Will John McCain Endorse Pastor John's Harry Potter Witchcraft Trials?

Even Richelieu Would Have Been Sceptical.

War is one of the scourges with which it has pleased God to afflict men.

Televangelist Alert!

Senator John McCain has been endorsed by Pastor John Hagee.

As the situation with Farrakhan and Obama unfolded:

The very next day, John McCain appeared onstage in Texas with Pastor John Hagee, an influential activist in the Christian Zionist movement. Hagee's comments about world affairs can make Farrakhan seem pedestrian at times: He eagerly awaits the Armageddon, considers the Catholic Church to be the Anti-Christ, and has said that Jews brought their own persecution upon themselves. (TPM Election Central)

Hagee also supports Israel (go figure) and supports the war in Iraq. His tv audience numbers in the millions and his Ministries pay him quite handsomely (about $1.5 million per year). He has managed to stay out of the televangelist investigation conducted by Senator Grassley. That McCain would sidle up to another "agent of intolerance" is, to put it mildly, rather hypocritical. Or just plain weird.

Reading about Hagee's beliefs makes you think that he'd stone Daniel Radcliffe just for portraying Harry Potter:

"Someone who didn't know better could imagine from the very name Christians United For Israel - CUFI -that pastor John Hagee speaks for all Christians. Well, he doesn't." (Bill Moyers).

And...

Max Blumenthal: Rapture Ready - The Unauthorized Christians United For Isreal Tour - Huffington Post (7/26/07):

But CUFI has an ulterior agenda: its support for Israel derives from the belief of Hagee and his flock that Jesus will return to Jerusalem after the battle of Armageddon and cleanse the earth of evil. In the end, all the non-believers - Jews, Muslims, Hindus, mainline Christians, etc. - must convert or suffer the torture of eternal damnation. Over a dozen CUFI members eagerly revealed to me their excitement at the prospect of Armageddon occurring tomorrow. Among the rapture ready was Republican Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. None of this seemed to matter to Lieberman, who delivered a long sermon hailing Hagee as nothing less than a modern-day Moses. Lieberman went on to describe Hagee's flock as "even greater than the multitude Moses commanded."


Hagee's influence would make Richelieu envious. Is he as atuned to statecraft? No, but he doesn't think he needs to be. Is he as ruthless?

Probably.

Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.

A little outlandish for Pastor Hagee,

but nonetheless appropriate to his ideals.

The Christian Right NEVER Censors Itself - and... A Note on the Passing of a Conservative Mind

Oh, Wacko Waco Wherefore Art Thou?

Many Christian right-wingers must love Fred Phelps: next to him, they don't look so bad.

Why is it that so many evangelicals cannot bring themselves to REALLY censor someone who claims to be one of their own? When's the last time you saw or heard of a minister actively picketing Phelps? Oh yes, we've known how Baptist conventions everywhere have "excommunicated" him, but let's face it: BFD! Eight hundred years ago, Phelps could have been burned at the stake as a heretic. (The Dark Ages did have some enlightened moments!) And no concrete measures were taken to stop David Koresh from preaching that he was The Messiah.

I guess the Christian Right's problem is that there are so many sects, denominations, cults claiming to be Christian that to censor one would lead to censoring a lot of others. Fundamentalists have problems enough trying to shield their offspring from Catholicism and Mormonism. And not everyone can home-school their kids so as not to have contact with evil-doers.

Getting back to Koresh: since today is the 15th anniversary of the Siege of Waco, it's worth noting that secular (gasp!) scholars who studied Apocalyticism in religious groups tried to tell the FBI that their tactics were actually encouraging Koresh and the Davidians to believe that the End Times were near. But why didn't the Christian community step in before that? They could have done more than dismissing the Branch Davidians as a "cult."

Some Christian ivory towers are not only ugly, they're dangerous.

***

Today I read about the death of a great intellect. Liberals will shoot me when I say that William F. Buckley was more liberal than most people suspected. I had the honor to interview Mr. Buckley on two occassions. They were both phone interviews, but I could envision his facial expressions during replies. At first I was frightened to death of the possibility of interviewing him: he used his vocabulary to intimidate and dominate. My first question (actually too long to describe), however, put him on the defensive. Then I realized something: in order to get Buckley to talk about the things he REALLY wanted to talk about in a friendly and casual manner, you first had to gain his respect. Respect was what William F. Buckley was all about, you see. If you weren't worthy of respect, you weren't worthy of anything else.

