One of the weirder religiot freakaloons recently was the fellow whose electoral strategy was to pray for a McCain/Palin victory, and then pray for McCain’s “speedy death”. Well, that kook has since gone back and revised his post to be a little less blatant: “Pray for John McCain’s salvation and pray specific imprecatory prayers if he fails to pro-actively defend the sanctity of human life”. Isn’t that ever so much better?
By the way, if you follow that link, you really must watch the video of Holy Ghost Power Encounters. Thoom shaka laka nonny-nonny ding-dong, yabba dabba doo.
I think my heart skipped a couple beats. Are these people INSANE?!
Oh, wait. Never mind. Stupid question.
I made it through 59 whole seconds. It seemed like forever.
So, the guy’s saying that if McCain fails to defend the sanctity of life, he should die.
Makes perfect sense.
Wow…Just Wow! and even sadder all of the comments on YouTube take that seriously.
It’s incredible that the USA could risk having the idiot Sarah Palin become President. If McCain, an old man, becomes seriously ill, she’ll … I can’t think about it, it’s too frightening.
Sarah Palin gives me the creeps anyway. Why doesn’t she do that to all the fans of her’s? She comes across, to me, as someone with her head right up her own arse.
And then there’s her record. I understand that 90% of Alaska’s revenue comes from oil, so she screws big oil in Alaska for taxes so they don’t want to do business. Then she asks her supporters to pray to their feckin’ god for the oil reserves to be exploited! Multi-level idiocy.
This candidate brings the USA into disrepute.
This guy really is nuts. Even more nuts, though, is his lone commenter, who seems to believe that we’re racists who are faking our atheism because we can’t write Christian books.
He also accuses the atheist of making “ad homiem” attacks (his mispelling, not mine), which I find pretty entertaining.
“Palin” is ancient Greek for “again”.
#6 “ad homiem” was actually a spoof commenter: http://calvinists4conservatism.wordpress.com/ .
KAMALASHONDALABOSH!
See, this deformity is what happens when an area has no good dance clubs.
(Part where the girl’s on the floor with them all standing around her and he’s telling her the lord has something good for her: beyond creepy.)
These people in the video need to go back and take a good look at themselves. How nutty and empty do you have to feel to fall for that crazy crap?? Its embarassing to even watch. I JUST WANNA SLAP SOME REASON INTO’EM IS THAT SOOO BAD???
“pray specific imprecatory prayers if he fails to pro-actively defend the sanctity of human life”
Not sure it’s better, but now with added irony.
Re: video
This is religion for people who regret having missed Woodstock. I kept waiting for John Belushi to yell “gator!”
All the lurching and gibberish spurting goes only to show how much their god sucks at communication and dancing.
Of course they should be in charge of public school curricula and government.
The video is interesting. I’ve always wondered what it must have looked like when Franz Mesmer did his “magnetic bucket” thing with aristocratic ladies in Paris, or when Charcot did his demonstrations on hysteria at the Salpêtrière. Now I know a little bit more. I was just disappointed that the hypnotist, I mean, the pastor, didn’t try some fun stuff on his guinea pigs… You know, “you’re cold”, “you’re hot”, “you’re naked”, “now strip off your clothes”…
Oh, and now I know where pogo comes from.
Do you think he’d acknowledge his original wording if asked? Did anyone save a picture of it?
“Respect the sanctity of life. Or Die!”
Honestly, how do _actual_ political satirists ever get any work in America, when these guys are doing it for free?
The guy is not as kooky as people claim he is. The lunatic fringe fundies are into something called “spiritual warfare” and spend their time battling witches, warlocks, lifting generational curses, and imprecatary prayer. The latter is simply animistic witch craft, using god as a weapon to kill your enemies.
They even have a spiritual warfare ops center in Colorado complete with giant computers and dozens of large screens where they coordinate the worldwide battle against satan and his minions.
As weird as this sounds, Palin is in this far lunatic fringe of the Assembly of God cultists, she even uses their Destiny jargon of the Third wave/latter rain Joels Army faction.
Make no mistake. She is a wild eyed religious kook who is the least qualified to be VP of anyone in recent history. Her superficially attractive and engaging persona covers a vindictive and ruthless personality that has left a trail of bodies behind her.
All this is documented, public knowledge and is spreading throughout the infosphere. Whether the US voters care or not is another question. Got me.
In his own words. Palin is a member of a right wing far out cult who uses the codewords and jargon of Joels Army and Destiny Dominionists.
Do people experience orgasms when they are all twitching like that? Has any one ever done study of what may be going on physically? or mentally? (not much???)
-DU-
This relates to a slightly different sort of lunatic freakaloon, I suppose, but I’ve been catching up to coverage of the RNC and the Palin pick via various podcasts, and all you need to know about the McCain/Palin ticket is that it’s apparently made Phyllis Freakin’ Schlafly relevant in American politics again!
“Oh, benevolent, merciful God. Please smite this individual I have a disagreement with.”
“You want me to whack the guy?!”-God
Hardly…
Dan Quayle – better than a bulletproof vest for The Senior Shrub.
Dick Cheney – I’m not sure there’s a comment sufficiently negative to do this one justice.
Al Gore – Inventing the internet since 1999… People (unfairly, IMO) blow sunshine up his arse now, but he was a grade-A doof as VP. http://www.gargaro.com/algore.html
Raven, “Her superficially attractive and engaging persona…” Really?
I like a bit of totty just as much as the next man, but I don’t like the look of Sarah Palin. Mind you, I don’t like the sound of her, even more so. The loony nonsense that comes out of her mouth shows her to be a crazy person.
Raven #16,
stop with your sexist and elitist attack of S.Palin !
Funny #18. I have seen instructional videos on female orgasm techniques (for research only of course) and the women were twitching and writhing in much the same way. There is definitely a comparison to be made here.
Studies show that people vote for people like themselves. Since the median IQ is 100, this is why we never get really smart people in power unless, like Bill Clinton, they come off as just average folk.
The norm for US politicians is an old, rich white guy in a suit with a bland personality. Palin with her white trash family, youth, and hockey mom energy seems to resonate with large segments of the US population.
What isn’t the norm is her wild eyed religious kookery. Rapture Monkey Dominionists only make up between 7-20% of the population depending on which survey you read.
It is possible as people take a closer look at what she is, not what she looks like that her appeal will fade. But that is just a fond hope of mine and nothing to bank on. IMO, if she and McCain get in, it will be a not-so-long slide for the new Rome known as the US to the fall of the old Rome. I’ve never seen this country so close to the edge.
Wow! That’s… yeah. It reminds me that I was speculating the other night at my hubby that it wouldn’t surprise me if an ‘accident’ was arranged for McCain should he win the election in order to put Palin in the big chair. (Since it’s obvious the party likes her more. I mean, really.)
I know, I know… conspiracy theory. But geez.
raven wrote:
Yes, and it seems to be working. According to the most recent USA Today/Gallup poll, McCain now has a 4-point lead over Obama:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080908/pl_nm/usa_politics_poll_dc
The “Glory Zone”… isn’t that what Larry Craig and his ilk are looking for?
Ooooooouuummmmmmmm lingalingalingalingalingalinga KILLI KILLI!!!
Actually, this sounds more like a response to David (@17) than me (@18). My comment was about Phyllis Schlafly… and if I have to hold that name and the words female orgasm in the same thought, I think I’ll be compelled to gouge my frontal lobe out. [shudder]
Oh no. Those kooks are about 6 miles from here. I’m never going out again.
Why do they do this? why?!
It’s a recent-ish thing. Churchill and FDR weren’t elected because people say themselves in them. Or de Gaulle or Adenauer or Kennedy.
Therefore it’s a meme that can be fought! We need to use conversational intolerance on “I want to vote for people like me”
Bartlett ’08
Wait…”instructional videos”? Is that the new euphemism? And where can I get copies (for educational purposes only, obviously)?
Yeah, depressing isn’t it? After 8 years of the Bushco disaster, one would expect McCain zombie and Palin religious kook to be polling 20-30%. Not seeing much reason to be optimistic here.
Where I used to live has a few survivalists. The people down the road had a “basement” that was really designed and built as a nuclear fallout shelter.
I always thought they were OK people but a bit weird. Now they don’t seem so strange.
Having met Jay Rogers in the course of oppositional research, I can confirm that he is every bit as clueless in person as he is on his blog. I would suppose that you’re witnessing the sort of arrested development often evident among heavy adolescent drug users who get converted during their college years, as Jay himself claims to have been. It’s evident in the advocacy of action against other people without any basic understanding of the consequences of that kind of action. Advocating the death of an individual to advance his cause, as in his original post, is to him largely an intellectual pursuit. Confronting him with the eventual consequences of such acts was an exercise in futility.
#16:
Haven’t they heard of World of Warcraft? It’s probably cheaper than tithing.
AustinDave #27: Well, at one point in the video he says “Everybody becomes a catcher, hallelujah!” “That word– I do not think it means what you think it means” — I. Montoya
The Glory Zone huh?
So that’s what they’re calling it these days.
I’ve anointed a few Glory Zones in my time. Mostly in college.
I want to establish “The Church of Revealed Scientific Glossolalia.”
Quantumelectrodynamicsparticleaccelerator!!
Colloidalnucleoprotoplasmicsuspension
Homologouschromosome!!
Muoncharmtauonneutrinoquark!!
Sciencesciencsciencesciencesciencesciencescience!!!
Threatening to assassinate a presidential candidate with a supernaturally based weapon would seem to be illegal. Perhaps Homeland Security might want to have a word with him about advocating murder?
Probably not. There is a clear threat there but its credibility is dubious.
If calling up spirits with magic spells and hurling them at one’s enemies worked, Clinton, Bush, Gore, Kennedy and so on would have long since been vaporized.
Nah, just proof that men can fake them too! ;) I’d love to go to one of these and just go absolutely loony and see what the reaction would be. Chances are good they’d applaud.
Odd, considering that all the reporting is that McCain really wanted Joe LIEberman, until “they” told him he couldn’t do that. You have to wonder what logic — other than I’ll do any frickin’ thing to get elected — could possibly embrace both a liberal observant Jew from New England (aside: despite the gnashing of liberal teeth [including my own] in CT, LIEberman is unquestionably a liberal by Republican standards, at least on every issue except Iraq) and an extreme right-wing small-state governor from the least typical state in the nation? I haven’t heard anyone in the media even pose, much less answer this question.
Another question I haven’t heard any of the pundits (except for the luminous Rachel Maddow) discuss is this: If John McCain is, in LIEberman’s words from his despicable RNC speech, “his own man,” who is it behind the scenes who can dictate his choice of running mate? And will these same unseen hands dictate cabinet and judiciary appointments? This whole episode makes McCain look like a “maverick” on a pretty short leash to the existing party power structure, and I wonder when we’re going to hear some analysis on that point.
Simply look at the behavior. What would make one act like that? Reminds me of people overdosing on drugs or alcohol…and these people are sober?
Isn’t it time for health care professionals to look into the frequency, intensity and duration of these behavior characteristics to determione if they are healthy?
Sheesh, if gawd is doing that to you…run the other way!
No mystery or secret there. McCain had never even met Palin before she was picked and barely knew who she was. Dobson and Perkins from Focus on Overthrowing the Government are known to have made the choice and handed it to McCain.
If as appears to be the case the US is on the verge of being taken over by religous extremists working to bring about the end of the world, you know global nuclear annihilation and all that, dont you think we should devote the next two months entirely to the business of doing whatever is necessary to prevent such outcome. I mean how can anyone apart from the rapture ready actually contemplate voting McCain/Palin. So here is my simple question. If Palin becomes Pres during McCains first term, what are the chances of any of us being alive in 2012 ?
Because your nation possess close on half the weapons in the World, your problems becomes mine and every one elses. Please is it really as bad as it seems from here (UK) and if it is why the hell are you wasting a moment on distractions. Every post on every thread on the internet should be brought up on this subject. Have you got it, the end of the world, literally the end of the world, is nigh. Not because it is some fantasy gods will but because you have been distracted whilst the true believers joyfully reify their interpretation of the book of revelation.
Or am I mistaken in the impression that Jesus’s army is about to march. In six months time, whoever is president, will it be business as usual with a cabinet of reasonably capable people. And whatever their policies, will armageddon be something to avoid or something to be desired?
Norman,
And Rasmussen shows a 1 point lead only for the same polling period:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
All this is very well known and is called a convention bounce, always observed every presidential election. Obama enjoyed a similar bounce right after the DNC.
This just points to the methodological flaw of polling in the days right after a convention (including a weekend which is even worse for predictability), when people answering the phone have only heard of one side for the last 5 days.
You’ll have to wait at least a week to get an idea if the McPalin strategy is really working.
Sarah Palin is a lovely woman and is trying to uphold the constitution. The elite liberals are using McCain and Obama as pawns. Liberalists are nothing but socialist,which is communism. Lennon stated that Liberals are useful idiots. Our country is so divided that it would take a miracle to unite us again. You cannot force change in anyone, people must unfold gradually. We must unite or perish. There is nothing wrong with being a free thinker, but people have been enslaved for so long by the elite that right seems wrong and wrong seems right. The New World Order was created by the Lucifarian elites and they plan to enslave us all and destroy the middle class and control totally the poor, which the middle class in their eyes will become also.
They’ve already gone down a lot. There is something drastically wrong as shown by the fact that Palin got chosen much less that McCain/Palin are now polling as well as or better than Obama.
If they get elected, your chances for survival go down even further.
We are doing as much as we can. But 300 million lemmings is a lot of momentum.
This has to be the lowest point for the USA in my lifetime. And for those overseas, you can’t imagine what it looks like from inside the USA. Read the headlines, two of the largest financial institutions in the world, Fannie and Freddie just collapsed today.
Ah, if only!
But do you really think that, in nofictional America, a candidate like Bartlet — patrician New England liberal, descendant of signers of the Declaration, son of the headmaster of an elite private academy, eminent scholar and Nobel laureate before seeking office — could actually get elected president?
Well, I hope so, because Obama, while he’s obviously not an old-money white guy, resembles Bartlet far more than he resembles flyboy McCain or moose-killer Palin.
It’s worth noting, BTW, that like Bartlet, Obama is not as liberal as his right-wing opponents paint him, but more liberal than his critics on the left give him credit for. Jus’ sayin’….
What ever your on, your doctor should increase the dose, also I believe it was Lenin not Lennon.
OK, by show of hands, who thinks “Lennon” is Poe’s Wink? Who thinks it’s just typical right-wing ignorance?
We have a winner! Most consecutive non-sequiturs in a single comment goes to…Doris Tracey!!!!
(By the way, Lennon actually stated that “all you need is love.” Also, “goo-goo-goo-joob.”)
Come on, please, that’s a parody site!
Surely you mean crashboy McCain?
George @44:
Believe me, a lot of us share your concern. I think we do need to take this very VERY seriously. Promoting scientific knowledge isn’t going to matter much for the future if we’re all blown up before then.
My personal favorite comment by the one/first responder to the above wacko blog post is the idea that we spend 2 hours in our basements every day studying a thesaurus. They’re not just afraid of science education…they’re afraid of education ENTIRELY. Someone who knows how to write a proper sentence and use multi-syllabic words is a dangerous bogeyman to them.
It’s like trying to defend yourself against someone who is hopped up on PCP. They’re too irrational: ready and willing to lash out violently because of the toxic ideas in their heads.
Now, now… Thou Shalt Not question the service record of War Heroes™!
But since you bring it up, do we have any actual evidence regarding whether Palin is actually a competent moose hunter?
I vote Poe for just that reason, BD. Actually the gain on my Poe detector is too high- I thought nn cltr was a Poe until I read David Brock’s excellent book: Blinded by the Right
Here’s the kind of hunter Sarah Palin is.
Thanks for the link. Grr.
That article also makes clear how little respect for science she has.
“See, this deformity is what happens when an area has no good dance clubs.”
On the other hand, I think we might have found some good footage for Fatboy Slim’s next video.
I wonder if that’s the person I saw this weekend at the CT statewide rally for Obama, mutely protesting the fact that hotdogs and hamburgers were being served.
Folks who can’t make a moral distinction between the aerial slaughter of wolves on the one hand and hotdogs on the other forfeit, IMHO, every shred of their credibility.
I made the mistake of following the first link in the post and read that post on forerunner.
the thing that came to mind was “Timothy McVeigh”
I do not expect a “fair” election. With this kind of polarized political state and this much irrationality rampant how could anyone think we could avoid some kind of trouble. We sure did not transition peacefully to full civil rights in the 60’s, a case could be made that we still haven’t yet!
kind of a dark way to start my day but face to face with reality anyway.
The woman shaking their hair should learn how to bang their hads properly.
Now an experiment:
Take the video holy ghost power video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_eA9INAYcE , mute the sound and play it with the music from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evwYrhj-bcI instead.
Disclaimer: Yes I know that satanists or whatever dummi burger claim to be are equally stupid. But it is fun to bang your head once in a while.
Let’s just hope some kook doesn’t decide to speed things up with an IED. We’ve been fortunate not to have politically motivated assassinations in the US in a long time, and I’d like to keep it that way, no matter who is running.
That Joel’s Army post last week makes you wonder about the mindset of some of these so-called Christians.
Doris Tracey (#46),
Please enlighten me as to how I can break free from the all powerful control of the “Lucifarian elites”.
I tried Jesus and he wanted 10% tithing and I had to sacrifice my only son. Mohammed promised me 72 virgins, but I had to strap some c4 to my ass and blow up some innocent children.
All I have left is free thinking and the brain evolution gave me, so I would appreciate some guidance.
Strikes me as kind of extreme. It seems she’s a vegan, and she could be protesting the conditions under which the animals from which hotdogs are made are kept or the cruelty with which they’re treated. I don’t understand what you mean by failing to make a moral distinction, as they’re two different questions, and I also don’t see why her opposition to meat consumption with all that entails today in the US would make her lose “every shred of credibility” either entirely or on the matter of Palin’s record.
Bill,
If animals were shot from the air to make hotdogs would you be opposed?
Why add the ‘so-called’ adjective to Christians, hje? Doing so only fuels the self-serving myth that Christianity praises peace and love above all else and that such fanatics are somehow contrary to the true spirit of Christmas, or whatever. It may be true that members of Joel’s Army are part of the lunatic fringe among Christians, but there’s nothing ‘so-called’ about that. To analogise, Canada is said to be founded on the principles of peace, order and good government (POGG), but that doesn’t make professional asshole and right-wing douchebag Ezra Levant a ‘so-called’ Canadian.
Stop feeding the True Christian™ myth.
Pity she can’t be time-shifted back to the 12th century, where they knew how to deal with twitching, gibbering heretics.
If animals were shot from the air to make hotdogs would you be opposed?
Not if you’re a good shot.
It’s possible; some of my opinions are. But…
…I find being a vegan kind of extreme, if it’s presented as anything more than a simple dietary preference. I do not think (though obviously YMMV) it’s immoral to eat meat (nor to use nonhuman animals in the many ways humans do), although I do think it’s wrong to be unnecessarily cruel in the process. I’m open to critiques of cruelty in the meat industry, but they need to be a bit more specific than just pointing disapprovingly at the hotdog server.
In this case, the person in question was standing silently, holding a hand-lettered sign that seemed to say there’s no difference between Obama and Palin, because some of the former’s supporters eat meat, on the one hand, and the other champions the least sporting forms of hunting, on the other hand. I’ll at least listen to either argument; suggesting they’re the same loses me. The problem I have is not that I disagree with the person’s position (though in this case, I do), but that the lack of intellectual granularity makes it impossible to address it intelligently.
Good question. Are there black helicopters hovering over your local pig farm? ;^)
Seriously, I probably shouldn’t really have chimed in, because I’m neither a hunter nor an animal rights activist. I’d describe my position on animal rights as aggressively moderate, and in any case, I think the issue is waaaaaay down on the priority list for this election.
That said, the fact that Palin supports a form of “hunting” that (if I understand correctly) even most sport hunters find disgusting is part of a larger picture of someone whose values are way out of the American mainstream… even as she’s trying to pretend she’s quintessentially mainstream. (Or is “quintessentially” one of those elitist words?)
OT PS: As I type this, I’m listening to the podcast of this weekend’s Wait, Wait! Don’t Tell Me!, and Paula Poundstone is killing by bringing (fictional) examples of “qualified” women passed over in favor of Palin!
I support shooting pigs from the air with hotdogs. As a competitive sport.
The Tubesteak Biathlon, coming soon to an Olympiad near you.
The Tubesteak Biathlon
Isn’t that a side event at the Gay Pride Parade?
Damn! Your rejoinder was way funnier than mine! Good thing I didn’t have anything in my mouth when I read that.
I had been wondering where I could find a package of Tundra Tubesteaks™, made from 100% air-killed Alaskan wolfmeat.
It may be true that members of Joel’s Army are part of the lunatic fringe among Christians, but there’s nothing ‘so-called’ about that.
When Palin’s extreme religiosity comes out it probably won’t have that much of an impact on religious voters. What we call “lunatic fringe” is seen by most Christians as simply being a bit more enthusiastic for Jesus. And with Armageddon approaching, well, maybe that’s just a darn good thing. Better to err on the side of caution, after all…
Palin is charismatic, congenial, religious and photogenic–all the qualities American voters look for.
Bill,
I don’t think we’re in disagreement (if the woman you saw is in fact the same one quoted in the article). But I struggle with this. I’m not a vegetarian (although I haven’t eaten red meat since I was a child), but I’ve read Fast-Food Nation, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, etc., and other books and know about CAFOs and the cruelty of the whole thing. I feel like a bigtime hypocrite. :(
By the way, I don’t know anything about your daughter, but I’ve been meaning to mention that she might be interested in the Yale Sustainable Food Project:
http://www.yale.edu/sustainablefood/
Notwithstanding the flippancy of some of my comments here, I struggle with it, too. My gut tells me there’s a difference between people and not-people, and that that difference makes it morally acceptable for us to use animals (none of whom seem like people to me, despite all the anthropomorphosis we tend to do) for food, clothing, transport, etc.
But sometimes I have a hard time getting my head where my gut is. Happily (he said, with an ironic twist), there are so many other more urgent problems in the world that I’m not often forced to wrestle with this one.
Thanks for the pointer. We knew about this program (though we haven’t yet toured the Farm). It’s not the sort of thing I would’ve thought my daughter would normally be interested in… but then, she’s never been interested in sports, either, and I just learned she’s signed up for two intramurals (volleyball and table tennis). So you never know….
Er…no comment. :)
Hope she’s enjoying college life.
On second look… Are these people having ORGASMS???
Hmmm… did you watch any of the Olympic table tennis? ;^) But your reaction is why I made sure to also mention volleyball, which is reasonably athletic even at the purely recreational level.
We’re only a week in, and it’s a pretty jarring transition for an (I must confess, pretty pampered) only child… but I have absolute faith that she’s going to enjoy it.
I’m sure she’ll do great.
Hmmm… did you watch any of the Olympic table tennis?
At that level it does take on more qualities of a sport. I tend to exclude from that category anything I can play reasonably well while drinking.
I guess I do have a prejudice. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my parents became friends with the parents of a friend of mine. My father, a tremendous athlete, was talking about sports and my friend’s father said something about how he too was athletic and had won some local table-tennis tournament. My father would tell this story at events with the extended – extremely sporty – family, and everyone would laugh and laugh.
Not that I don’t love table tennis. Of course, it’s no air hockey…
“My gut tells me there’s a difference between people and not-people, and that that difference makes it morally acceptable for us to use animals (none of whom seem like people to me, despite all the anthropomorphosis we tend to do) for food, clothing, transport, etc.”
I can go with you on “there’s a difference between” since that’s pretty obvious, but making the leap to “that difference makes it morally acceptable” is something I have not been able to do for a long time.
Of course, I have to point out that I would also put “transport” in a different category from “food, clothing” and so on. Plus many species use us for transport. :)
I am not exactly trying to start an argument with you — as you point out, YMMV — but I have to say I do have a certain level of skepticism about anything the “gut” says. I have always felt that it is the “gut” (with which term, to show my hand, I conflate the id or lizard-y brain and what is traditionally known as the “heart”) that causes all the trouble, but maybe it is because a certain president relies on it in such a famously exclusive fashion …?
I understand the skepticism; it’s sort of what my comment was about. In this case, I think what I’m calling “gut” is a philosophical position I just haven’t been able to clearly articulate yet, as opposed to “the monsters of the id”… but of course, until I am able to articulate it, I can prove no such thing.
In the meantime, somehow I manage to continue enjoying the occasional medium-rare steak or plate full of bacon. It’s the second time in the last week I’ve paraphrased this song, but “if lovin’ [meat] is wrong, I don’ wanna’ be right….”
You need better opponents. Or maybe not: It’s entirely possible — almost certain, in fact — that undisturbed drinking is more important than being able to call yourself an athlete!
The video starts off with “Glory Zone Encounters”. That’s interesting. ;)
Well, maybe… but if it’s true that “meat is murder,” I think it follows pretty closely that using animals for transport (or owning them as pets) is “slavery”… and being “merely” a slaveholder but not a murderer would be of little comfort to me.
I actually don’t feel like either… but as I’ve said, I can’t yet construct an airtight intellectual case in my defense.
… you really must watch the video of Holy Ghost Power Encounters,
And you really had to choose a place that is within 10 miles of my house. BTW, it is also within 50 miles of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world … just in case you couldn’t tell.
Dang it on both counts.
How interesting that the whackaloon in the original story has now changed his position so that he apparently wants McCain to turn him into a vegetable or kill him (Since he’s threatening McCain with murder, how else is McCain to save his own life but by eliminating the man’s ability to pray for his death?)
Something tells me thinking logically and to the consequences of his own beliefs and statements is not something this guy has even a passing aquaintance with.
So, what kind of drugs do you have to take in order to trip like those folks in the video. Although, I’m not sure if I want to try them, or avoid them yet. Leaning heavily on avoiding…
So do the pigs, I’m sure.
“Sarah Palin gives me the creeps anyway. Why doesn’t she do that to all the fans of her’s? She comes across, to me, as someone with her head right up her own arse.”
Richard in my opinion it has to do with an archetypal image Americans have of themselves – the same image that makes cowboys and barbecues so appealing. When Americans look at themselves in the mirror many see an overweight softie, suffering from too much fast food and not enough exercise. But in the back of their mind is another person – a frontiersman, tough and alert and muscle toned. This is what they would like to think of themselves. So enter Palin, the girl next door, a mother who can shoot, field dress, and serve and moose right there in God’s back country. Andy you wonder why they go for her? In support of my hypothesis I would point out she apparently appels more to men than women.
I think that the ongoing criticism of Sarah Palin’s lack of foreign policy experience is patently unfair. Wouldn’t the ability to speak in tongues trump the absence of experience?
Actually… the country might take better advantage of her talents if she were to be appointed ambassador to the UN. Think of all the savings in translator salaries. The only problem that I can foresee would have to do with convincing them danged foreigners that Sarah prancing and jiggling frenetically in the aisles and writhing ecstatically on the floor was nothing to be concerned about… perfectly reasonable when one is possessed of the holy spirit.
Well that was a pretty disappointing Glory Zone video. Also, “imprecatory prayer” is a stupid phrase. They’re imprecations. Also known as curses or maledictions. Calling them “imprecatory prayers” is a wussy cop-out, like “serpent-handling-related adverse event”.
I tried to watch that video, but all those people doing the Funky Chicken had me laughing to hard to finish it.
http://womenagainstsarahpalin.org/
Shameless plug for my wife’s site. Nifty T-Shirts, blog, etc.
Substance G. It’s the most addictive substance out there, known to give sporadic bouts of euphoria. Prolonged use though is associated with cognitive dissonance, a destruction of critical reasoning skills, intolerance, hallucinations, and eventually to vision impairment.
