Combat! - Page 161 of 406 - A blog by Dan Brooks

Three hypotheticals in which what Terry Branstad did could be uncool

By Dan Brooks in Church People July 16, 2014 2 Comments

Every 68 year-old man in Iowa, including Terry Branstad

Every 68 year-old man in Iowa, including Governor Terry Branstad

I applaud Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s decision to proclaim July 14, 2014 a day of prayer and repentance, solidifying Iowa as a Christian state and renewing God’s protection for another year. To his critics, who argue it is unseemly for the governor to instruct his citizens to pray according to the Bible, I say the governor has to do it or it doesn’t work. You didn’t grow up there, but I remember when the Lieutenant Governor declared a day of fasting and repentance in 1988, and 100,000 schoolchildren died of the flu. Don’t second-guess Iowa. They didn’t become the tall corn state by not managing the guy with the locusts.

Combat! blog flies through air, isn’t useful

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized July 15, 2014 0 Comment

Combat! blog’s beautiful Chicago trip is drawing to a close, which means it’s time to head to beautiful O’Hare and eat at a beautiful airport Chili’s. While I experience the apogee of American culture, how about you read this article about the shift away from cars-first transit design in California? I know it sounds dry, but that’s the futch. The futch (pronounced fyooch) is what hip young people call the future, as in (while bicycling) “don’t nuke my futch, bro!” We’ll be back with more information on how you should talk tomorrow, tomorrow.

Combat! blog makes remarks, inaudibly

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized July 14, 2014 2 Comments

Wrigley Field Saturday, where the Cubs won a purely moral victory

Man, Chicago is a lot of fun, except in the mornings. There’s some sort of atmospheric effect that makes you wake up with a headache, and my best efforts to investigate it by staying up until dawn recording my observations aloud have, somehow, not unraveled the mystery. I need more time. Fortunately, I’m here until tomorrow night, so I’ve got plenty of time to experiment with different combinations of supplements to keep my mind limber and free my body from unnecessary attachments, e.g. hygiene. While I continue my sense journey, how about you read this controversial article about the rhetoric of trauma in contemporary gender activism? The whole internet is made and/or excited about it. We’ll be back Wednesday, cross-eyed with glee.

Friday links! Thursday links edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links July 10, 2014 2 Comments

The future

Combat! blog will be flying to Chicago very early tomorrow morning, and the last thing I’ll want to do is assemble links on the plane. But we didn’t do Friday links last week, either, on account of we were firing explosive projectiles into the air, and three weeks without a FriLi would hardly meet the exacting standards of our readership. So I shall fire up my specula-scope and peer into a future where everything is dark and gross yet strangely compel—oh, wait. I accidentally fired up my speculum. The actual future looks much more like the present. Today is Thursday, and Friday seems a comforting inevitability. Won’t you tempt fate with me?

Religious groups seek exemption from anti-discrimination order

By Dan Brooks in Church People July 9, 2014 6 Comments

America

President Obama has not yet signed his executive order forbidding government contractors from discriminating against homosexuals, but a group of “major faith organizations” has asked to be exempted from it. Citing Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, representatives of Catholic Charities USA, Saddleback Ministries and the National Association of Evangelicals asked that the president provide a “robust religious exemption” from the federal government’s plan to stop doing business with homophobes. In a letter organized by Michael Wear, the former director of faith outreach during Obama’s 2012 campaign, the groups write, “we are asking that an extension of protection for one group not come at the expense of faith communities whose religious identity and beliefs motivate them to serve those in need.” That whooshing you hear is the sound of open floodgates.