Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

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Reader Interactions

108Comments

  3. 3.

    TenguPhule

    When was the last time the Republicans or conservatives attacked the left for their outrageous comments or outrageous activities? We don’t attack.

    The Snark is Dead. Long live the Snark.

  6. 6.

    capelza

    Just wanted to say something…Jane Hamsher is my neighbour, in that she lives literally just a few miles from me. I just found this out. I had no clue.

  11. 11.

    The Other Steve

    I left my response.

    This was by far the most insightful thing I’ve ever heard anybody say.

    You are so right. Republicans would never attack Liberals. They would never try to turn Liberal into a disparaging word. They would never use Liberal as an attack against other candidates.

    So why are they treated as if being Conservative was a bad thing?

    It’s not their fault that all the conservative policies implemented by the Bush administration have failed. That’s the fault of the damn liberal media for only reporting the failures rather than the successes. I mean we hardly ever hear about all the schools being built in Iraq, yet we hear about the slaughters of dozens of people daily. That’s because Liberals hate America!

    Thank you for this perspective. Without people of such wisdom and intellect, I just don’t know how I’d live my life.

  12. 12.

    Krista

    “He said ‘hello to the Jane Hamshers of this neighborhood.’ But not you.”

    Ooh…much better. If you actually do that, try to get a picture of her reaction, ok?

  13. 13.

    Tsulagi

    On Hardball DeLay mentioned he didn’t write his blog posts. Said he comes up with the “ideas” and others do the little stuff of writing words. Probably outsources it to some guy in India who can write that shit in his sleep.

  14. 14.

    Bruce Moomaw

    The scariest fact of all is that this woman is a psychologist. How many minds has she ruined already?

  15. 15.

    srv

    The Snark is Dead

    We need some old-german equivalent. English words like snark, irony, shameless seem meaningless today.

  16. 16.

    DougJ

    The scariest fact of all is that this woman is a psychologist. How many minds has she ruined already?

    Cheer up, the people she sees are all crazy already. ;)

  17. 17.

    chopper

    quoted by Dr. Mrs. Instapundit

    what a crappy blog. shit, that made my eyes burn. ‘boo hoo, the left are a bunch of mean assholes compared to the pure and righteous right wing who never makes fun of anyone ever, and i’m being soooo persecuted for being a gooper’.

    then she ironically makes it out like she might as well wear a scarlet letter for being a republican, which is funny since hester prynne was treated like shit and forced to wear the scarlet letter by the sort of people the modern uber-right models themselves after.

    god, what a bunch of whiners.

    that blog is about as astute as a biscuit with two shits inside.

  18. 18.

    Zifnab

    We’ll see how well matryrdom sells in ’08. My money says that they’ve already saturated the market with “Boo hoo, I’m a disenfranchised rich white Republican.”

  19. 19.

    jake

    Probably outsources it to some guy in India who can write that shit in his sleep.

    Or those monkeys that still haven’t finished Hamlet.

    What the fuck else does Tommy have to do these days? Meet with his defense team and…nuthin’ Yet he’s too busy to write his own damn blog? Pathetic. Here’s hoping The Hammer gets nailed.

  20. 20.

    Bruce Moomaw

    Stop press: Damned if ORSON SCOTT CARD isn’t running around with this woman. (See Dave Weigel’s Op-Ed in last night’s LA Times on the sudden surge in loony-tune extreme-Right SF novels.) I always wondered how long Card could consort intimately with Mormons without going nuts, and now apparently we know.

  21. 21.

    John Redworth

    On Hardball DeLay mentioned he didn’t write his blog posts. Said he comes up with the “ideas” and others do the little stuff of writing words.

    it kind of fits this mentality of the current GOP… Bush and company didn’t say that Saddam had nukes but they come up with the “ideas” and let others do the little stuff like spread lies…

  22. 22.

    CaseyL

    I always wondered how long Card could consort intimately with Mormons without going nuts, and now apparently we know.

    Card is a Mormon. And he went nuts at least a year ago, when he wrote that paeagn to homophobia. His latest novel is a winger fantasy about a civil war in America between freedom-loving Godly right-wingers and tyrannical yet wimpy liberals. It makes “Red Dawn” look Shakespearean.

  23. 23.

    Steve

    By the way, Mormonism is just like any other religion, with some nutters and an awful lot of normal people. I’m not sure why people tend to talk about them like they’re a freakish cult, except that I guess a lot of folks haven’t actually met one.

