The irony of Conservatives complaining about “cancel culture” and “attacks on free speech” is thick.  They have been banning things other Americans do for decades – everything from being able to access healthcare to banning certain imagery from public grounds while promoting images of white supremacists, Bible verses, and crosses the size of sky scrapers. Ignoring all that, the inventors of bans and boycotts are now offended at measures to stop systemic GOP racism, racist dog whistles, brazen voter suppression, and just outright lying and are passing all kinds of laws outlawing everything from voter registration efforts to protesting police brutality.

So, the next time you are in a conversation with a conservative and they complain about “cancel culture” ask them if they agree with the 28 year ban on YOGA in Alabama schools.  That’s right, folks, since 1993, yoga and meditation have been banned in Alabama schools because The Hindu might rub off on students while exercising.  The effort to lift that ban has been tried the last legislative session and gained traction this session until it was killed by religious conservatives scaredy cat bigots in the Senate judiciary committee.  The blocked bill had even prohibited using the word “namaste” and forbade chanting and mantras, and required all yoga poses be named in English, but that wasn’t good enough.  In testimony, Christian activist religious zealot Becky Gerritson said, “Yoga is a very big part of the Hindu religion.  If this bill passes, then instructors will be able to come into classrooms as young as kindergarten and bring these children through guided imagery, which is a spiritual exercise, and it’s outside their parents’ view. And we just believe that this is not appropriate.”  Hilariously, representatives of Roy Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law, claimed yoga would lead to proselytizing in public schools by followers of Hinduism.  Recall that the weirdo and failed US Senate candidate likes little girls and was banned from the local shopping mall for harassing them.  Connecting the name Roy Moore with the word “moral” can cause whiplash in normal people.

So, when you get “Cancel Culture” from a conservative, just reply “Yoga ban.”  They’ll have no idea what you’re talking about, so you’ll enjoy explaining it to them.

File under: What took you so Long?

The ugly split between Liberty University and Jerry Falwell, Jr. just got uglier as university brainwashing camp filed suit demanding $10 million in damages for concealing damaging personal information even as he negotiated a lucrative employment contract.  Jr., capitalizing on his father’s fame delved into politics even further than Sr., who was one of the founders of “The Moral Majority” which was neither moral or a majority.  After Sr.’s passing in 2007, Jr. took over, went all-in hypocrisy and ended up all-in for Trump.  While embracing conservative ideology and conspiracy theories, he looked the other way a plethora of times to rationalize Trump’s many scandals and character flaws.  He even started the pro-Trump Falkirk Center at Liberty, which was nothing more than another Trump campaign mouthpiece, hiding behind a non-profit 501(c)3 tax status.

Falwell is the textbook example of everything that’s wrong with Big Church, the multi-billion dollar mega church industry which is all about God, warmongering, guns, bathrooms, hating gays, and deploring Democrats.  Liberty is a billion dollar enterprise that uses its clout in the ever judgmental evangelical subculture in the US, and Falwell Sr., followed by Falwell Jr., tsk-tsked at scandals like Clinton’s, but suddenly became sympathetic when Trump’s multiple sex and criminal scandals emerged.  What Jr. was hiding, though, is that he and his wife were also neck deep in their own scandals, including a multi-year affair between Becki and their pool boy.  Apparently, Jr. liked to watch.  Yeah.  The Falwell’s reportedly gave the pool boy $2 million for a business venture, which is questionable whether it was financial help or extortion to stay quiet.  And apparently this was all going on as Jr. was negotiating his next contract.

In a fit of late to the party guilty conscience, the board of Liberty wants their money back, and Falwell, who just dropped a defamation suit against Liberty in December, is now recycling the same denials and assertions now that they are after him.

The Arc of the Moral Universe does bend toward justice; and in this case, toward irony.  And the irony is entertaining .

The Washington Post is reporting this afternoon that Christian conservatives are “rattled” that the Supreme Court dared to rule in favor of equality for everyone, even transexual and gay people.  At first I thought I was reading a headline from The Onion, and did a double take when I realized it was the Washington Post.  All the usual bible thumpers were quoted as shocked that their “religious freedom” to persecute others was being “eroded”.

