Jon's Blog

Pat Robertson was dissing gay-affirming churches (such as my own Faith UCC or the Gay Christian Network) earlier today on CBN's "700 Club." He was doing his daily Bring It On segment when a viewer asked about attending a gay-affirming church.

Co-host Terry Meeuwsen shared the following question by an anonymous viewer: "I was visiting a church with a Christian friend of mine. I was shocked that the pastor was openly gay and talked about this with everyone. I asked my friend if he accepted this and he said he did because he did not think it was a sin. I left the church later and told my friend I would not be going back because I think it is a sin against Christianity. Was I right or wrong to leave?"

Here is Pat's response:

Pat Robertson: The Bible is very explicit about that. The Old Testament has called it an abomination. It’s an abomination for a man to lie with another man as with a woman. An abomination. The apostle Paul said, “no homosexual or adulterer or fornicator is going to enter the kingdom of Heaven.”

So, there’s no question about it. And to have a church saying it’s not a sin. It’s okay. They’re leading people down the road to Perdition. It’s a shame, but if I were you I would stay far away from them, because… We love the sinner, but hate the sin. But nevertheless, it’s a problem.

In other words, gay-affirming churches are leading people directly to Hell.

I've written before about Paul and what I believe about gay people, celibacy, and marriage.

As far as abominations, there is a pretty comprehensive list of them in the Bible. It means that you're falling short. Essentially it's sinning. Eating "unclean" foods is an abomination. Lying is an abomination. Cheating is an abomination. Being proud is an abomination. Wearing the clothes of the opposite sex is an abomination. The list goes on.

I'm not saying that gay sex cannot be sinful. I am saying that same-sex marriage is not sinful. Hence, sex within those marriages is not sinful.

Basically, Robertson is doing his best to promote a meme that gay people are against God and against Christianity -- which is actually harmful to LGBT people. It separates LGBT people from the Church and it separates us from our families. There's a new gay teen on GCN this week who's being spiritually abused by his parents who practice Roberton's brand of anti-gay Christianity. I predict that their relationship will be permanently damaged. Or he will find himself yoked heterosexually with some unaware woman -- only to bring misery to his entire family. Very sad.

You can watch the whole segment here.

I've written before about crowdfunding efforts that I support. I thought that I would highlight a GoFundMe fundraiser for a new "public access" radio project here in Iowa City: Local Radio: KICI 105.3 FM.

Here is the page's description:

Uptown Bill's/Extend the Dream has received a license from the FCC to operate a radio station. In keeping with our mission, this is to be community radio for everyone -- for people of all abilities.

Right now, we need to raise $15,000. That will pay for the costs of engineering and equipment to get us on the air.

Our goal is to be broadcasting by this fall. Help us get on the air with a tax-deductible contribution.

I am pretty excited about KICI 105.3 FM. I look forward to what Iowa City has to say -- and I have an idea about things that I might want to say also!

The fundraising goal is set at $15,000. So far, it's stalled at $1,295.

I've given $50 so far. I encourage you to donate some money, too.

I've written before that I'm a social worker. During some of my darker moments, I contemplate quitting my job and hanging up my shingle as a life coach. Life coaching is one of those nebulous professions. I'm never quite sure what they do, but mostly it seems like it's all about motivation and encouragement.

There is this great YouTube video featuring Cookie Monster titled "Cookie Monster, Life Coach." It is one of the greatest YouTube videos ever. In my opinion, as always.

It features a variety of people who come to meet with afamiliar face: Cookie Monster! One woman comes to him after losing yet another job. One guy wonders about returning to college after taking a 10 year break. Another guy is just feeling restless with his life. And each of them shares their stories with their new life coach.

Here are some ways of Cookie's wise nuggets:

Man: I feel like I'm on an island that is being deserted.
Cookie Monster: Are there cookies on this island?...
*Man samples cookies from nearby plate*
Cookie Monster: Delicious, huh?
Man: Pretty good... *coughs*
Cookie Monster: A little dry...
Man: You know, it is dry! My life is not moist.
Cookie Monster: It needs milk!
Man: Exactly!

Other Man: When you're saying I should eat a cookie, is that my whole education?
Cookie Monster: Yes! You eat the cookie! Yum! Yum! Yum! Yum! Yum!
Other Man: I'm gonna graduate!
Cookie Monster: Yes!

Woman: I need to take a bite out of life! And just love, you know?
Cookie Monster: *Nods* Love the cookie!
Woman: Yeah!
Cookie Monster: You gonna love those cookies!

Like I said, this video is golden. You owe it to yourself to watch it.

You can view the entire video here.

I was checking out JUGHEAD & ARCHIE COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST #13 tonight, which features a great new short story featuring the art and words of Fernando Ruiz. It seems that Archie and Jughead are looking through the local flea market and notice a giant plaster elephant. Archie knows that Mr. Lodge has started a new collection featuring vintage carousel horses and figures that he would love adding this elephant to his collection.

Here's the thing... He's right! Mr. Lodge was showing off his horse collection to a snooty magazine editor and found out that his horse collection is boring with a capital "B." Then Archie shows up with his elephant and Mr. Lodge realizes that he has something that's interesting enough to impress the art critic. Off he runs to bring back the critic and Archie is the golden child for once!

End of story, right?

Not quite. Archie then remembers that there are tons of vintage animal treasures at that flea market and decides that Mr. Lodge will be putting him in his will if he brings back enough of them! The results aren't pretty!

Oh Archie! When will you learn about moderation??

"The Crass Menagerie" was written and penciled by Fernando Ruiz, inked by Bob Smith, lettered by Jack Morelli, and colored by Digikore Studios.

We got our first glimpses of the Black Panther, as seen from the set of "Captain America: Civil War." This movie will come out in May 2016. The Black Panther will be played by Chadwick Boseman.

Check out these shots:

I've looking forward to "Captain America: Civil War." It will feature a huge ideological divide between Cap and Iron Man and will feature all sorts of heroes, including Black Panther, Black Widow, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Vision, Hawkeye, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man.

I began writing about the "Archie: Riverdale Rescue" iOS gaming app back in October 2013. Since then, the game has expanded to PC users. It's an oddly addictive game where you are tasked with the improvement and beautification of Riverdale USA using a variety of recognizable characters, such as Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica. A big part of the game also involves building emotional bonds between the various characters, leading to romantic couples, BFFs, and overall friends.

One of the things that I loved about "Riverdale Rescue" was the game's periodic game upgrades. They were usually tied into holidays or seasonal changes. The upgrades were great for me as I had completed all of the game's tasks and purchased all of the add-on characters and outfits. Sadly, we haven't seen any new upgrades since Christmas 2014!

Last weekend, I realized that I'd stopped checking the App Store on my iPad for new "Riverdale Rescue" upgrades. That prompted me to send the following tweet to the good folks that make "Riverdale Rescue":

Sadly, they still haven't tweeted back at me (which they sometimes do), but I did notice this over in the App Store last night:

I immediately clicked on the update button and checked out the "Riverdale Rescue" game. There is only one significant change to the game at this moment:

Look down at the bottom right-hand corner. There is now an "Itavio" button. This is what you see if you click on that:

If you click on the "Get App" button, you get sent over to an Itavio app, which is another way of purchasing items from the game. It seems marketed to parents who want to provide their kids with a set monthly dollar amount for their kids to make game purchases.

I make purchases for this game directly through iTunes, so I won't be using this feature. But I can see how it would be useful.

So nothing new, game-wise. Except....

Except that there is a promise of something more coming to the game soon. The latest update description includes the following message: "We're preparing some great new content for you in the next few weeks! The gang's summer is almost over and they're gearing up to head back to school in the fall. Keep your eyes peeled for fun new quests and events coming soon!"

In other words, we get to look forward to a new "Back to School" upgrade in the near future! I can't wait!

Keep your eyes peeled to Jon's Blog and I'll share what I know about the newest game upgrades when they get released!

THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #8 just came out this week. This continues to be my favorite comic book currently being published by Marvel Comics. It's filled with superheroics, but it's also cute and funny and clever and a little over the top. But where else can you go to watch a hero with squirrel-based powers go up against a Norse Squirrel God?

I mean, who knew that there was actually a Norse Squirrel God named Ratatoskr who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil and provokes people with slanderous gossip? I mean, for real. What a perfect enemy for Squirrel Girl!

We first met Ratatoskr when she posed as a super-powered squirrel hero named Girl Squirrel. Girl Squirrel seemed on the level at first, but then she began running from home to home whispering horrible, unthinkable messages in the ears of pretty much everyone in New York City. These whispering were a form of anger-inducing mind control powers, which led to city-wide riots!

Soon enough, Squirrel Girl and her new friends (Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boy, and Nancy Whitehead) teamed up with Thor and Thor to come up with a plan to defeat and capture Ratatoskr. The Thors and Nancy left to do research in Asgard while Squirrel Girl and the other took the fight directly to Ratatoskr. That latter plan didn't turn out well. Soon enough, Ratatoskr got into the minds of everyone except Doreen -- everyone including Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boy, and all of their four-legged animal friends! How will Squirrel Girl stop the Squirrel God's plan to destroy the planet without any of her friends?

Fortunately, she comes up with a solution with a little help from Nancy, Thor, Thor, and Loki! You really owe it to yourself to see how it all goes down. You really will not regret this purchase!

Here are some of the reasons that this comic book continues to be one of my favorite comic books:

1. Nancy's fan-fiction featuring Cat Thor. Nancy Whitehead is obsessed with her cat Mew -- and pretty much all cats. Why wouldn't she do fan-fiction and why wouldn't she establish majestic adventures for her favorite animals?

2. Nancy schools the Thors on the usefulness of Wikipedia. They learned everything they needed to know about Ratatoskr with one single web-search.

3. Loki cosplaying as Cat Thor. Loki took an instant liking to Nancy Whitehead and agreed to show up his shapeshifting abilities to her. He remained in Cat Thor's image, complete with Cat Thor's enchanted "Mewnir" hammer for most of the rest of this issue.

4. Squirrel Girl has a new archnemesis. Technically, Squirrel Girl didn't defeat Ratatoskr. Not directly, anyway. But try telling the Norse Squirrel Girl that bit of truth! I have a feeling that we haven't seen the end of Ratatoskr!

Next to lastly, Squirrel Girl laments towards the end of this issue that Girl Squirrel turned out to be a nasty Norse Squirrel Girl. She really wished that there were actual super-powered pets in the world. Hello!!?! Hasn't she heard of the Pet Avengers?? Somebody needs to arrange for a face-to-face team-up!!

And finally, it looks like THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL is ending with this issue -- but being relaunched in October "because SHE'S JUST THAT GOOD." Or something like that.

"The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #8" is written by Ryan North, penciled and inked by Erica Henderson, colored by Rico Renzi, and lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles.

Marvel Comics announced one of its new upcoming titles: MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR. It looks like Devil Dinosaur will be ditching his old sidekick -- a furry caveman named Moonboy -- and picking up a new partner, a 'tween girl named Lunella Lafayette who goes by the code-name Moon Girl.

It seems that Moon Girl is super-smart and sees the world differently than others. Marvel Comics is really busting that out as something unique, but it reminds me a lot of Amadeus Cho or Big Hero 6's Hiro Hamada. But maybe she'll stand out differently than these other super-smart kids.

Here is one way. It turns out that Lunella is an Inhuman -- at least she's potentially Inhuman. It seems that she has that gene, but it was unclear if she's manifested those powers yet. "She's got an Inhuman gene, unpredictable alien DNA inside that -- once triggered -- could take her life in a wildly different direction. She's determined to control that change."

It looks like Moonboy will make an appearance in this series, as well as one of the Killer-Folk -- the hostile cavemen that originally challenged Devil Dinosaur and Moonboy back in the 1970s. But Devil's new adventures with Moon Girl will take place in the contemporary post-Secret Wars Marvel Comics continuity.

