The Nonsense of Pastor Poppins

UPDATE VI:  "A German scientist named Klaus Conrad coined [the term] apophanie (from the Greek apo, away, and phaenein, to show) in 1958 . . . [to describe] the acute stage of schizophrenia, during which unrelated details seem saturated in connections and meaning. Unlike an epiphany—a true intuition of the world’s interconnectedness—an apophany is a false realization. . . . a weakness of human cognition: the 'pervasive tendency … to see order in random configurations,' an 'unmotivated seeing of connections,' the experience of 'delusion as revelation' . . . 'the tendency to be overwhelmed by meaningful coincidences.' . .

expert detectors of conspiracies in random events, whispers in radio static, and the Virgin Mary in grilled cheese."

Read Slate, It’s All Connected. 

UPDATE V:  Extraordinary coincidences are not godly miracles, in fact "extremely improbable events are commonplace. Since that may sound like a contradiction, let’s take a closer look.

The improbability principle is composed of five laws, analogous to the four laws of thermodynamics or Newton’s three laws of motion. These laws, the law of inevitability, the law of truly large numbers, the law of selection, the law of the probability lever, and the law of near enough, explain exactly why we should expect to encounter highly unlikely events, and indeed why we should expect to do so on a regular, even frequent, basis. Any one of the laws acting by itself can lead to a highly improbable event—like people winning the lottery twice, or 26 black numbers coming up one after another in roulette. (The details of these as well as many other apparently extraordinarily unlikely events are given in my book.) But the impact of the principle gets even stronger when the laws intertwine and work together."

Read Slate, It’s Not Actually a Miracle.

UPDATE IV: Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) is fond of citing current events as fulfillment of 'prophesy' of the soon-to-be apocalypse (in support of his personal religious myths of course). Why are people addicted to such 'predictions?' Read The New York Times, Bold Predictions: Always Enticing, Often Wrong.


UPDATE III: Mike did a beautiful take down of Bob's complaint that he wasn't getting a social security COLA increase, pointing out that people are fiscal hypocrites.

The scary part, neither of them thought it was the lest bit ironic. Bob and Joe (who called later), people like him, and Pastor Poppins of Pensacola are clueless.


UPDATE II: Then Pastor Poppins of Pensacola spoke approvingly of the Republi-con bestiality candidate.

I wonder if his church members would agree?


UPDATE: On today's show, Pastor Poppins of Pensacola just said there were WMDs found in Iraq after the invasion.

Still makin that bitter medicine of the truth (there were no WMDs in Iraq) go down, with those spoons full of lies.

What do Pastor Poppins of Pensacola and Paul the octopus have in common? Nonsense correlations. Read The New York Times, The Oracle of Oberhausen.

So Thursday's question will be:

Is God speaking to us through Paul and oil spills and our very own Pastor Poppins, Pensacola's prophet with 'special insight', or

Is it just ""temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events," also known as synchronicity.

Tune in from 4:05 to 6:00 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY (and on line, courtesy of Cyber Smart Computers) and find out.

The End of the World is Near, Again

UPDATE VIII:  Read also Wikipedia, Apocalypticism.  

UPDATE VII:   FYI, "ISIS's interpretation of Islam is not literal. It is not serious."

Read The Atlantic, What Muslims Really Want, which notes that:

"The Quran is a single volume, roughly the length of the New Testament. It is a complex and nuanced text that deals with legal, moral, and metaphysical questions in a subtle and multifaceted way. Then there are the hadith, or records of sayings and doings of the Prophet Muhammad, which run into dozens of volumes spanning literally hundreds of thousands of texts, each on average a few sentences long. Then there is the juridical and theological literature about the Quran and the hadith, which consists of thousands of works written throughout Islamic history.

Does ISIS cite 'texts'? Yes, though its main method is to cite individual hadith that support its positions. But remember: The hadith consist of hundreds of thousands of discrete items that range from faithfully transmitted teachings to outright fabrications attributed to the prophet, and every gradation in between.

Over the centuries, jurists and theologians of every stripe, Sunni and Shiite, have devised rational, systematic methods for sifting through hadith, which are often difficult to understand or seem to say contrary things about the same questions. They have ranked and classified these texts according to how reliable they are, and have used them accordingly in law and theology. But ISIS does not do this. Its members search for text snippets that support their argument, claim that these fragments are reliable even if they are not, and disregard all contrary evidence—not to mention Islam’s vast and varied intellectual and legal tradition. Their so-called 'prophetic methodology' is nothing more than cherry-picking what they like and ignoring what they do not. . .

What distinguishes the interpretive approach of groups like ISIS from others is not its literalism (Sufis are indeed the most 'literal' of all such interpreters of the Quran) but its narrowness and rigidity; for the adherents of ISIS, the Quran means exactly one thing, and other levels of meaning or alternate interpretations are ruled out a priori. This is not literalism. It is exclusivism."

Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins) does the same, always claiming his interpretation of the Bible is inerrant. 

UPDATE VI:  Hallelujah, we are saved.  It appears that certain claims of the end times by our local Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins) are "completely off-the-wall . . . an exercise in imagination that is going to confuse many people," so says his "dear and valued friend."

Read Lamb & Lion Ministries Blog, A Confused Book About Revelation.

One commenter even said that Imam Truthiness "wrote this book, purely to make money." Another wrote that he "has been deceived by Satan."  And yet anothers write that he "has been caught up with demonic deceits, this has happened many times over the yrs" and he is "a false prophet. Or if you don't want to go that far...at least he has lost his way on the subject matter in his book."

 

UPDATE V:  After reading The Atlantic article, it is clear that ISIS is to Islam as David Koresh was to Christianity.  

UPDATE IV:  ISIS "is a religious group . . . [that believes] that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse."

Read The Atlantic, What ISIS Really Wants, which notes that for "certain true believers—the kind who long for epic good-versus-evil battles—visions of apocalyptic bloodbaths fulfill a deep psychological need."

And just how to advance the apocalypse -- with a religious war -- which it seems Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins) would also like.

