• Books - Clan: McTiVo

    Books Most Likely to Be Binned In Britain

    Dan Brown’s scat-illogical* books are at the top of the Oxfam list of books most likely to be donated to the charity, which runs a chain of 686 second-hand bookshops. But the Top Gear presenter my husband David and I most love to hate is the first non-fiction author to make the Oxfam list of “most donated” books. The rants of Jeremy Clarkson, meanwhile, have made the Top Gear presenter the first non-fiction writer to enter the charity’s top 10 of authors most likely to be donated to its 686 shops: either his readers are notably generous, or unwilling to…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    Religious Extremists Want Their Imaginary Country Back, Will Force Us All To Live There

    Do you really want to elect someone to national or local office who actually believes in witches, and that angels and demons are constantly at war, kept at bay only by the actions of prayer warriors? Do you think that people with such extreme religious views should dictate whether you can marry the person you love, or whether you or your female partner should be forced carry every potential pregnancy to term, even if it’s against her will? Do you think it’s a good idea for a large number of voters to be so willfully and deliberately mal-informed, by just…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    Linkdump: August 29th – September 1st

    500 Internal Server Error 500 Internal Server Error Sarah Palin to visit Iowa: Think you know what that means? – CSMonitor.com Sarah Palin Celebrates Shabbat And Offers Echoes of Esther – August 30, 2010 – The New York Sun How many people paid $25,000 each to sit at the half-term governor's table for Shabbot dinner? Cui Bono? Free Social Media Icon Sets – Best Of Tsingy: The Stone Forest of Madagascar | Amusing Planet

  • Hot Off The Presses - Religion

    The Good People of Murfreesboro Are The Real Real Americans

    After letting my snarky inner twelve-year-old blog on Saturday, it seemed like it was time to make note of something worth repeating, and repeating again. For too long, the ideological (and idiot-illogical) divide in this country has kept the wrong stories in the news. We need to recall our own national character – the better one, not the one that sent Japanese-American families to internment camps, but the one that ensured freedom of religion, and cordial relations between people of different faiths. Like the story out of Murfreesboro – supposedly a story about intolerance and hatred of The Other. But…

  • Politics, Schmolitics - Religion

    Tough Sell For Religious Hucksters

    The unchurched in America are probably not buying what #Beckapalooza was flogging, either – A lot of them are conservative, but hurt by “The Church.” The Barna Group – Millions of Unchurched Adults Are Christians Hurt by Churches But Can Be Healed of the Pain Other interesting insights into the self-identified Christians who have distanced themselves from a conventional church relate to their beliefs. Two-thirds (68%) hold a biblical view of God – that is, He is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe and He still rules that universe today. However, only one-third (35%) agree to any extent that…

  • Politics, Schmolitics - Religion - Theocracy Watch

    Irrelevance

    Why @GlennBeck’s campchair revival meeting on the National Mall will probably turn out to be irrelevant, even with the Theocratic Right’s deep pockets. Barna: How Teenagers’ Faith Practices Are Changing The most striking change was the fact that teenagers today seem much less inclined to have spiritual conversations about their faith in Christ with non-believers. The survey question specifically asked if the survey respondent had “explained your religious beliefs to someone else who had different beliefs, in the hope that they might accept Jesus Christ as their savior.” Among born again Christian teenagers, the proportion who said they had explained…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    Linkdump: August 16th – August 29th

    "Dr" Alveda King Trading on the King DNA, niece turned away from family, doesn't recall why she was awarded an honorary doctorate BBC News – Who answered Glenn Beck Crackdown in Bahrain Hints of End to Reforms – NYTimes.com I sometimes book travelers to Bahrain, and they're not great fans of the place. Delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliner delayed again – USATODAY.com The New Yorker Maps Koch Industries Follow the money that funds the vast right wing conspiracy BBC News – How the internet is changing language Kind of sad reading definitions of Internet Menes in British court.

  • Twitter

    Weekly Tweets 2010-08-29

    RT @godgrrl "full transcript of my '04 interview with Obama about his faith-the most in-depth 2 date http://bit.ly/ciCdZL #POTUS #religion" in reply to godgrrl # RT @gegere "I miss Hawaii so much!" Me too! #fb in reply to gegere # RT @StNickEpiscopal "Distributing fliers for new Saturday evening service in Elk Grove Village. Begins 18SEP at 430pm! http://is.gd/ewT16" in reply to StNickEpiscopal # And by the way, as the tired feet and sweaty face behind @StNickEpiscopal I am taking a break to cool off. # RT @fallingrock "RT @RealNichelle: Vote For Star Trek Theme To Be Final Shuttle Wakeup Music…