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Archive for March 2nd, 2010

DrumBlogroll, Please…

Posted by scott on March 2nd, 2010

We’ve added a new (well, it’s been around for awhile, but we only just discovered it) blog to the roll, Museum of the Bourgeois. WO’C old timers may remember the proprietor, HH, as “Fred Burfle,” who has commented here a number of times, despite the difficulty of finding a good wifi connection in Hooterville. Welcome, H.

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Breaking! Clarence Darrow Defends Monkey Teacher!

Posted by scott on March 2nd, 2010

ntabor.jpgDo you remember Nathan Tabor? No? Really? How I envy you.

Nathan was known as “the young Jesse Helms,” back when he spent three quarters of a million dollars losing a Republican primary race for Congress. Undaunted, he ran for North Carolina State Senate, and lost that too, before putting his hard-won experience to work as a political consultant. According to his Wikipedia page — which reads as though it were lovingly tended, nurtured, and monitored by Nathan on a daily, if not hourly basis, so it must be accurate — these are the highlights: “Nathan Tabor consulted with North Carolina Senator Fred Smith, who lost the primary for governor in 2008. In the past, Nathan has worked as the director of internet outreach for Congressman Duncan Hunter’s [failed] presidential campaign. Additionally, Tabor has worked for Jim Oberweis in his [unsuccessful] campaign for governor of Illinois in 2006, and Jeff Crank, who ran for Congress in Colorado [and lost].”

By this point, Nathan, who is also the founder of TCV Media, “a professional full-service internet and branding firm,” realized that the “Young Jesse Helms” image was slightly past its peak of flavor (as is, one assumes, the Old Jesse Helms), and that a more hip, edgy, up-to-date identity was needed to help Nathan connect with today’s youth. At last report time, he was rumored to be going with the

His Townhall bio tells us that “Nathan Tabor organizes and educates Christians on their role in Politics,” a program summed up by his trademarked slogan “Somebody has to root for the Washington Generals!”

And while I’m glad he’s sitting down with the next generation of aspiring politicians and sharing with them the secretions of his success, I’m also relieved to see that he hasn’t abandoned his role as a hard-hitting investigative scold. And this week he’s broken perhaps the biggest story of his career — a scandalous case of religious bigotry in a Texas school:

We Are Not Ashamed; Are You?

No? Well, to quote Yoda: “You will be. You…will…be!”

School administrators in Texas face a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of three students, accusing the school district of refusing to allow children to carry or read the Bible.

The lawsuit, filed in Houston, alleges that a teacher pulled two sisters from class after discovering that they were carrying Bibles and threatened to have them picked up by child-welfare authorities.

Another teacher told a pupil he was not allowed to read the Bible during free reading time and forced him to put it away, the lawsuit alleges. The boy also was required to remove a Ten Commandments book cover from another book, the lawsuit states.

“My daughters called me, were hysterical, and said, ‘Mama, they took our Bibles and called them garbage and threw them in the garbage and then threatened to call Child Protective Services,’ ” said Deborah Bedenbender, 37, a Willis homemaker.

Even I find this story disturbing, and can only hope the major media follow up and help to expose this abuse of civil liberties. At the same time, I want to congratulate Nathan on his scoop; it’s a triumph of old school, shoe leather journalism, and I don’t believe his achievement is in any way diluted by the fact that this story is ten years old (the plaintiff, Homemaker Bedenbender, filed her lawsuit on May 19, 2000, and voluntarily withdrew it less than two weeks, later, on June 1).

So when Nathan says, in the present tense, that “[s]chool administrators in Texas face a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of three students,” he’s simply acknowledging the Einsteinian concept that space-time is curved, and eventually we’ll all meet and kill our own grandfathers.

Not only do actions by teachers and administrators described above hurt Christians

But actions by other municipal authorities also hurt Christians. Like feeding them to lions, or crucifying them upside down. That shit’s gotta stop.

they also send a message to non-believing children and parents that there is something wrong with believing in a saving Jesus Christ, and that such expressions of faith should be hidden from public view.

Or maybe just kept out of the classroom, although that one kid got kind of a raw deal just for doodling pictures of Jesus double-fouling the moneychangers on his Pee Chee folder.

In essence, these government officials are telling Christians that they should be ashamed of their beliefs and they should cower in their homes secretly reading Scripture.

In essence, that’s appalling! In reality, not so much, since according to the district superintendent, “Students of Willis Independent School District have not been told they cannot bring Bibles to school, and Bibles were never confiscated or thrown into the trash.” Also, “an investigation by the district found no evidence that Bibles or any other materials had been confiscated. [The Superintendent] did say, however, that only school study materials were allowed in the Saturday class that the girls had been attending to make up for time missed.”

So the girls missed school, were required to make up the lessons on Saturday, and instead of doing the assigned work, they started reading their Bibles in class. That’s either a saintly degree of devotion to Jesus, or a big Fuck You to the teacher.

However, there is a new movement within the Body of Jesus

That is a really an unfortunate turn of phrase…

that couples Bible-reading Christianity with modern communications. Beginning Monday, March 1, individuals from the United States and the world can participate in the first-ever online video Bible. They can simply film themselves reading or quoting Scripture passages and then upload their videos to the new “I Am Not Ashamed” campaign web site, (www.iamnotashamed.org).

I sort of wasn’t paying attention by this point in the column, and accidentally typed iamnotashamed.com, rather than .org into the browser, and discovered this piece of Renaissance art, which I believe is entitled Christ Ministering to the Rough Boys:

Jesusbench.jpg

The campaign launches simultaneously on the Internet and on television, with commercial spots featuring participants quoting Bible verses.

But you’ll have to go to the website to watch the full length, uncensored commercial with the implied lesbian content.

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