Jon Stewart on Fox’s “War on Christmas”

“Since you asked the question, “Am I nuts to think there’s a war on Christmas?” it’s only polite for me to offer you a resounding, “Yes, you’re f*cking nuts.” Because, for whatever annoying local ticky-tac Christmas-abolishing story you and your merry band of persecution-seeking researchers can scour the wires to turn up, the rest of us can’t swing a dead elf without knocking over an inflatable snow globe or a giant blinking candy cane. For god’s sakes! Fox News itself is located in Midtown Manhattan, the epicenter of all that is godless, secular, gay, Jewy, and hellbound. And yet, even here, all around your studio, it looks like Santa’s balls exploded. In the olden days, before the “war on Christmas” the celebration of the birth of Jesus lasted a day, like birthdays do. … There’s a war on Christmas? Has anyone told Thanksgiving? ‘Cause this year, Black Friday, AKA Christmas’ opening bell, got pushed back a day to “Black Thursday.” Or as we used to call it: Thanksgiving. Christmas is so big now it’s eating other holidays.” — Jon Stewart, 12/3/2012


via reallyfoxnews

Well, this is awkward: when rightwing Christianity devours itself

The only negative to the implosion of rightwing fundamentalism is that it’s just not happening fast enough.

via: confrontingbabble-on

Bill Keller’s website: http://www.votingforsatan.com

NOTE: Bill Keller has also claimed that President Obama is God’s enemy.

But look, I guess it’s good to know who’s been officially appointed to stand in judgement of all people and speak for GOD (when Rick Santorum is busy, of course): good ol’ Bill Keller.

Sunday prayer: keep your religion out of our politics

Andrew Sullivan caught a surprising statement from a Fox “New” anchor:

“This country has a long history of discrimination against certain groups. Eventually we wind up getting it right. Right? Against women, against blacks, the civil rights movement and so on. And in justifying that discrimination when it was in place, some folks turn to the Bible and turn to their religious beliefs and said we have to have slavery because it’s in the Bible. Women have to be second-class citizens because that’s in the Bible. Blacks and whites can’t get married because that’s in the Bible. That wound up in a case. A judge wrote that in an opinion, which the Supreme Court ultimately struck that down, saying that’s not right, judge—the Equal Protection clause says you can’t do that. Why is gay marriage any different?” — Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.

Of course Dr. Robert Jeffress, to whom Kelly was speaking, responded with an argument about polygamy—in Utah no less! Let’s think about that… hey! Fun fact — which presidential candidate actually comes from a family which actually practiced polygamy: 1) President Obama or 2) Mitt Romney.

The bottom line is that fundamentalist Christians pick and choose which verses and commandments they’ll follow from the Bible and which verses they’ll ignore. You’ve found a verse about homosexuality being a sin in the Bible? Good for you. What about the thousands of other sins that are described in the Bible which you happily ignore? Where does it say homosexuality and gay marriage are against the law in the Constitution?

A particular sect of Christians shouldn’t be inflicting their BELIEFS on the entire country in the form of political ideology and our nation’s laws. Your beliefs are your business and my beliefs are mine. That’s America and that’s separation of church and state.

Christian fundamentalists should think about this a little harder: what if Mormons became the largest sect of Christianity in America? Do you really want their particular beliefs to be imposed on everyone else, to have their religious practices held up by one political party as the law of the land? The Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States are there for a reason — to protect us from the religious zealotry of the few over the many.

It’s a shame American Christians don’t care about the economy or their own incomes

If fundamentalists spent even one quarter of their time and attention on what the GOP was doing for the wealthiest Americans (at the expense of the poor, working and middle classes) as they do on social issues like gay marriage and abortion rights, we wouldn’t be living through a time of  income inequality that’s even greater than during the Great Depression.

Instead of worrying about the incomes and living conditions of their own families and friends and neighbors, these Christians are more worried about legislating what strangers should do with their privates lives. Meanwhile, they continue voting for the wolves who have been shoveling money up to their benefactors for the past three decades. Political Wire reports that Mitt Romney’s tax plan would reward the wealthy even more, while placing an even greater economic burden on the rest of us. And it will be the fundamentalists who vote for Romney:

A new Brookings Institution/Tax Policy Center study finds Mitt Romney’s plan to overhaul the tax code would produce cuts for the richest 5% of Americans — and larger bills for everybody else.

The Washington Post notes the researchers seemed “to bend over backward to be fair to the Republican presidential candidate” but “none of it helped Romney.”

“His rate-cutting plan for individuals would reduce tax collections by about $360 billion in 2015, the study says. To avoid increasing deficits — as Romney has pledged — the plan would have to generate an equivalent amount of revenue by slashing tax breaks for mortgage interest, employer-provided health care, education, medical expenses, state and local taxes, and child care — all breaks that benefit the middle class.”

A year ago, Think Progress reported that “crucial services and public investments for Main Street America are being gutted as taxes on the richest Americans are the lowest they’ve been in a generation. …ThinkProgress has assembled the following graph, which demonstrates that the United States is now about as economically unequal as Uganda and more unequal than countries like Pakistan or the Ivory Coast:”

Imagine the level of inequality if Romney and a Teapublican Congress get their way. What does it say about modern Christianity when all the fundamentalist rubes are capable of paying attention to are the social issues that the GOP distracts them with on an almost daily basis? Instead of helping those less fortunate, is trying to force your religious beliefs on others and being associated with what you hate really what Jesus intended?

Sunday prayers: what were the pseudo-Christian Teagelicals up to this week?

Mosques are not churches like we would think of churches. They think of mosques more as a foothold into a society, as a foothold into a community, more in the cultural and in the nationalistic sense. Our churches — we don’t feel that way, they’re places of worship, and mosques are simply not that, and we need to take that into account when approving construction of those.”  – Colorado state Sen. Kevin Grantham (R), quoted by the Colorado Statesman, saying a proposal to ban construction of new mosques should be considered.  (via)

All loving Christians are invited to celebrate the word of God at Rev. William Collier’s annual conference — that is, as long as they are white. [...] The Alabama town’s mayor is renouncing the Reverend, saying that such hate speech is unwelcome in the town. But Collier defended the flyer this week, saying that he isn’t a racist — just that “the white race is God’s chosen people.” (via)

During his Thursday Focal Point radio program, Bryan Fischer equated the healthcare mandate with going to church“We know that going to church is good for you, it’s good for your health. So we are going to mandate that you go to church for your own health and we are going to tax the atheists who don’t go to church. Now we can’t make you go to church, but we are going to penalize you if you don’t,” Fischer continued. “We are going to assess a tax on every atheist who doesn’t go to church because those atheists are endangering their physical health.” (via)

I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school. Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders’ religion. We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools.” – Louisiana state Rep. Valarie Hodges (R), quoted by the Livingston Parish News, upon learning that the recently passed voucher program can go to Muslim schools as well as Christian schools.  (via)

‘Merica, amen. 

“I want you to kill all infidels.” — Jesus

School Hangs Up Student’s Drawing of Jesus Saying ‘I Want You to Kill All Infidels’

Aren’t American fundagelical children adorable (like their parents)? Or look at it this way: the Taliban will have nothing on the next generation of Christians.

You’re anti-gay marriage? Yes, you look like a complete idiot to most people.


image: christopherstreet

fonik: Anderson’s expression here is perfect.


North Carolina pastor: Send LGBT people to concentration camps to die — Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in North Carolina recently told his congregation that LGBT individuals should be rounded up and detained in camps until they’re all dead. […] “…Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out, feed em, and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out…” — Raw Story

The more rightwing Christians know about Mormonism, the more they support Romney?

Seriously, the Brookings Institute is telling us the more the fundagelicals learn about Mormonism, the more they support Romney?

Armed with fresh survey data and a counterintuitive thesis, a new Brookings Institution study released Wednesday makes the compelling case that Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, long pegged by pundits as a political albatross for the candidate, won’t actually hurt him at the polls in November — and it could even help.

[...] According to the study, a full 82 percent of respondents said they knew “little” or “nothing” about Mormonism, and researchers found that feeding them even a couple sentences of basic information about the church’s beliefs had the ability to swing wide swaths of the electorate in terms of their support for Romney.

In the case of this particular survey, the headline-ready finding is that — among conservatives at least — such information actually increased support for the candidate.

Americans Don’t Know Anything About Romney’s Religion — Yet

Two things:

  1. Let’s be honest: the rightwing fundies would support ANYONE running against what they see as the “black, socialist, Kenyan” who currently resides in the White House; and
  2. It’s funny that the “couple sentences of basic information” given to these people are about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon — both pretty neutral, noncontroversial facts about Mormonism. I’d like to know when they’ll get the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, the lesser known beliefs, such as:
    • God lives on a planet near the star Kolob.
    • God (“Heavenly Father”) has at least one wife, our “Mother in Heaven,” but she is so holy that we are not to discuss her nor pray to her.
    • Jesus was married.
    • We can become like God and rule over our own universe.
    • There are many gods, ruling over their own worlds.
    • Jesus and Satan (“Lucifer”) are brothers, and they are our brothers – we are all spirit children of Heavenly Father
    • Jesus Christ was conceived by God the Father by having sex with Mary, who was temporarily his wife.
    • We should not pray to Jesus, nor try to feel a personal relationship with him.
    • ETC…

The thing is, even if fundagelicals are given more information about this religion, I’ll bet they’ll ignore it, decide it’s too unbelievable. That’s how crazy some of it would sound to them  (between you and me, it’s no crazier than every other religion).  In the meantime, Romney panders hard to the Wingnut-Christian political agenda of making everyone else’s business a test of their personal ‘religious freedom’ — feeding their obvious plan of one day transforming America into a Christian theocracy.

