Today's Wingnut

Tell me you're a Taliban-adjacent asshole without using the word "Taliban".

The Kansas City Star:

Missouri Senate candidate Mark McCloskey says teen incest victims should be denied abortions

Republican Missouri Senate candidate Mark McCloskey told an audience last week he believes 13-year-old rape and incest victims should not be allowed to have abortions, stating he had a client who was raped at 13 but who gave birth to a child who now has a master’s degree. He made the comments in response to an audience member’s question at a forum in Osage Beach. “There’s a lot of candidates that say they’re pro-life but really they’re not completely pro-life,” the woman in the audience said, according to a video of the event posted on Facebook. “There’s a lot of, ‘Well in this case it would be allowed.’”

McCloskey, a St. Louis personal injury attorney, responded that he doesn’t “believe in any exceptions.” “We were down in Poplar Bluff a couple of months ago, and somebody asked me that question, ‘So you would force a 13-year-old who’s raped by a family member to keep that baby?’” he said. “And I said, ‘Yes, and more than that I’ve got that client.’ I’ve got a client who was raped by an uncle when she was 13 years old, had the child; she finished high school, finished college and got a master’s degree. That child she would have aborted finished high school, finished college and now has a master’s degree.”

It’s not clear whether McCloskey meant both the mother and the child got master’s degrees. His campaign could not immediately be reached for comment on the circumstances of the mother becoming his client. He also didn’t explicitly discuss whether his no-exceptions view includes abortions to save the life of the mother. The statements are among the most aggressive yet from Republicans seeking to curb abortions with few exceptions. Missouri passed a law in 2019 banning abortions at 8 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape and incest, but it has so far been blocked from implementation by a federal court. Most Missouri Republicans are anti-abortion but few have addressed questions of rape and incest directly. A portion of his comments was captured and sent to The Star by American Bridge, a Democratic research organization. The full hour-and-a-half candidate forum, hosted by We the People Camden County, was also posted online. Jane Cunningham, a Republican former state senator who attended the event, said the audience was thrilled by his answer. The “right to life” is a key part in the decision-making of primary voters, she said.

“It’s one of the litmus tests if you’re running in a Republican primary,” Cunningham said. Abortion exceptions have been a treacherous topic for Republicans running for U.S. Senate. In 2012, then-Missouri Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate, was asked by a television station whether he supported abortion rights for women who had been raped. Akin, who died this month, responded, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” in a comment that sank his Senate campaign. McCloskey’s opponents in the Republican primary have all staked out anti-abortion stances. Most notably, Attorney General Eric Schmitt is defending the 2019 Missouri law in federal court. On Tuesday, he announced he was joining a lawsuit against the Biden administration seeking to reinstate a Donald Trump-era order that barred family planning clinics that receive federal funding from referring patients for abortions. Former Gov. Eric Greitens has pointed out his convening of an special legislative session on abortion in 2017.

Told of McCloskey’s comments, retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he is “trying to stay out of the Senate race,” but that he disagreed with McCloskey and supports exceptions to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. Abortion rights nationally hinge on a Supreme Court case, to be heard later this year, concerning Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. The court in that case could overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent that set a constitutional right to the procedure in the first trimester. If Roe is struck down, Congress may take a more active role in regulating abortion. In September, the House passed a bill that would codify abortion rights in federal law. It’s virtually doomed to fail in the current Senate, which is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. McCloskey and his wife were catapulted to fame last summer when they brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters who were marching down their street in St. Louis. He launched a campaign for Senate this year and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in the incident. His wife pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment; Gov. Mike Parson granted both a promised pardon weeks later. McCloskey has donated to Democratic candidates in the past, including former Sen. Claire McCaskill, who defeated Akin in 2012.

In Osage Beach, he said it had bothered him “as long ago as when I was in grade school” that some death penalty opponents also support abortion rights. His comments received applause from the audience. “The justice of the Supreme Court in the most heinous crimes don’t have the right to decide who should live and die,” he said. “But every 13-year-old girl on the street should be able to decide the fate of the life of their child?”

OK - One More Time

In what would be nice to think of as one last desperate Hail Mary before the wheels come completely off and even the hard right fanatics and zealots throw up their hands and say "Holy fuck, you guys, you gotta stop this weird shit", here comes the Gilead Wannabe Gang again.

