Before Jon was a superstar talk show host, he was working the comedy circuit like everyone else. Here’s one of his older bits on religion. Man does he look young in this. Is this pre-”Death to Smoochie”?

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When you think of today’s Republican party, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Some might say “less government regulation”, or “opposition to homosexuality”. One thing is for sure: few will deny the powerful collusion of the religious right in the policies and decisions the party makes. They know how important that base is, and they cater to it. In fact, if you want a perfect example of this, look no further than John McCain, who went from principled and decent to Christian lapdog in just a few short years. It’s a transformation that John Stewart doesn’t let anyone forget.

So you would think that everything is hunky-dory over at the major headquarters of Right Wingers, but apparently the GOP isn’t doing enough for some. Enter James Dobson, who for the last few days has dedicated his radio show to various speeches he’s written over the years criticizing Republicans for ignoring basic “moral principles” in order to become elected. Here’s the final portion of his speech:

It’s a lack of conviction that there is a boss to the universe and that there are moral standards that we are held to and we need officials who will stand up and represent them. What that conveys to the constituency I’m talking about is that principle does not matter, it’s party over principle. That there are some things that you stand for whether it is popular or politically astute to do so or not. That’s what that pro-moral community stands for.

And yet it seemed to me that what I heard from the Republicans in Indian Wells was we cannot have power if we stand on principle – please don’t take away our power. What good is it to have power if you don’t use it for good?

The Republican Party was born in the crucible of conviction and courage and moral righteousness, that’s where the Republican Party started. It took a stand against slavery in a day that cost six hundred thousand lives in the Civil War. But they knew is was wrong and they took a stand on it, whether win, lose, or draw, that’s God business. They took a stand on what was right.

If they party has left that and it is now going to mouth these two things every two years and then go on to something else, I think we need to look for another. And it would be tragic if that happened. I don’t want that to happen. There are many state houses of government where Republicans will suffer if that happens. It will be a disaster for the country, but somebody said “if you do that, you have no voice at all.” I don’t think we have a voice now. I can’t hear the voice.

Ah yes, the old “The Republican Party fought to end slavery” line. Too bad that the party has since done a complete 180 in terms of it’s political ideology, otherwise he might actually have a point. In any case, it only brings up the fact that as we speak, Republicans are on the wrong side of history concerning gay marriage and civil rights in general. This, I suspect, is due primarily to the GOP courting the most racist, bigoted segment of American society. Being in bed with these people has fundamentally altered the party, and because of this, Republicans run the risk of alienating future voters as they will continue to be seen as the political party for our embarrassingly out of touch grandparents.

Thank you James, for reminding us who really pulls the strings of the Republican party now.

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Ok, I figured it’s about time I said something about religious satire on the net. There are a number of articles floating around TGA that may in fact be satire rather than the real thing, including this video and this article. My issue is with the fact that a) most of the people who watch read these articles or watch these videos have no idea it is in fact satire and are therfore convinced that it’s real, and b) good satire (like the stuff Edward Current does) clues you in gradually to the fact that it is, in fact, parodying the very thing it purports to support. Here’s the dictionary definition of satire:

the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

Mike Adams article is entitled “An Immodest Proposal”, supposedly an homage to Jonathan Swifts “A Modest Proposal” that hilariously suggested Irish babies be eaten to deal with the growing poverty problem in 18th century Britain . In the case of Swift, however, it was so blatently obvious that it was in fact satire that to compare the two articles is a grotesque overestimation of the writing prowess of Adams. Is there any irony in his article? If there is, it seems to be lost on some of his readers:

Yes we as christians AND as Americans could learn something from the tailiban. They have a passion for their beliefs which too precious few of us have. I am not advocating killing people like the tailiban but they dont tolerate abuses of their beliefs do they. They stand up for something.

Satire is meant to shame individuals using their own tone and style, but if most people aren’t able to tell the difference (Poe’s Law), then what is being accomplished? Perhaps all of these supposed satirists need to go back and actually read Swift and others like him to get a fucking clue as to how GOOD satire is done. I’ve devised my own rule here at TGA: if you can’t clearly tell that it is satire, it might as well be the real thing, and I’ll treat it as such. Consider it punishment for bad comedy.

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It’s far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them

The imortal words of Adlai Stevenson still carry with them the poignant reminder that there is more to life than merely fighting for what you belive; you also have to live by those principles, even when it seems impossibly hard to do so.

You might recall a few months ago, cartoonist Molly Norris gained a great deal of media attention after declaring May 20th 2010 “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day“, her response to Comedy Central censoring an episode featuring the prophet. Although she was enthusiastic about the project at first,  it soon spiraled beyond her control and she suddenly found herself desperately trying to disassociate herself from the “holiday”. By then it was way too late, and the day came to have a life of its own.

