Movie Review: Frost/Nixon

I have never been so mesmerized by a non-artsy talky. Well, except for The Queen, which was written by the same guy. It must be watched to be believed: who knew the story behind Frost's interview of Nixon could be anything more interesting than vomit drying?

Hopefully They Aren't Only About Boning Chicks And Getting Drunk

Researchers discovered 47 letters by Benjamin Franklin previously unknown. No word yet as to how much he praised Jesus throughout them, but we can all presuppose...

Happy Birthday, Our First Atheist President

My favorite Madison quotes:

• In no instance have... the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.
• In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
• Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.
• Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
• Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
• The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.
• The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
• The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
• The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.
• The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.
• Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

And finally:

• The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

He wouldn't make it past the primaries today...

Even Whigs should find this interesting

Jackson Papers Project Helps Solve History Mystery

KNOXVILLE – The Andrew Jackson Papers Project at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has helped solve the mystery surrounding a letter threatening the assassination of President Andrew Jackson.

...

The mystery centers on a July 4, 1835, letter received by Jackson and signed by Junius Brutus Booth. Booth was a flamboyant Shakespearean actor of the day -- and father of John Wilkes Booth, who would assassinate President Abraham Lincoln 30 years later, in 1865.

The letter, kept in the Library of Congress, says:

To His Excellency, General Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, Washington City,

You damn'd old Scoundrel if you don't sign the pardon of your fellow men now under sentence of Death, De Ruiz and De Soto, I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping. I wrote to you repeated Cautions so look out or damn you. I'll have you burnt at the Stake in the City of Washington.

Your Master, Junius Brutus Booth.

You know me! Look out!

Also:
Letter threatening Jackson's life determined to be written by father of man who killed Lincoln

Wherein Lies The Blame

A new study finds that race was not the deciding factor of California's Prop 8 passage (emphasis mine).

Although support for Prop. 8 in the African-American community had been pegged as high as 70 percent by one previous postelection survey, this study — which not only reviewed pre- and postelection polls, but also crunched precinct-level election results and census data from Alameda, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, in which two-thirds of the state's African-Americans reside — found the number was between 57 percent and 59 percent.

And that number is more about religiosity than race, study co-author and New York University assistant professor of politics Patrick Egan said. While higher than the level of support among white and Asian-American voters, it's due to the higher rates of African-American church attendance: Fifty-seven percent of African-Americans attend church at least once a week, compared with 42 percent of whites and 40 percent of Asian-Americans, he said.

Unfortunately, superstition and misplaced allegiance to the corrupt sages of a compromised ideology trumped personal relations with the gays.

Even personal relationships with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people paled in comparison to these factors, said study co-author Kenneth Sherrill, a political-science professor at Hunter College in New York City. Although two-thirds of California conservatives said they know or are related to LGBT people, four of five conservatives supported Prop. 8.

But hey--we've all known for years that our conservatives aren't really conservative (much less libertarian) anymore. Let's give it up for Bob Barr, the--still thinking--conservative come libertarian author of DOMA, who now supports its repeal:

In effect, DOMA’s language reflects one-way federalism: It protects only those states that don’t want to accept a same-sex marriage granted by another state. Moreover, the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws - including, immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran’s benefits - has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions.

Let's be clear: we have a federal government dictating what states should do, and states dictating the rights of a minority through the votes of the majority. All over religious-based sexual hang-ups concerning tax-paying citizens who want the same privileges afforded their civic equals.

No one reads history anymore...

"I Know You're Angry! I'm Angry!"

Of note, the production designer of Milk previously recreated 60's- and 70's-era San Francisco in the unforgivably ignored suspense masterpiece Zodiac.

John McCain Is A Douche Bag

Really John? Could you cite me some chapters and verses in that bible of yours which directly and indisputably inspired the establishment of a democratic republic? Freedom of speech? No cruel and unusual punishment (snicker)? Any phrase of the constitution at all?

He's as intellectually and morally corrupt as his party, so at least he's consistent.

Evangelicals Don't Just Get Science Wrong

I recently read this critique of David Barton's pro-Christian authoritarianism book on American history. It's Baptists ridiculing his lack of scholarship and honesty, which is rich as foie gras.

This asshole regularly appears on TBN, and every time he does I laugh my ass off AND become vociferously angry. Apparently, his god condones shameless lying. What an awesome god!

In any case, it's a great scholarly chastisement from theologic historians who have every supernatural excuse available to support his made-up Christian dominionist history, then don't because of pesky facts.

Thanks to Ed Brayton for pointing it out.

"Historical Documents"

Just as creationists have started a "teach the controversy" approach for injecting mythology into science classrooms, right-wing Christians have decided to use a "historical document" approach to get incantations and sectarian proscriptions back into public schools. South Carolina has decided to try the first transparent bait-and-switch.

Are the 10 commandments and Jesus' schizophrenic prayer to his father/himself historical documents, to be put alongside the Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta? No, and any judge will see right through this nonsense. Neither directly or indirectly affected any of our governing documents (as is obvious by the lack of even part of either in the language of our constitution), nor are they contemporary to any American event (as in the case of MLK's speech).

What's sad is that a majority who voted for this know it's wrong and why, but they're just too incompetent and cowardly to stand up and make the case against it.

Of course, any judge who strikes this down will be an activist, like Hugo Black was.

I Anti-[Heart] Huckabee

I really hope that Huckabee wins the Republican nomination. I really do. Republicans need their crazy-ass, fundamentalist base to be electorally chastised.

Huckabee sounds like the guy to get that done. Did you ever think a major contender for the President of the United States would ever say this:

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

I wish I didn't know history; I wouldn't weep so much. Or have to write this note:

Dear John Galt,

Where are we moving to again?

Sincerely,

Fucked Homo Who Only Wants To Be Left Alone

Brazil might be nice...

Truly Creepy American History You May Not Know

St. Eugenius has got me reading The Devil in the White City, which chronicles the 1893 Chicago World's Fair through the stories of the architect who oversaw its creation, and the serial killer who built the World's Fair Hotel (and its gas chamber and crematorium). Incredible stuff. And it's true.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

H. H. Holmes: A Documentary Film by John Borowski

THE MURDER CASTLE OF H.H. HOLMES

The Castle