UPDATE III:  As noted before, Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) is fond of citing current events as fulfillment of 'prophesy' of the soon-to-be apocalypse (in support of his personal religious myths of course). Why are people addicted to such 'predictions?'

It turns out his ideology is shared by Islamic fundamentalist.

Read CNN, Why does ISIS keep making enemies?, which notes that ISIS "ideology is that of an apocalyptic cult that believes that we are living in the end times and that ISIS' actions are hastening the moment when this will happen."

UPDATE II:  "Bigotry has always existed, and though its techniques may change, its goal is always largely the same. The bigot, Bronner writes, 'directs his hatred against those who threaten (or might threaten) his privileges, his existential self-worth' by challenging the prevailing prejudices of the day. His beliefs are unquestionably the right ones; he 'hears the Lord’s voice and he condemns those who don’t, or interpret it otherwise.' But if you criticize the bigot for his antediluvian views, he’ll scurry behind the shield of 'traditions' and 'established habits.' . . 

So while the bigot may be a 'true believer,' he is also a pragmatist. He can twist mythologies, including religion and imagined tradition, to fit his needs in a thousand different ways. But behind the bigot’s beliefs is an all-consuming fear of modernity. It was modernity, after all, that gave minorities the tools to combat their oppression—which, in turn, led to the increasing marginalization of prejudiced holdouts.

The bigot’s fight against modernity also allows him to disguise his biases as a principled conviction that minorities are, in Bronner’s words, 'fighting against the natural order of things.' We see this casuistry deployed repeatedly in the right’s strange quest to smear and dehumanize trans people: Because conservatives have always believed in strict adherence to an unbreakable gender binary, that binary must be accurate. 'Things are the way they are,' in Bronner’s succinct phrasing, 'and they are that way for a reason.' If trans people could go millennia without demanding respect, they have no right to demand it today.

Why are bigots so terrified of modernity and its enthusiasts? Simple: As minorities capitalize upon the 21st century’s enlightened cosmopolitanism, bigots feel their power slipping away. After anti-gay activists failed to pass a gay segregation bill in red-leaning Arizona, conservatives cried foul, arguing that the measure’s demise imperiled their own 'religious liberty.' Their conception of 'liberty'—the freedom to discriminate against gay customers—might not be shared by many mainstream Americans in 2014. But conservatives are desperate to cling to this 'liberty' nonetheless; their right to deny gay people basic dignity, so uncontroversial for so many years, is tantamount to an assertion of power over the oppressed in the public sphere. With it, conservatives can cling to a shred of their former cultural dominance. Without it, their cause is revealed as a fraud."

Read Slate, Are Anti-Gay Activists Bigots? A Brilliant, Disturbing New Book Says Yes.

UPDATE:  Does "[a]ll that talk of snake-inspired subterfuge, planet-cleansing floods, and apocalyptic horsemen might hamper [some people's] ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality—or even to think critically."

Read Slate, Is Religion Good for Children?, which noted that researchers have found that the division in perceptions of reality between religiously raised and secular children was striking. Religious teaching, "'especially exposure to miracle stories, leads children to a more generic receptivity toward the impossible, that is, a more wide-ranging acceptance that the impossible can happen in defiance of ordinary causal relations.'

If you’re surprised by these findings, you probably haven’t attended a church service lately. Religions tend to be founded on miracle stories—exactly the thing religious kids had trouble distinguishing from reality. When you’ve been told that a woman was created from a man’s rib, or that a man reawakened three days postmortem little worse for the wear, your grasp on reality is bound to take a hit. Religious children are told these stories from an early age, often as though they are unquestionably true. (Some are told that questioning them might lead to eternal damnation.) If you’re expected to believe two of every animal could fit on an ark made of gopher wood, wouldn’t you have trouble understanding that magical sails don’t exist? . .

The question of children and religion, then, is really just a small part of the broader dilemma of faith versus skepticism. In the United States, the vast majority of us choose the former and push our kids to do the same. That might make them docile, obliging, and credulous. But it doesn’t make them better people."

Pastor Truthiness (aka Huckster and Con Man) says the end of the world is near.  But before you get swindled by this scam, or spend money on the conferences and books, get educated.

Read and/or watch PBS Frontline, Apocalypse.

There is a detailed chronology of end timers, through 1999 (when the program first aired).

You'll also understand that Pastor Truthiness (aka Huckster and Con Man) stands in the company of other end timers, like William Miller and David Koresh and other cultist, as well as Marx and Hitler.

He's just part of America's Doomsday Industry. 

The End of the World, Again, Cont.

UPDATE VII:  "Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again." ~William Shakespeare

Read the Washington Post, Why the group eBibleFellowship believes the world will be annihilated today. 

Read also the Daily Mail, Don't make any plans for Thursday: Christian doomsday group predicts world will be 'destroyed by fire' tomorrow.

UPDATE VI:   Doesn't look like Hurricane Joaquin is God's wrath upon Obama in Washington DC after all.  How could that be after yesterday's prediction?

Does God have bad aim? Or is Carl's God just inept?  Or perhaps Carl doesn't actually know God, he is listening to Satan.  Which is it?

Maybe Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins) can explain.

UPDATE V:  The clock (below) now counts the time since Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins) and his sidekick's September 2015 'Blood Moon' end of the world.

UPDATE IV:  Now our local Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins) and his sidekick say the end is near -- in December, as evidenced by the news de jour.

Today's claim is that Hurricane Joaquin is God's wrath upon Obama in Washington DC because of gay rights, or Israel, or whatever.

Don't forget to buy the book you sheeple!

Read also The End of the World is Near, Again.And I might add again and again and again . . .

Why are Republi-cons such suckers for snake oil salesmen? 

UPDATE III:  Read also the Washington Post, Despite this mysterious theory, world survives supermoon eclipse.  

UPDATE II:  Did the world end yet?

Read Slate, Mormon Leaders Reassure Faithful: Sunday’s “Blood Moon” Isn’t Sign of Apocalypse, which notes the appeals for calm made through the state's major newspaper. and TV.

UPDATE:  "There will be blood in September -- literally, according to the Internet postings of end-times believers.

