Bill O’Reilly now skeptical about the Bush administration.

I think hell has officially frozen over now.

(Thanks for the link, Chris!)

Some observations about the commercials (separate from the list of good commercials):

The good ones so far… (being continually updated)

Good thing: The wonderful people of Wait Wait — Don’t Tell Me! used Howard Dean’s scream as their buzzer on Saturday’s show

Even cooler thing: They referred to it as his “barbaric yawp”.

The even cooler thing than above: I actually know where the term comes from. 😀

I love NPR — they make me feel cool for being a smart person who reads way more than she should.

Woman charged over lost lottery ticket claim
I can’t believe she was stupid enough to say that her intentions were good: she “wanted to win so bad for [her] kids, [her] family.” Uh huh. Sorry lady… those aren’t good intentions — those are greedy ambitions. You deserve the maximum penalties for filing a false police report. If nothing else, you wasted the time/money/reseources of the Cleveland police, denied the rightful winner her prize, and lied to the nation. You deserve no sympathy.

Pete Rose Wants Baseball to Forgive Him
OK… you finally came clean in a book that is making you $$$$, you actually *agreed* to the lifetime ban 15 years ago, and you somehow think that you deserve to be in the Hall of Fame/be re-instated/manage another team? How stupid are you Pete? Yes, you bet on your team to win; but that was a bet whose outcome you could control. You basically rigged games, taking all the fun out of the sport and you profitted from it. You’re just a greedy, washed-up, unrepetant slimeball and I pity those who actually think you deserve another chance. Why don’t you donate the proceeds of your book to a group like Gamblers Anonymous and then maybe we’ll believe you.

Dean Says Faith Swayed Decision on Gay Unions
Uh huh. You claim that homosexuality must not be a sin if God created gay people. So basically, overeating (gluttony) isn’t a big deal because God created some people to have a greater appetite than others? Is alcoholism OK because some people have a greater predisposition to it? Just because I have a predisposition to something, it does not mean it is necessarily good for me or for my relationship with God. Add Romans 3:23 onto that please.

Dean, you’re alienating those of us who feel put off by Dubya but are still conservative Christians. Stop it. It’s great that you’re thinking of “those who are left behind” but… they’ve made a choice to act on something that isn’t in accordance with God’s will. Yes, Jesus would have hung out with gays and lesbians but He would have told them to “go and sin no more”, not to continue in their way. You can declare something blessed; but it is not truly blessed unless the Lord blesses it.

(Thanks Dave for the link to this.)

David van Biema, the associate editor of TIME, made the following claim in his August 11th article on Mary Magdalene:

Most scholars discount a Jesus-Magdalene match because it finds little echo in the canonical Gospels once the false Magdalenes are removed. But it fulfills a deep narrative expectation: for the alpha male to take a mate, for a yin to Jesus’ yang or, as some neopagans have suggested, for a goddess to his god. Martin Luther believed that Jesus and Magdalene were married, as did Mormon patriarch Brigham Young.

OK… does anyone see a problem here? Kudos to those who said, “But Jen, Martin Luther didn’t believe that!” Why am I so sure that van Biema is wrong? Well… I checked the Book of Concord for any mention of Mary Magdalene and there was none. Believe me, if Luther had thought that Christ being married to Mary Magdalene was true, it would be in there. I also know that Luther spoke out muchly on the cult of the saints and would not have tolerated the idea of the dualism presented by Mary Magdalene being married to Jesus Christ. (For the faith issues I have with this, read my post on The DaVinci Code.)

I’m a little irritated at the mistake made by van Biema because a lot of people are going to take his word that it was what Luther believed. He is promoting heresy and I really don’t think he cares that he was wrong. (For those who want to say that people aren’t that stupid, Google “mary magdalene Jesus Christ Luther” and see what you come up with. There are a few Christian forum discussions where people quote the TIME article as their evidence. This is even with scholars like Elaine Pagels disputing it.) I know that he isn’t Christian, but you’d think he could make the effort to GET THE FACTS RIGHT.

My belief is that all “religion reporters” should:
a.) hold a concurrent degree in Religious Studies with their journalism degrees
b.) be an adherent of the faith about which they are reporting

Then again, I’m just an idealist…

**Update** OK… it was a flippant remark made in Tabletalk, which were a group of discourses with people. Considering that Luther was usually drinking during these, it’s probably not unlikely that it was a drunken comment. And of course, van Biema wouldn’t have the sense to consider the source. The link has a pretty good explanation on it. (You have to understand Luther to get why I’m just passing this off as him being drunk.)