Christopher Hitchens, on the day Jerry Falwell died, appeared on CNN and referred to Falwell as, “a little toad … a horrible little person… an evil old man… a conscious charlatan and bully and fraud.”

You go, Chris!

Do I look fat in these jeans?

I just finished it a couple of days ago.

Altemeyer is a 21st-century bad-ass.

Great minds think alike, Oracle— did you ever see “The Fundamentalist Agenda” by Davidson Loehr? It makes exactly that point, but in more detail… a good read.

http://uuworld.org/2004/01/feature2.html

And of course, Robert Altemayer’s “The Authoritarians” is a must-read

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

I consider myself to be a liberal Christian. I recognize the difference between what Jesus was teaching and what all these hardcore, right-wing religious bigots preach and practice. Plus, I also recognize that these hardcore, right-wing “Christians” are just as much a danger to our democracy, our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as the hardcore, right-wing religious fanatics behind the 9/11 attacks. Hardcore conservatives are the same all over the world, and you can spot them based upon what a person is calling to be censored or whom the conservative is calling to be censored…often to death.

Fixed. There’s nothing worse than half-hearted hyperbole.

Not thinking makes people think like that. Well, not thinking, combined with fear, guilt and shame.

In fact, gay bashing can be justified on a utilitarian basis, because while it hurts that particular gay guy, it theoretically could discourage many others from “sinning”.

So could stoning adulterers (which includes men who marry divorced or widowed women) but you won’t see that happening any time soon because that would mean a great big mess in their nice MegaChurches. Jesus is very clear about sin: You’ve got enough problems without worrying about anyone else.” But the Talevangicals are no different from any other hate group. Instead of hiding under fancy sheets and saying they want to protect whites from the dreadful negroes, they hide behind a Bible and say they want to protect everyone from anyone who does something with their genitals except procreate.

Trust me, if God parted the clouds tomorrow and said “Yo, leave the gays alone, asshats,” they’d cower for a bit and then leap up “Hey, did you hear that? God told us to hit the gays with stones and bats!”

The only reason I don’t suggest kicking these guys in the face is they’re ridiculous or repulsive to a lot of people who don’t really care about gay issues either way. The more people who associate homophobia with Phred Felch screaming at a soldier’s casket the more people who recoil from the idea of homophobia. The more people who associate homophobia with people who writhe on the ground speaking in tounges, the more people who think homophobia is disease that afflicts red necks.

But fundamentalist Christianity works hard to make people obsess about the state of their souls. A lot of these folks think that heathens and sinners are going to burn in hell forever. A gay person getting beaten to death is just losing his physical body; Howard Stern’s blasphemy might influence hundreds or thousands of people to abandon the lord and thus condemn them to hell for eternity.

If you accept the premises of Christian assholes, then these examples of “Christian bashing” really are worse than any gay bashing could ever be. In fact, gay bashing can be justified on a utilitarian basis, because while it hurts that particular gay guy, it theoretically could discourage many others from “sinning”.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. Just… what a terrifying world to live in, where every time you masturbate you risk being dropped into an eternal Auschwitz. What makes people think like that?

Nero was innocent of the crime, and worked hard to help the victims. The killing of Christians in the arena was the normal practice of Roman Justice towards criminals. Arson was a very serious crime.

The “wet end” of what, exactly?