  24. 24.

    Bruce Moomaw

    Some of my own relatives are Mormons. Individually most of them are quite nice people, but the fact remains that this is the single weirdest religious cult in America today (which is saying a lot), and it doesn’t say much for the brains of any person that they could fall for it — including its singularly nasty attitude toward women, non-Mormons, and (until recently) blacks.

  25. 25.

    Bruce Moomaw

    By the way, I got wind of Weigel’s LA Times column from Matt Yglesias — who points out the weirdest thing about these new rightist-written SF dystopias: they portray liberals as being SIMULTANEOUSLY “tyrannical” and “wimpy”. You can’t be both. As Yglesias says, they’re actually wish-fulfillment fantasies — the people who write them are yearning for an excuse to use brute force against liberals. While I never regarded Card as a really good writer — his stuff varied from as awful as “Ender’s Game” to as good as “Hart’s Hope” — I never thought he’d slide into THIS sort of thing.

  26. 26.

    scs

    they portray liberals as being SIMULTANEOUSLY “tyrannical” and “wimpy”.

    Sure you can – bullies are that way all day long. Tyrannical towards the weak -in this case lower class traditional Americans – wimpy towards the strong – their big media donors.

  27. 27.

    jake

    SIMULTANEOUSLY “tyrannical” and “wimpy”. You can’t be both.

    Ever punched the neighborhood bully in the face?* They howl louder than the kids they shove around. However, you don’t need to look further than the White House to see a tyrannical ch wimp.

    *Of course as a librul hippycrat I’VE never done such a thing…

  28. 28.

    scs

    Just as an fyi on the media – my dad told me about a site he likes to read – Der Standard a big Austrian newspaper – I believe one of the most influential in Europe. Anyway, using my highschool German, I scanned the headlines occassioanlly and, from what I can figure out – practically everyday they have an article on Guantanomo/CIA, the US death penalty – whether we read any news here on that or not, and some various other articles/editorials that seems to portray the US as some sort of Nazi-like police state run by Bush and the CIA.

    Is the concern for a few dozen convicted double murderers and the prison conditions of a few hundred terrorist jihadists really overriding all other wordly concerns for them- such as the encroaching of militant Islam and true dictatorship all over the Middle East and North Africa? It seems their priorities are a bit skwed to me. I just can’t seem to work up the indignation and sympathy for cold- blooded murderers that they can.

  29. 29.

    cleek

    Ever punched the neighborhood bully in the face?

    i tried once, in 7th grade. and then he broke my thumb. i suppose if i was 7’8″, 400lbs, he would’ve been ‘wimpy’. sadly…

  30. 30.

    ThymeZone

    I just can’t seem to work up the indignation and sympathy for cold- blooded murderers that they can.

    That would explain your apparent support for Bush and his advisors, then.

  31. 31.

    Third Eye Open

    SCS:

    What the hell are you whining about? I can’t quite figure out if this is sarcasm or not, but you apparently seemed shocked, SHOCKED, SHOCKED that newspapers have regional and national agendas.

    Perhaps you should go into your local library and spend a couple hours cross checking historical data (or lack thereof) against local newspapers’ accounts of world news. If I may be so bold to recommend the world’s view of the invasion and mass slaughter of thousands of Nicaraguans, versus the tepid shrug of the shoulders here in the US as a good starting point, and just jump randomly backwards at any notable historical/political/social bullet point of your choosing.

    Also it may serve you well to realize that after 50+ years of super-power status, we are the biggest hypocrite around to lob grenades at. So in conclusion, return the cake, send the ponies back, and wipe the tears from your pretty little eyes, cause the pity-party is over!

  32. 32.

    ThymeZone

    All media and all reporting has a viewpoint.

    In a healthy system, these viewpoints are exposed and understood by producers and consumers alike. Balance comes from a range of sources, not from a particular source trying to appear “balanced.”

    People who don’t understand the process complain about bias. They fear bias because they don’t have the gumption, or the ability, to process the bias and triangulate the middle for themselves.

    In other words they are immature, inept, and ignorant. As an example, I offer you scs.

  36. 36.

    Salty Party Snax

    I was just over at Rightwing Nuthouse and wouldn’t you know it, Rick Moran is defending Barack Hussein Obama. Or at least his name. Apparently some of the more barbaric rightwing blogs have declared the Illinois Senator persona non grata because of his handle, and Rick is taking umbrage.

