Christian Nationalist Theologians, and Pulp Fiction

  • Hegseth quotes Pulp Fiction;
  • Vance and others MAGAsplain doctrine to the Pope;
  • Christian nationalists prefer nationalism over Christianity;
  • Homan and Vance tell the Pope to stay in his lane, as if war has nothing to do with morality;
  • Christian media always resorts to the OT, not the NT of Jesus;
  • And now Tucker Carlson has weird ideas about the Antichrist;
  • John Williams’ Schindler’s List.
– – –

This is the eye-roller story that’s been going around today, e.g. Google News: pete hegseth pulp fiction

The Hollywood Reporter, today: Pete Hegseth Reads Tarantino’s Fake Bible Quote From ‘Pulp Fiction’ at Prayer Service

Subtitled: Samuel L. Jackson’s iconic speech gets presented as a Bible verse, with the Secretary of War vowing to strike down enemies with “great vengeance and furious anger.”

How many times have I noted that conservatives have trouble telling reality from fantasy?

Continue reading

Posted in Lunacy, Music, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Christian Nationalist Theologians, and Pulp Fiction

An Optimistic Big View

  • Peter Leyden on how the arc of human history is toward cooperation;
  • Once again, evidence shows that same-sex marriage is a “win for children and society”, and I suggest why this may be so;
  • While Stephen Miller resorts to bigotry to accuse immigrants of crime, despite the evidence;
  • Slate’s Molly Olmstead on Trump and Jesus images;
  • Short items by Amanda Marcotte and Jason Campbell;
  • And a Cri de Coeur by Adam-Troy Castro about how the Bible is an excuse for not knowing anything.
– – –

Step out far enough, as most people, huddling fearfully together in their tribes and afraid of everyone different, do not, and this is the big picture. This is our future, if conservatives don’t dismantle everything, they way they are in the US.

Big Think, Peter Leyden, 14 Apr 2026: The arc of human history is toward cooperation, not division, subtitled “Globalization did not fail — it improved the lives of billions of people. The next phase of human development could push us to a new level of global abundance.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • In this op-ed, futurist Peter Leyden argues that humanity is fundamentally interconnected, with shared decency revealed through lived experiences across cultures.
  • He describes modern history as a shift from a divided post-WWII world to a globalized era that greatly improved living standards but also triggered backlash in the West.
  • Leyden contends that despite rising populism, the world will continue toward deeper integration and a new stage of progress driven by advanced technologies.

Continue reading

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Human Nature, Human Progress, The Gays, Tribalism | Comments Off on An Optimistic Big View

MAGA is for OT, not NT

  • John Pavlovitz on how MAGA hates the Pope’s Jesus;
  • The Pope denounces the US “delusion of omnipotence”;
  • William Saletan on the GOP acting like bigots;
  • Tom Nichols on Trump’s latest meltdown;
  • Sean Hannity knows better than the Pope;
  • More about that teleporting guy;
  • And another Republican concerned about alien bases;
  • Even MAGA die-hards have rebuked Trump about his Jesus image;
  • Trump despicably posts a fake photo of Springsteen;
  • Jerry Coyne recalls the Jefferson Bible;
  • Items about how Trump took down that Jesus image;
  • NYT’s Frank Bruni about Pete Hegseth’s religious zealotry;
  • And how Trump supporters survive by cognitive dissonance.
– – –

Items from the past three days, briefly noted.

John Pavlovitz, 10 Apr 2026: MAGA Christians Don’t Hate The Pope; They Hate His Jesus.

As I’ve said over and over, MAGA is more about OT than about NT. Which sorta undermines the meaning of being “Christian.”

Continue reading

Posted in conservatives, Religion | Comments Off on MAGA is for OT, not NT

Steven Pinker, WHEN EVERYONE KNOWS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS…

Subtitled: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life
(Scribner, 2025, xv + 364pp, including 64pp of notes, references, and index.)

This latest Pinker book, which follows ENLIGHTENMENT NOW and RATIONALITY, seems at first glance a bit more abstruse or academic without quite the thematic verve that distinguishes most of his books. Yet upon review it is, rather like Harari’s NEXUS, nevertheless full of fascinating revelations and insights that make it key to Pinker’s oeuvre. In fact, it shows that Pinker’s concerns about the human mind, human nature, the nature of rationality and so on, extend into sociology and the many ways humans interact. (Rather like the way Harari’s exploration of information extends into politics.) All of his books, with only an exception or two, are of a piece.

Continue reading

Posted in Book Notes, Psychology, Social Progress, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Steven Pinker, WHEN EVERYONE KNOWS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS…

The Slow Motion American Train Wreck

  • Rebecca Solnit on how the US is destroying itself;
  • The significance of Victor Orbán’s loss;
  • How Trump thinks religion is about power, not morality;
  • Trump’s grotesque AI image depicting himself as a Jesus figure.
– – –

I’ve gradually become aware of another savvy political commentator and essayist, Rebecca Solnit, to set along with the three of four others I check out daily. (Richardson, Reich, Krugman, Pavlovitz.) David Brin posts highly about her. This piece was linked from Facebook this morning, and captures the moment. She has a Substack, Meditations in an Emergency, since Jan. 2025. She’s published a number of short books, of which I just bought a couple.