The night of September 27-28 will bring a 'blood moon.' To skywatchers, it simply refers to the copper color the moon takes on during an eclipse, but to some Christian ministers, the fourth and final eclipse in a tetrad -- four consecutive total lunar eclipses, each separated by six lunar months -- fulfills biblical prophecy of the apocalypse. (The first three in the series took place April 15, 2014; October 8, 2014; and April 4, 2015.) . .

[These] assertion was quickly debunked by scientists and skeptics. . .

The astronomical site EarthSky.org added that tetrads, of which there have been 62 since the first century, follow natural cycles and are easily calculated. Moreover, three of the four most recent eclipses were not visible in Israel itself. 'What good is a blood moon if God's chosen can't see it?' wrote Seidensticker.)"

Read CNN, Blood moon has some expecting end of the world.

More claims of the end times by our local Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins).

Despite the failure in April 2014 of the universe shattering, now we have predictions of the end times in September 2015.  Here is the countdown to the end of the month:



Read also The End of the World is Near, Again.

So Many Lies, So Little Integrity

Pastor Poppins sub'ed for me as host of the Friday show and mentioned the latest internet myth -- that Obama prohibited Naval Academy graduates from wearing swords at their graduation last month. The myth can probably be traced to gossip in the Washington Times.

Only problem, it is not true. Read this article from the Annapolis newspaper, The Capital, Obama bans mids' swords at graduation - not! The article states that "swords have not been worn by midshipmen at graduations for some considerable time." I agree, I graduated in 1981 and we didn't wear swords. There were restriction on items that could be brought to graduation, as usual, and the list included "[o]utside food or drink."

So many lies, so little integrity. But what do you expect from a Republi-con.

Which brings me back to Pastor Poppins, someone wrote a letter to the editor which was printed in the June 25, 2009 edition of the local mullet wrapper. I couldn't find it online but here is what was said:

Stealth supports

I think WEBY radio's morning talk show hosts, Mike Mashburn and Carl Gallups, are probably plants put there by the Obama administration.

I think I've figured what's going on with these two. The purposely go so far over the top with their goofy criticisms of Obama because they know that will make the audience think those opposed to Obama are just a bunch of eccentrics and it will actually serve to garner support for Obama.

I don't think there can be any other explanation for it.

-- Bob Wood, Pensacola

Unfortunately Bob, there is another explanation. Some people are so blinded by hate they are confused by facts and logic. And although Pastor Poppins, AKA Carl Gallups, claims to be a man of God, the devil has blinded him, so that now he is a true brither.

Understand, I have no problem with a lively discussion and debate about the issues, but lies and illogic only serve to undermine credibility.

I suggest praying that God will open Pastor Poppins' eyes so that he may see the futility in his evil rhetoric. Until then, call in and tell him why he is wrong.

Don't Be Duped by the Birthers

UPDATE XVII: Well, the Birthers finally got a hearing, and no one appeared for Obama, and no evidence or argument was entered into the record on behalf of Obama. Nevertheless, "a state law judge flatly rejected legal challenges that contend he can not be a candidate." Read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Judge: Obama eligible to be Georgia candidate.

Can't wait to hear our very own Pastor Dred Scott (you may remember the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which asserted that African Americans were "beings of an inferior order" who "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." That ruling declared that African Americans could never be U.S. citizens and therefore could never be President) (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) spin this one.

Expect a missile sighting somewhere over the U.S. to distract you from the news.


UPDATE XVI: Our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)) is now plagiarizing lies to salvage his malicious fantasy campaign to brand Obama as an outsider, as un-American, as non-American.

First it was false claims of document layering.

Now it is a false claim of kerning.

Lest he could do would be to give credit to the Birther who first made the claim.


UPDATE XV: Our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)) continues with his malicious fantasy campaign to brand Obama as an outsider, as un-American, as non-American.

One specific lie, the shameful pastor claimed that after Obama released his long-form birth certificate, Wikipedia removed references to Vattel.

False! The reference was there yesterday, and remains there today. See Wikipedia, Natural born citizen clause of the U.S. Constitution, about 3/10th of the way down.

So many lies, so little time to refudiate.


UPDATE XIV: The anti-Obama conspiracy du jour, Michele Obama needs three hands for all of her jewelry.

From the The Hartford Courant via Reddit and Rick's Blog:




UPDATE XIII: Our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)) continues his despicable sideshow over Obama's birth certificate.

It is a shameful episode with nothing “to do with reality and everything to do with the strangeness of Obama's background - especially his race. Many Republicans refuse to accept that Obama could come from such an exotic stew and still be ‘American.’ They have to delegitimize him. So, even though the certificate of live birth first made public in 2008 is a legal document that any court would have to recognize, they demanded more.

No American president has ever been so humiliated, and those who think it has nothing to do with race are deluding themselves.”

Pastor Truthiness owes Obama an apology for continuing to stoke these coded fears about the president's origins.


UPDATE XII: After proving once again his citizenship, Trump and the birthers now try to "undermine the acceptance of [Obama's] academic credential."

"[Y]ou can work hard, play by the rules, achieve great things academically and professionally and still have people look at you as less-than, look at you as not deserving of the things you worked hard to achieve, look at you as unqualified despite plenty of evidence to the contrary because you are black." Read the Washington Post, Trump insults 'the blacks,' again.

And watch MSNBC, The Last Word, with Lawrence O’Donnell:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE XI: Case closed? Don't be so naive.

Republi-cons will continue to create and exploit absurd non-issues "with sideshow and carnival barkers and silliness," "make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts," and vilify their political opponents.

As for the "birther" issue, why were there persistent demands never before made of any prior president? Read USA Today, Study: racial prejudice plays role in Obama citizenship views.


UPDATE X: What drives the false political belief of the birther myth, and why is it so hard to dispel? Read The New York Times, The Psychology of the 'Birther' Myth, which discusses "motivated reasoning," racial resentment, belief in silly things, a dysfunctional system, and echoes of McCarthy-type conspiracy theories.


