***

“In all that heresy, is there something that would make a devout Mormon lead the country in an un-Christian manner? Yes, they might think their spiritual bosses in Salt Lake City have God on the hot-line, but how does that differ from Catholics who think B16's got God on direct-connect? Or how does it differ from the "Spirit-filled" folks who've democratized the hot-line?”

– Mark Byron on whether evangelicals would vote for a Mormon presidential candidate. ***

"I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern world.""

-- Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay and husband to actress Gwyneth Paltrow. ***

"I had been really looking forward to Coldplay’s next album: X&Y. At first, I was a little irked because Chris Martin, the leadsinger for the band was upset by all the pressure wrought upon him by capitalist swine. So, I figured, 'no biggy… I’ll put Kazaa on my laptop for a day and just rip the whole thing off the internet, bless his little socialist heart.'"

-- Charles Simpson from Pros & Cons ***

“Planned Parenthood of Houston wants you to know that "most Catholics disagree with [the] church's stand on birth control." That's just in case you're Catholic and are wondering whether you should heed Pope Benedict XVI or Margaret Sanger.”

- Dawn Eden of The Dawn Patrol ***

“People (and by "people" I mean contestants on American Idol) are willing to invest all that they have in the faint hope they'll receive a fleeting and worthless moment as the center of attention for an audience of bored idiots. (If you doubt me, compel yourself to watch an episode, regrettably available on DVD and video, of Jackass.) Tax the media and entertainment industry at a million percent and it will continue to produce a surplus of celebrities with Stakhanovite labor heroism.”

– P.J. O’Rourke on his modest proposal to tax celebrity. ***

“[R]ight-wing extremism tends to be, at least for some people, a stage of puberty: the coolest, most effective and possibly even the only way to shock liberal parents who these days are not even fazed by Ecstasy or poor grades.”

-- Youth psychologist Wolfgang Bergmann, on the rise of Neo-Nazism in German youth culture ***

"[W]hile Lutherans call denial of the Real Presence "heresy," we don't believe that all Baptists and Calvinists are therefore consigned to the eternal, fiery pits of hell. You just go to Kansas when you die."

- Josh Strodtbeck explaining the difference between heresy and blasphemy. ***

"The scary thing for this "cognitive tourist" is that I find myself scanning for and reading the shortest blog entries and articles most of the time. Even if a blog entry title is something that peaks my interest I will most likely skip it if it looks too lengthy! I almost skipped over [your post] due to it's length... sad, I know. With so many great blogs out there and great links one is left with the sense that there is just no time to stop and think too long. You just have to keep going and going so you don't miss anything, but in the end you end up digesting very little.”

--Anonymous commenter at Keith Plummer’s blog The Christian Mind