    Well, you want to know something Moran? If the right had taken pussy stances like the one you’re taking now with Obama, we’d be looking at a President Kerry today.

    Suddenly the rats think they’re too good for the Swift Boat.

  39. 39.

    Zifnab

    his stuff varied from as awful as “Ender’s Game” to as good as “Hart’s Hope”

    What crack are you on? Ender’s Game is fantastic. I can’t say I’ve ever read “Hart’s Hope” so I won’t make a call on that. And I did read “Wyrms”, which, in my opinion could have been alot better. But Ender’s Game? I mean, that’s a textbook example of what a good Sci-Fi novel should be.

  40. 40.

    scs

    Also it may serve you well to realize that after 50+ years of super-power status, we are the biggest hypocrite around to lob grenades at

    Yeah, I was just chatting to a random Irish guy who gets involved in refugee affairs – and of course the anti-Americanism was just below the surface. He promptly claimed, seriously, that Americans have invaded more countries than any other in history – (hmm, Nazi Germany anyone), that American media is owned by the oil companies, (Ted Turner anyone?), and that we don’t have any TV news choice (the BBC and… the BBC anyone? Owned by the British government I might add- very independent right?)

    In other words, because the reasoning is so much based on myths and lies and minimal rationality, my new theory that anti-Americanism is just racism, plain and simple. Since they already killed off most of the Jews in Europe, they are looking around for another scapegoat to confirm their continued ideas of European master-race superiority- and they settled on America. It’s time we start calling it what it is and speaking up against it.

  43. 43.

    DougJ

    Remember that thing over at Scrutator about how sexy Instapundit is? That was one of the greatest things ever writtern. So wrong, but so right.

  44. 44.

    DougJ

    Hey, also I need your help — I’m doing a morning political radio show and I need a good sign-off line. My co-host has a truly terrible one: “Be excellent to yourself, you deserve nothing less.”

    The only thing that comes into my mind is “Seacrest out”, but there’s got to be something better.

  45. 45.

    Zifnab

    whether we read any news here on that or not, and some various other articles/editorials that seems to portray the US as some sort of Nazi-like police state run by Bush and the CIA.

    Is the concern for a few dozen convicted double murderersmoney grubbing bankers and the prison conditions of a few hundred terrorist jihadistspowermongering rabbis really overriding all other wordly concerns for them- such as the encroaching of militant IslamFrench carpetbaggers and true dictatorship all over the Middle East and North Africaold Holy Roman Empire? It seems their priorities are a bit skewed to me. I just can’t seem to work up the indignation and sympathy for cold- blooded murderersfilthy baby-eating Jews that they can.

    If you’re looking for an expert on Nazism, Austria probably isn’t your worst place to look. And I’m with you scs, people with brown skin who live in the middle east and don’t worship Jesus are a perpetual threat to our civilization’s well-being. If the US Government has some arrested and thrown in prison indefinitely, it can only be because said person was about to blow up America. Maybe we could just herd all these brown people into… I don’t know… camps. Put bar codes on their arms so we can keep track of them. Just to keep them contained and away from the rest of us where they could do serious harm. Then we could build a better Aryan world. Right?

  49. 49.

    scs

    And I’m with you scs, people with brown skin who live in the middle east and don’t worship Jesus are a perpetual threat to our civilization’s well-being

    Hey if you get upset when some group here wants to call your Holiday Tree in your town square a “Christmas Tree”, than imagine how upset you’ll be when the “suggested” dress code will be to wear your beard to your chest and you’ll have to dust off your turban and sandals to wear on your walk to town to watch homosexuals being beheaded in the town square. You’ll be longing for the good old days of Jim and Tammy Faye.

  50. 50.

    Zifnab

    The only thing that comes into my mind is “Seacrest out”, but there’s got to be something better.

    Try “I’m bringing sexy back.”

  51. 51.

    ThymeZone

    You’ll be longing for the good old days of Jim and Tammy Faye.

    Hey, been there and done that. I’d trade George Bush and his insane band of neocon elves for Jim and Tammy any time.

  53. 53.

    Zifnab

    …imagine how upset you’ll be when the “suggested” dress code will be to wear your beard to your chest and you’ll have to dust off your turban and sandalsfull body underwear and a Jesus-approved button up collared shirt, slacks, and business suit to wear on your walk to town to watch homosexuals being beheadeddragged to death off the back of a truck in the town square right before state-mandated church.