UPDATE IX: More "GOP politicians are recognizing that . . . the birther issue . . . paints the conservative base as loony." Read the Washington Post, Have Republicans figured out Obama’s birth certificate is a political loser?


UPDATE VIII: Even the Republi-con establishment wants nothing to do with those birthers on the "nutty right" (Rove's words, not mine). Read the Washington Post, Top Republicans try to scotch birther theories.


UPDATE VII: Even Bill O'Reilly thinks it is time to refudiate the Republi-cons:

The Daily Show - Tales of Principled Behavior - Obama Birth Certificate Mystery
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

UPDATE VI: Why do Republi-cons spread rumors instead of getting to the facts? Let us ask The Great Palin what she thinks:

The Daily Show - Moment of Zen - Sarah Palin Dismisses Internet Rumors
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

UPDATE V: One bad birther conspiracy deserves another:

Did you know that Palin faked "her pregnancy with Trig, not only to cover for her daughter Bristol, but also to gain pro-life street cred with the far right." The press then "helped "to cover up the hoax, intentionally or not, by never investigating it thoroughly enough. Had journalists dug deeper, the answers were easy enough to find."

This has to be true, because it is on the internet.


UPDATE IV: Read the Washington Post, More 'birther' nonsense from Donald Trump and Sarah Palin, which "refudiates" their claims that Obama has "spent $2 million to not show his birth certificate."

The claims are "whoopers" and earn Four Pinocchios:




The article also 'debunks' other claims by Trump, which are common birther myths:

“His grandmother from Kenya stated, on tape, that he was born in Kenya and she was there to watch the birth.” False: On the tape, there was initial misunderstanding but then she said he was born in Hawaii.

“His family in Honolulu is fighting over which hospital in Hawaii he was born in — they just don’t know.” Another myth with no basis in fact.

“He has not been able to produce a ‘birth certificate’ but merely a totally unsigned ‘certificate of live birth’ — which is totally different and of very little significance.” Wrong: It is signed and has full legal significance.

“There are no records in Hawaii that a Barack Hussein Obama was born there.” Wrong again, there is plenty of evidence.

“As far as the two notices placed in newspapers, many things could have happened, but some feel the grandparents put an ad in order to show that he was a citizen of the U.S.” Oops, the information was provided by the State Department of Health — not the grandparents.

So many lies, so little time to refudiate.


UPDATE III: Maybe Obama wasn't born in the United States and maybe Palin didn't give birth to Trig,

You say cogito ergo sum, but maybe life is an illusion, and reality is a simulation.

"[W]e don't really KNOW anything, do we?" Read Business Insider, THE TRUTH REVEALED: Sarah Palin May Not Have Been Born In The USA.


UPDATE II: Some Republi-cons continue to embarrass themselves ranting about a birth certificate and clinging to a delusion that the Supreme Court might put their man in office (again). Sorry, it ain't gonna happen.

Locally we have our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)).

Nationally, it's the Republi-con's latest celebrity candidate, a birther. It is clear that he hasn't even read the Congressional Research Service that would agree that Obama is a "natural born citizen," (the Congressional Research Service is a part of the Library of Congress, providing professional, objective and non-partisan public policy research to members of Congress and their staffers. The writer of the memorandum is a qualified constitutional attorney who has summarized the historical and legal material with references, showing, by contrast, how shoddy the birther arguments are) (this memorandum explains why even Republi-CON Congressmen/women refuse to join the Birthers). And he hasn't talked to Barbara Nelson, who "specifically remembers his birth" because she spoke with the obstetrician who delivered him shortly after his birth.

Unfortunately, Mike tells me he's going to replay a show full of birther nonsense. He must be promoting Trump for President.

Fortunately, Trump is doing his best to discredit himself. (Read the Washington Post, Trump’s disgusting, dangerous dance with birthers.)

Don't be duped by the birthers. See PolitiFact.com, Obama's birth certificate: Final chapter.


UPDATE: His own attorney admitted that he was a "victim of an obsession." And his reward for his obsession, prison and dismissal. Read the Washington Post, Military jury: Prison, dismissal for Army birther.

"So much for the Birthers bringing down a presidency in dramatic fashion during a court-martial." Read The New York Times, Usurper in Chief?

Maybe Colonel Larkin realizes he was duped by the Birthers:

"Sobered by the prospect of a dishonorable dismissal, losing his pension and serving hard time, as well as facing a panel of military superiors in dress uniforms, Colonel Lakin said the winter had been “a confusing time, a very emotional time for me.” His shoulders slumped, he offered excuses about how he had gotten conflicting advice from lawyers — his defense was underwritten by Birthers. . .

[I]n the end, the court-martial offers one big truth: President Obama doesn’t have to show Terry Lakin anything. The colonel should have followed orders. "

The Spin of Pastor 2+2 Does Not = 4, AKA Pastor Dred Scott or Pastor Truthiness (Formerly Known as Pastor Poppins)

UPDATE VII: Birthers rely on "a lie wrapped in an absurdity swaddled in paranoia."

The lie: the birth certificate is a fake.

The absurdity: Obama is not constitutionally qualified to be president.

The paranoia: religious intolerance and racism.


UPDATE VI: For resources to respond to the birther baloney, see The Fogbow, "your best resource for debunking the lies of the 'birther' movement and discussing the birther antics" and WhatsYourEvidence.com, there is even a Birther Case Scorecard, 0-80 for the birthers.

Another resource is Native and Natural Born Citizenship Explored, "[w]here native and natural coincide."

UPDATE V: Pastor Egomaniacal (AKA Pastor 2+2 Does Not = 4, Pastor Dred Scott, Pastor Truthiness, and Pastor Poppins), continued to well advance his "relationship with conspiracy entrepreneur Jerome Corsi, who would very much like to sell you a copy of the birther book he has co-authored with Michael Zullo, the volunteer investigator who took the leading part in the sheriff’s recent press conference. There is a booming business in birther baloney."

The quote is from an article, Conspiracy, Again, in the National Review (which was founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. and describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for Republican/conservative news, commentary, and opinion." It is usually considered the center of intellectual activity for the American Conservative movement in the twentieth century.")

