Rick Santorum has some very dangerous ideas, but I’m not at all concerned about his strong showing in Iowa. The Republicans have been cycling through all of the non-Romneys. The white Christian Iowa Republicans are so horrified that a Mormon could get their party’s nomination that they’ve been frantically searching for anyone else to vote for. Just about all of the other candidates have each spent a couple of weeks as the front runner, only to be doomed by the fact that the Iowans eventually realize that these other candidates are even more reprehensible than a Mormon!

Maybe it’s time for the Republicans to actually read the Constitution, specifically Article VI, paragraph 3, which states, in part:

…no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Santorum can attribute his strong showing in Iowa solely to the luck of the calendar. He just happens to be the non-Romney du jour. This near-win will give him a boost that will carry him a few days longer as non-Romney than he would have reached otherwise, but his record, statements, and platform will doom him to the same fate as all the others.

The Republicans—even the batshit insane fundie Republicans—will soon come to their senses and nominate Mitt Romney. Romney is the only Republican candidate who could beat Obama, and it would be a cakewalk. Obama’s record on issues that matter to liberals is so dismal that he will receive few votes from that side. Moderates, of course, will realize that they’re no better off now than four years ago, so those votes are gone. Conservatives will decide that Mormon is better than Muslim. Romney could sleepwalk through the campaign and still pull off a victory.

All of the other Republican candidates are so extreme that if one were nominated, it would force moderates over to Obama, and it will be Obama who cakewalks to victory. Enough Republicans know this that Romney’s nomination is almost assured.

Almost. What a funny word. So fluid and undefined. You can actually sail a supertanker through an “almost”. You could probably squeeze a planet through an “almost”. You see, all Romney has to do to get the nomination is to not do or say anything extremely stupid! The funny thing about American politics, though, is that these self-destructive meltdowns happen with surprising frequency.

So now we sit back and watch for a meltdown. There’s so much carbon in the air these days, we just might see one.

Since I have a second oddly-suggestive photograph of Kim Jong-Il, I need to write a second article. Here are some comments I found on a fundie “news” site about the Christmas trees that the South Korean fundies are putting on the border to piss off the North Koreans.

A Christian calling himself A_Proud_Infidel says:

Overseas, the Commies persecute Christianity worse than their ACLU brethren in the USA!

I don’t think the exclamation point means he’s shouting the entire comment. I suspect that’s how he always writes USA.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Along those same lines, raffaro writes:

SHIT aren’t atheists pigs trying that here in America.Looks like they have alot in common with those Staliist pigs after all !!!!!!!

Camarottajr says:

I guess we have to wait for the “JackAss In Chief,” barack hussein obama to weigh in on this after he finishes his meeting with the mu slimes about tolorance…! My bet is JackAss In Chief barack hussein obama won’t say a word, what say you?

I say he needs to meet with the Christians about tolerance.

Orent asks why we allow North Korea to continue to exist, to which Lilly Maus replies:

“Allowed to continue?”…Did you know they have the bomb??? did you know they don’t have morals ???…Now add bomb + no morals = KABOOM…

I’m not sure what evidence the “no morals” claim is based on. I’m guessing it’s because communists are atheists, so of course they have no morals!

glenp827 writes:

CHRISTMAS TREE is a pagan symbol coopted for the holiday

to which Violet asks:

Is that why makes atheists so angry? We stole their Yule Logs and conifer trees.

Yes. That’s exactly why. It has nothing to do with fundies trying to turn the United States into their own version of North Korea.

Elsewhere on that page, Violet also says:

Guess South Korea is getting a taste of what it is to be an American Christian. We deal with this all the time. Somebody is always yapping about how Christians offend them.

Actually, Christians don’t offend me, and I don’t know very many non-Christians who are offended by them. We’re just offended by their actions.

Somebody named jong (really?) writes:

God bless those that put up the Trees. Throw a bag of rice at North Korea that will shut them up. Or even better put a nativity on the US Consulate and make sure it is well lite(I am sorry I forgot we have a muslim homosexual as President and Sec. of State is also a Marxist little chance of that happening)

Not to mention the fact that we don’t have a US consulate in North Korea.

