Matt Taibbi on the Christian video game "Left Behind" that gets you all spiritual'n'stuff when you mix Jesus and a joystick:
if you haven't bought it already, I strongly advise everyone reading this to log on to leftbehind.com and buy the game. It is the perfect American holiday gift. Celebrate the birth of Jesus by wasting dozens of people at a time, using a provocative variety of Christ-sanctioned weapons! You can even operate tanks to destroy whole areas of New York City! Who knows, you might even get to kill Ethan Hawke ("slumming" in a ball cap and dirty jeans) in a Marxist bookstore-coffeeshop on 8th street! Kill, kill, kill!
Merry Christmas, America.
The curious silence of morality crusaders Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton with regard to this assault on the tender minds of America's youth is stunning. I mean, they're selling this pig at WalMart, for fuck's sake. The Council for American Islamic Relations, DefCon, Christian Alliance for Progress (CAP) and Talk to Action have all called on WalMart to stop selling the game. C'mon, Hils, you used to be on the board of directors. Where's all the vitriol you worked up for Grand Theft Auto? People are gonna worry this video game ratings thing is just a sop for the fundies, and you're less than interested in speaking out about violent video games that might actually be getting the lizard brains off.
Fer chrissakes, people, a little leadership here.
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Fitz!
Iraq: The Video Game
Oh my Gawd. I saw the name ‘Hillary’ mentioned. I will not take the bait. Well… perhaps not.
OK twolf…time to fess up. How do you do it?
This game just begs parody. I’m getting to work right now coding “Atheist Attack,” wherein everyone who does not surrender their religious beliefs on the spot gets sent to their own personal afterlife…
Can you imagine the fit they would have on Fox News?
If ET is here: What Surgery? If it’s ok to ask…
Oklahoma kiddo @ 3
Be strong.
up down up down left left right A A B C A activates the secret cheat ‘Foley and Haggard’ mode. You play as meth-powered Ted Haggard driving a slobbering Mark Foley around on his eternal quest for congressional pages.
RBG – timing is everything!
Who would Jesus shoot?
The people making money from Christianity by selling crap like this game have no idea who Jesus was or what he stood for. It’s mind boggling.
twolf1 @ 2
Excellent point.
No reason to buy violent vid games for the kids. After all, we have the real thing. In Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gaza. Replete with real dead bodies.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 11
For a lot of people this IS just a video game. And an opportunity to be among the chattering class on television.
As an aside, if Angie stops by, tell her old age and treachery roolz when it comes to hijacking the computer at the family gathering.
Update on ET: neurophius says it’s just routine shoulder surgery. [/fretting]
Norske Freya update, bottom previous thread.
from downstairs – to Bookwoman -
keep us posted, okay?
egregious @
6
plenty of discussion and well-wishing in Late Nite last night (rotator cuff)
I had to buy the last of the gifts today. I wanted to buy the DVD “An Inconvenient Truth” for some family members and was totally depressed when no one at Best Buy had ever heard of it. Once I said “You know, Al Gore’s film…” one person thought it sounded familiar. Fortunately a great (buyblue.org) store “Costco” was selling it, so I picked up 3 copies.
I sure hope it wins an oscar. Maybe then they’ll sell more DVD’s.
Someone should invent a video game called “Centrist Crackdown” where players could be the first to act out their violent fantasies on electronic images of Sen. Clinton, Sen. Lieberman, etc. Rather than guns or bombs, ELECTIONS would be used to eliminate the falsely pious politicians from the public arena.
Would that get their attentiion?
[Note to law enforcement: ALL I’M ADVOCATING HERE is a VIDEO GAME.]
btw, don’t bother Mayor Bloomberg with this. ain’t his jurisdiction, he don’t care, stop bothering us:
A quick note to Norske last thread.
Laugh now. With this game, our private and home-school madrassas, and a new Christian theology which teaches us to take up arms against those who contribute to the sad, sorry plight of the white Christian male, we’re raising up an Army of Bens to dispense God’s terrible justice.
TeddySanFran @ 20
Maybe Bloomberg has Wall Street pals who own a lot of stock in WalMart.
Do they even have WalMarts in NYC?
Gen. JC Christian, patriot @ 22
Kind of a Jesus Camp on steroids.
The Hill has about as much ‘leadership’ as Bill Frist which the country will soon come to realise.
Honestly, name one progressive…fuck name one truly Democratic issue she’s ‘led’ on.
And I don’t mean endorsing Joey the Liarmann during the primary against Lamont.
