The Eagle Is CLOSING! There Goes My Infusion of Humanity!!

Beer bust. Like today's Sunday at the Eagle Tavern in San Francisco, I experience my "infusion of humanity." That's because it has EVERYONE: young, old, fat, slim, swimmer's body, buff-up beefcake, levis, leather, punk. This mix is the most energizing piece of the earth that I know. Sniff, sniff, I'll be REALLY sad to see it go! 

Marking 200 For OpEdNews: The Best of Times (Sex With Ducks), The Worst of Times (The Deaver Fetus)

I'm tired. If you want to feel the frenetic pace my writing life has been like, just click on this old Leroy Anderson tune of a typewriter and read along. It will set a light tone to some very heavy subjects (hey, that's my style!).* 

Marking 200? No, I'm not 200 years old, although sometimes I feel like it. And tabulating how much I've submitted to OpEdNews for the last 3 years makes me feel older: it's certainly not a prodigious output by any means, but my perspective is queer: it's not how much I put out, but how much I am able to fit in. In between things, that is: no, not a sob story, but one that compels me to relay it to OpEdNews readers because they've been a part of my life.

For the last 5 years, I've been a caregiver to a loved one who is terminally ill (liver cancer) and life has gone from week-to-week, to day-to-day. Now, it's kind of hour-to-hour. It's also cooking, cleaning, errands, hospital visits, prescription refills, doling out meds, travel planning, kitty care, and fending off labels like "angel" and "saint" (curses on the love life - saints and angels don't get laid.). Not that I'm complaining, but ...o.k., I'm complaining. Because amidst all of this I'm compelled to communicate to people news and views about the realms of religion and politics ... and everything in between.

Yeah, it's an addiction: first thing in the morning I scan google alerts (at least a dozen "men of the cloth" are arrested for various crimes each day), devour rss feeds, answer comments on the blog, and plan the new ministry. I eventually come up for coffee (not air), then I have a breakfast consisting of religious and political hypocrisies, then I uncover them, rant on them and laugh at them. (I have to laugh at them: I take to heart Mark Twain's dictum: "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.") The rest of the day alternates between something mundane like changing the sheets and writing about the latest malapropisms of Michele Bachmann or the newest pronouncements of Benedict XVI.

Occasionally, I indulge myself with the luxury of our view of the ocean and the realization that I live in the most beautiful and compassionate place on earth (San Francisco).

IT'S ALL PERSPECTIVE

Times are getting bleaker and there's w-a-a-ay too much to rant about: atrocities like The Deaver Fetus and David Kato's murder in Uganda infest my laptop screen like giant termites, making it harder to laugh. The viciousness of today's Christof*scism, the blatant bigotry of people like Bryan Fischer and the eviscerating evangelism of Lou Engle propose a future too dreadful to imagine. Turning them on their ears becomes less fun, hence more difficult to write about.

Oh, occasionally Pat Robertson comes up with a hoot, a statement so self-righteously inane that it wipes the brain clean of all seriousness,* but writing about senile musings is too easy and breezy: the psyche just starts to relax when up comes a horror worthy of Halloween: suddenly there is too little time to write about LGBT issues, Islamoph*bia or even Ann Coulter(geist). 

Then there's the outright ruthlessness of the newly invigorated Republican Party: I hope I don't drown in that tsunami of vengeance! It overwhelms humanity! Don't get me started.

BACK TO THE POINT

OpEdNews has been a godsend for writers like me: the chance to get a word in edgewise is coupled with an association of some of the brightest minds we have today. And knowing that some people out there are actually reading my rants helps me contend with all that's happening to me and to the rest of the world. So now I'm up to 200 articles (150,000 words. 300,000 page views). I may flag a bit in the future, but I'll never kick the addiction of writing about the Right Wing's religious world of hypocrisy or things like ...Sex with Ducks. 

*Sorry if you're too young to know what a typewriter sounds like

** The article that has garnered me the most page views is, ironically, the one about Pat Robertson's remarks about Haiti titled The Senility Defense: Pat Robertson's Trial In The Court Of Public Opinion. 

The Fine Print: Beck's Demise Is No Demise ... and No Surprise

SHOCK!! Glenn Beck announced that his FOX News show is being canceled! It truly is the END OF THE WORLD!!

With a totally disingenuous statement ("Fox is one of the only places you will find truth"), Glenn Beck said goodbye to his blackboards and his cable TV viewers. But lest we feel sorry for The Beckster, we should look at the bigger picture: rosier than ever for Glenn Beck. 

 From The Hollywood Reporter:

Beck, who Forbes estimated made over $32 million last year (only $2 million of which was for the FNC show), insisted he was not making this change because he can make more money elsewhere. It is not, said Beck, “because it’s good or bad for business but II think you, of all people, will truly get this, our only business is the business of freedom and our country at this time.

Yeah, right. Glenn Beck will still retain his daily radio show, his lecture/performance circuit and, of course, more free time to "write" books. He will also be doing "specials" for FOX. 

Still, there will be a great wailing, ripping of garments, gnashing of teeth as conspiracy theorists (his biggest following) will somehow blame the show's demise on President Obama. Even I am a little sad to see such an incredible source of material (and mockery) go away. No doubt, the makers of Vicks Vapo-Rub will also shed a tear (sorry).  Certainly David Barton - Beck's all-American-Christian pseudo historian - will have to find another cable show to appear on (other than Pat Robertson's The 700 Club, of course). There will be articles about BB and AB - Before Beck and After Beck. 

That this was an expected and calculated media move there is no doubt: ratings (relatively) tanked in the last year to the point that Beck couldn't have expected to be around very long: Uncle Rupert (Murdoch) liked him, but Uncle Rupert never shoved money down a rat hole, either. People speculated that Beck had gotten too full of himself calling together rallies and such, but for my money, I think Beck with welcome the relative quiet this will bring to his career. For all the show of being in touch with today's common man, Glenn Beck was and always will be for Glenn Beck. 

Another indication that he's resigned in his FOX situation: his calm. People have gotten to know his mercurial tantrums, peppered by his overactive tear ducts. His deportment was dignified in his announcement - very unusual for a man who has ordered people off his radio show with bouts of screaming. His macular dystrophy (disorder of the eyesight) might play into his acceptance of cancellation, since no one wants to see a blind pundit on TV. Knowing Beck, he might be able to play loss of eyesight into his persona.

OK, the last is a bit cruel, but Beck has parlayed a lot about himself into media gold, even his Mormonism: it isn't easy to host people like David Barton, who think Mormonism is just a "cult." His new persona (and there will be one) may morph into the kind of character Rush Limbaugh wish he had if he could emit more sincerity and compassion and if both would get him ratings. Limbaugh is wise in that he has always played to his core market, whereas Beck has been taking chances (e.g., his occasional lapse into being gay-friendly) and gone too far out in conspiracy theories. 

Some Republicans may even be heavy a sigh of relief: Beck's forays into various ideologies have been a bit too fringe for them to hang their hat on and what they don't need right now is any more fringe candidates. 

With his benign cancellation and his ability to work medias like radio, stage and print, Glenn Beck will still be around for a long time. 

Unfortunately.

Pat Robertson: As Christians We Must Love ALL of God's Murderous Dictators - Even Laurent Gbagbo!

Time for another swing at a Senility Defense!

Since Pat didn't say anything about Japan's spirit-of-the-anti-Christ religions causing earthquakes or the tsunami, I figured he had lost his mojo in the God's Ambulance Chasers' department. Last January, when the "snowpocalypse" hit the country and stopped dead all air travel, Robertson chimed with his explanation that it was "God's way of preventing gays from doing something gay." So I thought that Japan's disasters were a natural. I waited and waited in vain.


Hooray! He may not have come through with Japan, but he certainly was right on target with the conflict in Cote d-Ivoire! That's my man!