We were visiting family over leading into the weekend, but watched a new article involving the former pastor of our church. His family has found themselves in the midst of a local controversy involving a stolen "Black Lives Matter" yard-sign:

A couple expressed disappointment after a Black Lives Matter sign in their front yard disappeared earlier this week.

“I put it up on the Fourth of July and it sat there undisrupted for the entire month,” said Brian Brandsmeier, who lives on South Park Ridge Road.

Brandsmeier, a former clergyperson in St. Louis, said he received a total of two signs from his friends who designed them in Missouri earlier this summer. As a result he was able to quickly replace the missing sign. But it didn’t take long before someone demanded the new sign come down, Brandsmeier said.

“Somebody came to our house while we were eating supper and demanded that we take the sign out of our yard, and said the city of North Liberty doesn’t allow incendiary signs,” he said. “I’m a white guy, my wife is white, my kids are white, but it doesn’t mean that other lives don’t matter, or other lives are less or more important, it just means all lives are important, but black lives are important too.”

“I think it’s a nice reminder in this culture of white privilege that we live in to just say, ‘Hey, black lives matter too,’” said Sara Klosterboer, who is married to Brandsmeier.

The couple said in the news article that they plan to file a complaint with North Liberty's city council. They also confirmed with the city and their "Black Lives Matter" sign does not violate any city ordinances.

Brian and Sara have blogged this week about why they support the #BlackLivesMatter cause. You can read their thoughts about it here.

This is the seventeenth in a series of blog posts dedicated to the 40th anniversary of BBC's "Survivors" television series. "Survivors"followed a core group of characters who managed to survived a devastating viral outbreak -- one which managed to kill off somewhere between 95-99% of humanity. Society has crumbled and now those who remain must relearn the old way if they have any hope of surviving much longer.

In our last episode (which is also the first half of this particular storyline), Ruth was lured away from Whitecross by some travelers with a false story involving Abby Grant and an illness at a nearby settlement. The pair whisked her away instead to what's left of London. Ruth learned that roughly 500 people continue living in London and are making it by with limited electricity, hot water, soap, upbeat music, and a one-doctor hospital. She learned that they needed a second doctor (i.e., Ruth) in order to attend to a new fatal disease called the London Sickness.

Did I mention that Charles and Greg managed to track Ruth down towards the end of last week's episode? They were almost taken down by pack of rats, but were rescued by London's resident exile, a guy named Wally (more about him later!). Charles got bit up pretty badly. Here is Ruth's professional assessment:

London is now run by a guy named Manny. He's got things pretty well under control. Manny is working alongside the Doctor and a city planner named Barbara to eventually move the entire population from London (which is overrun by rats and dead bodies and some sort of airborn illness that causes minor scratches to go septic) to the Isle of Wight (which is outside and presumably easier to manage.

Manny has decided to take advantage of Greg's presence to help search for mass-evacuation routes. But before that, he schools Greg and us viewers on why they originally exiled Wally:

In other words, Manny has his thumb held down tightly on London's operations and Wally has the good sense to see that things are dodgy -- what with the periodic exiling of those who ask too many questions! Wally was voted out and now he's trying to get back in away from the rats! Manny said that he can come back, but only if he leaves a message at Whitecross telling them that Greg, Charles, and Ruth are safe.

Actually, Manny is being pretty cagey about allowing Wally back. He admitted to Nessie the Nurse that he would be happy if Wally never made it back alive. That earned him a strong rebuke from Nessie:

This is where things begin to go south. First, the Doctor contracts the London Sickness and quickly dies, leaving Ruth with the impossible choice of having to stay -- after all, who will care for all of these Londoners if she doesn't?

Then Greg learns that Manny has pushed back to move-out date from London. He wants to send Greg and Charles on what appears to be a suicide mission to clear the roads of rats on the way to the Isle of Wight. But Greg realizes that Manny will keep coming up with new excuses for pushing back their move date.

