GQ Magazine lists the Bible among the "21 Books You Don't Have to Read."

Courtesy of GQ: 

The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it. Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced. It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned. 

Indeed. I agree wholeheartedly.

As you can imagine that has some Christian leaders all worked up.

Including, of course, Franklin Graham.

Okay somebody needs to tell these idiots that just because somebody BUYS the Bible that does not mean they have READ the Bible.

It is actually rare for anybody to sit down and read the entire book from cover to cover.

I actually HAVE read the Bible, which separates me from the vast majority of people who self identify as Christians.

I was in my teens when I read it the first time, and found it laborious and poorly written.

I quite literally could not imagine how such a piss poor book could have inspired an entire religion.

I attempted to read it again in my twenties, but then one day suddenly stopped with the realization that doing so was a complete waste of my time.

And I stand by that assessment.

Conservative boycott of GQ Magazine to happen in 3..2..1.

.@GQMagazine names Colin Kaepernick its Citizen of the Year. pic.twitter.com/7Vnw7Dx9A7

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 13, 2017

Courtesy of GQ:  

Much has changed in the four years since Colin Kaepernick was last on the cover of GQ. Back then he was a rippling superhero of a quarterback on the rise. But a simple act—kneeling during the national anthem—changed everything. It cost him his job. It also transformed Colin Kaepernick into a lightning rod and a powerful symbol of activism and resistance. 

Though Colin Kaepernick continues his silent protest, he agreed to collaborate with GQ on a special project for our December Men of the Year issue in an effort to, as the piece explains, "reclaim the narrative of his protest." He helped us assemble a ten-person team of his closest confidants—including rapper J.Cole, director Ava DuVernay, activist Harry Belafonte, and Women’s March co-organizer Linda Sarsour—to speak on the subjects of activism, protest, and equality, and to offer some rare insights into Colin Kaepernick himself.

I am guessing that Donald Trump will not be gracing the cover of GQ any time soon.  

Ousted White House adviser Stephen Bannon threatens war against moderate Republicans, but they dismiss him as "some guy with a website."

Courtesy of GQ: 

Bannon apparently has decided that his absence from the White House means that the White House is now, functionally, a Democratic one, and that he is duty-bound to either bring it to heel or, if it won't cooperate, grind it into a fine red-white-and-blue dust. It's not difficult to see why he thinks this, if you adopt the mindset of a paranoid lunatic who viewed the job he just lost as a suicide mission to see how deeply he could embed his Breitbartian worldview in this administration's DNA before being forcibly expelled by his marginally less delusional counterparts: Jared Kushner was a Democrat. Ivanka Trump was a Democrat. Gary Cohn was a Democrat. Hell, even Trump himself was a Democrat for a while, until he figured out that pandering to simmering racial resentment and unvarnished xenophobia was a more tenable political strategy than running for office on the merits of his policy positions, to the extent that any such positions exist.

Bannon is bloviating like he has the power to end careers and shape Washington politics, but that is certainly not how the rank and file Republicans view him.

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

The ousted senior White House adviser may be back guiding Breitbart’s right-wing reactionary bomb-throwing, but he’s likely to find himself in the same position that left-wing sites like Daily Kos and Huffington Post occupied when Barack Obama became president in 2009, several Republicans told Yahoo News. 

“These kinds of oppositional websites are much more potent when the movement they represent is not in the White House,” said one Republican close to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. “Kos became irrelevant and HuffPo basically transformed itself into a mainstream news site. The reality was that Obama had a bigger megaphone than those sites. And Trump as president has a bigger megaphone and a more loyal following than Breitbart. 

“I haven’t heard any congressional Republican leaders express concern about Bannon going back to Breitbart. He’s a guy with a website. How much of a problem can a guy with a website actually be? He was much more of a problem when he had daily, hourly, access to the Oval Office,” the Ryan ally said.

