Fundie “news” site OneNewsNow allows readers to comment on their articles. Looking through those comments can be funny/scary.

Obama Hates Religion!

Brian Fitzpatrick wrote an opinion piece titled “Does Barack Obama disdain religion?” The article is about this widely-reported comment of Obama’s:

It’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Fitzpatrick thinks Barack Obama hates religion and religious people. I find that hard to believe, because Obama is one of the more thump-happy Biblers of the three candidates. I agree that his quote seems to contradict his prior statements about how important his religion is to him. I’ll leave it to others to resolve this contradiction. It’s more fun to see what the readers of OneNewsNow have to think about the issue. Here are a few choice comments left by the readers (all are anonymous):

• Barry Obama seems to hate American and, as President, I can’t trust him not to destroy us or deliver us into the hands of foreign powers. With the exception of a few top traitors, we’ll be a nation of slaves.
• God help us if Obama gets elected. You can say good bye to this once great nation.
• This is just another sign that the Rapture [is] very near. Does anyone else see the path being prepared for the anti-christ’s arrival? By the time politicians and media leaders are finished feeding us their watered down versions of Christianity a one world religion will be welcomed with opened arms by those who don’t know the one true Christ.

Not That Global Warming Lie Again!

As I mentioned recently, fundies seem to embrace global warming denialism. Jim Brown wrote an opinion piece (that OneNewsNow presents as news) titled “Authors raise concerns about Bush’s new stance on ‘global warming’”. Note the scare quotes around “global warming”.

The article acts like global warming isn’t real, and it bemoans the fact that George W Bush has grudgingly set forth some weak guidelines to combat climate change. Here are a couple of reader comments:

• I can’t believe President Bush fell for this global warming baloney. I thought he was smarter than that. Sheesh. [emphasis added]
• Imagine trying to save the Earth from global warming. The same Earth that God is going to destroy in His own time.

Thank God for Captain Stubing!

Steve Gallagher’s column, “Could the apostasy be upon us?”, was inspired by a Gavin MacLeod movie. Gallagher tells us about the film Time Changer. He writes:

The storyline occurs in 1890 and revolves around Bible professor Russell Carlisle, who is unwittingly transported by a time machine into modern-day America. For five days, he finds himself trapped in a wicked world to which you and I have become shamefully accustomed.

The rest of the article pretty much follows that tone. Here’s what the OneNewsNow readers have to say about it:

• May God come quickly and put an end to the evil world filled with anti-God, anti-family homos and murdering Islamo-fascists.
• I beleive Gallagher is right on. I pray that God will begin a great revival in this country or we will see the end of it in short time!
• Praise GOD the end is very near.
• Don’t just make the end times excuse to sit and do nothing while the liberals take over.

The Government Must Stop Divorce!

Another Jim Brown article is “Deterioration of families now a ‘legitimate gov’t concern,’ says activist”. Brown writes:

A new report commissioned by four policy and research groups finds that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births cost American taxpayers a minimum of $112 billion annually.

Divorce definitely has a social cost, and probably a cost to the taxpayer as well. I don’t know how reputable this particular study is. What I’m more interested in is the fundie response. Let’s see what the OneNewsNow readers have to say:

• As soon as God got pulled out of public schools it all went downhill from there. This is the consequence - if you take the light out darkness results.
• Making divorce illegal would go a long way in stopping this!!!
• Many “Christians” support the agenda of the Satanic left - an agenda that contributes to the problem of disentegrating families.
• Efforts to strengthen the family will go nowhere as long as American keeps distancing itself from God and allowing the homosexual agenda to move forward.

Cover Those Offensive Magazines!

Allie Martin’s article “Online petition drive asks Wal-Mart to cover offensive magazines” is about people who are offended by Cosmopolitan and other racy magazines being on display at the checkout counter. Most of the comments to this article are fairly reasonable. But there is one fundie jewel:

• I don’t want to see this trash myself. It is immoral for anyone to look at. When younger people look at this it awakens feelings that shouldn’t be awakened until a person is married.

Post-Modern Third-Graders Plot to Murder Teacher!

Pete Chagnon tells us “Christian educator blames post-modern mindset in plot to kill teacher”. He writes:

Christian educator Finn Laursen says the recent incident in which third-graders were caught conspiring to possibly kill their teacher highlights the need for educators to teach children the difference between right and wrong.

Here’s what the OneNewsNow readers think about that:

• Here’s a novel concept and the only legimate reform: ‘Returning the Bible and Wisdom principles to our public school children by exercising our First Amendment Rights.’
• I’d be interested in knowing how many of those girls were taking anti-depressant drugs, as most of the recent high-profile killers have been.
• As long as kids are taught they’re nothing more than animals…they’re gonna act like animals.
• The Ten Commandments belong back in the schools, along with prayers. Our children and some adult have no guideline anymore.

There’s a comedy group calling themselves National Banana. Here are two of their videos.

