Shorter Peter LeBarbera April 8, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in constiutional issues, News and politics, wingnuts.3 comments
“Gay sex is icky, so fight back by making sure your kids grow up immersed in lies.”
Easter poetry, part II: James Wright, “Saint Judas” April 7, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, Poetry, Religion.5 comments
James Wright
“Saint Judas”
When I went out to kill myself, I caught
A pack of hoodlums beating up a man.
Running to spare his suffering, I forgot
My name, my number, how my day began,
How soldiers milled around the garden stone
And sang amusing songs; how all that day
Their javelins measured crowds; how I alone
Bargained the proper coins, and slipped away.
Banished from heaven, I found this victim beaten,
Stripped, kneed, and left to cry. Dropping my rope
Aside, I ran, ignored the uniforms:
Then I remembered bread my flesh had eaten,
The kiss that ate my flesh. Flayed without hope,
I held the man for nothing in my arms.
Repost: Easter poetry, James Tate’s “Goodtime Jesus” April 7, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, Poetry, Religion.add a comment
With thanks to the Lizard Queen for the reminder. Too good not to repost.
James Tate
“Goodtime Jesus”
Jesus got up one day a little later than usual. He had been dreaming so deep there was nothing left in his head. What was it? A nightmare, dead bodies walking all around him, eyes rolled back, skin falling off. But he wasn’t afraid of that. It was a beautiful day. How ’bout some coffee? Don’t mind if I do. Take a little ride on my donkey, I love that donkey. Hell, I love everybody.
Ann Coulter: why isn’t genocide, you know, faster? April 6, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Morality, News and politics, wingnuts.2 comments
Just when you think Coulter can’t be any more abhorrent, she goes and proves you wrong.
These people can’t even wrap up genocide. We’ve been hearing about this slaughter in Darfur forever – and they still haven’t finished. The aggressors are moving like termites across that country. It’s like genocide by committee. Who’s running this holocaust in Darfur, FEMA?
When you have prominent conservative pundits saying shit like this, I wonder how Colbert can even find a way to parody them. There’s simply no depth to the depravity of some of these scumbags.
She’s like Darth Vader, only much, much worse:
”I hope so, Commander, for your sake. Dick Cheney is not as forgiving as I am.”
Ravi Zacharias’ credibility takes another hit April 6, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Morality, News and politics, Religion, wingnuts.add a comment
Ravi Zacharias, Christian theologian, would once have rated among my most respected Christian scholars. I’d found him to be thoughtful and even though I disagreed with many of his positions. At least, I thought, he was trying. Also, he seemed to have a sense of social conscience, which makes him a rarity among prominent Christians.
But that took a hit when he threw his name in with that sack of lies, misrepresentation and ignorance that is America: Return to God.
And it’s only gone downhill since then. Ed Brayton points out a painfully obvious, why would you even say it it’s so easily disproved lie. In fact, there’s only one reason for such an obvious lie: to play on the ignorance of your audience and count on them not noticing they’re being systematically mislead.
I wonder, Mr. Zacharias, if you honestly believe Jesus would have approved of such tactics.
Poetry: e e cummngs, [i sing of Olaf glad and big] April 6, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, Poetry.add a comment
i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or
his wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but–though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments–
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed
“I will not kiss your fucking flag”
straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)
but–though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat–
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
“there is some shit I will not eat”
our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died
Christ(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too
preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.
Blog Against Theocracy: why religious people should resist theocracy April 6, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, constiutional issues, News and politics, wingnuts.7 comments
There are many reasons to Blog Against Theocracy, and this weekend, where we’ll hear theocrats loudly proclaiming the evil of “secular society,” is a great time to discuss exactly why. You can check out what other bloggers had to say here.
Since so many others are on board, I’m going to focus on one particular reason to blog against theocracy: if you’re a religious person, theocracy is your worst enemy. I’ll illustrate why below the fold.
Poetry: “Sparrows” by Robert Cording April 6, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, Poetry.1 comment so far
Sparrows
A certain traveler who knew many continents
was asked what he found most remarkable
of all. He replied: the ubiquity of sparrows.
—ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI, Another Beauty
Sparrow: our generic for any of the small brown birds
We find everywhere. A farm field in early April,
Nothing yet green. Or a sidewalk downtown
Edged with February’s dirty snow, a scrap
Of paper with someone’s name on it
Skittering in a gust of building-tunneled wind.
Sparrows: fussing about in the dirt, washing
Themselves in a gutter’s runoff, hanging on
The dry seed head of a winter weed.
Barn, strip mall, field, swamp, college ivy,
Wal-Mart sign: all places to prove their gift for
Survival. Like the poor, they are their own keepers.
Once in Palestine there were so many, two
Could be had for the price of one farthing,
But Jesus said his father knew each one of them,
Just as the hairs on our head were numbered.
Those must have been house sparrows; they were
Fruitful and multiplied because they fed on
The droppings of horses and cattle. Sparrows.
I never learned them well enough. They slipped
In and out of my focus, the color of dust
And dirt, common featured. Field sparrow,
Fox sparrow, song sparrow, swamp sparrow.
It took so much attention to give a name
To them, the way, too often, I see the poor
Only as that, their faces hidden as they lie
Like sacks on grates of vented heat. Ubiquitous.
Common featured. How can they be seen
When they are always in sight? When Jesus
Laid his hands on the faces of the poor,
I’d like to believe he saw them as they wanted
To be seen: each a child who belonged
To somebody, who once had a given name.
Poetry: “The Progress of Night,” by Amy Fleury April 5, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in Blogging, Poetry.2 comments
The Lizard Queen is really showing me up on National Poetry Month, but I do have a poem or two to contribute.
The poem is below the fold. And for those that have asked: recent events in my professional life have demoralized me, but have not shut off my love for poetry. I’ll keep at it. Thanks for your support; it means more than I can say.
How you know a pundit doesn’t have a response, Creationist edition April 5, 2007
Posted by Evil Bender in constiutional issues, News and politics, Origins, Science, wingnuts.3 comments
PZ goes into the Anderson Cooper coverage of the Ken Ham “T-Rex was a vegetarian” Creationist museum. Naturally, the show seems to have given religious pseudoscience a nearly complete free pass. But since PZ deals with it so well, I’d like to focus on just one segment:
ROBERT BOSTON: And one of the important things we need to remember, too, is that some of the ideas that groups would like to bring into our schools have been completely discredited, for example, the idea that the Earth is 10,000 years old and that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time. Scientifically, that’s untenable.
Yet, that is what the creationists believe. And that is what, ultimately, I think they would like to bring into our classrooms.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Charmaine, I mean, do you — do you believe that dinosaurs walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? And, if so, is that the — the basis of your argument?
CHARMAINE YOEST: What we are looking at here is saying, there are legitimate scientific questions on the table. And it is not true that — that there is a complete cohesiveness among scientists.
Notice the charming obfuscation here. Yoest does not want to be forced to admit what he really thinks, because he knows that it would sacrifice any hint of credibility on the issue. So, rather than admit to what he really wants–Creationism taught in Public Schools–he shifts the ground, claiming there is a scientific debate over the very question he refuses to answer.
If there is legitimate debate on the topic, then why are people like Yoest and the DI trying so hard to avoid admitting they are Young Earth Creationists? No doubt it is for the same reason they would rather “debate” evolution in ninth-grade classrooms than in the scientific literature.
