Month: January 2014
Pastafarian Christopher Schaeffer Takes Oath of Office
Back in October, Christopher Schaeffer announced his candidacy for election to the Pomfret Town Board in New York. He was elected the following month and was sworn in Thursday.
Why is any of that relevant to the rest of you?
Because of how Schaeffer took his oath of office: With a strainer on his head as a representative of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster…
When the OBSERVER asked afterward why he wore a colander on his head, Schaeffer said he was a minister with an even more unique organization – the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
“It’s just a statement about religious freedom,” he said. “It’s a religion without any dogma.”
Bill Moyers Reports on Tea Party Takeover of North Carolina
State of Conflict: North Carolina from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
And here’s an interesting factoid to keep in mind: According to the N.C. Board of Elections, voter registration in North Carolina breaks out this way:
- Democratic: 2,764,383
- Republican: 1,991,376
- Libertarian: 22,330
- Unaffiliated: 1,703,108
Koch Brothers Order Rachel Maddow to Read Their Talking Points on the Air
On Friday night, Rachel Maddow delivered a blistering reply to a letter from attorneys representing billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch. While she has always been willing to make corrections on the show, she said, the Kochs’ current quibble is about a matter of actual verifiable fact and as such needs no correction.
Liz Cheney Pulls a Palin: Quits Race for Wyoming U.S. Senate Seat
The AP is reporting that Liz Cheney, the right-wing extremist daughter of George W. Bush’s vice president, has quit her bid to oust Wyoming’s equally conservative senator, Mike Enzi:
Cheney cited “serious health issues” that “have recently arisen in our family” as the reason for her decision, according to a statement quoted in The New York Times.
The GOP official confirming Cheney’s decision spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak on the record.
Cheney moved her family from Virginia to Wyoming to run for the seat. Her effort to replace Enzi, a Senate veteran, angered and upset many Republicans and her campaign faced a number of problems.
Prop 8 Revenge: Mormons Meddled in California Politics to Stop Gay Marriage in 2008, Now Marriage Equality Is the Law in Their Own Home State
The sudden legalization of a gay marriage in Utah, of all places, will likely go down as the biggest and best pleasant surprise in the American civil rights movement last year. The fact that gay people are exercising their fundamental right to marry in a state that is a de facto right-wing religious theocracy is a huge step forward.
In California, the fact that Utah, the Mormon stronghold, has become the 18th state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize marriage equality has been quietly celebrated with a soupçon of schadenfreude. Like a nice gazpacho, as they say, revenge is best served chilled.
After all, it was just five years ago, in the 2008 election season, that the Mormon Church chose to interfere in California politics by funding a nasty anti-gay campaign that many Californians believe led to the passage of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that rescinded marriage equality in California.