The Hill=Barrack=Triangulating Empty Suits.
Virtual Jesus Camp
Super Jesus Brothers
1. STOP parroting White House talk about “victory” or “success”, even if it is qualified by stating that victory is up to the Iraqis. Language has consequences. If Democrats buy into White House language, Bush shapes the discussion, the Democrats join him in fantasyland, and become the “yes, but” party.
2. START articulating the prospects realistically, where all the options are bad. Always accompany those statements with, “thanks to George Bush, his disastrous policies and incompetence….” to make it clear that no one is happy about that. Any time Bush, Cheney, Snow et al. make accusations about “losing”, throw it back in their faces, about who is responsible for this mess.
3. STOP allowing to pass without comment that, if we do not fight them in Baghdad, we will be fighting them in Boston. (During the Vietnam war, the cities were Saigon and San Francisco).
4. START stating clearly that no further sacrifice of US lives and limbs is going to impact the final outcome. That’s the clear moral (and political) fault line.
5. START focusing on the moral obligations to protect/save those who have cast their lots with us, and to help re-build the country. The latter is a ‘carrot’, as no re-building can occur without security, and security will occur only with resolution among the warring Iraqi parties. The former shifts the discussion of the US military mission to its one remaining, legitimate goal, and must include the right to emigrate (to the US, to the UK, whatever their choices).
6. Enact a tax on incomes (include all interest, capital gains, dividends as well as salaries) above $300,000, to pay, dollar-for-dollar but no more, for all further costs of the Iraq War, and sunset that tax to vanish when the last US soldier leaves Iraq.
7. USE the power of the purse to dictate where and for what the military may spend money in Iraq.
8. Wonder aloud why it is that not a single member of the Bush family has volunteered for Iraq. Use it to end every speech or statement on the war. [This is actually an extremely potent point, it strikes at the heart of their hypocrisy, but there is a conspiracy of silence among the political class and elite media against raising it. Note how Chris Matthews quickly moved to another point when Matt Damon suggested it in an MSNBC college tour interview].
From: Paul Abrams. The Blog
neurophius @ 19
The funny thing about it is, wingnuts might enjoy it almost as much as liberals would.
Well, maybe not in Lieberman’s case…
Grand Theft Chariot: Sodom and Gomorrah
People are talking about “Hills” here. I’m getting shaky.
Immortal Kombat
twolf1 @ 29
warning: to be played with a pillar of salt handy. Fire and Brimstone optional.
A perfect example of why I will never support sHillary for the nomination and if she were to win it, I would have to hold my nose to vote for her. When is sHillary going to take a consistant and principled stand on anything?
I’m envisioning Jane on Santa’s lap, asking in vain for the Clintis to show some leadership….
OT-A great comic from Sylvia
Would have been perfect for the “If you want it” thread, but I slept in today.
Speak of the Devil. The head of the Anglican church just lambasted this endless war in the Middle East. He says it is endangering Christian communities in many nations such as Iraq, Egypt, Syria and on.
The same kind of knuckleheads are in those countries saying the same stupid things as Tom Tancredo and Virgil Goode, except the other way around.
Chimpocracy ruining the world.
-GSD
Moral Kombat.
-GSD
There is only one woman in the world that can make me sweat. And God dammit. Wouldn’t you know it. She just happens to be a Senator too.
General J.C.
Hope you have a white and delightful Christmas.
-Tom Tancredo
neurophius @ 19
I like that….and all I’m advocating here is an agreement with a fellow poster on a VIDEO GAME…
I thirst for the night, or day, when I can put the issue of a certain Senator from NY to bed. Very metaphorically speaking. Of course.
The reason Hillary doesn’t go after the “Left Behind” people is that these are the people she’s “reaching out” to. These are the 29 percent of the country who still think Bush is a great leader. Some Dems, like Hillary, Biden, and Lieberman, have interpreted the Democrats’ victory in November as a mandate for Republicans. That’s a patently bizarre statement, but it’s actually true.
Thanks Rep. Tancredo. I hope the sheets I bought you fit. I wasn’t sure about the size.
TheOtherWA @ 9
I’m really surprised there hasn’t been more outrage from Christians on this issue. If you just plunked me down in the middle of this controversy with no knowledge about what the whole “Left Behind” thing was, I’d have sworn this seemed like a satirical game some non-believers cooked up to mock the hypocrisy of certain Christian institutions.
