The mayor of Fort Mill, South Carolina forwarded one of those stupid chain emails that throws around absurd accusations — in this case, the Bible predicted that the anti-christ would be a Muslim in his 40s, and that Barack Obama was therefore the anti-christ. There is so much wrong there; Obama is not a Muslim, the Bible doesn’t say such a thing (especially since it was written before Islam), and you would expect such a devout Christian to know this. But he sent it on anyway.
Now if he were somebody of normal intelligence, at this point he’d be saying, “oops, hit the wrong button, I meant to hit delete…”. But no. He’s making excuses.
Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.”
Well. Think that one through. So Funderburk’s way to get to the truth of a scurrilous claim is to simply repeat it to a bunch of other people? And the kind of evidence he’d accept to debunk it is scriptural?
Is John McCain a Nazi pedophile? I’m not making any accusations, I’m just curious if there’s anything to it…
What a provocative suggestion! I don’t know…let’s send it to a thousand people. And if the Bible doesn’t say it’s wrong, why then…
Hang on, I thought Obama was a “half-breed muslin.”
We all know Obama is a Muslim. All Muslims are terrorists. Therefore, Obama is a terrorist.
We’ve all heard this logic before…
What we really want to know is if Fort Mill is as large a town as Wasilla, Alaska.
I’m sure Palin is the Antichrist. After all, she is a woman seems to be religious and is poised to take over the most powerful nation and no xian would suspect her. She’s perfect for “the mystery of lawlessness”.
it’s true! i read it on teh intertubes:
Obama’s *real* middle name is Damien! on june 26, 1976 he changed it to Hussein so it wouldn’t attract too much attention.
maybe he can change it to “Walker”. that’s an inoccuous middle name…oh, wait.
Well – we do already know that Johnny McCain wasn’t *really* tortured in Vietnam. At least, according to how the current administration defines torture. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/washington/04interrogate.html?_r=1&ei=5090&en=8d75a80eddaf32b7&ex=1349150400&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1222723228-hMzEDReOK0wpsxze1ZQyrg
Or maybe torture is only torture when it’s used on Johnny boy, and other Americans?
@ no 3
But did Muslin exist when they wrote the bible.
Here ya’ go Mr. Funderburk…
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.asp
Makes sense to me. After all, as a Christian, he’s undoubtedly never read the Bible, so how else would he know?
Yes, but seersucker was only available limitedly.
AWESOME illustration. So true.
Coragyps @ 5
Actually, Fort Mill has a population of 7K as opposed to Wasilla’s 6K
Anyway, perhaps we can start memes that say John McCain is against so-called “wasteful spending” but agrees with spending $75M on abstinence-only education that has been SHOWN to not work as effectively as comprehensive sex education.
I have to concur with Brownian.
How is it that there are tens of thousands of people devoted to a self-sustaining meme complex that has but a single piece of required reading and virtually none of them have ever read that one book in it’s entirely?
I’ll grant you, it’s a long book by the standards of today’s popular novels and it’s written using an arcane literary style but it’s also not exactly Ulysses.
Bear in mind that True Christians(tm) believe their book is magically and perfectly prophetic. It’s irrelevant that Islam was founded centuries after Revelations was written if you can cherry-pick Revelations for premonitions of Islam.
When I first saw this I thought it was a joke article and that Funderburk stood for “Fundy Berk”. But ‘berk’ isn’t a common American insult is it? Although in this case it would seem appropriate. viz
“berk” An idiot. Similar in tone to ‘prat’, ‘prick’ or ‘twat’. Originally from the rhyming slang ‘Berkeley Hunt’, for ‘cunt’, although not generally considered as offensive as that.
What a complete and utter fuckwit.
Makes sense to me. After all, as a Christian, he’s undoubtedly never read the Bible, so how else would he know?
Fundies don’t read the Bible. They mine it for scripture to back absurd arguments. I have a friend who is a young earth creationist in the Pentecostal Assemblies, and did missionary work in Africa. She believes in witchcraft, demonic possession, and that there are no contradictions in the Bible. Even after showing numerous example of direct contradictions by chapter and verse, she denied the contradiction. Logic and reason hold no sway with them. I had to cut the ties, and stop talking to her… the stupid was hurting my brain… and growing up, she seemed as intelligent as most. Their faith is everything to them, to the point of warping rationality. It was really sad, I used to like her as a friend, and now I feel bad for her beautiful kids that are being raised in that environment.
That email, or something close to it, was sent to my mother-in-law by her Baptist preacher, months ago. It may be one of the things that determines the upcoming presidential election. Teh Stoopid, it’s Everywhere!
I know that was a semi-rhetorical question, but I believe the answer is because they are complete fucking morons. (Oops, did I just upset Chris Mooney by not framing that with the proper respect?)
This is EXACTLY my sisters excuse for sending a similar email. “Well I didn’t know so I thought I’d just forward it on”! I immediately responded to the whole distribution list she used that my sister was full of shit. (OK, I wasn’t quite that aggressive but close).
After about a month, my sister and I just starting talking to each other again.
Dear Mayor Funderburk,
If you are looking for scriptural guidance in this matter, may I suggest James 3:1-12.
