NRA: One tough coroner

Last updated on: January 11, 2013 at 10:25 pm By Fred Clark

Let's just assume that the coroner was not killed in the nuclear attack on the city, that the coroner's downtown office was not damaged, that the phone lines and power for the office continue to function as they did before the attack, that the coroner himself and all of his staff managed to make their way through all the debris and devastation to get to the building and that now, today -- one day after the Antichrist's military nuked the city of Chicago -- the Cook County Office of the Medical Examiner is open for business during regular office hours. Read more

The elephant in the room displaces the gorilla

Last updated on: January 11, 2013 at 3:18 pm By Fred Clark

The idiom of choice -- or cliché, if you want to be critical about it -- for people refusing to acknowledge an urgent problem that ought to be their priority used to be "the 800-pound gorilla in the room." In recent years, though, the idiom seems to be shifting as the gorilla has gotten some competition from the elephant in the room. Read more

What’s the buzz, tell me what’s happening

Last updated on: January 11, 2013 at 12:52 am By Fred Clark

Swallowing a tablet is too stark a reminder that caffeine is a drug. Ingesting that drug via coffee masks that somewhat. All those B-vitamin compounds and herbal whatnots in energy drinks do the same thing. They're just in there so we can pretend we're doing something nutritional and wholesome rather than just finding another flavor for the delivery system for our preferred stimulant drug. Read more

Celebrity songs: Jean Arp to Christopher Columbus

Last updated on: January 10, 2013 at 6:19 pm By Fred Clark

It's the Friday music game -- I'll show you mine, you show me yours. Let's try a new twist, songs with famous people in their titles. ... Read more

Chick-fil-A Biblical Family of the Day

Last updated on: January 10, 2013 at 6:24 pm By Fred Clark

"We support biblical families," Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy says of his fast-food corporation. So let's take a look at some of those biblical families. Today's entry: Salvation by childbearing. Read more

Love is not a victory march — unless you’re Marvin Olasky

Last updated on: January 11, 2013 at 1:07 am By Fred Clark

Here is something that no one, anywhere, has ever said: "Hey, wouldn't it be great if the lyrics to Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' were re-written by a right-wing Calvinist as a didactic lecture on divine wrath?" Read more

Here’s the tell: Hyde and Stupak

Last updated on: January 10, 2013 at 3:24 pm By Fred Clark

Hobby Lobby is not arguing that this supposedly onerous mandate should be illegal under the Hyde Amendment or under the executive order that expressly forbids the ACA from anything like an "abortion mandate." Instead, Hobby Lobby is arguing only that it should be granted a religious exception to the rules requiring gender equality in insurance coverage for employees. That's the tell. Read more

Memory vs. Hobby Lobby: Evangelicals and contraception and why Denny Burk is not a conservative

Last updated on: January 10, 2013 at 1:28 pm By Fred Clark

This is a radical act, the act of remembering when the powers that be are telling you not to. Merritt remembers what evangelicals taught about contraception when she was a teenager and she remembers that it was the opposite of what evangelicals are teaching and saying and fighting legal battles over today. Read more

Chick-fil-A Biblical Family of the Day

Last updated on: January 10, 2013 at 8:36 am By Fred Clark

"We support biblical families," Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy says of his fast-food corporation. So let's take a look at some of those biblical families. Today's entry: Jarha and Sheshan's daughter. Read more

More good news: Another dozen reasons to celebrate

Last updated on: January 9, 2013 at 11:50 pm By Fred Clark

Malala Yousufzai leaves the hospital; Episcopalians and teenagers spoil Westboro's plans; the "Sk8ter Grrls of Kabul;" a boom year for wind power; America's incarceration rate heads down; a bishop has a change of heart; and several more reasons to be happy. Read more

Who helped Jesus carry His cross?