Josh at TPM has got a new Christianist Dog Whistle catch from Hucklebee’s campaign, and I think he’s underplaying it. It sounds simple to the point of simplistic (like a lot of Hucky’s stuff) but it is a deep and foul pit indeed once you dig into it.

The word is “Vertical.” Josh has a screen shot with the quote “I think the country is looking for somebody who is vertical, who is thinking, Let’s take America up and not down.”

So what is a “vertical thinker” anyway? Horizontal brings to mind Fred Thompson, but resist that thought and think in terms of society, and communities, and how we organize ourselves and agree to follow certain rules: i.e., government.

The short? “Vertical” means that rules—which is to say laws—come down from God Above, and all we can, and should, and must do is obey them. “Horizontal” thinking by contrast is what us old time freethinkers thought was the social contract, agreements, the coming together of people to agree, one person one vote, on what the laws would be.

Not in Huck’s world.  Read more 

So, have you watched it? In a way, this video might as well be porn; the same skanky decor; the same plot that’s only an excuse for a licensed, consequence-free orgy—except, given the Christianist context, it’s all about catharsis through rage and destruction, not release through fucking.

For those who can’t play it:

An Office Space-guy is surfing the net, sees a “X-X-X Girls Girls Girls X-X-X” pop-up on his computer, reels back in horror, grabs—Will Doctor Freud please pick up the white courtesy phone?—a golf-club, and demolishes his computer; ripping the innards out of the computer is lovingly, not to say graphically, illustrated; the flailing and smashing and tearing goes on for several minutes. At the climax, the guy’s boss appears, hands him a cup of coffee, and asks “Porn?” And the guy says “Porn.”

Which would be, I suppose, the money shot. Funny how the male authority figure who comes in at the end hands the guy some hot liquid isn’t it? Doctor Freud? But perhaps I associate too freely.

I’d like to focus on the bizarre theology of the video:  Read more 

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[Oops. Alert reader George points out in comments that it’s Monaghan.]

What a shame. We can but hope that Monahan loses many more millions on his doomed and delusional project. Apparently, the Christianists have fallen to fighting among themselves:

In April of 2007, the Association of Ave María Faculty, which represented a vast majority of Ave María’s faculty, publicly stated that the AMSL Dean had employed “threats and retaliation to try to silence members of the faculty from voicing concerns about his leadership and that of [the Chair of Ave Maria Law School’s Board].” They further alleged financial punishment, the monitoring of faculty email and voice mail, and “manipulation of the promotion and tenure system.” They also reported that “[o]ne tenured faculty member has been repeatedly threatened with termination based upon bizarre allegations” and that “junior faculty members have been threatened that their careers would be harmed if they associate with disfavored tenured faculty.”

So, what’s their point? Didn’t they know what they were getting into? This is how the wingers behave to everybody else, so what made the professors think they were special?  Read more 

I’ll be waiting for the pearl-clutching and tut-tut-ery from our Serious, Moderate, and Centrist punditocracy about divisiveness and lack of Civility on this one:

Rick Scarborough, a Southern Baptist preacher and president of Texas-based Vision America, said that while he is encouraged by Thompson’s strong voting record in the Senate against abortion, he questioned the candidate’s commitment to social issues.

“The problem I’m having is that I don’t see any blood trail,” Scarborough said. “When you really take a stand on issues dear to the heart of social conservatives, you’re going to shed some blood in the process. And so far, Fred Thompson’s political career has been wrinkle-free.”

My Goodness! Nice snark on “wrinkle-free,” but what’s with the “blood trail”?  Read more