I grabbed some take-out, took a quick nap, took a shower, took some Advil, took the dog out, took my coffee black and took the Yaris to take the back-roads to work, where I took on taking inventory until quitting time, when I took off like a bat out of Hell. Read more
"In 1952, Congress passed a law establishing the National Day of Prayer as an annual religious observance. Quick: give me another sentence that uses the words 'Congress,' 'law,' 'establish' and 'religion.'" Read more
Ezekiel 22:28-30: "Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord God,' when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land have practised extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress." Read more
"[Katy] Perry doesn’t 'slam' her strict, evangelical/fundamentalist upbringing nearly as much as she could or maybe should have. It slammed her for 18 years and she walked away. That’s not retaliation, that’s turning the other cheek." Read more
The "superstitious" idea that the prison is an evil, haunted place does not excuse them for the deeds done there any more than they are excused by a "rational," utilitarian calculus that this house of horrors can now be employed for some greater good. Abu Ghraib is an unholy place. It is a house of horrors whose only facility is in allowing such horrors to continue. Read more
Privileging "sincerity" in Kansas; David Barton's plan for universal health care; Ed Stetzer goes 2-for-3 as the Snopes for Southern Baptists; lessons on civility from a guy who says you're a Nazi; lessons in lying from Maine Gov. Paul LePage; and a screw loose at Pepperidge Farms. (Plus, Yogi Berra: Still awesome.) Read more
It's the Friday music game -- I'll show you mine and you show me yours. This week, more songs with names in the title. We're on K names, and I sure hope you folks have some good ones, because all I've got is Kalhoun, Kathy, Katie, Kensey, Kimberly, Kitty, Kody and Kyle('s Mom). Read more
"Tony Perkins believes that such a day-laborer center is — get this — un-Christian.Perkins assumes that all immigrant day laborers — and possibly all people with Hispanic surnames — are illegal until proven innocent. And he is downright gleeful to see that the mayor and members of town council who supported the center were voted out by an anti-immigrant backlash." Read more
The population of the United States is around 313 million, but if you tally up all the "decisions for Christ" reported over the years by the thousands of evangelistic ministries in this country, you'll get a number a lot higher than that. This salvation inflation is pretty sleazy when its cited in those ministries' fundraising newsletters. And it's even sleazier when its cited as the trump card white evangelicals use to shield themselves from all criticism and to excuse any wrongdoing: We're saving souls from Hell -- that's proof we're in the right! Read more
Andrew Tabler is trying to revive one of the nastiest, most illogical of all the nasty, illogical arguments that misled America into the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq. He's repeating Glenn Reynolds' ugly, foolish slur that anyone who opposed invading Iraq was "objectively pro-Saddam." This accusation doesn't make any more sense in 2013 than it did a decade ago, but I think I've finally figured out why people like Reynolds and Tabler trick themselves into thinking it does. They're not really talking about foreign policy. They're talking about theodicy. Read more
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