Phew! Ok, so it’s not Obama. Glad we cleared that up. My friends will be disappointed, though.

I like that Glen Beck is getting crazy email about this too.

A fantastic story: A fashion designer who dislikes Obama because he think’s Obama is a Muslim sells a t-shirt that reads “Obama is my slave” to a grad student who thinks it’s a good idea to wear this t-shirt out and about in New York City.  The grad student is, unsurprisingly, assaulted by a group of angry New York denizens, then sues the fashion designer.

I can’t figure out who I like least in this story, the xenophobic fashion designer, the foolishly short-sighted and litigious grad student, or the violent street people?

There’s a lot more useful stats where that one came from: personal data and attitudes towards science, journalism and politics, psychological beliefs and religious beliefs.

Via Reddit.

“[Brigitte] Bardot has been convicted four times for inciting racial hatred.” She’s got me beat.

In honor of Easter, here’s some King Herrod for you:

Irvington, NY is apparently being overrun by Orthodox Jews!

HDTV stands for Hassidic Dancing Television… apparently:

Facts will straddle the Earth as a colossus and you shall live in their shadow!

More oil paintings of viral images: Crazy/Angry German Kid, Tom Cruise Scientology Video. Previously: Britney Spears exiting car (NSFW), Average Homeboy Danny Blaze, Bert is Evil, LonelyGirl15, Dramatic Prairie Dog.

Ben Stein doesn’t believe in evolution.  Previously: Ron Paul doesn’t believe in EVOLution.  Thanks Lorelei.

I’m not the first one to say it, but after recently reading the beginning of the Left Behind series and the entire Christ Clone trilogy, it’s not totally wacky to compare Obama’s rise and public adulation to that of the predicted Anti-Christ’s (at least as described in those books).

I read a case today that I thoroughly enjoyed. Basically it’s about a son challenging his father (a doctor)’s will. Here’s the part of the will in question (section b is where the good stuff comes in):

All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, real and personal, of every kind and description and wheresoever situated, which I may own or have the right to dispose of at the time of my decease, I give, devise and bequeath to my three (3) beloved children, to wit: Ruth Shapira Aharoni, of Tel Aviv, Israel, or wherever she may reside at the time of my death; to my son Daniel Jacob Shapira, and to my son Mark Benjamin Simon Shapira in equal shares, with the following qualifications:

(b) My son Daniel Jacob Shapira should receive his share of the bequest only, if he is married at the time of my death to a Jewish girl whose both parents were Jewish. In the event that at the time of my death he is not married to a Jewish girl whose both parents were Jewish, then his share of this bequest should be kept by my executor for a period of not longer than seven (7) years and if my said son Daniel Jacob gets married within the seven year period to a Jewish girl whose both parents were Jewish, my executor is hereby instructed to turn over his share of my bequest to him. In the event, however, that my said son Daniel Jacob is unmarried within the seven (7) years after my death to a Jewish girl whose both parents were Jewish, or if he is married to a non Jewish girl, then his share of my estate, as provided in item 8 above should go to The State of Israel, absolutely.”

And the judicial response to an argument based on an old case which said that if a will forced someone to marry within their own faith in order to receive money, and there were very few members of that faith within readily accessible distance, then the clause was invalid:

While this court could probably take judicial notice of the fact that the Jewish community is a minor, though important segment of our total local population, nevertheless the court is by no means justified in judicial knowledge that there is an insufficient number of eligible young ladies of Jewish parentage in this area from which Daniel would have a reasonable latitude of choice.”

There apparently MIGHT be a lot of hot, available Jewish women in 1974-era Ohio, the judge simply isn’t sure.

For the truly bored: Shapira v. Union National Bank,  39 Ohio Misc. 28 (1974).

Good self-given name: Reverend General Jealous Divine.

The first comment to this story about a community college setting up a gender-divided “meditation room” for Muslim students made me laugh.