Priest Off

(YouTube page is here)

The Politics of Stem Cell Research

(YouTube page is here)

I was really hoping we had managed to lose this retard, at least for another four years. But like all bad ideas, he keeps coming back. Here is Mike Huckabee shilling for Ben Stein:

(YouTube page is here.)

He claims there is “growing evidence of intelligent design”. Really, Huck? Then why didn’t you provide any? In fact, why don’t they provide any in Expelled? They have an entire movie. From what I have heard (and I’m willing to stand corrected), they don’t spend any time in the movie providing any evidence for ID creationism. They spend all of their time whining about not getting a seat at the grown-ups’ table. Then they throw a tantrum and falsely link the fact of evolution to the horrors of the Holocaust, as if the latter somehow disproves the former.

Tell you what, Huck. When you learn what real science is, then we’ll “open the doors”.

Holy crap! This guy was a viable presidential candidate!

I sometimes get the impression that Objectivists make up a larger percentage of the atheist population than the general population. I’m not an Objectivist myself; I’m too liberal to agree with much of it.

Since the philosophy has such visibility, it’s worth learning a bit about. Ebonmuse over at Daylight Atheism has written an excellent analysis of Objectivism, “Three Objections to Objectivism”.

Ebonmuse writes:

This post will detail three of my primary objections to Rand’s Objectivist philosophy, as it’s expressed in [The Virtue of Selfishness] and her other works. Combined, I believe they demonstrate that Rand’s system of thought either contains fatal self-contradictions, or else would be destructive to the welfare of any society that was to adopt it.

I found the article to be highly informative. Be sure to read the comments afterward. There’s a good discussion of the article and the issues raised.

(I’ve turned off comments for this post. I’m merely pointing you to a good article. Please discuss Objectivism there.)

Jack Klugman has made two TV commercials for First Freedom First.

Video 1 is on Sound Science:

Video 2 is on End of Life Care:

One of these days, I need to write an article about Hal Lindsey. You might remember him from the 1970s, when he came out with his best-selling book, The Late Great Planet Earth. Hal is big into Bible prophecy. According to his book, the End Times were supposed to happen in the 1980s. Oops. Maybe if they had published an edition in Aramaic, Jesus would have read it and known when he was due. But he is coming back! Any day now! Really he is!

Everything Lindsey says, does, and thinks passes through the filter of Bible prophecy. Among the other awful offal on Hal’s website are cartoons about the current state of the world as it relates to the Earth’s never-ending-impending ending. These cartoons are created for Lindsey’s site by John and Patsy Rule.

As I looked through the archives, it gave me a riveting picture of what Christian Zionists like Lindsey and his followers believe. I thought you might be interested in seeing some of those cartoons.

Because of the size of these things, I’m going to break this article into three parts. Today we will look at how Lindsey’s followers view the matter of politics and church/state separation. Part 2 will examine what they think of secularists, and part 3 will look at prophecy.

When Fox News is Too Liberal

This first cartoon tells us about Barack Obama’s secret:

Obama is a closet Muslim! I know it’s true! I read it on the internet somewhere!

At least Fox News has the decency to restrict their libel to innuendo (“Is Obama a Muslim?”).

(On a strictly side note, don’t you love how everybody is now upset over the inflammatory statements made by Obama’s pastor? I bet many of the same people who think he’s a Muslim are upset about what his Christian pastor said!)

Many of the cartoons in the archive are strongly anti-Muslim. They depict Islam as a monolithic force out to destroy Israel and the West. They don’t bother to distinguish the dangerous radical Muslims from the less-hazardous non-radicals.

One way to determine whether a viewpoint is fair is to turn it on its head. What if non-Christians viewed all Christians as extremist wackos? How would Lindsey’s followers feel then? Oh, wait. Lindsey’s followers are the extremists! Nevermind.

Cutting God out of America

This is the recurring view of liberal politicians. They’re always portrayed as being on a single-minded mission to remove God from the government, the schools, and society in general. That’s all they do. The cartoons never explain why. I’m still trying to figure out what motive Christian Zionists ascribe to liberals. I guess the assumption is that liberal politicians haven’t found God (which isn’t true in most cases), so they’re controlled by Satan’s evil forces.

Never in these cartoons is anybody depicted as merely holding to another, equally valid, form of Christianity. The good guys are always the Zionists. Everybody else is a tool of Satan.

Well That’s Your Problem! You Used the Wrong Foundation!

It’s that God-damned Liberal Agenda again! Thank God the dreaded Homosexual Agenda was off at a pride parade that day.

If you can’t read the labels on the bricks, they say “school prayer”, “10 commandments”, “God’s word”, “Jesus”, “traditional marriage”, and “pro-life”.

The premise of this cartoon is flawed, of course, because the United States was not founded on Biblical principles. If it had been, then Mike Huckabee wouldn’t feel the need to overhaul the Bill of Rights. I mean, come on, folks. Maybe they could argue that the country has strayed from its roots, but when they—the Christians—tell you that you have to throw away the First Amendment, then it isn’t the “liberals” who are destroying the foundation of this country.

