People think better when they don’t have a gun to their head

• I don’t get to the theater much, and usually don’t see new movies until they’re out on DVD/Netflix/cable, so I won’t really be able to weigh in on any discussion about Oscar nominations and/or Oscar snubs for another 18 months or so. But I do feel bad for Eric Bana. Two-out-of-three is pretty rough if you’re that third guy.

Even worse, of course, is that the two other Hulks are the closest this year’s Academy Awards come to people of color in any of the acting categories.

• Yesterday was January 16. Jordan Baker was unarmed when killed by police on January 16 a year ago. Two years ago, Robert Ethan Saylor was unarmed when killed by police on January 12. Four years ago, Reggie Doucet was unarmed when killed by police on January 14.

• There are some who call me … Tim?

• Misandrist Hymnal, No. 35: “If Men Go to Hell, Who Cares?”

• As a former copy editor who got laid off from that fine profession, I always feel a bit of schadenfreude over stories like this one. Copy editors are a valuable part of a healthy society.

• Just-so Stories: “How the Zebra Got Its Stripes.” “How the Snake Lost Its Legs.” The first one isn’t really a Just-so Story. Scientists are actually trying to figure out why, in fact, zebras have stripes. Just-so Stories don’t really care about the actual, factual why. Their purported subject is just a hook for the real point of the story, which is something altogether different — just as in that famous story of “How the Snake Lost Its Legs,” and in the closely related story of “How the Humans Started Farming and Wearing Clothes.”

• Bryan Fischer is not a monotheist. The AIDS-denying racist Christian radio host and spokesman for the American Family Association (a fear-based-fundraising business) recently warned that allowing a Muslim call to prayer would invoke what he called a “demonic counterfeit god.”

Fischer believes that the deities worshipped by non-Christians are actually “demons of the abyss,” which is to say he believes they are real, supernatural entities. (In addition to Allah, Fischer has identified Sasha Fierce as another “demonic counterfeit god.”) It doesn’t matter that he considers them lesser gods — the fact that he believes they exist means he’s not a monotheist. Like the goofballs at Charismanews.com, he subscribes to a monolatrous form of Christian belief.

• “The Religious Right’s Obsession With Beyoncé: It’s Not Just Mike Huckabee.” Miranda Blue documents white right-wing Christians’ ongoing preoccupation with Mrs. Carter.

This is kind of hilarious, sure, but it’s also one of the very few things about which the religious right isn’t completely wrong. They’re obsessed with Beyoncé … as they should be.