Thwart a Witch, Take a Bath

My daughter's boyfriend manages commercial property. I don't know what that means exactly, but it's capitalism, dammit, so it must be good.

Anyway, one of his tenants disappeared and left a lot of very holy stuff  behind. Unfortunately, most of it consists of broken statues from Mexico that seemed to have had some kind of sacred herb removed from them. But there also boxes of a very different kind of sacred herb, like the one pictured here which is guaranteed to remove witches hexes if you add it to your bath.

If you're interested in breaking a witches hex, and rebuking isn't quite doing the trick, my daughter will sell you a bag for $10 shipping included. Send me a note if you are interested. It might make a great Christmas gift. She also has "prosperity," "lucky," and "good student" herb baths and soaps (I think there are prosperity bathroom cleaners and votive candles too--I'll get some pictures from her.)

Do not mention his name!

Vlogcasting from the future for those left behind.

Say "Ho" if you love Jesus!

Polygamy, abuse, murder, and religous practice

Happy Black Friday

I hope you had a very successful morning. Nothing honors the birth of the Prince of Peace more than a Christmas-shopping-bargain-related shooting. But as we enter into this season, let us remember which companies "convey a clear commitment to use the term 'Christmas.'"

Focus on the Family can help you identify stores that might be a little too "Jew-friendly":

Back in April, FOF sent letters to the heads of 33 leading retailers, demanding that they use the term “Christmas” in their 2008 end-of-year catalogs. Let me emphasize that: They did this in April. Easter wasn’t even over yet, and these cranks were obsessing about catalogs that wouldn’t even be issued for another seven months.
I’m trying to imagine the rolling of eyes that must have taken place at some of these companies when FOF’s letters about Christmas arrived just as the spring flowers were pushing up through the soil. My guess is that most of letters were tossed, because as of Nov. 11, FOF had not received replies from 22 companies (among them Target, K-Mart, JC Penney, Home Depot, Borders, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Sears, Lands’ End and L.L. Bean).

Eight firms caved immediately: Best Buy, Cabela’s, Kohl’s, Lowe’s, Nordstrom, Pier 1, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.

The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy replied to the FOF missive, but, the group soberly reports, “did not convey a clear commitment to use the term ‘Christmas.’ Rather, they communicated their intent to approach their marketing in broad and diverse terms.”

Added FOF, “We’ll have to observe and see if what they publish avoids an insulting marginalization of Christmas.”

White Supremacy Ain't What It Used To Be

"Even some white supremacist leaders who describe themselves as moderates say they are alarmed."

From Howard Witt's article in the Chicago Tribune: Hate Incidents in U.S. Surge.

Those damn moderate white supremacists are making it harder on the rest of us!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Best wishes to you and yours.

Sharing the Good News of Utter Despisement

America's favorite spiritual family, Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Clan, came to Silverton, Oregon on Monday, November 24th, 2008, spreading the good news that God hates Silvertonians (having earlier visited Portland and Tigard to share the news that the lord cannot stand Portlanders and the country of Finland). The Mayor of Silverton (Stu Rasmussen) is transgender, and that ticks off the deity but good. Alas, the Lord had other commitments and could not deliver His condemnation in person: instead, He who is the One True God chose to delegate the job of sharing His bellicosity to one man and three young women from Kansas who had some free time. The God of the Israelites is one mysterious dude, and His hiring practices are opaque. He is nothing if not the King of "Go Figure."









As part of God's plan to splash wee-wee all over our national symbols, the good ladies of Westboro stood upon the flag of the United States, in a symbolic act believed to have something to do with wearing extremely patriotic shoes.



And in case you didn't already know:



To their unmitigated shame, the Silvertonians responded by smiling and displaying their own signs...







A point is made:



A response was forthcoming:



It was grand fun while it lasted, but the Westboro Baptists had miles to go before they slept, they waved goodbye and off they schlepped...



and some say they heard Jesus, who most surely wept...





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UPDATE: A Silvertonian shares his perspective on the day's events.

UPDATE UPDATED: The Oregonian reported on the festivities.

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Real people thank Sarah Palin

Yes, dammit, they are real people.



What pods? I don't see any fucking pods.

OK, yes, that is a pod. So what. Go sleep next to it and we'll give you a fucking cowboy hat.

An Even Whiter Shade of GOP

Katon Dawson
Chair, South Carolina GOP

Dear Chairman Dawson,

I'm writing to offer my support for your bid to become the next RNC chair. Who better to lead our continuing efforts to disenfranchise black voters, blame blacks for the mortgage crisis, and fight the War Against Mexicans than a man who belonged to a whites-only country club for over a decade?

Certainly, you're our best bet to make the next Republican National Convention the whitest ever--even whiter than the last one! Heck, I bet you could even drive Alan Keyes out of the party (Don't laugh; it's possible; he'd still have the Klan).

I am concerned, however, that your segregationist credentials may not be enough to win you the chairmanship. How's your record in regard to persecuting The Gay? Are you as committed to it as your senators, Lindsey Graham and Go Fuckyourself? Have you led any efforts to deny basic rights to The Gay? Have you ever proven your commitment to heterosexuality by blowing strange men in a public restroom?

You might need to work on that.

Heterosexually yours,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

God's Woman in Olympia

Representative-elect Shelly Short
Washington State House of Representatives

Dear Rep-elect Short,

Congratulations!

