Yeah, I know all of us here are about freedom of conscience, religious tolerance, separation of church and state and a firm belief in the Constitution’s insistence that public office in the United States of America can never be contingent upon the adoption of a religious oath.

But can we at least agree, just this once, that when Mitt Romney makes statements such as:

“[Barack Obama’s policies would] poison the very spirit of America and keep us from being one nation under God.”

that we are allowed to point out that Romney belongs to a church that demands its adherents wear special magical underwear, that until recently denied African Americans the right to serve as pastors, that believes that the Native Americans peoples are descendants of a lost tribe of Israel, and that holds the doctrine that when he dies, a follower in good standing is made God of his own planet?

Because if Mitt Romney can accuse Barack Obama of wanting to drive God out of America, surely it’s fair to remind voters just what Romney mans by “God.”

Before you leave Iowa, never to return to that God-soaked land until the 2016 Preznidential Cycle beckons, might we interest you in dropping by the Pizza Ranch for a final meal? They serve a delicious! chicken dish the locals call “Santorum Salad”.

[via TPM]

2011 was mentally and physically draining for me. (This explains, in part, my extended absence from the whole posting thing.)  Watching the political horror show was unhelpful in this, to be honest.  I mean, there was The Donald going birther, and GOP debate audiences cheering executions and booing gay soldiers.  And who had the big mo in Iowa when the calendar ticked over?  Rick Santorum.  It was just dreadful to think about.

But 2012 has to be better.  There’s no way that it could be any…

Then Gingrich went on, incredibly, to lay out his post-Iowa strategy. “New Hampshire is the perfect state to have a debate over Romneycare and to have a debate about tax-paid abortions, which he signed, and to have a debate about putting Planned Parenthood on a government board, which he signed, and to have a debate about appointing liberal judges, which he did…. And so I think New Hampshire is a good place to start the debate for South Carolina.”

Well, that’s an outlier.  Like I said, 2012 cannot be…

Iowans I talked to at two of Romney’s campaign stops Sunday were in full agreement. So I asked them what scares them about a second Obama term. I got answers ranging from the creep of socialism to concerns that Obama’s best-known vice will encourage kids to take up smoking.

Fuck it.  There’s plenty of Sport today.  Good hockey and football on tap.  It’s a tonic for the soul, really.  The menu — besides chips, dip, pizza and beer — together with a major fashion don’t from (oh, obviously) Eugene, post-jump.

Read more »

The other day, Andrew Sullivan asked an interesting question: Why Aren’t The Gays Attacking Paul? And while we won’t presume to let them speak for all Sodomite-Americans, it does seem to be the case that Sully, Dan Savage, and Glenn Greenwald aren’t troubled by the newsletters sold under Ron Paul’s name. At least not compared to the transgressions of the other Republican candidates.

Greenwald, while not endorsing Ron Paul, nails the reason why he’s even in the conversation:

Whatever else one wants to say, it is indisputably true that Ron Paul is the only political figure with any sort of a national platform — certainly the only major presidential candidate in either party — who advocates policy views on issues that liberals and progressives have long flamboyantly claimed are both compelling and crucial.

And Sully asks why we’re even bothering with Ancient History:

I think the attacks on his writing over two decades ago — when attitudes toward gays and HIV were extremely different than today — is less important than his commitment to limiting government, at home and abroad, now.

Read more »

“At a town hall in Atlantic, Iowa, Saturday afternoon, Gingrich gave an unusual reason for his present denial of man-made global warming. ‘I’m an amateur paleontologist,’ Gingrich said. ‘I spend a lot of time looking at the Earth’s temperature for a very long time. I’m a lot harder to convince than just looking at a computer model.'” [Think Progress]

Bill Maher: “If you were a Republican in 2011, and you liked Donald Trump, and then you liked Michele Bachmann, and then you liked Rick Perry, and then you liked Herman Cain, and then you liked Newt Gingrich … you can still hate Mitt Romney, but you can’t say it’s because he’s always changing his mind.”  [NYT]

Title: “That Is All”

Author: John Hodgman

Rank: 2,036

Blurb: “You may ask: During his whirlwind tornado ride through the high ether of minor fame and outrageous fortune, did John Hodgman forget how to write books of fake trivia? The answer is: Yes. Briefly. But soon, he remembered!”

Review: “Worth your money and time, as if you’ll have either when the supercollapse begins and the Ancient and Unspeakable Ones return.”

Customers Also Bought: “Zombie Spaceship Wasteland” by Patton Oswalt

Footnote: “May 21, 2012: The moon explodes.”

That Is All [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]