The Ancient Greeks didn’t worry about whether God loved them. They didn’t wring their hands over the fact that God allowed evil to thrive in the world and didn’t struggle with the way that God permitted the righteous to suffer while the wicked prospered. That’s because, in Ancient Greece, the Gods were a bunch of dicks. Zeus was particularly nasty- he lorded over the universe like an omnipotent frat boy with lightning bolts. He was far less concerned with the meek inheriting the earth than he was in changing into a swan and fucking the meek’s wife (they had a pretty loose grip of zoology, as well.) The rest of the gods were no better- just a bunch of mean spirited, petty, vindictive, narcissistic, spiteful bastards who absolutely didn’t give a shit about humanity. It must have been wonderfully liberating in a way- like having a Republican president. After all, when Bush and co. were in power, we didn’t wring our hands and wonder WHY they were leading us into one pointless war after another for the sole benefit of their rich cronies or WHY they were making disastrously short-sighted fiscal policy decisions. We knew perfectly well why- they were dicks. They did irresponsible, self-centered, evil, destructive, selfish things because they were irresponsible, self-centered, evil, destructive selfish cocksuckers- plain and simple. All we had to do was fear them, loathe them and mock them. With the advent of Judaism, though and the election of Obama, things became more complicated. Now we have to wrestle with thorny and difficult philosophical questions like WHY does God allow bad things to happen to good people, WHY does God turn his back on his supposedly chosen people as they are persecuted and killed, WHY did Obama extend the...

So Gawker has a great post about whether the frequent mentions of Obama in the New York Times Crossword puzzle is bias or short-sweet-and-heavily-vowelled convenience: While “Obama” has appeared as an answer several times, the Republican candidate hasn’t been honored once. What’s the Times’ excuse? “It is because ‘Obama’ is a five-letter name that alternates vowels and consonants,” a spokeswoman tells Politico. “It’s got three vowels out of five letters, starting and ending in vowels. So it is much more crossword-friendly than ‘McCain,’ which is a harder word to put in a crossword.” I’m going to give the NYT the benefit of the doubt here, but the story really tickles my nerd bone. Read the full Gawker article here. What’s a six-letter word for my feelings on the upcoming election? Answers in the...

/ A blogumn by Monique King-Viehland Obama Declines Public Financing – Is he pulling a John Kerry? The public financing system for presidential elections was established by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.  It consists of three distinct components: partial public financing in the primary election; public funding of the presidential nominating conventions; and full public financing in the general election. The spending ceilings and amount of public grants are adjusted for inflation each new election cycle. Public funds to pay for the program are derived through a voluntary $3 checkoff on a taxpayer’s tax return, which costs the U.S. Treasury, not the taxpayer.  Public financing was implemented to address concerns about the increasing influence special interest groups wielded in elections and to place nominees of the two major political parties on a more equal financial footing. There have been a lot of discussions regarding Barack Obama’s decision to decline public financing.  With his decision, Obama became the first candidate of a major party to decline public financing — and the spending limits that go with it — since the system was created in 1976, after the Watergate scandals.   John McCain jumped all over Obama’s decision, noting in a visit to Iowa several months ago that “Senator Obama’s reversal on public financing is one of a number of reversals that he has taken.”  Indeed, the media also concluded that Obama had “flip-flopped” because he had previously indicated that is he did become the Democratic nominee that he would pursue public financing if his Republican appointment did the same. So, did Obama “flip flop” on public financing? Maybe.  But I think the more important question is did Obama have a choice? Under the federal presidential financing system, a candidate this year would be given...

Now, I’m not a fashion plate or anything, but I am fierce. And I am nerdy. So even I was like, these Obama women T-Shirts are just not cutting it. Oh, I know that you can get very cute T-shirts all over. There’s been pretty much an explosion of kick-ass Obama shirts on the streets. But I didn’t want to give money to random people for Obama T-shirts, especially since in most cases, none of those profits go to Obama’s campaign. Stance taken, I wore my plain jane, campaign-store-provided, pink Obama T-shirt. And I tried to pair it with a pink button strap top, which was a little more fashionable, but made me look like an art teacher. Time to take out your finger paints, children. So how super-frickin’-excited was I when I learned that the Obama campaign had hired a bunch of designers to put out different version of his campaign T-shirts. Quite a few of them or misses — seriously why do they keep on letting Beyonce’s mama, Tina Knowles design things??? Everything she touches turns to horrible (save Beyonce, of course). But, I just adore all of the items pictured in this post, and I plan to buy the Tracy Reese Long T. Click here to see what else there offering over in the Runway to Change section of the Obama store.But warning, change is a bit expensive once it hits the runway. Oh, and if you’re okay with the plain jane look, hit up the regular store,...