The nuts in the WH, the Congress, Tony Blair and elsewhere are going to attack Iran.
What about Senator Blanche Lincoln?
What about Senator Mark Pryor?
What about Governor Mike Huckabee?
Why aren’t these Arkansans speaking out against MallWart’s profiting on video-gaming heathen murders?
What about the Clenis?
1,373 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen oklahoma kiddo:
Do not worry, the only national ticket Mrs. Clinton will make will be the “National Unity” ticket with McCain or Lik*derman…she is toast and so is Obama. by this time next year the only opposition to Al Gore will be Edwards and he may very well end up as Big Al’s VP.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THERE’S STILL A BUNCH A THE CRITTERS OUT THERE!!
Demos. Get your s’t together on Iraq!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 45
And our party’s leadership will take its well-rehearsed bold stand: Okay, but!
Why wouldn’t the Iranians choose Xmas as the perfect day to attack our carrier groups encroaching on their sea-space?
Janeane The Acerbic Goblin @ 40
Gee I dunno know *biting nails*. Holy Joe *wouldn’t* like that one.
Oklahoma kiddo @
45
I am afraid that you may be correct my friend….The clock is really ticking on this issue now that the UN has acted.
Chimpler will be chimping at the bit to get Iraq off of America’s minds. What better way, he thinks, than a grand and bold military victory against Iran.
-GSD
We all know of course, any action against Iran will result in unmitigated disaster.
Cujo359 @ 44
Bush, in my opinion, which of course, counts for not much along these lines, is one of the “money changers”.
Gen. JC Christian, patriot @ 22
General Sir! It will be terribly hard to dispense the Lords’ terrible justice if our youss become too accustomed to combat situations in two dimensional settings. Just saying, sir!
If we attack Iran, it will be the ‘beginning’ of the end. The wingers will have gotten their wish.
Merry Christmas General,
In a heterosexual, biblical way, of course.
Joyeux Noel General!
It’s always such a pleasure when you visit us!
All of Taibbi’s article should be read–there’s a particularly funny sequence of emails from the game developers, asking people (Taibbi was apparently on their pre-release mailing list) to pray for their marketing success.
And, he says something to the effect that isn’t it odd that the Muslim fundies and the home-grown Talibangelicals both picked NYC to wreak havoc upon…?
Gore/Edwards. Gore/Clark. Gore/Feingold. Gore/Hamsher. Gore/CHS. Hmmm…
montag @ 57
yeah, remember the universal sentiment on 9/12/01: we are all New Yorkers? now, not so much….
TeddySanFran @ 49
Well, actually Christmas Eve is on a Sunday this year. Wouldn’t that be better? Anyway, if you’re going to bomb American ships, Sunday is the traditional day. Even better, Sunday isn’t even the sabbath for Muslims. Curious how they arranged that, eh?
The first female president of the United States should have been but sadly was not, my former rep Ms. Barbara Jordan. What a classy lady. When I was a child in the segregated south, she crossed all racial and gender lines to be the best representative Houston ever had.
MargaretPOA @ 62
I cannot but agree.
Gen. JC Christian, patriot @
43
I feel privileged just to be here.
We (Americans) are just about ‘over the top’. Democrats. Do something!
Gen. JC Christian, patriot @ 43
Doncha just love people who are easy to buy for?
:)
TeddySanFran @ 46
Senators Who?
Huckabee is in a bit of trouble for accepting
bribeshousewarming gifts. His wife set up a registry and really cleaned up. Looks like they also accepted (as a gift) a large amount of furniture donated during his residency in the Gov. mansion. Now that they are leaving and the furniture which is supposed to stay in the mansion is nowhere to be found.Lots of problems with Huckabee but his thin skin will most likely be Dems greatest gift.
TeddySanFran @ 34
Now you’ve done it TSF!
By suggesting that Jane does lap dances for Santa, you’ve forced all Wingnuts at the last minute to update their Xmas wish lists.
What is Santa to do?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 52
I always figured him for one of the folks who’d be chanting for Barabbas. Let’s just say it’s a choice that would fit his talent for decision making.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 63
I would have liked to see her appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
She loved our Constitution.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 63
Indeed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Jordan
Olbermann for Press Secretary. Hamsher for head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and CHS for A.G. Noam Chomsky for Counsel to the President. Need I say more?
