There has been a great deal of talk here about “civility” lately, much of it justified.  I’m the first one to confess that I can be pretty snarky when provoked, and I’ll gladly admit that I have a certain small talent for provoking others. But exactly what do we mean

In a radio debate earlier today, PA state senator John Eichelberger (R), who has introduced a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, took on Sen. Daylin Leach (D), who has introduced a rival bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. In the course of the debate, Eichelberger made numerous outrageous

Per JoeMyGod comes this appalling story.  Both Jason Bellini and Mike Signorile have reported on it.  HRC is denying it, of course, but with two well-respected gay journalists reporting on it and insisting their sources are reliable, it has to be taken seriously.   The full story at JMG is

Jeremy at Good As you has hit on something fascinating.  A group of right-wing leaders, some of them heads of certified hate groups, have sent a letter to GOP leaders in the Senate urging a filibuster of Sotomayor.  Many of the signatories are very familiar to regulars here at the

I guess it’s what we should expect from Wasilla, but the Frontiersman has run an op-ed by a Baptist minister based in part on a passage in Daniel: “Neither shall he [Antichrist] regard… the desire of women….” And one more thing: Sodomy is the only sin for which God came

It’s not very well known, but back in the 20s and 30s, L. Frank Baum’s Oz books were routinely banned throughout the Bible Belt.  The reason was not “witchcraft and the occult,” as you might guess, but something even more unnerving to good, solid, white, Christian middle Americans: a matter

Not long ago, feeling a certain itch, I decided to visit a certain bookstore of questionable repute in downtown Pittsburgh.  It was an unseasonably warm day, and there weren’t many people on the streets.  None the less, I found myself pulling my collar up as I approached this establishment, fearful

Well, bust my buttons.  Hardly had I got  Left Behind out of my system than I found a battered copy of The End of the Age, a 1995 “novel” by no less than Pat Robertson, at the same used book store.  I put novel in quotes not to signify that

Browsing in the local used book store the other day, I stumbled across a paperback copy of Left Behind.  The $0.39 asking price seemed unreasonably high to me, but my morbid curiosity got the better of me.  Since I assume most of you haven't read this stunning work of fiction,

Or is this just a case of “family values” at its finest? From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  Police say a Fayette County mother drugged her 13-year-old daughter so the woman's boyfriend could get the girl pregnant. Uniontown police say the 32-year-old mother is no longer able to have children but wanted