Culture Warriors category archive

I have a gut reaction to Liberty University. And it’s a decidedly negative one.

It was started to indoctrinate students with Jerry Falwell’s version of Christianity, which I find (to use Falwellian terminlogy) decidedly un-Biblical, insofar as Christianity is supposed to be based on the Gospels, rather than on Leviticus. (I feel the same way about Regents, Pat Robertson’s outfit, just down the road. They are in the tradition of Bob Jones and Oral Roberts Universities–designed to wash brains, not nurture them indoctrinate students in a particular politico-religious ideology, with an accent on the politico.)

Nevertheless, I commend the students for greeting the Donald’s Gospel of Revenge with silence.

It may not be what Jesus would do, but billionaire developer and reality TV star Donald Trump counseled students Monday at the Falwell family’s Liberty University not to turn the other cheek but to “get even” with adversaries.

In a speech where he also called President Barack Obama “a Teflon president” who seems to win favorable press coverage no matter the circumstance, Trump counseled Liberty students to “get even” with those who wrong them in business.

“I always say don’t let people take advantage – this goes for a country, too, by the way – don’t let people take advantage. Get even. And you know, if nothing else, others will see that and they’re going to say, ‘You know, I’m going to let Jim Smith or Sarah Malone, I’m going to let them alone because they’re tough customers,” said Trump . . . .

He also recommended that the students get pre-nups when they marry.

Via C&L, which adds commentary.

Gina Barreca poses a question to Romney and Ryan:

“We will honor you, our fellow citizens, by giving you the right and opportunity to make the choice.”

That is exactly what Republican candidate for vice-president Paul Ryan said in his speech this morning: he emphasized the need for America to take back its right to choose.

Americans, he implied, know what’s best for ourselves. We are a smart and responsible people. We want the government off our backs and out of our wallets, Paul Ryan’s message implied.

Isn’t it right to assume that, if we want the government out of off our backs and out of our wallets, we’d also want the government out our wombs, away from our cervices, and out of our vaginal area generally?

B-b-b-b-but, in Wingnut World, wimmens is different.

If one picture is worth 10,000 words, what price two?

Via Contradict Me.

Via Contradict Me.

Their fanatics meet our fanatics.

McClatchy:

An Ivy League scholar and mother-of-two is touching a raw nerve by questioning whether high-flying career women with families, at least American ones, can truly “have it all.”

Writing in The Atlantic magazine, Anne-Marie Slaughter cited her own downshift from powerful State Department official to mere Princeton University professor as evidence that they cannot, at least not as US society now stands.

Notice how no one ever wonders why men can’t have it all?

It’s because men expect to have it all by birthright. And by and large get away with it.

I’ll give you an example:

I had stayed home with my sick son. The next day, the boss, who had raised two sons after a nasty divorce from a nasty man, called me into her cubby and asked, “Why have you been missing so much time to stay home with your kid?”

“My wife said to me, ‘Why should I always be the one to miss work?'”

Boss looked at me for about 15 seconds, then said, “You know, you’re right. Get out of here.”

Best boss I ever had.

At the Guardian, Katherine Stewart considers the attempts of religionists to construe “of” into “for”: to change “freedom of religion”–the right of persons to believe as they will–into “freedom for religions“–the ability of theocratists to bend others to their will under cover of law, that is, to define their freedom of religion to include controlling your beliefs and resulting actions.

Also, RICO.

Brendan’s back, and he’s on the phone again.

Via Bob Cesca.

Excerpt:

I would like to read to you what The Jesus said about homosexuality.

I’d like to but he never said anything about it.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Hadley Freeman contrasts Little Ricky, President wannabe, and Dharun Ravi, dorm room spy, and wonders at the contrast:

Ravi will soon find out if he must leave America. Santorum et al, meanwhile, compete to run it.

Words fail me.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Larry Farnese plans to propose his own state rape bill, for the ganders:

Farnese’s legislation would require male patients to:

• Be given a full prostate exam and undergo a cardiac stress test.
• Submit a signed affidavit from a sexual partner stating that the patient suffers from erectile dysfunction.
• Participate in sex therapy to determine if there are nonphysical reasons for the individual’s condition.
• Watch a video detailing the side effects of erectile-dysfunction medication.

Frankly, I think that, until it involves involuntarily applying internal sonic vibrators, it doesn’t go far enough.

Robyn Blumner is uneasy:

But far more of my worry list is external. It stems from my concern that America’s political system can no longer grapple with serious problems. The reason is simple: One of its two major parties doesn’t believe in government except as it may reward big business, protect wealth and impose religiously inspired morality through operation of law.

Read the rest.

I live in a time in which Republicans consider vicariously sticking things up women a legitimate function of the state.

Words fail me.

Ronnie Polaneczky considers Pennsylvania’s proposed policy of state rape. A nugget:

The forced test has been likened to rape (why not add candlelight and Barry White, and call it date rape?). But since it’s being pushed in a bill sponsored by a gaggle of anti-choicers, the bill has been cynically dubbed “The Woman’s Right-to-Know Act.”

(snip)

Indeed, a statement from one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Thomas Killion, R-Chester, suggests that a social agenda, not a woman’s “right to know,” is precisely what this bill is about. Killion told the Inquirer that he had pulled back support, even though “I’m personally pro-life and I support anything that would discourage abortion.”

In other words, House bill 1077 is not at all about a woman’s “right to know.” It’s about discouraging a woman from exercising a right that others wouldn’t choose to exercise.

It’s all about control.

The Republican Party, the party of doms.

Revealed truth is an elastic thing.

It so often reveals the financial and personal concerns of those who claim the revelation.

Robyn Blumner remembers a court case in which she was involved with the legal team:

I have a solution to the battle royal between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration over providing free birth control (she misplet “covered by insurance”–ed.) to employees at Catholic-run hospitals and universities: Blame the lawyers. The Catholic Church relied on this handy excuse when it bent its religious creed to save some bucks. It’s time to dust it off once again.

I’m referring to a group of tort cases in which Catholic hospitals defended themselves against lawsuits from aggrieved parents of a dead fetus by claiming that an unborn child is not a person.

Till people caught on.

Harold Camping, the doomsday radio preacher who has predicted the end of the world for more than a decade, has told his followers that he has no evidence that his predictions and reality would ever overlap. Thus, he will cease predicting the date they would coincide.

But have no fear, my friends.

The scam shall come again.