Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Once again I must thank the Whited Sepulchre for bringing this to my attention (I'll try not to shamelessly rip him off). University of the Cumberlands , a Southern Baptist affiliated college in Kentucky has caught wind of the fact that Broadway Baptist (where Whited Sepulchre and my heresies are tolerated) has been ex-communicated from the Southern Baptist Convention for insufficient hatred of gay folks. University of the Cumberlands was to host the Broadway youth choir for part of their summer choir tour. That was last week. According to Whited Sepulchre (who is unusually well-connected) and legitimate news sources , a Cumberlands spokesperson called, days away from the choir's departure, with the news the choir would no longer be welcome . As part of their trip, the youth were to perform mission work with Mountain Outreach , a UC program that builds housing for poor in the Appalachians. The Mountain Outreach web site says "In keeping with the tradition of the progra...

If you've never seen it, Spin , by film-maker Brian Springer, is a brilliant essay on the art of political spin. Created over a dozen years ago it's still relevant today. It's part of the Illegal Art Exhibit , which features a number of works considered "illegal" because of various copyright encumbrances ( Spin makes use of pirated, raw unedited network satellite feeds). It's yet another example of how copyright law has been twisted to all sorts of purposes not intended by by our nation's founders. This is the brainchild of StayFree! a non-profit magazine founded by Carrie McLaren in 1992 about the politics of culture. Check the other stuff on the Illegal Art site - worth your time. Spin and other films can be downloaded from Archive.org .

It's been a rough week for celebrity deaths: first Ed McMahon, then Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Now comes the most shocking of them all: William D. Mays, Jr., better known as Billy Mays the infomercial king, has gone to that great toll-free number in the sky, dead at the age of 50 . If you watch any cable or satellite TV you've seen him hawking all manner of amazing products, including OxiClean, Orange Glo and god knows how many other household goods. Best known for his in-your-face braying delivery (" Billy Mays here! ") and take-no-prisoners style, Mays has in recent years become America's most successful product hawker. In April 2009 he was featured in Discovery Channels documentary Pitchmen . Despite the slight air of sleeziness that exudes from "as seen on television" commercials, the products we've bought (they're in stores, too) have (mostly) lived up to the pitch. If Billy promoted it, you knew it would be worth the price (" ...

I met up with the Whited Sepulchre , my fellow former Southern Baptist , and drank a beer in public at a place where men and women openly smoked cigars together. We briefly discussed whether we should dance together but neither of us had a quarter for the jukebox (besides, cigar breath -- ugh). Sunday I'll be at Broadway Baptist wearing a shirt a made of mixed fibers and listening to a woman minister preach. I feel so liberated.

My friend and sometimes sparring partner the Whited Sepulchre alerted me to the fact that Broadway Baptist Church of Ft. Worth, where my heresies are tolerated, has been given the boot by the Southern Baptist Convention. The nominal reason was because we tolerated homosexuals in our midst. Well, la-dee-dah. There was great huffing and puffing from Louisville, Kentucky, the scene of the crime. "The church was in effect saying that it was OK to have members who are open homosexuals," said a member of the Executive Committee. Shocking. The truth is, the SBC has been pissed at us for quite a while. Broadway, if I may venture an opinion, stopped caring years ago. The only things keeping us in the convention at all were the desire to accommodate Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty members who needed to be at a church in good standing (whoops) and the presence of a dwindling number of older members who nursed a sentimental attachment to what the SBC used to be befo...

Briefly noted: Reuters reports Kodak has announced it will cease production of Kodachrome film after 74 years of production. No word on the fate of its sibling Ektachrome. Kodachrome was a mainstay of amateur and professional photographers for years. My father shot miles of 8mm movie film with his trusty Brownie movie camera of me and my siblings in various embarrassing hijinks. How technology has changed us: the Brownie was spring driven, which meant each take was limited to 30 or 40 seconds before you'd have to rewind the spring. Video allows the photographer to shoot excruciatingly long Andy Warhol-esque takes with no breaks. I prefer my boredom in smaller chunks, thank you.

Rep. Steve Buyers claims smoking tobacco is no more dangerous than smoking lettuce. I wonder what this guy smoked while he was in college? Hat tip to Salon.com , where I saw this clip.

The Colbert Report's week in Baghdad is over now and by any measure was a great success, from the shout-outs from the likes of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, John McCain, Jim Webb, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, and Bush father and son to the interviews with the troops and their leaders. Here's a recap for the week, which hardly touches on the funniest bits. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Recap - Week of 6/8/09 www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq I've already mentioned bits from the first two nights. The funniest from Thursday's show surely had to be Stephen's interview with the commander of the Thunderbirds, and the subsequent film of his joyride. -- Oh my God! Favorite line (as he's strapped into the back of one of the Thunderbirds). Airman : Stephen, if you could just not touch anything back here... Stephen : Does this drop the bombs? While a lot of fun, the show made a number of serious points. S...

Another fab show from Stephen, with a follow up on his "basic training" film from yesterday. More silly and inspired. The drill sergent deserves an Emmy. This was followed on a long riff on "don't ask - don't tell," which was both pointed and funny. The best (though not the funniest bit) was his interview with two of the troops - a woman MP and Arab-American translator.Coupled with the "don't ask/don't tell" references made earlier, the unmissable point was how diverse today's army was. It transcended being a comedy show bit. For even more information, I recommend heading over to the No Fact Zone -- they've got some great content about this trip. I promise a link to tonight's show tomorrow sometime; as soon as it's available.

I have several tools in my bullshit-detector toolbox, but one of the oldest is a little tome I first encountered when I was about 13 years old. I refer to the classic, " How to Lie with Statistics ," by Darrell Huff , first published in 1954. It was a real eye-opener. We assume if something has numbers on it, it must be true, especially if there are pictures with the numbers. Numbers don't lie, right? Mr. Huff shows us otherwise. "Breezy," is the word often used to describe the style of this slim volume, but don't let that fool you. Mr Huff, not a statistician, cuts to the chase and makes his points simply and with devastating effectiveness. A few sample quotes (courtesy of WikiQuotes): The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions...

Newsweek just released a list of America's top public high schools (1,500 total), and R. L. Paschal High School , where youngest son just graduated Summa Cum Laude, is ranked # 146 - the only high school listed in Fort Worth, Texas. It's been listed before - rating # 90 in 2008, #254 in 2006, #136 in 2005, For comparison purposes, Texas overall has 101 schools, and Dallas has the #1 & 2 schools overall : the Talented and Gifted High School, and the Science/Engineering Magnet -- for a total of six schools on the list.

Just watched the first of the Colbert Reports broadcast from Iraq as part of USO entertainment for the troops stationed over there. Fantastic! I don't want to give anything away, but it was one of the best, with a pointed Word segment that the audience seemed to eat up, a couple of hilarious filmed segments, and some special guest appearances. I'll post a link or embed it when it appears on the ColbertNation.com website. One of the stated reasons for Colbert's doing this is to remind people there are still a bunch of people serving over there; a fact that has slowly been crowded from the front pages by news about the economy. By now you may have heard about Stephen's on-camera buzz cut -- he puts in a quick cameo in this clip as he tells a graduating class to stay strong. Thanks again to No Fact Zone for the tip off! A great American - whether in character or not. Thanks, Stephen! Update: here's the full episode from Monday on ColbertNation.com .

The New York Times is reporting Stephen Colbert is taping his show this week before the troops in Iraq. The shows will be aired starting June 8 (tomorrow). He's been talking about doing this for some time now. This ought to be an amazing set of shows This guy is amazing -- in addition to this trip, Colbert sponsors a site called d onorschoose.org which raises money for school supplies for children of soldiers, and uses the proceeds for his WristStrong bracelets (from when he broke his wrist during the show's warmup) to help injured veterans. Don't ever confuse the man with the character he plays. Thanks and a hat tip to the No Fact Zone for alerting me to this.

Indulge me for a moment. Youngest son is now a graduate of R. L. Paschal High School , where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He joins other distinguished Paschal alumni which include astronaut Alan Bean , fourth person to walk on the moon, former governor Price Daniel , golfing legend Ben Hogan , sportswriters Dan Jenkins and Bud Shrake , and 5 time Grammy winner T Bone Burnett . It goes without saying I'm extremely proud.

Okay -- this is a bit of an experiment, and it may not be a long lived one. I've set up a Twitter account: PostRalphaelite . To see posts, go to http://www.twitter.com/PostRalphaelite or subscribe. You can see my last 6 tweets on the right sidebar, below my profile. Now, in addition to the embarrassingly small number of people who read this blog, I can add even fewer who follow my tweets. Twitter, as you may know, is a "micro-blogger," allowing you 160 characters per post. Think of it as blogger lite. Twitter, thy name is self-importance .

I got to bed late last night - around 1:00 AM. After sleeping for about an hour, youngest son (who graduates from high school in 2 days) knocks on my bedroom door. "You got ten dollars?" he says, mumbling sheepishly. "Hhuhnnn...?" I reply. I'm always at the top of my game in the dead of night. "You got ten dollars?" "What for?" I ask, my paternal instincts kicking in at last. "My honor cord." This sort of makes sense to my sleep-fogged brain. My oldest, being a bit of an overachiever, had ribbons, cords and the like, a testimony to his active life. "Why didn't you ask me last week? I've got no cash at all." An argument ensues over what sort of household were we that didn't have ten bucks floating around. Finally after scraping under my dresser, on the floor and in various change jars, I successfully count out ten dollars in quarters: my spare 50 states quarters (damn!). Ever try to get back to sleep after turni...

LucasArts has announced the Tales of Monkey Island for PC and Wii later this summer - a new game in the Monkey Island series. As if that weren't enough they'll be releasing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition , with new high-res graphics (and the option to play old-school, with the original not-so-high-res graphics). My God, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. These games were household favorites with my kids and were great fun: well-written and challenging enough to be fun without being frustrating. Youngest son was (and is) a particularly big fan, as well as a fan of other LucasArts games in this series: Sam & Max (also back, in a new format). As an aside, check out ScummVM - an open source application that lets you play a number of LucasArts games (and other games using the "Scumm" game engine) on Linux, Windows and other platforms using the original game data. This is a lot easier than trying to get a DOS game to run.

In the wake of the assassination of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, Fox News mouthpiece Bill O'Reilly demonstrates he is utterly without shame. There must surely be no evil so great as the commoditization of hate for profit. Time magazine has an article about extremism and the anti-abortion movement.

For my fellow LOST addicts, an amusing post on the Onion, speculating on a possible spin-off show .