretty good: "Anti-Semitism is not born in one day and cannot be cured in one day and certainly not through the issuing of a press release," Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said in a statement. Gibson should read about Jewish persecution and the Holocaust, among other things, … Read More
The Ugly Christian
If Ann Coulter is "an extraordinarily good Christian", then I hope nobody every calls me a Christian. I just don’t want to be in the same league as her. Read this vile interview (on a religious website) in which she is just plain mean and rude and self-righteous, not only on the subject matter being discussed, but to the interviewer.
Tabor Logic
Mind-boggling stupid Nathan Tabor is at it again: Google the phrase “Muslim violence,” and more than 29 million entries pop up. Granted, some of these citations represent violence committed against Muslims, but, unfortunately, quite a few represent violence committed in the name of Islam. This makes me wonder: What does Islam really stand for? Only a fool or an idiot … Read More
Just A Thought
I’m guessing that Mel’s deal with ABC/Disney to produce a miniseries on the Holocaust is going to fall through…. NEXT DAY FOLLOW-UP: Yup, I called it. The ABC television network has pulled a miniseries about the Holocaust it was developing with Mel Gibson’s production company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, quoting an unidentified representative for the network. Gibson … Read More
North Carolina: Bill To Bar Gay Marriage Dies
This is the third time the bill hasn’t had any success. North Carolina remains the only southern state which lacks an amendment blocking gay marriage. So somebody is doing something right. Pam Spaulding reports: NC State Sen. James Forrester didn’t waste any time submitting another marriage amendment bill this year (Senate Bill 1228, Defense of Marriage/House Bill 2438), but Equality … Read More
Last Word On The Army/Community Theater Thing
Re: Former Sgt. Bleu Copas, the Arab linguist who got booted from the Army over allegations of homosexuality after being grilled by his superiors as to whether or not he was involved in community theater (background here and here)… He’s starring in "Bye Bye Birdie" at Theatre Bristol
If You’re In Cleveland Today, Keep Looking Down
Rather sick, if you ask me: Picture of aborted fetus to be flown over Cleveland As a shock tactic, a national group that opposes abortion plans to fly a billboard-size picture of an aborted fetus over Cleveland beginning Monday. The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, which frequently employs such attention-grabbing advertising, hopes to jar people into reconsidering their support of abortion, … Read More
A Sign Of The Times?
Very encouraging article in the New York Times: Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his blessing — and the church’s — to conservative political candidates and causes. The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he … Read More
Oh, Mel, Mel, Mel
I was never a big Mel Gibson fan to begin with. I got tired of his macho films, from Braveheart to The Patriot, and his latest snuff film ("The Passion of the Christ") sent me over the edge. It looks like Hollywood may be having its own doubts about Mel, following his drunken anti-Semitic rage: A stunned Hollywood debated the … Read More
Ken Burns vs. The FCC
Ken Burns, documentarian extraordinaire (see The Civil War, Baseball) is in a battle with the FCC over his latest project — a 14 hour PBS documentary on WWII. Apparently, two of the people he interviews somewhere in that 14 hours use — get the fainting couch ready — swear words! The War, by Ken Burns, which includes veterans using profanities … Read More
Pot Smoking Greg Brady
Yesterday’s mystery house was the Brady Bunch house. And keeping with the Brady theme, here is a clip from the show. In his biography, Barry Williams (who played Greg) says that he played this scene (where the station wagon pulls into the driveway), like, totally baked, man. And it shows. He just grins a lot, and almost trips over a … Read More