Doug has a treasure trove of gems for us:

The ungodly will go at any length to stop Christianity at all costs. They’ll even risk a war, if need be. This incident is an example of their insane quest to shut down God in our lives. Outside our borders lays a vast world of hate for Christians. If you are a Jew or Christian, they want to kill you. Bottom-line: The world hates Christians and Jews………

And inside our country, these ungodly’s, have crept in like cockroaches bringing mayhem into our streets. We were once a peaceful nation, and now we’ve become a nation in terror. They want to take God out of the equation. And let political correctness rule the day. You want troubles in this life, leave Christ out of your life, because you will get no blessings from God.

And we’ve become a nation under siege by these ungodly nations. Watch how this Christmas tree issue unfolds in N. Korea, and watch how the media will fold into “political correctness”!

A fundie group in South Korea is going to put up three giant Christmas trees on the border with North Korea. This is part of the stupid back-and-forth provoking that these two immature siblings have been doing since the cease fire 58 years ago. They’re like little kids in the back seat on a long car trip. “Mommy! Kim is on my side!” “No I’m not. You’re poking me!”

Little kids with nukes, that is.

Maybe a better analogy is the crazy old man on the outskirts of town who has a vicious dog in his backyard. The neighbor boy thinks it’s great fun to shove a stick through the chain-link fence and repeatedly poke the dog. Not only is that a bad idea, but an even worse idea would be for someone else to go up to the kid and encourage him to keep at it. Jab that dog even more!

Well, an American fundie group thinks poking mad dogs is a splendid idea! Liberty Counsel tells us:

North Korea has claimed that South Korea’s plan to place three Christmas light displays in the shape of large trees is “a mean attempt for psychological warfare.” Their official site states, “The enemy warmongers… should be aware that they should be held responsible entirely for any unexpected consequences that may be caused by their scheme,” according to the Associated French Press.

Mad dogs are more fun to poke when they’re really mad!

This highlights the extreme hostility towards Christianity and Christmas that is still a daily part of the lives of those living in North Korea. Their government is not just content to ban the celebration of Christmas inside their nation, but is willing to declare Christmas lights seen from their borders to be similar to an act of war.

Wow. A literal War on Christmas™! It’s almost like Liberty Counsel is getting ready to make some sort of unsupportable logical jump.

Here in America, a Texas school banned Santa; a California school went another step and also banned poinsettias and Christmas trees, alleging that each was too religious. In addition, Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island renamed a Christmas tree a holiday tree against the wishes of the tree’s donor and the outcry across his state. It appears Gov. Chafee is well-suited for survival at the North Korea border. His policies are better for kow-towing to the Commies than celebrating Christmas.

And another Gold Medal in the Long Jump for Liberty Counsel!

They actually open their article with this “quiz”:

You might be a communist if…

• You ban poinsettias from a government school;
• You rename a Christmas tree a “holiday” tree in a state building…or
• You threaten your neighbors with unexpected consequences if they want to put up Christmas lights.

They found a couple of instances of people being overly-cautious about merging church and state, and they think we’re on the path to living in North Korea.

Here’s a quiz for you, Liberty Counsel:

You might be a fundie if you equate the defense of the First Amendment with communism.

Instead, I’ll leave you with this reminder of why we fight the terrorists. Shockingly, these terrorists actively—and legally!—operate within the borders of the United States and plot the overthrow of the Constitution. Here is a YouTube video of two of them, recorded just days after the horrific events of 9/11/2001.

Here again, I present my semi-annual feature, “Comment of the Day”. Today’s comment comes from Sue Blue, who gives us a capsule summary of Rick Perry:

Perry is a twat who makes even Bush look reasonable and middle-of-the-road. This is the guy who supported Texan secession and who thinks holding huge public prayer rallies at taxpayer expense is the way to fix Texan weather and economic woes. The irony of this guy running for president just fucking blows the top right off my irony meter. Here’s someone who claims to hate “big government” so much that he wants his state to secede… yet he wants to be POTUS? Who in their right mind—even a Republican—would want this guy running the country? Then there’s the do-nothing-but-pray-loudly approach to natural and man-made disaster. He’s as dumb and crazy as Bachmann when it comes to his statements about evolution and science. He’s only slightly more articulate than that other Texan village idiot.