Fast-forward to today, where Molly has been forced to go into hiding after she became the target of a fatwa by the Radical American-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki back in July.

A soul that is so debased, as to enjoy the ridicule of the Messenger of Allah, the mercy to mankind; a soul that is so ungrateful towards its lord that it defames the Prophet of the religion Allah has chosen for his creation does not deserve life, does not deserve to breathe the air.

Since the threat, Molly has changed her name and gone into hiding at the insistence of the FBI. Her life has forever been changed simply because she tried to fight for principles she believed in. The fear, anxiety and isolation she now feels is the direct consequence of those principles conflicting with the dogmatic and violent insistence from fellow humans who take their ridiculous books of mythology way too seriously. Just remember that when you’re fighting against irrationality and fear-mongering, living up to the principles of free speech can tax the resolve of even the noblest individual.

NOTE: Here’s an interesting article written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali talking about the need to take a more serious stance against death threats. By doing what she suggests (seriously prosecuting individuals who issue them), do we erode the very idea of freedom of speech, or are we protecting it?

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If you’re a regular to the site, you’re bound to have read an article I wrote a while ago called “10 reasons why Superman is better than Jesus”, my tongue-in-cheek comparison of these two fictional characters. This article still receives a lot of traffic, not to mention endless comments about how I’m supposed to believe that there really was a historical Jesus (if you want to read a great article explaining just how weak his historicity is, go here).

The latest bruhaha to come from this article is a facebook page that tries to “break down” my arguments systematically to attempts and prove that Jesus is in fact superior to Superman.I don’t think I need to mention just how hilarious/ridiculous this is, but here are some of the best “quotes”:

3.Jesus may have died for your sins, but Superman died to protect us from an intergalactic killing machine called Doomsday

Refute Argument # 3:

Dying in sin is worst than facing Doomsday. He can kill people but he cannot kill souls which are immortal. Jesus’ mission is to save us all from our sins so that we may also have eternal life and be with God forever in heaven.

I’m curious about this one: how exactly is “dying in sin” worst than facing an unstoppable killing machine intent on destroying all life it sees? Christians love throwing around the story that Jesus got the shit beaten out of him to show the “weightiness” of his sacrafice, but there are tons of people on earth that have more than a “bad weekend”, suffering their whole lives in agony before perishing.

Anyways, the rest of the article is pretty hilarious, and I feel almost honored that some delusional fool spent his time trying to refute a comedy article. It’s fucking hilarious.

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In possibly one of the most ironic cases of life imitating art ever, Christians are now saying that because Mohammad can’t be made fun of on Comedy Central, Jesus should be off limits too.

A coalition of religious and conservative leaders is trying to stop a proposed Comedy Central cartoon that puts Jesus Christ in a modern-day context – before it even gets started.

The newly formed Citizens Against Religious Bigotry said Thursday that it believes the “JC” series would be offensive. They accuse Comedy Central of a double standard in mocking Christian figures and beliefs while recently refusing to let “South Park” depict the Prophet Muhammad for fear of offending Muslims.

“You don’t have to be a Christian to be offended by this,” said Brent Bozell, head of the watchdog Media Research Center.

Yeah, you really do. Newsflash, retards: every day, people are doing stuff that you may not approve of or personally agree with. But they’re still allowed to do it because we live in a free society. Here’s a novel concept for you douchebags: if you don’t like a TV show, then don’t fucking watch it.

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In case you haven’t yet seen part deux of South Park’s 200th episode, get ready for a pretty serious disappointment; because of the veiled threats the Studio and creators received from a bunch of religious fundy douches, the episode was so bleeped out it was hard to actually know what the hell was going on. At first, I thought maybe the whole joke had been one huge meta-joke (poking fun at the fact that they would get censored), but in a recent statement Trey Parker and Matt Stone made this announcement:

We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it.

There you have it folks. It’s gotten so bad that even the mention of the NAME Muhammad is enough to scare people into silence. It’s a sad day for America and a sad day for the important idea of freedom of speech. You know, I hear a lot of talk about the need to “defend” the Constitution from right wing nutjobs who carry miniature versions of it around in their pockets. Perhaps they should pay more attention to the fact that under their very noses, rights that are guaranteed are being challenged by threats of violence from religious fundamentalists. If you love your Constitution and your country so much, you should be fighting for the right for people to speak their mind, no matter how much their speech offends your sensibilities. It’s the only way to guarantee that when YOU have something important to say, no one will be allowed to stop you.

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