Naked Cowboy, originally uploaded by Timothy State.

We're approaching New Year's Eve, which means thousands of tourists flocking to New York to see the ball drop on Times Square. And as you may know, there they can also see other . . . um, anyway, Times Square also gives you a chance for a photo op with the Naked Cowboy, whose entrepreneurial drive has not only resulted in a nice income but has also made him a global icon of Manhattan.

What's he doing here on the BofG?

Look closely on his shoulder.

I said his *shoulder*, people.

Where you will a Jesus tattoo. Then click here for a close-up from the other side to see a pic of the Devil.

I'd make a deep point about how the Naked Cowboy thus embodies the moral complexity of the human race, but I'm too lazy. Sooo . . . happy New Year! Enjoy the champagne or grape juice or whatever other intoxicant-substitute your faith tradition happens to allow.

Posted by jat at 01:43 PM | Permalink

A great quote from a revealing interview with Persepolis’ Marianne Satrapi at Payvand's Iran News.

Posted by jat at 01:13 PM | Permalink

≈ goddress ad ≈, originally uploaded by Jennifer Esperanza.

Posted by jat at 09:19 AM | Permalink

The following pictures of Benazir Bhutto may not seem appropriate in light of her recent assassination. Wouldn't it be more respectful to show her in more formal dress with traditional head covering, as has been the norm since her death?

I don't think so. To understand her--and to understand why so many people wanted her dead--we have to go beyond her strategic public image to see her as she was.

HT: Agha Khanium

Posted by jat at 12:21 AM | Permalink

Via

Posted by jat at 10:35 PM | Permalink

Via the Consumerist

Posted by jat at 07:34 PM | Permalink

Over the past year, campaigns for internet censorship and intelligent design have not exactly helped foster an image of religion--and in particular the Christian faith--as a progressive force in technological advancement.

But it was not always thus.

Case in point: the world's first telephone book. Which, truth to tell, was just a telephone page, listing everyone who had a telephone connection in New Haven, Connecticut.

Loke closely and you'll see that the first person listed is the Rev. John E. Todd, pastor of the New Haven Church of the Redeemer. This prime page space was not given to Todd out of respect for his pastoral office. It's actually a nod to one of the weird facts of telephone history: for a while the good Reverend was the only person in the city willing to get one.

Really. The company distributed 1,000 flyers and was rewarded with only one subscriber, the aforementioned Rev. Todd. Thus encouraged the entrepreneurs pressed on, adding some doctors, a few dry goods merchants, a couple of stables (the transportation industry!) and the police. Cutting-edge journalists--the Yale News and the New Haven Register--and even a lawyer also got into the act.

The world's first commercial dedicated telephone exchange would be sustainable after all.

But it might have never happened if a forward-thinking pastor hadn't had pledged his faith in the future of an untried technology. Instead of imploding as Bell's folly, by March 1st, the phone company would have enough subscribers that it could afford to have operators make connections all night.

So remember--the next time you make a 3 a.m. booty call or phone a 1-900 sex chat, you can thank the Church of the Redeemer.

Posted by jat at 07:13 PM | Permalink

The video above attempts to lay the smacketh down on Christianity through a stylized montage echoing the style of the 911 Truth movement. Much of this will seem old hat--or old halo--to anyone remotely aware of comparative religion, but hey, it's an easy way to catch "Here Comes the Sun" until the Fab Four shows up on iTunes.

How will Christians defend the faith? Another heartwarming (ugh) video of a five-year-old girl reciting a psalm may do the trick for some, but I wouldn't be surprised to find believers taking a newfound interest in defending the Beatles' copyright.

Posted by jat at 11:50 AM | Permalink

Bling bling, originally uploaded by azuric™.

In case you ever wondered why it's called the Festival of Lights . . .  Andbb in somewhat related news, here's a meditation on how Christmas in Asia functions as a festival of lights.

Posted by jat at 02:06 AM | Permalink

Via Adventures in Revland

Posted by jat at 07:06 PM | Permalink

Via Social Edge

Posted by jat at 09:49 AM | Permalink

Yesterday brought a tale of how a rash of thefts led one church to adorn its nativity scene Jesus with GPS tech. Turns out that's already obsolete, as religious jewelry in St. Augustine seems to have evolved its own artificial intelligence. At least that's what the owners of a Florida jewelry store are claiming.

Tony and Madalyn Mussallem own the store. He said, "My wife went through all the inventory and determined we didn't lose any crosses at all. All the [pieces of jewelry] that are crosses were found outside."

