I’m not the kind that likes to tell you

Feeling scattered and scatter-brained — even more so than usual. So here are some scattered thoughts and collected scatterings.

• Erik Loomis links us to this Pitchfork article on Why TikTok Is Overflowing With AI Country Music Erotica, which he correctly describes as a “horror show.”

“Horror show” is also an apt description of his own post on Why the Teamsters Have Gone Far Right, which I did not expect to veer off into a discussion of how white evangelical culture has taken over rodeo, but it has and so it does.

• It turns out that Gocha Ramirez, the Texas county prosecutor who tried to bring murder charges against a woman who had an abortion, has the same personal history with abortion as dozens of other Republican officials who have grandstanded against it: “… but new court filings in Gonzalez’s lawsuit against the county officials who prosecuted her argue that Ramirez must have known much earlier that Gonzalez inducing her own abortion was not a crime — in part because he allegedly paid for one in the mid-1990s while having extramarital affairs with a pair of sisters.”

OK, granted, the pair of sisters detail is a new twist, but the anti-abortion Republican revealed to have paid for his mistress’s abortion story is, by this point, barely news.

• Another example of the maxim that the louder someone proclaims themselves a champion of “family values,” the more dark and twisted their own family life turns out to be: “Dueling Separation Allegations Shed Light on Michele Morrow’s Political Plans.”

• Really wasn’t intending to make this a theme, it’s just that my RSS feed is full of sources that report on religion or on politics, or on the intersection of religion and politics, and when you’re reporting on religion and politics in America, you inevitably end up with a ton of stories like those. And like this: “Christian morality crusader pleads guilty to vile crimes involving kids.”

• That last link is to the Friendly Atheist. Hemant Mehta also covers what apparently really happened with white nationalist/Christian nationalist Oklahoma education chief Ryan Walters and the nude women on his television. It has to do with the factory settings on a Samsung TV and a bad Jackie Chan movie from 1985 and so: A) Walters wasn’t watching porn while on a Zoom meeting, but also, B) Walters was not, as he still imagines and alleges, the victim of a grand conspiracy in which all of his political enemies joined together to frame him for watching porn during a Zoom meeting.

And also, C) some of Jackie Chan’s early work has aged well and some hasn’t, so allow me to recommend, oh, let’s say, Supercop and Police Story. To watch and enjoy, not just to have on in the background during Zoom meetings.

• Trump and Pam Bondi are fighting hard to make sure that the public never gets to learn what is or is not in the Epstein Files, but you know who’s almost certainly not in there? Drag queens. “America owe drag queens a huge apology.”

• Given that the Trump administration has destroyed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, this 1972 New Yorker article on Sesame Street is heartbreaking, but still wonderful: “Cookie, Oscar, Grover, Herry, Ernie, and Company” (via).

• Steve Wiggins has finally gotten around to watching Tremors. I am happy for him, as I am for anyone who hasn’t seen this classic and gets to experience it for the first time.

• Carl Lentz is creepy. That’s not the main point or the main focus of Suzanna Krivulskaya’s “How to Monetize Your Sex Scandal: A Guide for Disgraced Pastors.” But it is absolutely one thing you’ll take away from this fascinating article. Lentz is creepy and he’s creepy about his creepiness.

• Best wishes to veteran religion reporter Jana Riess: “A few words on becoming voiceless.” It occurs to me that I’ve been reading Riess’s words for more than a decade, but I’ve never heard her speak. I’m glad we’ll still get to read her voice, and hope that someday we’ll get to hear it again as well.

• The title for this post come’s from New Order’s “Age of Consent.” I’m grateful to Chevrolet for using a snippet in a recent commercial and thus reminding me of this banger. The lyrics are somewhat morose and cryptic, but that hardly matters when the bass line is thrumming along like that. Put this on when you’re getting dressed in the morning and you’ll feel better about facing the day.