April 26, 2004 by s.z.

How Christian of Her Still curious about those "baldy obscene" signs George Neumayr said women were carrying at the March for Womens Lives yesterday, I took Marvin Olasky's recommendation and checked out the photos posted byBunnie Diehl, one of World Magazine Blog's "Gen-W blogs" written by fine young Christian journalists. While I didn't see any placards which twisted "the president and vice presidents' names in various vulgar concoctions," I did see photos of women which Bunny deemed too old, lesbian, or unattractive to ever need an abortions.  Here are a couple of captions: Thankfully many of the women at the march were in no position to get pregnant, either by age, choice of sexual partners or morbid obesity. Side note to our sister on the left: If there is one thing the feminist generation taught us, it is that not wearing a bra can have negative consequences. If this march was all about celebrating feminism, you think Gloria Steinem could kick the girls some knowledge. Marve's favorite photo was of a heavy-set (but still comely, IMHO) young woman holding a sign which read "Keep Bushes Hands Out of My Pants."  Bunny captioned it, "Not Not even Clinton would want his hands in her pants . . ."  Marve reproduced that one at World Mag Blog and titled it, "A level of delusion that knows no bounds."  This all reminds me of what Christ told the crowd who was stoning the woman caught in adultery: "People, she is too ugly for any man to have committed sin with her -- so only the cheerleaders get to throw rocks at her.  And only the really cute ones with perky breasts!" 6:35:50 PM

The Star-Tribune Keeps Bothering Lileks Poor Lileks.  Wracked with guilt for not reading his e-mail.  Suffering from low-level back pain.  Overwhelmed with even greater guilt for not sending thank-you notes for all the nice things that readers have purchased for him.  Cursed with "Oh, SHUT Up" Syndrome, which leads him to edit out large sections of prose he's just written.  And sometimes he just wants to do something other than blog.  I can relate to all the above (but I do read my email, and don't need to send out thank-you notes, except for one to David E. for the really cool The Foremen CD).  So, I was feeling sympathetic towards the guy ... until I got to this part:  What’s more: I really had nothing new to add about anything. I’ve been too bothered by the news lately. Not events: the news. There’s a difference. My paper is doing body-count journalism. Every day I hear “Vietnam” and “quagmire” a dozen times; every day I hear someone say “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11!” and I think: maybe. Maybe not. Okay, I don't have a job at a newspaper, but I do read newspapers -- and I maybe see "Iraq is Vietnam and/or a quagmire" three or four times a week these days (mostly from Townhallers claiming that while liberals say Iraq is Vietnam, it's NOT,  because the insurgents don't say "You die, Joe!").  And since it's old news that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, I only hear that a few times a month now.  So why is Lileks getting bombarded with these messages?  As you know, he spends most of his days home with Gnat -- could SHE be the one telling him these things?  Or is it Jasper the Dog?  Or do you think this is "Tell-Tale Heart" syndrome? In any case, while Friday Lileks said that he needed a vacation, today he says,"When I really need a break, you’ll know."  Until then I guess he just plans to whine about how the body counts keep annoying him, ruining a perfectly good war the way they do. 4:27:58 AM

Because It's the Liberals Like Atrios Who Are Intolerant of Religion Here's George Neumayr, managing editor of The American Spectator (which apparently is still around), writing a little piece for the mag about Sunday's march for women: Among the Pagan Ladies ...One could call the Sunday march a festival of paganism, but that's probably not fair to ancient pagans. Worshippers of Baal would have regarded it as a little too depraved for their taste. If C-SPAN covered the event, it must have had to black and beep out much of it. It sounded like a sustained FCC violation and many of the placards were too baldly obscene (usually twisting the president and vice presidents' names in various vulgar concoctions) for any newspaper to report. Gee, I wonder what obscene, vulgar concoctions one could make from "Bush" and "Dick?"  Undoubtedly, something way too vile for any NICE media outlet or Baal worshipper to mention.  Let's all imagine what that might be.  But first, more about the marchers' worse-than-paganism: Upset at the growing perception that they are godless degenerates, marchers tried to wrap themselves in religion as much as possible. Planned Parenthood now has a chaplain. And march organizers cobbled together other phony religious fronts for abortion, such as "Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice." "You don't own religion," one speaker said to the "religious reich." A female rabbi appeared on the podium to say that she was "pro-God, pro-choice." The marchers know that God blesses the abortion of unborn children because God is a woman. "I asked God. She's pro-choice," was a popular sign. And they are now theological enough to place Satan on the same ticket as George Bush -- the "Bush/Satan" administration. Separation-of-church-state advocate Barry Lynn, whom the media insist on calling a "reverend" but is obviously a fraud, also described the protest as a "hallowed space." But though they wanted to turn God into an abortion activist and enlist the support of as many churches and religions as possible -- "Episcopalians for Choice," "This Is What a Jewish Feminist Looks Like" were signs seen in the crowd -- the marchers could not resist certain anti-religious chants. "Tax the church, tax the church" followed the attacks of Kissling and others on the Pope and the Catholic Church. Yes, nobody at the gathering could have been genuinely religious because George has been designated by God to make these kinds of judgments, and he says they weren't.  So, Barry Lynn "is obviously a fraud" because a REAL reverend wouldn't advocate separation of church and state, he'd demand theocracy!  (And a real reverend would tell his congregation that George Bush is God's anointed, so they'd better vote for Bush or they'll go to hell.)  And of course, anyone chanting "tax the church" is committing the most disgusting blasphemy imaginable -- because what IS a church without a tax exempt status?  Clearly not an organization capable of saving souls.  At least, not Republican souls. 3:42:07 AM

