As in Michelle Goldberg. So, I went to the little shindig down at Xavier the other night to hear Michelle lock horns with Phil Burress. For those of you outside the state of Ohio, Phil is the recovering porn fiend who heads Citizens for Community Values - and the man who claims to have singlehandedly gotten that lovely amendment banning gay marriage passed here in 2004. (Phil’s latest obsession is ridding local motel rooms of “On Demand” adult films). He’s also the Treasurer of Exodus International- “For 30 years, Exodus has served men and women who are affected by homosexuality. Freedom is possible through Jesus Christ!”

First and foremost, Phil is a lying sack of shit. Tuesday night, Phil contended that Exodus- see above quote- was not a religious organization. Okay, except for the part about Jesus Christ doing the “freeing”. He also claimed to have nothing to do with an earlier press event featuring GOP gubernatorial candidate, J. Kenneth Blackwell and a murder of ministers- I can say that, right, like a murder of crows, supporting him politically. Of course, he actually set it up- see Michelle’s take on the evening here. Listen to the audio of the event here- it takes an email address to register with DefCon and tune in but they’re good folks with a good cause.

On the whole, no sparks flew, the event was a bit too reserved for shouts of “God’s For Suckers!” or “Play Freebird!”, and I forgot to bring a creampie for Phil’s face but let’s talk about Burress some more:

“For 25 years, he says, his waking hours were dominated by the need to view pornography. It destroyed his ability to be a loving husband, cost him financially and kept him emotionally estranged from people who should have been close.

“It consumed my life. It was my hidden secret,” he says.

The twice-divorced Cincinnati native sees himself as a blessed survivor, whose acceptance of God and admission of his “addiction” to pornography allowed him to reverse a life he is convinced was spiraling into a personal abyss.”

Must….Have…Porn!

“Mrs. Burress says she understands pornography’s destructive power and why her husband must abstain from any exposure to such materials. For that reason, she will watch the adult videos and read the adult magazines, then write summaries for her husband so he can speak to groups, lobby legislators or persuade prosecutors.

“I don’t even look at it,” Mr. Burress says.

“We understand each other,” she says. “We both have a passion for this.”

That way they can really spice up their love life. I’m not sure what George Allen has to do with any of this but he deserves the GIMPing for that “macaca” remark.

Found a link to this movie through the Atheist Goat site that King Retard posted. Stardust blogged about this camp in July.

Well, it looks like someone has gone and made a feature documentary about it.

What’s with all the war rhetoric, just like Battle Cry? “God’s army”, “enemies”, “this means war!”, etc., etc. How far are these kids from becoming so radicalized by the fanaticism being pumped into them that they become little Xian jihadists? Time for my nephew to start training in guerilla warfare, man. Shit’s gonna hit the fan in this country. Atheists: let’s make sure we secure the missile silos before they do.

I say things like that to be funny, but sometimes I have nightmares that it ain’t no joke. Especially after watching shit like this. There is even a scene where they have the kids pledging allegiance to the “Christian Flag” of the United States, right next to the Stars and Stripes. Does that scare the fuck out of you or what?

Here’s a little gem I found on ytmnd.com. Enjoy!

Truth, purity, self-control, firmness, fearlessness, humility, unity, peace, and renunciation — These are the inherent qualities of a civil resister.
— Mahatma Gandhi

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
— Mahatma Gandhi

On 9/11, US to look at Mahatma for peace

I know you hawks in the audience will hate this one, but this was a great man, and he did achieve his goal, so something worth thinking about.

WASHINGTON: When the world remembers the victims of 9/11 terrorist attack in America on September 11, a US-based institute is organising a public rally in Washington to mark the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s first non violent public action, on the same day.

The Tennessee-based M K Gandhi Institute is organising a public rally on the historic Lincoln memorial grounds in Washington on September 11 to highlight Gandhi’s philosophy of peace and non-violence.

The rally will be led by Arun Gandhi, the grandson of India’s father of the nation.

On September 11, 1906 Mahatma Gandhi had launched his non-violence, non-cooperation movement against the British in India.

The rally will be a “Day of prayer, peace, reconciliation against terrorism and other forms of violence worldwide,” said Arun Gandhi, founder of the Institute.

“While for all American people, September 11, 2001, is a black day of mourning and hopelessness, it can be transformed into a day of hope and harmony,” he said.

The rally in Washington DC will be preceded by a day long conference on peace and non-violence on Sep 10 at Georgetown University, Washington.

This conference is expected to bring together policy makers, mediators, activists and educators to see how diverse actors can work together to increase their impact.

Among the institute’s activities planned includes an appeal to communities worldwide to host an inter-faith prayer on September 11 and to make this an annual event as well as launching a programme to include standardized curriculum on non-violence in middle and high schools across the US.

Here it comes. The fifth anniversary. And all of the exploitation for movie ticket profits, and TV ratings, all of the political posturing and finger pointing for election booth profits, and all of the self-righteousness is gonna come spewing out. Right up till election day. And then we’ll get back to shopping for the War on Christmas, boiz and goilz!

From the right-wing rag Frontpagemag.com [Other sites have links that say “email to a friend” — these stiffnecks have a big stars-n-kickass graphic that says “SEND THIS TO YOUR E-BRIGADE!’ 50-year-old men still playing with Tonka trucks and G.I. Joes.]…

Anyway… This is of course a gushing review of what sounds like an incredibly biased upcoming ABC miniseries called “The Path to 9/11.” I’m not gonna be a Dope of a Pope on a Rope and go condemn a film before I see it (like Catholics do with everything that remotely criticizes their mega-cult), but I do smell a rat.

Harvey Keitel (gee, thanks, Harvey — always knew you were a deep thinker — standing there with your dick hanging out in “Bad Lieutenant ” going “I’m sorry, Lord. I’ve done so many bad things.”) plays FBI agent John O’Neill, who spent years tracking Al Qaeda, convinced that their brand of sophisticated terrorism would eventually hit our shores. He found out in the most tragic way that he was dead right: after basically quitting in protest from the FBI, he took a high-paying top security job at the World Trade Center. He died there on Sept. 11.

Don’t believe one thing you hear, half the things you read, one quarter of the things you see.

I know quite a bit about the story of John O’Neill, and I wonder how his family feels about this dramatization. Remember: he didn’t quit under the Clinton Administration. He quit under the Bush Administration. As did many others. Clinton was not working in remotely the same political climate before 9/11, so the comparisons are ludicrous. And yet, I still think his dealings with this situation, from the moment the first plane hit, would have seemed like sheer political genius compared to this monkey. Someone should write about an alternate universe in which, somehow, Clinton was elected to a third term and exactly that happened. I would guarantee that the whole fucking world wouldn’t hate us now, Osama bin Laden would be in captivity, there would be no nightmare in Iraq, Lebanon would not have even happened, and we would be well on our way to a Middle East peace accord.

Travel the world and talk to those who don’t have the luxury of just watching this on the TV news. They live it. You will pretty much hear the same thing.

I am no defender of either administration, but Clinton did not ignore the threat of OBL. They were extremeley aware of him and did everything they could to inform the incoming, arrogant administration of the threat. September 11 happened under George Bush’s watch. Get it? Fact is, his cronies were busy doing things like covering up the naked “Spirit of Justice”. Poke around. You will see John Ashcroft had drugs and porn on his mind before Sept. 11. Terrorism wasn’t even on his list. These guys live in 1965.

Wake the fuck up, America.

For a very balanced story of the life and death of John O’Neill, go here. Fascinating, well worth printing and taking home with you.

I’m sorry, but these kids look way more fucked up and deranged than any of the acid heads I used to go to concerts with.

The caption for the photo on the right reads:

Young worshippers support a girl overcome with the rapture at Hampton, Virginia’s Acquire the Fire event, January 30th, 2003. The fest is the brainchild of Texas evangelical minister Ron Luce, who also helms the quasi-political Battle Cry initiative, a youth group devoted to protesting the depiction of un-Christian ethics in the media. Luce also oversees the Texas-based Honor Academy, a training camp for teens and young adults intent on entering the youth ministry.

Our old pal Uncle Ron again. This guy should be taken to court for the mental torture of children. Does that girl on the right look like she’s ready for the rapture — or a 5×5 padded cell?

When I was a teenager, we were sitting around reading the X-Men, running around the streets shooting super 8 movies, playing frisbee and eating junk food. Not balled up on the floor in anguish over an imaginary armageddon we were soon going to live through. What the fuck kind of brainwashed generation are these people creating?

(Thanks to David for sending it in.)

Okay, I was going to write about how much more religious coverage there is in mainstream papers these days, and find out what readers are seeing in their local papers. Our Saturday Arts and Life Section has become mostly coverage of religion. So I was comforting myself one day by saying, “Self, at least it’s all in one area and maybe people don’t even read that far into the paper. It’s not as if it’s on the front page.”

Well, sometimes I am just some daft bugger, because of course it’s all over the front page. Here is a perfect example. Our touched-by-the-lord Ohio Sec. of State Ken Blackwell (who once tried to put through a requirement that all voter registrations be submitted on a specific weight of paper, and who, just by the way, stole the ‘04 election for Bush), is running for governor. Naturally, this has the Christian right in all a tizzy, and they’ve stood up with an incredible act of bravery to say, “Fuck the IRS. We’re working for Blackwell.” Read the whole sorry story here. And as you read the final four paragraphs, in which our touched-by-the-lord candidate speaks his thoughts (sic), see if you have any response different from WTF? Enter your response for the edification of all.

Sorry, but being sick makes one an irresponsible bastard.

I thought this was too fucking funny not to share.

Don’t worry, it’s pretty subtle, so you can open and close it before your boss notices.