Buckley's conservatism was far different than our neocons: do you think Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity would have been up to the task of talking to Buckley without encuring his polite disdain? His was the conservative outlook of less government and laisse-faire business. If you want to read unadulterated hypocrisy, read Ann Coulter's eulogy. Buckley would have given it a wan smile, then excused himself to go off stage... and vomit.

Above all else, William F. Buckly was a realist. On Iraq: "anything but conservative. The reality of the situation is that missions abroad to effect regime change in countries without a bill of rights or democratic tradition are terribly arduous." And: "One cannot doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed...it's important that we acknowledge in the inner councils of state that it (the war) has failed, so that we should look for opportunities to cope with that failure."

Thank you, Mr. Buckley, for giving us a time when conservatism meant "take heed" and not "take up arms."

Could Beverly LaHaye Compare to ANY of These Great American Women?

More aptly: Would any of these women identify themselves with Concerned Women of America?

Part II

The women featured here stood FOR something, but the CWA has defined itself by what it is in opposition to:

(From wikipedia) CWA opposes:

- Legal recognition of GLBT people and any form of GLBT rightsRecognition of marriage or any form of civil unions or domestic partnership between same-sex individuals, including reciprocal health benefits, calling all of these "counterfeit marriage" that will be used "to take control and to have the force of law to legitimise their disordered, unnatural behaviors."

- Abortion rights in all cases except to save the life of the mother. Health exemptions are considered "deceptive" and not supported.

- Hate crime legislation that includes sexual orientation, referring to such laws as "weapons against... people who might oppose the homosexual agenda, such as Christians preaching on the street, even Christians preaching from the pulpit around the world"

- All forms of sexual education other than that which teaches abstinence

- Pornography, obscenity, and media indecency, including on satellite radio, and satellite and cable television

- Embryonic stem-cell research, describing it as "deadly" and the destruction of "embryonic human beings"

- Emergency contraception in all cases including rape, asserting that ECP is actually an abortifacient by redefining pregnancy to begin at conception, not implantation of the zygote.

- Human trafficking in all forms, particularly of women for sexual purposes.

- Feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment

Somehow, I don't think these women felt the same way.

From top left: Elizabeth Taylor, Sacagawea, Rosa Parks, "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, Oprah Winfrey, Marion Anderson, Josephine Baker, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Helen Keller, Helen Hayes, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (with Susan B. Anthony), Eleanor Roosevelt, Dolley Madison, Coretta Scott King, and Amelia Earhart.

Now compare these women to Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America (Her boss is LaHaye). Wendy is quite sincere and quite idiotic in her hyposthesis that comprehensive sex education programs WANT kids to get STDs (you read that right)

The above American icons ROCK!

However, Wendy Wright IS a rock!

Yesterday's amazing photo editing work by Philip Scott Johnson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8U6jD) featured (in order):

Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Ruth Chatterton, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson, Hedy Lamarr, Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, Deborah Kerr, Judy Garland, Anne Baxter, Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy Dandridge, Shirley MacLaine, Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Janet Leigh, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Ann Margret, Julie Andrews, Raquel Welch, Tuesday Weld, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve, Jacqueline Bisset, Candice Bergen, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Kathleen Turner, Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Angela Bassett, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Salma Hayek, Sandra Bullock, Julianne Moore, Diane Lane, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry

Music: Bach's Prelude from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma http://www.myspace.com/eggman913

Why Can't Ann Coulter Be More Like Lauren Bacall?

(They are the same age, aren't they?)

This blog post is going to be a two-parter

Part I:

February 27 celebrates the 86th year of women's suffrage in America

It also celebrates the birthday of one of the most indomitable women of our time: Elizabeth Taylor (O.K., she's a little bit older than Coultergeist, but in comparison, she's ageless, whereas Coulter...)

So, it's fitting that we celebrate Great American Women by featuring some Great American Film Actresses.

As a parting note on Ann Coulter, she has stated numerous times that women should never have gotten the vote. Those statements along with the one about Joe McCarthy being a great American Patriot rank among the most anti-American in history:

"Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie. Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals to hide their own collaboration with a regime as evil as the Nazis."

One actress who managed to go toe-to-toe with McCarthy (and, by extension, Ann Coulter) was Lauren Bacall. Once, Larry King asked about her politics:

Bacall: "I'm a total Democrat. I'm anti-Republican. And it's only fair that you know it."

King: "Wait a minute. Are you a liberal?"

Bacall: "I'm a liberal. The L word!"

This video is one of the most amazing pieces of photo editing I have ever encountered! It's
by Philip Scott Johnson and has garnered over 2 million fans! Yes, you may have seen it before, but I know you won't mind seeing it again, even for the umpteenth time!