    Isn’t that the Christianist?

  54. 54.

    Lysistrata

    Remember that thing over at Scrutator about how sexy Instapundit is? That was one of the greatest things ever writtern. So wrong, but so right.

    Wrong? What are you talking about?

  55. 55.

    scs

    Isn’t that the Christianist

    Last I checked, none of that was mandated into law here – such as the dress code is in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the beheading of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia. Too bad. But you could always move there though if you feel their system is better.

  57. 57.

    Krista

    Doug, you could always wait until your co-host signs off, and then as your sign-off, just say “Are you high?”

  58. 58.

    Newport 9

    a few hundred terrorist jihadists

    And we know they’re terrorist jihadists because Our Glorious War Leader says they’re terrorist jihadists, and because they confessed to being terrorist jihadists after a few weeks months years of not being tortured.

    Y’know, the Nazis didn’t start out with the blood of millions on their hands. They started out small, locking people up without trials, knocking them around, maybe accidentally killing a few, and from there they worked their way up step by step until they were shipping millions of people to death camps in cattle cars. And the reason they were able to work their way up to the death camps was because, every step of the way, they had people like scs making excuses for them.

    If you wait until they’re shipping people to death camps in cattle cars, you’ve waited too long. The time to stop that sort of thing is when it starts, and it starts with “a few hundred terrorist jihadists” being shipped off to secret prison camps to be not-tortured into confessing to anything their captors want.

    Here’s a good question for you, scs: if Bill Clinton had started rounding up hundreds of “terrorist” patriot militia members after the Oklahoma City bombing, declaring them “illegal enemy combantants”, and sending them off for indefinite detention without due process, would you be making excuses for him, too?

  59. 59.

    Kirk Spencer

    He promptly claimed, seriously, that Americans have invaded more countries than any other in history – (hmm, Nazi Germany anyone),

    SCS, I’m sorry to break this to you but that’s a lousy example. Americans have invaded more countries than Nazi Germany did. That said, there’s a lot of mangling of fruit to get apples to compare to oranges.

    Americans have invaded more countries than anyone else over the last 50 years.

    Americans are a long way from the top if time – both period reviewed and length of time considered – is immaterial. The Macedonians under Alexander sit high on the list, then. The Mongols, too, made modern Americans seem simple pikers.
    But when we get to modern times, the simple fact is that the US has stuck its nose in the business of a lot of other nations without their permission. Which means while the idiot was burying his point with hyperbole, under it all he did have a point.

  60. 60.

    Steve

    Since they already killed off most of the Jews in Europe, they are looking around for another scapegoat to confirm their continued ideas of European master-race superiority- and they settled on America. It’s time we start calling it what it is and speaking up against it.

    Hey if you get upset when some group here wants to call your Holiday Tree in your town square a “Christmas Tree”, than imagine how upset you’ll be when the “suggested” dress code will be to wear your beard to your chest and you’ll have to dust off your turban and sandals to wear on your walk to town to watch homosexuals being beheaded in the town square.

    This is seriously good material. Scs has stepped up her game.

  61. 61.

    Third Eye Open

    SCS:

    By the way boss, which country is the patriarch of the Saud family? Who pumps ungodly amounts of petro-dollars into the Saudi Economy? Who protected them until recently in their own backyard from the den of vipers in their own midst?

    Lastly, who was responsible for the JCOR funding/building during the 70’s?

    You complain about the same countries and dictators that we have built, coddled, and played political half-back for…so perhaps you should find out how all that sand got into your pie

  62. 62.

    jh

    I am still at a loss on what scs means by
    “traditional” americans and how they are being bullied by meanie leftists.

    And yes scs,

    Your Irish friend had a point about US. Especially if you count interventions (both armed and covert) in foreign countries.

    The US has had its hand in a lot of pies.

  63. 63.

    FAP

    I am still at a loss on what scs means by
    “traditional” americans and how they are being bullied by meanie leftists.

    It roughly translates to “Help, help. I’m being oppressed.”

    And yeah it’s laughable.

  64. 64.

    The Other Steve

    Some of my own relatives are Mormons. Individually most of them are quite nice people, but the fact remains that this is the single weirdest religious cult in America today (which is saying a lot), and it doesn’t say much for the brains of any person that they could fall for it—including its singularly nasty attitude toward women, non-Mormons, and (until recently) blacks.

