Why "church" works

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Friday July 17, 2009 · 12:49 PM PDT

2009/07/17 · 12:49

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what (from my rabid-atheist perspective) appears to be a firm grip by the churches of America on those who attend church. I’m beginning to understand something: it isn’t that the church has a grip on the parishioners, it’s that the parishioners have a grip on the church. Join me below the fold, won't you?

Poll

146 votes Show Results

Church

146 votes Vote Now!

Church

Opium of the people

87 votes

Centerpiece of rich culture

25 votes

A building people go to one hour a week and sing a bit

13 votes

Other (discuss in comments)

10 votes

A big warm slice of church bake-sale pie

11 votes

'Charlie Don't Surf!' McNamara, Kurtz, and the Only Real Freedom

CrustyPolemicist

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Monday July 06, 2009 · 4:39 PM PDT

2009/07/06 · 16:39

I wrote this in 2007 for a conference in Nice, France. Reposting it to commemorate the death of Robert McNamara. At times like this, I find myself wishing that the afterlife existed. Hell, specifically ...

CrustyPolemicist

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Tuesday March 17, 2009 · 3:03 AM PDT

2009/03/17 · 03:03

I propose we rename March 17th "Saint Baldrick's Day". Instead of getting
hammered on "Saint Patrick’s Day" (and waking up disheveled, disoriented, and obscurely ashamed for reasons you pray you will never remember), do something nice instead and contribute a few pence at www.stbaldricks.org. Then go get hammered.

That is the only warm-fuzzy sentiment you will find in this piece, so enjoy it. On to the meditation ...

CrustyPolemicist

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Tuesday January 20, 2009 · 9:37 AM PST

2009/01/20 · 09:37

Decades ago – long before I became gray and respectable – I was a big fan of the punk rock band Devo. I found myself remembering their second album just now; specifically, the title of the album: "Duty Now For The Future." Today, that phrase seems to carry an unexpected weight; it seems pregnant with meaning and promise.

CrustyPolemicist

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Thursday January 15, 2009 · 4:24 PM PST

2009/01/15 · 16:24

We're all saying goodbye to him in our own ways. Here's mine.

CrustyPolemicist

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Wednesday November 05, 2008 · 6:10 AM PST

2008/11/05 · 06:10

Running on four hours sleep, hung over (curse you, Jack Daniels!), giddy, but most of all determined. There will be plenty of time to enjoy the glow after we're dead. There's work to do. Allons-y!

CrustyPolemicist

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Monday November 03, 2008 · 3:49 AM PST

2008/11/03 · 03:49

Not much of a diary, but bravery deserves its due ...

CrustyPolemicist

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Thursday October 30, 2008 · 1:45 AM PDT

2008/10/30 · 01:45

Every year when this date rolls around, it reminds me to be a bit more understanding and sympathetic towards my fellow citizens who have been fooled (and continue to be fooled, in many cases) by what seems to many of us to be simplistic and transparent propaganda. Join me below the fold, won't you?

Poll

32 votes Show Results

Does your family have a "War of the Worlds" story?

32 votes Vote Now!

Does your family have a "War of the Worlds" story?

Yes

5 votes

15 votes

Indeed. My family welcomed our new Martian overlords.

8 votes

What kind of first name is "Orson"?

2 votes

minced-Martian pie. yumm-o.

2 votes

W: The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

CrustyPolemicist

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Tuesday October 28, 2008 · 4:18 AM PDT

2008/10/28 · 04:18

As I count down the days until that man leaves the White House, I've been thinking a lot about W. Join me below the fold, won't you?

Poll

52 votes Show Results

Was W instrumental in your political (re)awakening?

52 votes Vote Now!

Was W instrumental in your political (re)awakening?

Yep. It was that smirk, just like Crusty said.

23 votes

You're high Crusty. I've been awakened before being awakened was cool.

24 votes

Delicious wholesome clean respectable family-friendly apple pie.

1 vote

Sweet sweet sweet cherry pie, baybayyy.

4 votes

Cultures and Cassoulets

CrustyPolemicist

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Wednesday October 22, 2008 · 3:46 AM PDT

2008/10/22 · 03:46

More and more I find myself battling against the urge to chew up my guts with the pre-election navel-gazing and obsession with minutae and devoting more of my intellectual energies to working through some "big picture" questions. Join me below the fold, won't you?

CrustyPolemicist

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Wednesday October 15, 2008 · 1:52 AM PDT

2008/10/15 · 01:52

With the world gone mad, I find solace in some of the books that have been my friends through so much madness in the past. On the birthday of my favorite dead syphilitic German philosophe, I'm reading Zarathustra to rejuvenate my batteries and latch on to my sanity. What are y'all reading?

Join me below the fold, won't you?

CrustyPolemicist

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 01, 2008 · 4:02 PM PDT

2008/08/01 · 16:02

Alone among the developed nations of the West, the US still glorifies war and the "warrior." This serves as an object lesson to the rest of the world about what happens when a nation obtains the means to wage war at will anywhere around the globe without also earning the wisdom to abhor the idea of war. I have come to believe that the love and glorification of war is something that a nation outgrows, and the US has a very long way to go before it is mature enough to turn its back on war. Indeed, I doubt that there can ever again be conditions dire enough to pull the US kicking and screaming out of its warlike childhood.

Join me below the fold, won't you?

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Why "church" works

'Charlie Don't Surf!' McNamara, Kurtz, and the Only Real Freedom

Meditation on Succetus

Duty Now For The Future

Adieu, George

Welcome to the Desert of the Real

To the lone white-lady Obama canvasser in rural N.C.

The Power of Propaganda: On This Day in 1938

W: The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

Cultures and Cassoulets

Happy Birthday, Friedrich Nietzsche

Childhood's End Someday?