The Dish

Chuck Todd suspects that they have completely different bases of support. Rudy is getting support from the Bush base, Todd argues, but he thinks most Giuliani supporters haven’t yet got a clue that Rudy is pro-choice, socially tolerant of gays, and in favor of some gun control. Rudy’s a Bush proxy – but a very fragile one. McCain’s supporters, on the other hand, know exactly what they think about him, and his current support is solid. That leaves a potential pool of Bush groupies up for grabs. McCain’s pandering to Bush makes even more sense now, doesn’t it?

According to this study, atheists are the most distrusted minority in American society. They’re lower down the totem poll than Muslims, gays or recent immigrants. (Gee, I’m two out of three.) I’m not an atheist but my last boyfriend was; and he was and is a great and moral guy. If you were to listen to O’Reilly, you’d think atheists run this country and Christians are persecuted. The opposite is closer to the truth. Religious freedom must emphatically include the right to believe in nothing at all. I wish our president said that more often.

The latest development in the South Park-Scientology battle is the revelation that Chef may never have actually said the words about South Park’s "bigotry" attributed to him. Those words allegedly came from Scientologist, Christina "Kumi" Kimball, a fashion executive for designer Craig Taylor, according to Fox News’ Roger Friedman. Friedman adds:

The only good news in this story is that Isaac, according to friends, is doing very well. He’s attending to business and getting back on his feet. Hopefully, he’ll be dishing up Chef like a gourmet again in no time.

Here’s hoping. Down with the Super Adventure Club!

Well, Will Ferrell doing an impersonation. Certainly made me laugh.

"So hard at best is the lot of man, and so great is the beauty he can apprehend, that only a religious conception of things can take in the extremes and meet the case. Our lifetimes have seen the opening of abysses before which the mind quails. But it seems to me there are a few things everyone can humbly try to hold onto: love and mercy (and humor) in day-to-day living; the quest for exact truth in language and affairs of the intellect; self-recollection or prayer; and the peace, the composed energy of art," – Robert Fitzgerald, Harvard poet and classics translator, from "The Third Kind of Knowledge, Memoirs & Selected Writings."

A reader writes:

"I am rapidly losing my hair and have a neatly trimmed beard. I’m 28 and married to a beautiful woman. She finds my baldness "distinguished" and the beard sexy. It’s not just for gays, Andrew. The revolution is everywhere! PS: My back is also extremely hairy. She loves that, too!"

What a woman.

"Throw a bash at the White House advertised as the bash to end all bashes. Have only neocons. They are a terrible-looking bunch, so I’d get off the wagon, if I were you. Make sure there is plenty to eat because of John (four dinners) Podhoretz. Then, as midnight strikes, have Big Julie from Chicago come in and do his thing. Rataatatatattatat … You know what I mean. It’s the only chance you have to go up in the polls." – Taki Theodoracopulos, giving the president advice, from the London Spectator (sub req).

Yesterday, I expressed puzzlement and depression at the polling news that American Christians are more likely than non-religious Americans to support the Bush policy of torturing and abusing military detainees. A reader objects:

"If you think about it, the results are not so surprising.
Consider:  forced conversions ("you can die of hunger or convert"), the Salem witch trials, the Inquisitions. And I would not be at all surprised to learn that Christians favor the death penalty more than non-Christians.
I think it not unfair to say that Christianity, unlike, say, Buddhism, contains or permits belief systems that support horrific means for just ends. Heresy is, thus, grounds for burning at the stake. An "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". Attacking the USA (satan vs. saint) is grounds for torture.
To be honest, I am more horrified by the support for torture from people such as Alan Dershowitz who really should know better."

All I can say is that faith founded genuinely on Jesus could not begin to endorse such a concept (which is why I find Bush’s endorsement of it so troubling). But then Christianity’s history shows, alas, that Jesus’ followers have not exactly always been faithful to his teachings. Today’s age of politicized and intolerant Christianism seems to me to be one of those moments when Christianity has estranged itself most thoroughly from the priorities and spirit of its founder. But this will pass. Christianity will survive Christianism. Some true followers of Jesus will recover their faith from Caesar’s grip at some point.

Well, he can indeed reach a point where he’s writing sentences like:

While Saletan cites my “Here Come the Brides,” he doesn’t talk about the most potentially stable form of multi-partner union: a man and two bisexual women. That union does reduce jealously, and also points to the potentially powerful bisexual constituency for multi-partner unions.

Ah, yes, that powerful female bisexual community! We all tremble in fear of its revolutionary potential. (And this is finally what Kurtz’s loopy argument against gay marriage via polygamy comes down to.) Funny how after observing gay politics closely for almost two decades, the bi "community" has always felt itself to be a bit player, ignored and condescended to by gays and lesbians and the transgendered. If they haven’t sadly mustered much clout within the gay movement, does Kurtz really believe they are about to storm the barricades of society as a whole? Or are we really dealing with someone here who is now chasing his own ideological fantasies? If you want to read a reasonable discussion of the issues, try Will Saletan.

They are, apparently, officially, back. Just keep an eye on the homos, see? We were pioneering the big facial hair a few years’ back, and finally the straight guys are getting into it. Of course, the heteros have to get past women and Gillette, but some women like beards, and Gillette’s already jumped the shark with its seventeen-blade razor. Some tips and customer support. There’s a stage when about 70 percent of men give up: the itchy and scratchy show that sets in after a few days. That separates the bears from the cubs. If you can hang in there through that, it actually gets less scratchy and itchy in a week or so than keeping the face shaved all the time. Then there’s simply the length. Most people, especially your mother/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/husband (in descending likelihood), will acquiesce as long as you keep it real trim, which is a wussy way to grow a beard. So fight over the size of the guard on the trimmer. My own preference is to use a quarter inch guard for occasional pruning, but to use a pair of scissors just to trim the stray hairs that inevitably make the beard look too unkempt. That way you get to grow the beard slowly, while avoiding the bramble bush look. The models above include one famous Jew-bear fashion star, Oliver Kamm, and his far better-looking friend whose name I’m now too distracted to recall.
Update: the beautiful Jew-Bear whose name first escaped me is Steve Gershman.