Sunday in Outer Blogness: Democracy Edition!
Everybody’s talking about the 99% movement, which — despite unfriendly police encounters — is still going after two months, and inspiring others. Maybe there’s something to the idea of having no leaders. And when it comes to Democracy vs. Theocracy, remember which side the church is on and which side Satan is on. Meanwhile, the Republican candidates are providing the usual entertainment.
Harold Bloom wrote a New York Times Essay that drew a lot of detailed critical analysis and complaints. In fact, the CoJCoL-dS has a publicity problem, and seems to not to understand what’s causing it. Hint: The advice in The Miracle of Forgiveness isn’t helping. The homophobia, sexism, and the toxic mixture of racism and sexism may also have something to do with it.
Emily Pearson’s new book sounds fantastic! Unlike a certain film — but this review is spot on! (Sometimes women’s porn can be worse than men’s.) Collapse and I Don’t Want to Talk about it sound interesting as well.
In personal stories, folks are rethinking love and human connection, not to mention worthiness and traditions.
And this week’s preferred social gathering is the cocktail party, perhaps accompanied by this thought-provoking game of Life and some other amusing images. Cheers!
I meant to write a comment about this headline ( More Mormon “Mommy bloggers” think Obama is a Marxist than many might imagine. ) before it fell off the sidebar:
As funny as the whole “Obama’s a Marxist” thing is, the following passage floored me:
Wow!! I’d always gotten a vibe that Americans think being a successful entrepreneur is the only way to demonstrate your intelligence and value. But I’d never seen it earnestly spelled out quite this explicitly that obviously starting your own business and turning a profit is the only way to demonstrate your qualification to do anything — even tasks that have nothing whatsoever to do with being an entrepreneur.
(Also: The Mormon Enforcer link really made me laugh!)
Regarding one more sidebar headline from the other day, Packham’s review of that Free Inquiry issue that some regulars here at MSP contributed to:
One thing Packham didn’t mention, but that jumped out at me while reading Tom Flynn’s introduction was that Tom Flynn reported that there are 14 million Mormons — without any mention of where that number came from or how credible it is. Way to fact-check, FI!
This is why I keep insisting that people who know something about where that number comes from ought to be clear about what it actually represents. Because people apparently get the misimpression that this is a solid number that comes from demographers or something.
If only the Mormon Voices website — with its commitment to correcting journalistic errors and misinformation — would help out with this common misconception!
I’ve been looking for a place to drop this clip that I just noticed over on a FB friend’s wall. Melissa Harris-Perry reveals her Mormon heritage and explains why Mitt’s Mormon faith is the wrong basis for rejecting him:
I gotta watch it again, b/c I didn’t catch if Harris-Perry identifies as an ex-mo. (update: Nope, but Mom graduated from BYU.)
Wow, that is a great story!!
Actually, I’d love to see this video posted to sites for faithful Mormons — I suspect they’d actually agree with it and find it cool.
Yeah, kinda like how that 14 million member stat grates whenever it gets parroted, it annoys me to distraction whenever LDS wingnuts claim Dems are somehow more hostile to Mormon candidates than the GOP base. As if. And now we’ll have this clip to drop on them whenever we can, preferably followed by a question about when the last time was that FOX took the time to push back against blind anti-Mormon voter sentiment.
Yes, that one really bugs me too. It’s great to have this clip to point to.
Speak of the devil: did you see this series over on M*?
Could It Be Any More Obvious that Republicans Hate Mormons?
Could it be any more obvious that Democrats hate Mormons?
Their impression of the Dems is decidedly more detailed, specific, and hostile. I took the opportunity to share the clip with them. 🙂
Apparently, M* readers can’t handle an open forum, b/c I don’t see your comment (although to his credit, Bruce N. mentioned it and reposted the link).
I just had a look, and my comment is visible to me. I’d also like to record Geoff B.’s response for future reference:
Sounds like a good bet! Let’s keep watching this unfold, and see if we’ll have cause to hold him to his word.
Yeah, I see it now, too. I feel really bad about slamming M* like that. 😉
Can’t wait to read Geoff B.’s congratulations.
On my side, I’m saving my big here’s-why-we-should-give-the-Mormon-candidates-a-break op-ed for after Newt gets the nomination. 🙂
Don’t be too quick to feel bad about it. I posted two follow-up comments, and the second one does not appear to be visible:
My guess is that links to MSP are on automatic moderation. But maybe they’ll fish it out of the moderation queue.
Can you find a way to get this vid posted over at M*?
Mitt v. Mitt: “It’s dj vu all over again”: