"Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I'll go a step further. The people that went to school with him, they never saw him; they don't know who he is. It's crazy."
—Donald Trump
—Donald Trump
"Look, I didn't say that...If he was three years old or two years old or one year old and people remember him, that's irrelevant."
—Donald Trump, after CNN played him documentary clips of Hawaiians reminiscing about the schoolchild Obama
—Donald Trump, after CNN played him documentary clips of Hawaiians reminiscing about the schoolchild Obama
with thanks to the Say What? spot at Slate
Never mind the Donald, as for Michele Bachmann, the night before her appearance on GMA, wherein she was confronted with Obama's birth certificate (clip above), she was appearing with Hannity on Fox, suggesting that Obama should show it, apparently unaware that it's been on the table since 2008.
But even then as she backs away from the lunacy, she manages to slip in an irrelevancy.
"I take the president at his word." Why take his word for it, why not take the Hawaiian providers of the certificate? Unless we have cause to doubt Obama's word that he actually obtained his certificate through proper official channels, rather than devising a cunning forgery ... because after all he's a Kenyan Muslim ... or unless the Hawaiian officials are in on the giant conspiracy, and have issued a fraudulent document, in which case surely the Governor should be expelled and the johnny come lately state should be expelled from the union.
Well if you listen to Donald Trump that's what you might believe:
Trump also defended his position, saying, "His grandmother in Kenya said, 'Oh no, he was born in Kenya and I was there and I witnessed the birth.' Now, she's on tape and I think that tape's going to be produced fairly soon ...The grandmother in Kenya is on record saying he was born in Kenya."
Trump made an identical claim in a Today Show interview the same morning: "His grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya and she was there and witnessed the birth, okay?"
Trump made an identical claim in a Today Show interview the same morning: "His grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya and she was there and witnessed the birth, okay?"
Actually it's not okay, as is patiently explained in the St Petersburg Times which puts that particular furphy to bed, in its Truth-O-Meter piece:
Trump is serving up re-heated leftovers that have long ago been debunked. Anyone who listens to the tape of the phone conversation with Sarah Obama can hear how tightly you need to edit this interview to present it as evidence of a presidential cover-up. We rule Trump's claim that Obama's grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya False.
But then you read a letter attached to that piece from Bishop Ron McRae, Presiding Bishop of Anabaptists Churches Worldwide, and once again you're plunged into a world of bizarre paranoia and weird theories.
As the hot spots circle around Donald Trump's mad publicity stunt, it's possible to come to the scientific conclusion that American politics is swiftly going mad. So mad that even Michele Bachmann, tea partier extraordinaire, can't stand the heat ...
The media is naturally fascinated by eccentrics and loons, and so Donald Trump is turning American politics into a TV reality show. America You're Fired.
It's so lunatic, crazed, demented, mad, that it's impossible to look at and not flinch away in fear. Even worse, the pond might shortly be making a trip to America. Who can resist the dollar? After once travelling in America when it was worth 50 cents, it's payback time.
Will it be possible to look a citizen of the United States in the eye, and not wonder if they're demented, paranoid and completely out of touch with reality? Because the current rebirth of birtherism is either a mass hallucination, or a kind of displacement, whereby a fear of aliens and foreigners is deployed as a substitute for a deeply embedded racism ...
Well if you believe the Pew polling somewhere between 44 and 47% of Americans subscribe to the creationist viewpoint, as part of the belief system that sees them confuse eating chocolate eggs and hot cross buns with Christ rising from the dead and ascending to sit alongside god. (Cecil spills the beans here).
Speaking of which, it being good Friday, it's a long standing ritual of the local media to report the thoughts of the religious leaders of the antipodes.
The lizard Oz, which seems to have gone to sleep for the day, settles for recycling AAP coverage in Natural disasters dominate Easter messages.
This sees Cardinal Pell out of the blocks fast with more Pellist nonsense:
"Our humanity is defined by how we grapple intellectually with the challenge of suffering and evil or refuse to do so; but even more by what we do in response to these catastrophes when they touch us," Cardinal Pell said in his Easter Message on Good Friday.
He applauded the dignity, "strength and stoicism" of the Japanese survivors, as well as the heroism of those Australians who helped people during and after the floods.
Cardinal Pell said these values were the product of 2000 years of Christian teachings.
He applauded the dignity, "strength and stoicism" of the Japanese survivors, as well as the heroism of those Australians who helped people during and after the floods.
Cardinal Pell said these values were the product of 2000 years of Christian teachings.
If I can boil that down, it seems the dignity, strength and stoicism of the Japanese in their current trials somehow springs from the values of 2000 years of Christian teachings. Strange, I must have completely misunderstood religion in Japan, and the way xianity has had bugger all to do with the development of Japanese culture these part two thousand years. Perhaps the AAP subbie got it all muddled, as we usually do with xian twaddle.
It gets all the more surreal Bishop Anthony Fisher striding out from Parramatta:
The answer: "Amidst the rubble of Christchurch city ... we see the Risen Lord digging desperately amongst the rubble, trying to save whom he can and proclaiming hope once more to all."
Well She could have done a bloody better job with the bobcat, because as an omnipotent being She made a damn poor job of the desperate digging amongst the rubble, and damned if I can see why She allowed the earthquake that led to the desperate rubble digging in the first place ...
Over at the Herald, the slightly more awake rag assigns the Ēostre message reporting to its religious writer, Leesha Mckenny, and she comes up with Church leader likens inaction on climate to crucifying Christ, thanks to the moderator of the Uniting church of NSW and ACT, Niall Reid, who said in his easter message:
... that climate change was the result of ''unsustainable, unfettered and unthinking addiction to economic growth'', and those who could not entertain a less destructive path were like those who sent Jesus to the Cross for expediency's sake.
Indeed. And since the Pellist heresy involves climate denialism of the most stringent kind (Pell row with climate scientist heats up), we can now say that Cardinal Pell is exactly the same as those Romans who sent Jesus to the Cross for expediency's sake.
Indeed. And since the Pellist heresy involves climate denialism of the most stringent kind (Pell row with climate scientist heats up), we can now say that Cardinal Pell is exactly the same as those Romans who sent Jesus to the Cross for expediency's sake.
Oh I just love the smell of hot cross buns and Christians at ten paces letting loose the napalm on a good Friday morning ...
Remember today is the day for the buns, and the fertility rites must be saved for Sunday, since the point of giving the little buggers chokky easter eggs and bunnies is to get them out of the way for an hour or so (sensitive singles can simply cut to the chase and eat the chokkies, oh bliss, oh poop poop), but hang on, let's not get distracted from the other easter messages in the Herald ...
The Pellists and the Fisherites get another run, in slightly different form, and then there's a burst from Dr Peter Jensen, Anglican archbishop of Sydney, who can't seem to find any joy in death:
''People talk glibly about 'death with dignity','' Archbishop Jensen said.
''I can take the idea of a heroic death, a quiet death, an early death - even, at a stretch, a peaceful death - but 'death with dignity' just seems like a cover-up.''
Archbishop Jensen, an opponent of voluntary euthanasia, said the idea that any death - including his own - could be dignified was ''wishful thinking''.
''There is nothing dignified about the pain, helplessness, loss and anxiety of death,'' he said.
''It strips us of achievements, history, honours, dignity and relationships and destroys our bodies.''
Strange, and there I was thinking that death was just a necessary step to infinite glory and an eternity in heaven, a paradise of fluffy clouds and beatific angels, with free apples for all, and a healthy supply of virgins for Islamics.
Which would rather make the loss of merely earthly achievements, history, honours, dignity and relationships an extremely minor matter, along with the loss of the body, which in any case, according to some, we'll be able to reclaim from the grave when the rapture strikes, perhaps a tad stained and in need of an extra cup of Sard eucalyptus strength soil remover, but otherwise in fine shape and ready for eternity and perhaps endless rounds of golf ...
... unless of course you happened upon the notion that all the twaddle about heaven was just pie in the sky by and by ...
Never mind, it's madness in America and thanks to the usual contradictory, confused, chaotic Christian easter messages, madness in Australia, so enjoy your cross buns and hot chocolate, and have a pleasant long weekend ...
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