Tribulation Force, pp. 268-274 “It ain’t over ’til you both get your cookies.”— Old Man Dunphy Having established cookies as the symbol and talisman for Buck and Chloe’s repressed sexuality, the following short vignette gets a bit squicky. Rayford … lifted the small cookie bag from the counter. One left, he thought, and was tempted. Instead he wrote Chloe a note. “Hope you don’t mind, I couldn’t resist.” On the back he wrote, “Just kidding,” and laid the note atop... Read more
Happy Birthday Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. And thank you for giving us this: Seven Deadly Sins Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Science without humanity Knowledge without character Politics without principle Commerce without morality Worship without sacrifice Read more
The oddest thing to me about Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's "I Was A Teenage Witch" claims is that so much of the reaction has accepted her claim that such a thing might be possible. It is not. Her claims of "dabbling" in what she called "witchcraft" are not true. The supposed witchcraft she describes is not something that exists. Such stories of bloody altars and Satanic covens are common and they are false. All of them. That is a... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 265-268 "We have time for a cookie," Buck says to Chloe as she walks with him on the airplane on the way to his flight to Cincinnati. Buck doesn't just mean a cookie, he means a cookie-cookie — nudge, nudge, know what I mean? Say no more … know what I mean? He's thinking of the Cookie Incident, which he is desperate to re-enact and relive. And he wants to know if Chloe is eager to relive... Read more
Tea partiers tend to revere the U.S. Constitution in much the same way that many American evangelicals revere the Bible, which is to say they read it without comprehension, looking only for ammunition that can be used against their enemies. And since neither text was written for such a purpose, this so-called reverence is an exercise in illiteracy. Tea party candidate Christine O'Donnell provided a classic example of this obtuse proof-texting illiteracy recently, accusing President Barack Obama of violating the... Read more
Hey, so, the Slacktivixen and I will be attending Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" on Oct. 30 on the National Mall in Washington. Which means, of course, that we will also be attending Stephen Colbert's "March to Keep Fear Alive" on Oct. 30 on the National Mall in Washington. In case you've missed the build-up on "The Daily Show," Stewart describes his rally this way: We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for... Read more
In a crowded market, you have to carve out a niche. The market for End-Times, Bible-"prophecy" hucksterism is very crowded, so Tim LaHaye has to introduce some edge, some peculiar twist or innovation to set apart his brand. His personal variation on the standard Darby/Scofield formula includes several unique, idiosyncratic quirks that distinguish his version from that of his rivals. Such quirks function at least two ways. First, they provide market differentiation — Why should I buy LaHaye's books instead... Read more
So you’re sitting around with a group of friends talking, the conversation skipping cheerfully from one topic to another, turning eventually, somehow, to a discussion of the best and worst public restrooms you’ve each encountered. Your friend Jackie says that she is terrified of the bathrooms at the airport. Because of the spiders. Most of the group hasn’t heard about the spiders, so Jackie explains. There’re these poisonous spiders from South America that stow away on international flights and wind... Read more
"Who do you trust?" the Associated Press asks in an annual poll. It's a silly poll and every year it produces a silly article. This year's silly article was written by Alan Fram and Jennifer Agiesta: "AP-NCC Poll: Not much trust in major institutions." This article is always fundamentally askew because it always finds and laments this lack of "trust." The AP should know better. They're journalists, after all, so distrust is their profession. This is Rule No. 1 for... Read more
The reaction to Christine O'Donnell's upset win in the Republican Senate primary in Delaware has tended to blur several factors that need to be kept distinct. O'Donnell is described as both "extreme" and "unelectable" — two things that are related, but separate. Each also contains more than one idea and it may be helpful to separate those out as well. Regarding O'Donnell's "electability," Tom Ross, chairman of Delaware's Republican Party, said she was someone who "could not get elected dogcatcher."... Read more
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