Trapped in a world he was not designed to cope with, Dave-El (the true Kryptonian name of alleged Earth creature David Long) writes about comics, Doctor Who, Star Trek, politics, the absurdity of the human condition and whatever other nonsense that befuddles his unbalanced mind.
This is.... I'M SO GLAD MY SUFFERING AMUSES YOU!
We're up to the 2nd episode of the 4th season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
The innocuous, mundane title of "The Griffin Incident" belies the intensity, the horror that awaits.
Seriously...
What the hell was that?
On a shuttle trip from a Starfleet conference, La'an, Spock and Jim Kirk happen across the USS Griffin. The Griffin is a bit of a legend in Starfleet, having vanished years prior under mysterious circumstances.
La'an, Spock and Kirk beam over to find out what's what.
Then shit gets weird.
The trio are haunted by various "ghosts" who torment and torture them based on their respective fears.
Kirk is haunted by the persistent crying of a baby which Kirk thinks is his infant son David. Jim is estranged from Carol Marcus and has been feeling bad for missing out on time with his son.
Spock is bedeviled by T'Pring who is threatening to cut out his pesky Vulcan bits. Like lobbing off the tips of his pointy ears.
And there's La'an who has uncovered logs made by Harper, the Griffin’s security chief. Harper was all stressed out that the ship's crew is descending into madness and hurting each other and there's fuck all she can do about. The Griffin's descent into madness feeds Harper's own madness.
And Harper's obsessions become La'an's. To the point La'an brutally stabs Kirk, miraculously not killing him.
After last week's episode where La'an punched a dinosaur, she's becoming concerned her augmented DNA is beginning to assert itself. She is a Noonien-Singh, a line known for it's world conquering tendencies.
Long story made short, the Enterprise is able to rescue the trio and while Kirk and Spock have made it past their respective encounters with their demons of fear and guilt, La'an remains haunted by Harper.
After last week's full on sci-fi geek out with space stuff AND time travel, "The Griffin Incident" is a full tilt journey into horror, a genre that Star Trek has attempted before with varying degrees of unsuccess. This episode of SNW rates, IMHO, as a success.
I for one was horrifed.
SIDE NOTE: the episode was written by Robbie Thompson who knows a thing or two about horror as a writer for Supernatural.
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Since this is the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, that means it's the 30th anniverary of the 30th anniversary.
30 years ago, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine celebrated the 30th anniversary with "Trial and Tribblelations" which saw the DS9 crew integrated into the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
Star Trek: Voyager joined the 30th birthday festivities with "Flashback" which interacted with events from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with Tuvok serving on the Excelsior with Captain Sulu.
Below is a short video that looks back on these two episodes.
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Next week's SNW episode is "Human Best Friend". After the moral quandries of episode 1 and the horrors of episode 2, I hope we're in for something a bit more fun.
Released in 1947, the film is called They Won't Believe Me, starring Robert Young, Susan Hayward, Jane Greer and Rita Johnson.
The film producer was Alfred Hitchcock's longtime assistant and collaborator Joan Harrison, a rare thing in that era for a movie to have a female producer.
The movie begins with a man on trial... for murder!
As we will discover, the man is guilty of many things.
Is one of them...murder?
They Won't Believe Me begins with a murder trial.
The prosecution has rested it's case and it's time for the defense to take it's turn,
The defendant, Larry Ballentine, is called to the stand to testify and tell his story.
It's a long story. I hope the jury is getting the digest version.
We begin in New York City: Larry is married to Greta, a marriage held together more by money and security than by love or at least that's how Larry tells it.
Writer Janice Bell has become Larry's confidant and more. Tired of being the other woman, Janice is ready to start over in Montreal.
Larry tells Janice he is prepared to leave Greta and run off with Janice to Montreal.
But Greta has other ideas. She knows about Janice and isn't prepared to give up on Larry without a fight. She's purchased a home in Los Angeles and secured him a position with a brokerage firm there. Larry has no choice but to abandon Janice (with no good-bye or explanation) and stay with Greta.
In Los Angeles with his wife in a new home and a new job, Larry tries to behave himself.
Until brokerage employee Verna Carlson comes sniffing around. Larry gets into some trouble with his business partner Trenton over a client but Verna bails Larry out.
Verna does not hide her aspirations: she admits to being a gold digger and she has her eyes on Larry. Yeah, Trenton has more money but Larry is younger, more handsome and he does all right for himself.
Verna is seducing Larry.
Larry lets her.
And Larry enters into another adulterous relationship.
Which Greta finds out about and gives Larry another ultimatum. She's moving from L.A. to a ranch house in the mountains. Larry can follow her or stay in the city with Verna.
Larry once more choose money and security over his passions and abandons Verna for Greta and a life of solitude in the mountains.
Which sucks.
Maybe Greta is all up for horse riding along the ravine or planting her garden and what all but Larry is bored.
Larry gets itchy for Verna. They hook up with a plan to steal money from Greta and start life over somewhere else. Larry promises to get a divorce from Greta and marry Verna. He even jumps the gun and puts a wedding band on her finger.
While driving down a highway at night, an out of control oncoming truck causes Larry's car to spin out and crash. Larry is able to extricate himself from the wreckage but before anything can be done to help Verna, the car explodes in a big ball of fire.
Waking up in a hospital with a concussion, Larry learns the authorities assume the horribly burned remains in the car was his wife Greta since all they could recover from the bones and ashes was a gold wedding ring.
Larry doesn't correct this assumption.
Larry returns to the ranch house to eliminate Greta before anyone knows she's still alive.
While he was gone, Greta fell down a steep ravine near the house and died. So he doesn't have to murder her. But there's the problem of the body which he dumps into the river.
Larry books it to South America where he just happens to run into Janice Bell. They reconcile and hook up, returning together to Los Angeles.
Where Larry learns running into Janice was not a coincidence. She's working for Trenton who's wondering what the hell happened to Verna and just knows Larry is up to shit.
Trenton calls the police and they start poking around, finding Greta's dead body in the river. Except since the official account is that the burned up body of Verna from the car wreck was Greta, the police assume the body of Greta is Verna.
Everybody got that?
And we're back in the present where a spent and weary Larry Ballentine has ended his tragic tale of stupidity and deception (but not murder). It's time for the jury to deliberate.
Back in court the next day, the verdict is about to be read.
When Larry makes a break for it to jump out the open 12th floor window. A courtroom guard runs over to the window to pull him back in shoots him.
Larry Ballentine is dead.
And the verdict? Not guilty.
And we've reach... THE END!
What the hell? Really? That is how it ends? C'mon! You gotta be kidding me!
In the novel on which this movie is based, Larry does jump out the window to commit suicide. He may not have been guilty of murder but his actions still led to the deaths of two women.
And all the sordid details of his life,the adultery, the lies, the fraud have been exposed and he is not prepared to live with it.
But the motion picture production code mandates that a character cannot escape punishment by the state for his crimes so the ending was changed to have the courtroom guard shoot Larry.
Even though the guard had more than enough time to cross the room and physically stop Larry from tumbling out the window.
It's not 2026 and he's not an ICE thug. It's 1947 and he's a courtroom guard, for crying out loud.
Let's take a look at who starred in this fershlugginer thing.
Robert Youngwho played Larry Ballentine was one of the three Bobs in Crossfire along with Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum.
The role of Larry Balletine was a rare outing for Young to play a total cad. Most of the time, he played friendly, genial characters. This was especially true of his time on TV in such shows as Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby MD.
Robert Young told Dick Cavett in 1968 that the one film he made that was a flop was when he played an unlikeable character in They Won't Believe Me.
Susan Hayward was Verna Carlson. Susan appeared in this blog before co-starring with Robert Mitchum (him again) in The Lusty Men.
Jane Greer was Janice Bell, Larry's writer friend and first illicit paramour at the start of the film. Jane is another (one more time!) Robert Mitchum co-star in the film noir Out Of the Past where she embrace the role of the classic femme fatale archetype.