    That’s only because Jehovah Witnesses don’t vote.

  66. 66.

    The Other Steve

    Hey, also I need your help—I’m doing a morning political radio show and I need a good sign-off line. My co-host has a truly terrible one: “Be excellent to yourself, you deserve nothing less.”

    The only thing that comes into my mind is “Seacrest out”, but there’s got to be something better.

    Party on, Dudes!

  67. 67.

    James F. Elliott

    No, no, DeLay was being quite serious. They don’t attack liberals. Like with bricks and baseball bats. So it’s outrageous that they should be treated to the slings and arrows of liberal rhetoric.

  68. 68.

    VidaLoca

    The only thing that comes into my mind is “Seacrest out”, but there’s got to be something better.

    “I just know that underneath all this horseshit there’s got to be a pony somewhere.”

  69. 69.

    dreggas

    Hey if you get upset when some group here wants to call your Holiday Tree in your town square a “Christmas Tree”, than imagine how upset you’ll be when the “suggested” dress code will be to wear your beard to your chest and you’ll have to dust off your turban and sandals to wear on your walk to town to watch homosexuals being beheaded in the town square. You’ll be longing for the good old days of Jim and Tammy Faye.

    This will be fun…

    Your christmas tree? Well hate to explode one of your sacred cows but uh…the christmas tree was originally a pagan tradition when celebrating the winter solstice and the significance of the pine or fir tree was that they were always green even during the dead time (ie winter) so they represented life even in death.

    Your Christmas Mistletoe? Again pagan tradition most notably among celts, Mistletoe grew on oak trees which were the most sacred.

    Your Christmas Holly? Again pagan tradition and another plant that maintained it’s vitality (ie being green) through the winter.

    Your Christmas wreath? Again pagan.

    Your Yule Log? Again Pagan.

    Oh and as far as Christ being born on Dec 25th, historians both biblical and secular believe he was most likely born in the spring time when census’ were taken. Of course this, to you, will be part of the war on christmas but whatever. December 28th was the winter solstice. In an effort to convert pagan tribes in Europe the Roman Catholic Church, as part of the Holy Roman Empire decided to put christs birth around this time to basically co-opt pagan traditions and holidays, in this case the winter solstice. So truthfully it is a Holiday tree etc because guess what…Christmas…is a myth. It was an invention to convert people by the christian faiths predecessors. Catholics.

    *stand back waiting for head explosions*

    As for Jim and Tammy Faye, hmm his son is still around running a rather successful ministry. He has completely seperated himself from the right and from those who preach much as his father did because he sees their hypocrisy for what it is. But you just keep drinkin that Kool-Aid.

    Oh and happy ChrismaChanaKwanza!

  70. 70.

    RSA

    But Ender’s Game? I mean, that’s a textbook example of what a good Sci-Fi novel should be.

    Maybe this says more about the state of sci-fi than anything else. It’s a popular book, but my reaction was meh.

  71. 71.

    Zifnab

    Oh and as far as Christ being born on Dec 25th, historians both biblical and secular believe he was most likely born in the spring time when census’ were taken. Of course this, to you, will be part of the war on christmas but whatever.

    I always found it amusing that Dec 8th was celebrated as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (the day Mary and God knocked boots), and two weeks later we had a bouncing baby god-child. Truly a Christmas Miracle. Even from a religious context, a Spring birth makes more sense.

  72. 72.

    Krista

    Remember that thing over at Scrutator about how sexy Instapundit is? That was one of the greatest things ever writtern. So wrong, but so right.

    /wink

  73. 73.

    VidaLoca

    a Spring birth makes more sense…

    If it’s true what you say about Mary ‘n God knocking boots, wouldn’t an early-to-mid-August birth make even more sense?

    Not that any of it makes much sense but, I’m just sayin’…

  74. 74.

    jh

    The only thing that comes into my mind is “Seacrest out”, but there’s got to be something better.

    Doug,

    How about:

    “Remember folks: The Dude Doug Abides”

  75. 75.

    Pb

    I enjoyed reading Ender’s Game, but lately I’ve been reading some much more interesting and thoughtful sci-fi novels. Currently, I’m re-reading “Voyage From Yesteryear” by James P. Hogan, which would surely make Orson Scott Card’s head explode. Also, I finished “The Android’s Dream” by John Scalzi, which was totally crazy, and fun–I mean, how can you not like a book that starts like this:

    Dirk Moeller didn’t know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident.

