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.

The inevitable unmasking of Donald Trump.

I can't believe how easy it is to fool these schmucks.

So as the Republican convention starts there have been a number of extremely damaging articles that have been published that call into question every positive thing he presents about himself and accentuates his negatives.

Let's take a look at three of them.

First there is this from the Washington Post:

As he has prepared to be named the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump has not read any biographies of presidents. He said he would like to someday. 

He has no time to read, he said: “I never have. I’m always busy doing a lot. Now I’m more busy, I guess, than ever before.” 

Trump’s desk is piled high with magazines, nearly all of them with himself on their covers, and each morning, he reviews a pile of printouts of news articles about himself that his secretary delivers to his desk. But there are no shelves of books in his office, no computer on his desk.

Reporters and others have already extensively pointed out the obvious similarities between Trump and Sarah Palin, and this is just one more to add to the pile.

Palin's answer to what she read disqualified her almost immediately for the job of VP in 2008, however there is little evidence that Trump will suffer the same fate eight years later.

(By the way, also like Palin, Trump claims that he makes decisions using "common sense." Yeah you need a whole lot more than common sense to run this country.)

This from Newsweek:

 Donald Trump, who often says he only likes winners, tells one grand tale of loss: In 1990, he nearly went bankrupt and was forced to ask dozens of banks to whom he owed money to change the terms on their loans and forgive some of his debts. 

It was, the real estate developer admits in his 1997 book "The Art of the Comeback," the darkest period of his professional life. In his telling, it's a story of redemption, of resilience, and proof of his exceptional negotiating skills and shrewd thinking. 

Six people who participated in the loan workout negotiations have a different recollection, raising questions about a key part of the personal narrative that many of Trump's supporters have found compelling as he campaigns to be the next president of the United States on Nov. 8. On the campaign trail he has portrayed himself as a survivor and a master negotiator.

The six bankers and lawyers involved in the deal claim that Trump did not come to them looking for a better deal, but that it was the banks who approached him when they recognized he was on the brink of collapse, and the only "deal making" was on their part as they worked out how to save his business.

In the end all Trump did was sign on the dotted line. So much for any "Art of the Deal."

And speaking of the "Art of the Deal." here is an excerpt from the interview that The New Yorker conducted with the man who actually wrote that book for Donald Trump: 

Schwartz thought about publishing an article describing his reservations about Trump, but he hesitated, knowing that, since he’d cashed in on the flattering “Art of the Deal,” his credibility and his motives would be seen as suspect. Yet watching the campaign was excruciating. Schwartz decided that if he kept mum and Trump was elected he’d never forgive himself. In June, he agreed to break his silence and give his first candid interview about the Trump he got to know while acting as his Boswell. 

“I put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” He went on, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.” 

If he were writing “The Art of the Deal” today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, “The Sociopath.”

So essentially, much like Sarah Palin, virtually EVERYTHING we think we know about Donald Trump is pure unadulterated bullshit.

Well good job Republican party, you did it again. 

The Emoji Bible is now a thing.

Courtesy of The Memo:  

A mysterious person, publicly known only as 😎 , has translated the Bible into emoji. You read that correctly: emoji. 

Launching on Apple iBooks this week, the move could be seen as a natural progression. 

Why read scripture in boring old Oxford English, or any of the other 531 bog-standard languages it comes in, when you can read it in jazzy picture symbols instead? 

Indeed, as we communicate more and more in emoji, perhaps it will become the universal language, the most accessible of all.

Okay well as someone who forced themselves to read the Bible cover to cover, I will simply say....it couldn't hurt. 

In my opinion the Bible is book of stories, anecdotes, and parables that often conflict with each other so aggressively that the entire experience seems a disjointed and jarring exercise designed to confuse the mind and impair logical thinking. 

In other words much like emojis.

Should sell quite well.

This bookstore gets it.

New SarahPAC e-mail promises an honest to goodness signed copy of a book that Sarah Palin could not get ANYBODY to pay for if you will just send them some damn money!

This is from an honest to God, I shit you not, e-mail that an IM regular sent to me the other day.

Dear (Name removed to protect the innocent.), 

We have some exciting news! We were organizing the office today and found some extra copies of Sarah’s book “Sweet Freedom: A Devotional “ and she has agreed to sign one!  (What they mean by this is that they keep tripping over the hundreds of leftover boxes of these crappy books and they need to find some way to get rid of them.)