The burglars dropped jewelry on their way out the door and even outside the building. Out of hundreds of charms they stole, only the cross charms fell on the ground.

Madalyn said diamond crosses were also out of the case. She said, "The diamond crosses were over there on the floor when they tried to run out, and they're the most expensive crosses we had...and they fell on the floor!"

Tony said, "I think maybe God didn't want to go with these crooks!"

"It just seemed like the crosses jumped out," Madalyn said. "They weren't going and this is where they were staying."

Posted by jat at 09:41 AM | Permalink

Via

Posted by jat at 11:16 PM | Permalink

From JewishSource: "Just try to pick up the Hail/Death of the Firstborn split. Fun for the whole family!"

Posted by jat at 08:53 PM | Permalink

Cindy Forrester crafts jewelry from an array of vintage elements. Her Winter Goddess necklace, for example, incorporates the word "Goddess" from an old dictionary. For more, check her Etsy shop, her blog or this article from the Orlando Sentinel.

Posted by jat at 06:35 PM | Permalink

Away in a manger is not only a hymn, it's also an apt description of what happens to baby Jesus in several nativity scenes each year--namely, he gets stolen. CrunchGear (via Wired?) reports that a Florida church has come up with a technological solution to a rash of creche-napping:

Their Baby Jesus™ keeps getting ripped off, even after they nailed it down (again with the Xmas irony), so they’re fitting it with a GPS tracker so that, if stolen again, they can track down their Jesus.

Posted by jat at 06:11 PM | Permalink

From Phunk Studio:

Posted by jat at 01:12 PM | Permalink

It's Christmas, and that means time for wives everywhere to break out the traditional skull jewelry and excoriate their addled spouses for buying them inappropriate gifts.

(Didn't know that Nicolas Cage--"star of National Treasure II, playing now at a theater near you!"--and his son were producing a comic book? Cage Factor has more on Voodoo Child and the entire line of Virgin Comics, which "hopes to challenge titans Marvel and DC by marketing largely to Asia and infusing the story lines with Eastern mythology." HT: The Beat)

Posted by jat at 12:02 PM | Permalink

Schulz is spinning, surely, originally uploaded by Amy Watts.

As the photographer says,

"I mean, forget the trademark infringment, aren't these some of the worst Peanuts character reproductions you've EVER seen? "

Posted by jat at 10:44 PM | Permalink

From a wire service round-up in today's New York Post:

A mead horn surely would make time in prison pass that much easier.

A Utah prisoner is suing the Department of Corrections for denying him his right to practice an ancient Nordic religion.

Michael Polk says prison officials have denied him the mead horn, rune staff, prayer cloth, sword and Thor's hammer that he needs to practice his religion.

Officials say the items were denied due to security reasons.

Polk will lose if he's looking to carry a real sword, staff and hammer--it's a slam dunk, really--but if I were one of the officials I would have provided the prayer cloth, if only to establish a record of reasonable accommodation. After all, a court did recently rule in favor of an inmate seeking to wear a Thor's Hammer pendant after guards failed to take his request seriously.

Posted by jat at 12:15 PM | Permalink

Core77 asks: "What's the sound of one hand texting? And where is this trend going? Our predictions: Unitarian KVM switches, Santeria iPods, Mormon USB hubs with up to seven connections."

Posted by jat at 12:28 AM | Permalink

Holographic cross pick earrings, originally uploaded by Handmade by Holly.

Posted by jat at 10:08 PM | Permalink

GLOW IN THE DARK alien guitar pick earrings, originally uploaded by Handmade by Holly.

Posted by jat at 10:06 PM | Permalink

Scientology aerial pictogram, originally uploaded by Fell.

Looks like their might have been ancient astronauts after all.

Posted by jat at 02:43 PM | Permalink

Festivus Earrings, originally uploaded by Blanche and Guy.

For more stuff like these one-of-a-kind handcrafted Festivus earrings, check out the Festivus Market:

Festivus is a holiday market for the rest of us! Staged each December, we provide a human-scale alternative to the loneliness of on-line shopping or the hassle of big box holiday parking lots by featuring the best of local cottage industries whose business reflects our core values of ecology, fair trade, craftsmanship and personal customer service. 12 noon to 4 pm on the first 3 Sundays of December.

Posted by jat at 09:22 AM | Permalink

USB-Powered LEGO Christmas Tree and Festivus Pole, originally uploaded by jonny5rd.

