Time now for a little “making fun” because this is so utterly stupid looking. As I have seen from a couple of fundie friends and distant relatives’ Facebook postings, it is become more and more common for some groups to have baptisms in hot tubs and swimming pools (public or private, whatever they can get). After the “saved” person gets “dunked” he and/or she are congratulated as if the person has done something spectacular in life by just being submerged in hot/tepid/cold water (when you and I both know all that nothing magical has happened. All that happens is that the one being baptized gets wet). And as usual, they don’t realize how absolutely ridiculous they look. YouTube has dozens of hot tub and swimming pool baptisms, and they are all equally bizarre.

First we have a little kid being baptized in a hot tub. Most likely he doesn’t even understand what is going on, except that it is something he’s been brainwashed to do by his kooky parents.

And here are people getting baptized in a swimming pool, complete with beach balls floating in the background.

While we are on the topic of baptism, I must confess that I have been baptized not once, but TWICE. Yes, twice. I was sprinkled with Lutheran water when I was a baby, and was dunked in a tank of ice cold water when my family briefly belonged to a Baptist church when I was a teenager (pretty much went through that because of peer pressure from the teen group I belonged to). And after two magical rituals in my life with praying people invoking an invisible gawd to keep me his forever, here I am today, a staunch atheist.

Addition: Baptism in a bathtub…there are several on YouTube. Listen to the murmurings of the borg in the background around 3:21 on this one. Creepy.

The pope and these creepy ghouls at the Vatican are claiming they want to “improve he church’s relationship with non-believers”, but as we all know, what this really is is a sneaky, underhanded attempt to convert us and bring what they perceive as lost sheep back into the fold. Well, I say, no thanks!

The Vatican is planning a new initiative to reach out to atheists and agnostics in an attempt to improve the church’s relationship with non-believers. Pope Benedict XVI has ordered officials to create a new foundation where atheists will be encouraged to meet and debate with some of the Catholic Church’s top theologians.

But the ones who can really make points and take the church theologians to task, like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, will not be invited.

The Vatican hopes to stage a series of debates in Paris next year. But militant non-believers hoping for a chance to set senior church figures straight about the existence of God are set to be disappointed: the church has warned that atheists with high public profiles such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens will not be invited.

Perhaps that is because the Pope and his delusional entourage feel that they will not be able to stand up to such “militant atheists” or perhaps they feel such “militant atheists” are a lost cause for conversion.

“We, as believers, must have at heart even those people who consider themselves agnostics or atheists,” he said. “When we speak of a New Evangelization, these people are perhaps taken aback. They do not want to see themselves as an object of mission or to give up their freedom of thought and will. Yet the question of God remains present even for them, even if they cannot believe in the concrete nature of his concern for us.”

And they still try, try, try to make it like we really do believe, we just don’t know it. If they were really truly interested in our viewpoints they would understand that the “question of God” is only present for us because god believers always have an underlying evangelistic plot to bring us to their beliefs. Well, Dawkins and Hitchens or not, we will still ask the difficult questions…the first one being why the fuck don’t you get your own house in order before attempting to reach out to anyone?

“What the American public doesn’t know is what makes them the American Public.”
– Zalinksy (Dan Aykroyd) in Tommy Boy

“Ha-ha-ha!  You said ‘nuclear.’  It’s ‘nucular,’ dummy.  The ‘s’ is silent.” – Peter Griffin in Family Guy

“The information of the people at large can alone make them the safe as they are the sole depositary of our political and religious freedom.”

Those are the words of Thomas Jefferson.  He knew a thing or two about what makes this country work, and he repeated one of those things over and over and over.  He says it again here:

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.”

And again here:

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

If Jefferson were alive today, I think he would quickly come to one unavoidable conclusion:  We have a problem.  A big problem.

The word “elite” is thrown around a lot these days.  It is used sneeringly, with disdain.  A significant portion of the American population uses the word “elite” to indicate that a person or group is pompous, arrogant, overeducated, and most importantly, wrong.  It is a derogatory term meant to disparage its target.

Here’s how Merriam-Webster defines “elite”: “The choice part; cream; the best of a class.”

Here is Sarah Palin talking with Brian Williams on NBC News and giving her definition of “elite”:  “Oh, I guess just people who think they’re better than anyone else.”

According to Merriam-Webster, “elite” describes someone who excels, someone who is the best at what they do.  According to Sarah Palin, “elite” describes … what?  People who disagree with her?  People who criticize her?  From the sound of it, Palin wants you to think that the elite – the people who have worked hard to excel in their field – think they’re better than you.  In other words, people who are smarter than you should not be trusted because you have all you need to know as long as you … I don’t know, watch Fox News and read your bible?  Actually, it doesn’t matter what Palin’s definition means – what matters is that it resonates with her target audience, with her base.  Who are they?  Well, they’re people who like the sound of Sarah Palin’s definition of “elite.”  It rings true to them – He’s really good at something?  Really smart?  Then he thinks he’s better than me!

Never mind that her definition has absolutely nothing to do with the word’s actual meaning.  Her definition – which she is far from alone in applying to the word – transforms “elite” into a label for people who are … well, knowledgeable; people who tend to point out inconsistencies of logic; people who are prone to be articulate and well-spoken.  Palin herself is none of those things.  Neither are most of the people who make up her base.  Those who are those things are considered suspect by Palin and her many admirers.  They are not to be trusted.  Their knowledge and abilities are really nothing more than arrogance.  They are rejected, mocked and smeared.  And keep in mind that Sarah Palin was the Republican vice presidential candidate in the election of 2008.  Keep in mind that she fills auditoriums when she speaks.  Keep in mind that Palin’s book Going Rogue sold 300,000 copies it’s first day.  None of those things would be true if Sarah Palin were alone in the opinions she holds.

George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States of America, said, “Well, the jury is still out on evolution, you know.”  He also said, “The bird flu virus could evolve to a form that can be spread easily from human to human.”

In a 2007 debate of Republican presidential candidates, the following question was asked:  “Do you believe in evolution?”  Three candidates – Senator Sam Brownback, Governor Mike Huckabee and Representative Tom Tancredo – said they did not.  Those three men were not elected to their offices in a vacuum.  They have a lot of like-minded supporters.

According to a Gallup Poll, fully one third of all Americans believe that every word of the bible is literally true and accurate.  That means they believe, among other things, that animals may talk, that a bush can burn without being consumed by the flames, that the sun can be stopped in the sky during its rotation of the earth, that eight people repopulated the entire planet after a global flood, that it’s sometimes okay for a man to have sex with and impregnate his own daughters, that a woman can get pregnant and have a child while still remaining a virgin, and that people sometimes come back from the dead and live and function as they did before dying.  This requires them to reject science whenever it contradicts these beliefs.  It also requires them to reject anyone who does not share these beliefs.  Don’t believe me?  Watch this political campaign advertisement.