The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit, yesterday: The United States is destroying itself, subtitled “The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment”

I’ve mentioned more than once that the actions of the Trump administration are not unlike what a group of infiltrators or saboteurs would do to undermine everything that has until recently made America great. Solnit:

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries.

Continue reading

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Lunacy, Religion | Comments Off on The Slow Motion American Train Wreck

Are All Weddings the Same?

We attended a wedding yesterday, in Alameda, between my partner’s older son’s wife’s sister, and a man from a non-Catholic family, who had converted, and gotten baptized a year ago, in order to marry into my partner’s older son’s wife’s family, a Vietnamese family, that is resolutely Catholic. Got that? The ceremony was held at the St. Joseph Basilica in the middle of Alameda, led by Catholic priests, and went an hour and 15 minutes. So many of their rituals must be rote by them, performed and recited over and over again.

Continue reading

Posted in Personal history | Comments Off on Are All Weddings the Same?

Skiffy Flix: The War of the Worlds

This is about the 1953 movie, surely one of the best known and highly-regarded SF movies of the ’50s, along with THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, FORBIDDEN PLANET, and perhaps INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

I wrote about the novel back in 2021, along with some comparison to this film. I watched the DVD of the film again last night.

(My DVD cover is similar to but not exactly like the one shown here. On mine, “The Original Invasion” appears at the top, and there’s no Korean(?) text beneath the title.)

Couched among other skiffy flix of the era, this film is an example of the Hollywood-ization of a classic novel to fit the pattern of what audiences excepted a science fiction movie to be at the time. With so many resemblances to other sf movies of the era.

Continue reading

Posted in Skiffy Flix | Comments Off on Skiffy Flix: The War of the Worlds

Those Who Do, Those Who Can’t

  • How some of us reach for the stars, while others are mired in oppressive religious fantasies;
  • How both sides think God is on their side, and wondering what religions are trying to accomplish;
  • Rebecca Boyle on what we’re seeing new about the Moon, from Artemis II;
  • Brief items about why we keep going back to the Moon, why Vance is stumping for a dictator, the Christian right’s victim complex, how Trump gives old people a bad name, how employees respond to that religious message, and how the US is losing the world’s respect.
– – –

As I begin this post the Artemis II mission, named Integrity, while the spacecraft itself is called Orion (if I’m following this correctly), is about 20 minutes from splashdown. Here’s an essay on the chasm between those who understand and do, and those who believe and don’t, and can’t.

Free Inquiry, Ronald A. Lindsay, 9 April 2026: Reaching for the Stars, But Mired in Oppressive Fantasies

So, the news this week featured headlines about how the Artemis II crew had traveled farther away from the Earth than anyone else in prior lunar missions. An amazing achievement, and a testament to the rigorous application of scientific principles and evidence.

In the same time frame, however, we had reminders of how much of humanity remains trapped in detrimental religious fantasies.

Continue reading

Posted in conservatives, Human Progress, Religion, Science, Space | Comments Off on Those Who Do, Those Who Can’t

Our Demented Administration

  • A majority of Americans favor impeachment;
  • Now the Trump administration is threatening the Vatican;
  • Yet more evidence that they’re white supremacists;
  • Revisiting the question if Trump is suffering dementia;
  • Long piece about how Trump is stuck in the era of the 1980s;
  • Brief items: The administration delays published news about vaccine benefits; the USDA secretary sends a Jesus email to 100,000 of her workers; comment on Fb about why MAGA thinks protesters are being paid;
  • Radiohead’s “Dollars and Cents”.
– – –

Newsweek, updated today: Donald Trump Impeachment Backed by Most Americans: Poll

Continue reading

Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Music, Politics | Comments Off on Our Demented Administration

Another Nothing-burger Trump Deal

  • Trump’s ‘deal’ with Iran seems to have accomplished none of his objectives, and is worse than the Obama deal that Trump cancelled;
  • Comments from Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Media Matters;
  • Which spills over in the contrast between Artemis II and Trump’s funding priorities;
  • The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel on the best and worst of humanity this week: Artemis, and Trump;
  • Former NASA research scientist Kate Marvel on the chaos of science funding;
  • How MAGA men loathe tradwives;
  • Another piece about how religions survive by influencing the youth early on;
  • Radiohead’s “Daydreaming”
– – –

The general tenor today.

The Atlantic, Nancy A. Youssef, today: Trump Made a Deal That Gives Him Nothing He Wanted, subtitled “U.S. declarations of victory ring hollow.”

President Trump said he went to war to ensure that Iran never acquired a nuclear bomb. The war ended—for now, at least—with a demonstration that Tehran possesses an arguably more powerful weapon of deterrence against future attacks, one that is cheaper to use, gives Iran enormous sway over the global economy, can bring in revenue, and can’t be negotiated away: the Strait of Hormuz.

Continue reading

Posted in Music, Politics, Religion, Space | Comments Off on Another Nothing-burger Trump Deal