As the article states, conspiracies "are long-lived because the underlying mental pathologies are long-lived: As T. S. Eliot put it, 'Humankind cannot bear very much reality.'"

In the meantime, based upon the Pastor's self professed 10-year law enforcement background and experience, I'm waiting for the arrests that he claims are imminent.


UPDATE IV: Chase learned yesterday that if you disagree with Pastor 2+2 Does Not = 4 then he'll accuse you of attacking him personally.


UPDATE III: Someone just called me regarding the show this morning and during the discussion of the Pastor's egomaniacal nature, I had an epiphany, Carl Gallups is the leader of a cult, the Cult of Carl (hereafter C Squared, because squaring is so much more than adding).

The proof, listen to the Pastor and his sycophants. It's all about Carl and his alter ego, PPSIMMONS.

He and the ego often state the fundamental tenants of his/their belief system and then claims that those who do not share those very specific beliefs are not 'true believers.'

Ironically enough, the Pastor defines a cult as a group that requires adherence to a specific belief system.

In other words, he acknowledges he belongs to a cult.

And don't try to argue with him. The video includes numerous text warning that if a comment is posted that disagrees with the Pastor, the commenter "will be permanently blocked from commenting."

Just ask Randy.


UPDATE II: I called out Pastor 2+2 Does Not = 4 and he responded claiming that he doesn't mind discussing and debating the issues.

Therefore, I issue a challenge to him to debate the issues. (FYI, I'm not available til mid March.) I'll try to set aside a week for our initial debates. The first issue: the delusion of the birthers. If he's not crying mercy at the end, we can continue regular debates.

How about it Pastor, Mike can moderate.

WARNING, expect a no mercy take-down of his fact-free fantasies, right-wing rhetoric and partisan hackery (all part of his fundamentalist subculture of ignorance that embraces 'discredited, ridiculous and even dangerous ideas'. He panders to fear, anger and hatred.

If you are one of them, watch out because I don't favor America's preference for rhetorical fairy tales to unpleasant realities.

But alas, I expect he's a chicken and will refuse the challenge.


UPDATE: Love listening to Pastor Dred Scott spin the loss. Unfortunately a long time listener, Randy, didn't know better and tried to talk reason with the Pastor.

Randy, remember what Lincoln once said, "If a man won’t agree that two plus two equals four, you will never win the argument because facts don’t matter."

And that's the reason Randy that the Pastor hangs up on people who don't agree with him.

As I've warned before, don't be duped by the Birthers

Well, the Birthers finally got a hearing, and no one appeared for Obama, and no evidence or argument was entered into the record on behalf of Obama. Nevertheless, "a state law judge flatly rejected legal challenges that contend he can not be a candidate." Read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Judge: Obama eligible to be Georgia candidate.

Can't wait to hear our very own Pastor Dred Scott (you may remember the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which asserted that African Americans were "beings of an inferior order" who "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." That ruling declared that African Americans could never be U.S. citizens and therefore could never be President) (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) spin this one.

Expect a missile sighting somewhere over the U.S. to distract you from the news.

Republi-cons, Be Men, Repent and Grow Up

UPDATE: Even Justice Clarence Thomas thinks the 'birther' lawsuits are frivolous. Read the Washington Post, Supreme Court upholds 'birther' sanction.


SECOND REPOST: Is Pastor Poppins, AKA Carl Gallups, demented? Thanks to him, I now know he is a Birther, from the article to which he reffered, Politico, Culture of conspiracy: the Birthers. From the article:

"Conservatives see that hazard.

The conservative talk show host Michael Medved recently referred to the movement's leaders as "crazy, nutburger, demagogue, money-hungry, exploitative, irresponsible, filthy conservative imposters" who are "the worst enemy of the conservative movement."

"It makes us look weird. It makes us look crazy. It makes us look demented. It makes us look sick, troubled, and not suitable for civilized company," he mourned."

This is all too good to be true for the Naive-crat, let the conservative nuts embarrass themselves as the government continues to loot the treasury.

REPOSTED: Reposted in response to the embarrassing rant by Pastor Poppins, AKA Carl Gallups, on WEBY this morning. See also PolitiFact.com, Obama's birth certificate: Final chapter.

Evidently some Republi-cons continue to embarrass themselves ranting about a birth certificate and clinging to a delusion that the Supreme Court might put their man in office (again). Sorry, it ain't gonna happen.

So I say pray with me Republi-cons, be men (or women as the case may be), repent, and grow up. “Set aside childish things.” (From the 2009 inauguration speech by Barack Hussein Obama II, the 44th and current President of the United States of America).

And read 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (King James version)

UPDATE: Here is an article from Snopes.com that determines that claims that the Certificate of Live Birth is a forgery are FALSE.

Be gone ye evil Republi-con demons of fear, anger, and hatred. Accept that ye lost and be gone. And repent ye childish Republi-cons, repent I say.

Is Pastor Truthiness (Formerly Known as Pastor Poppins) the Anti-Christ?

It's generally agreed that the Anti-Christ will be a deceiver.

And we know how accurate Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) has been reporting the Chinese missile launch over California, and his predictions of impeachment because of the fraudulent birth certificate and the soon-to-be apocalypse (to mention just a few of his many pronouncements).  He is not part of the fundamentalist subculture of ignorance that embraces 'discredited, ridiculous and even dangerous ideas'.

Now he is promoting that Obama is the Anti-Christ. 

Read The Raw Story, Is Obama the anti-Christ? It’s irresponsible not to speculate, birther pastor says. 

More Pandering to Birther Buffoonery

UPDATE III:  He's back for 2016.

Read Slate, Donald Trump Will Save America From Boring Grownup GOP Primary, which notes that Republi-cons hoped "to avoid having such "eccentric" candidates this time around might be cringing at Trump's continued harping on President Obama's birth certificate, but there's not too much they can do to keep him under wraps."

UPDATE II:  Is your local congressman a birther?

It seems our congressman can't decide.  Read the Pensacola News Journal, Rep. Jeff Miller suspends Twitter account over 'birther poll'. 