I’m guessing you already know the passage.
The good mayor’s e-mail address is:
[email protected]
I think everyone should try to help him out by sending him some info, you know?
The good Christian’s website:
http://www.dannyfunderburk.com/
“Thanks for a real team effort! Now the real work begins. God Bless.”
What a backwater post. PZ, please try harder to keep up with things. Why don’t you blog on how today’s stockmarket nosedive in response to the congressional revolt against Bush affects things? Well, maybe you’re gettin’ to it. More than a few people have a stake in this right now, even those of us without investments. To me, this is far more important than some dumbshit, backwater preacher’s opinion on something nobody gives a shit about. Well, er, sorry to get slightly off-topic. Thought it would be appropriate, given what’s going on.
No, it just proves that the bible is the word of god because it predicted the rise Islam. Plus, the great power of the bible to persuade is on display because it conveyed this prediction to its followers without even mentioning the word Muslim.
Hehe… I made a poe.
“http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.asp”
One of my Livejournal friends, an Australian, posted that link recently, saying (paraphrased) “If Snopes has to debunk that Obama is the antichrist, something is very wrong with America.” I tend to agree.
No, just a rough cloth woven in diagonals on both the inner and outer surfaces. Some were quite fond of it; others found it useless.
Ever since, there’s been a two-sided debate about whether the serge is working.
I live in Fort Mill, supported Danny Funderburk, and must say that he has proven himself not worthy of my confidence. Not only does he not know his Bible, he doesn’t know ethics either. He supports allowing people to serve on the Town Council who don’t even live in Fort Mill, (Google “Ken Starnes”) as well. If only we had a recall provision in our town charter.
And to be honest, I don’t know that Danny is a Republican. As a Green though I can assure you that both Democrats and Republicans are capable of making such stupid bone-head moves.
If they thought at all, they wouldn’t have chosen Bible Spice for Vice President. (Thanks for the sobriquet, SharonD!)
Back to the real world: CNN, no less, has pointed out that Haiti needs help!
Kind of reminds me of the joke on last night’s “Family Guy” (what you guys have too much taste to watch TV?!?) where they did a throw-away gag that at a costume party, Peter was dressed as Laura Bush and Lois was dressed as “the guy she killed”. Then they turned to the camera and said very deliberately, “Yes. Laura Bush killed a guy.” I think it was an in joke among the writers but, sheesh, if the brainless right keep starting stupid rumors with no bases why can’t we brainless left ever seem to do the the same?
Yes. Laura Bush killed a guy.
Or did Laura Bush actually kill a guy and I somehow missed it?
Update: Upon inspection of Danny Funderburk’s website, I noticed the image of a familiar looking gilt-leaved book, about halfway down the page, under the heading “Personal.” There’s no context to explain the picture of the book, so it’s pretty clear it’s a Bible being used as the fundie version of a ‘secret handshake’ (“But Martha, we gotta vote for ‘im. He’s got a picture of the Bible on his intertube. Bibles is tuh libruls like garlic is to vampires, so we jes’ know he’s gonna do right by our town.”)
For those interested in seeking clarification from the Mayor for his remarks, I suggest asking him why he was at a loss for scriptural verification when his own website strongly suggests he owns at least one copy of said scriptures.
Republicans certainly think–in fact, they’ve been clearly been spending an awful lot of time thinking about how to get the message across that Obama is…well…y’know…different…nudge, nudge, wink, wink…from…y’know…us…without mentioning his…um…y’know…[[[[[race]]]]]
Bible Spice for Vice President
LOL
that’s a keeper.
wait, if Palin is “Bible Spice”… what does that make McCain?
YFC @ 34:
What? Uppity?
Brownian, OM:
The alt text for that gilt-leaved book?
“Picture of Danny Funderburk and his wife’s hands on the bible”
@#32
Whaddya know, it’s true : http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/laura.asp
woozy@32
Sort of.
When Laura was 17, she ran a stop sign resulting in a car accident in which the driver of the other car was killed.
ichthyic @ 35
Old Spice of course… :)
Note that the local newspaper is taking Funderburk’s side, echoing debunked propaganda about the public school Obama attended in Indonesia.
Fort Mill Times reporter Jonathan Allen writes:
Jonathan Allen has learned how to mention snopes.com, but he is apparently incapable of actually reading it:
Reporting does not just consist of repeating the mayor’s hogwash and then failing to investigate its veracity.
Email Allen,
his editor,
his publisher.
Every time you see something like that, think: “this person votes”
I need your tears of despair to power my genesis device
I saw that last night too, woozy. I think they were parodying the bald assertion=fact thing.
All three characters in the scene looked straight at the camera and repeated, deadpan, a total of three times: “Yes. Laura Bush killed a guy.”
But who knows? She’s got two sons that lived to throw the switch when they were governors–who’s to say they didn’t let dear ol’ mom open a vacancy on death row as a birthday present?
@Ichthyic
Curmudgeon Spice?
Curmudgeon Spice?
I was thinking the obvious:
Old Spice (which has the inevitable double meanings attached)
or how bout:
Maverick Spice?
Old Spice?
Nostradamus wrote the bible? Who knew?
