We’d like to thank an unknown commenter at teabagger website “Maine Refounders” for our headline, since it’s Friday and we’re suffering Low Testosterone Cleverness, and our shadow isn’t picking up the slack. We’d also like to apologize for our use of “Tempest in a Teapot” here, but it can’t be avoided:

Read more »

If we’re done fretting about Sharia Law in America, let’s have a look in the other direction:

When Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a Christian news interviewer this year that “entitlement programs (are) built to make government our God,” she voiced a central tenet of Christian Reconstructionism, according to academics who study the movement.

Read more »

While we may fret about the potential desecration of Warner Bros. cartoons, we really don’t care what the studios do with the Hanna-Barbera catalog, which, while certainly a staple of American childhood, wasn’t necessarily a beloved staple.

(Do you remember the Jetsons for the gags or the gizmos? Case closed.)

We will grant that there was worse Saturday-morning fare to be consumed — anything produced by Filmation comes to mind — and we count our blessings that we escaped before the Product Tie-In Apocalypse hit the airwaves.

But Hanna-Barbera cartoons as classics? Well, no. Except for Harvey Birdman. But that was a meta afterthought.

Yogi Bear movie site [via Buzzfeed]

Speaking of miscoded racism, let’s take a swig of the real stuff:

In Roseto, Pa., a carnival company closed down a shooter game called “Alien Attack,” after complaints and news stories that President Obama was one of the targets.

The black “alien leader” is holding a scroll titled “Health Bill” and wearing a presidential seal belt buckle. He also has antennae and a troll doll with a KISS T-shirt on his shoulder…

“She [a carnival-goer] said she was offended by it. I said if you are, you might want to be. But you’re interpreting it as being Obama. We’re not interpreting it as Obama,” said the owner, Irvin Good Jr.

Why, yes, the Secret Service had a few words with Mr. Good. Why do you ask?

Church Carnival Sets Up Shooter Game With Obama As Target [TPM]

Roseto carnival game message: ‘Step right up and shoot’ Barack Obama [Lehigh Valley Express-Times]

Dave Weigel is now in the employ of Slate, owned by the Washington Post, following his abruptly abbreviated tenure at — well, at the Washington Post, but let’s not get into that.

Instead, let’s take up his Wednesday column subheaded “African-American conservatives explain that the only racists are those who worry about race-based prejudice.” And let’s ignore the substance of the column, in order to focus on the complaint of commenter “Sissy Willis,” who calls Weigel out for using “code” language:

“Chorus line of black conservatives” = minstrel show
“tan suit/black shirt” = not authentically black/supporter of fascism
“reverse racism grievance industry” = anti-racism, anti-reverse-racism, all black people are alike
“whipsawed by conservative media” = punished by the overseer, e.g. Simon Legree
“bumper crop of black conservative stars” = sharecroppers
“professional black conservative” = paid puppet or Uncle Tom

And while we’re ignoring things — because hey, life is short — let’s dwell on Alleged Codeword #4: “whipsawed”.

Quite honestly — and we do pay attention — that’s a new one to us.

Read more »

Rahm Emanuel has been documented referring to Washington as “Fucknutsville” since at least November 2008. Why it’s suddenly today’s hot Twitter meme is beyond us. But heck, buy the mug.

Our guest columnist this morning is Vaughn R. Walker, United States District Chief Judge, Northern District of California, as told to our Citation Removal Bot.

Marriage has retained certain characteristics throughout the history of the United States. Marriage requires two parties to give their free consent to form a relationship, which then forms the foundation of a household. The spouses must consent to support each other and any dependents. The state regulates marriage because marriage creates stable households, which in turn form the basis of a stable, governable populace. The state respects an individual’s choice to build a family with another and protects the relationship because it is so central a part of an individual’s life.

Never has the state inquired into procreative capacity or intent before issuing a marriage license; indeed, a marriage license is more than a license to have procreative sexual intercourse. “[I]t would demean a married couple were it to be said marriage is simply about the right to have sexual intercourse,” [wrote the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas]. The Supreme Court recognizes that, wholly apart from procreation, choice and privacy play a pivotal role in the marital relationship.

Read more »