THIS WEEK – Spiritual Advisers, Evangelical Consultants, and Easy Cheesy Chili Dip
There are three candidates remaining in the Presidential field and (surprise, surprise) they are all down on their knees with Jesus. Obama’s pastor (and member of his campaign team) Jeremiah Wright says America is Another Goddamned Country. (0:00)
Hillary has a Christian on her team. And not just any Christian – an Evangelical. But when it comes to sounding like a Republican fundy, she does pretty well using her own words. McCain’s “spiritual adviser” thinks “Christian America” is locked into a death battle with the “false religion” of Islam. Pass the Parsley. (17:03)
Poll results: the worst person in history. (No, it's not Jesus or Moses.) And then Ex is pissed off again – about angels and cream cheese! The Herd helps him shmear it on.(31:24)
Opening Music [00:00]: excerpt from "Another Goddamned Draft"
Bridge Music [16:09]: excerpt from "Latin Down the Hatches"
Bridge Music [30:04]: excerpt from "One of Many"
Closing Music [39:01]: excerpt from "As Jazzy As I Get"
(All music: copyright 2008 by Rachel Murie)
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Another Goddamned Podcast #7:
March 13, 2008
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18 comments:
Just a note as a follow-up to the topics on this podcast.
SI said he was interested in seeing Obama's response to the Jeremiah Wright controversy. I said I was too, but that I really didn't see how Obama could get himself out of this one.
Well, Obama gave a major address on American Race Relations today in Philadelphia (near Convention Hall, I believe). The guy continues to pleasantly surprise me on most issues and did so in handling this problem. I've heard commentators who say it's the best speech on race since Martin Luther King and his "I have a dream" speech.
Anyway, you can catch the first part of the speech on Google Videos right now and I'm sure that they will shortly have the entire thing.
I don't like to blogspam, but check out this post, it's relevant:
http://venjanztruth.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-nobody-on-my-staff-who-would.html
I think that one point you guys are are grazing, but not quite hitting, is that the only religion of American politicians is politics. Cynical, true, but even the ancient Greeks realized this.
If Hitlery hired a "spiritual adviser," it was because some political adviser told her she was loosing points in a religious demographic. Hussein Obama made his excellent but empty speech today only because Rev. Wright is a political disaster, not because he agrees or disagrees with him. And it matters little either way.
One thing that I find so surprising is that these candidates are still grasping at gnats like what somebody's preacher said or who's the most qualified to respond to a terror attack, while ignoring the raging elephant: the economy.(Wow, that was clever)
The first candidate to bang-bang-bang on the economy and stick to that will have a big advantage.
Obama's speech wasn't any more empty than candidate's speeches of the past. You rarely if ever get specifics from candidates, just vague promises and peeks into what they envision. If anything, he's made an appeal to finally stop wasting time talking about nonsense issues like race and illegals crossing the border and perhaps address actual problems.
Speaking of which, yes, I'd like to hear all of them say something about the economy but I can't tell how much of it is their avoidance of it and how much of it is simply not getting the chance because they're busy talking about their fucking preachers, proving they're conservative enough but not scary conservative, woman enough but not too womany, black enough but not too black, christian enough but not too christiany, and so on.
I at least get the impression Obama would LIKE to talk about these things and that if given the chance, wouldn't be an idiot about them (although his healthcare plan seems off) and certainly wouldn't say anything completely retarded publicly like McCain yesterday claiming Iran is training Al Quaeda terrorists and that everybody knows that, to which Lieberman had to tap him on the shoulder and say, "pst, not Al Quaeda, just extremists". Of course we'd like to see them all show up at ScienceDebate 2008, but they'll all probably puss out.
Obama handled his pastor's remarks pretty well. The idea that having a spiritual advisor enhances a candidate's standing is stupid. I also think Obama a) is probably the most sincere believer of the three candidates and b) has a decent grasp of the need for secularism in politics.
I don't have the link handy, but plenty of bloggers have posted Obama's speech on the need to provide non-religious reasons for policy recommendations, etc. I think he's one of those guys who is rational in most areas of his life, but he got the religious bug, for whatever reason, and hasn't been able to shake it. Let's face it, lots of the people we know, love and work with are just the same.
Let you in on a little secret, Ex and I have been emailing each other rather heatedly about this speech over the last day. I think it ended with Evo threatening to sing a song if we didn't stop and we all had lemonade. Because of this, I haven't seen anyone else's take on the speech in the blog world or mainstream media yet.
I think I'm the first one to comment on the Cream Cheese commercial. Send my prize to the chapel, along with the rest of the dip ingredients.