Then again, Rev. Ussher had a hand in writing it too.
Anyone else amused at how something about religion enters into the public imagination and the most “devout” people insist that it’s actually in the bible? That’s as funny to me as how they had to fight tooth and nail about how Dan Brown’s book couldn’t possibly be true, other than it is clearly fiction, and not even well written fiction. All of the documentary channels made show after show about it and the Knights Templar. Ugh! Stupidity, the average American is thy name!
The bible is the longest-running bad chain letter in history. People just keep passing it on and on without being very curious if there’s any validity to it.
Funderburk?
See Nominative determinism.
OK, so I was a bit slow getting the joke. I should have linked to this instead. Of course, you have to redefined “experience” as being meaning “temperamental clueless old fart.”
Is it too late to let South Carolina secede?
There just has to be a documentary made on all the insanities relgion has perpetrated in just this year alone. Just this year, for to make one of all the previous years would entail hundreds of miles of film and Google bogging down with spitting out all that puke that I’m sure it has documented from all sources.
“Religion: The Musical”, starring Earth’s plethora of insane demented slime”.
Not only do I need to be quicker off the mark, it would appear I also need to learn grammar and to acquire some basic typing skills. Oh well…
“We all know Obama is a Muslim. All Muslims are terrorists. Therefore, Obama is a terrorist.
We’ve all heard this logic before…”
Proof! Good old modus ponens.
Hmm, the Snopes article doesn’t say anything about whether or not li’l Barbara was coked up and carrying 430 kilos of uncut Colombian and smuggling underage Mexican girls for slave labour in her secret brothel while she was busily killing her classmates with her car, but as years of arguing with religiots has convinced me that science cannot answer life’s most important questions, I’m going to assume she was as a matter of faith.
Also, is McCain secretly a member of one of those polygamous Mormon cults? The lack of evidence suggests that Yes, he is, and he’s really sneaky about it. More at 11.
Hmmm, PZ, what made you use *that* image allofasudden?
HMMMMM?
Warren @ 29:
Ever since, there’s been a two-sided debate about whether the serge is working.
A pun worthy of Garrison Keillor. Nicely done.
Is it too late to let South Carolina secede?
ask these guys, maybe?
http://christianexodus.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=37
Okay, I’ve got to admit learning that the first lady was responsible for a fatal car accident when she was seventeen isn’t that big of a deal. But it isn’t that little a deal either. Considering how just about every presidential candidate not blessed by the religious right get every irrelevent tawdry detail raked over the coals (Um, did I imagine it or did we impeach a president for getting a blow job and lying about it?) it kind of bugs me that every anti-iraq war = anti-american terrorism meme seems to get amplified (Did you know Obama’s middle name is “Hussein”?!?!? Horrors!!!!) and we *still* hear Clinton “I didn’t inhale” jokes yet make a snide joke about Miss Welch’s driving and suddenly “Oh, that’s just going too far…”
Okay, I admit, I’m biased but still… “Hussein”? Big deal!
I’m not a Christian, but isn’t gossip discouraged by the Bible?
Proverbs 20:19 — “A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.”
1 Timothy 5:13 — “Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to.”
Okay, I admit, I’m biased but still… “Hussein”? Big deal!
In one of those “relevant but tangential” moments, I recall my own father telling me the reason he didn’t vote for Gore in 2000 is because he couldn’t imagine a US president with the last name “Gore”.
seriously.
He can’t be, since there are no Nazi children, only children of Nazi parents. ;)
By coincidence, by sister received this chain e-mail from her friend. I considered sending her friend a rebuttal, but it’s obvious that such people are not interested — either because they are too fargone or because they don’t believe the nonsense themselves.
I just gotta have your thestupiditburns jpeg on a tee-shirt.
It would offend way fewer people than Kermit on a Cross on a tee-shirt — although, I’d like to have that one, too.
I must say, it pleases me greatly to see my humble little illustration being used exactly the way I intended it to be used. ^_^
OT sort of but relevant as GOP stupidity. The Dow was down 777 points and the NASDAQ was down 200. The Dow drop was the largest point drop in a day, ever.
This is financial carnage on a megascale. We all know who was in charge for the last 8 years. The party that caused the crisis gets blamed for it. Every time the markets take another dive downward, Obama goes up.
60% of US families have money in the market, 401K, IRA, brokerage account, mutual funds etc..They are almost all poorer by a lot even in one day. This is hitting main street hard by now.
To quote Bill C., “It’s the economy, stupid.” This will be the main issue in the election.
Why, Phil…someone mailed it to me last week. I just wouldn’t use it for the sake of using it, but waited for someone to actually do something worthy of such a fine image.
Brownian at #43 and #55 – you might be confusing Barbara Bush with Laura Bush…?
I lie awake at night staring at the ceiling. I can’t sleep, I can’t think, I can only languish in this kind of resigned disbelief.
That McCain has more than a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning this thing answers the question: No. They do not think at all. And they’re still smarter than those self-identified “moderates” who have suddenlty gone ga-ga over Palin and her brownshirt politics — swing voters are even more stupid, hard as that is to believe.
Brownian at #43 and #55 – you might be confusing Barbara Bush with Laura Bush…?
I dunno. I like the idea of using “li’l Barbara” as a nick-name for Laura. It has pleasing oedipal undertones.
he couldn’t imagine a US president with the last name “Gore”
“America wants four more years of Douchebag!” –nother family guy reference (his opponent was Sen. Daterape). Well, I guess there a worse reasons not to vote for someone…
Well, since these postings seem to be going off-topic (a first at Pharyngula!), I thought I might make a prediction: Sarah Palin will leave the race. They’ll cite family reasons, and it’ll happen before her debate.
The debate camp is just a cover. They’re doing their best to cover, but Sarah will simply miss her family, especially her infant, and will have to leave. No one would criticize her for it. Would you?
Lieberman. There’s your candidate.
Withdrawing after the debates would appear to be a reaction to an awful performance that McCain and Rove fear is coming. Do it now; cite family reasons; no one can criticize her or McCain for that.
Done deal.
But “Bush” was better? I always thought Gore vs. Bush sounded like a B-movie director’s decision matrix…
Plognark. TShirts ETSY> WANT!
There has been a drop Palin move among the Republicans. Sounds like they found their replacement VP canidate with Funderburk.
I heartily encourage efforts to pour through apocalyptic scripture to quote-mine passages which might apply to the Republican candidates. After all, turnabout is fair play. To get you going, look for:
1. the power of the North
2. the scarlet woman riding upon the Beast
3. the abomination of desolation
4. the seven-year period of tribulation
5. and its division into 3 1/2-year segments
6. any numerological possibility that can add up to six hundred sixty-six (or six hundred sixteen, for manuscript purists)
7. anything about conquering Babylon
8. the Beast (actually, anti-Christ only refers to deniers and apostates, not the evil leader of the end times–but any real student of the Bible already knew that, riiiight?) and the False Prophet being hailed as religious leaders
9. economic stability threatened for those not wearing the Mark of the Beast
10. the Beast’s efforts to endanger the “woman with child.”
Then, send your discoveries to Mayor Thudpucker, or whatever his name is.
Enjoy.
But “Bush” was better?
yeah, go figure. Like logic was used in any aspect of that particular decision-making process.
*throws hands up in air*
btw, to make matters worse, after 4 years of Bush, and me literally printing out dozens of articles for him to read about the various foibles and outright violations of the constitution undertaken by the Bush administration…
guess what?
yeah.
I can’t recall that he disliked the name “Kerry”, though.
The whole
RepublicanFascist Party has them. That’s why those knuckle-dragging, collar-popping frat boys are getting so excited over Palin. This time, they’re attracted to someone, so they want to install her in a more maternal position. It’s like they can’t live without an extreme oedipus complex and, lacking someone overhead to be attracted to, they’ll put someone they’re attracted to overhead.Also, anyone who uses the acronym “MILF” in a first-order context should be castrated.
I understand that Danny Funderburk was once found clinging to life in a hotel room while wearing two wetsuits with a rope around his neck and a dildo shoved up his ass.
And, people voted for this guy?
That says a lot about the people of South Carolina. Sick freaks!
Dear Hitchens detractors (I know you’re out there)…
Can you honestly think he’s missed the mark withthis one? Seriously… Kissenger? Has it really come to that?
[We now return you to your regularly scheduled program]
The biggest one-day point drop. Um, so what? What was the percentage drop? About 7%? Kinda pales next to that 1987 drop of over 22% in one day, don’t it?
It sure is easy to make a big deal out of something not so big.
I was wondering why my mom was asking me “just what is an Anti-Christ?” Yes, she did ask me that, and it’s easily one of the weirder moments of my life. I can’t wait to leave South Carolina behind.
I’m borrowing that picture, by the way.
That’s why those knuckle-dragging, collar-popping frat boys are getting so excited over Palin.
Cool! New nicknames. Laura Bush: li’l Barbara. Sarah Palin: bitty Barbara.
I always thought Gore vs. Bush sounded like a B-movie director’s decision matrix…
Hmm, so our choices were Bush, Gore, and Nadir… Ya know, If Earth1 had 80s Superman and Flash, and Earth2 had the thirties versions and Earth4 had super villians and a humanitarian Lex Luther and EarthB had talking animals, I think we just might actually be living in EarthQsubminor…
Kinda pales next to that 1987 drop of over 22% in one day, don’t it?
yes, but the surrounding events sure do seem familiar, don’t they?
Back in 1999, Harley Carnes, an in-house commentator on New York City’s all-news radio station, WINS (one of the most listened-to stations in the US), did a two minute commentary on something he’d received in an e-mail regarding personal wrongdoings of members of Congress. (The e-mail in question is reprinted here.) I wrote to him, pointing out that the e-mail was unsourced and was totally without merit.
His reply was almost exactly the same as Funderberk’s – “I thought it was interesting”.
I just dropped the following email for Danny:
Hi, Danny Mayor
it seems sending that dumb email to PZ wasn´t one of your best thoughts. PZ blogged about it and you may now receive a whole lot of replys. Don´t let the world think your town is led by a dumb fuckwit. Go over at “pharyngula” and make a stand. As you are a BA in Communication it shouldn´t be a big deal for you. Although your already stated excuse on the phone didn´t show you were very bright. Maybe you just wanted to tease him a wee bit?