This prompts him to push Charles and Ruth to leave London -- now! Except that Ruth won't leave:

And did I mention that Manny took Wally on a mission to find new stores of petrol? It turns out that it was all a ruse. Manny really planned to rid himself permanently of London's favorite gadfly!:

Nessie eventually convinces Ruth to leave London. The countryside needs Ruth and Nessie herself can manage the hospital. She loads up Ruth's bag with tons of medical supplies and sends her on her way.

Of course, Manny was furious and manages to intercept our bunch before they made it into the tunnels. He gives them an ultimatum: Leave Ruth behind or die!:

Fortunately, Manny only manages to kill his own men off before finding himself killed by Wally. It seems that Wally didn't die, he just fell down unconscious for a bit. This allows Ruth, Greg, and Charles the opportunity to escape from London and to return home!

They invite Wally to join them at Whitecross, but he turns them down. He plans to search the countryside for a new doctor. He will work hard to convince the new doctor to come back with him to London. That's a shame. I rather liked Wally!

This two-part episode was actually pretty good, though I'm still unsure why Manny was so resistant to leaving London. Maybe he liked be in command over the fortifications surrounding the city. But I can't imagine that it's too fun to have command over a city with an atmosphere that promotes rot -- not to mention millions of bodies that randomly explode into flames!

We return next week to a more traditional one-part episode located in Whitecross titled "The Face of the Tiger."

A group of Catholic leaders gathered last week in Plymouth, MI, to vent about same-sex relationships and to complain about how unnatural we all are. But it wasn't all negative. The bishops and priests also took time to explore outreach efforts to LGBT people, such as comparing our sex acts with aural eating practices:

At a national conference in Plymouth, Catholic leaders spoke out Wednesday against same-gender sexual relations, claiming it’s harmful and unnatural, but added that the Catholic Church must reach out to those with same-sex attractions. At the conference, a popular Catholic priest in metro Detroit, the Rev. John Riccardo of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth, told about how a family member of his wrestles with how to deal with a gay child....

In his talk to fellow clergy and others, Riccardo discussed how to talk about gay issues. He said the issue comes up when he meets with young people.

“This is the question which is asked by junior-high kids: Why does God hate gays?” Riccardo said. Riccardo said he responds in terms that can relate to younger folks without being too explicit.

“Here’s the image that I use,” Riccardo said. He said he tells the students, what if ‘I just rip open a bagel, I take it, and I cram it in my ear. What would you say?’

He said, the kids respond: “That doesn’t go there.”

“I say, ‘Exactly. That will ruin your ear canal.'"

You read that correctly. Gay sex is like eating a bagel with your ear.

Remember when Domenico Dolce of the fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana insulted gay families everywhere by describing our kids as "synthetic children?" LGBT advocates everywhere expressed confused and then outrage -- particularly after the D & G founders doubled-down on the idea that gay people shouldn't be parents. This lead to a worldwide boycott of the Dolce & Gabbana brand.

I learned today that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have decided to apologize for insulting their target audience (i.e., gay men and our allies) and speak out in favor of gay families:

Domenico Dolce of Italian luxury industry fashion house Dolce & Gabbana says that after doing 'some soul-searching' he has realized that his IVF 'synthetic' children comments were 'inappropriate'.

Dolce and Stefano Gabbana had previously criticized IVF and called the children "synthetic", and opposed gay adoption. Now they have apologized for their controversial remarks, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"I am so sorry. It was not my intention to offend anyone," Dolce told Vogue magazine.

"I've done some soul-searching. I've talked to Stefano a lot about this. I've realized that my words were inappropriate, and I apologize. They are just kids. You don't need labels, baby labels."

"I think everybody chooses for themselves. I don't know everything about IVF, but I love it when people are happy. It's like medicine. Science has been put on the table to help people," he added.

Gabanna went on to say that he would actually like to become a parent, but that Italy does not allow for gay parenting or adoption.

How about it? Do you accept their apology?

I was pretty excited when I began reading JUGHEAD AND ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #15 this week. Not only did it feature the return of Cosmo the Merry Martian, but it also directly referenced his last appearance in ARCHIE #655. I'm always pleasantly surprised when Archie Comics acknowledges its continuity, but that story was a wicked fun story involving Cosmo and a group of super-powered space aliens known as the "Good Guys of the Galaxy."

I'm embarrassed to admit that it took an entire sit-down reading of this comic book to realize that they Archie Comics was riffing on Marvel Comics' Guardians of the Galaxy team! *Shame*

Anyway, this original lead story begins with Archie seeking the perfect birthday present for Veronica Lodge. I mean, what do you get the girl who already has everything? He turns to Jughead, who in turn seeks advice from Dilton. Dilton shows off some super-Internet tech, which accidentally sends a signal off to Mars! That call ends up connecting Archie to Cosmo, who's more than happy to help out his red-headed human friend during his time of need!

Cosmo teleports to Riverdale and offers Archie the ultimate source of indulgence: a robotic servant named Tor! Fortunately, Archie is all about economic justice and quickly realizes that it would be totally uncool to cause Smithers to lose his butler position!

Cosmo begins racking his brain for a new idea while Jughead begins experimenting with Tor's control panel -- which was a terrible idea!! It seems that Tor is the ultimate robot. Not only is he equipped to provide high quality housekeeping services -- he also has an "invasion mode," which is activated by the simple touch of a button!

Who designs these things???

Tor immediately smashes up Dilton's laboratory and then heads out into Riverdale, fully prepared to subjugate the town's entire population!!

You really need to pick up this comic book digest -- complete with dozens of classic tales featuring Jughead, the Riverdale Gang, Hot Dog, and That Wilkin Boy -- to figure out how Archie, Cosmo, and Juggie divert a robotic invasion, as well as figure out the solution to Veronica's unrealized birthday gift!

"From Mars With Love" was written and penciled by Fantastic Fernando Ruiz, inked by Unbeatable Bob Smith, lettered by Jovial Jack Morelli, and colored by the Dedicated Digikore Studios!

Pat Robertson realized that co-host Terry Meeuwsen was wearing pants this morning on CBN's "700 Club." That revelation came during their Bring It On segment, when a woman named Mercy asked a question about women wearing pants. Pat assured Mercy (and Terry) that it's okay for women to wear pants. After all, Jesus fulfilled the Law.

But he's still troubled by trans women! That's still problematic, in Pat's mind.

It all started when Terry shared Mercy's question: "Some people say it’s wrong for women to wear pants because the Bible says that a woman should not wear clothes that “pertain unto a man.” I am confused about this whole thing. Please explain to me so that I do not make the wrong choice."

Here is Pat's response:

Pat Robertson: First of all, there are moral commands in the Law that stays forever. You know, like “Love your neighbor” and that kind of stuff. “Love God with all your heart…” But the dietary restrictions and the dress code was done away with. Jesus… He fulfilled the Law himself. So we’re not under the Law.

But I think, when you look at some of these men who cross-dress… I mean, this gets to be a problem!

Nevertheless… You can wear a pantsuit and, I guess you wouldn’t want to see Hillary Clinton breaking the Law. She mostly wears pantsuits.

Terry Meeuwsen: You certainly wouldn’t want to see that.

Pat Robertson: *Pointing at Terry* You’re wearing pants!

Terry Meeuwsen: *Chuckles* I am.

Pat Robertson: You are!

Terry Meeuwsen: I am.

Pat Robertson: You’re not breaking the Law, I hope.

Terry Meeuwsen: I certainly hope not.

Pat Robertson: She’s not breaking the law.

You can watch the whole segment here.

There was a Democratic Presidential Forum this past weekend in Clear Lake, IA. I wasn't there, but one of my college friends was. A NPR guy tweeted the following image:

Gateway Pundit, a conservative blogger posted an image, initially proclaiming, "PHOTO=> Democrats Now Displaying Mexican And LBGTQ Flags at Their Campaign Events in Iowa:"

Leave it to the Democrat party to include the Mexican flag and the rainbow LGBTQLMNOP+ flag at their Presidential forum in Iowa tonight… Right next to the POW-MIA flag. Looks like someone goofed up and accidentally included a few American flags, which I’m sure someone will find “offensive” and demand they be removed.

Gateway Pundit then shared a closer image of the offending "Mexican" flag:

This was shared by Young Conservatives, who ranted even more about the offending flag:

We support illegal aliens and immoral actions more than the average, workaday American. Illegals strengthen our communities, and homosexuality is natural.

I give you, the motto of the Left. Unfortunately, they’re too cowardly to just come right out and say so. Sure, they’ll do it subtly, but without real adults in charge, they’re forced to take the elementary route.

You’d think with as much as liberals love to collect tax dollars they wouldn’t be so keen on illegal immigration, but what really makes sense about anything Democrats do?

Here's the funny part. It's not the Mexican flag. It's the official state flag of Iowa that has these bloggers so upset. Gateway Pundit has since scrubbed itself clearm from references to the Mexican flag, focusing now only on the rainbow flag that's also in the auditorium. There's a note that the article has been updated, but nothing to indicate what exactly was updated -- unless you look at the comments section.

Young Conservatives actually explicitly corrected themselves, which I feel was very good and upfront of them:

Update (August 16): It appears the flag in question is the Iowa State flag, not the Mexican flag. We apologize for not catching this error by the source.

Of course, they still don't like the gays. But that's why I don't vote GOP.

I wrote yesterday about JUGHEAD & ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #15. But I totally missed a second brand-new story hidden deep within that comic book digest feature Bingo Wilkin (AKA The Wilkin Boy)! Longtime Archie Comics fans know that Bingo Wilkin is Jughead Jones' cousin. I don't remember them hanging out too much back when he was first introduced, but the relationship was used to give Bingo some comic book creds.

Nowadays, Bingo pops up as a supporting character within the main titles every so often. Plus his reruns have recurring appearances within the JUGHEAD & ARCHIE COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST series, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Bingo show up in a new story where he is the focus of things.

Jughead shows up in this story, but he's clearly a supporting character. He's at a lake spending time with his cousin. He might have top-billing in this particular tale, but Bingo is definitely the star. Basically, Jughead sticks around just long enough to kick off the action!

It seems that Bingo offered to take his girlfriend Samantha on a river cruise -- except that he has no money! He cannot afford a motor boat, so he got a kayak instead. The problem is that he has no clue how to run the darned thing!

Not only does Bingo have to figure out how to run a kayak, but his rival -- Mr. Teddy Tamborine -- is already out on the water, riding on his own power boat with the pretty Samantha. It's possible that you aren't familiar with Teddy Tamborine. I know I wasn't. Think "Reggie Mantle with Sunglasses" and you know Teddy Tamborine.

Teddy begins creating trouble for Bingo the minute That Wilkin Boy makes it out into the open water! Do you suppose that'll impress young Samatha Smythe? I think Teddy needs to set his sights on Cheryl Blossom. This is much more her style!

This was a fun story, but you could easily have replaced Bingo, Samantha, and Teddy with Archie, Betty, and Reggie. Still, it's good to see some of Archie Comics' other comic book properties getting some page-space.

"Kayak Crazy" was written by Tom DeFalco, penciled by Pat & Tim Kennedy, inked by Jim Amash, lettered by Jack Morelli, and colored by Digikore Studios.

CBN’s “700 Club” did an ex-gay segment today featuring an entertainer named Bill Walker. He says that he didn’t get affection from his father, so he began crushing on other boys. He began performing with his siblings in Las Vegas. He became a Christian and eventually prayed away the gay. He eventually married a woman and now leads a church.

Bill’s story lead to the following monologue by Pat Robertson:

You see, God knows who you are. God knows us. He knows what’s going on in our minds and our hearts and our bodies. He knows all about you and me. And he knows the lust that is there. He knows the kind of people we are.

And a case like Bill… I just commend him because he recognized what he was doing was not according to the Bible. And he wanted to live for Christ. And the Lord himself moved into his heart and transformed him. And those desires were supplanted by the love of Christ.