It’s Mormon Cultist Day at fundagelical Liberty University!

Two items of interest from the The Maddow Blog

  1. When President Obama endorsed marriage equality this week, he announced a position that his church, the United Church of Christ, has supported for quite a while.
  2. Falwell U. offers a course that identifies Mormons as belonging to a “cult” that must be defeated.


via: christopherstreet

I keep reading about how Romney can’t close the deal with the fundagelicals no matter what he does. Christ, what does he have to do?  Beat up a gay kid?

TRUE STORY: 

Among Mitt Romney’s timid responses this week after President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality was an admission that he was “fine” with same-sex couples adopting children, saying, “that’s something that people have a right to do.” But by Friday afternoon, he was already backing away from that position, suggesting that he merely “acknowledges” that many states offer same-sex adoption – Mitt Romney’s Support Of Same-Sex Adoption Lasts One Day


via: christopherstreet

Mitt Romney Will Not Be Distracted by ‘Counterculture’ Hair During His Liberty University Speech – That’s because, according to the school handbook, “hair and clothing styles related to a counterculture (as determined by the Student Affairs Deans’ Review Committee) are not acceptable” at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, where Romney is giving a commencement address this Saturday. “Hair should be cut in such a way that it will not come over the ears, collar or eyebrows at any time,” the handbook continues.


via: liberalsarecool

Mitt Romney’s defenders speak out (all two of them): According to Ann Romney, Mitt is still the “crazy” guy from high school who loves “playing jokes” on people. And according to his high school friend Gregg Dearth, Romney probably was merely acting “jokingly” when he bullied John Lauber. Dearth, who didn’t witness the attack, imagined it was probably a barrel of laughs, the kind of thing that might “traumatize” or “scare” somebody, but “no harm, no foul.” So there you have it, folks. Mitt Romney was a crazy jokester who liked to traumatize and scare people unfortunate enough to be his lesser, but there’s nothing wrong with that. And he’s still the same guy today that he was back then. No harm, no foul.


via: guiseppegetto

Jonathan Chait: Perhaps that is the deeper fixation: It is not enough for Romney to have perfect hair. Others must have terrible hair.

Steve Benen / Maddow Blog: But for the larger mainstream, the commencement address suggests Romney’s post-primary shift away from his party’s more extreme elements still isn’t happening. What’s more, despite all the talk about his focus on the economy, the Republican’s anti-gay agenda is reinforced, not just with his push for a constitutional amendment, but with his decision to visit a school that considers itself a “hard liner institution against the homosexual menace.”


via: corporationsarepeople

Romney plans to win over God’s ‘chosen people’ at Liberty tomorrow by not mentioning his own religion

As long as he can make them forget he’s in a ‘cult,’ Romney should be good to go with God’s flying monkeys:

Campaign Aide: Romney To Steer Clear Of Mormonism In Liberty Speech

Even now, concerns linger. When Romney’s scheduled commencement address was made public, some Liberty students pledged to forego the graduation ceremony in protest, arguing that Romney’s church was a “cult.” And as BuzzFeed reported earlier today, even those students who are supportive of the Republican’s visit have serious qualms about his religion.

But in refusing to wade into a discussion about his faith, the Romney campaign is sticking closely to its 2012 playbook: No matter the setting, no matter the audience, avoid the Mormon question at all costs. The bet is that conservative Christians, when faced with the prospect of four more years of President Obama, will hold their noses and vote for a “cultist.”

Besides, there’s probably nothing Romney could say in a commencement speech that would undo the firmly entrenched belief here that the Mormon candidate is “unsaved.”

Funnily enough, Romney will be speaking to an audience that his own religion considers to be ‘unsaved’ as well. Yet he’ll gladly pander to them for political gain. Truly a profile in courage.

Sunday Bible lessons from Ayn Rand


image: paxamericana

Up until last week, Paul Ryan was Rand’s biggest fanboi:

  • “I just want to speak to you a little bit about Ayn Rand and what she meant to me in my life and [in] the fight we’re engaged here in Congress. I grew up on Ayn Rand, that’s what I tell people.”
  • “I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are.”
  • “It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff. We start with Atlas Shrugged. People tell me I need to start with The Fountainhead then go to Atlas Shrugged [laughter]. There’s a big debate about that. We go to Fountainhead, but then we move on, and we require Mises and Hayek as well.”
  • “But the reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.”
  • “And when you look at the twentieth-century experiment with collectivism—that Ayn Rand, more than anybody else, did such a good job of articulating the pitfalls of statism and collectivism—you can’t find another thinker or writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism than Ayn Rand.”
  • “It’s so important that we go back to our roots to look at Ayn Rand’s vision, her writings, to see what our girding, under-grounding [sic] principles are.”
  • “Because there is no better place to find the moral case for capitalism and individualism than through Ayn Rand’s writings and works.”