'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Misplaced Faith
By Baron Dave Romm
Hell
and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and
What We Should Do by Joseph Romm.
A clear, concise and convincing book on climate change and why we
need to hurry to fix the problem.
Climate Progress: An
Insider's View of Climate Science, Politics and Solutions
Shockwave
Radio Theater Podcasts
for iTunes and iPods, with pictures
Shockwave Radio
broadcasts on archive.org
Bookmark my bookmark page.
Nascent Wikipedia entry for Shockwave Radio Theater
I was going to comment on the opening of the Creation Museum, then realized I'd already written more-or-less what I was going to say. What follows is a rewrite and revision of an essay that originally appeared here right after the 2004 elections.
We're laughing at you.
We are not laughing at your religion or how you practice your faith. We are laughing at the stupid things you cling to in the name of your faith.
Faith can be a wondrous thing. Faith can carry you through hard times and lift you during good times. Faith can build families, communities, temples, schools, governments. Faith can bring you closer to G_d. And faith can convince you to kill doctors and fly airplanes into buildings. When you use your belief in a loving G_d to to justify hate, killing and actions that would be a sin for others, then your faith is misplaced. Faith inspires individuals to pull together to create civilization. Misplaced faith inspires Inquisitions and Jihads.
Throughout history, people who think they know G_d's will look down on those of us who disagree with their particular interpretation of the world. I know many of you. You think the Rapture is coming any day now and you (not me) will ascend into heaven and you don't care what happens afterward. You are, for the most part, good people. Evangelicals I've known are kind, caring, intelligent people who love their children and try to live by Scripture.
You wonder why I don't "get it". I shall try to explain, but I don't think you'll understand. From outside your narrow worldview, it's you who don't get it. And you're funny, but not in the way you intend. Here are a few examples.
Evolution
This is an issue on which you are quite simply wrong. Dead wrong. The Bible is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it. If you wish to look at the issue in religious terms, think of Evolution as the implementation details of G_d's plan. If you want to see G_d, look in a microscope or a telescope. Your politically correctness is a matter of misplaced faith. You insist on teaching religion when the Supreme Being can be found in the teachings of science. Just like the Taliban. Just like the Inquisition.
I don't expect you to change your mind because your sphincter won't let you. This issue has been drummed into your brain, over and over, and you can't even contemplate being wrong. It leads you to lie. There are no reputable scientists who disagree about Evolution, though you claim otherwise. There is and will continue to be a healthy debate about precisely how it works and how it worked in the past. You are foolish to the point of irrelevant in claiming that this debate somehow proves a different system is true. You are wrong.
We will go further. Humans have vast expanses of "junk" DNA. Other species are more complete. In other words, G_d isn't done with the human race yet. The Rapture (or the equivalent) won't be for you, it will be for our great-great-etc grandkids. The sin of pride has brought you down.
To deny Evolution is to deny G_d. By insisting on lies, you are a danger to those of us who want to greater understand the world as created. Your soul is corrupt, please don't corrupt the souls of truth-seekers.
Global Warming
How this came to be one of the mainstays of political correctness I don't know. Perhaps it's that you think that the world is perfect and ready for G_d to grab you, sling you a harp and have you sit in the bosom of Abraham. Well, you're wrong.
As with any good science, the precise mechanism and predictions of global warming are still being debated and refined. Virtually everyone in the field agrees that humans have affected the environment, and usually for the worse. You keep claiming some person over here or this old report contradicts these findings, but that just makes you look like you didn't pass High School Chemistry... or High School Reading Comprehension.
First rule of camping: Don't crap where you sleep. Yet that's precisely what you're doing. You're very bad shepherds of creation. You are dangerous, and people are dying because of you. We need to address this issue, and we need to address this issue now. We don't need sermons, we need to clean up the world G_d gave us.
Nine-Commandment Christians
As Christians, you should be ashamed of the way you treat gays and anyone different than you, even the good people who love with their heart and worship G_d in very similar ways. You should be ashamed that you are against abortions but in favor of war and the death penalty. You should be ashamed that you pick and choose which parts of the Bible to believe in.
You support politicians who bear false witness, kill people in your name and break any and all of the rules of your faith. You trust people who claim to be "born again" but continue to act in a most Unchristian manner. You don't trust people who tell you the truth about their religious misgivings. You put your trust in the wrong people, which makes you easy to lie to. You claim to believe in moral absolutes, yet you believe in lies and don't believe the truth.
If your interpretation of earthly things like Evolution and Global warming is so off the mark, how can your interpretation of the Bible be valid? Your view of reality bears so little relation to the world that you can be listed as clinically insane. I'm not going to provide links because you go out of your way not to believe. Do your own research, and look at all the evidence. You won't, alas, and that makes you ignorable or worse.
We can and should have political discussions. But we cannot discuss politics with people who misplace faith in the Creator with faith in politicians. Until you live in the world G_d created, we cannot take you seriously.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Million Writers Award
Southern Gothic
Dear friends,
As you may be aware, in 2005 I started a literary e-zine called Southern Gothic, dedicated to publishing fiction in the sub-genre made famous by the likes of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.
Last year I had the pleasure of being able to publish a story by journalist Mark MacNamara, called "Vertically Divided, Blue-Red-White." This story has recently been chosen as one of the top ten stories published online in 2006 by the storySouth Million Writers contest.
This is a tremendous honor both for Mark and for Southern Gothic. The last phase of the contest is a vote by readers. I hope you will go to the contest page (link below) and vote for Mark's story, and I encourage you to read the other stories published there. If you are not aware of the quality of fiction being published online these days, I think you will be pleasantly surprised, as I think online magazines publish stories as good or better than anything you will find in the best paper magazines. Mark's story is definitely one of the best I've read in years, and this is his first piece of published fiction, which makes his accomplishment all the more remarkable. He deserves every bit of recognition he can get, because he is one of America's great undiscovered writers. Maybe if he could win the Million Writers award, he would no longer be undiscovered. Your vote will help.
Vote here: storysouth.com/millionwriters/2007vote.html
Sincerely,
Jeff Crook
New Video!
Dick Eats Bush
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michael Bronski: Gay Old Time: When Gay Goes Straight (thephoenix.com)
In honor of Boston's Pride Week, we look at 10 moments when the mainstream assimilated gay culture and made it its own.
Alonso Duralde: Charles in charge (advocate.com)
Charles Nelson Reilly has the last laugh. In this October 9, 2001 interview the pop culture oddball and theater director opens up with The Advocate.
CAROLINE RYDER: The Body Politic (frontierspublishing.com)
That smile? It's Margaret Cho, finally comfortable in her own skin
Two Bite Interview: Darrin Bell, one of America's most pro gay cartoonists (afterelton.com)
AE: What's more important to you--being funny or making social/political commentary?
DB: I think the commentary is more important to me. We all want to be useful. There are plenty of people being funny, but not too many of them are commenting on society/politics in a useful way. I have a degree in political science and a good B.S. detector and if I'm not using both, what's the point? Being funny is important, but I don't want to make people laugh without also making them think. That would be a waste of my time and theirs.
Heather A. O'Neill: Catching up With A.M. Homes (afterellen.com)
AE: Who do you picture reading The Mistress's Daughter?
AMH: You mean besides Joan Didion? [Laughs.] Honestly, what's interesting about it for me is that this book will be read by literary readers who've read my other books and the people who know my work, and then also it will be a very important book to people whose lives are affected by adoption - whether it's birth mothers who've given up children or people who are adopted or parents who have adopted children. I'm hearing from all of those people.
Michael Jensen: David Hyde Pierce joins list of out gay actors (afterelton.com)
A publicist for David Hyde Pierce yesterday confirmed for AfterElton.com that Pierce is gay and in a long term relationship with Brian Hargrove, a writer/producer/director in Hollywood. Speculation had long swirled around the actor who found fame playing Niles Crane for twelve years on the long running sitcom Frasier.
The seven faces of Parker Posey (afterellen.com)
In a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, indie film goddess Parker Posey discussed seven "iconic Parker Posey characters" she's played over the years. Her take on the career-defining roles was just as smart, funny, and kooky as the characters themselves.
Photo Gallery: Have You Seen an Angel? (beliefnet.com)
You may have glimpsed celestial figures in a shadow of flowers, in pillows of clouds, or in the dimming twilight. Were they really God's messengers caught by surprise or just extraordinary shapes created by your mind or a trick of light?
Margaret Cho Blog
Hubert's Poetry Corner
THE SQUANDERER - MORE OF LESS
Reader Suggestion
Battle at Kruger
Stunning footage of a brutal, bloody battle between lions, water buffalo, and two crocodiles in an African watering hole. Nature red in tooth and claw. Watch all the way through if you have a few minutes. And cheer the buffalo on!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast til late afternoon.
The melting monitor left a black smudge on the ceiling which only smeared bigger when I tried to wipe it away.
Ack - really don't want to paint the ceiling.
Spars With Author
Stephen Colbert
Hosting a Saturday breakfast at BookExpo America, Stephen Colbert tangled good-naturedly with Khaled Hosseini, whose novels include "The Kite Runner" and a new best seller, "A Thousand Splendid Suns."
Colbert introduced Hosseini by stating that he had not read "The Kite Runner," a million-selling novel about two Afghani boys and the tragic recent history of their country, and assumed it was a book about a boy who loves kites.
"I loved yo-yos, so I can relate," Colbert said, who then referred to "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by groaning, "Great, another book about global warming."
Stephen Colbert
Offers $1 Million Reward
Larry Flynt
"Have you had a sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official?" read a full-page advertisement taken out by Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine in Sunday's Washington Post.
It offered $1 million (500,000 pounds) for documented evidence of illicit intimate relations with a congressman, senator or other prominent officeholder. A toll-free number and e-mail address were provided.
The last time Flynt made such an offer was in October 1998 during the drive to impeach President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Flynt's target this time, if he has one, was not immediately known.
