Dobson endorses Obama

At least that's the end result in my universe.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25343812

Call it a tacit endorsement: Anything Dobson downplays or disparages gets a bump in likability commensurate with Dobson's vehemence.

The AP article is light on details, but the really delicious part is this:

Dobson has not backed off his statement that he could not in good conscience vote for McCain because of concerns over the Arizona senator's conservative credentials. Dobson has said he will vote in November but has suggested he might not vote for president.

How wonderful is that? There's no presidential candidate fuck-nut crazy enough for Dobson. I have no real data to support my position, but just maybe Bush's public intercourse of religious fundamentalism and ass-backward conservatism has at least temporarily nuked both ideologies. I still think McCain will win conservative evangelicals by a comfortable margin, but one wonders what the Dobsonites ultimately will do. An unforseen spike in Constitution Party vote share, perhaps?

You ask me, the GOP is still the party of the non-atheist even if their current figurehead is something of a libertine. Perhaps the gap is closing, but I'm wary that this mini-trend of tolerance is a backlash and, as such, is subject to a lash in the other direction if conditions warrant.

Kathy Griffin? Are you gay?

I hate reality TV. I vaguely recall watching the first two seasons of The Real World and maybe the first of Road Rules. I remember some fights, some accusations, some well-meaning gay AIDS-activist and his cartoonishly intransigent foil. I willingly watched a few early episodes of the first season of Dancing With the Stars and soon realized that every episode thereafter would be B-listers fucking tango-ing.

I was watching baseball this evening and it occurred to me that I hadn't so much as glanced anything on ABC (apart from sports) for longer than I can recall. It further occurred to me that any time I fired up my digital-enhanced on-screen guide (one of the decade's great overlooked inventions, sez I), I noted that ABC was airing three hours of Swapped Nannies Being Made Over in Extreme Homes seemingly every weeknight. Sure enough, a digitally-enhanced skip over to ABC's prime time lineup showed three hours of Brats Dancing with Bachelors on Inventors' Home Videos. Thus, my prophecy self-fulfilled and my bias reinforced.

The upshot of all this is that I find myself, in classic Gomer Pyle-style, surpraaaaaaiiiiiised at how much I dig Kathy Griffin's My Life on the D-List. In my universe, Griffin has gone from cute, clever Seinfeldian to deliciously self-deprecating, over-the-top attention whore in a matter of months. My ex-roommate turned me on to the show last year and, in my abject joblessness, I was able to watch a MLotDL marathon last weekend. It's in a new season (three?) and new episodes air on Thursdays at 9 Central. Odd as this sounds, I can't recommend the show enough to the showbiz-weary among you. If you hate Paris Hilton news coverage more than you hate Paris Hilton, then watch the show.

To make this topical, she's self-identified as an atheist, and her "Suck it, Jesus" Emmy acceptance speech ranks as my favorite atheist-friendly moment of the past twelve months.



For the record, I am not gay. Not that terribly many records will exert themselves to note my sexual orientation, but I suppose I need to answer the question asked in the title.

Watch the show or I'll get a job, I swear.