I was down in Texas visiting unfortunate relatives when this moron held his prayer-fest, held in a huge, air-conditioned stadium while thousands of Texans sweltered in 110-degree heat with their power turned off because the emergency funds collected by the utility to help the poor were being held in a special account used to make the state budget look good and keep the Repub promise not to raise taxes. These guys would rape their own Grandmas if there was a buck in it for them.

That’s easy! It’s Anti-Science!

We’re surrounded by it. It’s everywhere! Just look. Here’s a bunch right here!

It obviously makes up the majority of the matter in the United States alone; therefore (and I’m extrapolating here), it must make up the majority of the matter in the rest of the universe.

Mystery solved.

For my next miracle, I will explain why so many women and minorities vote Republican.

OK, on second thought, maybe I can’t explain that one.

On the anti-science front, there was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday about the quandary the Republican presidential hopefuls are in when they come out here to Silicon Valley:

But the Republican candidates’ views on climate change are being met with the most raised eyebrows in Silicon Valley, the mecca of political fundraising, tech innovation and venture capital dollars.
…
“In a valley of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, the science behind climate change is overwhelmingly accepted,” said Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents more than 325 of the region’s top companies.

That will hurt them a bit financially, but I suspect there is more than enough stupid money in the rest of the country to make up for it.

Fortunately, their irrational beliefs will also make it harder for almost any of these Republican to carry the state in 2012.

There is little doubt about climate change among likely California voters, 61 percent of whom believe that the effects of global warming have already begun, according to a July survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

It also might work against them, to some extent, in the rest of the country.

Nationally, 55 percent of Americans believe that global warming is a “serious personal threat,” according to a Gallup survey in August.

Here’s where it gets good:

The bad news for Republican presidential candidates: The Public Policy Institute survey found that 62 percent of independent voters, who are the swing voters in the state, believe that, too.

Of course, they always have the idiot core:

Thirty-two percent of California Republicans believe that the effects of global warming “will never happen,” the poll also found.

That’s just not enough to carry the state. If things were settled purely rationally (the way they ought to be!), the election would already be over in California. Just hand over those 55 electoral votes to Barack Obama!

In reality, since Obama is a thoroughly incompetent president, he’ll probably manage to hand over those 55 electoral votes to the Republicans.

An example of this is best illustrated by this tweet from God regarding the recent earthquake on the East Coast:

There was just a 5.8 earthquake in Washington. Obama wanted it to be 3.4, but the Republicans wanted 5.8, so he compromised.

But let’s get back to the Chronicle article:

Only one major Republican candidate has dared to challenge his party on these views. Last month, Jon Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China and Utah governor, tweeted: “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

He is crazy. By Republican standards.

He has other problems, so I could never support Huntsman, but I still wish he’d be the Republican’s pick. Actually, I really wish they’d pick Michelle Bachmann. She’s so crazy that she probably couldn’t win the general election.

Since the Republicans will probably nominate someone else, My hope is for Huntsman. If they pick a “moderate” (by Republican standards), whoever that is will probably win. I’d rather we have a pro-science Republican in the White House than an anti-science Republican. All of the other GOP candidates are anti-science.

In addition to climate-change denial, all of the other candidates also deny evolution. The Chronicle article briefly touches on those views too.

Rick Perry has described himself as “a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect…”

OK, I can understand it being a matter of faith. But intellect?

…and has called evolution “a theory” with “some gaps in it.”

I think it’s his brain that has some gaps in it.

Mitt Romney appears to be taking a nuanced position. “I believe God is intelligent, and I believe he designed the creation,” he said.

He’s not taking a nuanced approach. That’s exactly what the Intelligent Design creationists are saying.

“And I believe he used the process of evolution to create the human body.”

This actually shows that not only does Romney not understand evolution, he doesn’t understand Intelligent Design creationism! According to Michael Behe and the other pushers of this drug, evolution alone isn’t capable of creating us. God had to step in at critical points during our evolution and poof us to the next stage.

Michele Bachmann…

Who let the crazy woman in here? How did she get out of bed this morning? Didn’t anybody check her straps?

…has claimed that “hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes,” believe in intelligent design, as she does.

If by “hundreds and hundreds” she means “one or two” and by “many of them holding Nobel Prizes” she means “none of them”, then she’s absolutely correct!

