Another one from Mama Shakes: What poem or song lyric really impacted your thinking or opened your eyes to something about life?
Lots of songs and poems have affected me in enlightening ways, but nothing quite so profoundly as The Smiths' How Soon Is Now? The first time I heard the opening riffs on MTV's "120 Minutes," I realized there was a person inside me I'd never met before.
I'm honestly not sure I'd be who I am now without The Smiths.
Question of the Day
Jon Stewart: Best American Pundit
Can we talk about how awesome Jon Stewart was on The Daily Show last night? First, there was the "Even Dick Don't Know Dick" segment, which itself was genius, playing a 1994 clip (and punctuated by Stewart's pointed commentary) of Dick Cheney saying that UN forces should not have moved into Baghdad after the first Gulf War because "once you got to Iraq and took it over and took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? … That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government in Iraq, you can easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. … It's a quagmire." All really smart observations that weren't made before we marched into Iraq this time around.
Then came the guest segment, during which he interviewed Weekly Standard writer and author of the new book Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice Preisdent, Stephen Hayes. And this bit, you've just got to watch. (If anyone can find a transcript, please drop a link in comments. I'm sorry, deaf Shakers. I really did try to find one.)
Wow. Just fucking wow.
Also: Wow.
But You Know Who's Not Fat? Amy Winehouse.
So, Bluegal found this story about Amy Winehouse's heroin cocaine exercise addiction, which has resulted in a dramatic weight loss:
The interesting thing about the story is, despite calling the exercise routine "aggressive" and "alarming," they sure do spend a lot of time talking about how she does it.
"Amy will do a full cardio, fat-burning workout followed by lots of repetitions, on a relatively light load, on the weights machines. As her body has become transformed, the more weight she's lost, and the more obsessed she has become."Yeah, another name for that is "anorexia athletica," but they never mention that part. Or the "heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and booze" part. (Yes, despite her big hit, Amy Winehouse went to rehab.) I can see them ignoring the latter for fear of being sued, but what was the point of publishing this story about her "alarming," "neurotic," weight loss routine, if they were going to ultimately make it sound so much like a garden variety "How the stars stay slim!" article from any given women's magazine? I mean, you know those pictures are going to end up in Pro-Ana communities -- how convenient that the article offers a handy blueprint for anorexic behavior along with them!
Miss Winehouse's new size 6 physique - down from a well-proportioned 14* - is largely the result of a daily exercise programme carried out at the Fitness First women's only gym in north London's Chalk Farm.
After an initial free consultation with a personal trainer, the singer - whose debut album, Frank, sold over 250,000 copies and won the 2004 Mercury Prize - has amazed staff with her dedication.
Despite being advised to have at least one "rest day" a week, she visits the gym daily, usually going between four and six in the afternoon.
Following a strenuous workout, Miss Winehouse walks the 25 minute journey home, where she showers and changes, before often taking yet another stroll around Camden market.
From the sound of things, Amy Winehouse is terribly ill, in more than one way. And articles like this, that make vague pretensions to concern for her "health" but are ultimately just trying to hit two fishwrap-selling birds -- gawking at a freakish-looking body and documenting celebrity weight loss -- with one stone, do not fucking help. They don't help her, and they definitely don't help her young fans.
Same goes for the people who keep giving Courtney Love a platform to talk about how she only eats macrobiotic seaweed or only eats donuts, depending on what day it is. Guess what, kids -- it doesn't matter what you eat IF YOU DO ENOUGH DRUGS.
But informing the public about the "exercise" and "diet" regimes that keep the stars thin is important journalism, of course. Because we all know being fat is unhealthy.
*These are UK sizes, which translate to US sizes as "skeletal" and "quite small," respectively. Amy Winehouse was never a current US 14 any more than Marilyn Monroe was.
P.S. I know The Daily Mail is not known for its journalistic integrity. That doesn't make these articles any less problematic.
Ahead Warp Factor 1
From the Telegraph:
This means a couple of things. For one, if we become a faster-than-light civilization, it means others will check us out and perhaps make First Contact. That means the Vulcans are coming. Quick; everybody clean up the place. You know how fussy they are.A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.
According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.
However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.
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The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.
Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.
For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.
The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.
Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."
Second, it will prove true one of my favorite limericks:
There once was a lady named BrightCross-posted -- at sublight speed -- from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
Whose speed was faster than light.
She went out one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous night.
