As Debt Ceiling Theatre begins an new week, we may well find this installment beginning with Asian markets crawling in the tank as further evidence of how far our treasonous right wing politicians are willing to go in order to serve their hedge fund managing Wall Street overlords.

But as a prologue, we had John Boehner yet again prove his unseriousness by proposing a 2-tier solution with a "serious" face. Because he hasn't already tried this before, don't you know? Boehner proposed to Pelosi and Reid a plan to raise the debt ceiling through 2011, with a second raise in the beginning of 2012. Because somehow in his whiskey-addled brain, Boehner thinks Obama and the Democrats have somehow said they would be amenable to that? Opposite land is where Boehner is living.

Or maybe not. As Frank Schaeffer explains, much of the brinksmanship is also being driven by right-wing fundamentalists.

Theology is -- by nature -- not about reason but about faith. If God's will is to be served then so be it if America is plunged into chaos! This debt ceiling fiasco is just another chapter in the "culture" wars.

The extreme language of Evangelical/"pro-life" rebellion has now been repackaged in the debt ceiling showdown. It is the language of religion pitted against facts.

And the anti-government charge is being led by people who are either true believers, thus unable to reason, or people catering to the true believers so that they can remain in the good books of the Tea Party, which is nothing more than the Evangelical far right repackaged and renamed.

Well yes. In this regard he's not telling us anything we don't already know, except that I'm not sure I'd be so quick to wrap up the Tea Party as evangelicals only. It is an unholy alliance of evangelicals and agnostics whose religion is the Almighty Dollar.

But he goes on, and here's where it gets interesting:

A Willingness To Destroy America In Order To Save It

George and Colson and the others who wrote and then signed the "Manhattan Declaration" (like Kreeft before them) also called for fundamentalists to unite if need be for civil disobedience to stop the U.S. government from passing laws that did not comply with their religious "values" and/or to undermine those laws if they were enacted.

Here's the actual text of that section of the Manhattan Declaration:

Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required.

The rest of it, as you may know, is a structured list of the culture war issues: homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion, etc. But as Schaeffer points out, this particular section grants them (in their own minds) the moral authority to demand that the government be destroyed in order to save it from these terrible things. The debt ceiling is just their current lever, like the Affordable Care Act was, and like all of the ridiculous votes to defund Planned Parenthood were earlier this year.

As I consider the victims in Norway who were assassinated by a gunman with views quite similar to these, I am rapidly concluding that this is an ungovernable nation with these insane, irresponsible, dogma-guided people pretending to lead. It could be that the markets will agree with that, too, in which case we may all find ourselves locked in the curse of interesting times.

recovering liberal
Support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence in defense of Islam has dropped since 2002 by 34 percentage points in Lebanon, 12 points in Indonesia and 8 points in Pakistan, according to the latest survey from Pew Global Attitudes Project.

In the poll released last Thursday, about half of Muslims in Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco said that attacks against Americans and their allies are justified.

On a positive note, the poll also showed that confidence in bin Laden has fallen by double-digit margins in Indonesia, Morocco and Lebanon since 2003. In Lebanon, only 2% now express confidence in him. Sadly, this is offset by Jordan and Pakistan, where more than 50% say they that have confidence in him.

Most importantly, in the nine Western nations polled, fears about radical Islam are tied to perceptions of Muslim communities within those countries. Resident Muslims were seen as having a strong and growing sense of Islamic identity, which most of those surveyed see as a bad thing.

In conclusion, while most of those polled in the United States and other Western Nations claim to have favorable views of Muslims, those in predominantly Muslim countries had mixed views of Christians and very negative views of Jews.

Support for suicide bombings and other acts of violence in defense of Islam has dropped since 2002 by 34 percentage points in Lebanon, 12 points in Indonesia and 8 points in Pakistan, according to the latest survey from Pew Global Attitudes Project.

In the poll released last Thursday, about half of Muslims in Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco said that attacks against Americans and their allies are justified.

On a positive note, the poll also showed that confidence in bin Laden has fallen by double-digit margins in Indonesia, Morocco and Lebanon since 2003. In Lebanon, only 2% now express confidence in him. Sadly, this is offset by Jordan and Pakistan, where more than 50% say they that have confidence in him.

Most importantly, in the nine Western nations polled, fears about radical Islam are tied to perceptions of Muslim communities within those countries. Resident Muslims were seen as having a strong and growing sense of Islamic identity, which most of those surveyed see as a bad thing.

In conclusion, while most of those polled in the United States and other Western Nations claim to have favorable views of Muslims, those in predominantly Muslim countries had mixed views of Christians and very negative views of Jews.

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Ann Coulter appears on CNBC and announces that Judaism should "just be thrown away" because Jews are "imperfect Christians."

DEUTSCH: That isn't what I said, but you said I should not -- we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or --

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly believe that.

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly -- you're too educated, you can't -- you're like my friend in --

COULTER: Do you know what Christianity is? We believe your religion, but you have to obey.

DEUTSCH: No, no, no, but I mean --

COULTER: We have the fast-track program.