That campaign ad pointed out that Bradley Byrne does not hold the beliefs listed above, but does accept the scientific theory of evolution and does not think that every word of the bible is literally true and accurate – and it pointed all of that out in an effort to discredit him.

America’s founding fathers repeatedly made clear their conviction that America was a secular nation that neither endorses nor enforces any religion, but allows all religions, or no religion.  The evidence of this is abundant.  There’s George Washington’s letter to Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, in which he wrote, “For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”  There’s the Treaty of Tripoli, endorsed by Washington and ratified by John Adams, which states without ambiguity, “The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian religion.”  There’s the Constitution of the United States, in which the only time religion of any kind is mentioned is to prohibit it from government.  There is more, too, plenty more.

And then there’s this.

Despite the abundant evidence that they are flat wrong, a hefty segment of the American population shares Sarah Palin’s opinion in the video linked above that America is “a Christian nation” that merely “tolerates” other faiths out of the goodness of its heart and views these other faiths as inferior.  These people will passionately argue that America was founded on Christian principles by Christian people so Christians can live here in a nation of Jesus-loving Christianity, that the United States is the nation that Jesus built.  I was recently in an argument about this with just such a Christian, and when I pointed out that nowhere does the Constitution mention god or Jesus Christ, he said, “Yes it does!  The Constitution is dated this way:  ‘In the Year of Our Lord!’  And our lord is Jesus Christ, the son of god!”

Are you beginning to see why “elite” has become such a dirty word in America?  It has replaced the once popularly maligned word “intellectual” – because, one might presume, it is shorter and easier to spell.  Intellectuals are usually the early targets of any dictatorship as it comes into power (it seems dictators don’t like the “elite” any more than Sarah Palin and her fans).  Why kill them?  Noam Chomsky answers that question:  “Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyze actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions.”

Those damned pesky elite intellectuals – always asking questions, and worse yet, often answering them!  They’re so troublesome and annoying to corrupt leaders who don’t like it when their actions are criticized or their motives questioned.

In an interview with Cincinnati Magazine, musician, writer, poet, actor, talk show host and punk rock legend Henry Rollins put it well:

How can you argue with someone who applauds when Sarah Palin says we need a real commander-in-chief, not some scholar?  Oh, I see, we don’t like intellectuals.  We don’t want a smart guy as president because he won’t start a war with Iran.  We like the dumb guy better, who couldn’t pronounce any leader’s name and couldn’t find a country on a map; who struggled with the English language like a guy trying to hold on to a live eel.  Yeah, that’s, you know, the coarsening of the intellect.  Who feared smart people?  Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Putin … interesting.  And Palin.  And her flock. “I like Sarah because she’s like me and she’s a good person.”  Well, what about her policies?  “Oh, I don’t know about them, but she’s a good person and that’s why she should be president.”

Of course, here in America, we can’t go around killing intellectuals the way Hitler, Mao and Stalin did … can we?  No, not really.  It wouldn’t look good.  It would be all over the news, Oprah would disapprove, and the media might even make a “reality” TV show about it.

Of course, just because we can’t kill them doesn’t mean we can’t assassinate them in the arena of public opinion.  Listen to right-wing radio talk show host Michael Savage on any day of the week and you will hear him venomously refer to President Obama as, “That university professor!”  As if it’s an epithet on a par with calling him the N-word.  Listen to any of the right-wing radio talkers and you will see how contemptuous they are of well-educated people who’ve devoted their lives to a particular field.  Former Saturday Night Live cast member Dennis Miller, once one of America’s wittiest, most intelligent and acerbic comedians, whose material was peppered with a wide variety of intellectually challenging references that ran the gamut of art, science, pop culture, and history, now hosts a right-wing radio talk show on which he says, multiple times every day, “I’m not much for no fancy book-learnin’.”

But if you think this rejection of intelligence, knowledge and excellence happens only on the right, you’re mistaken.  This past week, movie actor and vocal leftist John Cusack (whom I follow on Twitter) posted this message (I am reproducing it here exactly as he wrote it):

hope we can believe in– ban the ivy league! i kid but not really… lets see what happens when the” best and brightest” dont rule–

Let me repeat that last part again: “Let’s see what happens when the ‘best and brightest’ don’t rule.”  Yes, let’s shove the best and brightest aside and go down the ladder a ways to find our leaders.  Maybe this country would be better off if we put it in the hands of people with no historical frame of reference, people who don’t reach decisions through critical thought and reasoning but rather according to their religious beliefs and ancient religious texts written thousands of years ago by ignorant, superstitious men.  How would that be, huh?  Can you imagine a time when that’s the kind of thinking we use to choose our leaders?

Oh, wait … we’re already there.  Are you scared yet?

In 2008, Susan Jacoby was interviewed by Truthout.org.  Jacoby was a reporter for the Washington Post and the program director of the Center for Inquiry in New York City.  She is now the author of several books, including The Age of American Unreason.  She discussed the common attitude toward knowledge, intelligence and excellence in America and gave the following example of this phenomenon on the left side of the aisle:

At the end of the primaries, both Hillary Clinton and John McCain endorsed a gas tax holiday for Americans this summer. Every economist, both liberal and conservative, said this would do nothing to help matters.  And when Hillary Clinton was asked by the late Tim Russert, “Can you produce one economist to support the gas tax holiday?” she said, “Oh that’s elite thinking.”

Now to say that economists have nothing intelligent to say about whether a gas tax will give people economic relief is like saying that you don’t ask musicians about music; you don’t ask scientists about science.  It’s not just an attack on a political idea; it’s an attack on knowledge itself. … Of course, she doesn’t believe it for a minute. It shows that a lot of politicians think they have to play to ignorance and label anything that goes against received opinion as elitism.

We live in a country in which many brilliant, well-educated people feel they have to play dumb in order to get elected.  They feel the need to pander to the most ignorant among us to get votes, to throw their own knowledge and intelligence out the window and say things they don’t really mean or believe in order to get votes.  And do you know why they do it?  Because it works.

In the same interview, Jacoby gives another example of the frightening way knowledge has been rejected and ignorance embraced:

I’ll give you an example of how stupid this country has become.  I’m one of the village atheists on Faith, a panel sponsored by the Washington Post and Newsweek.  In a recent post I wrote that when I was 7 years old, I was taken by my mom to visit a friend who had been stricken by polio and was in an iron lung. Polio has basically been eradicated, but I grew up when polio was still a real threat to children, before the Salk vaccine.  This childhood friend had been playing and running only three weeks before, and now he was in an iron lung. And I asked my mom, “Why would God let something like that happen?”  And to her credit, instead of giving me some moronic answer, my mother said, “I don’t know.”

