Last week, I posted an entry entitled “Britney Spears and Howard Dean linked?”. It was a little comment on an op-ed by Andy Rooney in which he — after some joking about whether he should write about Britney’s Spears’ much-publicized Vegas “wedding” event — turned to the “heavy” issue of Dean’s favorite philosopher (Hume) and whether Dean might be a closet atheist.

That day, our number of visitors and hits both doubled; within 2 days, they were back to the usual levels. High levels of interest in Dean’s religious views, or Hume’s empiricism? Perhaps. Or, just maybe, mentioning Britney Spears might have something to do with it.

Now, I personally don’t care much one way or the other about Britney Spears — although, to the extent that I have an opinion, I’m inclined to think she’s a talentless semi-retarded bimbo who rode to fame and fortune by exploiting the sexual fantasies of 40-year-old guys with lolita issues and the tween girls they secretly desire. (And I say that without malice; some of my best friends are 40-year-old guys with lolita issues.) But that’s a rant for another time. What’s interesting is the (reasonably inferred, though hardly guaranteed) observation that the mere mention of Britney Spears can light such a little fire here in our little backwater of atheistic commentary.

What’s going on here? We turn to the Good Book for guidance. In a well known (thank you, Jimmy Carter) passage from Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus reminds us that

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Couple this with the somewhat less well-known passage at Revelation, 17:1-6

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Need I say more?

OK, one more thing: If my theory of the visits/hits increase is right, I should probably get an even bigger bump if I were to say things like “View the Britney Spears wedding night porn video here!” or “See Britney Spears in hot all-girl action!” or “Watch Britney Spears have sex with animals!” or something like that. But of course, that would be wrong: I have no reason whatsoever to think there is any Britney Spears wedding night porn video, or that Britney Spears has sex with animals, or that Britney Spears has hot all-girl action, and it would be completely wrong for me to imply in any way there are videos available here or anywhere else that would show Britney Spears having sex with anybody or anything. So if you’re here looking for Britney Spears sex videos, you’re out of luck. We don’t have any Britney Spears sex videos, and we don’t know anybody who does have Britney Spears sex videos.

Of course, if you came here “accidentally”, please feel free to stay for atheistic commentary and general God-bashing.