Greta Ballentine was played by Rita Johnson who had a tragic back story worthy of it's own film noir.
Rita Johnson suffered a head trauma on September 6, 1948 that required brain surgery. The cause of the injury was subject to gossip and speculation, including her boyfriend had beaten her. Rita herself claimed a large, industrial-grade hair dryer at her apartment had fallen on her.
She was in a coma for two weeks and it took over a year after that to recover. Her left side was paralyzed temporarily and she had to re-learn how to walk. Her subsequent film career was severely curtailed due to reduced mobility and lack of mental focus.
Johnson struggled with alcoholism. She died of a brain hemorrhage on October 31, 1965, at age 52.
Back to the movie...
Writing for Timemagazine in 1947, critic James Agee was a ready to pronounce a moral judgement on the film, a not uncommon trait among movie reviewers of the era.
"A skillful telling of a pretty nasty story ... Thanks to the fact that the ice was broken with ... Double Indemnity, Hollywood can now get by with filming this kind of shabby 'realism'. The blessing is mixed ... in this, as in most such 'adult' movies, the semi-maturity is well mixed with trashiness."
A lot of people of the era were not prepared to deal with the moral ambivalence of film noir. The protagonist is not necessarily a heroic character. Even a private eye or a police detective who is not on the take will be flawed and make some ethically questionable choices.
They Won't Believe Me turns that premise competely on it's head. Larry Ballentine is nothing but ethically questionable choices, blatantly using women for money (wife Greta) or sex (Janice and Verna), betraying them when the lure of one thing (money or sex) is stronger than the other. And his cowardice follows him as he fails to follow through on any commitment to his desires.
The only redeeming thing about Larry Ballentine is at the end of his confession to the jury and exposed himself of the self serving cad he is, he sees himself for who he is and he doesn't like it. But even then, he reveals himself once more a coward as he seeks to take his own life rather than face the consequences of his actions.
They Won't Believe Me is an intriguing case study in the human damages of one bad decision after another.
About a week ago, I was bopping around on You Tube and stumbled across what might now be my favorite cover band, the Hindley Street Country Club.
Your Friday Video Link#1 is HSCC covering "Something About You" by Level 42.
Who are these people? Hindley Street Country Club (HSCC) is an Australian music project that has become one of the most widely viewed cover music acts the world over with over one billion cumulative views across various platforms.
HSCC was established in 2017. So how come I'm only NOW hearing about this group?
Next up is Your Friday Video Link#2 fearturing HSCC version of "Easy Lover" by Phillipo Bailey and Phil Collins.
The Hindley Street Country Club derives its name from Hindley Street in Adelaide, South Australia which had a thriving live music scene in the latter part of the 20th century.
The band has been made up of a rotating lineup of local musicians, depending on what is required to reproduce the original song.
Would HSCC dare to cover a classic by Boston? Your Friday Video Link#3 is these guys doing just that with "More Than A Feeling"
These are just three selections by the HSCC. The group is quite prolific and now that I've "discovered" them, You Tube is constantly feeding me another fantastic cover by the band.
That is that for this week's post of Your Friday Video Link. Remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.
Welcome to another edition of Comic Book Retro 50 where I look back at comics I bought 50 years ago.,
This month takes us back to July 1976.
In last month's look back to June 1976, Shazam#25 ended with a blurb to check out Justice League of America #135.
And here we are for the annual Justice League/Justice Society team up.
As if bringing together the heroes of 2 different Earths was not enough to keep track of. these annual get togethers would bring in a 3rd Earth.
Justice League of America #29-#30 gave us a "Crisis On Earth 3" which was an inverse of Earth 1 and Earth 2 with versions of Superman, the Flash, Wonder Woman and more who were villians instead of heroes.
Justice League of America #107-#108 gave us a "Crisis On Earth X" featuring characters formerly published in the Golden Age by Quality Comics on an Earth where the Nazis won World War II. After getting help from the JLA and JSA defeating the Nazis, the Quality heroes would get their own title, Freedom Fighters.
