Category: [Idiots]

Should anyone?

That Joel Webbon nonsense also reminded me of this nonsense:

Found this on Tumblr recently. This was published in 1963, by which time enough research existed to say that “yes, yes it does” was the correct answer to the first two questions; Wikipedia notes that pipe smokng and cancer were linked to each other as early as the 1700s. As for the third question, well, the numerous authors of that volume had no idea what tobacco even was, so… no? I gather that Gordon Lindsay was opposed to smoking anyway, so I presume he didn’t let the fact that the Bible doesn’t even mention it get in the way, much like tobacco enthusiast Joel seems to be doing (just the other way round)…

Big Tobacco’s getting desperate

American Christian Pastor Claims Smoking Weed Makes Men ‘Spiritually Gay’

Christ (as it were). I’ve never actually been a stoner (it’s probably 25 years or more since I last tried the stuff), but I have seen films like Reefer Madness so I have some idea of the sort of propaganda that’s been deployed against it over the decades. This, however, is a new one to me, though Joel Webbon himself isn’t…

If you had “American Christian nationalist pastor launches pro-smoking campaign because he reckons marijuana is making men gay” on your 2026 bingo card, congratulations I guess! You may now mark off the square and mourn the ridiculousness of the world we live in.
Far-right pastor Joel Webbon is copping widespread ridicule after claiming Christian men should embrace tobacco and nicotine because marijuana makes men “spiritually gay” and is contributing to the decline of Western civilisation.
In a video posted to X on 31 May, Webbon argued that anti-smoking campaigns have been one of the biggest “psyops” of the last half-century, dismissing decades of factual medical evidence linking tobacco use to cancer and other serious illnesses.
“I think you know one of the biggest propaganda psyops that we’ve experienced in the last 50-60 years is the war against tobacco and nicotine, that tobacco and nicotine are the worst thing in the world, and they’ll kill you and give you cancer. I don’t believe that,” he says in the video. […]
“Marijuana makes you less masculine, more feminine, soft, gay — at least spiritually gay,” he said, before claiming cannabis users are lazy, unfocused and lacking ambition.
Webbon went on to declare that “hard times create nicotine men” while “weed boys ruin the world,” suggesting tobacco helped build America and could help restore it.

Well, I must give Joel some credit, that is an original spin on the tedious far-right “good times create weak men” bullshit meme; given how much of his schtick otherwise seems to be boilerplate bigotry, it’s a good distinguishing mark. Incidentally, Joel Webbon has apparently only just turned 40, making him a bit more than a decade my junior, yet looking more than a decade my senior. Hate ages you, doesn’t it? Perhaps he should have a spliff and relax a bit.

I should think so, too

Washington priest removed as exorcist after linking UFOs to work of demons

The Catholic archbishop of Washington DC on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons.
Cardinal Robert McElroy said the archdiocese also was cutting ties with the St Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based non-profit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti.
The archbishop said Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism”.
“There’s a danger here,” Rossetti said in a 29 May video posted on his Facebook page addressing UFO sightings and the existence of aliens. “As an exorcist I wanted to raise that danger. And that is that demons like to hide … They don’t want us to know what they’re doing because they’re more effective when we don’t realize it.
“They can kind of get into your head, you know, and manipulate things in the world to influence us to do evil.
“It’s my personal belief that probably many if not most of these UFO sightings are in fact demons,” Rossetti added.

I’m pleased to see the Church responding to this idiocy with the seriousness it deserves, and I look forward to them replacing the Monsignor with someone who’ll maintain the traditional idiocy about demons.

Talafreakout continues

Travis County Republicans make new rule: no more pro-Talarico posts allowed

The Travis County Republicans Facebook group is in disarray as it grapples with a problem: too many members are posting positive things about state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ contested U.S. Senate seat.
Finally, an admin in the Austin-area group had enough and posted a message to the group on Thursday.
The Travis County Republicans Facebook group is in disarray as it grapples with a problem: too many members are posting positive things about state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Texas’ contested U.S. Senate seat.
Finally, an admin in the Austin-area group had enough and posted a message to the group on Thursday. […]
However, Hogue also raised the possibility that the group had been infiltrated by Democrats masquerading as Republicans to sway them with Talarico’s Christian values as opposed to … whatever Paxton’s values are.

Yeah, unless this group’s members are unusually free-thinking and find Paxton too awful even for a Republican, I’m damned if I can understand why they’re posting pro-Talarico comments at all in a Republican group if they’re not secretly Democrat operatives. I find it quite mirthsome either way, of course.

