News Roundup for 7/12/10

Totally insane and definitely hellbound

-Headline of the day-
"Yoga and Christianity: Are They Compatible?"

And the answer to that question, according to the American Family Association's Kerby Anderson, is that yoga is fine for Christians -- that is, if you want to go insane before you go to hell.

See, it turns out that yoga has a whole bunch of Hindu stuff attached to it and everyone knows that all religions other than Christianity are satanic. It just goes without saying. As a result, "yoga is an ancient spiritual discipline whose central doctrines are utterly incompatible with those of Christianity."

And it's dangerous too. According to the report, if you're not careful, you can suffer a brain injury which "no known science or doctor can cure." Worse, "yoga practice can endanger one's sanity." Of course, later in the piece Kirby concludes that yoga positions are "similar, if not identical, to exercises and stretches one is already doing." And these are fine. Because they aren't yoga. So no brain diseases or insanity, even though they're the same thing. I don't know, you figure it out. It doesn't seem to make any damned sense at all to me.

Anyway, if you're a Christian and you're doing yoga, you're going to hell in a straitjacket. Why? Because the AFA says so, that's why. If that's not good enough for you, then you hate Jesus and America and are probably a terr'ist.

End of discussion. (American Family Association, via Right Wing Watch)


-Remembering Harvey Pekar-
The author of the autobiographical comic American Splendor died early this morning at his home. He was 70 years old. While his initial claim to fame was the comic, later made into a movie, many will remember him as a notoriously impossible-to-interview talk show guest. Here's Pekar with David Letterman.

In Harvey's defense, Letterman was an infamously nasty interviewer at the time and would often get laughs by ridiculing his guests (he later admitted to abusing alcohol during this period). So it was a preemptive sort of thing. "[W]ith Letterman... you either lay down and let him insult you or you do something about it," Pekar said later about appearing on Late Night. "Most people keep their mouth shut and let him dump on them. I don't wanna do that."

If it were up to me, all talk shows would be like this. RIP, Harvey Pekar. (YouTube, New York Magazine)


-Bonus HotD-
"Jimmy Buffett revises Margaritaville lyrics: 'It's all BP's fault.'"

You know, I never really liked Jimmy Buffett... Until now. (Think Progress, with video)