    …and it just gets weirder. And yes, there are sheep involved.

  76. 76.

    Krista

    If it’s true what you say about Mary ‘n God knocking boots, wouldn’t an early-to-mid-August birth make even more sense?

    Right. ‘Cause the whole story is so completely rooted in logic, that the timeline is what really stands out.

  77. 77.

    DougJ

    I think I’ll go with “Mission Accomplished.” And then say something like “until next week, stay the course and try not to choke any pretzels.”

  78. 78.

    VidaLoca

    until next week, stay the course and try not to choke on any pretzels invade any small defenseless countries.”

  79. 79.

    VidaLoca

    the timeline is what really stands out.

    How do kids ever make it thorough catechism and confirmation classes without this stuff raising huge red flags though? I mean, if the writers can’t even get the basic narrative points like this right, how can the whole story have any credibility?

  80. 80.

    DougJ

    If it’s true what you say about Mary ‘n God knocking boots,

    I realize this isn’t funny, but when I read this, all I can think is “if this manger’s a rockin’, don’t come a knockin’.”

  81. 81.

    Jake

    I always found it amusing that Dec 8th was celebrated as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (the day Mary and God knocked boots)

    Lapsed Catholic Geek Alert: The IC refers to Mary’s conception, not Jesus’. [/LCGA]

  82. 82.

    dreggas

    I always found it amusing that Dec 8th was celebrated as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (the day Mary and God knocked boots), and two weeks later we had a bouncing baby god-child. Truly a Christmas Miracle. Even from a religious context, a Spring birth makes more sense.

    If that’s the case can you imagine the stretch marks?

  83. 83.

    Krista

    How do kids ever make it thorough catechism and confirmation classes without this stuff raising huge red flags though?

    What makes you think it doesn’t? Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, the kids are heavily discouraged from questioning this kind of stuff. My boyfriend was actually kicked out of Sunday school when he was a kid, for being “disruptive”, when he started asking too many questions and pointing out inconsistencies.

  84. 84.

    Steve

    Lapsed Catholic Geek Alert: The IC refers to Mary’s conception, not Jesus’. [/LCGA]

    Cmon, I’m a bad Jew, and even I knew this. Anyway, Jesus was born in July or something, the only reason we have Christmas in December is for historical/political reasons.

  86. 86.

    ThymeZone

    Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, the kids are heavily discouraged from questioning this kind of stuff. My boyfriend was actually kicked out of Sunday school when he was a kid, for being “disruptive”, when he started asking too many questions and pointing out inconsistencies.

    Yes, seen this movie. For this reason I decided at age 8 that all adults were full of shit.

    I have now modified that to “all Republican adults are full of shit” but it’s the same general concept.

  87. 87.

    Zifnab

    Lapsed Catholic Geek Alert: The IC refers to Mary’s conception, not Jesus’. [/LCGA]

    Well… right. I don’t think Jesus ever got pregnant. Although, if he had, that really would have been a hat trick.

    Unless you’re saying this was the day Mary was conceived. In which case:

    In 1854, Pius IX gave the infallible statement Ineffabilis Deus: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

    ~wiki

    this makes no sense.

  88. 88.

    Zifnab

    Yes, seen this movie. For this reason I decided at age 8 that all adults were full of shit.

    I have now modified that to “all Republican adults are full of shit” but it’s the same general concept.

    Wow. I was the exact opposite at that age. I and a few of my friends drove the teacher nuts in elementary school when they taught us calanders and we insisted Sunday should be at the end because it was the “7th day when God rested”. She had us write a letter for homework to the calander company to point out the inconsistancy, but I think she just did that to get us to sit down, shut up, and do something productive.

  89. 89.

    ThymeZone

    I think she just did that to get us to sit down, shut up, and do something productive.

    I have a theory that about half of religion is aimed at this very thing.

  90. 90.

    Yeegrek

    Hey, Other Steve, looks like your Althouse post was deleted.

    Two things spring to mind. One, is it me, or is the deletion of comments that meet all the criteria for posting but bring up inconvenient counter-arguments the most infuriating practice in all of blogging?

    Two, can anyone name me one single liberal blog that practices it?

  91. 91.

    ThymeZone

    Wow. I was the exact opposite at that age.

    Well, you didn’t live with my family. In my family, if you hadn’t figured out that the adults were full of crap by age 8, you just weren’t paying attention.