UPDATE:  Donald Trump has helped Obamney win over the birthers, now all he needs is America's '9/11 truthers, alien abductees, doomsday preppers, Sasquatch hunters, and Sasquatches or Sasqui.'

Watch the Colbert Report, Donald Trump's Creative Truth & Mitt Romney's Poll Numbers:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Of course, some doubters think the Trump is bloviating ignoramus.  

Based upon the Pastor's self professed 10-year law enforcement background and experience, I'm waiting for the arrests that he claims are imminent.

In the meantime, the birthers are proving themselves buffoons again, with their racist lies.

Did you know that in 1990, "an obscure publication known as the New York Times had written about his election as head of the Harvard Law Review, and noted, 'His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii.'"  (From the Washington Post, The birthers are back! The birthers are back!)

Yet in Arizona, the Arizona secretary of state, Ken Bennett and former Republican president of the Arizona Senate, who is planning to run for governor in two years, is 'pandering to crackpots — and humiliating himself in the bargain.' 

"Never mind that Hawaii has confirmed publicly and repeatedly, since before the 2008 presidential election, that Mr. Obama was born there; that the Hawaii Department of Health has released both the short and long forms of the president’s birth certificate; and that all this information, along with clear-as-a-bell explanations, is available to the public online. [To birther buffoons] none of that is sufficient proof for the Show Me Your Papers State. . .

Everyone knows that birthers — the few that remain against the overwhelming facts of documentary evidence — are half-baked clowns who live for their pet conspiracy theory. . .

Fine. Let the buffoonery play through its final act. We’re confident that, in the end, Mr. Bennett will ensure that Arizona’s ballot includes the name of the president of the United States, all the while insisting, disingenuously, that his actions were merely an instance of due diligence.

But by threatening to exclude Mr. Obama from the ballot, Mr. Bennett transformed what should have been a farcical sideshow of the 2012 election into an actual menace to democracy. He legitimized the lunatic leanings of the United States’, and his party’s, most extreme elements. He put it in the minds of radicals everywhere that elected officials, for the shabbiest reasons (or none at all), can float the idea of bending ballot rules and suffer no adverse consequence.

In the process, he shamed Arizona on the 100th anniversary of its statehood, giving it the appearance of a banana republic that’s come unhinged under the influence of partisan fever."  (From the Washington Post, In Arizona, more birther buffoonery.)

And while one would think that "[w]henever the “birther” movement rears its head, sensible people argue that the press should just ignore it, since it’s so far out on the lunacy spectrum. . .

Mr. Bennett is not just your ordinary, garden-variety birther. He is co-chairman of the Mitt Romney campaign in Arizona. "  (From The New York Times, The Romney Campaign Joins the Birther Brigade.)

Alas, after embarrassing Arizona once again (you may remember that a "bill requiring presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship in Arizona was vetoed last year by" the Republican governor), Bennett "received the 'verification in-lieu of certified copy' from officials within the Hawaii Department of Health that we requested in March . They have officially confirmed that the information in the copy of the Certificate of Live Birth for the President matches the original record in their files.'"  (From the Washington Post, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett satisfied Obama was born in United States.)

I can't wait to hear how our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)), who plagiarize lies to salvage his malicious fantasy campaign to brand Obama as an outsider, as un-American, as non-American, will explain it all to his sycophants on Friday.

For more on the birthers racists fantasies, see these prior posts:

This Post is For All You Birthers Out There

Republi-Cons Have No Shame, Judge Edition

The Spin of Pastor 2+2 Does Not = 4, AKA Pastor Dred Scott or Pastor Truthiness (Formerly Known as Pastor Poppins)

Don't Be Duped by the Birthers

The Candidate Doth Protest Too Much

UPDATE IX: "You understand, of course, that Herman Cain is never going to go away.

'Me, a womanizer? I would never have thought they’d come up with that one,' Cain wrote to his supporters this week in an essay promising to — yes! — keep talking.

Where do you think he’ll pop up next? As the newest Fox commentator? On 'Dancing With the Stars?' As Donald Trump’s guest judge on 'Celebrity Apprentice' As a contestant on 'Celebrity Apprentice?'

We’ll know all too soon. The only part of his last chapter that remains sort of fascinating is Ginger White, the accuser who has been given credit in some corners for bringing the Cain campaign down. All things considered, that couldn’t have been much of a strain. ('Rumors of Extramarital Affair End Campaign of Presidential Candidate Who Didn’t Know China Has Nuclear Weapons,' read a headline in The Onion.)" [Link added.]

Read The New York Times, The Last Herman Cain Column.


UPDATE VIII: BTW, I can't wait to hear our Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) defend Cain on Friday.

But expect the Pastor to avoid the subject and enlighten us with his wisdom on God's wrath, or delusional birther lies, WMDs in Iraq, or even mythical missiles over LA.


UPDATE VII: His modus operandi seems to be economically vulnerable women. Read the Washington Post, Ginger White accuses Herman Cain of long affair.

So much for that NoBullU prediction.


UPDATE IX: At the CNBC in Michigan, Cain "offer[ed] a rather strange defense, saying, 'For every one person that comes forward with a false accusation, there are probably thousands who will say that none of that sort of activity ever came from Herman Cain.'

While having the majority of women you've met not accuse you of sexual harassment might seem like a low bar for a human being, let alone a presidential candidate, the debate audience cheered enthusiastically."

Read Mother Jones, Herman Cain: Not Every Woman I Know Has Accused Me Of Sexual Harassment.


UPDATE VIII: For a timeline of "the unfolding allegations and Cain's responses," read the Washington Post, Cain’s response to accusations.


UPDATE VII: Add to the Cain defenses that Republi-con tried-and-true technique: appear on Hedgehog News and make stuff up. Read Politico, Fox will correct Block claim on air.


UPDATE VI: "Cain, like those before him, was a politician, standing behind a microphone, surrounded by the clicking of cameras. He wagged fingers and denied. From his spot on the dais, Cain employed the tried-and-true techniques so often trotted out by politicians in the headlights of a scandal. And what struck us was his range: he didn’t just pick one tactic, he used them all. . .