Posted by jat at 09:07 AM | Permalink

The latest PostSecret has the following true confession:

Ahhh, a riddle! 

Assuming the daughter's name isn't God of Thunder, there were two possibilities that came to mind. 

The first is the Kiss classic Beth, a derivative of the Hebrew Elisheva, or Elizabeth, popularly translated as consecrated to God. 

Another candidate is Shandi (from Shanti?), which doesn't refer to a biblical concept per se but whose folk etymology claims an origin in an unspecified foreign term for God is gracious. 

I probably missed one, so if you have a better idea feel free to shout it out loud.

Posted by jat at 11:31 PM | Permalink

Tony Hendra makes the provocative argument in his recent jeremiad against silicone valleys:

In a sermon several years ago—one he quoted again in October at Larry King's behest—evangelist Joel Osteen urged the ewes of his flock to shop at Victoria's Secret. The reason for this apparent lapse from the Christian right's typical white-lipped terror of sex? Flirty underwear helps wives better please their scripturally mandated lords and masters.

Once you get past the pseudo-feminist claptrap, women who boost their boobs don't seem a whole lot different from Joel's ewes. Heidi, et al., are the real boobs, obediently conforming to some caricature of beauty fantasized by traveling-salesman types. Face it, O lovely woman: That shiny new bosom was fashioned by, and for, men. And you will wear it in public as long as men approve. You could say über-boobs are Western Civ's equivalent of. . . a burka.

Posted by jat at 03:02 AM | Permalink

Today's New York Times takes a look at Egypt's stybblistic evolution out of being a secular state. 

That the norm for women is to wear the hijab will not come as a surprise.  What stands out is the fashion for men:  the alamat el-salah, or zebibah, which is a mark on the forehead that comes from touching the ground in prayer.

But should it really come as a surprise that this mark should become popular in Egypt?     

Posted by jat at 12:18 AM | Permalink

The following preview for Marianne Satrapi's animated version of Persepolis tells a complete story through evolving style. If you haven't read any of her work, check out this interview in the Wall Street Journal and hie thee to a bookstore.

Posted by jat at 07:49 PM | Permalink

A few weeks ago the New York Times did an article on the green grinch, the person who insists on giving you eco-friendly presents that suck. In merry old England the Warrington town council seems have topped 'em all with its "Recycle for Warrington" display in the town center.

Christians allege that this is the vanguard of a sinister secular plot to rebrand Christmas with "a corporate message about waste management." The town council, on the other hand, is calling on Christians to get a grip:

"All the traditional symbols of the season have pride of place in Warrington - we have the crib showing Jesus in his manger right in front of Warrington's famous Golden Gates, we have two giant Christmas trees, and we have all the usual festive lights, reindeers and Father Christmases - as we have had for years in the borough.

"One addition this year is one sign on one street, commissioned by the council's recycling team, to promote the message that with all the Christmas cards, trees and festive wrapping that will be generated at this time of year, it is good for people to remember to recycle."

Lost in all the shouting: whether the best way to promote concern for the environment is through a FRAKKIN' ELECTRIC LIGHT DISPLAY!!!!!!

Posted by jat at 12:37 PM | Permalink

The Alicia Silverstone movie Clueless is a clever update of Jane Austen's Emma, but I never thought of it as a milestone of Iranian culture.

Hey, ya learn something new every day:

The hit 1995 teen movie “Clueless” might be known best for introducing Americans to Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd, but first-time novelist Porochista Khakpour remembers it for another reason: It injected Iranian Americans into the U.S. popcultural consciousness.

“There’s that scene when (Silverstone’s character) Cher says, And that’s the Persian Mafia. You can’t hang with them unless you own a BMW.’” Khakpour, 29, delivered the line in an authoritative teen-queen squeak. It was a “hideous” milestone for Iranian-born, South Pasadena, Calif.-bred, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Khakpour, substituting for the stereotype of Iranians as veiled women and religious fanatics another unappealing notion — of an excessively wealthy, insular immigrant community “in shoulder pads and gold jewelry.”

Khakpour’s goal was to challenge both stereotypes in her first novel, “Sons and Other Flammable Objects,” which was published this fall. Her main characters, like her own family, are resolutely middle class and are more Zoroastrian than Muslim.

Posted by jat at 01:29 AM | Permalink

Fresh from the latest Heeb, here's a juicy morsel from How to Cook a Gentile by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer.

