blog.mignault.net » politics http://john.mignault.net/blog Drawing diabetic comics-reading pen-fetishizing cycling leftist geek librarian. God, how bourgeois. Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:15:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 “But you can’t seriously believe that. Can you?” http://john.mignault.net/blog/2009/03/25/but-you-cant-seriously-believe-that-can-you/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2009/03/25/but-you-cant-seriously-believe-that-can-you/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:16:24 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=301 The Gay Fixation – Damon Linker:

OK, Rod — good for you and your socially conservative friends. But then what explains your fixation on the threat posed by the normalization of homosexuality? Why, given the myriad ways that our society and culture diverge from the long list of archaic norms, practices, and beliefs upheld in the Bible, does homosexuality inspire such anxiety, even panic? What are you afraid of? Is it that you fear that if orthodox religious communities stop denouncing gay marriage (to the faces of married gays, which seems to be what you’d like them to do) the human race will stop reproducing itself? Or is it that you worry that if your children aren’t taught in church that homosexuality is an abomination they’ll shack up with same-sex partners when they grow up? But isn’t the decision to do something like that far more a product of nature than culture? I don’t know about you, but no amount of pro-gay propaganda could tempt me to sleep with a man — because I’m by nature sexually attracted to women. Some of what you write about homosexuality leads me to believe you worry that naturally straight men and women will be seduced into being gay by watching too many episodes of Project Runway. But you can’t seriously believe that. Can you?

I’ve never seen a good answer to this question. Who the hell would go through half the crap that gay men and women routinely suffer unless they really were gay? You cannot make the gay straight nor the straight gay, at least not without causing either serious psychological damage.Read the whole article, it’s quite good.

]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2009/03/25/but-you-cant-seriously-believe-that-can-you/feed/ 1 Or a fruit basket http://john.mignault.net/blog/2009/02/03/or-a-fruit-basket/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2009/02/03/or-a-fruit-basket/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:11:07 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=287 Bailed-out Wells Fargo plans lavish corporate getaway to Vegas.:

“Recognition events are still part of our culture,” spokeswoman Melissa Murray said. “It’s really important that our team members are still valued and recognized.”

Give them a fucking plaque.

(Via Think Progress.)

]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2009/02/03/or-a-fruit-basket/feed/ 0 Poet vs theist http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/31/poet-vs-theist/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/31/poet-vs-theist/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:11:26 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=242 Allen Ginsberg Vs. John Lofton « A Nice Place:
GINSBERG: Do you ever have sexual fantasies?

LOFTON: No.

GINSBERG: None at all?

LOFTON: No, I said I am a Christian.

GINSBERG: You’ve never had any sexual fantasies!

LOFTON: Before I was a Christian, I had them, absolutely.

GINSBERG: And since you’re a Christian you don’t?

LOFTON: No.

GINSBERG: And when you had them, did they involve any dominance/submission fantasies!

LOFTON: Mine were pretty orthodox heterosexual kinds of fantasies. But there’s no doubt they were bad. And I am so glad that Jesus Christ delivered me from them.

GINSBERG: You have no erotic dreams now, at all, that you remember!

LOFTON: None that don’t feature my wife, no.

GINSBERG: Yeah.

LOFTON: It’s an amazing thing what Jesus can do for a person.

GINSBERG: Uh-huh.

This might be the most adversarial interview I’ve ever read. The whole thing is worth reading in terms of today’s “culture war.”

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]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/31/poet-vs-theist/feed/ 1 Possible proof http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/23/possible-proof/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/23/possible-proof/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:26:58 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=223 This Modern World | Salon Comics:

tomw.png

Tom Tomorrow owes me the coffee that I just spit all over my desk. Read the whole damn thing.

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]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/23/possible-proof/feed/ 0 Wal-Mart – your Hitler party headquarters http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/16/the-stink-fingered-hand-of-the-free-market/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/16/the-stink-fingered-hand-of-the-free-market/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:18:57 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=208 The money quote from a Consumerist story, about a Shop-Rite that refuses to write “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler” on a birthday cake for the spawn of white supremacists:

Young Adolf Hitler Campbell will be getting a cake from Wal-Mart this year.

Color me deeply unsurprised. Incidentally, it’s only the likelihood that this kid’ll be homeschooled that’ll save the poor thing from paying dearly for the stupidity of his parents.

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]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/16/the-stink-fingered-hand-of-the-free-market/feed/ 0 Amalgamated Knowledge Workers http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/12/amalgamated-knowledge-workers/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/12/amalgamated-knowledge-workers/#comments Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:39:23 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=190 Open Left:: Geez (wondering why Larry Lessig doesn’t support the auto bailout):

I just don’t get this amazing lack of sympathy for working people, or perhaps, the naivete at how politics actually works. Why a $700B bailout for bankers, which produce no obvious product, and not a $14B bridge loan for people that actually make automobiles? No particular reason. Oh, and the market shall provide. It’s really a really remarkable sentiment in this day and age, a sort of tenured ‘let them eat cake’.

Just ask yourself this: which union do most software developers and Internet entrepreneurs belong to? Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Now do you get it?

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]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/12/12/amalgamated-knowledge-workers/feed/ 1 Amen. http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/09/08/amen/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/09/08/amen/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:00:05 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=149 BizarroBlog: WWJD?:

401A76B3-0CD0-47E9-A943-79EBA8050D7B.jpg

Brilliant.

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]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/09/08/amen/feed/ 0 Testing the conversation http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/05/20/testing-the-conversation/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/05/20/testing-the-conversation/#comments Tue, 20 May 2008 20:06:49 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/?p=126 From the shameless dept…

If anybody at Bike Friday wants to send me a Tikit in return for my aging SA 5-speed Brompton, I’d be more than happy to say really cool things about them here. We already use a Family Traveler for the school run every morning and we love it. We were zooming along singing “Gangsters” by the Specials at the top of our lungs this morning….

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]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/05/20/testing-the-conversation/feed/ 0 Google Maps “Bike There” petition http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/02/29/google-maps-bike-there-petition/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/02/29/google-maps-bike-there-petition/#comments Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:14:57 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/02/29/google-maps-bike-there-petition/ When I was figuring out my route to work via bike, I used Google Maps. I ended up having to do a lot of blue-line dragging, though, because, even with Avoid Highways turned on, i still wasn’t easy to plot a bike-friendly route. There’s a online petition asking Google to add a “Bike There” button to Google Maps, and if you’re at all for sustainable transportation, I hope you’d take a minute to go sign it. It’s at:

http://googlemapsbikethere.org/

Thanks.

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]]> http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/02/29/google-maps-bike-there-petition/feed/ 0 No suspense http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/02/13/talking-points-memo-by-joshua-micah-marshall-the-ticking-time-bomb/ http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/02/13/talking-points-memo-by-joshua-micah-marshall-the-ticking-time-bomb/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:58:57 +0000 John http://john.mignault.net/blog/2008/02/13/talking-points-memo-by-joshua-micah-marshall-the-ticking-time-bomb/ Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall | The Ticking Time Bomb: ”
The six men could be executed if they are convicted, and if a Bush administration official approves their trial as a death-penalty case.”

Shouldn’t that sentence be written:

“The six men will be executed when they are convicted, and after a Bush administration official approves their trial as a death-penalty case.”

I mean, do we really think the legal process has any bearing on this case?

(Via Miami Herald via TPM.)

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