The Conflict


It is unfortunate that the African nation, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), sounds so much more romantic than it really is. Like a beautiful stage set, the country's name fronts squalor and corruption, horrendous hypocrisy and  egotism.


Perhaps that's why Pat Robertson likes it.


The government of Cote d'Ivoire has caught the same democracy virus that it's northern African neighbors have and the tension is, to say the least, high.

The finale of Gbagbo's 10-year claim on Ivory Coast is playing out much like the beginning. The 65-year-old strongman, who made an art of staying in power years past the end of his legal mandate, is now pushing the envelope, fighting for each day, even each hour.

That was several hours ago. By now, however, Pat Robertson and Gbagbo's supporters here in the U.S. have heard that Gbagbo has been negotiating his surrender, talking about security with U.N. and French forces. The new President, Alassane Ouattara, is also anxious about his security. Gbagbo has a reputation - made ever more evident at the number of civilians killed during the last days of unrest.* But this is a reputation Pat Robertson choses to ignore.

Watch below how Robertson spins his way through the murky waters of despotism, trashes Muslims (Africa will have a "Ring of Sharia Law"), the French, the MSM and calls Gbago a good Christian man. Pat's never better when he's at his most senile. Notice too, how the station gets in a dig at Obama by positioning the announcement of his 2012 candidacy immediately afterward. 


The Ties That Bind - To The Christian Right

Gbagbo, along with his influential wife, Simone, are evangelical Christians who are known for lacing their speeches with religious rhetoric. "God is leading our fight. God has already given us the victory," Simone Gbagbo, who is both first lady and politician in her own right, said at a rally in January. Both Gbagbos have attended the National Prayer Breakfast, a big annual Washington event run by the secretive Christian group known as the Family, or the Fellowship.

Friends of Gbagbo include Senator Jim Inhofe, Doug Coe (leader of C Street and the secretive Fellowship), broadcaster Glenn Beck and ... Pat Robertson. In demeanor and purpose, the impoverished African country looks a lot like Uganda and one wonders just how many evangelicals have been visiting it in order to secure the nation "for God." Case in point: while homosexuality is legal in Cote d'Ivoire, gays have no protections against discrimination. Lou Engle still considers it  fertile ground for The Call.


Testing The Limits Of Compassion


While rummaging around for stuff on Cote d'Ivoire, I got a bit of a shock. The picture of a church and its description overwhelmed me with the blatant world of religious despotism: The Basilica of Our Lady Of Peace.


According to wikipedia, the basilica was built to be reminiscent St. Peter's in Rome, but according to Guinness World Records, it surpasses it in size, becoming THE largest church in the world. It cost $300 million in 1989. It was also built to fit the ego of its then-president  Félix Houphouët-Boigny who:

commissioned a stained glass window of his image to be placed beside a gallery of stained glass of Jesus and the apostles. This image depicts him as one of the three Biblical Magi, kneeling as he offers a gift to Jesus.

The average wage of a day laborer in Cote d'Ivoire is $1.25. Pope John Paul II (who dedicated the church) was probably too awed by the church itself to realize what a mockery it was to the people of the country. The video below is a stark revelation that does not  dare to shock the viewer by presenting the squalor amongst such magnificence. The imagination does that. 


Back To Sanity


So what Pat Robertson sees as a tragedy is really the toppling of another despot to instate the rightfully voted-in President. That new President happens to be Muslim. Some Christians in Cote d'Ivoire may have actually voted for him. If the new president, Alassane Ouattara, ushers in any form of peace, with even the slightest hint of prosperity, Robertson, Coe, Beck, Inhofe, Warren and all the Christian Right moguls pinning their hopes on making Cote d'Ivoire a Uganda-like "Purpose-Driven" nation, will have lost their footing on Africa. 


Cheer up, Pat, there's always the senility defense!


