Being a culture-warrior must be exhausting

Last updated on: February 3, 2012 at 1:05 pm By Fred Clark

Ellen DeGeneres is very funny. She’s also endearingly self-deprecating, kind, honest and just sort of all-around adorable. Hiring her as a spokesperson is thus a smart move for JCPenney. And trying to whip up a culture-war tempest over that hiring is a really, really dumb move for the American Family Association. I’ll link to the E!-News story on this, because that seems appropriate — “JCPenney Hires Ellen DeGeneres, Gets Heat From Anti-Gay Group“: Ellen DeGeneres has won 16 Daytime Emmys... Read more

Banks behaving badly

Last updated on: February 3, 2012 at 10:04 am By Fred Clark

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.” — Mark Twain Reformed Broker: “Inside the Credit Card Robosigning Scandal“ Credit card accounts get charged-off when a customer falls several months behind on payment. The issuer then sends the file to a collection unit, either an internal division or a debt collection company that it’s hired. If the issuer still can’t get the customer... Read more

Hallelujah by and by

Last updated on: February 3, 2012 at 12:58 am By Fred Clark

Shortly after I picked up the first book in the Left Behind series, but before I’d started writing about it, I wrote a post about the otherworldly strain of escapism in American Christianity. That otherworldliness, I argued, derives from the untenable history of trying to belong to a church that included both slaves and slaveowners. I titled that post “In the sweet by and by,” enlisting the name of an old Southern Gospel hymn that embodied that otherworldly outlook. I... Read more

Planned Parenthood saves lives

Last updated on: February 2, 2012 at 5:40 pm By Fred Clark

Attacking, demonizing and defunding Planned Parenthood, therefore, costs lives. The lives of women and children. Mostly, but not only, poor women and children. So if you tell me you dislike or disapprove of or oppose Planned Parenthood because you are “pro-life” I will be forced to conclude that you are using words you do not understand. Perhaps you do not understand what the words “Planned Parenthood” refer to — maybe you’ve been horribly misled about the work that vital organization... Read more

Groundhog Day and the 10,000-hour montage

Last updated on: February 2, 2012 at 1:02 pm By Fred Clark

Today is the cross-quarter day between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s Candlemas, Imbolc and, here in Pennsylvania, Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day is a strange little tradition, an annual non-holiday marking the midway point of winter and the hope for a coming spring. “If Candlemas be bright and clear / There’ll be two winters in the year,” the old saying said, and somehow we came to decide that a furry garden pest would serve as the definitive arbiter... Read more

Occupy the National Prayer Breakfast

Last updated on: February 1, 2012 at 6:08 pm By Fred Clark

If you’re not already following the Tea Party Jesus tumblr, start doing so now. The formula is as jarringly effective as it is simple: Take verbatim quotes from public figures in politics and religion and place them in the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth. The example here shows how this works. The quote is from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “I’m not concerned with the very poor,” Romney said this morning on CNN. That’s appalling. I didn’t need any help... Read more

Climate-change denialism outraces parody

Last updated on: February 1, 2012 at 3:04 pm By Fred Clark

Last month, NASA reported that 2011 was the ninth-warmest year on record: The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis that shows temperatures around... Read more

The prefix ‘pro-‘ was nounced dead Tuesday …

Last updated on: January 31, 2012 at 7:56 pm By Fred Clark

The prefix ‘pro-‘ was nounced dead Tuesday after suffering from what grammatical fessionals describe as longed strain and abuse. Officials have ruled the death a homicide. “It was such a positive, upbeat little prefix,” said Dr. Elaine McKenzie, chief coroner for the Oxford English Dictionary and a lific author. “But there’s only so much twisting and straining a word can endure.” Years of imper use and tracted, found abuse had a gressive, cumulative effect, McKenzie said. The final, fatal blow... Read more

American history

Last updated on: January 31, 2012 at 7:59 pm By Fred Clark

Here’s a reminder that America is still a young country: Politico interviews President John Tyler’s grandson. President Tyler, who was born in 1790 and became the 10th president in 1841, has two grandchildren still alive today. His grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, currently maintains the Tyler presidential home, Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation in Charles City, Va. Don M. Burrows on “The Manufactured ‘JudoJudeo-Christian Tradition’” In short, the “Judeo-Christian tradition” is a manufactured tradition from the 1950s. It was at the time,... Read more

Fine-tuning the keywords on your résumé

Last updated on: January 31, 2012 at 1:41 pm By Fred Clark

The Consumerist offers the latest in an endless series of articles giving helpful advice to those seeking jobs that don’t exist. This one is about “Tips for Beating the Résumé-Reading Robots of Doom.” Keywords, gaming the system, yada yada. It’s possible such tips and tricks might make a difference for someone, and I’m sure they’re offered in a genuine attempt to be helpful. But still, after the first 40 or 50 or 500 such articles, it becomes hard to read... Read more