We will raffle off and send a signed copy of Sarah Palin’s book for just a $25 donation. (Currently Amazon has this marked down to $12.83. I think it's less if it has Sarah Palin's signature on it.) Your donation will go straight towards funding bold conservatives running for office in tough elections. (Ha!) President Obama and Hillary Clinton have handpicked many of this year’s democrats running for office, and it is our job to stop them. 

Make a donation of $25 and you will be entered into the raffle! 

Or… Make a donation of $50 and be entered in the donation twice! Every $25 contribution will be counted as one entry. So if you donated $100 you will be entered four times. (Does this actually work on people?)

Please hurry! We will close the raffle in five days. 

Thank you so much for your help, (Name removed to protect the innocent). I hope you’ll enter the raffle for a copy of Sarah’s signed book and help us defeat Obama and Hillary’s hand-picked liberals running for office this year. 

Thank you. 
Best, 
SarahPAC 

Is now the right time to mention that in 2015 SarahPAC spent less than 4% of its total expenditures on conservative campaigns?

It certainly feels like the right time to mention that.

You know I was thinking, this would probably work a lot better if they raffled off something with some actual value. I mean this glorified roll of toilet paper is currently ranked at 114,065.

Perhaps they could raffle of, oh I don't know, the purse that holds Todd's family jewels for instance?

Or a pair of Palin's non-prescription, "worn just to make her look smart," eyeglasses?

Or how about one of her rabies infected road kill wigs that she can no longer keep sedated long enough to staple to her balding head?

Hey I've got it, how about a "get out of paying child support free" card for the next poor sap that crawls between Bristol's legs and leaves a deposit in the only all night sperm bank in Alaska?

Just a thought.

All I know is that if they want to have a less embarrassing financial disclosure than last time they certainly need to do better than one of her crummy "nobody wants to buy" ghostwritten books.

I'm just saying.

Newsmax picks the 30 most influential Republicans 30 and under. You'll never guess who number five is.

Courtesy of Newsmax: 

5. Bristol Palin— After coming to national attention as the daughter of one-time Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Bristol has made a name for herself as a thoughtful book author and blogger for Patheos.com. There, she writes inspired posts about faith and family. 

Say what?

So Bristol gets honored for having somebody else write her book and blog under her name?

Here was the blurb with which Newsmax started this article: 

While the face of the conservative movement is often associated with nationally recognized officeholders, there is in fact a large number of young men and women working hard every day to forge the future of the movement. 

Gathered below are the names of 30 influential Republicans 30 and under who are making strides to bolster the values near and dear to the heart of the movement. 

Now this is Newsmax so nobody should fault them too much for their lack of intelligence.

I mean seriously.

However one has to wonder how getting drunk and attacking a homeowner and attempting to trap a MOH winner into marrying you forges the future of the conservative movement?

Just asking.

Well great now Ted Cruz is ruining Christmas for me too.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Ted Cruz's campaign is out with a new Christmas video — a parody ad that earned more than 1 million views on YouTube over the weekend. 

The ad, which was first reported by the Independent Journal Review and actually ran on TV, is well-produced and well-written, playing off Cruz having read "Green Eggs and Ham" to his two young girls on the Senate floor during a 2013 filibuster.

"Well written?"  I could write better than that in a drunken stupor.

And I often do.

Hmm, this kind of makes me wonder if this was thrown together using some of that raw video the Cruz campaign posted on You Tube several months back.

Now all I want for Christmas is the opportunity to Ted Cruz getting his ass kicked by a department store Santa for poisoning the minds of his two little girls.

Hey, it IS a magical time of the year.

On the Origin of Species voted most influential academic book in history. Oh this is not going to go over well.

Courtesy of the Guardian:

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species has been voted the most influential academic book ever written, hailed as “the supreme demonstration of why academic books matter” and “a book which has changed the way we think about everything”. 

After a list of the top 20 academic books was pulled together by expert academic booksellers, librarians and publishers to mark the inaugural Academic Book Week, the public was asked to vote on what they believed to be the most influential. With titles in the running including A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, Darwin’s explanation of his theory of evolution was the public’s overwhelming favourite, with 26% of the vote, said organisers. 

