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Getting better
I've been sick the last couple days with bronchitis and a massive cold that has me feeling like I have concrete setting in my chest. Saw the doctor on Monday, and he gave me some horse-pill sized antibiotics and some free samples of Sudafed. I also snagged a flu shot out of the deal, so all in all a good day. But my recovery has consisted of sleeping on and off through the day, and drinking pint after pint of water.
Jerry Falwell: radical cleric, liar
I posted Monday about Jerry Falwell's apparition, I mean, appearance on Meet the Press Sunday. Today, David Brock, speaking on The Al Franken Show, pointed out that the good reverend lied not once, but twice, during his MTP appearance. Frist, Tim Russert dug deep into the Jerry Falwell idiotic statement archives, and came up with Falwell's post-9/11 statement that gays and pagans were responsible for the terrorist attack on America. Falwell claimed his statement was taken out of context, that he also blamed "The sleeping church." Not true! The original statement, mode on fellow traveller Pat Robertson's 700 Club, was recorded and distributed by People for the American Way. Falwell amended his statement sometime later to include his "sleeping church" addendum.
Lie number two came when Russert pointed out that Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country, and several southern "red states" are among the highest. Falwell offered that the divorce rate among born again Christians is much lower. Falwell pulled this statistic out of his ass. A recent study by the Barna Group shows that born agains divorce at the same rate as us devil worshipping, twin-tower toppling liberals.
I'm sure Russert will expose Falwell's lies this Sunday.
Update to "moral constitution" story
Last week I wrote about a church and state separation lawsuit in California that smelled kind of fishy. A fifth grade teacher says he is prohibited from teaching the Declaration of Independence because it uses the word "God". This story looks more and more like a set up.
Church-state separation is an important issue in the US, probably all the more so because the country is at war with religious zealots who think the 18th century European Enlightenment is a plot against their religion. And then there's that whole al Qaeda thing, too. So wouldn't it make sense to start a national discussion on the role of religion in public life? But the radical clerics who have taken over our government know they could never win a rational discussion, not as John Locke defines rationalism, anyway. So theocrats like James Dobson concoct phony crises that they can use when they point at liberals and moderates, and say "See, they're at it again! They've gone too far!"
1.12.04 17:13