WaPo (pay wall)

Texas governor signs abortion bill banning procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday signed legislation banning abortions in the state as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, a measure slammed by critics as one of the strictest and most extreme measures in the nation and hailed by antiabortion supporters as a landmark achievement.

The Texas bill known as S.B. 8, described as a “heartbeat ban” abortion measure, prohibits the procedure the moment a fetal heartbeat has been detected. By banning abortion after the six-week mark, many women in Texas who are not even aware they are pregnant will not be allowed to get the procedure done in the state. The bill, which goes into effect Sept. 1, does not include exceptions for women impregnated as a result of rape or incest, but offers a provision for medical emergencies.

Abbott, who had publicly offered his support of the bill, celebrated what he deemed a victory for Texans while surrounded by Republicans gathered to watch him sign the proposal in Austin: “The heartbeat bill is now law in the Lone Star State.”

The piece goes on to describe the gruesome details of a religiously diseased constituency's attempt to impose their shitty paranoid freedom-hating woman-hostile rules on everybody but themselves.

Some things to keep in mind:

1. These stoopid laws do not stop abortions - they just make abortions unsafe
2. These stoopid laws do not stop abortions for anyone with the price of a plane ticket
3. These stoopid laws just make it harder for poor people to get ahead

So here it is again:

eggs ain't chickens

-

caterpillars ain't butterflies

-

ain't nuthin' goin' on in my daughter's uterus

that's any of your fuckin' business

Eat Your Veggies

YouTuber CC Marie with a dissertation on Christian Dominionism.

A Thought

Religion isn't losing its hold on people because of science and creeping secularism.

Religion is losing because fundamentalist theocrats are still pushing their arrogant certitude in ways that are judgmental and unjust and unloving.

hat tip - @matthewjdowd

The Church Of Randy

PennLive via Tribune News Service (NY Daily News):

Priest had threesome on Louisiana church altar, police say

What vow of celibacy?

A Louisiana priest had sex with two women on the altar of his church, police said.

The Rev. Travis Clark, 37, was removed from the priesthood last week, but the New Orleans Archdiocese left out the details of his “obscenity of women,” local CBS affiliate WWL reported. Police, however, had no such reservations.

Cops said a passerby filmed Clark half-naked with two women and several sex toys on the altar of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church on Sept. 30, according to WWL. The passerby sent the video to police, who arrived and arrested Clark along with two women, Melissa Cheng, 23, and Mindy Dixon, 41.

Investigators said the church sex was being recorded on a mobile phone, NOLA.com reported. Dixon is reportedly an adult film star who works for hire as a dominatrix. She wrote on social media about heading to New Orleans to “defile a house of God.”

Police did not say if the three had left room for Jesus.

Clark, Cheng and Dixon were charged with having sex in a public place — namely the altar, according to WWL. They’ve all posted bail and are no longer detained.

In Roman Catholic tradition, the altar is among the most sacred of church spaces. According to church law, known as canon law, when sacred places are violated they must be “repaired by penitential rite” before they can be used again in the Mass.

Days after Clark’s arrest, Archbishop Gregory Aymond went to Sts. Peter and Paul and performed a ritual to restore the altar’s sanctity, the Times-Picayune reported.

Clark was ordained in 2013 and became the priest at Sts. Peter and Paul in Pearl River, La., across Lake Pontchartrain from downtown New Orleans, in 2019, WWL reported.

He had recently taken over as chaplain at a local high school after the previous chaplain was accused of sexually abusing a minor.

This brings to mind one of the main reasons you can't trust Christians.

Let's assume the offending priest is to be held to account. Who's to judge him, other than god?

Assuming he can and does demonstrate his contrition, which fallible humans get to determine that he's contrite enough to warrant forgiveness according to church canon?

I'm pretty sure the church hierarchy is supposed to be able to deal with this shit, but when I look at the problems they've had with pederasty, how do I not see a system with a giant gaping loophole that let's anybody off the hook as long as his act is convincing?

As pious as some of these guys may well be, they can't know for sure, because they can't see into this guy's heart, because they ain't god for fuck sake.

About Those Gods

Something else that should come as absolutely no fucking surprise.

PsyPost:

Supporters of religious violence are more likely to claim they’re familiar with religious concepts that don’t exist

Individuals who claim knowledge of fake religious concepts are more supportive of religious aggression, while individuals with accurate religious knowledge are less supportive, according to new research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

“Although many quote the Christian Bible, few have read it. Thus, religious books are often incorrectly cited or cited in a way that serves personal prejudices and/or distorted worldviews,” said study author Daniel N. Jones, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada Reno.

