China Bad! NBA Bad! South Park Good!

The new Korean film Parasite is a dark and savage parody of capitalism's wealth inequality. It's the first Korean film to ever win the Palme d'Or-- and with a unanimous vote no less... but was just banned in China. Dangerous stuff, all that talk about income and wealth inequality. China just will not have it! And here's another example of China screwing up. But first, for some context of what comes next, please watch 70s punk band/80s power-pop band the Red Rockers performing "China," their biggest hit:





So, back to China, the country. They just fucked me again. Long ago they banned DWT, this blog-- and I can't even get it on a Chinese airline. But now they flipped out over the newest episode of South Park. What do I care? One of the artists-- you guessed it-- the Red Rockers-- which I signed when I had my independent label, 415 Records, in San Francisco, had the song you just listened to, "China," as part of the show's soundtrack-- cool scene with Randy smoking weed in a parade and singing along. Here's the official middle-finger "apology" from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Very different from the pathetic, unpatriotic NBA performing public fellatio on Xi Jinping last week.




But what about the $67.42 I would have made if the show ran in China tonight? I don't care that much. I would have contributed it to Bernie's campaign, like I do with all royalties I get this year and he's doing fine without it-- and drives China crazy, apparently, by talking about wealth and income inequality all the time and even suggesting ways to end it. The Chinese Communist Party has completely banned any discussion of income inequality... and wealth inequality is even worse. So South Park is so completely banned now-- and forever-- and wiped completely and utterly from the memory banks.




Watch this too, those bastards! Don't vote for Biden.

Will Utah Revert To Polygamy Again?

Religion is a weird thing and I'm not comfortable with government getting involved in even recognizing it as legitimate. If people want to worship a sky god or a rock or ancestors or whatever, they should be free to do that-- unless they harm others and commit crimes. Mormonism is obviously nonsense from start to finish but is it any more ridiculous and any more of a hustler tradition than any other religion? Maybe.

Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups, a right-wing Mormon freak who George W. Bush appointed to the judiciary (and confirmed by the Senate by unanimous consent), ruled that its unconstitutional for Utah to ban multiple wives. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the judge "sided with the polgyamous Brown family, ruling that key parts of Utah’s polygamy laws are unconstitutional."

Judge Clark Waddoups’ 91-page ruling, issued Friday, sets a new legal precedent in Utah, effectively decriminalizing polygamy. It is the latest development in a lawsuit filed by the family of Kody Brown, who became famous while starring in cable TV channel TLC’s reality series Sister Wives. The show entered a fourth season at the end of the summer.

Waddoups’ ruling attacks the parts of Utah’s law making cohabitation illegal. In the introduction, Waddoups says the phrase "or cohabits with another person" is a violation of both the First and 14th amendments. Waddoups later writes that while there is no "fundamental right" to practice polygamy, the issue really comes down to "religious cohabitation." In the 1800s-- when the mainstream LDS Churh still practiced polygamy-- "religious cohabitation" in Utah could have actually resulted in "multiple purportedly legal marriages." Today, however, simply living together doesn’t amount to being "married," Waddoups writes.

"The court finds the cohabitation prong of the Statute unconstitutional on numerous grounds and strikes it," Waddoups later writes.

Utah’s bigamy statute technically survived the ruling. However, Waddoups took a narrow interpretation of the words "marry" and "purports to marry," meaning that bigamy remains illegal only in the literal sense-- when someone fraudulently acquires multiple marriage licences.

The Browns could not immediately be reached Friday night, but issued a statement through their lawyer calling the decision humbling and historic.

"While we know that many people do not approve of plural families, it is our family and based on our beliefs," Brown wrote. "Just as we respect the personal and religious choices of other families, we hope that in time all of our neighbors and fellow citizens will come to respect our own choices as part of this wonderful country of different faiths and beliefs."

Jonathan Turley, the attorney representing the Brown family, called the opinion "magnificent" Friday in a phone conversation. In a blog post, he added that it strikes down "the criminalization of polygamy" and will allow "plural families to step out for the first time in their communities and live their lives openly among their neighbors."