The complete list of these actresses will be posted tomorrow. Try to name them all - in order - and no cheating!

I hope you don't mind me ending this gushing post with a bit more gushing about my own star: my mother. She was fearless, pro-family and pro-choice. The only televangelist she ever knew was Bishop Fulton J. Sheeen. She respected him a lot, but never paid heed to his requests for donations ("He gets paid pretty well with the way he lives!") Her birthday was Feb. 17th and if she had lived, she would have been 92. Happy belated birthday, mom!

Evelyn Mrazek Vojir

Feb. 17, 1916 - Jan. 21, 1989

Colts, Fillies and Televangelisti Horses' Asses

Yep, they're still out there, folks!

Back in 1838, when Sam Colt thought of a filly, he probably thought of riding a young horse out in the fields shooting at rabbits or buffalo with his new revolver. Over 150 years later, when Jimmy Swaggart thought of a filly, he thought of shooting something else. Enter prostitute Debra Murphree. Oh, he cried and cried and cried in front of his congregation, but the defrocked him anyway.

All hail to leftist-commie-pinko wikipedia.com for these other juicy bits of information (ah sorry, I mean propaganda):

On February 21, 1988, without giving the details of his transgressions, Swaggart tearfully spoke to his family, congregation, and audience, saying, "I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forgiveness." (On a New Orleans morning news show four days later, Murphree stated that while Swaggart was a regular customer, they had never engaged in intercourse.)*

Against the ruling of the governing body of the Assemblies of God, Swaggart returned to his television pulpit long before his three-month suspension expired. He stated, "If I do not return to the pulpit this weekend, millions of people will go to hell." Believing that Swaggart was not genuinely repentant in not submitting to their authority, the Assemblies of God immediately defrocked Swaggart, removing his credentials and ministerial license.

Hypocrisy still pays good dividends:

Jimmy may have come down in the evangelical world, but he's definitely not out: at the age of 72, he heads Jimmy Swaggart Ministries and hosts tv and radio programs heard in 22 states (the irrepressibly red ones).

Watch the video below where said he would kill any homosexual he met. (Did he ever meet Ted Haggard?). See if there's anyone you know in the background. Is there anyone you'd LIKE to know?

He later credited his comment as a joke, but remember what we said about the Elmer Gantrys and the Elmer Fudds of this world: "Yes, we can all laugh with Bugs about how stupid Elmer Fudd is, but until he takes that gun (and that hatred) away from Fudd, someone's going to die."



*Shades of Ted Haggard: "I only got a massage"

Funny, It Doesn't Taste Like Ken Copeland!

What Has Been the World's Greatest Source of Spam?

If you take into account all of the propaganda created by religion in the forms of tracts and apologetics, not to mention requests for donations and fliers for the choir's bake sale, the Bible is history's greatest source of spam. When the great tsumani hit Indonesia and India, Jerry Falwell had 600,000 Christian tracts printed up to accompany the care packages - to Muslims and Hindus. Now THAT'S spamming - and, insulting. But come to think of it, isn't ALL spam insulting? Doesn't spamming assume that you're deficient in some way? That you're gullible? That you're too lazy to find out things by yourself? That the spammer knows something you don't? The Bible thumper on the street assumes that everyone who passes by is a sinner because, well, he's a sinner. He's spamming you without your consent. He's creating noise that does nothing but overload your senses.

The average cable television viewer sorts through channels and programs like so much junk mail. Only some of them are looking for Pat Robertson's 700 Club. Proselytizing has become a mind-numbing assault - an assault on the senses and (as Al Gore would put it) an assault on reason. Television "spam guards" would sell like hotcakes. Sure, your fingers on the remote
act as a kind of censorship but you can't actually erase that televangelist. Even while watching "The Discovery Channel, you KNOW he's there waiting for you to tell you how much you need God - and him. And just what he really thinks of you, well, you just don't want to know. These people are all filled with "The Holy Spirit" and to a televangelist you're just another one of them (with money to donate of course):

WARNING: watching this video may not make you lose faith in God, but it might make you lose faith in the sanity of mankind.

Special to Fundamentalists: There IS a Difference Between The New Yorker and The Communist Manifesto

Aaaah...Is there a resemblance?

Today, February 21st, marks the publishing of the Christian Right's two most hated publications:

The Communist Manifesto (1848) and The New Yorker (1925).*

Neither of them are displayed on the coffee tables of double-wides.

Why are so many Christo-Fascists afraid of people who think? As the erstwhile King of Siam would have said "Tis a puzzlement!"

*The New York Times is in a different league altogether: it's Demonspawn!