    My grandmother claimed to her dying day that if you held a child’s hand up to a light bulb, you could see if they had any “darkie blood.”

  92. 92.

    TenguPhule

    Last I checked, none of that was mandated into law here *YET* – such as the dress code is in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the beheading of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia.

    And when Scs finishes gulping down Cheney’s load, she’ll go back to work to try and change that.

  93. 93.

    AkaDad

    Apparently the Republicans were just “teasing” us when they called us traitors, not attacking us.

  94. 94.

    Jake

    Unless you’re saying this was the day Mary was conceived. In which case: … this makes not sense.

    Yep, and as a LCG I don’t any religion to make sense (I like the candles and such tho’). If I go to Hell for X,Y or Z, I’m sure there will be plenty of time to debate the inconsistencies of the RC what with all the priests and popes I’m sure to find there.

    I must note that one of the things that makes the radical fundamentalists such rabid anti-Caths is the veneration of Mary. To listen to some Evans., one might think God dropped Jesus in the manger and M & J just happened along and picked him up. One wonders if the idea that a woman could have anything to do with saving their arses makes them uncomfortable. But of course, we’re also talking about a religion that tends to be highly anti-Semetic and go into cataleptic seizures when you point out that Jesus and his family and most of his followers, were all Jewish.

  95. 95.

    RSA

    ‘Cause the whole story is so completely rooted in logic, that the timeline is what really stands out.

    Don’t know why, but this reminded me of my very favorite Ali G question:

    So does Jesus really exist, or is he just your father dressed up?

  96. 96.

    Jake

    My grandmother claimed to her dying day that if you held a child’s hand up to a light bulb, you could see if they had any “darkie blood.”

    The mind boggles. Did she go by the smell of the child’s burning flesh or was a “darkie” more likely to scream in agony?

  97. 97.

    ThymeZone

    Did she go by the smell of the child’s burning flesh or was a “darkie” more likely to scream in agony?

    No, uh, “holding up to the light” doesn’t mean “holding in a flame” or “holding against a sizzling light bulb.”

    If you hold your hand up in front of a bright light you’ll see a pinkish hue around the edges and at the web between thumb and forefinger. She claimed that you can judge this hue and detect the darkie blood.

    And yes, she called them “darkies.” Since she lived with us and had some strong opinions, I grew up thinking that the people who lived in Japan were called “goddam Japs.”

    She was quite the character. A little like Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies, but without the accent.

  98. 98.

    Zifnab

    And yes, she called them “darkies.” Since she lived with us and had some strong opinions, I grew up thinking that the people who lived in Japan were called “goddam Japs.”

    That comes from the latin root “Goddameus Japeus” which translates directly into “Those fuckers that bombed Pearl Harbor”. Also, when spoken with a different tonal inflection “The People Who Are Better Than Us at Math”

  99. 99.

    Steve

    She was quite the character. A little like Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies, but without the accent.

    She sounds a lot like you, but not as cranky.

  100. 100.

    SeesThroughIt

    How do kids ever make it thorough catechism and confirmation classes without this stuff raising huge red flags though?

    What makes you think it doesn’t? Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, the kids are heavily discouraged from questioning this kind of stuff. My boyfriend was actually kicked out of Sunday school when he was a kid, for being “disruptive”, when he started asking too many questions and pointing out inconsistencies.

    Well, I made it through confirmation and all that largely by just shutting up. In the beginning, I asked questions and pointed out inconsistencies. The answers I got were wholly unsatisfying–usually some variation of “because god said/made it so”–so I quickly learned to just mentally note the massive inconsistencies and move on. My family was hardly a bunch of Bible-thumpers, but my mom really wanted me to get confirmed. So I did out of deference to her. Or at least I went through the ceremony and all that. As far as believing it? Not so much.

    But then again, I did this in the Episcopalian church–Catholicism without all that extra total fucking insanity dumped on it.

    South Park actually had a really funny bit about all this from when the boys were learning about taking communion:

    SISTER ANN: Now let me explain how communion works. The priest will give you this round cracker and he will say, “The body of Christ” and then you eat it.

    CARTMAN: Jesus was made of crackers?

    SA:No.

    STAN: But, crackers are his body?

    SA: Yes.

    KENNY: What?

    SA: In the book of Mark, Jesus distributed bread and said, “Eat this for it is my body”.

    C: So we won’t go to hell as long as we eat crackers?

    SA: No, no, no, no.

