Christianity Today recently interviewed a well known conservative personality and author about her personal views and her latest book. Can you guess who this person is, based solely on the following exchange?

Cristianity Today: In your book, you described premarital sex as a sin. Do you worry that by calling it a sin, it might distract non-Christians?

Mystery Author: You know, it might, but for me I do think of it as a sin. And, if that distracts other readers then I’m sorry, but that’s what I believe.

Is the author in question:

A) Dr. Laura Schelssinger
B) Bristol Palin
C) Ann Coulter
D) Christine O’Donnell

Click the “Read more” link to see the answer.

Read more »

The extent to which Republicans are willing to damage the country’s long term health to protect the assets of the moneyed classes is truly astonishing (and sickening). Howard Kurtz, writing for The Daily Beast, reports that even as the GOP stands in absolute opposition to any tax increases that might form part of a budget package to reduce the national debt, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Viginia representative Eric Cantor have identified one area of potential revenue increases they are willing to consider. Student loans:

As Monday’s White House budget talks got down to the nitty-gritty, Eric Cantor proposed a series of spending cuts, one of them aimed squarely at college students.

The House majority leader, who did most of the talking for the Republican side, said those taking out student loans should start paying interest right away, rather than being able to defer payments until after graduation. It is a big-ticket item that would save $40 billion over 10 years

That Republicans are willing to make higher education even more unaffordable than it is now to shield their wealthy patrons from tax increases is simply astonishing and betrays a degree of irresponsibility that is difficult to fathom. As our economy becomes more and more focused on high technology and innovation and as the nation faces ever mounting challenges from emerging econmies around the world, the GOP is promoting policies that would hamper the educational prospects of our next generation of scientists, businessmen, entrepeneurs and innovators. It’s mind boggling. It’s a dagger, thrust directly into the heart of the middle class. How these people still command legions of angry followers simply defies explanation. GOP voters need to get back on their meds so they can see the world as it really is, and not as the screetching voices echoing in the hollow spaces of their paranoid minds tell them it is.

 You know that $500,000.00 Tiffany’s line of credit that everyone’s favorite joke of a presidential candidate, Newt Ginrich, spent the last few weeks playing down? Well apparently there’s another Tiffany’s line of credit he totally forgot to mention, and this one was good for a cool million. So gone are the days of Pat Nixon’s “respectable cloth coat.” $30,000 diamond tennis bracelets are what the smartly dressed Republican wife is wearing these days.

…so you don’t have to.

Here’s a taste of what Hitch has to say:

Propagandistic writing of this kind can be even more boring than it is irritating. For example, Mamet writes in “The Secret Knowledge” that “the Israelis would like to live in peace within their borders; the Arabs would like to kill them all.” Whatever one’s opinion of that conflict may be, this (twice-made) claim of his abolishes any need to analyze or even discuss it. It has a long way to go before it can even be called simplistic.

…and also:

 [Mamet] shows himself tone-deaf to irony and unable to render a fair picture of what his opponents (and, sometimes, his preferred authorities, like Hayek) really believe. Quoting Deepak Chopra, of all people, as saying, “Our thinking and our behavior are always in anticipation of a response. It [sic] is therefore fear-based,” he seizes the chance to ask, “Is it too much to suggest that this quote contains the most basic prescription of liberalism, ‘Stop Thinking’?” On that evidence, yes, it would be a bit much.

The entire review can be found here.

Nine Republicans Myths
that Every Progressive Should Be Able to Counter:

U.C. Berkeley economist Brad DeLong has been daily bumping and updating a post on his blog that provides counter-arguments to a growing list of Republican talking points. He keeps the list so he won’t be caught off guard by an unexpected question the next time he’s asked to appear on TV alongside a conservative opponent. Personally, I think it’s a great idea that progressives be familiar with counter-arguments to common conservative talking points, and develop some talking points of our own. To that end, I am presenting a list of rebuttals to nine very common, but very misleading, or outright false, GOP talking points. Read more »

Inexplicably popular GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain wants to clarify something. When he said that he would not appoint a Muslim to his cabinet, what he meant was that he would be uncomfortable appointing a member of Al Qaeda to his cabinet:

[ Crooks & Liars Flash video not available. ]

A breath of fresh air, we say! Would that all presidential candidates informed us that they don’t plan on appointing any memebers of Al Qaeda to their cabinet! But alas, political correctness forbids it.

Meanwhile, sources who wish to remain anonymous tell Stinque that Governor Tim Pawlenty is preparing a major policy speech in which he will announce that he will not be appointing any serial killers to his cabinet. It has also been widely rumored that Romney advisors are urging him to announce on Meet The Press this Sunday that he will not appoint any one to the Supreme Court who has been convicted (even just once) of child molestation. 

The ball’s in your court, Barack Obama!

(Via Crooks and Liars)

 From CBS Face The Nation, May 29, 2011:

HARRY SMITH: Let’s talk about the cutting. You meet with Vice President Joe Biden twice a week, several hours each meeting. The rumblings we’re hearing from it is that you’re actuallymaking progress. Have you really isolated a trillion dollars in– in budget deficit reductions?

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CANTOR: Those– those talks which actually we’ve– we’ve been meeting for I think over three weeks now, they have been, I think, all po– all positive. Everything is on the table. We’ve said as Republicans we’re not going to go for tax increases. [Emphasis mine]

HARRY SMITH: Mm-Hm.

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CANTOR: I think the administration gets that.

HARRY SMITH: Right.

REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CANTOR: But we’ve also put everything on the table as far as cuts. And I can see, yes, we– we can accomplish well over a trillion dollars in cuts.

 This is what “everything is on the table” means to a Republican. This is what compromise means to a Republican: The revenue side of the Federal budget remains off limts, un touchable, sacrosanct so don’t even ask. But Eric Cantor and his Republican cohorts will graciously allow Democrats to participate in the process by which spending on senior citizens, the poor, our schools, our roads and other physical infrastructure, our public safety, our parks, environmental enforcement and cleanup, and our national defense is slashed and burned.

That’s compromise, Republican style.

And, no, you didn’t need to ask if Harry Smith pointed this absurdity out to Cantor. Of course he didn’t. And you knew that, without even reading the transcript.