Too Bad FreeRepublic is Down Yes, FreeRepublic is out of commission until they get a new disk drive, so I don't what they think of this piece about one of their fans.  However, the posters (only three so far) at Lucianne.com hated it ("All Americans should consider themselves "slimed" by a Leftwing maggot living in a "bubble" in Washington, D.C. and writing for a crappy newspaper.") Anyway, here are a few pieces from the Washington Post piece "For a Conservative, Life Is Sweet in Sugar Land, Tex." (bolding added): Some people get their information from the TV networks or the paper. Stein starts with the Drudge Report Web site, where he scans the headlines and clicks on one that says, "Rallying Cry For Dems: Vote Bush Out of Rove's Office." "This is the kind of stuff that pisses me off," he says. "They don't give Bush the respect he deserves. Not only because he's president, but because he's a helluva good man." Next he goes to a Web site called WorldNetDaily.com. He clicks on an article that says, "Poll: Bush's Approval Sinking," but dismisses it as untrustworthy when he sees the poll was done by CBS. "Of course I have a suspicion of CBS," he says. "Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw -- they don't have any credibility with me." Next he goes through a site called FreeRepublic.com, which calls itself "the premier conservative news forum," and then moves on to a site called sftt.org. "Soldiers for the Truth," he says, scrolling through another list of articles and watching a video of what the site says is a U.S. Apache helicopter targeting and obliterating three Iraqis. "Another guy moving right there," one voice on the video says, all business. "Good. Fire. Hit him," another voice says. [...] Next he goes to AmericanRhetoric.com, where he has listened to an "awesome" speech by Bush, an "amazing" speech by Reagan, and a "great" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. from a time before "things got so distorted," and then he goes to townhall.com, which calls itself a "conservative news and information" site, where he begins hopscotching from Pat Buchanan to Robert D. Novak to Ann Coulter.     This is how Stein gets his information, along with watching Fox News and skimming the local paper, to which he once canceled his subscription because he was so offended by an opinion column about Bush that began, "The Boy Emperor picked up the morning paper and, stunned, dropped his Juicy Juice box with the little straw attached." He recognizes that the information he seeks out reinforces his beliefs rather than challenges them, but "I feel I'm more informed than most people," he says. "Most people don't read all of this."   No, most people don't read all of that.  Not even me, and I'm LOOKING for stupidity. A couple of other interesting parts: Once you say, 'I believe what the Bible tells me,' that brings certain responsibilities, and one of them is going to church," Stein is saying now, after the service. [...]  It's Wednesday afternoon now and Stein is there [Hooters] with two friends, Craig Lannom and Lance May. They are three husbands, three fathers, three Bush votes, three guys watching ESPN and drinking some beers.   Because the Bible also tells men to go to Hooters, and hey, if you believe the Bible, that means certain responsibilities. 2:56:18 AM

Science News for the Bush Campaign Nature tells about a researcher from Stockholm University who went undercover as "Milk Monkey" to study online dating rituals at a site called "Pussokram.com (which means "kiss 'n' hug" in Swedish, not that nasty thing you were thinking).  The study found that contrary to real-life courting, "well-connected" people are willing to "date" the less popular.  The researcher suggested that this occurs because "People feel freer to go for different kinds of romantic partners under the cloak of anonymity." Or, it could just be that on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. But what practical use is there for a study of the postings of lovesick Swedish teens?  Nature suggests some:  Ultimately, such analyses could reveal information with a practical use. Marketers and political campaigners, for example, are interested in finding out how to identify and target people with numerous contacts (called hubs), who might spread the word about a product or candidate. These people might also be more likely to pass on a sexually transmitted disease, and so be targeted with public-health information. So, Ed Gillespie could use the info to target Team Leaders, and then get them to sign abstinence pledges ("True Love Waits Until After The Rapture").  Or maybe he just find a Swedish teen penpal. 2:07:37 AM