Next To Go: Tony Snow
Preznit Shirky's current mouthpiece, Tony Snow, told Hugh Hewitt yesterday he won't be finishing the term with Georgie:
HH: Your intention to go the distance, Tony Snow?Yikes, a little frisky at the end there, don't you think? I really am curious as to why he's running out of money. At $162,500, he is making a surprisingly small fraction of what he netted while at Fox. Still, that's quite a nice paycheck that easily dwarfs what a lot of people make in this country. The other problem is one of logic. If I'm running out of money, I think I would want to stay at my job as long as possible to get some, you know, income. Wev.
TS: No, I’m not going to be…I’ve already made it clear I’m not going to be able to go the distance, but that’s primarily for financial reasons. I’ve told people when my money runs out, then I’ve got to go.
HH: How long will that be?
TS: I’m not going to tell you.
HH: Well, come on, make some news.
TS: No.
I can't imagine anyone envies Tony's position, knowing that you would have to stand there every day and endlessly spew bullshit just to keep your job. It certainly could not have helped when trying to recover from some of the stuff he has been through.
Sad to see him go? Nope. But, I don't wish him ill.
Good luck, Tony and get some damn rest.
From the Department of Barf
Jenna Bush has gotten engaged to Henry Hager, who's the son of GOP muckity-fuck and tobacco executive John Hager. An oil princess marrying a tobacco prince? That's some serious Republican royalty right there. Their children will be born with silver Federal Marriage Amendments in their mouths and they'll poop Scalia opinions.
Even better, young Henry worked directly for Karl Rove in the White House…Talk about your unholy matrimony!
…so there’s a good chance Jenna’s new husband will be forced to testify at her dad’s war-crimes trial.Heh. If only.
I've heard The Hague is a lovely place for a spring wedding.
[Thanks to Blogenfreude, by email.]
Building a Home for Religion-Hating in Non-Belief
Tuesday night, Bill Maher was on Larry King Live, where he discussed his upcoming movie about religion (transcript of clip is below):
Okay, first of all, when I hear "Religulous," I don't think "religion + ridiculous" at all, but "Caligula + ridiculous"—which, admittedly, makes it pretty appropriate for a Bill Maher project, but doesn't have much to do with his stated topic. Secondly, Mr. It's-Certainly-the-Doubter's-View-of-Religion, don't try to do atheists any favors. If you're all about the "I don't know," you're an agnostic, not an atheist.
Frankly, it seems to me that, more than anything else, Maher is just a hater of religion, which is a point of view wholly separate from belief, or lack thereof, in god(s). It is possible, in fact, to fervently believe in a god while passionately loathing organized religion. And just as there are believers who despise religion, there are non-believers who don't, who regard it as simply one of many social/cultural phenomena in which they don't participate, like bowling leagues or pet shows, perhaps.
Clearly, I'm no stranger to the need to stand steadfast against the legislation of religion (or a specific morality which extends therewith), but—just ask anyone who believes in the separation of church and state for the benefit of the church as well as the state—that's a separate issue from the hatred of religion altogether.
Anti-religiosity is its own little belief unto itself, but some of its proponents, like Maher, tend to want attach it to atheism, a contrivance that strikes me as patently silly, depending as it does on attaching a belief system to a lack of belief. Hatred of religion is not a tenet of atheism or agnosticism; they don't have tenets—there's no guidebook to which we're meant to adhere. That's kind of the point.
Seems to me if you hate religion, just say you hate religion; don't try to dress it up in atheism or wev. That's about as intellectually honest as hatin' the gays and cloaking it in religion. Maybe less so, given that the holy texts of the major religions at least give that position a toehold, if a dubious one.
All that said, maybe I'm just being persnickety because I quite genuinely don't understand the compulsion to evangelize a lack of belief. If someone who minds his or her own political business finds life easier because they believe in a god, I don't really care. MREWYB. Wev.
KING: Not bad. OK. Tell us about the upcoming documentary on religion. Does it have a title, because you once said religion is stupid. That's not the title, is it?
MAHER: No, no, I was kidding. I think the title is requesting to be "Religulous."
KING: "Religulous."
MAHER: That's ridiculous.
KING: "Borat" guy director.
MAHER: That's right. Larry Charles, the brilliant Larry Charles who directed "Borat," he's the director.
KING: What's the concept? When does it come out?
MAHER: It should come out at Easter. I would like it out as soon as the time people are celebrating the space man's flying up to heaven.
KING: (inaudible)
MAHER: Oh yes. Absolutely. Lion's Gate is releasing it. I think it's going to unleash a great torrent of energy in support of this proposition.
KING: This is the atheist view of religion.
MAHER: Well, yes. It's certainly the doubter's view. How much of an atheist a person is, even I, who I'm not a believer, say, look I can't know. My main proposition is I don't know, and, therefore, if some other human being tells me or anybody else what happens when you die, my answer to them I don't know what happens when you die so how do you know? The answer is you don't know, so to purport to present yourself as someone who can tell in such great detail, and the detail is amazing, isn't it, about what happens when you die you?
We have to get away from a system of faith. Mitt Romney always says we need a person of faith in the White House. They all would say the same thing who are running for president. No, we need a person of doubt in the White House. Stop with the faith and start with the doubt.
KING: Where do you -- give me what I will see. Do you talk to religious leaders?
MAHER: Oh, we talk to everybody. We went everywhere. We went to every place where there's religion. We went to Vatican City and we went to Jerusalem and we went to Salt Lake City and, you know, I think I've insulted everybody, you know. It's across the board, and we got amazing access. I mean, we were ...
KING: Really?
MAHER: We were at the dome -- we were standing right next to the rock, the Dome of the Rock where Mohammed flew up to heaven. We were -- we were in that mosque, places they never filmed before. The Wailing Wall you're not allowed to have cameras, inside the Vatican. We just found out that even though the sign says you're not allowed to enter here there's so many tourists with cameras and such and nowadays when you make a documentary like this it's kind of guerrilla shooting. You don't need a big crew. You just pretend you're tourists and you're shooting and then can you make a movie.
KING: Is this like Michael Moore in a sense?
MAHER: I would never compare myself to Michael more because, first of all, he's a genius. He does what he does incredibly well, but I think ...
KING: This isn't that type?
MAHER: This is -- You know, I hope that people laugh -- we've shown 10 minutes. That's all we have so far. We're still cutting it together. But the 10 minutes that we've shown I've seen it shown to audiences twice. They laugh so hard because the topic of religion is just so inherently funny. I mean, politicians are funny because they promise things that they can never deliver on, and the gap between what they promise and what they deliver is great fodder for humor, as people from Mark Twain up into our own day have demonstrated but what religious people have promised, your own planet, come on, that's a little beyond Social Security.
[Full transcript here.]
The Kind of Thing That Just Makes Me Want to Give up and Hide Under the Bed
"She has a huge butt, a gut, a stupid tattoo, and she still wears a juvenile nose ring. If her work out plans calls for her to look like a pear, then it’s working."
Apparently, the Hollywood Grind's educational plans call for them to remain total fucking idiots.
(Via Mo Pie, who linked to it today apropos of other stuff, even though it's from last month.)
I guess Gitmo is just a hotel, then
So if Manuel Noriega will soon be the last "officially recognized" US-held prisoner of war, just who are all those people at Guantanamo Bay? Tourists?
The U.S. military will soon release the last Iraqi held as an enemy prisoner of war, leaving former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega as the country's only formally recognized POW.Iraq's former Air Force commander, Hamid Raja Shalah Al-Tikriti, was captured in June 2003 and is the last enemy POW held by coalition forces, a U.S. military spokeswoman said. [...]
The United States has been criticized for its stance that foreign captives it holds at the Guantanamo Bay Naval base in Cuba and elsewhere are not prisoners of war.
Ah, the joys of semantics!
(Cross-posted.)
Sorry About That
Two stories of apology caught my eye. The first one is from New Guinea.
The descendants of cannibals who killed and ate four Fijian missionaries in 1878 have apologised for their forefathers' actions, the Australian Associated Press reported Thursday.Then the Danes are sorry about the Vikings trashing Ireland.
Fiji's High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ratu Isoa Tikoca, accepted the apologies at a reconciliation ceremony attended by thousands of people near Rabaul in East New Britain province on Wednesday.
"We at this juncture are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement," Tikoca said.
PNG's Governor-General Paulias Matane told the crowd he appreciated the work of the early Fijian missionaries in spreading Christianity, AAP said.
The ceremony marked 132 years since Methodist ministers and teachers from Fiji arrived in the New Guinea islands region in 1875 headed by Englishman George Brown.
In April 1878, a Fijian minister and three teachers were killed and eaten by Tolai tribespeople on the Gazelle Peninsula.
Brown directed and took part in a punitive expedition that resulted in a number of Tolais being killed and several villages burnt down.