Deny . . .

Split hairs . . .

Trash-talk the accuser . . .

Blame the media . . .

Play the victim . . .

Blame political enemies . . .

Invoke the wife . . .

Sneak in a commercial . . .

Read the Washington Post, Cain’s defense: a script we’ve heard before.


UPDATE V: Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for the Washington Post, "offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective,' and she writes in her column, Herman Cain discredits himself:

"There’s really no way to adequately describe how downright weird Herman Cain’s news conference was today. There was Cain referring to 'Herman Cain,' a throwback to Bob Dole’s frequent use of self-referential third person. There was the part where he told us that there may be other allegations --- but those will be false. Memorable, too, was his insistence that the claimants are all anonymous, when in fact two women have been identified by name. Then there was the ranting and raving about the media, although Sharon Bialek came forth with no media filter. I sorta liked the part where he conceded that there was no 'definitive' — definitive in the sense of “any” — proof that he was the victim of a conspiracy.

In a way, this was a fitting downfall: The slick ex-talk show host undone by his own rambling. He was no longer charming. He was desperate and entirely unbelievable. Forget the presidency. Forget becoming a conservative icon. Cain succeeded only in leaving the impression that he may be a bit off his rocker. . .

Who is to be believed: Cain or the women? Certainly Cain has managed to discredit himself as much, or more, than any of them have.

What about those bloggers and talk show hosts who went to the ramparts defending him and pushed the narrative that this was all a racist plot? One only hopes that readers and listeners will take their future utterances with a large helping of salt. These 'genuine' conservatives who pretend to talk for an entire political mvement, it seems, have rather poor judgment. Good thing the GOP electorate as a whole is blessed with a good deal more common sense. . ."

UPDATE IV: "If true, the experience related by Sharon Bialek, a former employee of the National Restaurant Association’s educational foundation, was more than a joke. Allegedly, on the pretense of showing Bialek the restaurant association’s offices, Cain parked the car and essentially assaulted Bialek, slipping his hand under her skirt and trying to bring her head toward his lap.

Not a very presidential image that.

When Bialek protested, reminding Cain that she had a boyfriend, he allegedly said, 'You want a job, right?'

Corroborating testimony via written statements from two other individuals, whom Bialek had told about the incident at the time, including her then-boyfriend, further reduces Cain’s wiggle room.

Read the Washington Post, Herman Cain and the parked car.

It's the audacity of grope:




UPDATE III: Did you hear Grace Vuoto rip Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins) a new one on Friday? Loved it!


UPDATE II: 9-9-9 has more than one meaing to Cain. Read Politico, Herman Cain accuser attorney: Settlement dated 9/99, Kilgore signed.

Coincidentally, Cain "resigned as president of the NRA effective June 30, 1999, before his three-year term was up, yet these board members say they were never fully informed as to why."

UPDATE: "Herman Cain, the long-shot Republican presidential candidate turned frontrunner, has done just about everything wrong since news broke Sunday night that his former employer had paid two women to settle sexual harassment complaints against him.

Cain denied it. He said the women didn’t understand his humor. He said his accusers fabricated the charges. He said he couldn’t remember the details, then suddenly he could. He said he had no knowledge of the settlement, then suddenly recalled some details, which turned out to be vastly understated. He publicly predicted more allegations would surface. He blamed his opponents, he howled about racism, and he accused the media and the entire city of Washington of trying to do him in.

On Wednesday morning, he raised the paranoia dial another notch. 'There are factions trying to destroy me personally, and this campaign,' he announced, revealing this conspiracy to a group of technology executives at the Ritz-Carlton in Tyson’s Corner."

Read the Washington Post, The Herman Cain crack-up.

Cain "might have a real problem on his hands" with the sexual harassment allegations. Read The New York times, Harassment Allegations Could Cut at Core of Cain’s Appeal, which notes that "blaming the messenger, if it can be an invaluable first line of defense, can also be a strategy with a short shelf life."

And his campaign stonewalled too long, the 'pushback' should have included all "mitigating and qualifying information at the outset, for the initial story." Read the Washington Post, Herman Cain and the penalties for stonewalling.

God Must Love Obama and Want Him Relected

UPDATE:  More proof that God must love Obama and sent a hurricane to rescue his campaign: "In a surprise announcement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign and that as a result he was endorsing President Obama."

Read The New York Times, Bloomberg Backs Obama, Citing Climate Change. 

Unemployment is closely related to presidential approval ratings and G.D.P. growth, which, as noted before, are two of the three factors important to the outcome of the election.

And "[t]he unusually warm winter in the United States gave payroll employment numbers a big boost this year. How big? Macroeconomic Advisers estimates that the warm weather, with below-average precipitation, boosted payroll employment in February by 72,000." (Read the Washington Post, How an unusually warm winter boosted the economy.)

Ergo, God must love Obama.

I am sure Pastor Poppins of Pensacola would agree.

WWJC ('What Would Jesus Cut?')

UPDATE IV:  The "Ryan budget, passed by the House, 'fails to meet' the moral criteria of the Church, namely its view that any budget should help 'the least of these' as the Christian Bible requires: the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the jobless. 'A just spending bill cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor and vulnerable persons,' the bishops wrote.

In fact, Ryan would cut spending on the least of these by about $5 trillion over 10 years — from Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and the like — and then turn around and award some $4 trillion in tax cuts to the most of these. To their credit, Catholic leaders were not about to let Ryan claim to be serving God when in fact he was serving mammon.
'Your budget,' a group of Jesuit scholars and other Georgetown University faculty members wrote to Ryan last week, 'appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love.'"

Read the Washington Post, A faith-based lesson for Paul Ryan.

UPDATE III:  Would Jesus 'crucify the poor' to pay for military spending and tax cuts for the wealthy?  Read thew Washington Post, The Gospel according to Paul Ryan.