Substance G was initially used by uncultured natives in order to help survive in a harsh environment. As our species progressed, use of Substance G became more widespread. Even children were given the drug from a very young age. Cultures who didn’t use Substance G, or used other substances were either enslaved or wiped out; such is the potency of the drug. In modern times, addicts are in the decline as many rehabilitation initiatives have been offered. It’s use is still widespread; accounting for countless hours of lost productivity and much violence in the community. Former addicts have now come to work alongside those born with an immunity to the drug in order to rid it once and for all in this world.
It’s comment threads like this that help me understand why some people need parental care well past the age of eighteen.
Social obtuseness, such a marvel.
Bill @ 83 said “In the meantime, somehow I manage to continue enjoying the occasional medium-rare steak or plate full of bacon. It’s the second time in the last week I’ve paraphrased this song, but “if lovin’ [meat] is wrong, I don’ wanna’ be right.”
I just want to add in a different perspective on the meat issue. A woman by the name of Temple Grandin Phd. has spent many years studing meat animals and their treatment and has designed facilities for humane animal slaughter which reduces stress and injuries for the animals. She is a very interesting and perceptive scientist. She is also a very high functioning autistic. I just wanted to mention her as the meme that animal slaughter in unnessasarily burtal ans un caring is perhaps overstated. I’ve included a link to her website. I had the good fortune of hearing her lecture a few times when I was in college. She is very, very smart.
http://www.grandin.com/
I heard her speak on the radio several years ago an to paraphrase, she said cows are food, and as such, humans own them the best in humane treatment and slaughter. An idea she is commited too.
thanks for listening. :)
Oh man, that’s good stuff. My 5 year old speaks that same language! He calls it “Funyatto”, but it is equally nonsensical. That’s for the laugh, but it really was too painful to finish.
“Stop feeding the True Christian™ myth.”
No. Some individuals can be true to the core principles of their faith without being flaming assholes. Martin Luther King, Jr. comes to mind, or Gandhi. People of this sort seem to be as rare as teats on a bull these days. The reason I despise most evangelicals is that they are hypocrites who say they love life, but seem to love killing a lot more.
Likewise individuals can be true to the core principles of their atheism, agnosticism, or humanism without being insufferable.
Snitzels @ #40 said “I’d love to go to one of these and just go absolutely loony and see what the reaction would be. Chances are good they’d applaud.”
I think it would be more fun to go to something like this, and stand there, completlely silent and still. I’m not sure how people would react (would they be angry? try to focus on getting me to writhe around like them? or could I actually influence the people around me into NOT speaking in tongues? After all, this is all lemming behavior). Anyway, it could be pretty funny, and (done properly, with enough volunteers) could even be an interesting experiment in human behavior.
“Thoom shaka laka nonny-nonny ding-dong, yabba dabba doo.”
Holy glossolalia! The gift of tongues has fallen on PZ Myers! Now we must do as 1st Corinthians 14 instructs, and await an interpretation! Any prophets out there?
Sadly however, but typically, Paul’s set of instructions would also have women keep their silence, though I suppose typing is okay.
Description from the video:
Prophecy and Holy Ghost power flows dramatically as Matt Sorger prophesies and imparts breakthrough anointings on believers in the Glory Zone Church, Long Island, NY.
Translation:
Idiots allow a charismatic Svengali character to use auto suggestive techniques to make them act like a bunch of tools. Without Beer!
I think we can all agree here that GW Bush was by far the worst president ever. And I thought to myself prior to McCain picking PalinComparison(TM) for his running mate, it couldn’t really get worse than Gw Bush. And yet the republican party has found a way to continue a nightmare of ignorance and failed policy. PalinComparison(TM) is the new poster child for incompetance and failed policy.
Einstein said that the problems of this world cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them. People I give you McCain/PalinComparison, representing the level of thinking that created.
Way to perpetuate the lie, doof. Surely we can do better.
Here – take two, and call me in the morning.
One.
Two.
I’m shocked – SHOCKED – that a conservative backwoods Republican Jesus freak would have such little respect for science!
I just watched the faith-healing glossolalia clip you linked to, and it makes me think that it’s a shame that ecstatic emotional states, which can be cathartic, are coupled with oppressive religion in the US. Many societies throughout the world have featured them and ritualized them in various contexts, and they can give a sense of group cohesion and personal release, but in the US the only place you see them is in oppressive Christian institutions, where they’re ideologically wedded to support for the huge and murderous US military, rapacious capitalism, anti-intellectualism, and “culture wars.” Wish that weren’t the case.
Yes, there are wackos on the Right. There are wackos on the Left, too. As evidence of that, a number of them post comments on this blog.
If you can’t spot which ones they are, it’s because you’re one of them.
“In the meantime, somehow I manage to continue enjoying the occasional medium-rare steak or plate full of bacon. It’s the second time in the last week I’ve paraphrased this song, but ‘if lovin’ [meat] is wrong, I don’ wanna’ be right….'”
