The R Word

Is the Tea Party a racist organization? I say no, just a little unhinged.

A few years ago I received a T shirt as Saturnalia gift. The shirt declared George W. Bush was a fascist and showed him with a scribbled in Chaplin moustauche. I never wore the thing, since I don't believe Bush was as bad as Hitler, just the worst president in my lifetime. Comparing Obama to Hitler is just ignorant, not racist.

I remember all that was said about John Kerry when he ran for president. Kerry, who was wounded three times and carried a fellow soldier to safety in Viet Nam, was branded a coward, traitor, baby killer, and other epithets all during the campaign. The swift boating of John Kerry serves as a baseline for how far Obama's critics can go without being racist.

Does the Tea Party have racist supporters? Absolutely-but so does the Democratic Party or almost any other political party with a majority of white folks. The Tea Party is just better suited to racist beliefs about big government favoring black and brown people over "full blooded Americans," but that doesn't mean a majority of people frightened by massive deficits, bank bail outs, taxation and government influence are being racist.

At least no female priests will ever molest an alter boy

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/europe/16vatican.html?_r=1&src=me

From today's NY Times:

Vatican Revises Abuse Process, but Causes Stir

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued revisions to its internal laws on Thursday making it easier to discipline sex-abuser priests, but caused confusion by also stating that ordaining women as priests was as grave an offense as pedophilia...

Make up your mind! Is he a communist, a Muslim, or the antichrist?

This rumour among conspiracy theorists has has been floating around for almost 2 years...

The First Time I Heard Of Barack
By Tom Fife

...One evening, during a trip early in 1992, the American half of our venture were invited to V. & T.’s Moscow flat as we were about to return to the States.

“What if I told you that you will have a black president very soon and he will be a Communist?”

The out-of-the-blue remark was met by our stares. She continued, “Well, you will; and he will be a Communist.”

...This is not some idle talk. He is already born and he is educated and being groomed to be president right now. You will be impressed to know that he has gone to the best schools of Presidents. He is what you call “Ivy League”. You don’t believe me, but he is real and I even know his name. His name is Barack. His mother is white and American and his father is black from Africa. That’s right, a chocolate baby! And he’s going to be your President.”

... It’s all been thought out. His father is not an American black so he won’t have that social slave stigma. He is intelligent and he is half white and has been raised from the cradle to be an atheist and a Communist. He’s gone to the finest schools. He is being guided every step of the way and he will be irresistible to America.”

She rattled off a complete litany. He was from Hawaii. He went to school in California. He lived in Chicago. He was soon to be elected to the legislature. “Have no doubt: he is one of us, a Soviet.”

First Church of Jesus Christ, Comedian

Another quote from ¡SATIRISTAS! reminded me that the idea that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven is pretty funny. Here's Roseanne Barr on the Son of Man:

...I'm totally into Jesus. I love the whole myth of it. It really is the greatest story ever told. I think we're wired to believe something; some story, myth, whatever.

And that's what being a stand-up comic is to me: a whole mission from God...Jesus would be a stand-up comic today, for sure. He probably wouldn't go to comedy clubs, because he wouldn't be around filth and sin, but he'd probably do it in a park under a tree, for free. He might be homeless too.

And I say he's a girl this time.

Satiristas

I've been reading an overdue library book called ¡SATIRISTAS! , a collection of interviews and photos of the satirical elite.

Here's a quote from Robin Williams:

Occasionally you'll get the born again Christian who'll come at you hard. The Christian Reich-sorry, "Right." And you think, "When the Rapture comes and all you guys leave...the place will be so much quieter."

The idea that in the Rapture they'll go to the front of the line and go to heaven? Muslims have the same thing about them going to the front of the line, orthodox Jews have their own thing about that, and you know... Hmmm.

Why Can't We all Agree?

Christian Groups: Biblical Armageddon Must Be Taught Alongside Global Warming

The World is Ending Again

I've been digging through boxes of articles I've saved over the years and found the March 12, 1995 Sunday section of the San Francisco Chronicle. The first headline reads "THE MAN WHO PROPHESIED THE END OF THE WORLD." The man happens to be radio evangelist Harold Camping, who disappointed many of his followers when the world didn't end in the Fall of 1994.

Camping is still around and reassuring believers that the Mayan Calendar predicting the end of the world in 2012 is a lot of nonsense. The media knows the world will end in 2011.



Beneath the Camping story reads the headline "A Call to Arms...Throughout the state, angry citizens are forming combat-ready militias to protect themselves against a government they believe wants to take their guns and tell them how to live."
I wonder what happened to all those anti-government types?

Candidate Obama predicts the rise of Birthers and Teabaggers

How much will tuition cost in the Afterlife?

It's been half a year since the Rev. Roberts passed over to the other side...

Oral Roberts Tells Conference He Has Raised People From the Dead

AP

Published: June 27, 1987

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/27/us/oral-roberts-tells-conference-he-has-raised-people-from-the-dead.html?ref=oral_roberts

TULSA, Okla., June 26 1987—

...''All of us in the ministry could talk about that, of certain dead ones raised, died right while I was preaching,'' Mr. Roberts told more than 5,000 people Thursday at the closing of the Charismatic Bible Ministries conference.

''I had to stop and go back in the crowd and raise the dead person so I could go ahead with the service,'' Mr. Roberts said. He also said God had told him he would ''be coming back,'' and he ''got this picture that I would be coming to Tulsa.'' 'I'm Going to Rule'

''I'm looking to the world to come because I'm not going to stay over there,'' Mr. Roberts said. ''I'm coming back. And I'm going to help bring that world to come with me and put it right on top of this world right here that's been persecuting me. And I'm going to get my rightful place. I'm going to rule and I'm going to reign. You look at Oral Roberts University, what happens to it when I get back from the other side.''

Another whining kid

I happened to be at our neighbor's first communion. Following the service, I saw the 2nd grader looking cross and deep in conversation with the priest. I overheard the Father explaining "Well, it's not the greatest tasting stuff in the world...you have to sip it."