After posting this on Faith, I received an e-mail saying, “All childhood memories are unreliable.  We construct narratives to justify what we now think.”

Of course it would be stupid if I’d said I became an atheist at the age of 7.  But I hadn’t said that, only that I remembered this childhood experience as making me begin to question what I’d been taught.  The whole tone of the e-mail was that nobody’s memory about anything could possibly be accurate – no fact could possibly be true.

… One of the points I make in my book is that unreason pervades our culture. It’s not just a matter of right-wing religious fundamentalism. There are all kinds of unreason and suspicion of evidence on both the Right and the Left.

We often hear about the vast promise of technology to educate and enlighten us, to put oceans of information at our very fingertips.  But how can all that information be useful … if we have no frame of reference to apply to it?  Susan Jacoby again:

In my talks to people, I often mention a statistic from the National Constitution Center that almost half of Americans can’t name even one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. A student stood up at a university in California and said, “That doesn’t matter because you can just look it up on the Internet.” But if you don’t know what the First Amendment is in the first place, you don’t know what question to ask the Web.  Garbage in, garbage out. The Web’s only as good as our ability to ask questions of it. The ability to access information means nothing if you don’t have an educated framework of knowledge to fit it into.

But aren’t we at least smart enough to know that we don’t know a lot?  How could we possibly get ourselves into this situation?  Susan Jacoby says:

A fundamentalist is one who believes in a literal interpretation of sacred books, and a third of Americans believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.  That’s about 10 times more than any other developed country in the world.  It’s entirely possible to be a religious believer and to accept science, but not if you’re a literal religious believer.  You can’t believe that the world was literally created in six days, and be open to modern knowledge.

There’s also something else:  We’ve always had more faith in technology than other countries. One of our problems with computers is that we believe in technological solutions to what are essentially non-technological problems.  Not knowing is a non-technological problem.  The idea that the Web is an answer to knowing nothing is wrong, but it’s something that Americans – with our history of believing in technology as the solution to everything – are particularly susceptible to.

Why is it that such a large percentage of the Americans read every word of the bible literally?  Jacoby again.

That’s in my previous book, Freethinkers.  One reason, oddly enough, is our absolute separation of church and state.  In secular Europe – as it’s often called sneeringly by people like Justice Antonin Scalia – religious belief and belief in political systems were united.  So if you opposed the government, you also had to oppose religion.  That wasn’t true in America because we had separation of church and state.  Many forms of religious belief survived in America, because you could believe anything you wanted and still not be opposed to your government.

The freedom of religion in America gives us more freedom, it’s true – but it also gives us more religion, and that freedom provides no balance whatsoever.  People are free to believe whatever idiotic nonsense happens to appeal to them – and they do.  But shouldn’t education provide a balance for this?  Sure, our educational system is a bit problematic these days, but it’s still the best in the world, because America is number one – right?  Jacoby says:

… Americans are unwilling to look at how really bad our educational system is because we’ve all been propagandized with the idea that we’re number one.  That may have been true after World War II, but not anymore.  The idea that we’re number one and special and better than everybody else is a very powerful factor in American life, and it prevents us from examining certain respects in which we’re not number one.

Is Jacoby exaggerating?  Is the educational system really that bad?  After all, America is number one … right?  Well, let’s see.  According to the December 12, 2004 issue of the New York Times, the United States ranks 49th in the world in literacy, 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy and American workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that businesses in the U.S. spend $30 billion a year on remedial training.  According to the January 7, 2005 issue of The Week, 20% of all Americans think the sun orbits the earth, and 17% believe the earth orbits the sun once every day.  On page 78 of Jeremy Rifkin’s book The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, he notes that the International Adult Literacy Survey found “that Americans with less than nine years of education ’score worse than virtually all of the other countries.’”

If you don’t believe any of this and think I’m exaggerated or my information is incorrect, please watch this video, which is a few years old, but still quite relevant.  And be afraid.  Be very afraid.

From the time that I was a boy, I watched my father retreat from the world because the world refused to conform to his opinions and beliefs.  When he was in the sixth grade, his teacher wanted him to give an oral book report in front of the class.  He didn’t want to.  The teacher insisted.  So Dad threw a tantrum, walked away from school halfway through the sixth grade with his signature I’ll show them attitude and never looked back.  He went through life with that same attitude, and the older he got, the angrier he got, because he found that his attitude was not well received.  When I was a child, he used to come home from work angry every day – everyone else was stupid, everyone was out to get him, everyone else was to blame for all of his problems.  After having back surgery, he applied for disability and got it.  He wasn’t disabled – he did plenty of hard work around the house – but he no longer had to face a world of people who knew more than he, who thought more clearly than he, who refused to tell him he was right about everything when he was right about virtually nothing, and who refused to tolerate his tantrums when this fact became clear.  He continued to retreat from the world until he almost never left the house, even to go to church (he was quite religious and was fond of wildly misquoting the bible he never read).  The excuse he invented was, “I don’t like being around crowds.  It’s my nerves.”  My mother played along.  The little house in which they lived became his entire world, and in that world, he knew everything, he was always right, and everyone else was crazy and ignorant and full of crap on every conceivable topic.  And if you didn’t believe him, just ask Mom.  She would nod and smile and say, “That’s what Dad has always said.”  As if always saying it makes it right.

If you had a discussion with him about anything and you happened to disagree with him, you didn’t simply hold a differing opinion – you were saying that he was wrong.  Opinions weren’t just opinions to him because in any conversation, someone had to be right and someone had to be wrong – and he had to be right.  As a result, he walked away from every conversation by angrily snarling his favorite words:  “I know what I know!”

Dad used to pronounce the word “realty” as “reality.”  This drove me crazy.  Finally, I pointed out to him that he was mispronouncing the word.  “Realty refers to the sale of real estate,” I said.  “Reality is a different word and has an entirely different meaning.”

“But I’ve always pronounced it ‘reality,’” he said.  My family was big on the idea that repeating something a lot made it true.

“I know you have, but it’s always been wrong.”

“Well, I prefer to say it my way,” he said.

“Then no one will know what you’re talking about, Dad.”

“That’s their problem.”

I wanted to say, No, Dad, that’s your problem, but I said nothing, and if you’d known my dad, you would know why.