I can't tell you how great it feels to have such a godly woman in the state legislature. I'm even more heartened to see that the voters gave you a mandate to fulfil Our Lord and Savior's wishes by passing godly legislation. And let no one be mistaken; it was a mandate. The voters knew you were endorsed by Faith & Freedom and the Human Life PACs. They also saw you quoting the commandments in your campaign emails.

But as happy as I am to see you in the legislature, I hope you use it as a stepping stone for much greater things. You seem to have what it takes to join the Republican caucus in Congress or the US Senate. You definitely have that Ted Steven's touch in your family. Your husband, Mitch, demonstrated that when he plead guilty on Friday to charges that he had liberated thousands of dollars from the Stevens County Fair Board.

And as the Spokane Spokesman Review noted, you also have the fiscally-conservative money-management skills that have become so identified with Republican governance:

...court records showed she faced a $36,000 IRS lien, a state tax warrant for another $1,000, and a $12,000 judgment for delinquent credit-card debt. She was also nearly $2,500 behind on property taxes. A 2007 lawsuit by an employee over back wages also included a promissory note from Mitch Short acknowledging he owed the woman more than $9,000.

Now, to paraphrase out Antichrist-elect,  that is more of the same we can use.

Heterosexually yours in a chaste, biblical, and non-Vitter kind of way,

Gen. JC Christian, patriot

Victims

My inner Frenchman corresponds with American members of the British National Party (BNP).

Mike Huckabee: The Smiling Happy Face of Theocratic Fascism

_{Image © Austin Cline
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Those of us hoping that Sarah Palin might become the Republican standard-bearer are probably in for a disappointment — and it was probably far too much to hope for anyway, wasn't it? I mean, the GOP really isn't that suicidal, right? Although it's much too early to make any serious predictions, I think that if we are going to regard anyone as the most likely leader of the GOP's base of conservative evangelicals, it has to be Mike Huckabee. The reasons why he is a much stronger and better candidate for them are also the reasons why he is a much more dangerous candidate for everyone else.

Sarah Palin would have been a gift to progressives because it would have been so easy to convince everyone (except for the extremists and the base) that she shouldn't be elected. Mike Huckabee, in contrast, is the sort of person who has appeal far outside the base. Give the devil his due: Mike Huckabee can be easygoing, can sound reasonable, speaks intelligently, doesn't talk down to people, doesn't sound like a grumpy, angry old man, is by all accounts genuinely personable and friendly, takes stands on economic issues that make him sound almost progressive, and so on.

Many of these positive qualities are good for any politician, but they will also make it very easy for moderate conservatives and independents to convince themselves that they aren't really voting for an extremist. Even if they are awake enough to recognize how extreme many of his views are, they will assume that that's OK if his views are "balanced" by having some views that aren't extremist. But make no mistake, Mike Huckabee is as much of an theocratic, authoritarian, extremist Christian as anyone in the Christian Right today.

The next time you see Mike Huckabee on any sort of mainstream news program, pay close attention to how he behaves — his friendly, positive demeanor — but pay even more attention to how the host or interviewer behaves. You probably won't see Huckabee challenged on anything he says or questioned about some of his statements from the past. Journalists like Mike Huckabee because, as I pointed out above, he seems to be a genuinely likable guy who is able to get along very well with others, even people who disagree with him strongly. We should expect the press to try to present him to the American public in a generally positive manner. He'll be portrayed as a "reasonable" conservative evangelical Christian, a "moderate" from the far Christian Right.

I would like to think, though, that greater understanding of his real views might lead to far less support for him as a national candidate. If we can't expect the press to do their job by finding and explaining that information, others will have to step in and do it for them. There are a number of relatively simple steps which the progressive community can begin doing now which will make matters much simpler in the future if in fact Mike Huckabee becomes a national candidate again. It's probably better and smarter to prepare for that eventuality than to be caught flat-footed.

First, we need to gather as much information about his past statements and actions as possible. Some may be easy to find because it's recorded online. Other important items will be much harder to find because Huckabee seems to have gone to the trouble of scrubbing relevant material from when he was a minister. Perhaps some or all of that is lost forever, but the sooner people start looking, the better the chances of finding something. Second, everything he does now should be cataloged. Mike Huckabee is currently doing a book tour so he'll be giving tons of interviews and speeches. There may even be opportunities for people to ask him some direct questions about his beliefs when he appears for book readings or signings — take advantage of that!

Finally, progressives need to be writing about Mike Huckabee's views now, well before they might become part of any national election campaigns. Don't wait until he's a viable candidate again before directly critiquing his views on homosexuality, abortion, church/state separation, and related matters; take the time now to repeatedly associate his name with homophobia, anti-choice ideology, anti-secularism, theocracy, and authoritarianism. When people search for his name online, hundreds of well-written and well-sourced critiques of his beliefs should become immediately available. Reporters also do background research this way, remember, so we might even influence the work of mainstream journalism in this fashion.

Ron Skytower chickened out

Ron Skytower of the SL Republicans refused to accept the honor of wrestling me naked in the manner of the ancient Spartan warriors.

His cowardice leaves me no option but to declare myself the new leader of the SL Republicans.

Here are a few pictures of me kneeling in the mud waiting for him (yes, I look just like this in real life).