The Sick Bastard Rate

Last updated on: May 26, 2009 at 2:24 pm By Fred Clark

Here's a depressing bit of polling data. 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants said torture of a suspect could be often or sometimes justified. 51 percent of white, non-Hispanic Catholics said torture could be justified. 46 percent of white mainline Protestants were willing to justify torture. 40 percent of the religiously unaffiliated chimed in to agree to justify torture. This poll is particularly dismaying for those of us in that category of white evangelical Protestants. It's not like Catholics are... Read more

TF: Meta-NHVC

Last updated on: May 22, 2009 at 5:19 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pg. 45 It's been a busy couple of weeks at New Hope Village Church: Saturday morning Buck drove to New Hope Village Church, hoping to catch Bruce Barnes in his office. The secretary told him Bruce was finishing up his sermon preparation, but that she also knew he would want to see Buck. "You're part of Bruce's inner circle, aren't you?" she said. So the church now has a secretary. That's new. NHVC seems to have reconstituted itself,... Read more

Real-Reasons

Last updated on: May 22, 2009 at 5:36 am By Fred Clark

It's just that I'm super busy right now … "Real Down Town," Vigilantes of Love"Real Girls," Daniel Amos"Real Long Distance," Josh Ritter"Real Love," Smashing Pumpkins"Real World," Matchbox Twenty"Really," Nellie McKay"Really Mystified," Elvis Costello & The Attractions"Reason to Believe," Aimee Mann & Michael Penn"Reason to Believe," Billy Bragg"Reason to Believe," Bruce Springsteen"Reason to Believe," Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band"Reason to Believe," Dashboard Confessional"Reasons," Earth, Wind & Fire Read more

Hell and the Credit-Card Lobby

Last updated on: May 20, 2009 at 7:33 pm By Fred Clark

I've mentioned before that I don't believe in the idea of "Hell" as a place of infinite, eternal torment for those beyond or outside of the grace of God. And neither, apparently, does Edward L. Yingling. Yingling is the head of the credit-card lobby. He's spent the past several months vigorously fighting against any limits on the predatory usury and capricious, fine-print larceny that his industry regularly employs to transfer billions of dollars — yes, billions — from the poor... Read more

TF: Bible studies

Last updated on: May 15, 2009 at 5:24 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 38-43 Chloe Steele is smitten with Buck Williams. Lest we judge her too harshly for this, keep in mind that unlike the reader, she's never witnessed him in Buck-the-Player mode, working his charms on Hattie or Alice, and she's never seen him as Buck-the-D-bag smirking behind the back of his female boss. Like Buck, Chloe is aware that the End of the World is not the most auspicious time to begin a relationship: "Sitting here talking about... Read more

Paradise-Park

Last updated on: May 15, 2009 at 5:28 am By Fred Clark

Sooner or later we all become what we chose … "Paradise," Aztec Camera"Paradise," Bruce Springsteen"Paradise," Bryan Duncan"Paradise by the 'C,'" Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band "Paradise City," Guns N' Roses"Paradise City," Pat Boone "Paralyzed," Vigilantes of Love"Paranoid Android," Radiohead"Paris, Texas," Ry Cooder"The Park," Feist Yes, that Bryan Duncan listed above there is the same Bryan Duncan who sings the theme song from Left Behind: The Movie and one-time lead crooner for the Sweet Comfort Band. The track above... Read more

2037

Last updated on: May 13, 2009 at 6:45 am By Fred Clark

I wouldn't want to have to write a story set in 2037. That's 28 years from now — 28 years that will certainly bring about massive changes I couldn't hope to predict. Just look back 28 years. There was still a Soviet Union, an Eastern Bloc and a Cold War, but no cell phones, no World Wide Web and no rocket packs. Well, OK, we still don't have rocket packs, which is inexcusable. We were promised rocket packs, dammit. But... Read more

TF: Love, Apocalypse Style

Last updated on: May 11, 2009 at 5:21 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 33-38 The awfulness of the remainder of this chapter seems — by LaHaye & Jenkins' standards — fairly mundane. The authors of the World's Worst Books usually set themselves apart as trailblazers, seeking out and exploring brave new forms of Bad Writing. But here they've wound up in the well-worn territory of the first blush of young love — ground that has been well-covered by Bad Writers for centuries. On this particular topic, L&J don't necessarily distinguish... Read more

Empathy

Last updated on: May 7, 2009 at 6:53 am By Fred Clark

Here was, to me, the most astonishing quote in the news last week, a staggering admission — a boast actually — of moral imbecility. From a Washington Post item on the resignation of Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter: "[President Barack Obama] says he wants to appoint judges who show empathy, but what does that mean?" said Wendy Long, chief counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network. "Who do you have empathy for?" The loathesome Wendy Long is proud to be... Read more

Catching up, a little

Last updated on: May 6, 2009 at 6:26 pm By Fred Clark

The flu came to town last week and the paper has been frantically on the story ever since. At any journalism outfit, stories like this will highlight the tension between those trying to figure out what readers need and those trying to figure out what readers want (as in what it is that makes readers want to buy a paper). During a flu outbreak, this tension manifests itself as a tug-of-war between the Don't Panic and the Panic! factions. The... Read more