Life in America is starting to bear a terrifying resemblance to life with my parents.  I’m 47 years old, have been married to my wife for 20 years, and yet it seems that, with increasing frequency, when I engage others in conversation on topical subjects, I feel like a little boy again trying to have a conversation with my father.  This is due, I think, to a combination of phenomena that have created a perfect storm of willful ignorance in America.

Fully one third of the population believes in the infallible accuracy of a book that claims it’s okay to abuse or even kill your children, that seas part so people can walk across them, that women are unclean during their menstrual cycle and everything they touch during that time must be burned, that virgins have babies and people rise from the dead.  These people in turn reject any scientific information – sometimes even evidence that is right in front of them – that contradicts this book.  And let’s face it, folks – if you believe all that not only without a speck of evidence to support it but in the face of hard, cold proof to the contrary, then there is no limit on what you will believe.

We live in an era that is bloated with information.  Once upon a time, there were only three, four, maybe five television channels available to most people.  Now there are hundreds.  News channels now have 24 hours to fill every day, which has made everything “news” – the latest celebutard drug overdose, political sex scandals, missing puppies and updates on American Idol contestants are now given the attention and significance once reserved for national policy decisions, wars and natural disasters.  “Reality” TV has invaded every area of television – the major networks, MTV, cooking channels, it’s everywhere – presenting as “reality” the very worst elements of humanity.  Selfish, arrogant, angry, deceptive, promiscuous, ignorant, small-minded people get their own TV shows today and are held up as celebrities, and people tune in to follow their exploits.  They’re soon popping up on shows other than their own – talk shows, panel shows, “news” shows, and in magazines where they pose for glossy, glamorous photo shoots.  They become the topic of watercooler coversations in workplaces around the country.  These people – the stars of “reality” TV shows who have, as a result, become TV stars, celebrities, and the subject of stories that pass for “news” these days – have rapidly become cultural touchstones for us.

On top of that, our culture has become dominated by things like Twitter, Facebook and cell phone texting, all of which have positive aspects.  But a significant portion of our population has come to believe that it’s very important that everyone know exactly what we’re doing at every moment and that we share every little thought that pops into our heads.  It has given us a sense of self-importance we did not have before, the feeling that the minutiae of our lives is somehow special and of great interest to others.  Hey, if those unpleasant, obnoxious, proudly stupid people on The Jersey Shore can have their own TV show, then I can be a celebrity, too, right?  We have become celebrities in our own minds, filled with a false sense of our own importance.

Add to all of the above another factor, one that perhaps does the most damage.  Just as wealthy, pampered celebrities tend to surround themselves with “yes men” who tell those celebrities only what they want to hear, it is now possible for us to structure our own personal lives to confirm only those things we believe about ourselves and our world.  You’re a Christian conservative who believes that America is a Christian nation founded on Christian principles to be ruled by Christians?  Then watch Fox News and CBN and listen to Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham and go online and read Newsmax and WorldNetDaily (both of which have a long history of outright lies).  You believe that the scientific theory of evolution is a lie and the world was created in six days by a silent, invisible god?  Well, there are plenty of well-funded organizations that agree with you and are working hard to spread the word that your belief has scientific support and is being unfairly rejected by the American educational system in favor of its wicked, godless teachings.  In no time at all, you will be absolutely convinced that you are right about everything!  You don’t even have to listen to anything that disagrees with you!  After all, you have TV shows and reporters and news websites and celebrities and shiny organizations to back up everything you believe.  Suddenly, all those who disagree with you become the “elite” – people who think they’re better than you, people who think they know more than you.  What more do you need to know other than the fact that you’re right!

Now, ignorance and stupidity are not only allowed, they are actively encouraged and nurtured!

During the eight years that George W. Bush was president, I nearly pulled my hair out every time I heard him speak.  Whenever he opened his mouth and words came out, he butchered the language, said appallingly ignorant things, and made it very clear that he just wasn’t thinking clearly, as if all the wrong synapses were firing at all the wrong times (“Is our children learning?” … “You need to put food on your family.” … “The jury is still out on evolution.”) Whenever I openly complained about this, it seemed there was always someone who spoke up and said some variation of the following:  “Leave him alone!  At least he’s not one of those people who says everything exactly right all the time, like he’s better than everybody else, like knows more than everybody else!  He talks like a normal person!  He talks like me!”

Every time they said that, what I heard them saying inside my head was, I like him because he’s dumb like me! I heard my father saying, I know what I know! I heard him saying, That’s their problem.

No.  It’s our problem.  It’s the entire country’s problem.  And it’s a problem that is rapidly getting worse, metastasizing like a cancer.  Thomas Jefferson was right – the functional operation of this country as it was conceived by the founders is absolutely dependent on an informed electorate, on reasoning and informed intelligence.  All of that is disintegrating right before our very eyes.

Don’t wait for the educational system to fix this.  Don’t wait for the government to correct it.  It will only get worse unless we start doing something about it ourselves, individually, one at a time.  Educate yourself and stay informed.  Think – and think critically.  Turn off the television and radio and stop listening to the many talking heads who want to do your thinking for you.  Go to the library or a book store, do some reading.  Seek out information and opinions that challenge you and will keep you from saying, I know what I know.  Examine each issue thoughtfully, using reason as your guide, not devotion to a religious belief or allegiance to a political party or the popular opinions of our time.  Keep in mind that the majority opinion is seldom the right one – that the majority once wanted black people and women to remain second class citizens without voices or rights.  Arm yourself with the facts, then speak up when you hear those facts being trampled or twisted.  Don’t remain silent in the face of willful ignorance and disinformation.  Point it out, correct it, and then denounce it.  If we don’t do that with frequency and conviction, we will find ourselves traveling backward in time with terrifying speed, and we will land in a place ruled by ignorance, superstition and anger.  We’re halfway there right now.  In that place, there will be no freedom, no individuality, no thinking.  There will only be the constant repetition of the words, I know what I know … even if what is known is nothing at all.

As some of you may be aware, I’m currently working for the 2010 Census Bureau (albeit temporarily, alas). It’s a job. I knock on doors, and ask a few questions, some of which are slightly intrusive. The US Census, which has been going on for some time now (in fact, since 1790). In California, we’re in danger of losing a representative, and the process in question renders demographic statistics that allow the government to allocate funding to specific programs.

In the course of centuries, it’s grown more diverse and complex. It’d be a good guess that only white folks were counted, nobody knew how many Native Americans were about (not that they got money for anything anyways), the Chinese were just those subhumans who built the railroads…you can fill in the blanks. We have more of everyone now: there are transgender folks to count, and America is literally resembling more the melting pot that it was claimed to be in metaphor only.

There are, of course, people wailing “Foul!” at the incursion of government’s seeming nosiness. The above video is one such, Jerry Day, who demonstrates a complete lack of journalistic integrity.