UPDATE II: It has been asserted "that compassion is 'best fulfilled through Christian charity and spiritual counseling, not government programs.' If this is an affirmation that religious charities have unique advantages over public bureaucracies, it is noncontroversial. If this is an assertion that charity and counseling can replace public programs that provide school meals, AIDS treatment or health care for the poor, it is dangerously oblivious to the real world. The scale of private efforts is not sufficient to meet the demands of public justice — which gives government an important role." So says Michael Gerson, Bush's chief speechwriter. Read the Washington Post, Two parties pray to the same God, but different economists.


UPDATE: Christians should to "emulate the life of Jesus — especially his concern for the poor and oppressed — and confront social ills like racial oppression and environmental pollution." Read The New York Times, Evangelicals Without Blowhards.

"The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends." -- Proverbs 14:20, King James Version

Read the Washington Post, Obama is urged by Christian groups to protect poor in debt limit fight.

Our Resident Pastor-to-the-Dictators (AKA Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)) has waged a campaign of fear, anger and hatred by hosting professional purveyors of hate. But I wonder why he never talks of the poor.

Did you know that the "Bible contains more than 300 verses on the poor, social justice, and God's deep concern for both"?

Less Booze, More Meth

"'Dry counties' that prohibit alcohol sales seem to have . . . higher rates of DUI-related car crashes . . . [more] binge drinking"and more meth labs and incidents.

Read the Washington Post, These places banned booze. Now they’re dealing with something far worse, which included this graph:

So does that make our local Imam Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Truthiness and Pastor Poppins), who opposes alcohol sales, a drug pusher?

Gingrich the Republi-CON

UPDATE V: BTW, not only does the media love The Great Lecherer, he loves them back. Read The New York Times, Gingrich, Offstage.


UPDATE VI: "He won with a glower. After Newt Gingrich in the Jan. 19 Republican debate fought off a totally reasonable question about an ex-wife’s account of his acknowledged adultery with an attack on “the elite media,” there was little doubt about what would happen. South Carolina is the rawest of GOP states, the political embodiment of the legacy of the man Gingrich was channeling with that stare and orchestrated outrage onstage: Richard Nixon." Read Time, Why Newt Is like Nixon.


UPDATE V: Did you hear the show on Friday with Pastor Flip-Flopper (aka Pastor Truthiness (formerly known as Pastor Poppins)), first defending The Great Lecherer, then having to agree with his regular 'correspondents'.

The Pastor began by blaming the media. The truth is the media loves Gingrich.

But Vuoto had it right as well as some other pompous regular, and the Pastor had to reluctantly agree, (so-called) conservative support for The Great Lecherer, an admitted serial fornicator and adulterer, showed the moral rot in the party, and a vote for him would be a contract with the devil.


UPDATE IV: Really, the hypocrisy of the Great Lecherer of Morals now blaming the media. From The New York Times, Gingrich Attacks the News Media and Creates a Stir:

In response to a question from the CNN debate moderator, John King, about whether Mr. Gingrich had asked his former wife Marianne for an open marriage, an allegation she made in a recent ABC News interview, Mr. Gingrich said: 'I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that.'

When Mr. King tried to explain the question, arguing that it was a major news subject of the moment, Mr. Gingrich had none of it.

'John, John,' he interjected. 'It was repeated by your network, you chose to start the debate with it. Don’t try to blame somebody else.'

Mr. Gingrich added, his voice pitched in anger, 'I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama by attacking Republicans.' He received a standing ovation from the audience."

It was a rabid Republi-CON audience.


UPDATE III: What is more 'tawdry and inappropriate:'

Asking your wife for an 'open marriage' so you can sleep with you new lover while lecturing the world on morals,

or

Complaining about the revelation and refusing to answer questions?

Read the Washington Post, Newt Gingrich: Ex-wife Marianne's interview 'tawdry and inappropriate'.

BTW, does all this remind you of another oversexed Republi-con candidate?


UPDATE II: "We shouldn’t be surprised that Marianne has stepped forward. Indeed, how many other friends, staffers and colleagues have their own tales to tell about the speakership years? With Gingrich you are perpetually waiting for the next shoe to drop. And unlike Bill Clinton, who could drag Hillary into the picture for validation and redemption, Gingrich can’t very well sit down with Callista to explain their joint tale of deceit and adultery. . .

The origin of every Gingrich controversy (ethical, personal or political) is the same: Huge ambition unmoored to a code of conduct or fixed principles.

The reemergence of Marianne will give voters pause. It should. And if it’s the difference between victory or defeat in South Carolina? Well, some would call that Gingrich’s just desserts."

Read the Washington Post, Gingrich’s past catches up.


UPDATE: Today's lesson in Republi-CON history:

"[I]n 1999 [Gingrich] asked his second wife for an 'open marriage' or a divorce at the same time he was giving speeches around the country on family and religious values, his former wife, Marianne . . .

Shocked, Marianne Gingrich replied: 'Is there anybody else?' she recalled. 'He was quiet. Within two seconds, when he didn’t immediately answer, I knew.'

The next day, Newt Gingrich gave a speech titled 'The Demise of American Culture' to the Republican Women Leaders Forum in Erie, Pa., extolling the virtues of the founding fathers and criticizing liberal politicians for supporting tax increases, saying they hurt families and children.

'When a liberal talks about values, will he or she actually like us to teach American history?' Newt Gingrich told the women’s group. 'Will they actually like young people to learn that George Washington was an ethical man? A man of standards, a man who earned the right to be father of this country?'"

Read the Washington Post, Marianne Gingrich, Newt's ex-wife, says he wanted 'open marriage'.

"What seemed like genuine, bipartisan PR in 2008 now looks like conservative heresy by the current frontrunner in the Republican presidential race. Gingrich now calls that TV ad the 'dumbest single thing' he's ever done and insists his policy stance on the environment passes all conservative muster.

'If you notice, I never favored cap and trade,' he said in a candidate forum in New York City on Dec. 3, 2011.

Really? Never?

[But PolitiFact.com] did a little digging and it didn't take long to find that Gingrich has been inconsistent and has at times advocated cap and trade legislation when combined with other approaches."

Read PolitiFact.com, Newt Gingrich claims he 'never favored cap and trade'.