Be a man. Do what has to be done, or things will come out worse.
That to be said from good old Germany.
Sincerly
(my real world name)
Yoeruek
Now let´s sit down and wait for Danny.I bet a fiver against him. Who takes the bet?
Yoeruek
That’s old! Everyone already knows that
David HasselhoffFearless Flightsuit is the Antichrist.Shit! Don’t follow my link! The domain is gone! It now hosts the blog of “the most popular Italian online casino”!
Clearly, this proves something about the Antichrist. <vehement nodding>
I remember seeing a picture (more of a flier, really) in a mechanics office during the ’88 election season depicting a cock running after a bush. That still makes me LOL…
@ David:
how about this one:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_9_27/ai_108881880
I blame the previous Pope’s demise on Ratzi.
you killed Wojtyla, you bastard!
to David Marjanović, OM
OT Hello David,
you have been out digging recently. Did you find something interesting?
Could you tell me some interesting Science blogs in german language? The ones I´ve been at were awfully boring. I even don´t remember their names. It must have been at scienceblog.de
From AP
Yes, of course. The Dow has only been falling on balance for the last 3 years. The Dows point loss was a record. The NASDAQ had its third largest percentage decline in history. The largest bank failure by a factor of 8 in the USA ever was friday. One large bank failed today in the USA, 4 were bailed out in Europe.
This picture of perfect economic health must mean McBush/Failin will be favored in the election. And that pile of ashes, melted scrap metal, and rubble where your house was is not evidence of a fire.
So much for intelligence being heritable.
And that pile of ashes, melted scrap metal, and rubble where your house was is not evidence of a fire.
meteor strike?
volcanic activity?
:P
So much for intelligence being heritable.
there were many times I jokingly asked him if I was adopted (I wasn’t).
seriously, though, my own father was one of the reasons, while I might often joke about creobots being stupid (and don’t get me wrong – many really are), that I really started to focus on psychology instead of intelligence to really explain creationism (and knee-jerk republicans, for that matter).
this paper represents a decent chunk of what is influencing my thinking about these kinds of things these days:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5827/996
The numbers speak for themselves.
With stats like these and an economic catastrophe, McBush should be polling around 30%. That he is closer to 42% indicates that something is very wrong with the collective American psyche.
Yes. They think. They think of the darndest things!
this paper represents a decent chunk of what is influencing my thinking about these kinds of things these days:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5827/996
Hmmm. Inner resting… So what about kids like me (er, like I was) who find things that defy common sense to be intrinsically fascinating and aesthetically irresistable?
Yes, PZ, we do think. (At least, some of us do.) I suppose I could scour the internet looking for equally vile actions or words from a Democrat, but I remember at least one that you had commented on last spring.
This election has certainly been far more emotional than any other since I have been aware of politics, even topping 2004. (My first Presidential election was 1992.) But for those who claim the high road on rationality, I see a great failure on your part and those who comment here to look at both sides with the same critical eye and skepticism.
The impression I get reading your posts on politics is that you prefer Democrats over Republicans for many reasons, and the religious right’s influence over the Republicans is only the bitter icing on the cake. The kind of posts that have been most common in regards to this election, such as this one, have done little to actually talk about those other reasons. Pointing to a few idiots on the other side and basically shouting, “Look at how stupid they are!” Is hardly rational political debate.
I’m hardly thrilled with Palin, and even some of McCain’s stands. But while you’ve focused here on ridiculing Palin’s religion and stands on issues affected by her religion, you’ve long ignored Obama’s religious views or the church he belonged to for many years. You’ve talked about how Republicans are lying, but haven’t been mentioning the dishonesty in attacks on McCain. (Check out factcheck.org sometime.)
This post and ones like it are sideshows in terms of how a rational person should approach this election. If a candidate’s religion colors their views on issues and that makes you not want to vote for them, that’s fine. It’s a perfectly valid criteria to use, and there are plenty of candidates that I haven’t voted for because for the same reason. But please stop painting all Republicans with the same stupid brush. It is neither rational nor true.
What exactly does the Anti-Christ do all day?
In other news,the Republicans see signs of the “Bolschewik Revolution” on the wall and dump the bailout “out of principle”.So hm,do they think at all? Im really not sure.
“Also, anyone who uses the acronym “MILF” in a first-order context should be castrated.”
Could you explain “first-order context” to me? Google wasn’t helpful.
Of course, I agree with the sentiment you expressed. The fact that the words “MILF”, “babydaddy”, and “First Dude” keep coming up with regards to this presidential election makes me think that whoever ends up winning, we’re fucked.
So that’s how religion spreads.
(My first Presidential election was 1992.)
that explains a lot.
Pointing to a few idiots on the other side and basically shouting, “Look at how stupid they are!” Is hardly rational political debate.
actually, it is when one starts considering the relative numbers involved.
hint: it’s not just “a few”.
So what about kids like me (er, like I was) who find things that defy common sense to be intrinsically fascinating and aesthetically irresistable?
outlier.
;)
JasonTD, #98:
Thank you for your concern.
