Holy shit, dude. That is some championship-level crazy (O'Connor is one of my very favoritest authors ever, btw).

I can see why Velociman (if his real name really is "Kim" and he was really raised by a nutcase father "It's a snake pit out there") went over the edge.

He sure can talk purty though.

I do think the best thing for him and the world is if he does what he says and bunkers in with gold, booze, and bullets. Maybe he'll drink himself to death in peace.

It's going to be entertaining watching the cognitive dissonance with these people when Obama becomes president and 1) race war doesn't break out, 2) Muslims don't take over the country, and 3) we don't transition to a totalitarian command economy. They've worked themselves into such a pants-wetting frenzy that they're probably going to be disappointed when life continues just like it always had.

apo,

Sadly, I disagree with you. Cognitive dissonance does not really apply to Authoritarian followers. Their minds are compartmentalized in a way that seems impossible to you and me. They are very much capable of holding two conflicting ideas at the same time, believing them both to be true, and seeing no dissonance at all between them.

I think this is one of the reasons we regular folks have such a hard time communicating with them. We assume they are like us and then we can't understand why what is so obvious to us does not persuade them.

This is one of the reasons I totally appreciated the Authoritarian Follower book. The other reason is that it allowed my to more precisely talk about this particular group of people without clumsily smearing all religious people. It lets me specifically address a group without getting other people angry by mistake.

As a trivial example, authoritarian followers will have the ideas that 'the early bird gets the worm' and 'all good things come to he who waits' and they will consider them both absolutely true, they see no conflict, and when something happens they post hoc pull out the appropriate saying and think that proves the saying is true.

It is a backwards way of thinking (old fashioned and actually reasoning in reverse order) with no way of predicting the future and with really no good way of understanding the world, but it is all they have.

4: Remember Clinton? No matter what happens or doesn't happen under an Obama presidency, it will be proof that the Antichrist's One World Government has come.

To be fair to this particular group of Christians, they aren't technically worshiping the bull, they're praying for its abolition. But that sure doesn't look like what they're doing...

6

They are not "praying for its abolition."

They believe that if they convince their deity that their faith is strong enough (they express this by the display you just witnessed), HE will trump the "invisible hand of the market" with HIS "hand of the almighty." HE will transcend the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve... to proclaim HIS glory... or something like that

But wouldn't it be cool if that was how things worked? I would "claim dominion" over that damn scanner that won't work right now!

You've got to be kidding me. Let's see... other gods before me... graven images... name in vain... that's three of the ten commandments broken right there. Not bad for a ten minute prayer service.

They are not "praying for its abolition." Well, in the sense that they're praying for a "lion market" to replace the "bull" and "bear" markets. I'm not saying it isn't crazy, just that they're not quite doing what it looks like they're doing.

Oh that actually cheered me up quite a bit and helped get rid of some of today's weirdness. Thanks!

It's been an odd day. Someone set themselves on fire on the UW campus (pretty much outside the building I work in). Apparently between this and working in the Undergrad Lib at UNC when that guy with the SUV came through I have a knack for being near these things but never a direct witness.

Slack's right, as usual. Except for the "not worshipping the bull" thing. They may be praying for God to *defeat* Baal, but nonetheless.

Someone set themselves on fire on the UW campus

Wait, what???

Come on, they were clearly NOT worshiping the bull idol; they were OPPOSING it to usher in the new age of the "lion economy".

Which makes a lot more sense.

Curses, pwned by 8, 9, etc.

You people are letting the fair be the enemy of the funny.

15: Apo, I bet your mother told you a million times never to exaggerate.

10: Karyn, too bad about the self-immolation at the UW, but isn't that the kind of thing you're happy you missed?

They wouldn't know God if She bit them on the ass.

And I'm pretty sure God chastised Moses because his followers were worshiping before a golden calf, not a bull, and out of fairness it is the Libertarians who worship the golden bear and bull, but still . . . it is comic when they come out of the shadows and demonstrate their delusions.

a golden calf, not a bull

We've progressed since then.

out of fairness it is the Libertarians who worship the golden bear and bull

Out of fairness, Tripp, you remain as full of bull as ever, offering a confused charge, and without support.