Political ads are, as the Mitt Romney campaign itself has proudly conceded, “propaganda by definition.”
So what to make of Rick Perry‘s last-ditch advertising blitz in Iowa attacking “Obama’s war on religion”?
Perry – who probably ought to target the several Republicans polling better than he is in Iowa – says “there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”
Turns out Perry’s own Christmastime greeting last year spoke only of the “holiday season” and made no mention of Christmas, or Christ, who was a centerpiece of President Obama’s recent tree-lighting talk.
And as Jeff Weiss points out, live from Texas, praying in school is not banned – in the Lone Star state or elsewhere.
Perry may have been too busy to notice. He also ripped the State Department’s new push to make gay rights a hallmark of U.S. diplomacy, saying “Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests.”
Gay folks counter that homosexuality is criminalized in many countries and gays are often subject to death, and living shouldn’t be a “special right.”
Speaking of gay rights, there is some odd fallout from a Senate bill’s proposal to end the military’s ban on gay sex – the bill inadvertently deletes the ban on sex with animals from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as well.
The gay sex revision got the conservative Family Research Council upset, while dropping the bestiality ban angered animal lovers.
A White House spokesman laughed it off when asked about the elisions, but PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is not amused.
“Animal abuse is an issue of community safety that should be taken seriously by all government staff,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
So now PETA and the FRC are lobbying on the same side. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and so do animals.
Then again, the administration is also taking heat for not making the Plan B “morning after” pill available to girls under 17. Some see Obama as caving to religious groups. Confused yet?
And while we’re on the Pill, what won’t some of us do for clicks?
A pair of Australian researchers are testing that limit, arguing in the medical journal The Lancet that nuns “should be free to use the contraceptive pill” to protect them against the elevated risk of cancer for women who never bear children. The sisters are paying “a terrible price for their chastity.”
Auto-generated headline: “Nuns should take the Pill to save their lives” Who can resist?
Turns out, it’s not so clear-cut, medically speaking, and theologically, the Catholic Church has never barred the use of oral contraceptives if there is a medical benefit. Nice try, though.
A groups called Catholics Come Home is launching a $3.5 million television ad campaign whose spots are slated to run in all big markets Dec. 16 through Jan. 8 and during such news programs as “60 Minutes” and “The Today Show,” as well as during top prime-time series such as “NCIS.”
Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception – and let’s get this straight: the Immaculate Conception refers to the dogma, proclaimed on Dec. 8, 1854 by Pope Pius IX, that holds that Mary was born free from original sin so that she could later bear the Son of God, i.e. Jesus.
This is not about the Virgin Birth, recalling when Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit. That is commemorated on March 25 and its natural outcome is celebrated on Dec. 25th. Father Jim Martin explains it all for you.
Pope Benedict XVI got the season started brightly, illuminating a Christmas tree in Umbria by touching the screen of a Sony Tablet S. What happened to his iPad?
Atheists seem to be infected with the Christmas spirit: their seasonal Lincoln Tunnel billboard blast against religion (above, via the NYT) is so tame it can’t even rile the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue.
You’ll be happy to know that we can lay the Mormon “skinny jeans” controversy to rest.
You’ll be sad to know this is also the day in 1980 that John Lennon was killed. Imagine.
— David Gibson