JasonTD@#98 says: “I’m hardly thrilled with Palin, and even some of McCain’s stands. But while you’ve focused here on ridiculing Palin’s religion and stands on issues affected by her religion, you’ve long ignored Obama’s religious views or the church he belonged to for many years.”
PZ has posted about Obama’s religiosity. You seem to have missed those posts. I’ll let someone else link them. (Did you also miss the desecration of the Koran? If so, how accurate would my guess be that you’re not only Republican but also Catholic?)
JasonTD: “But please stop painting all Republicans with the same stupid brush.”
Understandable. There are intelligent Republicans out there. The old kind. The “I want a small government” kind. Not this modern kind which is only interested in feeding big corporations at everyone else’s expense through a facade of religious piety that fools the gullible masses. (Yes, my view of politics -is- rather negative, thank you for noticing!)
I doubt that PZ Myers is categorically dismissing Republicans as all being idiots. What he is doing — and legitimately, in my opinion — pointing out the widespread lunacy of the current Republican party. You cannot argue that it isn’t there. Just keep reading the blog.
You’ve said the Democrats are just as bad, and I’m afraid I don’t believe you. Care to make or find a list of Democrats doing things just as out of touch with reality, wrong, or otherwise something for them to be ashamed of? Really, I don’t have enough things to be cynical about. ;)
JasonTD@#98 says: “I’m hardly thrilled with Palin, and even some of McCain’s stands. But while you’ve focused here on ridiculing Palin’s religion and stands on issues affected by her religion, you’ve long ignored Obama’s religious views or the church he belonged to for many years.”
PZ has posted about Obama’s religiosity. You seem to have missed those posts. I’ll let someone else link them. (Did you also miss the desecration of the Koran? If so, how accurate would my guess be that you’re not only Republican but also Catholic?)
JasonTD: “But please stop painting all Republicans with the same stupid brush.”
Understandable. There are intelligent Republicans out there. The old kind. The “I want a small government” kind. Not this modern kind which is only interested in feeding big corporations at everyone else’s expense through a facade of religious piety that fools the gullible masses. (Yes, my view of politics -is- rather negative, thank you for noticing!)
I doubt that PZ Myers is categorically dismissing Republicans as all being idiots. What he is doing — and legitimately, in my opinion — is pointing out the widespread lunacy of the current Republican party. You cannot argue that it isn’t there. Just keep reading the blog.
You’ve said the Democrats are just as bad, and I’m afraid I don’t believe you. Care to make or find a list of Democrats doing things just as out of touch with reality, wrong, or otherwise something for them to be ashamed of? Really, I don’t have enough things to be cynical about. ;)
We have a link to Wasilla. Fort Mill is the home town of Morningstar Ministries. These people have sent their pastors to Palin’s old church…pastor Muthee types believing in Witchcraft, faith healing, and the end-times. Wasilla AOG can be linked to Joel’s Army, Morningstar, Third Wave and Latter Rain. Combine this with what McCain’s pastor Hagee says about bringing on the Apocalypse an we get a scary world view.
Well I’m not PZ but keep posting stock market and economic collapse statistics. We are in one of the great financial crisis of the last 100 years. It’s great theater and great tragedy in real life for many people and will cost McBush the election IMO.
In my view, the culture wars stuff is a sideshow. Bill Clinton: It’s the economy stupid!
But it is hard to separate the fundie morons from the latter day Theothuglicans. Magical thinking, stupidity, and bigotry effect all their thoughts and actions. Including economic policy.
Even the old style GOPers are sick of the fundies, a poll I posted today on pharyngula says it is 50% of the GOP. They also were most of the votes against the bailout. I can agree with a lot of the old style GOP/patriot/libertarian ideas about fiscal conservatism. That isn’t what we just went through for 8 years. It was deficit this, spend that, a trillion here, a trillion there.
Jason @ 98 :
//This post and ones like it are sideshows in terms of how a rational person should approach this election. If a candidate’s religion colors their views on issues and that makes you not want to vote for them, that’s fine//
A rational person? Define rational in this context please.
The Repubs have just voted down the bailout out of some presumed nebulous “principle”,they would rather see the world economy go up in flames than err from their trusted “principles”.There is no rationality to be had there…..
//I’m hardly thrilled with Palin, and even some of McCain’s stands. But while you’ve focused here on ridiculing Palin’s religion and stands on issues affected by her religion, you’ve long ignored Obama’s religious views or the church he belonged to for many years//
Obama’s religious views,whatever they exactly are,and AFAIK we dont know for sure,are at least not affecting his ability to think rationally,or to make policy decisions.He is not looking forward to the rapture killing 6 billion people,and he doesnt think that life starts at conception,neither does he believe your raped daughter should have to keep her baby.
So although there is obviously a great deal made of Palin’s religious nuttery,it is only relevant because it directly affects her actions and political agenda.
I’m so sorry!!! My SO and I live in Fort Mill and we actually elected this guy because his predecessor was a religious whack job. I’m so embarrassed!