“Not only do people ‘pick and choose’ the stories of a religious book to support their worldview, they inaccurately attribute messages and interpretations to that Holy Book. Thus, we wanted to determine the consequences of this tendency towards overconfidence in religious scripture.”

For their study, Jones and his colleagues recruited 409 American participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, 351 students from a university in Iran, and 209 individuals living on the Juarez/El Paso border region between Mexico and the United States.

The two American samples were provided with a list of stories, concepts, and people — and were told that they all appeared in the Christian Bible. The participants were then asked to indicate how familiar they were with each item. But many of the items on the list, such as The Army Seventeen and Soren’s Temple, did not actually appear in the Bible. The Iranian sample completed a similar task regarding concepts from the Quran.

The researchers found that those who claimed to be familiar with concepts that did not exist also tended to report being more supportive of religious aggression. In other words, individuals who claimed to have knowledge of fictitious religious concepts were more likely to agree with statements such as “I would shoot someone if I believed God wanted me to” and “The modern world needs a no mercy attitude toward the wicked.”

“Overconfidence in what you think God supports or what scripture says is toxic. Thus, humility is a critical feature that is needed to bring out the best and most benevolent aspects of religion,” Jones told PsyPost.

“Further, although overclaiming is toxic, actual religious knowledge (or admitting what you did not know) has the reverse effect such that it correlates with a peaceful disposition. In this way, knowing true vs. false stories in one’s Holy Book is associated with peaceful attitudes whereas claiming familiarity with false stories from one’s Holy Book is associated with violent attitudes.”

“It is important to note that all of these findings are similar in Islam (with the Quran) and Christianity (with the Bible). Muslim participants were peaceful when they were accurate in their knowledge of the Quran (or at least honest about what they did not know), and supported violence when they were overconfident in their knowledge of the Quran; identical findings emerged for Christian participants with the Bible,” Jones explained.

But there is still much to learn about the relationship between overclaiming religious knowledge and religious aggression.

“We still need to understand the mechanisms behind why these correlations emerge. In other words, we need to further research what exactly drives religious overclaiming and why religious overclaiming translates into violent attitudes,” Jones said.

“Further, we need to determine if these attitudes are merely supporting a violent agenda in the name of God, or if they actually predict real violent behavior. Finally, we need to know why religious accuracy predicts peaceful attitudes, and if indeed learning one’s Holy Book (accurately) can reduce violence and violent attitudes.”

“The idea for this study was partially inspired by the fantastic work of my PhD mentor, Del Paulhus, who generated the overclaiming technique,” Jones added.

“However, the impetus to further develop the idea emanated from a discussion I had with my mother. In a way, the origin of the idea was partially predicated on a bet with her. Origin notwithstanding, the outstanding team of researchers on this paper made tremendous contributions, and because of them, it became a far better paper.”

The study, “Religious Overclaiming and Support for Religious Aggression“, was authored by Daniel N. Jones, Adon L. Neria, Farzad A. Helm, Reza N. Sahlan, and Jessica R. Carre.

My question: How do I not assume religious freaks are just violence-prone assholes who cynically claim to have a plausible excuse for being violence-prone assholes?

Today's Reminders

Listen up, "Christian conservatives"

BTW - we're gettin' real tired of having to do your fuckin' work for you.

A Bible Thing

But then the Protestants got hold of it during The Reformation in the 16th century, and fucked it up for all of us by plowing the road and making it possible for American Evangelicals to use their religion almost solely as a revenue generator, and for their pet coin-operated politicians to rationalize and institutionalize rent-seeking.

So it sounds good, but it just comes back on you when they point out that it's not a Christian Bible thing, it's a Muslim Quran thing. And it gets lost in the racism shouting match.

But then again, if Usury is, in fact, a sin - and the GOP always makes noise about adhering to religious teachings - why are they always so adamantly opposed to things like CFPB?

Why would Liz Warren's ideas about fair and honorable business practices be seen as such a threat?

It's a wonderment.

A Song

Don't Call Yourself A Christian -- Eric Schwartz

Fake Lord Have Mercy

I'd really like it if this god joker could show up and fry one of these Christo-Jagoffs.