Professor Andrew Prescott of the University of Glasgow called Darwin’s 1859 study “the supreme demonstration of why academic books matter”. “Darwin used meticulous observation of the world around us, combined with protracted and profound reflection, to create a book which has changed the way we think about everything – not only the natural world, but religion, history and society,” he said. “Every researcher, no matter whether they are writing books, creating digital products or producing artworks, aspires to produce something as significant in the history of thought as Origin of Species.”

Yeah religious conservatives are going to lose their shit over this. 

I can personally attest to the influence of this book in my life, and even in my daughter's life.

They say that the best way to create an Atheist is to have them read the Bible. However it is not the only book with that kind of power.

Quite a few years back when my daughter was attending that uber fundamentalist church in Georgia, and coming home with these crazy ideas about evolution, rather than argue about it everyday with her I challenged her to read this book instead.

To her credit she did exactly that, and it did indeed change her mind completely.

Now she is not only a strong supporter of Evolution, and of science in general, but she is an even more ardent Atheist than her old man.

So yes, this book is powerful indeed.

Perhaps THAT is why the Religious Right fears it so.

Conservatives angry that The New York Times will not put Ted Cruz's book on the bestseller's list just because he cheated to drive up book sales. Clearly a liberal conspiracy.

Courtesy of TPM:

The New York Times decided this week not to place Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) book on its bestseller list, leaving some conservatives convinced that the paper unfairly targeted the presidential candidate. 

The Times told HarperCollins that Cruz's book would not make the list, despite the fact that "A Time For Truth" sold more copies than 18 of the 20 books that appeared on the bestseller list this week, Politico reported. According to Nielsen Bookscan, Cruz sold 11,854 copies of his book in its first week. 

"We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold," Times Spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told HarperCollins when the publisher asked why "A Time For Truth" had been left off the list.

In response to this news conservatives were livid:  

Given that Cruz's book sold so many copies and that the Times has previously included books written by Republican politicians and candidates on its bestseller list, conservatives on Thursday night were outraged. 

A RedState headline described the book's exclusion as "The New York Times’ War on Ted Cruz." Breitbart News wrote that Cruz was "snubbed" by the Times. 

Twitchy, a conservative site that tracks social media, compiled a list of conservatives concerned that the Times was biased against Republicans or Cruz.

However Politico dug into this and reported on what went into the decision making:

(New York Time spokesperson Eileen) 

Murphy emailed late Thursday night to further clarify the reasoning behind the Times decision. 

"In the case of this book, the overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases," she wrote.

Oh so what, having conservative businesses buy up boxes and boxes of your book, to be given away for free later, in order to falsely give the impression that it is a bestseller is not okay anymore?

Well  think we know who to blame don't we?

Gee this certainly does not bode well for Sarah Palin's upcoming new book.

As it turns out Josh Duggar is not the first child molester that Mike Huckabee "palled around with." There was also the guy that co-authored his books.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed: 

John Perry, a prolific author who co-wrote two books with former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and co-wrote one with Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, was accused of child molestation in two separate lawsuits, BuzzFeed News has found. 

A 2012 police investigation of Perry’s alleged offenses found that “the allegations of sexual battery were sustained” but that the statute of limitations had expired. 

Perry co-wrote Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America about Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign. He also did research and writing for Huckabee’s 2007 book Character Is the Issue, a memoir of his early time as governor. Perry also co-wrote So Help Me God, Moore’s autobiographical account of fighting to keep a monument to the Ten Commandments at Alabama’s Supreme Court. 

Those books are just a few of the titles produced with Perry’s help: He wrote For Faith & Family: Changing America by Strengthening the Family with Richard Land, the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, a book with former Southern Baptist Convention president James T. Draper, as well as a book with Frank Page, the president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. Perry even co-authored The Vow, the book made into a feature film starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. Perry also lists writing two books for prominent pastor John F. MacArthur on his website.

This from the 2012 police investigation:  

“The alleged sexual battery was reported to have occurred when the victim was between the ages of 11 and 14,” said Nashville police department spokesperson Don Aaron in a statement to BuzzFeed News. 

 “As a result of the investigation, the allegations of sexual battery were sustained, but it was determined that the statute of limitations had tolled, barring prosecution. The victim was age 18 when she first disclosed the allegations to non-law enforcement and said at that time she did not want the matter reported to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services or the police.”