Justice League of America #123-#124 brought Earth Prime into the mix with writers Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin guest starring with the JLA and JSA. Earth Prime is where you and I live.
Which brings us to Justice League of America #135 which kicks off "Crisis In Eternity" bringing together the combined might of hereos for Earth 1, Earth 2 and Earth S.
Earth S? Yes, "S" as in Shazam.
This is the world where Captain Marvel and other heroes formerly published by Fawcett Comics reside.
Anyone excited to see the classic heroes of DC finally interact with Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel family, well, not so fast.
Long time Captain Marvel foe King Kull has captured the Rock of Eternity and the gods and goddeses who live there. Billy, Mary and Freddy can yell their magic words all day long but there ain't no lightning bolts coming.
The only god to escape Kull's grasp is Mercury who has Flash-like super speed powers. The wizard Shazam sends Mercury out into the multiverse to gather heroes from 3 different Earths.
With the Marvel family out of commission, who can Mercury summon to aid him from Earth 2?
Well there's Ibis the Invincible.
And 5 other adventurers.
And lo it comes to pass the god Mercury assembled the great heroes of Earth S to face the challenge of....
I hear giggling.
Yes, one of them is called Pinky, the Whiz Kid!
Hey, this comic book is a treasured part of my child hood and I would kindly ask you to stop laughing at it.
The book has a very dense plot from E. Nelson Bridwell. Bridwell was an ultimate fanboy made good with an encyclopedic knowledge of anything and everything about comic books. And a LOT of that knowledge gets shoved into this issue's 17 pages. Martin Pasko was brought in as scripter to I presume help it all make sense.
According to an interview Pasko gave, he did not like this assignment at all.
And there are 2 more issues to go.
Stalwart regular JLA artists Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin are tasked to handle this sprawling cast of heroes from 3 Earths and for more good measure, multiple villains recruited from multiple Earths to do King Kull's nefarious bidding.
As if I have NOT written enough about this (and I have barely scratched the surface of this book), if you want even MORE detailed information about JLA#135 check out Alan Stewart's post over on Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Book.
Another follow up to Shazam#25 was Isis#1. Beginning as a companion TV series to the Saturday morning Shazam TV show, Andrea Thomas, aka Isis, was making her first foray into comic books.
Sporting a cover by Kurt Schaffenberger, the debut of Isis in her own comic book begins with "Scarab -- The Man Who Would Destroy" by Denny O'Neil, Ric Estrada and Wally Wood.
Isis#1 gives us a look-see at how Andrea Thomas first discovered the amulet that would turn her into the mighty Isis.
And the transformation we saw occur every Saturday morning gets brought to comic book life.
And Isis flies into action in ways that defy the limits of a Saturday morning TV special effects budget.
The team of O'Neil, Estrada & Wood was a one-off. Subsequent issues were written by Steve Skeates & Jack C. Harris with pencils by Mike Vosburg.
Next up from writer Denny O'Neil is the 2nd issue of the revived Green Lantern/Green Arrow with Green Lantern#91.
"Revenge of the Renegade" is written by O'Neil with art by Mike Grell. The cover was by Ernie Chan & Frank Giacoia which is weird as books drawn by Grell would usually sport a cover by Grell.
One more thing about that cover and you'll notice it on a few others: that fershlugginer banner is gone. That obstrusive bit of cover clutter is being phased out and will be completely gone by August 1976.
The story in Green Lantern#91 involves some kind of cockamanie plot by Sinestro to lure Green Arrow into a trap involving an archery contest (shades of Robin Hood), using the archer as bait for another trap for Green Lantern.
It's all a lot of silly nonsense and hardly O'Neil's best work.
Up next is Batman#280 and "The Only Crime In Town" by by David V. Reed, Ernie Chan & Frank Giacoia.
I've given Ernie a lot of grief for his cover art at DC but I gotta admit I like the dynamic staging for this particular piece.
