1. Karoli and Bruce Wilson examine the off-the-deep-end dominionist nonsense preached by Rafael Cruz — father of teavangelical “rock star” Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz shreds, twists and purees the Bible with what seems like haphazard abandon, until you realize that all those seemingly random perversions, inversions and inventions are all pointing in one direction: the worship of power for the sake of attaining power.
The elder Cruz says Christians are anointed to be conquering kings, just like in Deuteronomy. That’s like one of those circle-all-the-things-wrong puzzles from Highlights.
2. Everybody knows that the Satanic baby-killers come out at Halloween to put razor blades in apples and to poison the candy of innocent children.
3. A bunch of good people got married in New Jersey earlier this morning. The Slacktivixen and I got married in New Jersey five years ago. Getting married in New Jersey is a Good Thing.
4. “In 1977, after her children were grown and two marriages had ended in divorce — a source of sadness that she rarely talked about — Brenner gave away her expensive clothes and belongings, left her Ventura apartment and moved to La Mesa penitentiary.”
5. Last week, we talked about how “If inerrancy worked as advertised — if it were true — then every believer in an inerrant Bible would share identical beliefs with every other believer in an inerrant Bible.” Here’s another example — this one involving at least three incompatible views defended as the clear teaching of an inerrant Bible.
6. Jon Swarz: “My Skin in the Game: How Ted Cruz and the Right Want to Help Cancer Kill Me, and Maybe You”
I didn’t have to pay anything to see a doctor, and because of that it cost the healthcare system about $5,000 to treat me. If I’d delayed because I had to pay, it easily could have ended up costing the system $500,000 worth of interferon, CT scans and radioimmunotherapy, plus the additional downside of me being dead. Multiply that by millions of people and you’ll understand why the right’s crusade against health insurance is more than just evil and cruel, it’s evil, cruel and incredibly stupid.
7. The grift goes on. Jerry Falwell’s heirs have improved on some of his clumsier attempts to monetize his fright-peddling (the 900-number petition scam was a bit too transparent), but watch this video (via Christian Nightmares) and you’ll see that his favorite repertoire of lies and hobgoblins (socialists! homosexuals! Canadians!) remains the standard 20 years later.
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