If I could count on that happening - even just once in a while - I might have to consider going back to church.

Friendly Atheist:

In 2016, Pastor B.J. Blackburn of Kentucky’s Elevate Church received national attention as the owner of a pizza chain called Giovanni’s of Prestonsburg because he made it very clear he ran a Christian establishment. He played Christian music over the speakers, put Bible verses on his receipts, and didn’t care who complained about it.

“We, here at Giovanni’s of Prestonsburg are unapologetically a Christ-based business that runs and operates with Christian values and principles. We wholeheartedly believe that we have been blessed the way that we have because of the goodness of God. We understand that this is not the view of every customer and/or business owner and we are not trying to push this view on anybody,” Blackburn wrote (in a now-deleted Facebook post).

You know where this post is going already, don’t you…?

Of course you do.

He’s a Christian who can’t stop telling you how Christian he is. This can only end one way. (Wait for the twist.)

Bobby “BJ” Blackburn is charged with using an electronic device to try to get a minor to engage in sexual activities. Police said he messaged an employee, who was a minor, and asked her to engage in a “threesome” with another minor, among other obscene messages.

On May 25, police said Blackburn followed a third minor to the station where she tried to give a statement saying she sent the obscene messaged from Blackburn’s phone. But when they questioned her further, she took back her statement and admitted that Blackburn told her to say it or she would lose her job.

Police tried obtaining Blackburn’s phone, but he allegedly threw it in a river. Like all innocent people do.

So if I have this right, Blackburn is now known for allegedly soliciting an underage girl for sex, destroying evidence, obstructing justice… and Jesus. Sounds about right.

If convicted, he faces up to five years in jail.

Should make for a fascinating sermon this Sunday.

Because God's A Capitalist

Deven Green - Mrs Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian

About That Church

The Independent put up a story about a plan to rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral:

Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral could be fitted with a new roof that harnesses solar energy to provide enough energy to power nearby buildings, if the design is accepted.

Made up of of diamond-shaped glass panels propped up with laminated wooden beams, Vincent Callebaut Architectures claim it would turn the iconic landmark into an energy-positive building.

The panels would store solar power in hydrogen fuel cells, the Paris based firm said. As more than enough energy would be stored to power the Cathedral, the excess could be channelled to nearby buildings.

I don't really care what happens here, I just think it's interesting and cool that the plan is to fit the joint out with solar panels integrated into the roofing materials.

And never mind that it looks like god's rocket being launched from a dragon-skin cross.

Weird as fuck, but really - I don't care.

No God No How

Tim Wise - A God Unworthy Of Praise Or Worship:

Among the most intriguing things about Christian fundamentalists, for me, has always been the way they envision God and then seek to sell that God to others.

On the one hand, they profess to love the Lord “with all their hearts,” and insist that this God so loved the world that he sent his only son to offer everlasting life (though some conditions apply). On the other hand, they’re quick to proclaim how the same God causes natural disasters, violent crime, and other tragedies as a way to punish the U.S. for allowing abortion, or “taking prayer out of schools,” or some other perceived moral slight.
- and -

To believe that God can truly love the world while deliberately sending floods, earthquakes, and other forms of suffering to that world as punishment for supposed bad behavior, is tantamount to believing that the abusive husband loves his wife, even as he pushes her down the stairs for being “a little mouthy.” It would be akin to accepting that the parent who beats their child “for their own good,” and says it was because “the little shit was back-sassing me,” is something other than a sadistic monster deserving not of love but rather, contempt and confinement.
- and -

If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.

-- James Baldwin

Today's Betty

Mrs Betty Bowers - America's Best Christian

This is Deven Green. You may recognize her voice next time you get an automated phone answering menu.

On Fairness On Sunday

What exactly is it you live by, Christians?

Luke 21, 1-4:
Just then he looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, “The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford - she gave her all.”

Remember now, Jesus loves you -
everybody else thinks you're a dick

Karma, Bitch

A bible museum. In Washington DC. With a view of the Capitol.

CNN:

The Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC says five of its most valuable artifacts -- once thought to be part of the historic Dead Sea Scrolls -- are fake and will not be displayed anymore.

German-based scholars tested the fragments and found that five "show characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin and therefore will no longer be displayed at the museum."
CNN raised questions about the museum's Dead Sea Scroll fragments in an article published last November, as the Green family prepared to unveil their new, $500 million museum. At 430,000 square feet, and with views of the Capitol, the Bible museum represents a significant investment for its evangelical founders.
And the kicker -

"Though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts, the elaborate testing process undertaken and our commitment to transparency," said Jeffrey Kloha, the chief curatorial officer for Museum of the Bible.

Excuse me, Mr Kloha, but if you knuckleheads cared about "verifying the authenticity" of any-damned-thing at all, you wouldn't be religious in the first place.

When you 're willing to believe in a pixie that lives in the sky - who'll do magic tricks for you if you suck up to it just right - you can't be surprised when somebody pulls some scammy shit on your gullible ass.

Yeah But No

It's a nice story about doing something nice for some nice lady. I especially liked the ooky-spooky angle about spirits and ghosts and shit.

The only problem is that there's a subtext that makes it actually about responsibility.

If I give credit to a supernatural force for something good that I did, then I can blame a supernatural force when I do something shitty. I can duck having to own up to whatever I do, which tells me self-infantilization is at the heart of every sky-pixie religion.

As an adult human being, you have to develop a relationship with yourself. Being faithful to a religion means you refuse to be the grownup in that relationship.

You did a good thing. Congratulations on having figured out how to be a decent person, but I do have a question:

• You don't really need us to pat you on the back for it every fuckin' time do you?

Theocrats Will Out

The Taliban never sleeps.

The Hill:

Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill requiring that public schools in the state put up the motto "In God We Trust."

The legislation, which will go to Gov. Bill Haslam (R), passed the state House earlier this week, USA Today reported.

"Our national motto is on our money. It's on our license plates. It's part of our national anthem," said state Rep. Susan Lynn (R), who sponsored the legislation.
Fine by me, fellas. When do we start the drive to add "All Hail Baphomet"?

And "Praise Quetzalcoatl"?

And "Zalmoxis Makes You Free"?

And "May You Be Forever Touched By His Noodley Appendage"?

Seriously - you knuckleheads got nothing better to do?

Let us now rise, and sing The Common Pastology.

Taste Sauce, from which all spices flow;
Drink up, ye Pirates here below;
Until the Kansas School Board calls;
Praise Noodles, Sauce, and Meaty Balls.

R'Amen.

About That TheoCon Thing

It's a long one, but you have to admit - the graphic's pretty good.

Michael Gerson, The Atlantic:

One of the most extraordinary things about our current politics—really, one of the most extraordinary developments of recent political history—is the loyal adherence of religious conservatives to Donald Trump. The president won four-fifths of the votes of white evangelical Christians. This was a higher level of support than either Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, an outspoken evangelical himself, ever received.

Trump’s background and beliefs could hardly be more incompatible with traditional Christian models of life and leadership. Trump’s past political stances (he once supported the right to partial-birth abortion), his character (he has bragged about sexually assaulting women), and even his language (he introduced the words pussy and shithole into presidential discourse) would more naturally lead religious conservatives toward exorcism than alliance. This is a man who has cruelly publicized his infidelities, made disturbing sexual comments about his elder daughter, and boasted about the size of his penis on the debate stage. His lawyer reportedly arranged a $130,000 payment to a porn star to dissuade her from disclosing an alleged affair. Yet religious conservatives who once blanched at PG-13 public standards now yawn at such NC-17 maneuvers. We are a long way from The Book of Virtues.
Remember though:

This is Michael Gerson - who helped create the monster.  

It reads as pretty critical, but (to me) it ends up being more of an Apologetic than a Critique.

ie: He tries to say otherwise near the end, but it gets to the usual attempt to blame it all on the product while ignoring the process (and the management of the process) that gave us that product. 

And as always always always, there's the standard passive voice bullshit: "We're all to blame for this horrible mess, so let's call it even and start fresh". 

No. There's one side of this where many many good people (Christian and otherwise) are turning away - because on the other side there's a buncha fuckin' maniacs called Republicans.

There are not "very fine people" on both sides of this shit.

Gotta get used to looking for the razor blade in these apples (hat tip = driftglass).

BTW: There's a sound cloud file embedded in the piece that makes it quite a bit easier.

Random Shots

(...and cheap ones at that)

The good news is that Billy Graham is still dead.

The bad news is that Franklin Graham still isn't.

The good news is that Billy Graham recently discovered there is no god.

The bad news is that we have to live in this fucked up world without George Carlin.