Following New Zealand's lead, the Delaware state House of Representatives votes to approve marriage equality. But Delaware legislators failed to follow the Kiwis example by celebrating with a beloved traditional Delaware love song. I suppose George Thorogood's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" wouldn't really have been appropriate anyway. Read more
We had a plague of locusts across the Middle East, at Passover no less. Then we had a two-headed shark. So it's no wonder that National Public Radio is asking "How Close Is Doomsday?" or that books about "The Antichrist" are big business all over the world. Here's a roundup of some other news and commentary about "Bible prophecy," the End Times, etc., including how Tim LaHaye helped the NRA kill a gun safety bill favored by 90 percent of Americans. Read more
"You're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?" "Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution ... this is it for the US. ... The American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this." Read more
The larger problem is that according to fundamentalism, those falsehoods are inextricably linked to everything else. Everything. So if it turns out that the Earth is actually 4.5 billion years old, then, according to fundamentalism, life has no meaning, happiness is impossible, love is illusion, Jesus is dead, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins, and we are of all people most to be pitied. Read more
Somehow I've ended up with another night job, so I'll be asleep when you read these Monday morning links, featuring: the importance of studying duck penises; some smart thoughts on the Bible; David Simon on the Senate -- an institution more dysfunctional than any in 'The Wire;' a wedding in No Man's Land; a big buck at the Big Box; Westeros Morning Playbook; and marital chastity. Read more
After editing that Second Chapter of Acts album cover recently, I had "Mansion Builder" stuck in my head for days. It can be such a pretty song that I almost don't mind the vapid otherworldliness of its theology. Almost. Read more
Mark 7:24-30: "He said to her, 'Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.' But she answered him, 'Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.'" Read more
Good con artists are difficult to prosecute. This is true, in part, because getting conned is viewed differently than being the victim of other forms of crime. There’s a sense of shame, or at least of embarrassment, on the part of the victims, so they’re less likely than other crime victims to report the crimes. Con artists know this, and they exploit it. Read more
We can all get along. We can all agree that one side of this issue involves a realistic assessment of the evidence and the other side involves a delusional fantasy based on some perverse need to assert the absolute worst about others. Maybe we can't agree on which side is which, but at least we can agree that this is the shape of the disagreement. Read more
It turns out that the litigious old bastard has at least one useful social purpose. The unimpeded, undiminished work of his infamously evil anti-gay "ministry" emphatically disproves every Scary Story promoted by anti-gay religious groups who claim that recognizing marriage equality or including sexual orientation in existing hate-crime or anti-discrimination legislation will lead to Christian ministers being thrown in jail for saying they believe homosexuality is a sin. Read more
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