Why do I say this? Watch the video. He does a lousy Andy Rooney, for one thing. For another, he whinges on about how the census is asking all these questions: how much was your mortgage? What do you pay in bills? Etc.

What he leaves out, is that this happened last year. The Census Bureau was doing a numbers pull (my terminology, not theirs), about the cost of living. This year, I’m just asking these questions. Yes, the same ‘questions’ that Day couldn’t seem to get out of a single phone call. Note the Frankensplicing he uses. Most government workers are drones, and being approached by a media celebrity of any caliber usually sends them rushing off to consult with managers, who inform them that they should likely just hang up. I would truly like to hear the entire conversation, not just watch Day stare at a phone and rattle on.

For an even more aggravated response, I found this during a random Google search:

To obstruct a census worker in his duties per provisions of Title 13 of U.S. Code comes with a possible fine "…not to exceed $500." There have only been a few cases where code convictions have resulted in fines. Most people cooperate with the census and permit themselves to be counted. However, with the advent of the American Community Survey in 1995, a program administrated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census under the Department of Commerce, people began to quietly rebel. Instead of just counting us by number, gender and race, we were expected to fill out a form that asked scores of extremely invasive questions, answers to which many Americans felt were none of the government’s business and refused to fill out the 36 pages of survey questions. Beginning last April, the quiet rebellion erupted in outspoken anger as the dupes of military contractors masquerading as census workers used GPS locators to tag Americans’ addresses to their front doors (The IO, April, 2009). The reasons given for the "precensus" trespasses were not satisfactory to a large cross section of Americana. Following is an explanation that, while not making us feel good about the fact that foreign troops or rockets can find our front doors from outer space, it will answer questions that the temporary worker dupes couldn’t—or wouldn’t.

Scare-mongering at its finest. While I’ve never been a big fan of Big Brother government, hinting around that some foreign troops or rockets will descend on us because of some exacting cartographic locationing is a little bit over the top. Big pluses are: people being able to find you via GPS (including the police, if you get home-invaded, or EMTs in the case of severe medical emergency), being able to chart and sidetrack in case of natural disasters – why, think of it, folks might not get lost any more, which could save a few lives here and there.

And yes, Michelle Bachmann, talking head/second eye candy of the reichwingnuts, she of the anti-global warming nonsense, who perhaps has the scariest amount of stupid quotes in the world (probably only eclipsed by the commander-in-thief who ruined this fine country), is actually claiming that the Census (held since 1790, likely by the ‘Founding Fathers’ these nutballs slaver over constantly) is some sort of conspiracy by ACORN and Obama to…well, these people exhaust me with their stupidity.

I’m not insisting the government’s completely trustworthy, but there are injunctions against misuse and the violation of confidentiality that are quite the deterrent.

In other news, the other talking head strumpet Palin declares:

"Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant – they’re quite clear – that we would create law based on the God of the bible and the ten commandments."

And think about it – these two retards are looking at running for the presidential ticket in 2012. 

Makes my heart skip a beat in terror, it does.

Till the next post, then.

Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who sparked controversy by drawing Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, was physically attacked on Tuesday while giving a lecture at the university of Uppsala, north of the Stockholm.

“The man was sat in the first row and suddenly he rushed at me. He punched me in the head and I lost my glasses,” said Vilks, adding that at the very most he was “a little bruised”.

The Muslims who showed up to protest knew ahead of time what the lecture was going to be about. Why attend if you know that what is going to be shown will offend you? Because, they don’t want anyone insulting their imaginary friend. Nevermind that Vilks spent time making fun of other religions. That does not matter to the protesters, because they believe that Islam is the only “true beliefs” and if no one else protests so violently, well…that just proves to them that Christianity, Buddhism, and all other religions are untrue but Mohammad and Islam are true and according to extremist Muslims, the right to free speech does not apply to Islam.

I was a bit frustrated to see Swedish non-Muslims just sit there there doing nothing at all during the whole ordeal. No one stood up in defense of free speech. It’s like our friend Pat Condell says, people are afraid to stand up to Muslims because of the risk of violent retaliation. The actions against Vilks shows that the fear is not unjustified. Because of the violent threats by Muslim extremists (which are carried out all too often), groups and organizations choose to just back down and let them have their way.

For Mr. Vilks, who has booby-trapped his own house and says he sleeps with an ax beside his bed, the right to unfettered speech – regardless of whether it offends Muslims – is a point of principle. “This must be carried through. You cannot allow it to be stopped,” he told the Associated Press, saying he wouldn’t hesitate to give the address again.

But the university apparently disagrees. Officials said they would “not likely” invite Vilks again because of the incident. In some quarters, the university’s reponse is adding to concerns that violence and threats from some members of the Muslim community are effectively muzzling free speech.

Last month, Comedy Central edited a “South Park” episode showing Mohammed in a bear suit in response to veiled threats by a New York-based Muslim group.

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art pulled a collection of art of Mohammed to avoid offending Muslims, who believe that the depiction of any of the prophets is a form of idolatry.

And Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen says that Yale University Press prohibited her from using several 2005 Danish newspaper caricatures depicting Mohammed with a bomb on his head in her book “The Cartoons That Shook the World.”

“When it comes to depicting the Prophet, this has nothing to do with social issues or integration,” says Professor Klausen. “This is about a political movement by sectarian groups where [depicting Mohammed] has now become a primary trigger for political contention. The university pretty much told [Vilks] to shut up and go talk somewhere else, and I find that reaction very dangerous and problematic. It means that the extremists have achieved what they wanted.”

Here is the video of what happened after the attack on Vilks:

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. – Einstein

We are all vested in Schadenfreude, to some degree. It’s all right to admit it. I’m as guilty of it as anyone else. Being an atheist, I somewhat wallow in it when it comes to mocking religulous wackadoolery – most of us at GiFS! are fairly invested in it.

In fact, it’s become a hallmark of American culture. We watch shows like It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (which I refer to as the Evil Seinfeld), we laugh at the Dilbert comic strips (like the one festooning this post), we find humor in the oddest places, sometimes in the cruelest. Pointing and jeering, and of course, that secret sigh of relief, thank the FSM that it was someone else, not I.

In my 51 years of life on this earth, I’m surprised that I still am shocked by the consistent stupidity of my fellow men (and women, so hush).

I can’t seem to shake this schadenfreude, this delight I take in the (abstract) suffering of others. Likelihood is good that my response would be far, far different were I watching the event take place, rather than reading about it. And of course, the old adage of ‘twenty-twenty hindsight being the best sight’ springs to mind. While we’d all like to think we’d spring into action if another human was imperiled, I’d likely be the fellow saying “Excuse me? I…don’t think you should do that…” Boom! Flash! Smell of cordite. Shrug. “I tried to tell him.”