Larry Flynt
Former Actress Finds New Stage
Prabhavati Dwabha
Maggie O'Hara may have left the false eyelashes and stiletto heels behind when she ditched Hollywood for the banks of India's sacred Ganges river, but the 50-something actress still knows how to command an audience.
Up the winding mountain path, at the home she built for disadvantaged children in Rishikesh in northern India, a crowd of admirers is gathering, offering cash, cheques, and even a white sheepskin rug.
Prabhavati Dwabha, as she is now known, drapes it dramatically over her chest, and laughs.
It's the fame and recognition the Colorado native dreamed of as she struggled to make it in Hollywood in the 1970s, taking roles most other actresses avoided - the bad girls, lesbians and prostitutes.
But while she still loves a bit of drama in her life, the ego has gone - shed like her 10-kilogram make-up case on a transformational journey that ended here. She has spent the last 14 years in the foothills of the Himalayas, fighting to improve the lives of women and children.
Prabhavati Dwabha
Entering Mainstream
Porn
Porn used to be relegated to a video hidden in the bottom drawer, or a magazine under the mattress. Today, it's part of everyday life.
Hugh Hefner's girlfriends have become TV's "girls next door." Porn stars have MySpace pages and do voiceovers for video games. And while "porn on demand" is standard for hotel TVs and upgraded cable packages, it's even easier to find it with a few clicks on the computer.
In April, more than a third of the U.S. Internet audience visited sites that fit into the online "adult" category, according to comScore Media Metrix.
So the message is clear: In today's world, sex doesn't just sell. The pervasiveness of porn has made sexiness - from subtle to raunchy - a much-sought-after attribute online, at school and even at work.
Porn
Suit Over 'Jackass' Stunt
Perry Caravello
An actor is suing "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville, TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and radio personality Adam Carolla, claiming he was never paid $10 million for doing a below-the-belt stunt that left him severely injured.
Perry Caravello claims Kimmel never paid him for his work in the 2003 TV movie "Windy City Heat." According to the suit, Knoxville also promised to pay him to promote the DVD release of the film on Carolla's show last fall if he agreed to place his genitals in a mousetrap.
"Plaintiff agreed to do so, and, much to his emotional tranquility and to his physical harm, was severely injured when the trap literally went on his manhood," the suit contended.
Perry Caravello
Canadian Police Find Austrian Jewel
'Sissi'
Police have found a rare pendant that belonged to a 19th century Austrian queen and was stolen from a castle there in 1998.
The pendant, known as the Koechert Diamond Pearl, was found at a home in a Winnipeg, Manitoba, in the investigation of a crime network accused of committing fraud and bank robberies in Canada, Europe and Africa.
The jewel was made for Austrian Queen Elisabeth, known as "Sissi," who died 100 years ago at the age of 60 after being stabbed by an anarchist.
'Sissi'
Curtains Falling
Amphitheaters
It doesn't take a second for David Kells to recall the first concert he ever saw: Aerosmith with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Starwood Amphitheater, 1990.
Over the next 16 years, few summers passed without Kells catching at least one show from the grassy slope at Starwood. Not this year, though. The 22-year-old Nashville amphitheater was sold for $4.2 million to a developer who plans to level it and build homes where Kells and his buddies once partied under the stars.
Amphitheaters in at least four other markets - Columbus, Ohio; Sacramento, Calif.; Indianapolis; and San Antonio - are up for sale and at risk of closing.
People who monitor the concert industry say the outdoor venues, known as "sheds" in the business, aren't as financially feasible as they once were. Arenas can bring in more revenue with tiered ticket pricing, and the land where many amphitheaters were built 20 years ago has become prime residential property with enticing real-estate values.
Amphitheaters
Klondike Memorabilia
Rapuzzi Collection
Debra Sanders unlatches a padlock and swings open the door to reveal a room jammed with boxes, steamer trunks, a roulette wheel, wicker furniture, phonographs, mannequins dressed in gold rush garb, a wooden boat, a brass tuba and long rows of shelves crammed with curios.
The objects belong to what is called the Rapuzzi Collection. Amassed by two Skagway old-timers, Martin Itjen and his friend George Rapuzzi, over the better part of the last century, the collection was sold to a private foundation last month for $1 million by Rapuzzi's niece, Phyllis Brown.
Its caretakers often refer to the collection as "stuff" - not casually, but with a certain awe-struck emphasis that hints at all the sorting ahead. The plan is to distribute the collection's contents among the National Park Service, the city of Skagway and the Alaska Natural History Association.
Rapuzzi Collection
Hatched In Ireland
Golden Eagle
A pair of golden eagles have produced the first chick to be hatched in the Republic of Ireland in nearly a century after the species was hunted to extinction in the country.
Golden eagles, which have a wingspan of about 6 foot when fully grown, were wiped out in the early 20th century by trigger-happy pleasure-shooters and egg collectors.
A pair of golden eagles are believed to have bred in Northern Ireland in the late 1950s, after migrating from Scotland, but this is the first birth in the Republic of Ireland since the early 1900s.
In 2001, conservationists began reintroducing adult golden eagles to the northwest of Ireland from Scotland.
Golden Eagle
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