There’s nothing like religion ‘n’ politics to get people riled up, and nothing like the safe anonymity of the Internet to make them unafraid of expressing their anger.

Two of my movie reviews from this weekend, of Bill Maher’s anti-religion screed “Religulous” and the liberal-bashing spoof “An American Carol,” attracted much fiery discourse. They also attracted quite a few visitors to the site who had not been here before, which is always nice.

My C-grade review of “Religulous” falls among the 35% of negative reviews counted at Rotten Tomatoes, and I guess being in the minority earned it a little extra attention. The comments being posted on it are starting to echo the faith-vs-atheism debate that we had on my review of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” and I wonder if our time might be more profitably spent re-reading that thread rather than repeating it.

I found that someone quoted from my “Religulous” review, and posted a link to it, at Free Republic. If you’re not familiar with Free Republic, this is where the rightest-wing crazies hang out. This is where people honestly believe Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, as well as the anti-Christ, and where George W. Bush is revered as one of America’s greatest presidents.

Continue reading…

Another excerpt from Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin, with Joe Biden thrown in for good measure.

This time, a lot of people aren’t playing fair. The way it’s been talked about on the Interwebs the last few days has been, “Palin can’t even name a single Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade!!!” But that’s not what Katie Couric asked her. What she asked was, “What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?” That’s a much tougher question than just, “Can you name any other Supreme Court cases?”

Continue reading…

From her interview with Katie Couric last night (you gotta hear it; the transcript doesn’t do it justice):

COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this, to stay informed and to understand the world?

PALIN: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media, coming–

COURIC: But like what ones specifically, I’m curious, that you–

PALIN: Um, all of ‘em, any of ‘em that, um, have, have been in front of me over all these years, um, I have–

COURIC: Can you name a few of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, it seems like, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington D.C. may be thinking of doing when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

HOLY CRAP, WOMAN. I can scarcely conceive a simpler question than “What newspapers and magazines do you read?” It’s not a “gotcha” question. Couric isn’t trying to trap her. It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask someone, especially a politician who’s new to the national scene and whose views and personality Americans are still trying to figure out.

And she can’t even name ONE?

Continue reading…

Since you weren’t lucky enough to be born to Sarah Palin, you don’t have a name like Track, Willow, Bristol, Piper, or Trig. But what if you did spring from the loins of Alaska’s governor? What would your name be? Find out here, at the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator!

Best wishes,

Eric D. Snider
aka Pie Gallon Palin

(Kudos to Peter Sobczynski for the idea and David Cornelius for the Photoshop skillz.)

My superficial objections to Sarah Palin:

1. Her children have the following names: Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig Paxson. My objections to non-names are well documented. I have always taken a firm stance on this issue.

2. She speaks with the lazy-vowel accent, common in rural parts of the West, that drives me crazy. Here’s a sound bite from her introductory speech on Friday, in which she refers to “oil fillds” and “the United Stillworkers Union.” Again, my feelings (sorry, “fillings”) about this are on the record.

Portland’s Willamette Week went door-to-door to find people who aren’t voting for Obama and to ask them why not. The article is fuzzy on why the newspaper did this, exactly — Willamette Week is often fuzzy on why it does a lot of things — but one of the answers they got caught my attention.

It’s from Connie Pashall, age 56, who says she’s an independent. Willamette Week’s summary of her position:

A supporter of President Clinton during the 1990s, Pashall admits that conservative websites have given her pause about Obama’s heritage. “If there’s anything to his Muslim background, then we’d have al-Qaeda working on our country from the top-down.”

Assuming Willamette Week quoted her correctly, this means Connie Pashall is an astonishingly ignorant woman, one of those people you know exist but rarely encounter, like a billionaire, or a hunchback.

First of all, she apparently believes that being Muslim is the same thing as being connected with al-Qaeda. Really? There really are people who actually think this? I mean, I guess I knew there were. Like I said, it’s just weird to actually come across one.

But what’s more, in Connie Pashall’s view, you don’t even have to be a faithful, practicing Muslim now — all you need is a Muslim background, and that’s enough to make you in league with the terrorists.

I hope the “conservative websites” that have given her pause are on the fringe and don’t represent normal, rational conservatives. I don’t think they do. There are plenty of valid reasons not to vote for Obama, but the belief that his possible Muslim background equals a current sympathy with al-Qaeda is not one of them. That’s an invalid reason, a dumb reason, a reason held by dumb people, a dumb reason held by dumb people such as Connie Pashall, age 56, of Portland. Who is dumb.

He will also, according to this video, never let you down, run around, or desert you.

Adam McKay is Will Ferrell’s regular collaborator, and the director and co-writer of “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” and “Step Brothers.” So he’s obviously a talented guy. I don’t think I appreciated just how talented he is, though, until I saw this video, in which he actually makes Paris Hilton funny.

This is her campaign video, written by McKay as a response to John McCain using Hilton’s image in one of his ads.

(I know I’ve been posting a lot of videos lately. I don’t know why! At least this one isn’t about Hitler, though.)

I don’t usually think about Adolf Hitler very much. No more than the average person, I guess. Ten or eleven times a day, tops. But my Internet browsing on Thursday led me to two extra Hitler mentions, and in both cases the person being compared to him was Barack Obama.

Now, I don’t know about you, but where I come from, you don’t compare someone to Hitler in a serious political conversation unless that person has done something truly Hitler-like. And it has to be something BAD that Hitler did, too. Comparing someone to Hitler because they have facial hair, speak German, or once wanted to be an artist is unfair. None of those activities is inherently evil, and many people besides Hitler engage in them.

(I have a friend who loves men with blond hair and blue eyes. I once remarked that she had the same standards as Hitler. This was unfair of me — but it was not a serious political conversation. Also, it was funny, which excuses almost everything.)

The first Obama/Hitler reference came from former Nixon speechwriter and Bueller-seeker Ben Stein, who was discussing the Democratic National Convention with CNN’s Glenn Beck. Obama is going to deliver his acceptance speech at a Denver football stadium rather than in the more traditional (and smaller-capacity) indoor facility, and this doesn’t sit well with Ben Stein. He said:

I don’t like the idea of Senator Obama giving his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 wildly cheering people. That is not the way we do things in political parties in the United States of America. We have a contained number of people in an arena. Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that’s something the Führer would have done. And I think whoever is advising Senator Obama to do this is bringing up all kinds of very unfortunate images from the past.

Continue reading…