Well it appears that Mike Huckabee has a real affinity for child molesters.

Sarah Palin morphs from politician and partisan attack dog, to movie and book critic?

So yesterday Palin posted her personal review of a movie she watched on a plane, and pimped a book from Chris Kyle's widow.

Courtesy of Facebook: 

A COACH WITH INFLUENTIAL INTEGRITY  

If you need some spirit-lifting all-American true story telling, watch the great new movie “McFarland, USA”! Granted, my favorite movies are sports related (it's all about the underdog, the unconventional, the character revealed in overcomers), and I found this one on an Alaskan redeye flight to be one of the best. Rarely do I want to sit long enough to watch a movie (though I could recline for days with a good book – in the sun, toes in the sand – that'd be my heaven on earth!), but I’m thankful Disney made this one. 

Perhaps this cross-country themed film resonated because sweat is my sanity. (Well then lady you are not sweating nearly enough.) I've been a (slow, dogged) distance runner for more miles than my enduring knees owe me. I'm not good, but I know the guts it takes to run. (No folks it's not your imagination, Palin is definitely leaving little, not so subtle, hints that she might run for office in order to excite the five people who still want her to do so.) Additionally, attribute my enthusiasm here to personal connectivity to the inspiring film because every day I get to witness the positive influence my dad, Coach Heath, has had on his students and athletes. Without a doubt the life lessons Dad taught on the court, the field, and in the classroom changed lives for the better. Filmmakers and the actor Kevin Costner grandly captured the same in McFarland's Coach White. White and his teams' stories exemplify what coaching with integrity is all about. 

You don't have to be a sweat-obsessed sports nut to love this movie. It's all good with virtuous tenacity woven through a plot that's applicable to all our lives. Loved it! Makes me want to run. 

- Sarah Palin

But of course not for office.

This is Palin so she cannot pass up an opportunity to interject the fact that she was a runner, and to show a picture of her dad as a coach.

I have no idea if this movie is any good, though it does have a 79% over at Rotten Tomatoes, however I know that Palin likes this movie mostly because it gives her yet another opportunity to polish up the old family mythology.

And speaking of mythology she also does book reviews:

For a very good summer read, please get Taya Kyle’s wonderful book “American Wife.” Her personal story connects deeply with the experiences of many military families. It puts things in perspective and reminds us of the enormous sacrifices made for our freedom. The book powerfully combines tragedy that touched a nation with an ongoing personal, hope-filled outcome based on Taya's faith. And, bluntly, the beautiful widow of American Sniper Chris Kyle also awakens us to the lessons in the adage "Don't sweat the small stuff." Great job, Taya; we love you!

This one is a no brainer, and I mean that in every sense of the word. 

Palin has been worshiping at the feet of Chris Kyle ever since he worked on that "Stars Earn Stripes" show with Todd.

We remember Todd doing that show right?

Besides the book not only has all kinds of rooting tooting military anecdotes in it, but also contains references to religion and faith, which Palin needs to keep associating with in order to convince the fundamentalists that she is one of them.

So to be clear Sarah Palin will support any movie or book that allows her to polish her image as a former athlete or help to convince people that even though her daughter moves in with a man before marriage, her family cusses like a boatload of sailors on leave and picks fights at birthday parties, and she dresses like a aged hooker at a Vegas convention, she is STILL a good Christian woman despite all evidence to the contrary.

Well it does contain more sex, violence, and deviant behavior.

It's also one of the fewer books harder to believe than a former Twilight fan fiction piece about a multimillionaire who ties young women up and beats them and is not immediately arrested by the police for sexual assault and rape. 

Sarah Palin uses debunked story about middle school boy being denied right to read his Bible in order to complain about Atheists, being sued, and of course to pimp her book.

Palin starts off telling the story of poor Loyal Grandstaff, a middle school student who complained that while he was quietly reading his book of fables, you know the Bible, a teacher told him he was not allowed to do that.

Well of course this caused the Right Wing to marshal their forces and start writing blog posts and sending nasty tweets and e-mails at the school.

Only thing is, that is not really what happened: 

A public school principal in Missouri pushed back against a middle school student’s claim that a teacher banned him from reading the Bible in school, claiming that the incident did not unfold as was alleged and that students are more than welcome to read their Bibles in school. 