In the spirit of this (almost) light-hearted introspection, the Darwin Awards are the epitome (but hopefully not the epitaph) of our species’…harrumph!…lack of critical thinking skills.

Let’s start off with some all time classics. 1996’s Macho Men:

Some men will got to extraordinary lengths to prove how macho they are. Frenchman Pierre Pumpille recently shunted a stationary car two feet by headbutting it. "Women thought I was a god," he explained from his hospital bed.

Deity or not, however, Pumpille is a veritable girl’s blouse compared to Polish farmer Krystof Azninski, who staked a strong claim to being Europe’s most macho man by cutting off his own head in 1995. Azninski, 30, had been drinking with friends when it was suggested they strip naked and play some "men’s games". Initially they hit each other over the head with frozen turnips, but then one man upped the ante by seizing a chainsaw and cutting off the end of his foot. Not to be outdone, Azninski grabbed the saw and, shouting "Watch this then," he swung at his own head and chopped it off.  "It’s funny," said one companion, "when he was young he put on his sister’s underwear. But he died like a man."

A 1998 classic:

(February 1998) Matthew and his friends were sliding down a Mammoth Mountain ski run on a foam pad at 3am, when he crashed into a lift tower and died. His makeshift sledge of yellow foam had been stolen from the legs of a lift tower on Stump Alley. The cushion is meant to protect skiers who hit the tower, and the tower Matthew ran into was the one from which he had created his sledge. There’s a moral in there somewhere.

And, an…eating disorder?

(1998, NJ) An unidentified 29 year old male choked to death on a sequined pastie he had orally removed from an exotic dancer at a Phillipsburg establishment. "I didn’t think he was going to eat it," the dancer identified only as "Ginger" said, adding "He was really drunk."

Why anyone would think that sort of feat would impress a girl…?

And, impatience is often rewarded with pain:

In Wesley Chapel, Florida, Joseph Aaron, 20, was hit in the leg with pieces of the bullet he fired at the exhaust pipe of his car. When repairing the car, he needed to bore a hole in the pipe. When he couldn’t find a drill, he tried to shoot a hole in it.

Can you say Duh-HOY, Aaron?

Really, seriously, what is wrong with these people? Funny as hell in the short run, but scary in the long term.

Share your favorite stories, Darwinian or anecdotal, let’s have a chuckle or two, while we stroke our collective chins in worry.

Till the next post, then.

“You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.”
– Jessica Mitford

Did you hear that sound?  That loud, heavy ka-thud?  That was the sound of yet another right-wing Christian hate-mongering hypocrite hitting the ground like a big sack of bibles dropped from a plane at 14,000 feet.  That was the sound of George Rekers going down.  If you didn’t hear it, maybe you felt the shockwave underfoot.  These guys land hard, and they don’t bounce.  Not even the really gay ones.

Who is George Rekers, you ask?  You’ve probably never heard of him, and he seems to prefer it that way.  Rekers is one of the hidden puppetmaster of the hatemongering, hypocritical Christian wrong.  Er, um, sorry, I mean Christian right.

George Alan Rekers is a Baptist minister, an author and a professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science Emeritus at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.  He’s written a good deal on the subject of homosexuality and sexual identity.  His books include, Shaping Your Child’s Sexual Identity and Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality.  Homosexuality is Rekers’s favorite topic.  Along with his pal James Dobson, one of the Christian right’s most beloved and outspoken hate mongers, Rekers is cofounder of the Family Research Council, which has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  According to the Miami New Times, “Its annual Values Summit is considered a litmus test for Republican presidential hopefuls, and Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have spoken there.”

Rekers is also an officer of NARTH, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.  NARTH is one of those groups that advocates “conversion therapy” to “cure” homosexuals of their homosexuality.  This involves such behavior modification tricks as drugs that induce nausea and electric shock while looking at homoerotic images, watching gay porn, or being shown old TV clips of Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly.  Oh, what’s that?  You didn’t know this sort of thing went on in this day and age?  O my brothers, I’m afraid so.  It seems that not only do these people spend a lot of time concerning themselves with what consenting adults do with their genitals and not only do they harbor a venomous hatred for homosexuals, they’re also really big fans of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.  NARTH claims it is a secular organization but this claim is highly suspect.  For one thing, NARTH is bosom buddies – droogs, you might say – with Focus on the Family.  Also, there are the words of its cofounder, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, taken from an article on NARTH at TruthWinsOut.org:

“We, as citizens, need to articulate God’s intent for human sexuality,” Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, President of NARTH, said in CNN’s 360 Degrees with Anderson Cooper, April 14, 2007. At the Feb. 10, 2007 Love Won Out conference in Phoenix, the “secular” therapist told the audience, “When we live our God-given integrity and our human dignity, there is no space for sex with a guy.”  Confronted with protesters at their 2006 national conference in Orlando, NARTH instructed its members to “sing a hymn or pray instead,” according to Mother Jones magazine, in its Sept.-Oct. 2007 issue.

Rekers is listed as a participating “expert on the sexual development of youth” on the website FactsAboutYouth.com.  The website is a project of the American College of Pediatricians, which sounds mighty important and legitimate, and suspiciously similar to the American College of Pediatrics, from which it broke away after the American College of Pediatrics expressed its support of same-sex parents.  The website receives support and assistance from – drum roll, please! – NARTH.

Rekers also has a couple of websites of his own.  One is TeenSexToday.com, where he offers teenagers advice about sex and assures them, “So no matter how common or ‘off the wall’ you might think your question is about teen sex, I’ve probably already studied the topic.”  His other website is ProfessorGeorge.com where you can learn everything there is to know about Dr. George Rekers.

Well, um … maybe not quite everything.

Do you sense something of a pattern in the above details about George Alan Rekers?  Homosexuality … teenagers … Christianity … homosexuality … teenagers … Christianity.  Did I mention homosexuality and teenagers?  If you have suspicions about Rekers … well, then, you win the gold cock ring.

In April of 2010, Professor/Dr./Reverend Rekers went on a ten-day trip to Europe.  Due to a recent surgery, Rekers claims his doctor told him not to lift any heavy objects.  With all the luggage he would be carting around, Rekers needed a travel assistant to help him out.  So naturally, he logged on to the website of travel assistant agency Rentboy.com to find one.