Coulter justified her remarks with this:

Coulter responded: "No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be. I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to live up to all the laws. What Christians believe -- this is just a statement of what the New Testament is -- is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament." Coulter later said: "We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all."

Dateline: June, 2010

Today, Ann Coulter is still busy writing columns like her most recent where she mocks Malia Obama while making some really convoluted parallel to Monica Lewinsky's blue dress. She's featured at CPAC, and she's still listed on the top 20 "Conservative Hotties" list. She has the same content distributor, her agent hasn't abandoned her, and she enjoys the "respect" (I use the term loosely) of the conservative community.

When you're a conservative and suggest an entire religion should surrender itself to another, it's not considered anti-Semitic. I understand Coulter's theology here, but nowhere in that theology is there a suggestion that Judaism should just "go away."

On the other hand, we have Helen Thomas making equally ill-advised and hurtful remarks about Jews leaving Israel. Within a few days, she's forced into retirement, abandoned by her agent and writing partner, villified by the DC Press glitterati, slammed by the White House, and drummed out of a career she's had for 57 years.

Political correctness, thy name is hypocrisy.

Whose Values?

Religion has been cited as a big factor in the recent presidential election. The exit polls found that 22 percent of voters cited "moral values" as the key to their vote. Of course, we welcome the "moral values" discussion in politics, but the question some Christians are raising is which values and whose values.

Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace has been receiving daily opportunities to shape the national debate and to make sure that social and economic justice is named as a "moral and religious value," and that war and peace are "life" issues too. The Reverend Jim Wallis is scheduled to speak about "moral values" this coming Sunday on "Meet the Press."

Only 51% of Americans have moral values?

Speak out about YOUR values....click here> My Moral Values

Nutty, Nutty from The Poorman

There are two sides to every coins. There is yin; there is yang. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you kill Obi Wan, he becomes more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Such is the way of the universe, and, if you are feeling a little disheartened by Bush's re-election, try to take a more holistic view: for every gloomy you, there's a happy Bob Jones. The cosmic balance is restored.

November 3, 2004

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.

Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.

Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years—a brief time only—to leave an imprint for righteousness up upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.

Christ said, If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour (John 12:26).

The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you—that you would do right and honoor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.

Best wishes.

Sincerely your friend,

Bob Jones III
President

PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They applauded loudly their approval.

When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the Senate, they cheered again.

On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be eternally true.

Bob Jones: not opposing interracial dating as a tool of the anti-Christ since August of 2000! (The Pope is still Satan, though. On some things, there can be no compromise.)

Religion and the Founders

The Founding Fathers were not devout by the standards of many of today's fundamentalist Protestants. To carefully examine writings by the principal framers (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington and Madison) is to note the striking degree to which they all shared attitudes toward religion that would disqualify them as "Christians" in the eyes of the religious right, even though they described themselves as such. All these men emphasized the supreme importance of individual reason and conscience--not ecclesiastical authority and dogma--in shaping personal faith. To be sure, they recognized religion's valuable social role, but the assertion heard so often these days, that America was founded as a 'Christian nation', simply is not true.

Hannity starts another Mantra-the "anti-Christian" bias.

The other night on "Hannity and Colmes", Dr. James Dobson was a guest from the Focus on the Family Group. I never pay much attention to the "Fox News Ticker" that scroll below the interviews but this really caught my eye.

Hannity: Now this election has become the bigoted, Christian, redneck, and you’ve heard a lot of these criticisms in the voting and everything and this red America, Jesus Land. What are your thoughts on the way people reacted in this election?

While Mr. Dobson was giving his answer, the Fox News Ticker said: Christians in Iraq report incidents of intolerance toward them including attacks on churches.

Hannity: There's an anti-Christian bias here, am I reading this right?

Fox News Ticker: Other people have been told, if they' don't convert they'll lose their homes.--and A women in KY pleaded guilty to kidnapping a newborn from a hospital.

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Allan Colmes: They are reporting the polls that were taken. You can blame the messenger or you can decide they are factual.

Dobson excerpt: "Some of the messengers are off the wall."

Amen to that!

The heat is finally getting to the Vatican because they finally posted guidelines on their website to add some clarity on the issue of how they should handle sex abuse case.

An issue that should not need any clarity at all.

The Vatican responded Monday to allegations that it had concealed years of clerical sex abuse by making it clear for the first time that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report such crimes to police if required by law.

Victims have charged that the Catholic Church created what amounted to a conspiracy to cover up abuse by keeping allegations that priests raped and molested children secret and not reporting them to civil authorities.

The Vatican has insisted that it has long been the Catholic Church's policy for bishops, like all Christians, to obey civil laws. In a new guide for lay readers posted on its Web site, the Vatican explicitly spells out such a policy.

''Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed,'' the Vatican guidelines said.

That phrase was not included in a draft of the guidelines obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The rest of the guidelines follow previously known and public procedures for handling canonical investigations and trials of suspected abuse...read on

The Vatican offered no explanation for the addition.

Doesn't that make everyone feel so much better? Ross Douthat actually tries to make the case that the new Pope is better than the old Pope because the abuses happened under his watch.