    BUTTERS: Well, what are we eating then?

    SA: The body of Christ.

    S: No, no, I get it. Jesus wanted us to eat him, but he didn’t want us to be cannibals, so he turned himself into crackers and then told people to eat him.

    SA: No.

    S: No?

    B: Well, I can’t whistle if I eat too many crackers.

    SA: Look, all you have to know is that when the priest gives you the cracker, you eat it. Okay?

    ALL THE KIDS: Okay.

    SA: And then, you will drink a very small amount of wine, for that is the blood of Christ.

    C: Ah, come on now. This is just getting silly.

    SA: Eric, do you want to go to hell?

    C: No.

    SA: Then stop questioning me.

  102. 102.

    Bruce Moomaw

    Me: “…They portray liberals as being SIMULTANEOUSLY ‘tyrannical’ and ‘wimpy’. You can’t be both.

    SCS: “Sure you can – bullies are that way all day long. Tyrannical towards the weak -in this case lower class traditional Americans – wimpy towards the strong – their big media donors.”

    Right. We all know how much more sympathetic Republicans are than Democrats toward the poor, and how much less Republicans kowtow to the needs of the wealthy than the Dems do.

    As for Yglesias and David Weigel, they were pointing out that liberals as portrayed in these novels — and, to a considerable extent, in reality — are inclined to say that EVERYONE might have some chance of being right and that therefore we should be Totally Tolerant, even of flat-out bastards and wickedly insane societies. But at the same time, said novels portray these wimpy liberals — NOT hard-line Communists, who of course can be intolerant of other views as all hell — as somehow running a dictatorship. That is, they try to portray — with a straight face — Jimmy Carter or Al Gore or John Kerry as Hitler.

    (As Weigel points out, Clinton’s right-wing enemies also had a strong tendency to think of him as being simultaneously a clodhopping dimwit and an Evil Genius of incredible nefariousness and deviousness. Again, you can’t have both. He should have added, though, that a lot of Bush’s left-wing enemies — and of Reagan’s — have also tried to view them as both Idiots and Master Fiends simultaneously, with similar implausibility.)

  103. 103.

    jg

    As for Yglesias and David Weigel, they were pointing out that liberals as portrayed in these novels—and, to a considerable extent, in reality—are inclined to say that EVERYONE might have some chance of being right and that therefore we should be Totally Tolerant, even of flat-out bastards and wickedly insane societies. But at the same time, said novels portray these wimpy liberals—NOT hard-line Communists, who of course can be intolerant of other views as all hell—as somehow running a dictatorship. That is, they try to portray—with a straight face—Jimmy Carter or Al Gore or John Kerry as Hitler.

    (As Weigel points out, Clinton’s right-wing enemies also had a strong tendency to think of him as being simultaneously a clodhopping dimwit and an Evil Genius of incredible nefariousness and deviousness. Again, you can’t have both. He should have added, though, that a lot of Bush’s left-wing enemies—and of Reagan’s—have also tried to view them as both Idiots and Master Fiends simultaneously, with similar implausibility.)

    There is a concept, a state of mind I guess you could say, that allows you to believe these contradictory depictions of your enemy. Anyone know what it is?

  104. 104.

    Newport 9

    It’s very simple: Bush is the idiot, and Rove and Cheney are the Master Fiends. Reagan was the idiot, and Shultz and Meese (and possibly Haig) were the Master Fiends.

    OTOH, Clinton was only one clodhopping dimwit, while Bill + Hillary = two Master Fiends.

  105. 105.

    Bruce Moomaw

    “…liberals as portrayed in these novels—and, to a considerable extent, in reality—are inclined to say that EVERYONE might have some chance of being right and that therefore we should be Totally Tolerant, even of flat-out bastards and wickedly insane societies.”

    Let me change that “considerable extent” to “some extent”. I believe my Supplication Of One’s Opponents Gland was in one of its overactive periods when I wrote that phrase last night.

  107. 107.

    Bruce Moomaw

    Mrs. Reynolds, I’m afraid, tends to reinforce the demoralizing impression I got during two decades of frantic and unsuccessful treatment for severe depression (which has now largely lifted, thanks to Prozac and other factors) that psychology as a profession tends to attract a large number of “real intellectual bottom-feeders” (to quote that noted expert Dr. Hannibal Lecter). I got the distinct impression that college students who don’t think they’re up to anything else tend to go in for psychology.

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