This is the goddam 21st century, and we still have to put up with people who give themselves a wedgy when other people are acknowledged to have the same rights as their own dumb asses have?  Lord a’Mercy, give me patience. Oh, and BTW, I was actually shocked that it was a 6-3 decision with Gorsuch voting along with Roberts and Normal Judges to lock in that strong majority.  It must be a head fake for something really bad coming down the line, but I’ll take a victory when we can get it.

Christianity Today, mouthpiece of the evangelical movement since Billy Graham founded it in 1956, finally turned on Trump last week when its editor in chief, Mark Galli, published “Trump Should Be Removed from Office” laying out the case against him that most normal people have understood for years.  While lying that Trump “…didn’t have a chance to offer his side of the story…,” Galli did say,

The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

This is not the first time that the magazine has weighed in on impeachment, but the first time it has come down of the side against a Republican.  In 1973 it offered milk toast support of the process but remaining neutral on Nixon’s impeachment, and in 1998 supported Clinton’s removal.  Galli used the same reasoning this time to call for Trump’s removal.  At least he’s being intellectually honest, which doesn’t hold with other publications like the Christian Post, which stubbornly remains in Trump’s corner.

The piece in the Christian Post published on Monday repeats the willful blindness we’ve come to expect from evangelicals who’ve been happy to look the other way on Trump’s moral bankruptcy and criminality just because they’re getting judges who believe that the Earth is flat and only 4,000 years old as well as in the subjugation of women.  In their piece, the senior editors bashed Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, AND Beto O’Rourke, calling their words on Trump supporters and religions a “…toxic emotional and spiritual stew…”  Their ultimate justification for overlooking Trump’s conduct? He was elected.  Essentially, they repeated Trump’s own argument that, since he was elected, he is immune from all legal scrutiny or even investigation of his criminality and corruption.

The piece is so poisonous that Napp Nazworth, another editor at the Christian Post, threw up his hands and abruptly resigned, tweeting out, “Announcement: Today, rather abruptly, I was forced to make the difficult choice to leave The Christian Post. They decided to publish an editorial that positions them on Team Trump. I can’t be an editor for a publication with that editorial voice.”  He continued that editors had in the past worked through disagreements, but now has “chosen to represent a narrow (and shrinking) slice of Christianity.

What we’re witnessing is actual Christians beginning to find their voice against the falsehood of Falwell’s political lobbying company masquerading as a church.  Although evangelical support of Trump remains over 80%, Trump is starting to lose that edge he’s enjoyed up until he got caught red handed extorting a foreign government to gain domestic political advantage.  Evangelicals (I know many personally) have been hijacked by the Fox Noise version of Republican Jesus filled with the spirit of assault rifles, anti-vaxing, gay bashing, and Bible thumping.  It’s high time that actual Christians find their voices and speak up against this corruption of Christianity, or at least vote against it in the voting booth.

On Tuesday, Mike Pence was speaking before a meeting of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian-liberty organization anti-gay group, and was giving advice about being a Christian in today’s world.  While discussing his beliefs, his advice was, “Spend more time on your knees than on the internet.”  Yes, he really said that.  Predictably, Twitter and other social media lit up mocking Pence, and, none other than Monica Lewinsky joined right in when someone asked who was going to tell him Tweeting, “def not me.”

Should somebody tell him?  Nah, we’ll let Mother do it.  LOL.

In a wide ranging interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network today, Franklin Graham answered questions on North Korea and other subjects of interest to viewers.  His answers were as you would expect until the very end, when he was asked about the US government’s new policy of ripping immigrant families apart at the border.  Shockingly, he said the practice was shameful and disagreed with it completely.  He also placed the blame for this problem directly where it belonged, which is with the politicians in Washington who have just kicked the can down the road for 30 plus years on our immigration crisis.

Clearly Graham has been abducted by aliens, replaced by an avatar that was somehow mis-programmed into being humanly compassionate.  I’ve never actually ever heard Graham utter a word that wasn’t hateful and exclusionary.  It’s weird to hear the opposite.  Have a look: