Welcome, Comrades! We're still making our way through the "we really don't like communism" chapter of our 10th-grade textbook for Christian schools, World History and Cultures In Christian Perspective. So pour a nice glass of Victory Gin, hum the
I still remember experiencing a funeral for a 48 year old woman who had died of breast cancer, to be assured by the officiating minister that she had "won a great victory" over cancer by fucking dying. That was 21 years ago and I am still pissed off over that.
And then there's the barbarous practice of the funeral home visitation. I've been through that for both of my parents-in-law (my dad, bless his atheist soul, refused to have any form of funeral at all), and have informed my husband that there is no fucking way that I am going through that for him.
Fun story. A local Republican party bigwig, who shall remain nameless, has kids our kids all went to school with. Our youngest is still at high school, and so's his. Apparently he told his kids they should vote for BO.
Perhaps he's feeling college costs, even with the American Opportunity Tax Credit, without which I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to give our kids the education they deserve.
<strike>EV theft was something the wingnuts talked a lot about in &#039;08. Needless to say, didn&#039;t happen.</strike> Uh duh, you said electronic, not electoral. That&#039;s different, never mind.
It&#039;s a lot easier to be happy if you go to a CofE church than an SBC one, because the sermon&#039;s more likely to be about how the pastor actually really enjoyed strawberry jam on his toast this morning when he always has raspberry but the store was out, so that&#039;s how God works in mysterious ways, as opposed to saying that if you ever said anything nice to a gay man ever, you&#039;re going to burn in hell fire for all eternity, because Paul.
There are ...<a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch\?v=sfmAeijj5cM" target="_blank">perks</a>... to cleaning windows. Unless this is a euphemism I don&#039;t know for something so vile, so... when do I start?
True story: my grandmother passed away a few years after my grandfather and the same preacher was to officiate the service. I asked to say a few words, since I really wanted this to be about my grandmother. I spoke for five minutes or so about love and memories. I did a good job. The preacher then spoke and worked many of my anecdotes into the service, but in a negative way (I mentioned never having seen them fight; when he spoke he made a point of saying &quot;I guaranteed they fought. All married people fight.&quot;). I couldn&#039;t believe a so-called man of God would use my fond memories in that way. Guess I was naive.
I don&#039;t check, but I assume that most of the people I know here (Baton Rouge) are Christians, and they&#039;re mostly happy enough. Ditto for the people I know in England, at least of my parents&#039; generation. My Dad was an ordained minister in the C of E for many years, and he&#039;s a nice enough guy, and a life-long Labour voter. As an atheist, I think they&#039;re all deluded fools, and I expect they think the same of me, but apart from an occasional friendly argument after a few pints, we just politely ignore the whole thing.
Dok calls this &quot;Sunday with the Christianists&quot;, and is careful to stick to that term. The use of &quot;Christianist&quot; as a deliberate parallel to &quot;Islamist&quot; is credited to Andrew Sullivan in 2003 by wikipedia, and I think it&#039;s a very useful one. It helps to keep discussion of sheer blithering idiocy like creationism, and the intrusion of faith into policy, separate from issues of personal belief.
On an only tangentially related note, ex-Wonkette Alex Pareene called Andrew Sullivan a &quot;beautiful unique internet flower&quot; on Salon today.
Wow. and yet nothing- NOTHING on HuffPo. What the hell? I know it&#039;s not like a real news site these days, but you&#039;d think they could at least mention it.
As with most deep metaphysical questions, there&#039;s a simple answer: they&#039;re going to build a tunnel there in the morning.
EDIT: or not, if Chris Cristie has anything to say about it.
I still remember experiencing a funeral for a 48 year old woman who had died of breast cancer, to be assured by the officiating minister that she had &quot;won a great victory&quot; over cancer by fucking dying. That was 21 years ago and I am still pissed off over that.
And then there&#039;s the barbarous practice of the funeral home visitation. I&#039;ve been through that for both of my parents-in-law (my dad, bless his atheist soul, refused to have any form of funeral at all), and have informed my husband that there is no fucking way that I am going through that for him.
Of course. What was I thinking?
I eschew all of it
Gesundheit
Fun story. A local Republican party bigwig, who shall remain nameless, has kids our kids all went to school with. Our youngest is still at high school, and so&#039;s his. Apparently he told his kids they should vote for BO.
Perhaps he&#039;s feeling college costs, even with the American Opportunity Tax Credit, without which I&#039;m pretty sure we wouldn&#039;t be able to give our kids the education they deserve.
<strike>EV theft was something the wingnuts talked a lot about in &#039;08. Needless to say, didn&#039;t happen.</strike> Uh duh, you said electronic, not electoral. That&#039;s different, never mind.
It&#039;s a lot easier to be happy if you go to a CofE church than an SBC one, because the sermon&#039;s more likely to be about how the pastor actually really enjoyed strawberry jam on his toast this morning when he always has raspberry but the store was out, so that&#039;s how God works in mysterious ways, as opposed to saying that if you ever said anything nice to a gay man ever, you&#039;re going to burn in hell fire for all eternity, because Paul.
There are ...<a href="http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch\?v=sfmAeijj5cM" target="_blank">perks</a>... to cleaning windows. Unless this is a euphemism I don&#039;t know for something so vile, so... when do I start?
True story: my grandmother passed away a few years after my grandfather and the same preacher was to officiate the service. I asked to say a few words, since I really wanted this to be about my grandmother. I spoke for five minutes or so about love and memories. I did a good job. The preacher then spoke and worked many of my anecdotes into the service, but in a negative way (I mentioned never having seen them fight; when he spoke he made a point of saying &quot;I guaranteed they fought. All married people fight.&quot;). I couldn&#039;t believe a so-called man of God would use my fond memories in that way. Guess I was naive.
I feel that way when someone describes a structured observation as an experiment.
I don&#039;t check, but I assume that most of the people I know here (Baton Rouge) are Christians, and they&#039;re mostly happy enough. Ditto for the people I know in England, at least of my parents&#039; generation. My Dad was an ordained minister in the C of E for many years, and he&#039;s a nice enough guy, and a life-long Labour voter. As an atheist, I think they&#039;re all deluded fools, and I expect they think the same of me, but apart from an occasional friendly argument after a few pints, we just politely ignore the whole thing.
Dok calls this &quot;Sunday with the Christianists&quot;, and is careful to stick to that term. The use of &quot;Christianist&quot; as a deliberate parallel to &quot;Islamist&quot; is credited to Andrew Sullivan in 2003 by wikipedia, and I think it&#039;s a very useful one. It helps to keep discussion of sheer blithering idiocy like creationism, and the intrusion of faith into policy, separate from issues of personal belief.
On an only tangentially related note, ex-Wonkette Alex Pareene called Andrew Sullivan a &quot;beautiful unique internet flower&quot; on Salon today.
Wow. and yet nothing- NOTHING on HuffPo. What the hell? I know it&#039;s not like a real news site these days, but you&#039;d think they could at least mention it.
How can this be? Didn&#039;t the US of A fight a war there to keep the world safe for monarchy?
That&#039;s genuflecting and genuflecting and genuflecting and genuflecting and genuflecting and genuflecting and genuflecting, right?
Still ain&#039;t got nuthin&#039; on Revelations but yeah, point well made.
From each according to his abilities; To each according to his needs.