"Regardless of how you feel about the legal issues in the case," Turley told the Tribune on Friday, "this is a decision that was rendered after considerable amount of reflecting and consideration by the court."

Turley explained that the ruling means everyone is entitled to freedom of religion as well as due process. He also expects the ruling to stand up over time, and potential appeals, which the Utah Attorney General’s Office has indicated in the past it might pursue.

Joe Darger, who with his three wives detailed their life in the book Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage, praised the decision and said it would change the future for Utah’s polygamists. He said that he learned of the victory Friday night when Kody Brown called him. The call was unusual-- the two men don’t call each other frequently, he said-- and when he learned of the ruling he felt "shocked."

"It just caught us off guard," he said. "It’s like Christmas came early."

Darger added that his 25th child, a girl who was born Dec. 10, will face an entirely different future as a result of the ruling.

The Browns filed their lawsuit in July 2011, arguing Utah’s law violated their right to privacy. The family’s argument relied primarily on the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the Texas law banning sodomy, which was celebrated by gay rights advocates.

…Turley also criticized what he characterized as anecdotal evidence to say polygamy fostered abuse.

Months passed after the hearing without any developments, though many speculated that Waddoups was waiting for U.S. Supreme Court rulings on gay marriage before making a decision. However, those rulings came and went in June and still the Browns’ lawsuit remained unresolved.

Turley pointed out Friday that abuses against spouses and children in monogamous and polygamous relationships will continue to be prosecuted.

According to Darger, who has lobbied in favor of polygamy in the past, the next step will be focusing on equality, education and overcoming bigotry. However, with polygamy decriminalized he does not anticipate a push to go one step further and legalize plural marriages. Darger said other causes will consume his energy in the future and he and other polygamists would prefer simply to have less government involvement in their lives.

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb...

WILL MITT ROMNEY DEMAND THAT COMEDY CENTRAL STOP SHOWING THE SOUTH PARK MORMON EPISODES?

I have to admit that I don't know much about Mormons. Despite what is said about them by all the non-Mormons I know who live among them in Utah, Nevada and Arizona, I'm sure they're just the same as anyone else self-deluded into believing all the religionist gunk. So maybe their nonsensical story is a little more far fetched than the ones concocted by Jews, Christians, Hindus, Muslims Catholics, and Cannibals. Does it really matter? There really are just two belief systems: the irrational and the rational. And I know plenty of religionists who are, otherwise, perfectly rational. Let me assume that there are Mormons who fit in there too. I met one on a plane to Madrid once and we talked the whole way across the Atlantic and, apart from being a Republican, he seemed like a regular guy-- no horns or hooves or anything like that.

The little I do know about Mormons I learned, like many Americans, from the television show South Park. But, like a modern day Cliff's Notes Wikipedia provides us with the whole storyline. (Hopefully this is one of the few places on Wikipedia that have not been tampered with by Susan Collins' campaign team/senatorial staff.)

In this episode, a new family moves into South Park, and their son Gary, stereotypically depicted as unusually perfect (achieving high grades, being perfectly polite, etc.), invokes the wrath of the other boys. Stan is drafted into the job of beating him up by the other children, but Gary's sheer politeness leads Stan to discover himself walking away with an invitation to dinner that night. After dinner, the five-child, two-parent family has "family game night" where they play games, do performance art, and read from the Book of Mormon. Stan is intrigued and confused by all this, and asks his parents about the Mormon family's beliefs. His father concludes that they must be religious fanatics attempting to brainwash Stan, and heads over to confront them and beat them up (but only upon determining that Mr. Harrison is white).

Instead, he too finds himself quelled by the family's perfection and politeness, and in the end, actually decides to convert to Mormonism himself. The next day, Kenny, Cartman and Kyle cruelly mock Stan for hanging around with Gary and his family, accusing Stan of going on a date with Gary. When the Harrisons and Gary show up, the three children walk off lying about going to "put in some volunteer work at the homeless shelter".