But she said government shouldn’t take sides in scientific debates “when there is reasonable doubt on both sides.”

She’s right. Some scientists look at her brain scans and claim to see activity. Other scientists only see a wet gray sponge. The government shouldn’t take sides in that debate until we can cut her open and check. Evidence! We need more evidence, people!

Ron Paul said he does not accept the theory of evolution. “The creator that I know created us, each and every one of us, and created the universe, and the precise time and manner,” Paul has said, although he has also said there is no “absolute proof on either side.”

Science doesn’t work on absolute proof. It works on data. In the case of evolution, “absolute” refers to the absolute mountain of data we have supporting it. Where is any data supporting his claim?

Newt Gingrich…

Newt Gingrich!? Is that guy still around?

…has said, “I believe that creation as an act of faith is true, and I believe that science as a mechanical process is true.… Both can be true.”

What does that even mean? The universe had two origins? A created origin and a mechanical origin? When we finally look, the act of observing will make the entire universe collapse!

He says both should be taught in schools, evolution as a science and intelligent design “as a philosophy.”

ID creationism isn’t philosophy. It isn’t the intellectual equivalent of Plato or Kant. Just try to justify teaching creationism in the schools, Newt! You’ll discover you Kant.

Jon Huntsman is the only candidate in the GOP ranks who has taken a strong position in support of evolution, recently tweeting, “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

Rick Santorum, who calls himself a fierce believer in creationism, jabbed back at Huntsman, saying, “I believe in Genesis 1:1 – God created the heavens and the earth. I don’t know exactly how God did it or exactly how long it took him, but I do know that he did it.”

And I do know that the Republicans are hell-bent on destroying science and science education. Lose your house in the Republican-caused Great Recession? Don’t worry! Just vote Republican a few more times, and we’ll all be living in nice warm caves again! Then we’ll be arguing over “teaching the controversy” and the “strengths and weaknesses” of the theory of fire.

This is an extremely occasional feature that I only run when I remember I have it, and when somebody posts an exceptionally insightful comment. I like to elevate that comment to the top, so everyone can see it.

Today I’m bringing two comments to your attention. Both are by anti_supernaturalist.

His first comment was in response to “Obama Aborts Osama”:

• Pro-birth ideology poses an international public health threat

Religious anti-abortion ranters are not pro-life. They are pro-birth. There’s a big difference.

By dismissing women’s rights over their own bodies, fundies expect to regain control over reproduction and birth in accord with pro-natalist dictates. Pro-natalism, a term from the 19th century, sells a poisonous nostrum of sexual customs which do not belong in a contemporary planet-wide ethos which must treat women equally.

Fundie pretensions to secular power over abortion are not pro-life. They demand enforcement of ancient (and modern) near-eastern cult practices which amount to total reproductive repression: that no impediment whatsoever on births be permitted by law.

No sexual practices which preclude conception, homosexuality foremost. No chemical contraception. No physical barriers to conception. No abortions, not even in cases of rape, incest.

What happens to mother and child after birth is irrelevant to the men who run right-wing political and religious institutions.

Pro-natalism is the sexual theory of “tea party” ignorati, myriad fundie sects, mormons, and the rc-church.

Pro-birth, a public health disaster, is pro-mass-death. It creates disease, poverty, and ignorance worldwide by fostering overpopulation, damning safe (and joyous) non-reproductive sex, forbidding responsible sex education, and blocking medical research.

His second comment was in response to “Planned Abortionhood”:

• The real issue — social control

Fundie xian males, like their fundie muslim and jewish brothers, shudder at a technological world in which mental agility has replaced physical strength as the core measure of economic utility.

This reordering of values strips away a ancient core faith-based lie: god-ordained male supremacy.

Unresolved to this day is a decades long struggle over gender equality — equal productive and reproductive rights.

Whom does The House and Senate back? The relevant group, women themselves, tens of millions of them?

Or white male second-hand-god salesmen? Spewing pro-birth at any price. One hundred year old social darwinism tarted up as “family values”.

Fundies are obvious offenders, but RCs run a close second.

Women’s aspirations, self realization, reproductive self-determination must be crushed by direct force.