Of course

Haven’t said anything about that hantavirus outbreak so far, but, well, how could I not now that I know Mushroom Cock’s got his most qualified man on the case, in the great tradition of RFK Jr.:

A new virus is killing people as global health organizations work to control its spread and convince the public that the hantavirus outbreak is just an outbreak — not another pandemic. Americans can rest assured that Dr. Brian Christine, a penile implant specialist and assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, is on the case.
According to a Friday report from CNN’s KFile, Christine — an admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps — is a surgical urologist with virtually no experience in public health. He once hosted an “Erection Connection” video series on YouTube, and spread conspiracies about the Covid-19 vaccine during the Biden administration. He is now one of the Trump administration’s top officials in charge of infectious disease policy. […]
This week, Christine gave an update on the conditions of potentially infected passengers who were repatriated to a Nebraska medical center after being evacuated from the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius. “At the Department of Health and Human Services, our approach is grounded in science and it’s grounded in transparency,” he said. “This is what strong public health system looks like, experienced professionals, seamless coordination, and a shared commitment to protecting the American people. We’ll continue to follow the science. We will stay vigilant.”
It’s a vastly different tone from the attitude he took during the Covid-19 pandemic. During Christine’s confirmation hearings before the Senate, The Washington Post reported that the urologist had claimed there was “no question” that Covid-19 and the subsequent government response had been used to tilt the 2020 election in Biden’s favor, and suggested vaccines were part of a larger plot to exert control over the American population.

Apparently it’s OK to follow the science when it’s not an election year, or something like that.

Bullshitfront?

Australian director Phillip Noyce shoots feature film for Saudi Arabia celebrating ‘heroism of security men in combating drugs’

The acclaimed Australian film-maker Phillip Noyce is being paid by the Saudi regime to make a feature film portraying the repressive state’s narcotics officers as heroes.
The Watchful Eyes, based on a real Saudi ministry of interior narcotics case, is billed as a dramatic depiction of the “heroism of security men in combating drugs”.
Saudi authorities executed 356 people last year, including 243 for drug-related cases, and analysts say an increase in the kingdom’s execution rate is largely due to its “war on drugs”.
Noyce has enjoyed a decades-long career with directing credits including the 1970s classic Newsfront, Dead Calm, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Bone Collector. […]
Noyce said he had accepted the job “for the challenge of working outside my comfort zone” and for the opportunity “to investigate a previously closed society” but did not address specific questions about the ethics of making a film paid for by the Saudi regime.
Joey Shea, a Saudi Arabia senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the Saudi government used its huge investments in sport and entertainment as part of a strategy to whitewash its human rights record.
“Given the subject matter of this film from what’s publicly available, combined with the reality of the rights abuses that have been so inextricably linked with this new war on drugs by the Saudi government, it’s really, really disturbing the role that these narratives may play in covering up the reality of these executions that have just been served the last few years,” Shea said.

Yeah, this looks like the same sort of bullshit as the Riyadh Comedy Festival, and I’m as disappointed in Noyce as I was in some of the people who did thar. Noyce himself doesn’t seem overly hyped about his own work:

Noyce described The Watchful Eyes as “a low-budget kidnapping thriller”.
“Gritty and raw and shot entirely in Arabic, I don’t think the movie will attract any tourists to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Asked about the country’s human rights record and executions for drug offences, Noyce said: “I guess the story could be edited to send an anti-drug message, but the story I shot was told from the highly emotional point of view of the lead detective in the hunt for a missing child.
“Surprisingly, Sela never once interfered from a creative point of view.”

Probably not, cos I imagine they wouldn’t have needed to; they would’ve made sure they had all the creative control right from the beginning. And if Sela weren’t doing that, someone in government/the royal family would’ve been. I know that in real terms there’s been any number of Hollywood films over the decades that have performed the same function, but they don’t seem as bad as this does…

Good advice, I presume

Friend posted this on Facebook. It is, remarkably, quite real. I further presume that one of those top 5 guns is not the one you shot the faithless bitch with, which I presume you did (and then got rid of the gun) after she dumped you and now you’re building up an arsenal in case she comes back from the dead for revenge, cos I can’t see why else she appears as a zombie in the video thumbnail…

Geography lesson

Mark… my brother in Christ… mate… you’re only going to be a state senator if you even get that far. Even as a proper US senator, though, this would be somewhat beyond you. Hagia Sophia is in fucking TURKEY, and not even that goon Graham can do shit about it. Erdogan reopened it as mosque in the face of opposition from within his own country amd the UN. You think he gives a fuck about a trifling racist cunt like YOU? And it’s been a mosque since before the US was even a country, for fuck’s sake. It’s not exactly a new thing. I mean, Erdogan making it a mosque again in 2020 after Ataturk turned it into a museum in 1935 is probably not a good sign of Turkey’s health as a secular country, but if this Dixieland pissant thinks he’s going to stop him Islamising the place, he’s delusional…