{"id":9429,"date":"2012-08-01T20:09:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T00:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=9429"},"modified":"2012-08-01T20:09:17","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T00:09:17","slug":"drop-the-needle-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Drop the needle again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/maddowblog.msnbc.com\/_news\/2012\/07\/31\/13050789-mississippi-town-tries-for-better\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mississippi town tries for better<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cPeople who endorsed conspiracy theories such as \u20189\/11 was an inside job\u2019 and \u2018the moon landings were faked,\u2019 were also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2012\/07\/28\/are-climate-sceptics-more-likely-to-be-conspiracy-theorists\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">more likely to reject established scientific facts about climate change<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIn this political climate, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/badastronomy\/2012\/07\/23\/deniers-disgust-and-defamation\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">all of science is vulnerable to ideological attack<\/a> when reality disagrees with political beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhile Mitt Romney can \u2018reject\u2019 his adviser\u2019s statement, the reality is that such comments about Barack Obama are part of a now long established pattern where the former\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com\/2012\/07\/a-mormon-who-race-baits-by-fueling.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">campaign has used racial cues, and appeals to white racial resentment<\/a>, in order to win support among right-leaning voters.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThey might\u2019ve announced that by telegram from Kenya. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.balloon-juice.com\/2012\/08\/01\/steve-king-goes-birther-and-defends-dog-fighting\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The list goes on<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThe percentage of Republicans who say the president is a Muslim has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonmonthly.com\/political-animal-a\/2012_07\/obama_is_muslim_meme_rising_am038855.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">risen from 16 percent in October of 2008 to 30 percent today<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhich means perfect conditions for a host of pests including <a href=\"http:\/\/grist.org\/article\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-more-drought-black-widows\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fleas, ticks, termites, mosquitoes, brown recluse and black widow spiders and scorpions<\/a> to flourish in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhat you have is <a href=\"http:\/\/grist.org\/climate-change\/the-west-in-flames-get-used-to-it\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">evidence of the new normal<\/a> in the American West.\u201d<\/p>\nInternal audit at Social Science Research determines that <a href=\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/lgbt\/2012\/07\/27\/596251\/gay-parenting-bullshit\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mark Regnerus\u2019 hideous chin-beard<\/a> is \u201cinappropriate for a journal that publishes original quantitative research.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cWhat is notable is the degree to which Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanprogressaction.org\/issues\/2012\/07\/romneyu_econ.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Romney doubles down on that theory and on the policies of President George W. Bush<\/a> to produce a plan that would dramatically favor the very rich over the interests of everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cRepublicans are very committed to cutting taxes on the rich, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/ezra-klein\/wp\/2012\/07\/25\/republican-want-to-raise-taxes-on-the-poor-why\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">but they\u2019re willing to let them rise on the poor<\/a>. And Democrats are more or less the reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThey pay so little that full-time workers are eligible for food stamps and even welfare. <a href=\"http:\/\/crooksandliars.com\/susie-madrak\/walmart-moves-fire-union-activist-emp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">And they call them job creators?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.boomantribune.com\/story\/2012\/7\/25\/125544\/602\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Everything they say about health care is a lie<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIf illiteracy were on the rise, I don\u2019t think we\u2019d be talking about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/friendlyatheist\/2012\/07\/31\/why-algebra-is-necessary-rebutting-andrew-hacker\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">eliminating reading from the curriculum<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/gothamist.com\/2008\/02\/13\/beware_the_butt.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">I think the word needs to get out there<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cIt has been <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Escolar\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">banned from consumption in Japan since 1977<\/a>, as the Japanese government considers it toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThe only guarantee is that if you do nothing \u2014 or sit on the Internet prophesying doom \u2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dohiyimir.org\/2012\/07\/the-future-depends-on-ourselves.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">nothing will change for the better<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMississippi town tries for better\u201d \u201cPeople who endorsed conspiracy theories such as \u20189\/11 was an inside job\u2019 and \u2018the moon landings were faked,\u2019 were also more likely to reject established scientific facts about climate change.\u201d \u201cIn this political climate, all of science is vulnerable to ideological attack when reality disagrees with political beliefs.\u201d \u201cWhile Mitt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Drop the needle again<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Mississippi town tries for better" "People who endorsed conspiracy theories such as '9\/11 was an inside job' and 'the moon landings were faked,' were\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drop the needle again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Mississippi town tries for better" "People who endorsed conspiracy theories such as '9\/11 was an inside job' and 'the moon landings were faked,' were\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-02T00:09:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Drop the needle again","description":"\"Mississippi town tries for better\" \"People who endorsed conspiracy theories such as '9\/11 was an inside job' and 'the moon landings were faked,' were","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Drop the needle again","og_description":"\"Mississippi town tries for better\" \"People who endorsed conspiracy theories such as '9\/11 was an inside job' and 'the moon landings were faked,' were","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2012-08-02T00:09:17+00:00","author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/","name":"Drop the needle again","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-08-02T00:09:17+00:00","dateModified":"2012-08-02T00:09:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"\"Mississippi town tries for better\" \"People who endorsed conspiracy theories such as '9\/11 was an inside job' and 'the moon landings were faked,' were","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/01\/drop-the-needle-again\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Drop the needle again"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}