Old Testament justice

The religious right keeps gets crazier:

If the counsel of the Judeo-Christian tradition had been followed, Tillikum would have been put out of everyone’s misery back in 1991 and would not have had the opportunity to claim two more human lives.

Says the ancient civil code of Israel, “When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable.” (Exodus 21:28)

So, your animal kills somebody, your moral responsibility is to put that animal to death. You have no moral culpability in the death, because you didn’t know the animal was going to go postal on somebody.

But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn’t kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, “the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.” (Exodus 21:29)

Is he saying that Sea World’s CEO be stoned to death?

RNC: Republican voters ‘ego-driven,’ ‘extremist’

[Republican National Committee Finance Director Rob Bickhart's] presentation, obtained by Politico’s Ben Smith, includes several slides that portray the GOP’s own supporters in a very negative light, giving the impression that the RNC believes its donors are stupid, and that it plans to treat them that way.

One of the slides (three can be seen below; the full presentation is available for download in PDF form here) divides donors into two groups — major donors and smaller ones who are reached through direct marketing efforts. The latter group, the slide says, gives for visceral reasons: “Fear” and “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration” are listed. The slide also tags this group with a term usually used in an less-than-flattering sense: “Reactionary.” The major donors don’t fare much better; they give, the slide says, for “Networking Opportunities” and “Access” and they’re “Ego-Driven.”

Three things (plus) I could live without

1. Minivans;
2. The annoying woman on the Progressive insurance commercials;
3. People who ask, “What’s wrong?”;
4. Fat people who get on the elevator just to go up (or down) one floor;
5. Nerds with egos

Meet the Palins

Palin and her family would be followed on-camera in the show, which one network executive described as “‘Planet Earth’ meets Alaska meets her family,” referring to Discovery’s high-definition nature hit.

I’m shocked.