The latest episode of our podcast Point of Inquiry has Jim Underdown talking to comedian Jerry Minor, who has worked on shows like SNL and Mr. Show, about leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses and how that life influenced his comedy.
A guy going by the name of Moses the Street Artist likes to leave big cutouts of aliens and Bigfoot in the woods in Chesapeake, Virginia. Someone stole the alien. WTKR reports:
Moses agreed to talk to News 3, but only in disguise. Wearing a Bigfoot costume, he explained that he wants his focus to be on the art, not on him. … “I just like bringing joy to the community. In times like this where there is just constant shooting and negative news, I like to put some positivity into the community.”
Chesapeake sounds like a fun place.
Barry Fagin, writing in the Colorado Springs Gazette, would probably hate Moses the Street Artist, as he shakes his fist at a sign on Pikes Peak highway:
Saturday mornings, I head out from the toll booth full of energy and unbridled enthusiasm for another day on the mountain. And then, after about five minutes, I see it: That stupid “Big Foot Crossing” sign.
Why, when surrounded by so much beauty, wonder, and natural mystery, is there a shout-out to unreason and human gullibility?
Best part:
But there are so many Bigfoot believers! Can they all be wrong? In a word, yes.
Rachel, Nevada (pop. 50) really doesn’t want people to come and “storm Area 51,” but knows they’re going to do it anyway. Reuters reports:
“We’re trying to figure out how to make this a positive from an absolute negative,” [Motel owner Connie] West said in an interview. “You can fight it, but it’s coming.” …
… “There’s a group of us concerned residents that really do not want this even to happen,” said Joerg Arnu, who runs websites on the history of Rachel and Area 51. “It’s going to destroy Rachel as a beautiful small town in the desert.”
Arnu called on authorities to shut down the two-lane road that leads into town to keep people away during that time.
Townspeople worry, he said, that visitors will include “a fair number of crooks” and that crowds will damage property.
“The residents are going to do whatever it takes, and I’ll leave it at that, to protect their properties,” Arnu added. “We hope it doesn’t come to a confrontation, but if it does it has a very high potential to get ugly.”
Leave these people alone.
A&E apparently has a “reality” show about kids with psychic powers, which seems like a really bad idea for these kids’ development, but what do I know. Anyway, one such kid is 9 and I guess investigates a haunted fire station and I’m just disappointed in our species all over again.
The Guardian has what starts out as a clever, tongue-in-cheek Q&A about the ground-up Berlin Wall pills the Queen’s homeopath is making with the monarchy’s blessing:
So these pills are an antidote to … the Berlin Wall? Try to think more “alternatively”. What Berlin Wall-related conditions might they treat?
Constipation? A fixation with David Hasselhoff? Good suggestions. Some homeopaths claim that Berlin Wall pills are effective “in cases where traumatic incidents from the past have been walled off”. They are also supposedly good for “boost[ing] relationships and break[ing] down emotional barriers”.
But then it goes bad:
Very clever. And do they work? The jury is out.
NO! The jury is NOT OUT. The jury came in at the advent of the SCIENTIFIC METHOD. I just can’t.
A New Zealand flat-earther threatens to kill his friend with a crossbow for being sphere-inclined. As far as I’m concerned, only Daryl can use a crossbow, and I feel certain he’s not a flat-earther.
Susan Gerbic interviews Jann Bellamy about her upcoming CSICon presentation, “Legislative Alchemy: Pseudoscience in the Law”:
I hope to give the audience a sense of the vast scope of the problem, the forces behind it, and some suggestions on how to combat it. Here’s a tip: Elect more scientists to the state legislatures and Congress!
You may have already come across this awful story about Pranay Permulalla, a young Indian newlywed who was murdered by assassins because he was from the “untouchable” caste. The Post reports:
Pranay, 23, was a Dalit, a term used to describe those formerly known as “untouchables.” Amrutha [Varshini, his wife], 21, belongs to an upper caste. Her rich and powerful family viewed the couple’s union as an unacceptable humiliation. Her father, T. Maruthi Rao, was so enraged that he hired killers to murder his son-in-law, court documents say. …
… Even as India has lifted millions out of poverty, increased education rates and built one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, the influence of caste — a social order rooted in Hindu scriptures and based on an identity determined at birth — remains pervasive.
Trump tweets out praise from a right-wing radio host in which the president is called the “King of Israel” who is loved like “the second coming of God.” Later IRL, Trump looks to the sky and says “I am the chosen one.” This is fine.
Meanwhile, the chosen one has chosen to withhold flu vaccines from migrant families in detention at the border. Well look, he’s king of Israel, he can’t be concerned about everybody…in America…where he’s president. I know, it’s confusing.
You know this already, but now it is being boasted about: Trump is dutifully fulfilling the religious right’s “wish list” item by item:
“When he ran in 2016 and promised pro-life, pro-religious freedom policies, most evangelicals who voted for him didn’t know whether he would or could fulfill those promises,” Jeffress said. “When they look back now, they see he checked off all of those goals. … He’ll win by an even larger margin on basis of promises kept.”
The teacher fired by an Indianapolis Catholic school for being in a same-sex relationship is suing the archdiocese, which in turn argues that the lawsuit is unconstitutional because secular institutions are not allowed to interfere with churches. Um.
Jupiter got hit by a smaller planet billions of years ago, and it still stings.
Hey, everybody, you can stop murdering innocent pangolins now. Tests confirm their scales don’t have pain relievers in them. Now what am I going to do with all these pangolin corpses I’ve been stocking up? Lemme see what eBay’s policy is…
Quote of the Day
Sarahbeth Caplin at Friendly Atheist looks at the difficulty in distinguishing fake news and satirical news, particularly for conservative Christians who are unaccustomed to the whole shtick:
These days, one can hardly be blamed for not being able to tell the difference between satire and reality, but I have a guess as to why Christians — particularly right-leaning, evangelical ones — are more prone to confusing the two: They have a tendency to take things literally, even when they’re not meant to be. It happens with Scripture; it’s not surprising to see that tendency spill over into other texts.
I would also argue that many conservative Christians lack the ability to poke fun at themselves, something the Babylon Bee does fairly well. While we may be used to Onion headlines, white evangelicals aren’t as used to seeing similar headlines mocking their own culture in a lighthearted way. Unfortunately, the publication has been known for sometimes pushing the envelope too far and crossing the line between satire and outright bullying — particularly when it comes to transgender people — so this is hardly the last time it’ll be involved in a scandal of its own making.
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Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.