One enterprising writer for Vanity Fair decided that the time was right for him to grow a Hitler mustache:

This is the part where I am supposed to explain just why I decided to write this story now. I might talk about the re-emergence of facial hair on the world stage, or the rise of the “new anti-Semitism,” or Holocaust denial in Iran, but, the fact is, my interest in the Hitler mustache never started and never ends. It is always. If you’re a Jew, the Hitler mustache exists in the eternal present. I grew it for the same reason Richard Pryor said the word “nigger.” I wanted to defuse it. I wanted to own it. I wanted to reclaim it for America and for the Jews. My name is Rich Cohen, and I wear a Hitler mustache.

I think he made it too broad.

The computer animated 10 Commandments remake looks horrible.  Who wants to hear Christian Slater’s wheedling “Let my people go”?  They have Ben Kingsley in the movie, and yet they cast Christian Slater as Moses?  I don’t understand.

Time and Beliefnet bring you this election’s journalistic innovation: The God-o-Meter.

The God-o-Meter provides consistantly updated tracking information on where the candidates stand with respect to god on a scale of one to ten (one being an ungodly, sodomite heathen and ten being Mother Theresa). The scale currently runs from Barack Obama at a beatific nine to Rudy Giuliani at a lowly two. He must be desecrating crosses before debates or something.

It’s interesting to see a Republican at the lowest point of the spectrum and a Democrat at the highest. That goes against expectations, which I always appreciate.

The election is currently missing any candidate willing to hang out at the ‘one’ end of the spectrum. This election needs more Bloomberg.

UPDATE: Seven students have claimed responsibility, scroll down for more information.

George Washington University awakened on Monday morning to find their campus awash in poorly crafted posters which read “HATE MUSLIMS? SO DO WE!!!”

You’ve got to watch out for those peg-legs!

The posters reference an upcoming Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week sponsored by the school’s conservative organization. The best part? They didn’t put them up.

The posters managed to upset just about everyone on campus: Muslim students, other religious groups and conservatives who are hosting “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” later this month. Some questioned whether they were mocking the conservatives, pointing to fine print at the bottom — “Brought to you by Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness” — and a postscript recommending a BBC video on the politics of fear.

Any subtleties were lost under the gigantic headline, though…

“We did not put up those posters,” [the President of the conservative organization] said. “Someone took our name and used it. It was hateful.” “We’re a conservative group on campus,” he said. “We promote liberty and freedom, not bigotry and hatred.”

D’oh.

This whole thing is very reminiscent of the scene in Borat when he gives his thankful speech in front of the rodeo crowd (which, annoyingly, isn’t online). Making fun of people by exaggerating their positions is pretty much always funny.

Full text of the poster: Hate Muslims? So Do We!!! Your typical Muslim has: Lasers in eyes, venom in mouth, hatred for women, suicide vest, hidden AK-47, peg-leg for smuggling children and heroin. To find out more, come to Islamo-Fascism Week!!! Oct. 16-22. For more information contact the GWU Young America’s Foundation go to www.terrorismawareness.org. Brought to you by Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness. PS Seriously do a Google Video search for “The Power of Nightmares”

Poster via The Pyramid at the Core of the Earth.

UPDATE: Seven GW students have claimed responsibility:

A group of seven GW students sent an e-mail to The Hatchet late Tuesday night admitting to hanging hundreds of controversial posters around campus early Monday morning.

The students - Adam Kokesh, freshman Yong Kwon, senior Brian Tierney, freshman Ned Goodwin, Maxine Nwigwe, Lara Masri and Amal Rammah - said their motives were misinterpreted. Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness hung the posters in opposition to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, an event being held beginning Oct. 22.

They have posted the entire letter claiming responsibility.

Seemingly uneven anti-tax protesters Edward and Elaine Brown had been holed up in their New Hampshire home avoiding federal arrest warrants since June of this year. They claimed to have abandoned man’s law and were going to hold out with their guns and their anti-tax philosophy (God hates taxes). Today they were finally arrested. Oh well.

