Minnesota and Iraq

Today the fifth casualty was counted in the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

As of this posting, icasualties.org has confirmed 3652 deaths of American troops in Iraq, 5 in the first 3 days of August.

The Minneapolis count may slowly rise over the next few days.

The count in Iraq will certainly rise. But no one's talking about that today.

Jesus for Sale! Concrete Jesus for Sale!

Get your hot, fresh pareidolia here!



Yes, once again, someone has combined their personal faith, "white Jesus" iconography, and the human being's innate ability to recognize facial characteristics out of seemingly random images, and this time it has manifested in Concrete Jesus.

WSET has the Concrete Jesus Story: Deb Serio was blacktopping her driveway, left a bucket in the garage, and a day or so later, viola: instant idol worship. But Deb's had Concrete Jesus in her garage for over a year. Why is this making news now?

I kept thinking of that grilled cheese sandwich, remember the grilled cheese sandwich that sold for like $30,000 and I thought, well ya know, someone valued that, someone got something out of that, so maybe someone will get something out of this.

Deb means maybe she will get something out of this.

And you, too, have a chance to own Concrete Jesus: He's on ebay. And you have less than a week left. But as opposed to the Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary, we're only at $250 as of August 2nd. Then again, Concrete Jesus doesn't have a bite taken out of it. Deb may be in for a serious windfall.

In a completely unscientific move, I have inverted the image, like they did with the Shroud of Turin, to possibly reveal an even clearer image of the Savior of Cement:



Crap. That didn't work. Now Jesus looks like nothing more than classic CSI blacklight on the bedsheets. Seminal Jesus. Ewww.

So back to the original:



Squinty, stylized eye, low mouth, I'm going with Akira Toriyama, illustrator of Dragonball Z, or Bruce Timm's Batman.

At the very least, can we all agree that the Lord didn't have a neckbeard?


NOTE: While this and other stories do and will fall under the "Christ on a Bun!" label, I have refrained from placing that in the title. I tired of it. If you, fair reader, have any input or feeling about this change, leave it in the comments. I will probably make fun of you. And your neckbeard.

UPDATE: The bidding has ended! Going once, going twice, and Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior is SOLD in 29 bids for US $1,525.69. Sorry Deb, no $30K windfall this time around.

Fox Attacks: Bloggers

According to FOX News and the goons who fill in the slots with their own right-wing babble, left wing bloggers like myself are the scourge of our planet. From the lovelies over at FoxAttacks.com:


[Alternate YouTube Link]

Seriously. Do something.

Christ on a Bun! Bible Dolls!

I mean "action figures," of course, because you'd hate to imbue those pretty, pretty boys with the snake venom of female play culture; it's not about combing hair or tending sheep...unless you're talking about Samson or David.

Didn't I do this back in April?



BBC has shouted us out to the next Xmas favorite: Bible Dolls! Or, er, action figures. Yes, kids, you, too, could create your own anachronisms! Samson vs. Goliath! David vs. Jesus! Moses vs. Herod!

Your muscle-bound faith can battle against itself, or against the God-starved children of Hogwarts Castle (or, at least their action figures), to teach them the true way to Heaven. Only one way to let Harry know about the One, True Lord: with muscle.

What the hell?

Exactly.

Chopper Crash Blame Game: Driver or Media?

A nice one for the families, ABCNews.com, via AP Photo/La Voz-The Arizona Republic, AJ Alexander

On Friday, you have probably heard, there was a not-so-crazy car chase in Phoenix, Arizona. During the chase, two media choppers - each holding a pilot and cameraman - collided and dropped to the ground, leaving no survivors.

In examining the wreckage and maintenance logs for possible causes of the crash, police have come to one possible answer: blame it on Christopher J. Jones, the cause of the chase.

What-what?

Yes, the police are now looking at charging Chris Jones with four counts of murder on top of everything else. I am not a bleeding heart "the criminal is the victim" sort, especially when some jackass steals a car and runs from police. But the helicopter crash falls far from his lap.

I'm not going into a diatribe on media morality, but if it bleeds, it leads, and if those photogs had captured a spectacular pile-up, violent suicide, or hostage event, the footage would have led every news hour for a week and they might even have been up for a local Emmy. This means more viewers, more ratings, more money, etc.

If a police officer died in pursuit of Chris Jones, another charge is not out of the question; an officer's job is to serve the public good, and while an official chase is not without questions of necessity, better to get a criminal off the streets than not.

But that's not what happened; somebody fucked up while chasing the $USDs pinned to Chris Jones's ass, and now four people are dead.

I could reductio ad absurdum this into the ground or reduce it to the station's fault for having certain policies or equipment, the police's fault for giving chase, or even God's fault (because, in the end, doesn't He run the show?).

Adding criminal charges to Chris Jones because a couple peeping toms with media passes and helicopters killed each other is like blaming the malaria the National Geographic photog gets on the antelope that was taken down by the lion.

I'm still searching for words, but unless it's the simple, obvious, "everyone loves a patsy and we've already got one" angle, how does this even make sense?