Green Jello Hotdish

There were a couple of reports, most notably on Reuters this week, claiming MySpace will be worth upwards of $15 billion within three years, with Facebook not too far behind.  I didn’t pay too much attention until this blog post by Mark Glaser of PBS’ MediaShift, in particular:

How did so many people get fooled during the dot-com boom in the ’90s? Say hello to bad bubble reporting, take two. First BusinessWeek runs a cover story on a Digg founder having made “$60 million in 18 months,” and then Reuters runs a story titled “MySpace May Be Worth $15 Billion.” And I might have an invisible Siamese twin attached to me at the hip. And you might actually believe these things. It’s a sad state of affairs for business reporting at the moment.

It’s dot-com, version 2.0.  Way back before bits and bytes meant anything, and faxes were delivered on paper instead of to my e-mail box, we had at least a decade or two between booms.  Here we are, only ten years after the so-called Internet revolution started, and six years after the last of the big dot-com busts, back to Internet startups at a dime a dozen.  This list of popular Web 2.0 apps is astonishing.  Raise your hand if you’ll still be around next year at this time.

As planned, I saw the movie Jesus Camp last night with Chris and Bryan. The best summation I can provide is from Chris himself:

That is the scariest movie I have seen in a long time.

The reviews simply don’t do this movie justice. One knows it’s a good, unbiased documentary when the reviews are a mixed bag: those involved with the actions call it a good film, in this case, claiming the film will change the hearts and minds of Americans to radically follow Christ, and those avoiding the actions say the same, claiming the film will finally bring to light what the evangelical, charismatic, pentecostal movement is doing.

What is most repulsive to me, however, is how indoctrinated these kids are being to the radically anti-family, anti-values, anti-liberty platform of the Republican Party. At one point in the movie, a cardboard cutout of President Bush is brought in, and the kids kneel at his feet to call upon him to continue the “good work” he is doing. (One can only assume they’re not talking about election fraud, misclaims about WMD in Iraq, or the inability to read children’s books right-side-up.)

Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, is preaching in his home congregation in Colorado Springs at the end of the movie. He takes a couple of moments to be candid with the filming crew following the service, and expresses his joy at the statistics. And the statistics are staggering: every two days, a new megachurch is planted in the United States. The evangelical movement claims 25 percent of the U.S. population. What the evangelicals want, the evangelicals get, because they have the critical mass necessary to steer this entire country.

But possibly even more upsetting is what comes next; the praying and speaking in tongues calling for abortion to be overturned. These kids are as young as five, far too young to have an understanding of what the birds and bees are, let alone what abortion consists of. For a group of people to be having them dress up, standing at the foot of federal buildings in Washington is simply inappropriate. How is this showing family values? How is this letting kids be kids? At five, I was playing with rocks and sticks. Strike that — I’m not sure if I even graduated to rocks quite yet. I wasn’t protesting. I didn’t have any idea of what the government was. I knew there was a guy named President Bush (the other one) and there was a place called Iraq (the first time) and I knew my aunt was going there and I was excited because then we got to babysit her cat. I didn’t have a clue.

Oh, yes, Iraq. Didn’t come up once in the movie as being a mistake, as being contrary to God’s word of peace and justice. It was George Bush is wonderful, the Congress is now wonderful, America is turning from its demonic ways, and the separation of church and state has lost its time because it allows for a diversity of opinion and has destroyed itself because the evangelicals have the truth.

But truthfully, my favorite part of the movie, was when this ten-year-old girl was approaching African American strangers in the park and asking them if they were sure they would go to heaven when they died. They assured her they did, but she wasn’t satisfied with their answers. Finally, she walks away, announcing to the kids who were with her, “I think they were Muslim.”

If you can watch this and not be angry, not be upset, not be outraged, then you are a better person than myself.

(My personal favorite quote is toward the begining of the trailer, when the young boy says he accepted Christ at the age of five because he “wanted more out of life.” Of course he wanted more out of life. He was five.)

Doctrinal differences about the justification by grace through faith, not by works aside… this is scary stuff! The movie comes to Chicagoland theaters tomorrow. I’ll be attending, along with a small group from Carthage. Check back for a full review, but in the meantime, check out what Nick Coleman of the Minneapolis StarTribune had to say.

It’s not clear who the enemies are, but we know who they aren’t: There’s a scene showing the kids praying before a cardboard cut-out of President George W. Bush.

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.

Oh surprise, surprise. The ruling by the state elections committee against Republican gubanatorial candidate Mark Green was upheld today in Dane County Circuit Court.

In addition to Green’s ridiculous advertising, like this ad that claims Wisconsin kids are leaving because of high taxes (to places like Minnesota and Illinois, which have higher tax burdens than Wisconsin…), and the viscious attack ads on Jim Doyle, this is just the icing on the cake. Green has been doing his damndest to separate himself from being the Washington sheep that he is.

Of course, it seems he is leading over Doyle. Which terrifies me. There are too many important issues facing Wisconsin to have to deal with more Republican mismanagement in Madison. A capital punishment referrendum. A vote on a civil union and gay marriage ban. Plus increasing pressure from the NRA to allow conceal-carry, and I’m terrified to think of where I’m going to have to move after Wisconsin. The places in the United States are getting slimmer and slimmer.