Oh, hey, listen, I’ve been a vegetarian for years, but I still drool when I smell bacon cooking. What does it all _mean_ …?
It is interesting that in response to my “transport” criticism you cite slavery – I was thinking about this last night.
First, once again let me say that I am not repeat not claiming that you are saying something I am sure you did not intend, but my problem with the argument from “difference” is that it would be easy enough to say “hmm, those moving things over there are shaped like people, but they have different x [skin color, whatever] …” … that is, I think the “they’re different, therefore it’s okay (moral) for me to …” can get one into hot … well, maybe you get my drift.
I don’t know whether I anthropomorphize my cats or felinify myself.
:). I just thought it should be noted that her disregard for science or expert opinion extends into areas that have nothing to do with religion.
I despise what Palin stands for and have serious questions about her ability to govern. However, I want to point out that I believe she is fundamentalist, not charismatic. The two are not the same. Fundamentalist *might* raise their hands when singing, but do not believe in speaking in tongues or being slain in the spirit (that is what they call it when people are shaking and wind up on the floor). In my travels of spiritual experimentation I attended both types of churches — a non denominational charismatic, an Assembly of God and a non denominational fundamentalist church.
That exploration wound up scaring the bejeebus out of me, but there are differences and it’s only fair to point them out.
If you’re female, get an IUD now. They last for ten years, which is longer than these wackjobs can serve. I’m a neuroscience student and I am devoting my life to studying neurogenetics. I don’t want to reproduce.
bernard:
I think I do get your drift, and I think my drift is different from what’s got you worried… but I’m not sure I’m going to have any less trouble articulating them than your ellipses suggest:
I’m intuitively certain that people exist, and that there’s a fundmental distinction between people and not people. I feel sure that all homo sapiens are people, and my strong (but still provisional) belief is that none of the nonhuman animals on Earth are. I have no sense of certainty about what that distinction is based on, but I’m quite certain it’s not anything superficial like skin color, body morphology, or the color or coverage of hair. A religious person would attribute peopleness to the presence of a metaphysical soul, but I don’t have recourse to that shortcut. Whatever it is, people are self-referential and self-aware. They not only think abstract thoughts, they record them and communicate them to others and gather them into systems of thought and preserve them for the future. People create art and develop technologies. People modify their environments, on a large scale, and in ways that are deliberate, planned, and durable. People use language. AFAIK, all humans everywhere on Earth, no matter how “primitive,” do all these things to one degree or another… but (also AFAIK) no nonhuman species do all of these things (if they actually do any of them at all).
This is, of course, a purely observational distinction, with out any analytical or philosophical underpinnings. I can’t explain why there’s a difference between people and not-people, or from whence it arises, but like Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it… or at least I think I do. I’ve referred to species above, but I’m not making a species-ist argument. It happens to be (to me) empirically clear that on Earth one species — homo sapiens — is people, and the others are not… but it need not be so: I’m prepared to be convinced, if new evidence comes to light, that other terrestrial species (propoises? chimpanzees?) might be be people, and I’m sure we would call intelligent extraterrestrials (if any such exist) people as well.
But the notion that terrestrial nonhuman animals are not people is important, because people have what we traditionally call “human” rights, chief among which are life and liberty. I absolutley may not own people or force them to labor against their will, nor may I pen them up or kill them except with very specific and limited types of justification (e.g., to protect my own life, or that of another person, from imminent danger).
It seems to me that the animal rights argument amounts to the assertion that all animals are people. If that were true, then not only eating meat, but every single human use of nonhuman animals (even including the most benign pet ownership) would constitute a grave violation of human rights. I’ve recently been re-reading Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I’m reminded how absolutely dependent human existence is (and always has been) on use and killing of animals. If the animal rights position is true, it looks like human society itself is inextricably bound up in a history of moral horror that stretches back the the earliest emergence of humans as a distinct species. In that case, I would have to either accept the very existence of humanity as morally insufferable… or give up on the notion of “human rights” as anything other than a cruel fiction.
Either conclusion is intolerable to me… so I pray (in a metaphorical, nonreligious sort of way) that I’m right and the animal rights people are not. And, in that desperate hope, I eat my bacon and pet my cat.
YMMV.
Well I watched the YouTube video and I’ve watched footage of “exorcisms” in the past. In both cases, the people writhe around, fall to the ground, speak gibberish, etc. It’s funny that the power of the holy spirit would make them act the same as the power of demons. Or did I miss something?
Since he says near the end that it’s a city-wide anointing, I wonder if anyone outside of the room experienced the same effect as the people inside the room….
Crows are people.
“Isn’t it time for health care professionals to look into the frequency, intensity and duration of these behavior characteristics to determine if they are healthy?”
Most are entirely healthy. All are just plain stupid.
Man, I hate being at those parties.