In Election 2004, Bush/Rove played the homophobia card. Bush condemned gay marriage, and that ignited homophobia from "middle America". So they voted Bush into office so that he could do nothing about gay marriage (but he did give tax cuts to upper-income American). Looks like we’re going to see the same thing again this election year. Senate Majority Leader Bill … Read More
Racism 2006
In his post about the thinly-veiled racism underyling the conservative outrage about the King funeral, Digby channels the right wing (slightly editted for clarity sake): Fuck the blacks. They don’t vote for us anyway. But then, there’s always some good reason to fuck the blacks isn’t there? Hiring minorities is a problem because: 1955 – They are an inferior race1965 … Read More
Evangelical Infighting
Good: Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." Read the full statement of by the leaders of the the Evangelical Climate Initiative. Here’s the summary: … Read More
Coretta Scott King Funeral Fallout
Wingnuts are indignant at the fact that the funeral for Coretta Scott King was "marred" by politics, virtually ignoring the fact that King herself (even after her husband’s death) was an outspoken leader on political and social issues, including her opposition to the Iraq War. The photo at the right is when Rev. Lowry talks about poverty and finding no … Read More
Get A Life
A guy in England converted his studio apartment into a replica of Star Trek’s Voyager. The flat now has moulded walls, touch-panel blue lighting and a life-size model of the show’s transporter room. There’s a command console, reshaped windows to look like portholes and set up vertical lights so he can pretend to be “beamed up”. It cost him £20,000, … Read More
New GOP Majority Leader No Fan Of Evolution
As reported here, John Boehner, the new Republican leader of the House, teamed up with another Ohio Republican (Steve Chabot) to push an attack on evolution. In a 2002 letter (PDF format), Boehner writes: "Public school students are entitled to learn that there are differing scientific views on issues such as biological evolution." Yet another Republican who doesn’t understand the … Read More
Sunday Review
The Stones sucked. The rest was boring, except the cool double-reverse with the wide receiver throwing a touchdown pass.
Two In A Row
Like the post below, Shakespeare’s Sister is right again when she writes: I’m well and bloody tired of being expected to extend logically-incoherent exceptions to people because they call themselves Christians that I wouldn’t extend to anyone else. Find out why.
In Praise Of Harper Lee
In case you missed it, the New York Times recently did a nice article about Harper Lee and the impact of her only novel To Kill A Mockingbird: The recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, "To Kill a Mockingbird" remains the only book Ms. Lee has written. It is difficult to overestimate the sustained power of the novel or … Read More
Not Christian Enough!
I admit it. I enjoy it when fundamentalist Christian propagandists turn on each other: Christian ministers were enthusiastic at the early private screenings of "End of the Spear," made by Every Tribe Entertainment, an evangelical film company. But days before the film’s premiere, a controversy erupted over the casting of a gay actor that has all but eclipsed the movie … Read More
Oscar Time
Complete list and my predictions below the fold.
What’s The World Coming To?
Don’t ask me to explain, but it seems fitting that Corretta Scott King should die on the day Alito’s nomination is confirmed by the Senate (58-42)
RIP Wendy Wasserstein
AP: Playwright Wendy Wasserstein, who celebrated women confronting feminism, careers, love and motherhood in such works as "The Heidi Chronicles" and "The Sisters Rosensweig," died Monday. She was 55. She was a phenomenal playwright, and will be missed.
The Fight Against AIDS
Bad policy: President Bush’s $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use. Award recipients include a Christian relief organization famous for its televised appeals to feed hungry children, a well-known Catholic … Read More
Reality Invades Fantasy World
I’m not big on online fantasy games. I tried to get into it once, but my experience amounted to nothing more than creating a character (a knight or whatever), and then finding myself standing in a medival town hall with a bunch of other characters who all looked just like me (except the women, and even then….). Occasionally someone would … Read More