Wait a second, hold it, just hold it!  Rentboy.com, which describes itself as “The world’s largest gay escort and massage site”?  For a travel assistant?  Yes, that’s right.  And he found one!  He chose a young man named Geo who had all the necessary qualifications to be a top-notch travel assistant: 132 pounds, 5′ 9″ tall, a lean swimmer’s build, blue eyes, blond hair, versatility, a nice ass, and plenty of uncut foreskin on his large cock.  Even better, Geo’s profile claimed that he was available for “Massage, good times, travel, escort for days, nights and weekends. … For a sensual meet or companionship.  Will do anything you say as long as you ask.”  The perfect companion to haul Rekers’s luggage – and, of course, his ashes.  Praise Jesus!  Professor George’s prayers had been answered and the lord had led him to the travel assistant of his dreams.  And off they went together into the wild, wild, wild blue yonder for ten days of Euro-fabulousness.

But, as the bible tells us, “the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” and sometimes he walketh about in the form of a photographer from the Miami New Times.  That photographer was waiting for Rekers at Miami International Airport at the end of their ten-day luggage-hauling frolic and snapped a picture … of Rekers handling that luggage that was supposed to be too heavy for him.  According to the New Times:

Rekers said he learned (Geo) was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.”  (Medical problems didn’t stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)

Rekers did not deny that he contacted Geo through Rentboy.com, only that he knew Geo was a gay prostitute.  When the ugly details spread fast, though, Rekers changed his story.  In a Facebook message to blogger Joe Jervis, Rekers wrote the following:

I have spent much time as a mental health professional and as a Christian minister helping and lovingly caring for people identifying themselves as “gay.” My hero is Jesus Christ who loves even the culturally despised people, including sexual sinners and prostitutes. Like Jesus Christ, I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them. … Like John the Baptist and Jesus, I have a loving Christian ministry to homosexuals and prostitutes in which I share the Good News of Jesus Christ with them.

So, to wiggle out of this whole gay rentboy thing, Rekers is comparing himself to Jesus Christ.  A fisher of … men.  A shepherd whose rod and staff … comfort.

Contrary to false gossip, innuendo, and slander about me, I do not in any way “hate” homosexuals –

Except maybe yourself, George?

– but I seek to lovingly share two types of messages to them, as I did with the young man (Geo) … [1] It is possible to cease homosexual practices to avoid the unacceptable health risks associated with that behavior –

But ceasing those practices isn’t nearly as much fun as continuing them, is it, George?  Even while you’re devoting your life to punishing others who engage in them.

– and [2] the most important decision one can make is to establish a relationship with God for all eternity by trusting in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins, including homosexual sins. If you talk with my travel assistant … you will find I spent a great deal of time sharing scientific information on the desirability of abandoning homosexual intercourse, and I shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him in great detail.

First, Rekers pleaded ignorance, then he pleaded arrogance.  If we are to believe him, then Rekers went to Rentboy.com – “The world’s largest gay escort and massage site!” – searched until he found the “sexual sinner” with just the right stats (Cut or uncut? Paper, plastic, or latex?  Would you like thighs with that?) and dragged him off to Europe for ten days to get him to drop to his knees and devote his life to a man who never married and spent all his time with twelve other guys.

The Family Research Council released a statement from its president Tony Perkins (yes, that’s right, Tony Perkins – you movie fans will know why that’s so damned funny):

In the past 24 hours FRC has received calls regarding Dr. George Rekers and his connection with the Family Research Council. After reviewing the historical records we did verify that Dr. Rekers was a member of the original Family Research Council board prior to its merger with Focus on the Family in 1987.

Wait a second, hold it, just hold it!  Is this guy actually trying to tell us that the Family Research Council, cofounded by George Alan Rekers, the man in question, had to review “the historical records” because they didn’t know who this guy is?  Do they think we’re intellectually comatose?  Seriously, do they really think we just fell off the goddamned idiot truck this morning?

Reports have been circulating regarding Dr. Rekers relationship with a male prostitute. FRC has had no contact with Dr. Rekers or knowledge of his activities in over a decade so FRC can provide no further insight into these allegations.

So, at all of those anti-gay conferences held and participated in by the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family – conferences attended by people from NARTH and the American College of Pediatricians and by George Rekers – they were … what?  Preoccupied?  With what?  Hauling luggage around?  Is that why they didn’t notice Rekers?  Is that why they’ve had no “knowledge of his activities in over a decade”?

While we are extremely disappointed when any Christian leader engages in the very activities that they ‘preach’ against, it is not surprising. The scriptures clearly teach the fallen nature of all people. We each have a choice to act upon that nature or accept the forgiveness offered by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and do our best to ensure our actions, both public and private, match our professed positions.

So the Family Research Council – the organization Rekers founded with his co-kneeler James Dobson – has denounced George Rekers … even though they don’t really know who he is and have no idea what he’s been up to in over a decade.  That’s it, Tony – make sure your ass is covered before you bend over for the soapbox.  In the end, of course, like all Christians, they blame “the fallen nature of all people.”  In other words – everybody’s doing it!

NARTH had a very peculiar response to all of this:

You have as much information as we do. Before this released we didn’t have this much information. All we had was a simple accusation that he was with a “rent boy” so that was all we were able to talk about with him. His answers (as well as his demeanor) showed that the story wasn’t exactly as it seamed [sic]. There are certain accusations that would and wouldn’t surprise certain people about others.

No shit, Sherlock.

This comes as a complete surprise as Dr. Rekers is not only very old –

Very old?  He’s 61!  Since when is 61 “very old?”  And even if it were “very old,” what the hell does that have to do with anything?  Old people can’t be gay?  Quentin Crisp lived to be 91 – and he was about as gay as you can get the whole time!  Of course, Quentin Crisp was man enough to be honest about it.

– and in very poor health –

Gay people can get sick, too, you moronic douchebag!  Hey, maybe he has AIDS!  Ever think of that?

– but also very nice and soft spoken –

Oh, well, that’s different.  “Nice and soft spoken”?  Why didn’t you say so in the first place?  In that case, he couldn’t possibly be gay!

– so until we have further information or proof of this incident it remains rumor and speculation.

What do they want, video of the two of them having sex?  So they could show it to some poor son of a bitch while they try to shock the gay out of him?

This is yet another rendition of a tune we’ve heard Christians sing before.  It goes like this:  “La la la la, we can’t hear you!”

