Glenn Greenwald has a great post up in response to some stupidity from Ann Althouse (giving law professors everywhere reason to cringe) and Glenn Reynolds (the only law professor who doesn't cringe when Ann embarrasses their profession) in response to something Andrew Sullivan recently wrote. He (Sullivan) plays with the phrase: "Christianist", defined as someone who wishes to impose his religious set of values on an otherwise secular society. He contrasts this with a "regular" Christian, someone who only looks to his religion for guidance in his own personal life. It is of course all a twist on the concept of the "Islamist" which has been (ab)used indiscriminately by FOX News etc. to demonize every Muslim on the face of the earth.

It's a very fascinating discussion (particularly in light of it's genesis in Mormon Mitt Romney's possible run for Preznit), and Greenwald nails it as always. 

Lilly Del Pinto, Illinois mother of a 5-year-old girl said she was halfway through reading "And Tango Makes Three" to her daughter "when the zookeeper said the two penguins must be in love."

"That's when I ended the story," she said.

Ah, yes, teh gay has been spooking people in the Bible Belt again. And this time in the scary guise of gay penguins.

It's the adorable (true) story of Tango, the baby penguin that's adopted by a couple of male penguins in New York City's zoo that has the knickers of uptight Xtians in a bunch. Because love, as Ted Haggard was so quick to point out in sermon after loathsome sermon, can only be found between heterosexuals

The really sad thing, of course, is that Silo and Roy, the two male penguins, apparently broke up recently, much to the snickering glee of bible-thumpers who see that as proof -- hah! -- that the whole gay couples thing is doomed to fail. Not sure what they think the current 50 percent divorce rate says about the regular couples thing as proscribed in that favorite fairy tale of theirs, but...

Anywho, a stalwart librarian (beware literate nerds with an iron will and an intimate knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System) insists that "And Tango Makes Three" belongs in the library and shouldn't be thrown in with Hustler and the other X-rated stuff. Good for her. Alas, a somewhat more clueless colleague caved, and moved the book to the non-fiction section, claiming that "there was less of a chance that the book would "blindside" someone."

Using that logic, I really, *really* want to know in which section of that library I should go to find the Bible...

UPDATE: In Norway you can now go see an entire exhibition on the concept of gay and bisexual animals. Called "Against Nature?" the show definitively does away with the myth humped by the homophobes particularly in the US.

We rightly criticize that in most Islamic states, the role of religion for society and the character of the rule of law are not clearly separated [...] but we fail to recognize that in the USA, the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies.

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in his new book "Decisions: My Life in Politics."

Austin Cline has more on this sad, sad topic over at the General's.

(Photo courtesy of www.ethicalatheist.com)

{youtube}KmsOIjzQ1V8{/youtube}

Excellent. I have no idea who they are, but I hope they're coming to a theater near me soon... 

{youtube}a9WB_PXjTBo{/youtube}

I was a huge fan of Michael J. Fox's work back in the 80s. He was wonderful in Back to the Future, and superb as Alex Keaton in Family Ties. It's shocking to realize how quickly he has deteriorated. Of course, if the reactionary wingnuts who currently run things have it their way, he'll never get any better, because heaven forbid we conduct research that might find a cure for Parkinson's... or Alzheimer's. MJF has four young kids, including a five-year old daughter. Wouldn't it be nice if they got to see their dad grow old without the debilitating effects of Parkinson's? 

No, rather than spending our time, efforts and resources on improving people's lot in life our compassionate conservatives seem to prefer freely spending billions getting things blown up, including thousands of young Americans. Sad. So sad.

Hopefully MJF's courageous ad will help get Claire McCaskill (D-MI) elected to the Senate, where she promises to take us back out of the Middle Ages and into an era where stem cell research isn't shunned by finger-wagging hypocrites as The Devil's Work...