Teddy, your mention of laps…surely you saw this article on lap dances for charity:
TSF said:
The worrying part is that we’ll attack ourselves and say they did it.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 72
Ahem,
May I respectfully submit Bustednuckles for Secretary of Transportation?
punaise @ 73
“”I’m a good person, even though I don’t wear very much to work,” said Debbie Licious, the woman who danced with the dog. “I’m a dancer. I don’t need to wear a business suit to do the right thing.”
We have no devolved back to the days of the Crusades, also called the dark age.
punaise @
73
It’s the most booty-full time of the year.
-GSD
SusanD @ 74
Gulf of Tonkin, er, Persian Gulf Incident?
Exactly.
Bustednuckles @ 75
OK. …Bustednuckels for Sec. of Trans. Sounds good to me!
This year’s offerings, incidentally, are slightly above average. In Canada there is a developing serial crime story involving an enormous nativity scene in Old Montreal, a scene that goes up every year as part of the Fete de Noel. Last year, thieves boosted the baby Jesus; his body was never recovered. from Matt Taibbi
Ah ha, it’s a world wide epidemic. The purloining of the Baby Jeebus. I wonder how the General weighs in on this phenomenon
From Gaza:
Abbas ally, bodyguard, girl wounded in intensifying factional fighting
Oh humm.
TeddySanFran @ 50
The nightmare scenario. The problem is, we won’t be able to detect until 100 years from now that the orders to attack our carrier came from Washington. Pearl Harbor papers are still classified. Why.
Will people be willing to carry out these orders? People did a lot of things to obey in 2001, but I think they might have second thoughts now.
Anything with the Left Behind tag on it is no doubt a bunch of inane crap, and a “Christian-themed first person shooter” seems like an oxymoron at best, and a sordid nightmare in the worst case.
But why encourage anyone to move toward censorship?? Most people on the left or right would argue that Sen Clinton’s stand on violent videogames is one of the most annoying things about her (except my grandmother, maybe!!).
My guess is this game will tank, and a store boycott would only build buzz on it, anyway. Better to let the market sort it out. There’s plenty of blood and gorefest type video games out there already, so it’s not like this one is going to break new ground.
Also, to my fellow commenters, comparing private schools (catholic??) and home schooling to the madrassas is a cheap shot and irresponsible to boot.
There are numerous madrassas on the pakistan/afghan border indoctrinating people for a life of Jihad; while the Left Behind game may be repugnant, it does not compare to teaching people how to plant an IED or strap on a suicide vest, or indoctrinating them to believe that doing such acts is the moral high ground.More often than not, the targets of violence emanating from these madrassas are innocent civilians in places like Afghanistan, whose only crime was trying to carry on with their lives.
That’s a far cry from anything I learned/didn’t learn in 13 years of catholic school, my friends.
News: senior Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan. Oooh, it is #2 or #3?
egregious @
86
it’s the 427th #2
The Middle East is exploding.
twolf1 @ 87
So, why is it always the #2 guy in the Taliban, but the #3 guy in Al Qaeda? Who decides who’s #2 or #3, anyway? /SARCASM
Titanyum @ 77
No, the “dark ages” (so-called) were before the crusades. The crusades are the “middle ages”. The wingnuts and the neocons would be perfectly happy with either one, since they figure to be the ones running the show.
twolf1 @ 31
Immoral Kombat
Family gift x change now.
Happy holidays.
Excessive whining about gift to follow tommorow.
/ holiday
/snark
Imagine if Custer and the Indians ( I dislike the term ‘Indians”. It’s ‘Native Americans’ or “the people”, I prefer) had, had nuclear weapons.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 30
Be strong.
So, why is it always the #2 guy in the Taliban, but the #3 guy in Al Qaeda? Who decides who’s #2 or #3, anyway? /SARCASM
Karl Rove
let’s not let a few differences Kombat Ween us
Oklahoma kiddo @ 45
God help us.
They are serious.
OT
From the Times Picayune
BATON ROUGE — Echoing comments from Louisiana’s congressional delegation, Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco expressed outrage Friday over the state’s $74.5 million share of a $388 million pilot housing program for storm-ravaged states, and she called it a parting shot from a Republican Congress with a pattern of favoring GOP-dominated Mississippi.
snip
Blanco said she does not begrudge Mississippi its recovery money, saying the state’s residents “have a lot of needs as well.” But, she added, “Louisiana has 75 percent of the damage and we got 20 percent of this money.”
snip
This lopsided abuse has been going on since day one of Katrina.
GSD @ 52
We have GOT to get this issue pushed higher up in the food chain. Ideas? Before WWIII?