Reed's story is a done in one crime caper with a bunch of standard issue crooks staging smaller crimes as a distraction from a really big million dollar haul.
It's more Batman in Detective Comics #464 as Gerry Conway, Ernie Chan and Frank McLaughlin deliver "The Doomsday Express", the conclusion of the Black Spider 2 parter.
And the ongoing schemes of the Calculator continue as he strikes again, this time against Black Canary in "A Hot Time In Star City Tonight" by Bob Rozakis, Mike Grell & Terry Austin.
More Mike Grell in Superboy#220. The small print indicia calls the book Superboy but it's the Legion of Super Heroes book now.
We're up first with "The Super Soldiers of the Slave-Maker" by Jim Shooter, Mike Grell & Bob Wiacek. Yep, the Legion of Super Heroes shoved into 12 pages.
The Legion has to save a world from being 'sploded by some alien lizard no-goodniks.
The back 5 pages are scripted by Cary Bates and puts the spotlight on Dream Girl. Yep, only 5 pages for the Legion to find a problem, investigate the problem and solve the problem.
Dream Girl has a prophetic vision of a political assassination but is short on any actual useful details or this story would be shorter than 5 pages.
Superman #304 features the "The Parasite's Prism of Peril" by Gerry Conway, Curt Swan & Bob Oksner.
In addition to the the Parasite, the Atomic Skull turns up as well.
The scene on the cover by Bob Oksner with Superman being clobbered by a super powered kid actually does happen on the inside of the comic.
That was it for Superman in July 1976 as I did not buy Action Comics #464.
Speaking of comics I did not buy....
I was not a purveyor of DC's war comics but the cover of this one piqued my interest
I don't remember my grandfather mentioning there were dinosaurs in World War II.
So that is that for comics from my youth 50 long years ago in July 1976!
What comic books did I buy in August 1976?
That will be answered in next month's Comic Book Retro 50!
So I'm going to kick back and let a raccoon do today's blog work.
Say hello to Jimothy. a wild raccoon living in Seattle, Washington, United States.
His distinctive short, round form is likely due to short spine syndrome, an affliction that commonly occurs in dogs but can also be found in other mammals.
Such as raccoons.
Seattle resident Kiana Hall posted a video of this most unique raccoon on Instagram. Kiana named him Jimothy? Why?
"He just looked like a Jimothy to me."
Jimothy has become quite the social media sensation.
Jimothy holds an honorary degree from the University of Washington.
He has received special recognition by the Seattle City Council.
Jimothy for public office? Why not?
Blizzard Entertainment posted a tribute to Jimothy in the style of World of Warcraft
D&D Beyond released a stat block of Jimothy for use in D&D
A bobblehead manufacturer made available a Jimothy statuette, with proceeds donated to an animal rescue charity.
If you search for Jimothy on Google, an animated version of the raccoon scampers across the screen.
Jimothy is included on Roku screensavers
Not bad for a quirky cute little raccoon from Seattle.
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We're back tomorrow with the Comic Book Retro 50. What comics did a wee young Dave-El buy in July 1976?
After that it's Your Friday Video Link, Saturday is Movie Time and we'll go Star Trekking on Sunday.
But before all that...?
What the hell! It's MORE JIMOTHY!
Y'all be good to one another and if you see Jimothy, be sure to say "hi!"
While Amazon Prime dumped the entire season at once, Andrea and I took our time with Spider-Noir, serving up one episode a week. Just like it says in the Bible.
"Yea and the Lord sayeth unto thee, thoust should take unto thee a television series one episode at a time, less ye succumb to the pits of sin, depair and a numb posterior."
It's somewhere in... Deuteromony, I think?
Anyway...
We finished up Spider-Noir a week or so back.
Set in Depression era 1930's New York City, life is hard for a stressed out populace caught between the machinations of Mayor Morris and crimes boss Finn Byrne, aka the Silvermane.
It's the story of Spider Man but with a twist in time and concept.