Lance Tobin, principal of Bueker Middle School in Marshall, Missouri, told TheBlaze on Friday that claims made by Loyal Grandstaff, a 7th grader at the school, had not been substantiated when a local outlet published them and that the situation has since been resolved.

Of course Palin does not seem to care that this has been debunked, after all it's not like Brian Williams was the one caught in a lie of anything, and she continues to blow it out of proportion, before suddenly turning it around and making it all about her.

"Normal people don't want to go through the hassle of litigation. I've been through it how many times now? People suing me over stupid things? It's not fun. It's expensive. It's ah such a waste of resources. But normal people then understanding that litigation is a hassle, don't like going through it."

"So angry Atheists know that, so they use their inflamed rhetoric to coerce teachers, and principals, their forcing them, to take away the religious freedom of their students."

Yeah, didn't happen and doesn't happen.

Reading your Bible, Koran, the Vedas, at school is not a problem. And the only time it would be is if the teacher, or another authority figure were to try to teach lessons from any of those religious texts on school grounds.

And that did not happen in this case. So no, there are no "angry" Atheists "coercing" teachers and principals by threatening a lawsuit. 

Palin goes on to say that the principal stated that the "teacher acted against school policy" though if you read the link up above you will see that what the principal actually said was, “There is no teacher involved whatsoever.”

But in Palin's eyes the truth can never stand in the way of a good anecdote, and besides she has a reason for going after this like a dog with a bone.

"In my book 'Good Tidings and Great Joy' I talk about  how our religious freedom is being eroded by angry Atheists with attorneys."

So you see this was just another opportunity for Palin to once again plug a book that her ghostwriter wrote a freaking year ago. And plug it by the way to a group of subscribers that have undoubtedly already purchased at least one of the books already.

Good marketing that.

But hey I guess we cannot blame her too much because apparently it is a family trait, as her brother is now using the Brian Williams kerfuffle to pimp HIS stupid ass book: 

After these new revelations show that Williams has a history of not only embellishing stories, but flat out lying (in detail)... I understand why he didn't want our book to get any national exposure. In 2008, Williams lied about Sarah on air, accusing her of banning library books when she was mayor of Wasilla. We pointed out lies like this in our book. No wonder he didn't want to help us out.

Yeah, THAT'S why he did not want to help promote the book. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that it was full of falsehoods and revisionist history designed to refute facts uncovered about the family and to make a fast buck off of a person whose fame was rapidly dwindling.

So I guess to the Palin family it is not so much about WHAT lies are being told, but more about WHO is telling them. And of course WHO can profit by telling them.

(H/T to Wonkette.)

Boy who claimed to have gone to heaven, and whose story became a best selling book, admits he made the whole thing up. Gee, really?

Courtesy of The Washington Post:  

Tyndale House, a major Christian publisher, has announced that it will stop selling “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey. 

The best-selling book, first published in 2010, purports to describe what Alex experienced while he lay in a coma after a car accident when he was 6 years old. The coma lasted two months, and his injuries left him paralyzed, but the subsequent spiritual memoir — with its assuring description of “Miracles, Angels, and Life beyond This World” — became part of a popular genre of “heavenly tourism.” 

Earlier this week, Alex recanted his testimony about the afterlife. In an open letter to Christian bookstores posted on the Pulpit and Pen Web site, Alex states flatly: “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.”

Here is Alex's letter:  

“An Open Letter to Lifeway and Other Sellers, Buyers, and Marketers of Heaven Tourism, by the Boy Who Did Not Come Back From Heaven.” 

Please forgive the brevity, but because of my limitations I have to keep this short.

 I did not die. I did not go to Heaven. 

I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible. 

It is only through repentance of your sins and a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for your sins (even though he committed none of his own) so that you can be forgiven may you learn of Heaven outside of what is written in the Bible…not by reading a work of man. I want the whole world to know that the Bible is sufficient. Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough. 

In Christ, 
Alex Malarkey.”

Okay his last name is "Malarkey" and STILL people bought his book?

Well I have some bad news for Alex when it comes to placing his faith in the Bible. He is certainly not the first person to lie about God and Heaven in a bestselling book.

I have to admit that I have little sympathy for the morons who buy into this near death bullshit by the way.

First off science has essentially explained why it happens.

And secondly the very idea of heaven is so incredibly ridiculous that I find myself having a hard time respecting anybody who still clings to that fantasy. (Sorry if that hurts anybody's feelings, but it's true.)

However for those who are still desperately hanging onto the idea that heaven is not only possible, but that people have actually paid a visit, there is still at least one young man who has yet to recant his story.

And good news for racists, he says that Jesus has blue eyes.

President Obama takes those "disrespectful" daughters of his shopping.

Courtesy of Steven Garcia: 

President Obama, went shopping Saturday at Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore in the capital, joined with his daughters. Going out the Saturday after Thanksgiving has become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition for the first family. 

The president and his daughters, Sasha and Malia, chatted with customers before buying 2 bags full of books from the local store. This is the same store that they shopped at this time last year.

In the video you can hear the President talking about Chuck Todd's new book. In response Malia, the eldest, calls Todd  "sad" and the President jokingly agrees.

This was reported on by the New York Post:  

“Oh, Chuck Todd!” Obama exclaimed. “Let’s see what Chuck has to say here!” 

“How is he writing a book already? asked his 16-year-old daughter, Malia. “Sad.” 

“He’s just sad,” the president joked in response.

However the Post also goes on to say that the President has every right to be frustrated with Todd's book which paints the President as "detached" and characterizes him as a "flip flopper" as well as blaming him for his inability to work with Republicans.

Of course that last part seems incredibly unfair as the Republicans gathered on the night of Obama's inauguration to plan how they would undermine his presidency and ensure his defeat in 2012.

Really not much the President could do in an environment like that, as I think most rational people would agree.

Gee I wonder if the ways the two girls are dressed, and conducted themselves, finally meets with Elizabeth Lauten's approval?

Hey would you like to feel smart today? Well watching this homeschooling mother demonstrating stunning ignorance while visiting the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago should do the trick.

Now the above is just a sample from the original 30 minute video which I will embed below, but it gives you some idea of that vast which emanates from this Megan Fox woman. 

As you may have guessed she is a Fundamentalist Christian, who home schools her children to protect them from anything which might threaten their faith in what Mommy and Daddy believe.

Here is how Raw Story reported on this: 

In the description of the 30 minute video she uploaded to YouTube to document the visit, Fox wrote, “In November 2014, Megan Fox toured the Field Museum’s ‘Evolving Earth’ exhibit to audit it for bias. She found many examples of inconsistencies and the Field Museum’s insistence that people support opinion as fact without proof. The Field Museum pushes certain theories as if they are absolute proven law when that is not how the scientific method works.” 

In the video’s opening moments, Fox is reading a display regarding the evolution of eukaryotes — which she has to ask her camera operator how to pronounce — simple, microscopic animals that first evolved as single-cell life forms, but which became multicellular, beginning the diversification that would lead to complex life forms. 

“‘At first, many eukaryotes were single-celled, and many still are today,’” Fox reads from the display before scoffing. “What? If many still are today, then that would support the theory that they have never changed, that they have always been as they are today, not that they started someplace else and then are here, but they were always this and still are today.” 

Regarding what paleontologists have said about the first animals to make the transition from life in the water to life on land, Fox says this is impossible. God made the creatures of the water to live in the water and the creatures of the land to live in the land, which is why fish have fins and people have feet. 

“It’s not like their fins fell off and they grew feet,” she says. “That’s what they want you to believe, that their fins fell off and then they grew some feet and started walking on the land. This is the dumbest theory I’ve ever heard in my whole life. It’s not good, it’s really not good. It’s bad. It’s very bad. Do you know how complex feet are?”

Holy crap! This woman almost makes Sarah Palin seem like a Rhodes Scholar. 

What is even more troubling is that this lunatic has a YouTube channel where she reviews, and recommends, books for children.

Now as promised embedded below is the entire 30 plus minute video.

My advice is to watch in small segments however as the stupidity is actually overwhelming.

John Oliver demands to know why Ayn Rand is still a thing.

I have to admit that I have never read any of Ayn Rand's work.

And after seeing this clip, with its clown car of Rand apostles, there is virtually no chance that I ever will read any of her books.

Just in case you wondered where internet trolls come from.

"Here's what I do, I get on Amazon. I type in 'liberal books.' I go through and I say one star, one star, one star. The flip side is to go to conservative, libertarian, whatever. Go to their products and give them five stars. Okay? So literally 80% of the books I put a star on I don't read."

I imagine that this is exactly how conservative books get such good reviews, and how cable stations like Fox News also get such high ratings. There is a machine in place that simply falsifies data in order to drive an agenda.

Now I would never condone doing this kind of thing in response, though I know some of you do it in response to Palin books, I think as an overall agenda. to perform this sabotage purely along ideological lines is indefensible.

And that is really what is hamstringing the Liberals. You see we believe in fair play and level paying field, the other side has no compunction with cutting corners, falsifying data, or using dirty tricks at every opportunity.

And yet they will, to a person, tell you that THEY are the moral ones and that their agenda is the one most in line with American ideals. 

Christmas shopping with the President.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

President Obama is doing his part to support small businesses. 

Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha dropped in Saturday at Washington's Politics and Prose bookstore and purchased what he said was a "long list" of books that included The Kite Runner,Harold and the Purple Crayon, and The Sports Gene. 

The president said he bought a reader for every age, from 5 to 52 — his age. He paid by credit card. The total was not announced.

(Well I can tell you which book he didn't buy!)

I have to admit that I am feeling a little sentimental towards our President right now. 

After the holidays I might come back and bitch about the NSA or complain that the Healthcare.gov website should have been ready to rock and roll on day one, but right now I can't bring myself to do any of that.

During Thanksgiving the relatives waited until I was full of turkey and wine before going at me over Obamacare, but I am happy to report that I had little trouble knocking heads together and correcting talking points.

However at one point somebody said that President Obama was a failure, the worst President ever in fact, and I have to admit that I got pissed! Really pissed!

Instead of rationally explaining why that was incorrect, I lost my shit and demanded examples.

When they started throwing out talking points and quotes from Facebook I explained that if they were going to come at me with shit they read on Facebook they were going to walk away with stumps for arms.

I sat them in their chairs and went through the entire build up to the Affordable Care Act, from Hillary's attempt in the 90's, to the fact that it was really an expansion of Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan, to the steady stream of Right Wing attacks it has endured since its inception.

I also asked my family to consider the purpose of the law, and why they thought this man considered it important enough to risk his entire presidency on.

They stuttered for awhile, so I explained the benefits from the program, and even explained why THEY should  be building a damn statue to the man instead of running him down.

In the end I think they had their perspective shifted quite a bit, but I came away angry that the Republicans had been so successful that such a conversation had to take place.

So now I am just raring for a fight.

Who's next?

Trio of teen exorcists heading to England to battle the forces of Harry Potter.

(Okay one of the young ladies is twenty, but the other two ARE teens.)

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A trio of Arizona “exorcists” has ventured to England to fight what it describes as the endorsement of satanic elements in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series. 

“Harry is using this magic for good,” 18-year-old Brynne Larson explains in video posted by the Daily Mail on Monday. “So here we have the dangerous idea that you can use this magic for good or bad. When in reality, all magic is bad ’cause you’re getting your power from Satan.” 

Larson and friends Tess and Savannah Scherkenback will be profiled in a BBC special on Friday discussing both their longtime friendship and their training by Larson’s father, Rev. Bob Larson, who claims to have performed 15,000 exorcisms. 

The BBC reported that Bob Larson asks for donations of $200 for each exorcism. The three girls claim in the video that the popularity of Rowling’s books marked the culmination of a rise in occult activity in England. 

“The spells and things that you’re reading in the Harry Potter books, those aren’t just something that are made up,” 18-year-old Tess Scherkenback says. “Those are actual spells. Those are things that came from witchcraft books.”

The spells in Harry Potter books are NOT made up? Well that would certainly be news to J.K Rowling, who worked so hard to invent her own word combinations for her books.

This is clearly yet another bizarre pitch for reality show fame by a gaggle of giggly girls promoted by Rev. Bob Larsen, a well known charlatan.

However the Fundamentalist freakout over the Harry Potter books is all too real.

As I watched the video up above I thought t looked strangely familiar. And indeed it did.

Personally I have always thought that the main irritation by the Christian community when it comes to the Harry Potter books is that children scrambled to read them, and they they supplanted the Bible as the most popular book. And why not? After all they are better written by far, and the allegorical lessons are much easier to understand.

But what they don't teach us is how to perform actual magic. And only an imbecile would think otherwise. Or, a trio of imbeciles.