The most offensive thing about the commercial is that the angelic airheads are women. No gender stereotypes there. As for Ex's point about the American proclivity for non-reading, you're probably aware of a 2007 poll that compared Democratic and Republican reading habits over the course of a year:
Republicans - read 8 books in a year.
Democrats - read 9 books in a year.
It's a good thing the nonbelieving literati and other atheists read, otherwise the book section of Amazon.com would go out of business!
For those of you who haven't attended any church Bible studies recently (actually - neither have I!), I'll let you in on a (not-so) secret: most of the people who attend Bible studies don't read the assigned passage before they show up. But they enter into the discussion anyway. Some of my more rational (for believers) friends and I called such studies "Share Your Ignorance" sessions. Bet you're not at all surprised.
You know, Chappie, sometime I feel that's exactly what we do on this podcast. OK, I'll speak for myself only, because I really admire my fellow travelers here, but for me, I think I'm really sharing my ignorance, and hoping the audience doesn't notice. I find the end of the podcast more illuminating for having reached it. In other words, I'm smarter when we're done, that when we start.
Philly:
Let you in on a little secret,
Ex and I have been emailing each other rather heatedly about this speech over the last day ... Because of this, I haven't seen anyone else's take on the speech ...
Do you honestly believe that anyone else's debate about the speech was more interesting than ours?
chappy:
The most offensive thing about the commercial is that the angelic airheads are women.
I don't agree with your assessment. Yeah, the women are airheads, but everyone knows men don't read at all, because it ain't macho.
I remember being horrified at the results of that poll in 2007. If I'm recalling correctly, a quarter of American adults had read ZERO books in the previous year. And I also remember that among those who did read, religious books was one of the most popular categories.
By the way, your complementary package of Philadelphia cream cheese is now speeding its way to your chapel. A few days after you receive it, the Herd will be arriving to sample your dip. We will have all read the book.
They showed some of the dumber responses on the Daily Show tonight. Big surprise, they were mostly from Fox. Anyway, some ass says the first thing that came to mind for him was that he was reading from a teleprompter, and not very well. Yes, after that speech THAT would be what one would notice first, um, ok. Then that Hannity ass did one of those "what ifs" like "what if Obama REALLY agrees with Wright? We could have a racist anti-semite as President!"
Here's my what if - what if there was responsible journalism exhibited on the news? Why, we could actually become informed! Holy shit!
A friend of mine chastised me yesterday because I never listen to O’Reilly, never listen to Fox “News” programs, and seldom watch Fox at all. He said I’m isolating myself from the “other side” of issues.
My response is that real news isn’t supposed to be about sides. Knowing that, I try to find the least slanted news I can find. Fox is POV news and it’s always from a certain POV. It’s not like I’ve NEVER listened to them in the past. I have. And find them repugnant and not worth supporting by tuning in.
If I catch some of their dumber bits on Daily, Colbert, Maher, Olbermann, then that’s more than enough for me.
Exterminator:
Are you implying that men do read? I thought they just drank beer, belched, scratched themselves, watched sports and ogled boobies.
"By the way, your complementary package of Philadelphia cream cheese is now speeding its way to your chapel. A few days after you receive it, the Herd will be arriving to sample your dip. We will have all read the book."
I hope the book is worthwhile and stimulates some good discussion among the herd and the literati, all of whom - males and females alike - are literate, articulate people.
I just wanted to say that I am loving the podcast. I've spent the last couple days getting caught up. Great show and great content. Hopefully a new one will be out soon. :D
Tyrion -
Thanks for listen to our ramblings! It's good to know that some people enjoy it. And, being the vain guy that Ex is, he really REALLY appreciates it when someone takes the time to write. Anyway, OG is editing frantically away as we exchange comments, so keep your eyes open. Probably Tuesday morning.
After listening to the first cut there will be a few edits, and the rest of the herd may want some other changes too, but it I usually try to post it by Tuesday morning. Sometimes it goes up Monday night.
We didn't have a podcast last week due to some conflicts, but it should be pretty much weekly for as long as we do it, which I hope is a long time. :)
We didn't have a podcast last week due to some conflicts ...
Just to clarify OG's statement: The conflicts were with time, not with one another.
That's correct, we have conflicts with each other all the time and that never hinders podcast production. Actually, it might help them along. ;)
Haha, glad to hear a new one is on its way.
I have a suggestion of a topic for you. IT may have been suggested somewhere else but... what is your stance on the whole "label" issue in terms of atheism? Should we call ourselves atheists? Does it even matter? What about the people who use the terms like humanist or agnostic as a way of avoiding the atheistic label.
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