Civil Commotion

As every sentient being in the universe knows by now, a Kentucky clerk is refusing to issue marriage licenses to anybody because, if she did, she would have to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. She has been ordered by the Governor of Kentucky, and a Federal judge, to begin issuing licenses, but she continues to refuse.

Now we know why.

Davis has refused to grant marriage license to anyone in Rowan County since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Kentucky’s governor ordered her to issue the licenses immediately, or resign. She told the judge that after consulting God, she decided she couldn’t comply.

So, I guess that’s that.

It seems a tiger has just been discovered hanging-out at an abandoned factory; you’ll have to follow the link to see the video.

Though information on the exact nature of this tiger’s dwelling status is currently a bit scarce, the video above purports to depict the discovery of a tiger in an abandoned building in Detroit. This claim is confirmed by a small but growing number of tweets …

After my failed attempt at “real” Christianity, the religious right bothered me much more than when I was ignorant of the Bible.

The political version of Christianity is first and foremost a media construct, like so much of our lives these days. It’s championed by Fox News, the 700 Club and a parade of has-beens and never weres, selling the “prosperity gospel” like so much snake oil. It’s a powerful and toxic stew that is as relevant to Jesus as professional wrestling or a discarded Playboy. Conservative Christianity in America is less a religion and more of a secret handshake, a group signifier of exclusion and moral superiority. [e.g., a shibboleth; y’all have seen that word used a lot around here]

The people most injured by the Fox News version of Christianity are those authentic, compassionate people of faith. There are many churches with a sense of sacrifice and love. I’ve seen them. They are Lutheran or Catholic, Buddhist and even Mormon. They are filled with nice people doing wonderful things from a sense community, but these groups are in grave danger. They are now being sold a bag of lies about threats to “religious liberty.” They’re being made into political puppets, manipulated into violating the precepts of their own faith in the voting booth and in their own, incendiary, hate-filled rhetoric.

Edwin Lyngar

I can s-o-o-o relate. As I’ve been saying for years, the evangelical right have been turned into the political shock troops for the very people who are screwing the country into the ground — and the poor fools have no idea that they’re being laughed at by their noisy heroes even as they are (mis)used and their pockets are picked. As H.L. Mencken so presciently said, “The job before democracy is to get rid of such canaille; if it fails, they will devour it.”

Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
V: Concerning the Slander of the so-called Evil Qualities

§386   There are some very simple peoples and men who believe that continuous fine weather would be a desirable thing: they still believe today in rebus moralibus, that the “good man” alone and nothing else than the “good man” is to be desired and that the ultimate end of man’s evolution will be that only the good man will remain on earth (and that it is only to that end that all efforts should be directed). This is in the highest degree an uneconomical thought; as we have already suggested, it is the very acme of simplicity and it is nothing more than the expression of the agreeableness which the “good man” creates ( -— he gives rise to no fear, he permits of relaxation, he gives what one is able to take).

With a more educated eye one learns to desire exactly the reverse — that is to say, an ever greater dominion of evil, man’s gradual emancipation from the narrow and aggravating bonds of morality, the growth of power around the greatest forces of Nature and the ability to enlist the passions in one’s service.