His actions caused a storm of protest in the Methodist Church in Australia and elsewhere. Official investigations by British colonial authorities in the Pacific cleared him of criminal charges.
More than 1,200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. Yesterday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise.It tells you something about a country or culture that can recognize their mistakes and make amends. I realize that it's a little late for the Danes -- it's been over a thousand years since the Vikings came ashore -- but it's the thought that counts. The same goes for the New Guineans making mincemeat out of the Methodists. (If they had been Catholics, the line would have been, "Hey, you want friars with that?")
The Danish culture minister, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to participate in celebrations marking the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship, but we are not proud of the damages to the people of Ireland that followed in the footsteps of the Vikings," Mr Mikkelson declared in his welcoming speech delivered on the dockside at the river Liffey. "But the warmth and friendliness with which you greet us today and the Viking ship show us that, luckily, it has all been forgiven."
It also makes you wonder how long it will take us to apologize to the Iraqis for trashing their country for no other good reason than that we thought we could, we wanted their oil, and that we could use them to spread democracy, Christianity, and white bread to the Middle East. Wrong on all counts.
It takes maturity and humility recognize when you're wrong and make amends. So my guess is that it will take us about as long as it took the Danes to say it.
Cross-posted from Bark Bark Woof Woof.
Why We Need Universal Healthcare, In One Story
Man kisses ailing wife, hurls her from balcony:
A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder.I'm going to stop there and give you a moment to catch your breath, and maybe grab a tissue, because it's going to get worse.
According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County Circuit Court, Stanley Reimer walked his wife to the balcony of their apartment and kissed her before throwing her over.Her monthly income, however, was $725.
The body of Criste Reimer, 47, was found Tuesday night outside the apartment building, near the upscale Country Club Plaza shopping district.
Stanley Reimer, 51, was charged Wednesday. … In the probable cause statement filed with the charges, police said Reimer was desperate because he could not pay the bills for his wife's treatment for neurological problems and uterine cancer.
…According to Jackson County Probate Court records, Criste Reimer had been in ill health for several years. Her weight had fallen to 75 pounds and she was partly blind. According to the court records, she had no health insurance to pay for medical bills that ranged from $700 to $800 per week.
Now, it's not clear from this story whether Stanley Reimer is really a man who deeply loved his wife and did what he did because he was crazed with desperation, or a man who simply didn't want to be burdened with a sick wife and exorbitant medical bills her income couldn't cover. I'd like to think it's the former, if I'm honest—but either way, it doesn't matter. According to his confession, he did it because he couldn't pay the medical bills. The plain truth is, if she'd had access to healthcare, she'd be alive.
The hat tip goes to Shaker Christine, who adds she's "more than willing to bet that acts similar to this happen all the time, just not as dramatically," which is certainly true. We also know, for example, that the lack of healthcare is a contributing factor to many abortions, with 73% of women citing "Can't afford a baby now" as their reason for seeking an abortion.
In the qualitative sample, of women who stated that they could not afford to have a child now, the majority had children already. Financial difficulties included the absence of support from the father of either the current pregnancy or the woman’s other children, anticipating not being able to continue working or to find work while pregnant or caring for a newborn, not having the resources to support a child whose conception was not planned and lacking health insurance.Additionally, about one-fourth of participants in the qualitative sample cited her own health or possible health problems with the fetus as reasons for the abortion, citing concerns including "a lack of prenatal care."
Anti-choicers can continue barking their "perfect world" bullshit sanctimony about how no woman who can't have a baby should ever get pregnant, but that just isn't going to happen—and even if it did, it still wouldn't stop circumstances from changing; anti-choicers may have noticed their god likes to play a little trick sometimes in which he snatches Daddy to heaven before Baby's even born. The truth of the matter is that universal healthcare will prevent abortions. End of story.
And it would have prevented Criste Reimer from dying by being flung over a balcony. Hell, it might have even stopped her from dying of uterine cancer before age 50.
But the attitude of the anti-universal healthcare brigade seems to be approximately as sophisticated, compassionate, and rooted in reality as the anti-choicers': Don't get sick if you don't have healthcare coverage.
Advice as practical as it is kind.
Massive Quake in Peru
The death toll from a powerful earthquake rose to at least 337 Thursday, a day after the magnitude-7.9 temblor shook Peru's coast, toppled buildings and shattered roads, officials said.The quake was caused when one of two plates atop which the region sits made a "sudden shift" underneath the other, which was the same cause of the 2004 tsunami.
More than 827 people were reported injured and the Red Cross said the toll was expected to rise.
Rescue workers struggled to reach the center of the destruction, the port city of Pisco about 125 miles southeast of the capital, Lima. Pisco's mayor said at least 200 people were buried in the rubble of a church where they had been attending a service.
"The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets," Mayor Juan Mendoza told Lima radio station CPN.
"We don't have lights, water, communications. Most houses have fallen, churches, stores, hotels, everything is destroyed," he said, sobbing.
A man walks over the debris from a damaged wall in Lima's
port of Callao. (Enrique Castro Mendivil/Reuters)
It doesn't appear that President Bush has yet made any statement or an announcement of relief/aid from the US. I'll post an update if/when I find one or one is made.
Question of the Day
What are your favorite and least favorite uses of your name in pop culture? Books, films, television shows, songs, comics, anything…
My name isn't really used enough to have much of an answer for this one. Probably the most well-known pop culture reference using my name is the Allman Brothers' "Melissa," which isn't even really about a girl named Melissa as much as it is about a rambling dude who fancies a girl named Melissa. Wev. I like Erykah Badu's version, though.
Porno Graffiti also have a song called "Melissa," which someone put on a mix CD for me once. I like the song, even though I have no idea what it's about since I don't speak/read Japanese.
Other than that, it's pretty slim pickings. Melanie Mayron's character in Thirtysomething was named Melissa, which is the only recurring television character I can recall, and I can't think of a major movie character named Melissa at all. (In fact, the only one I can think of is Jami Gertz's character in Twister, which is pretty pathetic, lol.)
So I don't really have a favorite. I can tell you my least favorite use of my name of all time has been as the name of a computer virus that made national headlines. That was a fun few weeks. Meh.
Impossibly Beautiful
Remember Dove's "Real Beauty" ad tracing the transformation of a model from start to billboard-ready finish, and the Faith Hill Redbook cover we discussed recently?
Well, here's more of the same [link removed, because we were giving them loads of traffic and hence ad revenue], from a company that actually does retouching. Go to "Portfolio" then click on an image and roll your cursor over it to switch between "before" and "after."
The one that really gets me, which doesn't look like much here just side-by-side, but you'll see what I mean when you visit the site and click between the two images, is Kelly Clarkson. Something about the specifics of the "perfecting" here manages to evoke how subtly insidious this stuff is while also so brutally, bluntly highlighting "women's problem areas." Even when you're already perfect, you're not perfect enough, and always in the same damn ways.
And the guys get an opportunity to see how they're "fixed," too.
I can understand getting rid of blemishes—wev. But his face has so much more character "in real life." Like I said about the Faith Hill picture, they seem to airbrush away the very soul with this horseshit, too.
[H/T to Michael K.]
Caption This Photo
Young Mr. Shakes dreamed of one
day being an American citizen.
Jimmy Plotts wears newly minted coins and a wig honoring former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson during the unveiling of a new dollar coin at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, August 15, 2007. The U.S. Mint unveiled the coin featuring the image of Jefferson as part of their Presidential coin program. REUTERS/Jim Young (United States)
So Long, ToT
My bloggrrl Pam (who is clearly mourning her continued capacity to make me hurl with sexual references to the Denmeister):
Poor Melissa McEwan, a.k.a. Shakes Sis. What will she do now that her Tyrannosaurus of Turpitude, sex machine and former House Speaker Denny Hastert, is retiring?I don't know what I'll do! sob At least we'll always have the White House lawn.
Those were the dayz.
press 399430 to Smite Enemies
Yesterday, Americans United for Separation of Church and State called for the IRS to investigate the First Southern Baptist Church (of Buena Park, CA) because the pastor there, Dr. Wiley Drake, issued a press release on church letterhead that endorsed Mike Huckabee and "[h]e also endorsed Huckabee on a church-affiliated radio show and featured a Huckabee campaign official." From Americans United:
“Federal tax law is clear,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, “Churches and other non-profits may not endorse candidates, if they want to keep their tax exemption. I am confident that the vast majority of Americans do not want to see their houses of worship politicized.”
[...]
“Although Drake may express his personal views on political candidates,” Lynn wrote to the IRS, “federal tax law prohibits such endorsements by religious leaders acting in their capacities as officials of non-profit religious organizations. The IRS has repeatedly warned non-profits not to use organizational resources to intervene in elections.
“Use of church letterhead to endorse a candidate for public office appears to violate the provisions of federal tax law that prohibit non-profit intervention in political campaigns,” Lynn continued. “Drake’s endorsement of a candidate on a church-based radio show raises the same concerns.”
So what did this press release say?
“I announce,” said the pastor, “that I am going to personally endorse Mike Huckabee. I ask all of my Southern Baptist brothers and sisters to consider getting behind Mike and helping him all you can. First of all pray and then ask God, what should I do to put feet to my prayers.
“Do what God tells you to do,” Drake continued. “I believe God has chosen Mike for such an hour, and I believe of all those running Mike Huckabee will listen to God.”
On his Aug. 13 internet radio show, “The Wiley Drake Show,” Drake reaffirmed the endorsement.
Drake said, “I believe Mike Huckabee is, indeed, a man that I can endorse. As Second Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention, I put out a press release to that effect. And a lot of people are calling me and saying, ‘Well, Wiley, wait a minute. Why are you endorsing Mike over the rest of the fellas?’…. Mike Huckabee is a son of God; he loves the Lord, and I believe, no matter what the constituents say or the Party says, he is a man of integrity who fears God, and in the finality of things will say, ‘Okay, God, what do you want me to do?’ And I believe he will listen to God.”
On August 7th, Drake also issued a press release (on church letterhead) saying that he would "form an Exploratory Committee to determine if…. ‘The Wiley Drake Show’ should endorse and encourage Southern Baptist and other Evangelical Christians to support Mike Huckabee for President of the United States." The show and the church have the same phone number and the studio for the show is in the church basement.
In response to the request for inquiry, Drake didn't scoff. He didn't say "well, crap". Noooo, of course not! Dr. Wiley Drake decided instead to try and harness the power of his deity to rain curses upon his "enemies". And induce much head-shaking and mockery on Teh Internets:
MEDIA ADVISORY, Aug. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- In light of the recent attack from the enemies of God I ask the children of God to go into action with Imprecatory Prayer. Especially against Americans United for Separation of Church and State. I made an attempt to go to them via Matt 18:15 but they refused to talk to me. Specifically target Joe Conn or Jeremy Learing. They are those who lead the attack.
Imprecatory, btw, means: "to invoke evil upon; curse". Uh-huh. So the "good pastor" is calling for prayers to curse his "enemies", eh? Interesting.
In his latest release, Drake named specific Americans United staff as targets, communications director Joe Conn and communications associate Jeremy Leaming. Apparently because they were the contact people listed on AU's first press release asking for the IRS inquiry. According to AU, in his call to arms press release, Drake says:
Drake includes a long list of biblical citations that call on God to smite enemies. For example, the alleged enemies of God “shall be judged,” “condemned,” and “his days be few….” Additionally, supporters should pray that the enemy’s “children be fatherless, and his wife a widow,” and “his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let them seek bread also out of their desolate places.”
“Let there be none to extend mercy unto him,” Drake quoted, “Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.”
And we shall know them by their love, right? Yep. Uh-huh.
Anyway, all you have to do is call (from the ChristianNewswire link):
Please join us, with Bible in hand, and let us do battle against the enemies of God.
Everyday telephonic prayer meeting (for those who want to pray)
Every Day 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. Pacific time zone
Call- 1-605-772-3900
Put in access code # 399430
(Come on the telephone line for a few minutes or all of the time, but let us all pray.)
It's never been easier to smite thine enemies!
Remotely Natural Hair: Definitely a "Don't!"
I have just learned, from Jezebel via Zuzu, that Afros and dreadlocks are "inappropriate" in the workplace, according to an unnamed Glamour editor who recently spoke on the topic of corporate fashion at a New York law firm.
The style maven said it was ’shocking’ that some people still think it ‘appropriate’ to wear those hairstyles at the office. ‘No offense,’ she sniffed, but those ‘political’ hairstyles really have to go.
Setting aside the question of what the hell a law firm was doing hosting a fashion lecture in the first place, are you fucking kidding me?
As I said at Zuzu's place, what I know about African-American hair would fit in a thimble, but I do know that those "political" hairstyles are also known as "what happens when you don't torture your hair with chemicals and hot irons." And I know that, for as much time and money as I spend on being blonde, A) I would probably have to spend twice as much of both if I were an African-American woman trying to maintain straight, "appropriate" hair, and B) if I didn't spend that time and money, no one would tell me my hair doesn't fucking belong in the workplace.
Oh, but wait, she prefaced it with "No offense." So, you know, it totally wasn't racist.
Jesus.