If you’d like to see more about our little burg, it’s website is http://www.fortmillsc.org/ We’ve even got Dominionists living just down the road from us. They’ve got the 10 commandments on their front fence with a little light for night time viewing, a box with pamphlets about going to hell on the fence for your reading pleasure… it’s just so exciting to feel like we’re the only breath of sanity in the entire state.
and great tragedy in real life for many people
*kicks dirt with shoe for umpteenth time today.*
Palin is relevant for many reasons.
1. She shows McBushes judgement and where part of his power base is, ignorant, dumb, religious kooks.
2. She also is one sick old man away from the potential presidency. The chances of a killer for jesus pushing McBush down a flight a stairs or him keeling over from stress are quite high.
3. Palin is uneducated, not very bright, and a seriously looney religous extremist. Believes in witches, demons, witchcraft, spiritual warfare and the Big One, the Apocalypse, the happy day when god destroys the earth and kills all 6.7 billion people. According to her this is supposed to happen within her lifetime. Who would trust such an unstable weird personality with half the worlds nuclear weapons? The chances that Mrs. crazy mom president would decide to “help” god out and launch a nuclear exchange are unknowable but could be higher than most think. I’m not taking that chance.
So do I. The only difference is I’m not terribly surprised.
@Ichthyic
The Spice-Picker.
Aww, poor Ichthyic.
I send you a bosomy cyber hug.
If that doesn’t make it better, I can make you up a sugar tit. :o)
“Do Republicans think at all?” Ugh. Let me clarify that I am neither religious nor a republican, but what the hell? How is generalizing one piece of information like this to all Republicans better than any Republican labeling all Democrats liberal hippies? There are many shades of gray in between, and to label a Republican as an idiot for his political perspectives is just as ignorant and blatantly stupid as a Republican labeling a Democrat for the exact same reasons. What this country needs right now is unity, not dichotomists incapable of anything more than binary thoughts. Does anyone else feel this way? I feel like I’m going crazy, surrounded by extremists… on both sides of the party lines.
Funderburk is really Dunderfuck, isn’t it?
Not a proper anagram, but near enough??
(dunder means ‘loud rumbling’ or ‘thunder’ in Scandinavian languages).
“You’ve said the Democrats are just as bad, and I’m afraid I don’t believe you. Care to make or find a list of Democrats doing things just as out of touch with reality, wrong, or otherwise something for them to be ashamed of? Really, I don’t have enough things to be cynical about. ;)””
Ummm, after watching Pelosi and co. the last few days, how can anyone come away with a good feeling for Democrats?
Glad to see a few Democrats stand up with fortitude and tell Paulson and his friends to go eat a lot of cash the hard way.
The reason government should be small and not the end all and be all is because those who go to govern are not smart enough to do so. Voting for a bailout designed by the guy who screwed it up, won’t admit to fault and won’t even acknowledge the fundamental problems with how the federal reserve was instrumental in creating this mess is like giving your heroin addict little brother the keys to the family safety deposit box because there’s an aspirin in there that might help.
Never mind those who warned congress of the pending calamity, listen to the clowns who swore it was all rock solid just a few weeks ago.
Call your house reps who gave a nay vote and thank them. Call your reps who voted yay for government boo for the value of the dollar and tell them they just lost your vote.
If you lost money in the stock market today, what the hell was wrong with you? The train has been tooting its horn as it came down the track. Nobody should have been caught unawares.
Re:#102
Icthyic, is it my age or who you presume I voted for what is supposed to explain a lot? I don’t see what my age (36) would have to do with anything, and if you assume I voted for Bush Sr., you’d be wrong. I didn’t vote for either Bush.
Kamikaze189 @105,
I did a quick search for ‘Obama’ and ‘religion’. I found just a handful of titles, but this one was interesting, as was this other one. You’d be quite inaccurate to guess that I am catholic. ;) Far from being catholic, I have never been to a church service (not counting a few weddings and funerals), nor do I have any desire to. I wouldn’t call myself atheist, though. The best I can do is say that I am ‘nonreligious’. I basically just don’t think it is worth my brain power to try and figure out what I believe in more detail than that.
As for the type of Republican I am, I guess I am a ‘small government’ type, although I am pragmatic enough that I accept that government regulation is necessary at times. (I also consider myself an environmentalist, for instance.) While Republicans can be beholden to ‘big corporations’, Democrats can be beholden to ‘big labor’ in ways that aren’t in the country’s best interest either, particularly when it comes to free trade. So, there’s plenty of special interest blame to go around.
There’s plenty of lunacy in the Republican Party, I’ll agree there. The religious right is the biggest annoyance for me when it comes to politics. But there are also things that make it hard for me to support Democratic candidates also. My point in posting was to comment that there isn’t much of that sort of debate going from PZ here. Most of the comment threads I’ve read that get into detail seem to devolve into back-and-forth rants with a couple libertarian posters, unfortunately.
That’s how I feel when I see libertarians post. Impossible to have a conversation about society with those who want it gone, it’s like talking to a pro-life activist abuot the ethics of abortion.
Icthyic, is it my age
yes, it clearly implies you missed several important and very emotional elections, and instead seem to think the latest is the greatest.
not so, sez many of us who remember Nixon.
and if you assume I voted for Bush Sr., you’d be wrong. I didn’t vote for either Bush.
way to go out on a limb, junior. I neither said nor implied anything of the sort.