Let's talk about the look of Spider Noir for a moment. The series was available in black & white as well as in color. Below are two image of Ben's ascrebic, long suffering secretary Janet (my favorite supporting cast member) to compare the two formats.
Andrea and I chose the B&W version which effectively conjures the film noir vibe of a classic Humphrey Bogart detective film. The B&W doesn't do as well with some of the latter effects heavy scenes with electrically powered Megawatt.
But the B&W really works well when Ben Reilly is brooding in his darkened office or Cat Hardy is oozing sex appeal while seducing Ben.
Ben should watch out. As is the case with film noir, the dame is not to be trusted and will do him wrong.
Such as betraying Ben's identity as the Spider to Dr. Alethea Faber, a mad scientist type looking for a cure for metahumans. Cat only has eyes for Flint Marko and his Sandman powers are killing him. Perhaps Ben, whose Spider powers haven't killed him yet, holds to the key.
Episode 6 is a rough one to get through as Dr. Faber does all sorts of unspeakable things to a captured Ben Reilly to extract what makes the Spider tick and can it be used to save her son (whose mutation is prematurely aging him) and other metahumans as well.
Ben manages to escape but not in the best of shape. His powers are on the fritz just as the war between the mayor and Silvermane is heating up.
For all the intensity of the drama inherent in Spider Noir, the show has a remarkable sense of humor. A lot of this comes from Ben's snarky, irascible nature brought to ingenious light by Nicholas Cage. Cage mostly plays Ben Reilly like a repressed coiled spring but then he cracks that veneer to go nuts.
Lamorne Morris and Karen Rodriguez keep up the pace with the sharpy witten banter as Robbie Robertson and Janet Ruiz.
Brendan Gleeson dominates the proceedings as Silvermane, a brutally cold calculating criminal mastermind who hasn't lived this long and gotten where he is in this life by playing nice.
Spider Noir ends on a fairly positive note and if Nicholas Cage can be talked into it, I would very much like to see another season to explore this unique take on the Spider Man mythos.
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Jeopardyended it's 42nd season last week. Not much to say other than does that seem too long? It's the end of July and the show returns in September.
That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Next time: Stuart Fails To Save the Universe
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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From Spider Noir to film noir, this Saturday's Movie Time post will be about an American film noir from 1947.
I think one of the tragic casualties in this current time of political and social distress that we exist in is the Christian faith.
A lot of alleged leaders of alleged Christian faith have done so much to align themselves with political ideology in the pursuit of power.
Jesus Christ, the dude who espoused "Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the weak", you know, THAT guy, would not regonize the religion named after him.
I recall the story of a preacher who did a sermon based on the Biblical text known as the Beatitudes and after the service was greeted by a parishioner who asked the minister why he was preaching such woke nonsense.
While Jesus Christ most pointedly did not assign any conditions on who deserved God's grace, the modern American conservative Christian would very much add some terms and conditions before you click like and subscribe.
A lot of this warping of the Christian faith towards decidedly unChristian goals has been particularly prominent during the last 10 years and the ascendancy of the MAGA and it's blobby orange hued savior who shall remained nameless for this post.*
*Since this person invaded my Saturday movie post, I have resolved for today's post, he shall NOT be named.
In case it's not clear who I am talking about, I will give you a little hint: He's a lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, narcissistic, small-minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit.
I trust you can work it out from there.
I was reading an article written by Molly Wadzeck for Huff Post about MAGA Christianity and those who have escaped the unforgiving grasp of that movement.
Anna Rollins wrote that growing up Southern Baptist, Christianity was presented as nearly inseparable from Republican identity, with patriotic symbols and language woven throughout church life. “Faith and freedom were often talked about in the same breath. We often sang patriotic songs in church services, in addition to hymns. Nationalism was tightly woven in with Christianity.”
I too grew up in a Southern Baptist church and I likewise recall the conflation of Christian faith with American identity. In my narrow world, a good Christian was a good American. And a good American was a good Christian.
Although even that scope of "Christian" may be a bit broad. Southern Baptists understood what it meant to be a good Christian. As for Presbyterians and Methodists, who knows what the hell they're up to?
Conservative Christians for all their outsized influence with gospel radio stations and Christian TV channels are still a small slice of the religious pie. True power lies outside the venues of religion and in the halls of political power.
Which brings us to the toxic confluence of conservative Christians and the Republican Party.
Welcome to MAGA "Christianity", the religion of the rabble.
The article written by Molly Wadzeck references videos posted by a nurse named Jen Hamilton who generated a lot of buzz by posting online her reading from the Bible while repudiating MAGA talking points.
One of the comments she received was "Be careful now. I am happily MAGA and I love Jesus. We are exhausted from liberal nonsense.”
Reading Matthew 25 is liberal nonsense?
I will assert that being "happily MAGA" and "I love Jesus" is a contradiction.
This goes back to the preacher whose sermon on the Beatitudes was dismissed by a church goer as woke nonsense.
Attached is a video by Brandon, an avowed atheist (account under Mindshift) who talks about what Jen has done and the backlash she is encountering from the MAGA "Christian" community.
Not sure I'm on board with everything Brandon says but I do respect his thoughtful perspective.
But isn't it weird that it takes an atheist to come to the defense of a Christian woman who spoke to the idea that Jesus thought it was a good idea to help people?
A Christian woman being attacked by alleged Christians for the act of speaking about how Jesus thought it was a good idea to help people?
Jen said that “Some even reported me to the Board of Nursing to have my license taken away. As a nurse, I don’t know how you don’t fight for the rights of the vulnerable communities you care for.”
So Jen simply reading from the Bible earned her threats to her job and yes, even to her life.
A MAGA supporter posted a video that she wouldn't feel safe in Jen's care if Jen was her nurse.
Jen had to post a response that her responsibilites as a nurse requires her to help everyone equally.
So a MAGA "Christian" assumes she is not safe in the care of a Christian nurse who is not MAGA? A Christian nurse who is not MAGA is the enemy?
Gee, I wonder where a MAGA supporter got that idea from?
SIDE NOTE on he who shall not be named in this post but rememeber he is a lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, yada yada yada,you know the drill: recent reports show cuts to programs to specific states were made because those states did not vote for the lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, yada yada yada in 2024. This blobby orange hued savior has a history of declaring those who are not MAGA as the enemy and not to be trusted.
So the obedient flock of MAGA "Christians" follow in kind. So by their "logic", nurse Jen Hamilton maybe a Christian but she is NOT a MAGA Christian so she is not to be trusted and is a danger.
So what's the deal with this dissonance between the ideals of Christian faith and the actual practices of MAGA "Christians"?
“Vertical morality teaches that authority, power and a moral code of right and wrong, or acceptable and unacceptable, come from ‘above’ ― an external superior who designates rules, systems and tenets that must be obeyed by those beneath."
Which is a nice intellectual dissertation of a concept that I will put more bluntly: MAGA "Christians" are fucking hypocrites who wouldn't know Jesus Christ if he walked into their kitchens and turned a class of a water into a nice pinot noir.
To be blunt, MAGA "Christians" have traded the ideals of Christ for worldly glory, for promises of easy wealth and power over those who are not them.
Jesus admonished us to be servants to those in need, even those who are not us. But the MAGA path to wealth and power is to regard those who are not them as an enemy to be feared, to be defeated, to be eradicated.
Maybe the cynical view is that MAGA Christianity is just what Christianity has been all along? And that people like nurse Jen Hamilton are outliers, the exception to the rule?
I have to admit to my own cynicism about Christianity but even I don't want that cynicism to be true. I want people like Jen Hamilton to be the true face of the Christian faith.
Sadly the most prominent face of that faith belongs to those who see Jen Hamilton as an enemy.
And see Jesus Christ as an epitome of liberal nonsense.
Which is what you get from a religion of the rabble.
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While working on this post, I reviewed some previous blog entries I've made on the subject of religion and I thought I would share this graphic from my blog post on March 11, 2016.