I will not discuss any kinds of ‘Hills’. Well… for at least the next five nano-secs.
An attack on Iran is now imminent.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 93
Custer and the Original Americans
Oklahoma kiddo @ 100
Be strong.
egregious @ 102
“Original”. I love it.
Sounds like the newest rock group.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 93
I suspect Custer would have behaved no differently–he would have, in his inimitable judgment, messed himself up bad, no matter the means….
Eureka Springs, AR @ 101
I believe you are most correct on this.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 104
Comports well with “Real Americans” and “First Americans”.
I try to ignore my logic on the stupidity of an Iranian attack but then I realize the pattern of willful neocon treachery and their illogical approach.. They are f**cking sociopaths who see themselves as martyrs. God I hope Sy Hersh and the others are wrong.
montag @ 106
Sounds like someone we know today.
montag @ 106
Probably… yes. I think you are right.
The god of war triumphs over the prince of peace yet again. The hubris of the Christianists is breathtaking!
neurophius @ 110
Are we speaking of our Commando in Chief?
Sorry I freaked a couple people out earlier. Just back from my last routine test before routine left shoulder rotator cuff reconstruct scheduled for 12/27 -28. My EKG nurse told me I have the heart of a 35-yo. i’m 60.
Not to worry, and thanks for concern. Now out to go to a movie and finish finding stocking stuffers.
New Video Game – where we lock up corrupt politicians and crazy Left Behind addicts. We force them to listen to Yanni while eating granola and yoghurt, watching old episodes of Bill Moyers and Frontline. They’re kept in their seats by the devices used in Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange.” Oh yeah – then they have to watch “Clockwork Orange,” being reminded that the composer of the movie’s score had a sex change operation from the money he-then-she made from the royalties.
new thread upstairs
http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..ough-rope/
Oklahoma kiddo @ 113
Without a doubt.
my bad, missed the opening left angle bracket on that one.
new thread upstairs
Jim Clausen @ 109
Go over to democracynow.org and read the transcript of Sy and Scott Ritter from this weeks show. It’s going to happen.
Eureka Springs, AR @ 101
I thought Bush would need the consent of congress to attack Iran. Not likely to happen.
Happy Holidays everybody
Titanyum @ 119
According to the VOA, the U.N. resolution just passed forbids using military action to enforce it:
Not sure it will stop the neocons, but it certainly ought to.
There’s a new thread in town. That link should work.
In the early 90s, there was a game for Macs called “Rupture the Rapture”. LOL funny!
The player controlled a VW Bug (moving left & right) at the bottom of the screen. The Bug had a machine gun mounted on it, with which the player would shoot out of the sky the xian “souls” trying to flee heavenward. Once hit, the xians would become “devils” and head downward (at high speed).
I played it once – quite “soul-satisfying”. hehehehehe
Jesus and a JoyStick – isn’t that like Jerking Off? First let’s do, let’s kill all the christians!
[Mod note; not that you are personally advocating violence toward any fellow human being, right?]
Thomas Ware @ 124
Sounds like somebody misquoting Shakespeare
Well, as long as the kill-all-nonChristians “Left Behind” video game doesn’t have any “sex scenes” or “nude babes” or any of that other “secular, liberal immorality” stuff then it’s okay…right? Unlike that Grand Theft Auto, which I’ve heard mixes a whole lot of violence with, gasp, some sexy segments.
Religious terrorists, and their sympathizers, are all alike. Violence is okay in their book, but sex of any kind is a major no-no. So, the “Left Behind” video game is okay by Walmart standards (because there’s no sex), even though it is a video game that literally promotes genocide.
And, of course, Hillary Clinton, in her attempt to attract votes (if she runs for president) from the genocidal maniacal crowd that worships the “Left Behind” series, will not say or do anything that might offend this incredibly delusional (and often dangerous) segment of our society.
Which is why I’d find it very difficult (and disturbing) to vote for Hillary Clinton if she did run for president. She was (and apparently still is) a conservative Goldwater Girl. She has the same conservative streak in her that Joe Lieberman (the ultra-orthodox religious guy) has in him. And in 2000, I almost didn’t vote for the Gore/Lieberman ticket because of the possibilty of having an ultra-conservative, orthodox religious guy one step removed from the presidency. And we all know what a creep little Joey is by now.
So, I’m not fooled when the so-called anti-Sex and Violence crowd start promoting their censorship of our freedom-loving society. They are really going after the “sex” while using the “violence” as a cover for their real agenda.