Left: Anti-Walmart art on display at Downtown Books and News, Asheville, NC. (Artist/inventor unknown!)~*~
Yes, sports fans, the horrible new neighborhood Walmart, the one we could not keep out, the one I complained about so much that I worried I would alienate my dear readers, is ready to open. It's too traumatizing for mere words. Suffice to say, the mess they have made of everything (I hold them accountable for my flood last week, although of course I can't prove their shitty construction is responsible)... is plenty substantial. The toll on my nerves alone, is sufficient to hate them forever!
And so, this edition of Odds and Sods, picks up where the flood left off. I wanted to give it a Biblical tinge.
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For those of you who thought my piece yesterday was mean, I assure you, I am still getting a significant number of hits on IS BARACK OBAMA THE ANTICHRIST?, which probably skews my thinking a bit. And then I wake up this morning and learn that Dr Dobson's outfit is asking people to PRAY FOR RAIN during Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the convention.
I wish I were making this up:
COLORADO SPRINGS – A video producer for Focus on the Family is asking people to pray for rain when Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois) makes his speech at the end of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.Boyish humor!
Obama is giving his acceptance speech outdoor at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday, Aug. 28.
Stuart Shepard made the prayer request in his latest Internet video for the evangelical Christian group.
He says he's only partly joking.
"Sure it's boyish humor perhaps to wish for something like that, but at the same time it's something people feel very strongly about. They're concerned about where he would take the nation," said Shepard.
Shepard does a weekly commentary called Stop Light, produced for the Internet by Focus on the Family Action.
Do you BELIEVE these people?
It is my opinion that such statements, as well as the recent McCain ad (famously featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears), highlighting Obama's popularity and naming him "the biggest celebrity in the world"--are covert, sly, under-the-radar winks to the Black Helicopter Faction of the GOP. This is precisely the faction McCain can't easily win over: the hard-core right wingnuts who are constantly looking for signs of the Rapture. They believe Senator Barack Obama is the antichrist, as evidenced by the fact that I am getting hits from them every day. And these little "boyish" jokes, the praying for rain (suitably Biblical, for those who don't get it), the frequent reminders of his dangerous, alarming "celebrity"--all of this is code. Most of it seems to be going right over the heads of the mainstream media, but it's connecting with the Rapture-freaks (and their many fellow-travelers) in the Heartland. The Obama campaign really should address these ongoing religious rumors HEAD ON, because I think his recent falling-poll numbers have everything to do with what I am hereby naming the Stealth Antichrist Campaign.
Stay on the lookout for more of the same.
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Speaking of fundamentalists, Heart (aka Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff), our favorite ex-fundie feminist running for president (supposedly, although I have yet to see her on a national forum of any kind), posted a very bizarre, racist comic over a week ago, which I didn't know if I should link here. The comic, by one Elena Steier, I found very disturbing, because it reminded me of something, but I could not put my finger on just what it looked like. Belledame and SnowdropExplodes have helpfully solved the mystery for me. The comic, particularly the juxtaposition of the sheer blond whiteness of the dancer and the dark, leering, long-nosed appearance of the male audience, look exactly like nazi propaganda cartoons. There are various footnoted comparisons (with linkage) to several of these old comics at Snowdrop's blog.
Heart, please stop embarrassing other feminists with this vicious bullshit of yours, and go back to the bosom of your cozy ex-comrade, Dr Dobson, where you belong. PRETTY PLEASE!?!
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And while we are on the topic of vicious bullshit, Heart has repeatedly claimed transwomyn are not oppressed. And we now have another transwomyn who has been murdered, named Angie Zapata. (PS: that link is a veritable educational gateway; lots of details about the case, which are almost too heartbreaking to read.) Zapata was also a transwomyn of color, and Brownfemipower and Uppity Brown Woman write very well about these various intersections of identity, and how they threaten the mainstream media's hegemony (when they attempt to cover such stories), as well as the status quo in general.
I'm sure Heart has some handy-dandy explanation for why Angie Zapata wasn't really oppressed. She can sell it to Dr Dobson, as they go riding into the sunset together.
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Listening to: The Clash - Hateful
via FoxyTunes