More Retirements are Imminent

This cartoon is actually pretty accurate. I forgot who it was, but one court-watcher said recently that he expects three Supreme Court Justices to announce their retirements within the next year. I want you to mentally erase three of those figures on the left side of the image and add three more to the right side.

It’s Motivating Me. Maybe Not the Effect They Wanted.

This one speaks for itself.

In 2005, John McCain sponsored legislation to ban torture. The bill actually passed and was signed into law by Bush. McCain has a very good reputation on anti-torture issues. A reputation that is undeserved.

McCain’s law specifically exempted the CIA.

On Saturday, Bush vetoed a bill intended to close that loophole. John McCain supports that veto. Mr. Anti-Torture is the only presidential candidate who advocates the use of torture.

Some of you may not be happy with our choices in this election. I agree. We have two right-wing Democrats vying for the opportunity to compete against a far-right Bush clone in November. This is how democracy works. If you’re going to live in a country predominantly populated by right-wing islamo-homo-xeno-freedom-phobes, all you’re going to get are candidates who reflect those values.

All you can do in the election booth is try to tug the country just the slightest bit away from the values of hate and fear. The alternative is to be like McCain. Publicly pretend that you stand for one thing while actually supporting the opposite. If you do not vote for the Democrat in November, even if you stay home, you are voting to further enable the radical right and their campaign to destroy the values that this country used to stand for.

Outside of the voting booth, we have to continue to educate the populace and bring their attention to the important matters. Not everybody who voted for Bush fully understood the consequences of their actions. Not everybody who will vote for McCain really wants a perpetual war in Iraq or warrantless domestic spying. They’re fooled by the rhetoric and the slick commercials. We have to let these people know that what they think they are voting for is nothing like what the candidate really stands for.

Your efforts to educate the misinformed may only have a small effect in this election, because the best we can hope to achieve is putting a regressive Democrat into the White House.

The real struggle is for the long term. We have to keep pulling to the left. We have to keep pulling people away from the anti-American values of the right wing. Eventually, if we succeed, we will bring enough of the populace back to their senses that we will have real choices in future elections.

(The full article about McCain the Torture King is at SF Gate.) (via The Sideshow)

As you’ve all heard by now, Mike Huckabee finally gave up his hopeless quest for the White House on Tuesday. He will now return to his hopeless quest of waiting for Jesus to return.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about his dropping out other than I’m glad it’s finally over. I am concerned about what plans he has for the future. I doubt that McCain will tap him for the VP slot, although McCain does need to do something to appease the fundie crowd.

Tony Perkins Thinks I Value His Opinion

Today I received an email from Tony Perkins of the Fundie Research Council. The first part of the email is titled “Huckabye”. He says some interesting things here, so I thought it would be worth examining it. He writes:

To succeed in his bid for the White House, McCain must consolidate his support among conservatives, including social conservatives, which will not happen just because he is the Republican nominee.

I hear that a lot from fundies right now, but talk is cheap and the election is still eight months away. When November 4th rolls around and they’re in the booth staring at the names:

• John McCain
• Hillary Clinton

who do you think they’re going to vote for? Many conservatives and probably most fundies dislike McCain, but they absolutely despise Clinton.

Some pundits have suggested that a lot of “social conservatives” (i.e. fundies) will choose to stay home that day. Believe me. Nothing motivates a fundie more than the opportunity to spread their hate. The Republican nominee could be Richard Dawkins, but all of the fundies would still turn out in swarms to vote for him anyway, because what they’d really be doing is voting against Hillary Clinton. And that will feel so good!

Tony Perkins’ email continues:

A poll released last month by George Barna revealed that if the election were held then, only 45 percent of Evangelicals would vote for a Republican candidate.

Again, talk is cheap. A pollster calls them up on the telephone. It’s anonymous. They don’t even have to look the pollster in the eye. It’s real easy to say things they don’t mean. They may even think they won’t vote for the Republican at the time they’re answering the survey, but when they’re staring at the prospect of another Clinton in the White House, they’ll camp out in front of their polling place weeks in advance, like an evangelical Harry Potter line.

That number is down from 85 percent of Evangelicals who voted for George W. Bush in 2004.

If you were wondering how Bush managed to get re-elected despite all of the atrocities he committed, there’s your answer. The so-called “values voters” don’t have any values. If they did, they would not tolerate torture, suspension of the Fourth Amendment, being lied into an unnecessary war, etc. All they want is to overturn Roe v. Wade and keep those dirty, filthy homos from having butt-sex within a legally-sanctioned marriage. No matter what the cost.

John McCain will have to convince social conservatives that their issues matter and that he can talk about them as a candidate and act upon them as president.

That won’t be difficult. McCain has already managed to convince most Americans that he’s a maverick, straight-talking, moderate, incorruptible American hero. Blowing smoke up the fundies’ asses will be a piece of cake for him. (And the fundies will secretly enjoy the anal stimulation and freak out that they might be gay, thus forcing a constitutional amendment against anal smoking.)