The church’s dilatory response to the sex abuse scandals was a testament to these weaknesses. So was John Paul’s friendship with the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ. The last pope loved him and defended him. But we know now that Father Maciel was a sexually voracious sociopath. And thanks to a recent exposé by The National Catholic Reporter’s Jason Berry, we know the secret of Maciel’s Vatican success: He was an extraordinary fund-raiser, and those funds often flowed to members of John Paul’s inner circle. Only one churchman comes out of Berry’s story looking good: Joseph Ratzinger.

Berry recounts how Ratzinger lectured to a group of Legionary priests, and was subsequently handed an envelope of money “for his charitable use.” The cardinal “was tough as nails in a very cordial way,” a witness said, and turned the money down.

Sorry, no sale. So Ratzinger didn't take an envelope with cash. The fact that he was handed an envelope stuffed with money shows how the Catholic church was operating like a group from a Mario Puzo novel rather than a religious institution.

And MoDo makes sense in her latest column about being a woman and living as a Catholic. Worlds Without Women

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I had tea and sweets with a group of educated and sophisticated young professional women.

I asked why they were not more upset about living in a country where women’s rights were strangled, an inbred and autocratic state more like an archaic men’s club than a modern nation. They told me, somewhat defensively, that the kingdom was moving at its own pace, glacial as that seemed to outsiders.

How could such spirited women, smart and successful on every other level, acquiesce in their own subordination?

I was puzzling over that one when it hit me: As a Catholic woman, I was doing the same thing.

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I'm no fan of Bart Stupak (D-MI), but there's no way any Representative should be threatened the way he was. These are messages left on his voice mail, left by supposed Christians and supporters of "life".

CBS News reports:

"Congressman Stupak, you baby-killing mother f***er... I hope you bleed out your a**, got cancer and die, you mother f***er," one man says in a message to Stupak.

"There are millions of people across the country who wish you ill," a woman says in a voicemail, "and all of those thoughts that are projected on you will materialize into something that's not very good for you."

CBS News also obtained copies of faxes sent to Stupak, which include racial epithets used in reference to President Obama and show pictures of nooses with Stupak's name.

I think Stupak's injection of the abortion issue into the debate was a low-life thing to do. I support his primary challenger, Connie Saltonstall. Still, listen to the dripping hatred in these people's voices, the implied threat of their words. There is no place for this in our politics, even against those who play games with wedge issues and bow to Catholic bishops.

The thing is, in this country we elect people. We get to vote every couple of years or so. Violence is for dictatorships, not democracies. Like it or not, they're not going to turn the US into Teabagistan, no matter how hard they wish it, or how nasty they get.

You remember Ken Blackwell, don’t you? He’s the guy who in 2004 served simultaneously as Ohio Secretary of State and co-chair of the Committee to Re-Elect George W. Bush. He used, and abused, his office to help the Bush campaign – including rejecting voter registration forms that weren’t on 80-pound paper stock.

Anyway, he must have been prepping for CPAC when he wrote his latest op-ed on FoxNews.com. Here’s what he said about the Obama administration:

What we are witnessing right now is an anti-Christian programmatic pogrom. What is a “pogrom” it’s the word that describes anti-Jewish raids by Cossacks and others in czarist Russia, but a programmatic pogrom best describes what is happening right now. These are not isolated attacks. And while we no longer have Cossacks to threaten, we now have left-wing bloggers who actually call themselves Kossacks (after the Daily Kos).

A “pogrom,” let’s recall, is “an organized massacre of helpless people; specifically: such a massacre of Jews.” And Blackwell, who most recently served as the vice chair of the RNC Platform Committee, contends that President Obama’s nominees would be leaders of this “pogrom” if confirmed.

He said this about Dawn Johnsen, who was nominated a year ago to lead the Office of Legal Counsel: “If she is confirmed, we will see a radical anti-Catholic, pro-abortion zealot influencing policy throughout the Justice Department—but also policy throughout the entire federal government.”

Johnsen, as it happens, is Christian and teaches Sunday School. She has prominent Republican supporters and a sterling record of commitment to the rule of law. But Blackwell thinks her confirmation is on par with the mass slaughter of Jews.

But he didn’t stop there. He also singled out Chai Feldblum, Obama’s pick to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying that “if confirmed, she would be in position to pursue the pogrom nationwide.” As Ben Smith pointed out, Feldblum is a “Jewish law professor and disability rights scholar… whose father survived the Holocaust in the forests of Poland after losing most of his family.”

Feldblum is also a widely acclaimed academic and vigorous advocate for religious freedom. But that doesn’t matter to Blackwell, who isn’t really big on rational argument. As Rabbi David Saperstein wrote today, “Blackwell’s use of rhetoric invoking the pogroms, the widespread destruction of countless Jewish lives in Eastern Europe, is aimed at quashing reasoned political discourse,” and it “desecrates the memory of those who died in the pogroms.”

One thing is clear, Blackwell isn't trying to convince people – he’s trying to incite them. So will the RNC and Republican leaders denounce the remarks or just pretend not to notice? I think we all know the answer.