Month: June 2020

 
From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Recently, an Evangelical man by the name of Roger Smoak left the following comment on Why I Hate Jesus, the most widely read (and misunderstood) post on this site:

I would be interested in knowing what Really happened? Was it your fibromalga that wasn’t healed? Was it your oldest daughter with cystic fibrosis? Was it your dad dying at an early age or you mom who committed suicide?Was it depression you faced when you quit believing and/or your wife (pastor’s child) had to choose between you and her faith? Was it all the material wealth you experienced during your pastoring where you saw pastors who appeared to worship money instead of God? If the “Western Jesus” has destroyed your belief why can’t you believe in the Jesus of the New Testament? Every day you preached did you question is this was all a farce? What happened when you finally turned agnostic and publicly proclaimed this? Were you pastoring a church? I guess just as you judge others I would like to hear from yourself, church members, family, or someone who could shed some true light on what really happened to you.

When I receive comments such as this — and I have received hundreds of them over the past thirteen years — the first thing I do is look at the site logs to see exactly what the commenter has read.

Take Roger, a South Carolinian. He read:

• Prophet Jeremiah Johnson: Dr. Tony Fauci is a Rat Who Must be Silenced (A Google search brought him to this page.)
• About
• Why I Hate Jesus

That’s it. Right next to the Why I Hate Jesus page is a page titled WHY? On this page is a plethora of posts that curious readers can read, and in doing so find most of their questions about my journey from Evangelicalism to atheism answered. Evidently, Roger didn’t see this page or couldn’t be bothered to look at its content.

Evangelicals tend not to be very curious, that is unless they are surfing YouPorn. Then they are quite interested in every aspect of female and male bodies. But actually reading about and investigating the life of an Evangelical pastor turned atheist? Nah, how much information does one need to judge a man the Bible says is a fool, a follower of Satan.

– More –
 

 

From Tommy Christopher:

“It’s just dumbfounding to me that doesn’t do anything, destroying our history. It’s going to destroy the future of the country,” the listener said.

“I mean we’re seeing it over and over again, we saw the Lincoln Memorial, we saw the Jefferson Memorial, we saw it at buildings like the Veterans Administration, we saw it at the building the AFL CIO for goodness sake, it’s indiscriminate,” Kilmeade said, referencing sites that have been vandalized in Washington, DC.

But then, Kilmeade circled back on Josh, telling him “In the South, Confederacy, I hate to tell you, they lost.”

“And if you want to move a statue because those people fought to keep a group of people enslaved, I don’t have a problem with that,” Kilmeade continued. “Let’s not forget their memory, but also remember that after they lost the Civil War, they didn’t exactly give in and treat African Americans equally. It actually didn’t happen in the north either.”

– More –
 

 

From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, James Millar, someone with some core beliefs, actually stood up and resigned rather than be used: “A letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper”,

“Anyone who takes the oath of office must decide where he or she will draw the line: What are the things that they will refuse to do? Secretary Esper, you have served honorably for many years, in active and reserve military duty, as Secretary of the Army, and now as Secretary of Defense. You must have thought long and hard about where that line should be drawn. I must now ask: If last night’s blatant violations do not cross the line for you, what will?

As has been noted forever, the Republican playbook is:

1. Find the line
2. Step over it
3. Dare anyone to push you back
4. If no one does, that’s the new line
5. Rinse and repeat

– More –
 

 

From Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post:

Predictably, protests and riots broke out all over Minneapolis and nearby St, Paul. Protesters were black, white, and Hispanic, and varied widely in age. Each was justifiably outraged! The protests were mainly peaceful, but at one point, several fires were started, and the 3rd Precinct building, where the cops had come from, was burned to the ground. The fires also severely damaged some nearby local businesses. (As I write this now, there appears to be some evidence that hate groups and neo-Nazi anarchists from outside the state may have cpme to Minnesota to infiltrate the crowds of demonstrating locals. It is uncertain if one of these outside agitators may or may not have started some of the fires and had added to the chaos and confusion. Investigations are now ongoing, and results should be announced fairly soon).

For several years, police had deservedly been the focus of wrath mainly among the local black community. Cops had been arresting African-Americans at a rate far greater than whites, Hispanics, Asians, or other minorities. All it took was one unjustified murder of a black by police to set off this tinderbox. It is a sad fact, but this racism has been nationwide, as current similar protests in dozens of other American cities have shown.

There seems to be something very needed yet severely lacking in police conduct almost everywhere. They are taught to project this preposterous tough-guy and aloof image, when a display of understanding and empathy would be infinitely better and much more befitting!

The motto we always associate with police is that they are there to protect and serve. However, in this case, they failed miserably to do either. On May 30, for example, cops launched cannisters of tear gas foom 2 drections and fired rubber bullets at protesters after curfew had started because they had failed to disperse – ignoring that they had been peaceful and non-confrontational that day up to that point. This is definitely NOT protecting, NOR is it serving!

– More –
 

 
From Meidas Touch:

Vote Out Hate

Meidas Touch is a political organization recently founded by three brothers: a noted civil rights lawyer who once represented Colin Kaepernick, a high level film & television production executive, and a marketing specialist. This is one of several political videos and podcasts produced by the trio.

– More –
 

 

From driftglass:

In fact the only real “problem” with the procession was that so many more people showed up than the organizers anticipated. And by more, I mean an order of magnitude more.

Thousands of cars carrying thousands of people. What fine great problem to have!

I was just a volunteer who worked parking before and after and carried donuts in between so I don’t have a comprehensive overview, but you knew it was going to be much bigger than anyone was expecting when parking in the staging lot started off plentiful —

— and then filled up quickly.

And then the backup lot behind the staging area filled up. At this point we had gone through the entire stock of 300 instructional fliers which the organizers had run off.

And then the alleys filled up.

Then I got a call from Blue Gal and the kids letting me know they were fine, but that they were parked in one of the improvised backup, backup lots, which was now 100% full.

Then we had to start lining cars up on the street because there was no other place to put ’em.

And here’s the thing.

Other than volunteers directing traffic, organizers giving directions —

— and local media, the mayor —

— and a couple of alderpersons showing up (because holy shit, this was now a thing) everyone followed the rules and stayed in their cars.

– More –
 

 

From The Borowitz Report:

The study has raised eyebrows by claiming that a President could be helpful in unifying a country and, in a best-case scenario, providing moral leadership.

“At a time of crisis, a President could be a galvanizing figure who leads a country to a better future,” the study theorizes. “He or she could bring a nation together rather than tear it apart.”

In one of the study’s most radical proposals, it argues that a so-called Justice Department could include an Attorney General appointed by the President to uphold the rule of law.

– More –
 

 

From Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit:

Everybody, or almost everyone over the age of seven, has a video camera in their pocket.

A Minnesota venture capitalist has lost his job and had his office lease terminated after he was accused of racially profiling a group of black entrepreneurs in a video that went viral on social media. Tom Austin, who ran the F2 Group, was filmed asking a group of five black men about whether they were tenants of the MoZaic East building on Lagoon Avenue in Uptown Minneapolis.

This is akin to Central Park Karen, who persisted in acting ignorantly even though she knew that she was being taped.

There once was a saying about “showing somebody the courtesy due an armed man.”

– More –
 

 

From Nan’s Notebook:

Many of us hope (and maybe even do a bit of “praying” 😈) that the U.S. will be led by someone sane, coherent, and mentally capable after the November election.

While not everyone is all that excited about the presumptive Democratic candidate, most are aware this nation simply will not survive another four years under the current regime.

Now, having said this, I’d like to put forth a bit of a guessing game.

Let’s say something happens to Trump before the November elections and he is unable to continue as president either now OR in the future. Based on the constitution, we know that Vice-President Pence will automatically step into the role of POTUS.

– More –