Posted by jat at 03:36 PM | Permalink

Believe it or not, this is an avant-garde digital art exhibit in Miami. Below, the parting of the Red Sea; Creative Review has all the images and a description of the project.

Posted by jat at 03:09 PM | Permalink

Above: Items from the Christmas collection of Nightlight, a Christian charity in Bangkok that helps women and children to leave the sex trade by giving them work in a jewelry business.

For more stuff like this, check out Products with a Purpose, which also sells fashion items to help women in the sex industry.

Posted by jat at 02:57 PM | Permalink

The item above appears under the category Baby Crosses on SmileyMe.com. I immediately jumped on the link, wondering if--a la the genre of Muppet Babies and Tiny Titans--there'd be a picture of Jesus as a little kid crucified and happy.

No such luck, but what I did find is almost: the All Things Bright and Beautiful Cross.

Now you might be thinking--more kitsch? What's so special about that?

Ahhhh, but look carefully. It's a rainbow and a smiling moon and sun, accompanied by a song,

All things bright and beautiful,

all creatures great and small,

all things wise and wonderful,

the Lord God made them all,

all imprinted on the instrument of torture used to kill Jesus Christ!

What better way to introduce your child to the problem of theodicy. I mean, if it were me lying in a crib with nothing to do all day but stare at my surroundings, it'd only be a matter of time before I'd start to wonder . . .

If the Lord God made all good things and the cross is a wonderful thing, then he made evil. But how could he make evil--or even allow it--without contradicting divine justice?

Of course, I pretty much had the same thoughts after reading The Cat in the Hat, but I was a strange kid.

Posted by jat at 11:32 AM | Permalink

The Major League Baseball steroid scandal prompts this observation from Dallas News Religion:

How many of these guys wear crucifixes on their gold chains, make the sign of the cross when they come up to the plate, or point heavenward after they make a good pitch to get out of a jam?

What, exactly, are they praying for? That Jesus help them remember to pack their syringes before road trips?

Posted by jat at 11:46 AM | Permalink

Scanner points us to this nifty Jesus Christmas tree car magnet from The Christmas Shop at London Bridge, but that's only part of the story.

The reason for this burst of evangelical piety on Nerve.com? A recent resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives in support of Christmas. A few members have gotten flack for voting against it, but read the language--by counting numbers (3/4 of the U.S.--booyah!) and citing the Christian origin of the U.S., does it implicitly argue that Christianity is our state religion?

Unlike Romney's speech, though, the Resolution does not leave out nonbelievers--it expressly cites non-Christians' celebration of Christmas as grounds for acknowledging and supporting "the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of the western civilization."

The eastern civilization, we presume, has always been godless.

HOUSE RESOLUTION 847

Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.

Whereas Christmas, a holiday of great significance to Americans and many other cultures and nationalities, is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States and the world;

Whereas there are approximately 225,000,000 Christians in the United States, making Christianity the religion of over three-fourths of the American population;

Whereas there are approximately 2,000,000,000 Christians throughout the world, making Christianity the largest religion in the world and the religion of about one-third of the world population;

Whereas Christians identify themselves as those who believe in the salvation from sin offered to them through the sacrifice of their savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and who, out of gratitude for the gift of salvation, commit themselves to living their lives in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Bible;

Whereas Christians and Christianity have contributed greatly to the development of western civilization;

Whereas the United States, being founded as a constitutional republic in the traditions of western civilization, finds much in its history that points observers back to its roots in Christianity;

Whereas on December 25 of each calendar year, American Christians observe Christmas, the holiday celebrating the birth of their savior, Jesus Christ;

Whereas for Christians, Christmas is celebrated as a recognition of God's redemption, mercy, and Grace; and

Whereas many Christians and non-Christians throughout the United States and the rest of the world, celebrate Christmas as a time to serve others: Now, therefore be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) recognizes the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world;

(2) expresses continued support for Christians in the United States and worldwide;

(3) acknowledges the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith;

(4) acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of the western civilization;

(5) rejects bigotry and persecution directed against Christians, both in the United States and worldwide; and

(6) expresses its deepest respect to American Christians and Christians throughout the world.

Posted by jat at 01:16 PM | Permalink

Does the prophet Jeremiah's condemnation of Christmas trees make you uncomfortable with decorating your own this holiday season?

Well, one way to maintain the tradition without violating the letter of Jeremiah's command would be to make your very own beer bottle Christmas tree! No woods or chopping necessary--just plenty of holiday cheer.