Alex Conant, who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, said that “Breitbart has targeted [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell and Ryan for years, with very limited impact. They’re both still their caucus leaders, and their support has never been stronger. 

“I don’t know what changes, except Bannon has less power today than he did a week ago,” said Conant.

Breitbart once referred to IM as a "defunct website."

That might actually soon hold true for them now as well.

Currently Breitbart is identified mainly as the home of the same kind of white supremacists that ran down a counter protester in Charlottesville, and they have now lost the thing that provided them with any real relevance, which was their editor-in-chief's White House gig.

Those are some serious currents through which to swim back to prominence and influence.

However it will be fun to watch Bannon rage against the machine, and turn on the man who brought him onto the national stage in the first place.

That second part has already started.  

The closer we get to the Trump inauguration the more I feel that Keith Olbermann is accurately channeling my outrage.

As I mentioned recently, I once thought that Olbermann was a little over the top with his anti-Trump tirades.

However the more we learn about how Trump "won" this election, and the closer we get to D-Day (Which is what I call the Trump inauguration.), the more I start to feel that there IS no level of outrage that is too severe for what we are witnessing.

And my other takeaway is that Keith Olbermann needs a wider audience, and that some cable network needs to provide him a venue for this outrage which he is channeling on our behalf.

Journalist has message for Donald Trump supporters. It is obscenity laced, more than a little insulting, but ultimately one they need to hear.

Drew Magary

Courtesy of GQ:

Nothing that Trump says, no damning piece of Trump reportage, and certainly no opinion piece like this one will stop his voters from pulling the lever. Nor will anything stop Trump from being the officious, braindead goon that he is. He will never answer for his crimes, and there’s a frighteningly large portion of the electorate that will always love him for that. 

And so I’d just like to say to that portion of the electorate: Fuck you. No, seriously. Go fuck yourselves. I’m not gonna waste any more time trying to convince you that you’re about to do something you’ll regret forever. I’m not gonna show you old clips of Trump saying rotten things. I’m not gonna try to ANNIHILATE Trump by showing you records of his hypocrisy and greed. I’m not gonna link to a John Oliver clip and be like, “THIS. So much this.” Nothing’s gonna take down Trump at this point, so I’m not gonna bother. No no, this post is for ME. I am preaching to the sad little choir in my soul here. 

Because while Trump is a miserable bastard, YOU are the people who have handed him the bullhorn. YOU are the people willing to embarrass this nation and put it on the brink of economic ruin all because you wanna throw an electoral hissy fit. YOU are the people who want to revolutionize the way America does business by voting for its worst businessman, a disgusting neon pig who only makes money when he causes problems for other people instead of solving them. YOU are the thin-skinned yokels who clutch your bandoliers whenever someone hurls the mildest of slurs at you (“deplorables”), while cheering Trump on as he leaves a bonfire of truly hateful invective everywhere he goes. YOU are the people willing to overlook the fact that Trump is an unqualified, ignorant sociopath because DURRRR HILLARY IS BAD TOO DURRRR. 

You know what? No, she’s not. She’s fine. I lived through one Clinton, and I can live through another. My reasons for hating Trump are better than your reasons for hating Hillary. Show me all the arguments against her you like. You guys don’t give a shit about facts and research when it comes to Trump, so I’m not gonna give a shit about whatever clumsy meme you cook up to explain why she did Benghazi. Nope. Sorry. Fuck your arguments, and fuck you. Trump has shown no respect for anyone, so I don’t see why you deserve any either. Whatever mildly frustrating centrist liberal bureaucracy that Hillary presides over will be fine compared to the spray tan mushroom cloud that would arise all because YOU thought Trump was such a brave, un-PC dickhead to everyone within shouting distance.

There is more, quite a bit more actually, but I will let you go over to GQ, give them the clicks, and read it yourself.

And I really think you should because it is very cathartic to do so.

And also because this guy is absolutely right.

Donald Trump's candidacy is indeed the fault of the least educated, most racist, most mindnumbingly gullible bunch of idiots in the entire country.

And once this election is over, and Trump is forever defined as the loser we all know him to be, we need to get very, very serious about improving education in this country, and possible getting all of those brain cell killing reality show, like the Apprentice, off of our TVs.

Because we really need to make sure this never happens again.

GQ makes the case for why Barack Obama will be considered one of the greatest Presidents of all time.

Courtesy of GQ: 

In so many ways, Obama was better than we imagined, better than the body politic deserved, and far, far better than his enemies will ever concede, but the great thing about being great is that the verdict of enemies doesn’t matter.  In fact, and I say this as a Bill Clinton fan, I now feel certain that, in the coming decades, Obama’s star will rise higher than Clinton’s, and he’ll replace Bill in the public mind as the Greatest Democrat since FDR. 

This has to do with the nature of Obama’s leadership, which is to play to legacy (and Clinton’s impulse, which is to play to the room). Bill Clinton will long be revered because he’s charismatic, presided over an economic revival, and changed and elevated the view of the Democratic Party. Barack Obama will long be revered because he’s charismatic, presided over an economic revival, and changed and elevated the view of the presidency. He’s simply bigger than Bill. 

More to the point, Obama’s legacy is the sort that gets canonized. Because the first rule of Hall of Fame-dom: The times have to suck for the president not to. Civil wars, World Wars, depressions and recessions. You got to have ’em if you wanna be great. That’s why we rate the Washingtons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts over That Fat Guy with the Walrus Mustache. Like Obama, these Great Men were dealt sucky hands, won big, and left the country better off than it was before. 

I am sure this will upset a lot of Bill Clinton supporters but I think the points made in the article are accurate, and to many of us obvious.

Personally I have been making the case for years now that there is no longer any question concerning the fact that President Obama is going to go down in history as one of our greatest Presidents ever.

The only question remaining is will he be considered THE greatest President in history.

(You know you can almost hear the Right Wing's sphincters tightening up and the very idea.)

He may be just as wingnutty as the rest of them, but Ben Carson knows a sick person when he sees her.

This incident is pulled from a rather in depth GQ article posted the other day about Ben Carson and his political aspirations: 

A month later, Carson was invited to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he met Sarah Palin, who greeted him with the bowing "We're not worthy" routine from Wayne's World. (Carson, for his part, thought Palin "looked anorexic.") 

Now like I said in the title Carson is  fairly out there on most things, such as calling Obamacare "the worst thing since slavery."

However he IS a neurosurgeon and therefore an MD, and if his first impression of Sarah Palin is that she has an eating disorder, I would give that some credence.

Not that we couldn't have determined that diagnosis on our own of course.

To give Carson a little more credit (Not something I imagine I will do very often.), he is also the first potential GOP candidate to call that police shooting in South Carolina an execution.

Gee, that's at least two things he is right about.

Sarah Palin makes list of GQ's Least Influential People of 2014, which in and of itself is not news. However check out how they describe her.

So GQ has its list of the least influential people of 2014, and to be fair a lot of people made the list, including the President, Chris Christie, John McCain and Johnny Depp.

However it was the description of Palin that I thought worth sharing: 

She barely even get out of the limo! Some dude is reportedly calling her daughter a slut and a cunt, and the rest of her family is brawling at a kegger, and there's Sarah in the fucking limo (of course she's in a limo), letting her Wasilbilly family rumble while she's probably Googling herself without a care in the world. She only finally gets out of the limo to name-drop herself to the cops! Does she even know she has a family? Or does she think those people are stock models provided for her by GOP donors?

Yeah clearly the drunken brawl is now part of Palin's permanent legacy. And though she may have helped her family wriggle out of any legal consequences, the court of public opinion has gleefully convicted them all the same.

From CNN to Robert Zimmerman, "You and your brother are monsters."

GQ has published a rather comprehensive piece on George Zimmerman and his family, which you can find here.

Here are a few excerpts.

On plans to turn George into a reality star right after George's not guilty verdict:

(Zimmerman's brother) Robert's ultimate goal was to turn George into a reality-TV star. His models were John Walsh, who began hosting America's Most Wanted after his 6-year-old son was abducted and killed, and the Kardashians, whose fame was launched by Kim's leaked sex tape. "I learn a lot from watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians," Robert told me. "Like, use the shit you've got." One idea was for George to be the focus of a Candid Camera-style program. One episode, for example, might feature a professor teaching a class about self-defense, and at the end of the episode it would be revealed—surprise!—that George was one of the students.

On why an interview with Fox's Sean Hannity fell through:  

First, Fox News expected the brothers to fly to New York. That would require George to show his ID at the airport, possibly to a black person. No way, Robert said. Even worse, the network wanted them to fly on February 26, the second anniversary of the incident. Robert tried explaining to a Hannity producer why that couldn't work: "It is like 9/11 for my family! We can't travel together that day—it's like having the whole royal family travel together!" Robert had a better, safer plan: He wanted Fox News to pay for the brothers, plus a full security detail, to drive the 1,100 miles from central Florida. About halfway, they'd need three hotel rooms—one for Robert, one for George, one for the security team—at a place with room service so that George wouldn't have to be out in public. 

Fox News said no. Rebranding the Zimmermans would have to wait.

On the Zimmerman family's paranoia:  

The hotel-hopping went on for nearly two months, until Bob (Zimmerman's father) found a 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom house for rent on Craigslist in a nearby subdivision where most of the homes had been lost to foreclosure. In other words: cheap and very few neighbors. 

There, the family formalized new security protocols. They watched the movie Argo to learn how to live like CIA. Code names for everyone. No mail delivered to the house. No visitors. No talking to the few neighbors they had. No long phone conversations—keep it short and vague to outwit surveillance. Never discuss your whereabouts via phone or text. Keep a weapon close by at all times. Robert slept with his gun. Still does. 

And in case someone—or multiple someones—decided to mount an attack on the house, the Zimmermans pre-packed their own "go-bags" filled with everything they would need to flee in a rush, as well as what they called "footballs"—like the one President Obama has with the nuclear codes—that contained laptops, cell phones, and other essential electronics. 

They also memorized a color-coded threat-ID system. Code blue: Law enforcement at the door. Code brown: Draw your weapons. Code black: Come out guns blazing.

On sticking CNN with a huge hotel bill:

The Zimmermans seized on their brief stint of subsidized luxury. They ran up a big room-service bill, cleaned out the minibars, got their clothes laundered, made several trips to the spa, treated a party of ten to dinner at the hotel restaurant, and bought swag—from bracelets to bath fizzies—at the gift shop. 

Toward the end of their stay, according to Robert, a manager presented him with a bill for $3,600. He says he called CNN, outraged, only to have the producer accuse them of splurging shamelessly on CNN's dime. "You and your brother are evil!" he remembers her screaming. The hotel manager threatened to call the police. Alone in his room, Robert started shaking. He wrapped all the blankets around him, ordered shrimp, chain-smoked cigarettes, got roaring drunk. Nothing helped. He called his mother in a panic. "I can't get warm," he sobbed. "I just can't get warm." 

Unconsoled, Robert called the only person he could think of: Dr. Drew, who'd been kind to him when he went on Drew's TV show shortly before George's trial. He reached a producer, who told him Dr. Drew wasn't available. But the guy was nice, at least. He stayed on the phone awhile and talked Robert down. Eventually CNN agreed to pay the bill, and the next morning Robert returned the only purchases he could: a bottle of Mercedes-Benz cologne and a Ritz-Carlton wallet that George had bought him to say thanks.

Let me assure you that these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Zimmerman family lunacy. 