Xian domestic terrorism, like muslim domestic terrorism, humiliates, intimidates, and batters women back to submission.

Protected by complicit federal and state officials, cells of xian thugs have been targeting women and their humane values for decades.

Fundie irrationality drives scientific knowledge about sex from America’s schools just as it drives medical research abroad.

Xian political ideologues must eventually embrace state totalitarianism. Their “truths” can never win popular support. An open society will repudiate their nihilism composed of literalist lies, morally repugnant beliefs, and puritanical rules.

The president the fundies hate so much has done what they’ve wanted for the last ten years: Kill Osama bin Laden.

So how is a proper fundie supposed to react?

That’s right, by blaming Obama for “murdering babies”!

One of the most extreme fundies I’ve encountered in five years of doing this blog is disbarred-Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt. I discovered him only two months ago, when I came across his get-rich-quick scheme.

I subscribed to his emails, and they’ve been doozies. Every other fundie talks about how bad this or that thing is and, by the way, could you throw a couple of dollars my way. Klingenschmitt talks about whatever he’s offended by, then requests that you pay him gobs of money to fax Congress. He makes sure you understand just how important it is that you (pay him lots of money to) fax Congress right now, if you want your voice to be heard! Emails and letters and phone calls aren’t nearly as effective as (paying him tons of money to) fax Congress right now!

This morning I received a typical email from Chaplain Money Grubber. I couldn’t find a copy on his website, so it looks like you won’t be able to follow along at home. I’m sure if you paid him, he’d be happy to fax you a copy right now!

He writes:

Obama kills Osama, but will he stop killing unborn American children?

We all grieved when 2,966 innocent civilians were killed on 9/11/2001.  But who grieved yesterday when 3,821 innocent unborn Americans were killed in abortion clinics across America?  Or the day before that?  Since 1973, more children are killed every day by abortion than were killed on 9/11, now totaling 53,000,000 deaths over 38 years.
…
I am proud of our military today.

But I am not proud of our President.  Mr. Obama claims credit for “justice” provided by the sacrifice of our military heroes, who killed the murderer Osama Bin Ladin.  But when will Obama provide equal “justice” for the 3,821 children murdered every day by abortion?   When will he budget $700 Billion dollars (equal to the Pentagon) to fight domestic terrorism that slaughters Americans in the womb?  Instead Obama funds domestic terrorism, paying the baby’s executioners with our tax dollars, to repeat 9/11 every day in abortion clinics across America.  Let Mr. Obama’s real war on “terror” begin in his tax policies. Sorry, Mr. President, you don’t get credit for winning one war, until you stop funding the other.

No. There is no “war on babies”, but there is a war on women’s civil rights. Let’s stop that war instead.

(I know what I wrote yesterday about scaling back the blog, which I am doing, but this is a quickie.)

Over the last few months, I’ve received a barrage of fundie emails about Planned Parenthood. The puppetmasters were trying to get all of their followers to barrage Congress with demands to stop all federal funding of Planned Parenthood. The House Republicans proudly showed us all how much power the Jihadist branch of Christianity still has over the GOP by voting last week to defund Planned Parenthood. Fortunately, there was enough rationality (and Democrats) in the Senate, and the attempt failed for now.

Many of the emails I received have been overly dramatic:

Planned Parenthood takes trillions of your tax dollars every year to murder billions of babies!

OK, maybe not quite that hyperbolic, but that’s really not too much of an exaggeration.

P-1000 Pregnancy Terminator

The fundies like to portray Planned Parenthood as a ravenous abortion machine, whose sole purpose is to wander loose among the general population, scanning all women it encounters. Any woman found to be pregnant is immediately be subjected to a forced liquid-metal abortion. And all of this is just to make the Planned Parenthood abortion doctors filthy, stinking rich.

I wrote an article three years ago about the true economics of abortion and what Planned Parenthood really does with the money. Today I found an article in the Washington Post titled “Five Myths about Planned Parenthood”. Here they are:

1. Planned Parenthood’s federal funding frees up other money to pay for abortions
2. Ninety percent of what Planned Parenthood does is provide abortions
3. Defunding Planned Parenthood will reduce abortions
4. Planned Parenthood serves only teenagers and prostitutes
5. People don’t really need Planned Parenthood

You should go read the article for the details.