What makes this story so significant is Rekers’s aggressively anti-gay work.  According to gay rights activist Wayne Besen, “While he keeps a low public profile, his fingerprints are on almost every anti-gay effort to demean and dehumanize LGBT people.  His work is ubiquitously cited by lobby groups that work to deny equality to LGBT Americans. Rekers has caused a great deal of harm to gay and lesbian individuals.”  Along with his tireless attempts to marginalize and demonize the gay community by keeping alive obsolete myths and hateful lies long proven wrong, Rekers has served “in advisory roles with Congress, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services and testifying as a state’s witness in favor of Florida’s gay adoption ban.” (Miami New Times)

Please open your hymnals now to that beloved old hymn, “Swing Right, Sweet Hypocrite.”  You’ve heard the song before, I’m sure.  We can’t sing the whole hymn because it’s really, really, really, really long.  But some of the stanzas include people like Mark Sanford, Ted Haggard, John Allen Burt, Roy Ashburn, everyone’s favorite airport men’s room tapdancer, Senator Larry Craig, and many, many, many others.  I simply don’t have the space, time or energy to list even half of the scandals involving Christian conservatives.  But you get the idea.  This isn’t anything new – in fact, it’s getting pretty damned old.  But it doesn’t stop.

I’m not trying to say that conservative Christians are the only ones who get caught with their pants down.  There’s plenty of pants-dropping on both sides of the aisle.  Right now, one of my prime candidates for being strung up by his genitalia from the Washington Monument is that slug John Edwards, who’s firmly on the left side of the aisle.  But conservative or liberal – that’s not the point here.  The point is hypocrisy.  We’re all humans, we all make mistakes.  But some of us insist that they have risen above that.  Those are the people I’m talking about.

The one thread that runs through these scandals is Christianity.  These are Christian men who fly their religious beliefs like flags.  They talk about “traditional values” and “family values.”  They pass judgment on those who do not live according to their religious beliefs – whether they share them or not.  They work hard to legislate against the rights of gay people, to determine what women can and cannot do with their own bodies.  Meanwhile, they’re screwing around on their wives, engaging in gay sex and fucking children, and when they get caught, they invoke the name of their savior and brag about how forgiven they are and tell everybody how wrong it is to judge them.

Look, as long as everyone is of age and consenting, you can do whatever the hell you want as far as I’m concerned.  Unroll the rubber sheets, break out the jumbo vibrating dildos, put on the scuba gear and call in the naked Episcopalian dwarves – I don’t care!  In fact, I’m all for people doing things that make them happy because we only get one life and we should make the best of it.  As long as nobody’s getting hurt, I say have yourself a party!

But if you’re a Christian and you’re determined to make sure that everyone knows you’re a Christian — as if that somehow makes you better than everyone else — and if you like to spend your time sticking your nose into other people’s personal business so you can make it known far and wide that you don’t approve of their personal business, if you work to limit the rights of those people, and it turns out that you are engaging in the very behaviors you have condemned, then you, my friend, have made yourself a big fat target.  You can talk all you want about how much Jesus loves you and forgives you and thinks you’re just swell.  But keep in mind that Jesus isn’t here.  He’s not talking.  He’s not posting your bail and he’s not coming to your defense.  And his angry, bloodthirsty, vengeful father is not the one you should be worried about.  Worry about the people you’ve hurt, the people you’ve condemned, the people whose lives you’ve damaged.  And keep in mind that you’re on your own, pal.  As the saying goes, Jesus may love you, but everybody else thinks you’re an asshole.

When I was a little boy, my cousin Kenny and I used to love to pretend we were Batman and Robin.  First, we’d fight over who had to be Robin. Then we’d don our capes – blankets or towels or whatever our mothers had handy – and we’d hunt down Catwoman, take her back to the bat cave and make her undress.  We were very imaginative.  But I digress.  Do you know why we pretended we were Batman and Robin?  We had no choice – because we weren’t Batman and Robin.  We had to pretend.  But the reality was that we were just a couple of dumb kids running around in towels looking like idiots.

That’s what these moralizing Christians do.  Christianity is a game of “let’s pretend.”  It’s the towel they pin around their necks and call a cape.  Then they prance around and tell everyone how moral and righteous they are.  They use lots of catch phrases and buzz words.  They support the family and traditional marriage, they say.  They have core values that are Christ-centered and biblically based.  They live by the Christian principles upon which this nation was founded.  They have rules they must follow – they have to oppose and condemn homosexuality and abortion and anything on the left.  As long as they oppose those things loudly enough so that everyone can hear and everyone can know how moral and righteous they are … well, then, they can go about the business of being human beings who live on planet earth.  But you know what?  Sometimes human beings are gay.  Sometimes human beings find themselves in situations where an abortion is the best choice they can make.  Sometimes when people follow their conscience, they find themselves on the left side of the aisle.  And best of all, some of those people are actually honest about all those things.

The brilliant comedian Lenny Bruce once said, “The ‘what should be’ never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no ‘what should be,’ there is only what is.”

Those who live in the world of what they think should be rather than what is do so at their own risk – especially when they hurt others while doing it.  Sooner or later, “what should be” falls apart and you’re left with “what is.”  If you’re a moralizing hypocritical Christian who imposes his beliefs on others, “what is” can be a very lonely and unpleasant place.

This story, brought to my attention by my friend Andrea, is by far one of the most horrible stories I have heard in awhile.

Five Hours of Trying to Rape a Lesbian Straight

Millicent Gaika’s story is heart-breaking. As is Eudy Simelane’s, Anelisa Mfo’s and the countless others who have been swept up in South Africa’s culture of rape. The crimes committed against them are horrible. Let’s make sure that their pain and suffering didn’t happen in vain.

And check out the video in the story link above for even more information on the phenomenon of corrective rape.

Here is another video I found on YouTube.

While attitudes towards homosexuality in the U.S. stem from Christian beliefs and teachings, machoism is the cause of the attitudes against homosexuality in South Africa, which causes violent attacks most often against lesbians.

INTERVIEW-SAfrica rapes linked to macho culture-study author

“Fundamentally, rape is a problem that stems from ideas of manhood in South Africa,” said Jewkes.

“The position of men is superior to women in a patriarchal society and legitimates men’s behaviours towards women, predicated on ideas of sexual entitlement and behaviours that demonstrate men being in control over women.”

South African President Jacob Zuma has promised to end abuses against women. A polygamist who has angered women’s rights groups, Zuma was acquitted in a rape trial in 2006, when he justified having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman by saying he had taken a shower afterwards.

The study, of men in all racial groups and from different socio-economic backgrounds, showed half of those interviewed were under 25 years of age and 70 percent were under 30.

Nearly 10 percent said they had raped a woman or girl for the first time when they were under 10 years old. The HIV prevalence among those who raped was 19.6 percent.

Appalling.

Address South Africa’s Culture of Rape
Please sign the petition today.

The whole world is watching South Africa. Will it be a country that is viewed as a success story, and a country that values human rights? Or will it be a country that proudly boasts the reputation of the rape capital of the world?