The religious right is the biggest annoyance for me when it comes to politics.
How would you suggest getting that message across to the GoP?
John McCain tried it in 2000. Look where it got him then.
Now look at what he learned from that “lesson”.
If you want the GoP to abandon the RR as a political base, you have ONE choice:
don’t vote for GoP candidates who utilize them as a support base.
unfortunately for you, that means you should be voting against McCain, or else not voting at all, if you want to see real change in the GoP.
I agree, Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk with his accusation calling it a curious poke sort of speak, has a faulty in his belief about the anti-christ described in the Bible. He should know better. And he should conduct himself in a more professional manner whether he agrees with someone running for President or not, especially being an official in public office.
Is that a picture of Glenn Beck? ; )
But please stop painting all Republicans with the same stupid brush.
Oh I agree. Not all Republicans are stupid; some of them are clever – and evil.
But please stop painting all Republicans with the same stupid brush.
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.”
-John Stuart Mill
Hmm… it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that hizzoner the mayor has invested the city of Fort Mill’s funds with a Nigerian banker’s widow. I hear you can get excellent rates.
Funderburk is really Dunderfuck, isn’t it?
Not a proper anagram, but near enough??
(dunder means ‘loud rumbling’ or ‘thunder’ in Scandinavian languages).
Shit, I hate having hick-ups!
Only slightly OT :
Just watched Ben Stein on Larry King about the failed bailout,and the guy actually said something useful.
He said,roughly,screw the jewish holiday,we cant afford 2 more days of letting the markets slide.
Im shocked,utterly shocked !!! If BS can figure that out……
The mayor of Fort Mill, South Carolina forwarded one of those stupid chain emails that throws around absurd accusations in this case, the Bible predicted that the anti-christ would be a Muslim in his 40s, and that Barack Obama was therefore the anti-christ. There is so much wrong there; Obama is not a Muslim, the Bible doesn t say such a thing (especially since it was written before Islam), and you would expect such a devout Christian to know this. But he sent it on anyway.
Now if he were somebody of normal intelligence, at this point he d be saying, oops, hit the wrong button, I meant to hit delete . But no. He s making excuses.
So, now Obama is the antichrist?
Last Thanksgiving, my wife’s family had a serious discussion about Hillary Clinton being the antichrist. They weren’t joking, it wasn’t tongue-in-cheek, it was a serious discussion.
The Christmas before that, they discussed the “historical fact” of the resurrection.
I’m usually at the ready to debate religion and politics, but sometimes you just have to realize when some folks are just too far gone to bother.
FYI, since the artist of that picture is an (online) friend of mine, most of the ergulars here will appreciate his artwork:
http://www.plognark.com/
Cheers
That would be one situation where I would just lose my patience and go off, big time.
It would piss them all off and I wouldn’t care. That is insane crap. And people need to be called on it. No matter who they are.
It isn’t so much the lack of thinking that gets me about these people as the lack of owning up — the lack of “yes, I did that,” the lack of “I personally accept full responsibility for what I did,” the lack of “I’m sorry — I made a mistake.”
Yeah, the speed with which the democrats caved for a crappy bill is amazing.
Fivethirtyeight had a post that said
I can’t say I agree with the perspective – those that are retiring are probably also those with the most tied up in the stock market.
I really like Daily Kos’s post on the bailout today, especially how they describe what democrats should be doing:
Don’t forget the 95 Democrats who voted against the bill. That doesn’t excuse the party leaders (on both sides, mind you), but it bears remembering.
As far as I know, American English doesn’t use many words based in rhyming slang, with the prominent exception of “raspberry”. Though maybe they exist and I’m just not aware of their origins.
Recently mrs. noncarb and I were discussing epithets and one thing that came up was the apparent willingness in British (and other non-U.S.?) English to apply names for the female genitalia to male targets. That doesn’t tend to occur here, at least not that we’ve noticed.
True.
That’s ’cause you’re a pussy.
(I’m kidding. I was going for the obvious joke.)
So, now Obama is the antichrist?
Last Thanksgiving, my wife’s family had a serious discussion about Hillary Clinton being the antichrist. They weren’t joking, it wasn’t tongue-in-cheek, it was a serious discussion.
as I keep telling ya all, the previous Pope said W is the antichrist:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MKY/is_9_27/ai_108881880
500 Internal Server Error. Sounds good, though.
Yet another Mastodonsaurus… :-) Very nice skull, but even those are common there.
I don’t know any outside of scienceblogs.de. I’ve never looked for any, though.
500 Internal Server Error.
strange.
been using that link for a long time now.
did you try copying it into a new window?
try this:
FindArticles – Pope fears Bush is antichrist, journalist contends
if that still doesn’t work, it’s not that long, I’ll just post it.
Now the link works.
just what we need, more religious stupidity.
THANK YOU! I received this myself and it made my blood boil. Time for a reply…
I believe that it was Philip Jose Farmer wh said something like ‘Intelligence and religin have nothing to do with each other.’
As a current student at the renowned Fort Mill High School and resident of the area, I must say I’m not surprised.