I received an email from a fundie crying that some commie-liberal puppy-raping Jesus-hating atheist doesn’t like the national motto (“In God we trust”). He wants me to sign a petition to Congress to get them to vote yes on some unconstitutional legislation to waste tax dollars promoting his religion.

I get emails like this all the time. Some fundie pressure group wants their agenda passed, so they set up a website to make it easy to sign your name. They promise to then fax (Speaking of which, does anybody still use fax machines anymore? Which century do these fundies live in, anyway?) your message to Congress.

Usually at the bottom of that page somewhere there is a request for a donation to allow the fundie running the site to continue to sit on his fat ass all day sipping Long Island ice teas out by the pool or banging the Guatemalan cleaning lady in the laundry room while his wife is out shuttling the kids to soccer practice in the Chevy Suburban, even though you work two jobs (as a greeter at Wal-Mart and as a Guatemalan cleaning lady) and can barely make ends meet and absolutely can’t afford to make a donation but you do so anyway because you know if you don’t that Barrack Hussein Obama will take your guns “do this important work”.

I went to the site to look at their message. This is what I saw:

Holy crap! What a great racket! You have to pay them a minimum of $18, or they won’t even take your signature! For that amount, they’ll fax your message to “all 47 Republican Senators”. That’s actually quite cheap. I didn’t know you could buy Republican senators for only 38 cents each. Haliburton overpaid!

Or… or!… you can “Fax all 53 Democrat/Independent Senators for just $19”. (But these are low-grade politicians (“Democrats”), which explains why they’re only 36 cents each. Hey, you get what you pay for!)

But wait! There’s more! You can buy the entire Senate for one low payment of just $29! They make sure to point out to you that this is their “BEST VALUE”! (and it’s not some crappy lower-case “best value”. No! This is the primo, French Freedom Roast, upper-case “BEST VALUE”!)

But if you order today, you can instead get all House Democrats for just $55! (This is a limited-time offer. Supplies are limited. Very limited. And perishable. A whole bunch of them expired last November.)

Or choose all House Republicans for only $59! (And your health coverage, but you never really had that to begin with, so there’s no real cost to you. And Medicare; it will also cost you your Medicare. And Social Security. And civil rights. But you had no use for those things anyway.)

If you order in the next ten minutes (and pay double) we’ll double your order. You’ll get the entire House of Representatives for just $99!

But in this special internet offer, we’re going to give you the entire legislative and executive branches of government! That’s all 47 Republican senators! All 53 Democratic & independent senators! All 193 Democratic & independent congressman! Every one of the 242 Republican congressmen! Plus, we’ll throw in one imported president for free!

Some people pay $18. Some people pay $19. Others pay $29. But you won’t pay $55, You won’t pay $59. No, you won’t even pay $99. You can send 536 messages using 19th-century technology for the one low price of $119! Order today, and you’ll pay us an extra $40 just because! That’s right! You can pay our already-inflated price of $119, or you can pay the even-higher price of $159 for no added benefit!

Thanks to Jeff, who tipped me off to this story that those bastards at MSNBC and the New York Times refuse to cover:

FORMER DAVENPORT, IA—Immediately following the performance of a same-sex marriage ceremony Sunday afternoon at Holy Christ Almighty Lutheran Church on Lincoln Avenue, the city of Davenport, IA and all 99,685 of its residents were reportedly smitten into oblivion by the merciless wrath of God and flung into the deepest bowels of eternal hell.
…
“They tried to warn us and we didn’t listen—Lord, why did we not listen?” said Rev. Kenneth Hanson, the clergyman who performed the unholy marriage, moments before being dragged into a bottomless pit, flayed alive, and devoured by Satan, the Great Deceiver. “All I wanted to do was provide basic civil rights and legal recognition to Brian and Greg, two people who love each other and have been together for 15 years. But I was wrong. Oh, so wrong!”

On a related note, I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t been able to get my head above water (Ouch! Sorry!) long enough to find out how many fundies are blaming Japan’s earthquake and tsunami on their being a mostly-Shinto country, or having a gay person, or eating shellfish, or giving us Pokemon, or something. You can mention that in the comments, if you know of any.