...Stan ends up shouting at the Mormons that they're ridiculous for believing in it without proof; they smile patiently and explain that it's a matter of faith, while Stan argues that it should be a matter of empirical evidence. He further lashes out at them for acting unusually nice all the time, claiming it blindsides stupid people like his father into believing in Mormonism (to which Randy Marsh unwittingly responds "Yeah!"). Afterwards, Stan's family apparently chooses to convert away from Mormonism and goes back to Catholicism, at Randy's insistence.

Stan's anger doesn't much upset anyone in the Mormon family other than Gary, who confronts Stan and the other boys the next day, pointing out that his religion does not need to be factually true, because it still supports good family values. Gary condemns their bigotry and ignorance, stating:

"All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy. Suck my balls."

He walks away, and the episode ends as Cartman (with a new-found respect for him) says, "Damn, that kid is cool, huh?"

Cartman is also a fan of Cheney, Hitler and Mel Gibson. And I bet Cartman would approve of Mitt Romney's campaign's pressure on the folks behind September Dawn to hold off the release of the film until after the election cycle. The movie opens August 24 and promises to give Mormonism even more exposure than South Park did. And many Mormons are not eager for exposure.

Sources inside the Mitt Romney camp report the former Massachusetts governor's presidential campaign staff is none too happy about the timing of the release of September Dawn, a film about a mid-19th century massacre by Mormons-- considered to be the first recorded act of religious terrorism on U.S. soil.

"Given all the current press attention to Mitt's being a Mormon-- much of it having a negative slant-- this only adds fuel to the fire,'' a Romney campaign insider told this column Wednesday.

...It focuses on the 1857 massacre by Mormons of 120 men, women and children traveling through Utah in a wagon train from Arkansas to California.

The Romney camp is unhappy that the publicity for September Dawn specifically points out that the film's release coincides with "a time when issues of Mormonism are in heightened areas of the news." That statement alone "obviously is directed at our campaign," said my source, who requested anonymity.

The actual attack-- known as the "Mountain Meadows Massacre"-- occurred on Sept. 11, 1857. A group of Mormons-- many disguised as Paiute Indians and inspired by the fanaticism of Voight's character, Joseph Samuelson-- slaughtered all but 17 small children in that California-bound wagon train.

Even after 150 years, the incident remains controversial, as many descendants of those killed believe Brigham Young himself approved of the massacre-- a point denied by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But we're not voting for-- or against-- Brigham Young; it's one of his adherents, Mitt Romney, who is running for president. And he's running on the Republican ticket, not, ostensibly, on the Mormon ticket. I doubt I have ever come across a candidate for president more loathsome than Mitt Romney. There is no need to demonize perfectly average Mormons-- or even Mormonism, no matter what he think about its... eccentricities-- to realize that Flip Flop Mitt, a man with no steady moral compass whatsoever and no values of any kind other than personal greed and ambition-- would make a really terrible president. Republicans, though, seem to be attracted to him, especially when he's paying for their votes. Watch the September Dawn trailer anyway:

ANTI-JESUS BIGOT BILL DONOHUE EXPOSED ON NATIONAL TV-- SOUTH PARK STRIKES BACK AGAINST FASCISM

The far right Catholic League's Bill Donohue stands out in American politics as one of the handful of the most bigoted and hate-spewing extremists ever to seek to use the mass media to mislead the public. 1930's pro-fascist radio priest Charles Coughlin comes immediately to mind but then there's always Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps for more contemporary comparison. Today Sisyphus Shrugged asks Where's Bill? in an essay about this guys' grotesque hypocrisy. Maybe though, the answer to why he wasn't responding to Rudy Giuliani's pro-abortion announcement was because he was too busy watching himself on South Park.

Now Donohue and South Park's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, have had their differences before-- with Donohue attacking them for some politically incorrect abomination he must have detected in one of their shows (he called them "whores" and "cowards")-- but last night's debut of the Easter episode actually features Donohue as the anti-hero, someone so contemptible that Jesus has to be resurrected so he can kill him in order to save mankind.

The episode mildly pokes fun at The DaVinci Code and then savagely exposes Donohue's fascism, bigotry and utterly anti-Christian gestalt. Even over at Alternet has three awesome clips you can must watch that show the real Bill Donohue, not the actor you always see on MSNBC and Fox "News."