The Antisocial Socialist

This post made me sick to my stomach. It's about a gay kid whose parents had her violently kidnapped in the middle of the night and brought to a brainwashing camp where she was abused in an attempt to turn her into some sort of Stepford wife. WWASP and Cross Creek, the facility at which this child was tortured, are apparently real things, as is the horrifyingly named Teen Escort Service. These are for-profit companies that are, unbelievably, allowed to operate.

If half of the allegations in that post are true, how are these places allowed to operate legally? Can't we round up the owners and operators of these places and put them in our own re-education camps or something?

New and exciting blog the Eschatologist has an interesting and charmingly non-judgmental article on the redesign of the Left Behind novels and what the new covers say about how pop culture imagines apocalypse(s).



Aesthetically, I like the new typography—much more modern, fun, and refreshing. The old covers had an extremely formal design, with the horrible faux-stone 3D effect on the serif type. This made the apocalypse seem like a done deal, to be honest, which robbed the novels of any sort of suspense that their protagonists might, you know, actually lift a finger to attempt to struggle against evil rather than calmly waiting out the Tribulation. Also, the type on the old covers looked too much like a movie poster, which is presumptuous.

Image-wise, I am split. The photos for Left Behind, Soul Harvest, Appolyon, Assassins, The Indwelling, The Mark, and Glorious Appearing are clear improvements. Tribulation Force's new cover is terrible. It looks like a dull book on American policy in the Middle East. No one wants to see photos of faces on the covers of trade fiction books. It is simply Not Done.

The cover of the original edition of Nicolae is terrible—the new one is a much better photo, artistically speaking—but I agree with the Eschatologist that it kind of screws with the meaning. Carpathia is not supposed to look like an old Soviet bureaucrat. For fuck's sake. The original one is a terrible composition but at least it keeps the whole Antichrist-as-charming-visionary aesthetic.

I disagree with the Eschatologist on the cover of Assassins. I don't disagree that it's racist as fuck. It is definitely racist as fuck. It's prettier, though. The original looks like a Clancy cover.

I can't make up my mind on Desecration. Personally, I'm just not sure a book with dead fish on the cover will sell. Who is their target market, exactly? Does this target market like dead fish floating in blood and, more importantly, are they likely to either buy it to put on their bookshelves or give it as a gift? "Just what I wanted for Christmas, Aunt Maude! A book about dead fish floating in blood." Whereas on the old cover, it's clear that the Antichrist is rising and means business, and they manage to get this impression across without dead fish floating in blood. I'm just sayin'.

Both of the covers for The Remnant suck. Come on, book designer! This is a series about the end of the world—you really couldn't find a better photo to use?

The old cover for Armageddon is the clear winner. As a book designer, if I'm given the choice to show the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or a helicopter flying over an explosion, I'm going to choose the former every time, if only because the movie Live Free Or Die Hard is pretty much the end of the story in terms of illustrating helicopters and explosions. Also, horses are cool.


What Would Sabotabby Do?

Both covers for Glorious Appearing are a bit shit, mostly because they missed the boat. That's the book where Jesus comes back and shoots laser beams out of his eyes and burns all of the sinners in a pit of lava (sorry, I guess that was a spoiler). That is the sole reason why anyone would pick up the book, to read about Jesus with laser beams shooting out of his eyes, and you're telling me that the designer couldn't be arsed to put that scene on the cover? What. A. Waste.


There, I fixed it.

I really like the new clock graphic, too. Subtle, Tyndale. Very subtle.

Still, this would be a very difficult book design project, both because a designer would have to actually read the books and also if you don't do a good job, Jesus will kill you with his laser eye-beams, so I doff my hat to the person tasked with this endeavour.

nihilistic_kid brings us a strong contender for worst human being on the planet. (Warning: I do not say this lightly. Click at your own risk.)

springheel_jack linked to Ayn Rand-inspired jewelery.

I mentioned this on The Face, but here's more on that Japanese restaurant with creepy monkey waiters what think they're people.

Here's a Cracked article on parasites. It's not as horrifying as the other three links.

What about you? What has shocked and appalled you lately?

Via hayleysaurusrex, an interesting, if nonsensical creationist page about vestigial organs. I do not understand any of this as it is clearly written by moon people or something, but look how awesome evolution is compared to creationism:



That's right, you godless heathens! Evolution will give you a face like Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean and eye-nipples.

Wait, why is this a problem? Evolution is badass.

roter_terror, who also posted an excellent analysis of capitalism and health care, also informed the internets about a BBC miniseries called the Fall of Eagles, which reportedly stars Patrick Stewart as Lenin.

Evidence:



I clearly need to see this, like, yesterday.

I am not a regular reader of the Jewish Tribune for reasons that are probably self-evident, but writer_grrrrl, cyborg_kitty100 and I were having breakfast at a café that happened to have it, so we gave it a read-through. I think it's actually managed to get crazier since the last time I saw it, which is saying a lot. Anyway, we came across this gem, which is the one of the most stellar examples of piss-poor journalism I have ever come across. The writing is so incoherent that it's impossible to determine the writer's position, or even if the article and headline were written by the same person.

It is, I think, an article about Haredim Gone Wild and how the media unfairly represents them when they do bad things. Some highlights:

Yes, there is a media double standard when it comes to haredi Jews. That’s nothing new.
So when thousands of Iranians poured into Tehran’s streets in protest of what they saw as a fraudulent presidential election, the press emphasis was not on the protesters who threw rocks, set trash bins aflame and vandalized public property. The focus, rightly, was on the bulk of the crowd – peaceful protesters of what they believed to be a fraudulent election.

When tens of thousands of haredim, though, demonstrated in reaction to a decision by the Jerusalem municipality to open a public parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath, increasing traffic in the heart of the Holy City and disturbing the peacefulness of the day of rest, the main coverage was not of the overwhelming mass of the crowd peacefully standing up for the sanctity of the Sabbath, but rather of the tiny fraction of the crowd that threw rocks, set trash bins aflame and vandalized public property.

Yes, fundamentalists rioting over the opening of a parking lot is exactly the same as the Iranians who protested for freedom and democracy in the face of an oppressive fundamentalist government. This just in: The Jewish Tribune apparently supports Ahmadinejad.

The rioters may have been boys, but they were our boys.

Yay?

And yes, again there are unanswered questions about the arrest of a Chasidic mother of a long-hospitalized child on suspicion of having starved him. The media, quoting hospital authorities, said the woman was suffering from a mental illness that compels a person to invent or create symptoms of illness, sometimes in another person, to garner medical attention.

The hospital video footage, moreover, that authorities said showed the mother removing the child’s feeding tube 20 times has yet, at least at this writing, to be released. And why did the hospital not act after the first tube removal? Or the 10th?

Further, if the woman is in fact mentally ill, why was a simple restraining order not obtained barring her from contact with the child? Why did the police choose instead to slap handcuffs on the five-months pregnant woman in public, in front of a summoned press, and place her in a jail cell – with an accused spouse killer, an Arab woman, as a cellmate? [Emphasis mine.]

This is the point at which writer_grrrrl, who majored in journalism, her eyes popping out of her head, put down the paper, unable to torture herself further. I picked it up and stared in sick fascination. I mean, there's so much wrong here. So much wrong. Now, the criminalization of mental illness is a fine thing to rail against, don't get me wrong, but I have to wonder why the writer thinks that people ought to get free passes on trying to kill their children just because they're religious. Or why the fact that her cellmate is Arab has anything to do with anything. I mean, God (sorry, "G-d") forbid you should have to share a cell with an Arab!

Anyway, then he goes on to condemn the rioting (which has what to do with the woman who starved her kid? I'm not sure) and we're back to "baseless hatred." But honestly, is hating people who riot for no reason and starve their kids really baseless?

I am so confused.

Every time I see an article or read a post about that swimmer who is apparently the Übermensch or whatever, I get momentarily confused because I think they're talking about the Westboro Baptist guy.

From nom_de_grr:

This is absolutely the most outrageous news story to come out of my hometown in a while.

In a nutshell, Planned Parenthood was going to donate some land to Habitat for Humanity, but an anti-abortion group called the American Life League pummeled Habitat International with 10,000 emails, demanding that Habitat nix the deal. Because donors were threatening to walk over the association with PP, Habitat was forced to pull out.

In one of the nation's more expensive towns to live in, three affordable houses for struggling working people will not be built because a pro-life pressure group is on a slash and burn campaign.

I stopped getting upset about politics a long time ago, but this is just too much. Seriously, this blog post is a CALL TO ACTION. Click here to donate to the Sarasota chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and while you're at it, shoot them an email telling them why you are giving them your support. And click here to let Habitat International know how abhorrent and unacceptable it is that they buckled to such nasty political pressure.

PLEASE REPOST.

Thanks.

This is in deeply poor taste, and yet, I'm still laughing about it.

Mission Statement
The Fuck Tibet movement is dedicated to not giving a rat’s ass about Tibet, its vibrant people, and its rich culture. The group seeks to Fuck Tibet through various means including not attending annoying protests, not starting pointless petitions, and intentionally purchasing Chinese products.

The movement and its website are currently owned by CRA Industrial Smoothing, a shell company owned by the Chinese government. It is operated and maintained by Vice Minister Liu of the Central Committee of the CPC. For more information, please read our history page.

In penance for posting this at all, I offer a petition that you can sign.

Hat tip: apperception, who is a bad influence.

---

In other News of the Wrong, the Antichrist is gay and part Jewish. You know who else was gay and part Jewish? Hitler.

The U.S. government's role in torture, and possible culpability for war crimes. It's a good read, but the most striking bit was this (regarding meetings at Gitmo about how best to torture people):

Ideas arose from other sources. The first year of Fox TV’s dramatic series 24 came to a conclusion in spring 2002, and the second year of the series began that fall. An inescapable message of the program is that torture works. “We saw it on cable,” Beaver recalled. “People had already seen the first series. It was hugely popular.” Jack Bauer had many friends at Guantánamo, Beaver added. “He gave people lots of ideas.”

The brainstorming meetings inspired animated discussion. “Who has the glassy eyes?,” Beaver asked herself as she surveyed the men around the room, 30 or more of them. She was invariably the only woman present—as she saw it, keeping control of the boys. The younger men would get particularly agitated, excited even. “You could almost see their dicks getting hard as they got new ideas,” Beaver recalled, a wan smile flickering on her face. “And I said to myself, You know what? I don’t have a dick to get hard—I can stay detached.”

That's always what I've suspected about pro-torture types; they get hot thinking about it. There are safe and consensual outlets for those sorts of sexual predilections but people with those sorts of politics are generally too uptight to go looking for them.

Hat tip: king_felix.

If you need a palate-cleanser after that, check out the Westboro Baptist Church getting Rickroll'd.

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Hat tip: trollprincess.

We now return to Left Behind. Part I is here, Part II is here.

When we left off, God had smote 2% of the population, scaring the shit out of porn star pilot Rayford Steele and causing him to emote and pray a lot. Meanwhile, porn star reporter Buck Williams was hot on the trail of a Jewtastic banking conspiracy. Sikhs, dogs, mice, Jews, and token black guys, we found out, don't end up in heaven. But will Chloe and Buck?

( Let's find out! )

Of course, the way that Left Behind portrays heaven is so dull (long speeches, steaming heaps of produce, and no sex) that you wonder why anyone would want to go.