And keep in mind that THIS is who Fox News defended over and over again during the trial, and who has become a conservative hero since beating his murder charge after gunning down an unarmed teenage boy.

Homophobic patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan claims he was "just trying to help those poor souls and turn them to Jesus" when he compared the gay lifestyle to bestiality and claimed they were all going to hell.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson explained over the weekend that people had misunderstood the intent of his homophobic comments because he was just “trying to help those poor souls and turn them to Jesus.” 

Speaking at the Rock the South festival Cullman, Alabama on Saturday, Robertson defended comments he made to GQ magazine last year comparing homosexuality to bestiality and adultery. 

Robertson had argued that “a vagina — as a man — would be more desirable than a man’s anus,” and said that LGBT people “won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.” On Saturday, Robertson told the crowd that he was “actually a nice man,” according to the Birmingham News. 

“I’m trying to help those poor souls and turn them to Jesus,” he said.

Yes and nothing says, "I'm just trying to help you," like comparing someone's sexuality to man on mule love, and suggesting that they are destined to an eternity of pain and suffering in the fiery pits of hell.

There is nothing wrong with being religious, but if you feel justified in telling somebody that because they do not believe as you do that they will punished for all eternity, then yours is a religion of threats and condemnation and not one of love and acceptance as they are so often advertised.

For those who think that Duck Dynasty patriarch, Phil Roberston, has learned his lesson, well you could not be more wrong.

Courtesy of Radar Online:

Robertson’s controversial beliefs first made waves in December 2013, when he likened homosexuality to bestiality in an interview with GQ magazine. After public outcry and a temporary suspension from A&E, Robertson released a public apology that read in part, “I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.” 

That benevolent attitude was nowhere to be seen, however, during a fiery sermon at Whites Ferry Road Church in his hometown of West Monroe, La., on Easter Sunday, April 20. 

“What’s [Jesus] coming back for? …” Robertson asked the congregation. “To bring salvation to those who are waiting for it. Are you waiting on Jesus? Or are you afraid to see that sky busting, you see him coming? You got two lists.” 

“I gave some guy one list,” he said, apparently referring to the bombshell GQ interview. “You say, were they mad at you about that list? They were mad at me.” Indeed, A&E briefly suspended him from the hit show. 

“You say, why’d they get mad at you?” he continued. “‘Cuz instead of acknowledging their sin, like you had better do, they railed against me for giving them the truth about their sins. Don’t deceive yourselves.” 

He shouted, “You want the verse? The news media didn’t even know it was a verse! They thought I was just mouthing off. Is homosexual behavior a sin? The guy asked me. I said, do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived.” 

“Neither the sexually immoral, nor the idolators nor adulterers nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God,” Robertson blasted, paraphrasing a verse from Corinthians in the Bible.

The article goes on to point out that Duck Dynasty's ratings have fallen 40% since Robertson's initial rant was published in GQ magazine.

Perhaps after this one the show will disappear altogether.

In fact by August the biggest audience they might attract will be the smattering of folks that show up to see them at the Alaska State Fair.

GQ Magazine names Mitt Romney the LEAST influential person of 2012.

Courtesy of GQ:

Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian's impression of a white person. Thank God the election's over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson's pampered money Dumpster. Good-bye, Mitt. I hope you enjoy the rest of your life quietly ensconced at Lake Winnipesaukee, blissfully ignorant of the plight of anyone who doesn't have $300 million squirreled away in the Bahamas. 

Seriously does it get ANY better than this?

And here I thought I was just about finished laughing at Mitt the Twit.

Go ahead and click the link to see the rest of the "25 Least Influential People of 2012." (I have to say I am not in agreement with all of their choices, ESPECIALLY number seven.)

Oh, and exactly how comprehensive of a list can it be if it does not even have Sara hpalin on it?

Unless of course, could it be that she is SO lacking in influence that she couldn't even MAKE it onto this list?

Oh, now THAT is a delicious thought!