Wouldn’t it figure?

That while playing Satan’s Game, the Ouija board, the young woman would ask if she was going to be a model or a fashion designer, and the young man would wonder which college would accept him?

On a happier note, the young woman looks like she’s wondering about space saucers (which could mean she has an interest in science) and the young man is wondering if he should go steady with the girl (which might mean he’s sensitive).

Thanks, Jezebel, for more food for thought.

Who(m) should we mourn more: Jackson or Lennon?

David Michael Green wonders.

(But yeah. Despite his disclaimer, he does sound like a craggy old man.)

(Now get offa my lawn.)

Aint THIS the $64,000 question?

What Makes Religion a Force For Good Or Evil?

Your thoughts? Personally, I think it’s people who gum up the works. And I say that with love. You can read, say, a verse in the Christian scriptures and it’s filled with love, and then you see it applied and the love gets drained out.

C’mon! You know the words!

Then again, maybe you don’t.

Wars are a millstone around our collective neck

In Ghana for a powerful welcome to sub-Saharan Africa, Pres. Obama said:

There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes. These conflicts are a millstone around Africa’s neck. Africa’s diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division.

That sounds like a good description of war in general, a millstone around the neck. And, as it says in Matthew, a millstone around the neck is a horrible punishment.

Did Michael Jackson reach the age of accountability?

And if he didn’t, did he go straight to heaven when he died?

(For the uninitiated, “age of accountability” is the age at which a would-be adherent to the faith must choose to participate in whatever initiation rite  allows one to enter that faith. In my Own True Church, that was baptism by immersion, and if you were raised in the church of Christ, you most likely started thinking about this seriously at roughly the age of puberty. Or, if you didn’t start thinking about it seriously, your parents or your older siblings or your Sunday school teacher started thinking about it for you, as without immersion-baptism you didn’t have a hope of going to heaven when you died.)

The topic has created quite a buzz online. There’s  even a petition you can sign to send him there (though in none of my theology do I find the clause that allows one to vote someone in or out of heaven).

This writer wonders if Michael ever really reached puberty. If he didn’t, well, according to certain evangelicals and fundamentalists, he’s in.

I hope he made it. But then again, who are we to judge? I’m going to have enough trouble getting myself there.

A creative complaint gets results

Here’s the whole story, if you didn’t glean it from the song.

And below is the gracious response to his response.

And here’s more on Sons of Maxwell.

Obama’s inner circle of religious advisers

Dan Gilgoff at U.S. News & World Report, has made a list of 10 religious leaders on whom Pres. Obama relies.

I have two suggestions: One, I imagine there could be more than one woman on the list, and two, where is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Yes, Obama left his church, but I’d say the reverend continues to influence Obama. But then, this is maybe a list of people on whom the president relies now.

Like I said, just suggestions.

I can’t stop taking these *$^% quizzes!

Join me, won’t you?

How optimistic are you?

I’m sunshine with patchy fog.

Might the recession topple the patriarchy?

Reihan Salam at Foreign Policy seems to think so.

Emily Bazelon at Double XX doubts it – or, at least, she doesn’t see it as dire as does Salam.

But honestly: Would the death of macho be a bad thing? Would we miss it? Would men still be men without being macho men?