h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey, cool, TRiG, thanks for that blog. We've just had a chuckle reading it.

Those people might enjoy the Olive Pell Bible (or not). She took out all references to sex, violence, and eating meat. (She was a vegetarian.) It made for a much shorter Bible.

Y'all might like this naughty 3-page academic paper on some of the dodgier bits in the KJV. ('Cover his feet', indeed.)

http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/myers/englert.pdf

The Bible is much racier than most people think...

Help me. My new room mate watches Fox News, and I have had to listen to Bill O'Reilly during dinner unless I put on headphones. Which, last night, I did.

You poor thing. There oughta be a law against that.

Can't you make your roommate wear headphones to listen?

Yargh! The relatives I visited in the US had Fox on the whole time, which was quite painful. And that was just for a few days, and besides, I don't live in the country. For you, it must be excruciating.

Bill O'Reilly. Ugh.

TRiG.

I'm happy it isn't on in most of the world, as I'm sure it wouldn't help people think kindly of the USA. It probably breeds more terrorists than Al-kaida does.

I've read that Fox News is prohibited in Canada because Canada's Radio Act states that "a licenser may not broadcast ... any false or misleading news."

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/5123-fox-news-lies-keep-them-out-of-canada

Dmitri, if you want a *lot* of reading, and a careful analysis of the culture, theology, and tastes of a certain brand of American right-wing Christianity, you could do a lot worse than to read Slacktivist's "Left Behind" series. Here's an index: http://slacktivist.typepad.com/archives/2011/08/left-behind-at-patheos.html. (Warning: Time sink. Excellent reading, though. The articles get longer and more in depth as they go on.)

TRiG.

Thanks, TRiG. Bookmarked. Looks good!

I bookmarked it too!

And while we're on the subject of Missouri and elections, how about that Todd Akin, then?

quoteblock

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare," [Republican Rep. Todd] Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

/quoteblock

I just mentioned this on my journal (under Embracing Ignorance). I'll just quote myself with these thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


This morning I heard his statement about how he "misspoke". He meant to say "forcible rape" rather than "legitimate rape".

WTF?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2...ate_rape_i_meant_forcible_rape.html

This is very telling and not just for Akin personally. Many conservatives in power apparently AGREE with this stance. They actually believe that the stress of a violent rape will alter a woman's "secretions" in such a way as to likely prevent pregnancy.

http://jezebel.com/5936160/the-official-guide-to-legitimate-rape

Paul Ryan himself, cosponsored the bill that defined a hierarchy of rape to limit federal funding of abortions to only those pregnancies caused by a "forcible rape". And since these folks believe that such rapes almost never result in a pregnancy, they see this as a way to ban all funding for abortions if not all abortions altogether because, and here's the important subtext. If a pregnancy occurs, they believe it must not have been a true case of rape.

Considering the wording of Akin's "clarification" and that of Ryan's "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act", it seems clear to me that the policy makers of the Republican party have workshopped this strategy based on their unbelievably inane belief that violent acts of rape do not result in pregnancy, or at least very rarely do so. And that they can use this "science" to ban all abortions even in the case of rape.

Aargh! Maybe the best thing to happen for the dems is for this idiot to get elected. I understand he is still ahead in the polls.

That rape business has been around a long time. I remember about 20 years ago, when a journalist friend showed me an article by a colleague of hers, where she'd interviewed Senator Jesse Helms. He said the same thing, and the journalist was shocked speechless.

It's utterly medieval. Some people actually believe that if you get pregnant, the act was consensual, not rape. *head explodes*

I know. Is there another universe we could send these people to? I'd be willing to chip in for tickets.

Come to think of it, DNA ( U42 ) explained it quite well in So Long...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[An extraterrestrial robot and spaceship has just landed on earth. The robot steps out of the spaceship...]

"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."

Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

"What?"

"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"

"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."

Ford shrugged again.

"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yep, that about sums it up.

Mittens,Ryan,Akin and Fox News

Fox is blocked with a child lock on my tvs.
I do follow their antics. I hope they will be forced into the Fox Opinion Network.
It has been seriously discussed.

Fox did not show the Akin footage for 24 hrs after the speech.
After the Fox pundits tried brainwashing the viewers.

I am going to a family reunion. Fox will be on (elders are viewers)
I need to hide their remote ASAP upon arrival.
Most will know it's me it'll keep me from yelling at the TV.