*massacres of whole villages have been reported





The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro: a monument to despotism - the most incredibly atrocious display of monumental ego.  Félix Houphouët-Boigny

Rut! Rabbit! Rut!

Just in time for Easter, Bryan Fischer talks about bunnies and black people, while exhibiting a bit of penis envy and eliciting boredom.


Black People Rut Like Rabbits

"Welfare has destroyed the African-American family by telling young black women that husbands and fathers are unnecessary and obsolete. Welfare has subsidized illegitimacy by offering financial rewards to women who have more children out of wedlock. We have incentivized fornication rather than marriage, and it’s no wonder we are now awash in the disastrous social consequences of people who rut like rabbits." - American Family Association spokesbigot Bryan Fischer

We all know that Bryan I-am-not-a-hate-group Fischer hates gays, native Americans, immigrants, and feminists, so his comment about African-American welfare moms should not be surprising. His timing, however, may be a bit off, unless his intention was to equate Easter's Peter Cottontail with a deadbeat dad.   

One problem with Fischer's statement is his passion for the prurient: for someone so seemingly virtuous, he dwells on the subject of sex more than Howard Stern. In fact, Fischer reminds me of John Powers' character, Felix the Filth Fiend Lindor,* who "had enough dirt in his mind to apply for statehood." I could start on the subject of penis envy, but don't have the space or the time. Suffice it to say Fischer's compensating: every group/stereotype that he targets has more sex than he could ever dream of. Encouraging sex of any kind reminds him of his shortcomings as a straight white male.


Another problem is that his sociopathic tendencies are so strong you wonder if he has actually liked anyone in his past. Even he admits that he is the real reason the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the American Family Association a hate group. Ever the iconoclast, he eschews the rules of hunting his wild enemies in a group, choosing to target whole groups by himself: gays, feminists, Native Americans, African Americans, progressive Christians. 


Now his prey is the African American welfare mom: "we have incentivized fornication." The only thing new about Fischer's philosophy is the word "incentivized" - it's not in any dictionary, but Fischer needed to sound scientific in his rant. Unfortunately, the debate about welfare moms has been around for decades and not even Ann Coulter has come up with anything new.** Ever the chauvinist, Fischer never once mentions shiftless deadbeat dads or abusive husbands - those jerks the welfare moms never want to see again. They are left in the shadows (but are more real than all the fictional gay black men who lure them away from fatherhood). Meanwhile, Fischer drums away at the economic drain upon good, virtuous family-values (and obviously sexless) Christians. 


When reports of his racist comments caused some stir in the internet media, he shot back:

I was commenting on the effect of our misguided welfare policies across the board, and was not singling out the African-American community in particular, although the consequences of our disastrous welfare policies are felt most acutely there. I was speaking generally to the fact that fallen human nature is going to gravitate to whatever behavior government rewards, even if the behavior itself is self-destructive.

The American Family Association edited his initial remarks, removing the "rut like rabbits" end and replacing it with " engage in random and reckless promiscuity, whether they are Caucasian, Hispanic, or African...Because we are subsidizing fornication and illegitimacy - every illegitimate baby means more taxpayer money for the mother."

In other words, "we're pro-birth and not pro-life, after your illegitimate brat is born, you pay for it."

Hateful humdrum: Fischer is teetering on the brink of irrelevancy, but doesn't seem to care. He thinks that hosting Presidential hopefuls and cartoon characters like Rick Santorum will carry his show over the next several years. It might not.

Bryan Fischer is in a rut. 

*John Powers, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?"
** While hawking her latest book on The View, Coulter expounded upon the subject by stating that almost all illegitimate children wound up becoming criminals. 

THE FIRST POLL?

But certainly NOT the LAST!

Take the Terry Jones Culpability Poll!

We're not asking how culpable he is, just if you think he should be CHARGED with something - anything!

Sorry about the small type, but Blogger Design is limited. 

The death toll stands at 20!

The death toll in Afghanistan from the Jones Holy War now stands at 20. The riots are still spreading, fueled by the Taliban.