I find anti-tax protesters fascinating.

UPDATE: They were tricked!

I’ve started reading Left Behind.

The first hundred pages were actually pretty good. It feels like standard science fiction. The author poses a large what-if question (what would happen is millions of people suddenly and inexplicably vanished) and then attempts to accurately envision what would occur next. The writing’s a little bit hokey, but that just makes it feel more like standard science fiction. It’s actually rather enjoyable.

At first the Christian angle wasn’t overwhelming and the author did a good job of not assuming that the reader was going to know much of anything about Christianity or the rapture. I’m now approaching page 200 and the Christianity has started to become distracting; when a character simply sits down and reads the Bible my attention’s going to wander.

Welcome to the apocalypse, it’s mildly poorly written.

CNN is running another story about Ernie Chambers, agnostic State Senator from Nebraska who sued God to make a point about frivolous lawsuits. This is an obvious partner-piece to the previous story about the guy who sued the devil. Anyway, the most recent story details how God, surprisingly, filed a response to the lawsuit. But that’s not what I’m interested in; what I’m interested in is the fact that someone at the AP photography desk deserves a medal.

First off, remember that Chambers is a “self proclaimed agnostic who often criticizes Christians.” Now take a look at the picture that accompanied the story:

Does anything jump out in that picture? How about if I say the word “nimbus” or the more common word “halo“? Ernie Chambers totally has a Renaissance-painting-style halo! I’ve thrown up a quick comparison for you so you can see it yourself:

Notice the resemblance? Ernie Chambers does look mighty divine, doesn’t he? But of course, it’s not just Christ that got halos, it was all matter of holy folk:

He totally fits in!

As a self-proclaimed agnostic, I wonder how Ernie Chambers feels about someone in the AP photo department proclaiming his holiness? Possibly even his divinity?

Can you guess the result of attempting to sue the devil? I’ll give you the quick version… you can’t. Here’s the result of someone’s actual attempt: Mayo v. Satan and His Staff, 54 F.R.D. 282 (W.D. Penn. 1971).

Plaintiff, alleging jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 241, 28 U.S.C. § 1343, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 prays for leave to file a complaint for violation of his civil rights in forma pauperis. He alleges that Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff’s downfall.

Plaintiff alleges that by reason of these acts Satan has deprived him of his constitutional rights. We feel that the application to file and proceed in forma pauperis must be denied. Even if plaintiff’s complaint reveals a prima facie recital of the infringement of the civil rights of a citizen of the United States, the Court has serious doubts that the complaint reveals a cause of action upon which relief can be granted by the court. We question whether plaintiff may obtain personal jurisdiction over the defendant in this judicial district. The complaint contains no allegation of residence in this district. While the official reports disclose no case where this defendant has appeared as defendant there is an unofficial account of a trial in New Hampshire where this defendant filed an action of mortgage foreclosure as plaintiff. The defendant in that action was represented by the preeminent advocate of that day, and raised the defense that the plaintiff was a foreign prince with no standing to sue in an American Court. This defense was overcome by overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Whether or not this would raise an estoppel in the present case we are unable to determine at this time.

If such action were to be allowed we would also face the question of whether it may be maintained as a class action. It appears to meet the requirements of Fed.R. of Civ.P. 23 that the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, there are questions of law and fact common to the class, and the claims of the representative party is typical of the claims of the class. We cannot now determine if the representative party will fairly protect the interests of the class.

We note that the plaintiff has failed to include with his complaint the required form of instructions for the United States Marshal for directions as to service of process.

For the foregoing reasons we must exercise our discretion to refuse the prayer of plaintiff to proceed in forma pauperis.

It is ordered that the complaint be given a miscellaneous docket number and leave to proceed in forma pauperis be denied.

Yeah, it wasn’t very hard to anticipate that result, was it?

I find religion confusing sometimes: