Miscellany

I’ve been preoccupied the past few days but, just so’s you know, this country’s Right is still stark raving mad.

• Kevin Drum wonders what’s up with the Republican announcement that they aren’t even going to hold hearings on any Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Obama.

  The obvious question is: Why refuse to even hold hearings? That just makes Republicans look sullen and obstructionist. Why not hold hearings normally, drag them out a little bit, and then vote down whoever Obama nominates? The result is the same, but Republicans look more like senators and less like small children throwing a temper tantrum.

  Oh, I can explain that: Their base hates Obama more than it loves their country. A Nigra! And a Moozlim! From Hahverd! In OUR WHITE HOUSE!!

• Albert Mohler is distressed by Pope Francis’ remarks suggesting it might be permissible for couples in the Zika-zone to use contraceptives.

  Once you make human conscience, the individual conscience, the determining issue in terms of a moral decision or, for that matter, a theological question, then every conscience can become a law unto itself.

  And, obviously, it undermines society the church if people go around making their very own judgments about things. So … shut-up and do as the theologians tell you to do, for y’all are no damn good.

• Michelle Bachmann, blinking-neon loony, has a cozy conversation with David Barton, bona fide pseudo-historian. Seriously: Don’t gag on the smarmy unctuousness.

• Alex Jones is locked in a titanic death struggle with the demons determined to assassinate Donald Trump, or something like that. The good news is that Vladimir Putin is on his side.

I’ve wondered for years: Are these guys crazy, or are they cynical whores who specialize in servicing the crazy?