The Lord can give you deliverance. It used to be that psychiatrists would tell people how to come out of this, now they tell you how to stay in it and be happy. Well, you’ll never be happy unless you’re happy in Jesus. And if you have, deep in your heart, a feeling of guilt and shame… You’ll never get right until you get right with the Lord.

He then led the audience in a prayer of confession and deliverance.

It's interesting to note that Robertson condemned today's mental health professional for assisting today's gays with becoming comfortable with their sexuality. Especially since the previous segment described how all of the counselors that Bill had seen had failed to bring about any ex-gay success.

Personally, I don't doubt that there are people who find themselves "healed" of their homosexuality -- or at least, go through periods of change. Maybe Bill is one of them. I just haven't seen it first hand. But I have met lots of gay Christians who've filled themselves with shame and guilt for the feelings that they pray to rid themselves of and yet never go away.

In that, I agree with Pat Robertson. You will never be happy until you overcome the guilt and the shame in your life.

You can watch the whole (long) segment here.

The Duggar family can't win for trying these days. I learned Tuesday that the Duggar family has pitched a new reality TV show to the TLC Network that would focus on Christian counseling services for the victims of childhood sexual abuse:

The Duggar family is reportedly pitching a new show to the TLC Network about providing Christian counseling to victims of childhood sexual abuse.

According to Michael Stone at the Progressive Secular Humanist blog, the 19 Kids and Counting family is trying to create a spin-off show that will capitalize on a one-hour TLC special coming on Aug. 30, titled Breaking the Silence.

TLC said that Breaking the Silence is an attempt by the network to shed light on the issue of child sex abuse and that it will feature appearances by members of the Duggar clan. The special is set to run commercial-free...

TLC canceled 19 Kids and Counting in spite of its high ratings after it came to light that the Duggars’ eldest son Josh had molested his sisters and another girl as a teen. Rather than turn Josh in to authorities and let him face the consequences, the family handed him over to a clergyman’s care and never sought treatment for their daughters.

This mishandling of the abuse and the family’s attempts to hide it from the public were more than TLC was willing to countenance and the network wisely canceled the show.

A source close to the Duggars told Star magazine that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are desperate to keep some form of reality TV revenue coming in to support their outsized brood.

“The family can’t afford to not have the show — it is their main source of income, and with a family of that size, without it they’re in enormous trouble,” said the family friend. “They know they have to at least pretend to be sorry about what happened, and now they want a spin-off where Jim Bob and Michelle would give advice to abuse victims—even though they’re in denial about their culpability in Josh’s crimes.”

Breaking the Silence is scheduled to air on August 30th on TLC.

These attempts to create a spin-off show were made WAY MORE AWKWARD by today's revelation that Josh Duggar was one of the people outed by computer hackers as a client of Ashley Madison, a website that helps married people cheat on their spouses. It seems that Josh Duggar had two paid Ashley Madison subscriptions between 2013 and May 2015:

But data released online in the wake of the hack on Ashley Madison’s servers certainly seems to show otherwise. Someone using a credit card belonging to a Joshua J. Duggar, with a billing address that matches the home in Fayetteville, Arkansas owned by his grandmother Mary—a home that was consistently shown on their now-cancelled TV show, and in which Anna Duggar gave birth to her first child—paid a total of $986.76 for two different monthly Ashley Madison subscriptions from February of 2013 until May of 2015.

And...

In July 2014*, he seems to have started a second account that was linked to his home in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where he spent his time lobbying against causes like same-sex marriage. The birthday listed in the data for Duggar’s first account is February 3, 1988, one month off Duggar’s actual birthday of March 3, 1988. The birthday listed for the second account is March 2, 1988.

The two accounts overlap by a period of a few months. When he launched the second account, Duggar paid an initial fee of $250 that appears to have gone toward the purchase of an “affair guarantee.”

Head over to Gawker to catch a glimpse of Duggar's alleged turn-ons and to see which sex acts he was hoping to encounter with his Ashley Madison hook-ups.

I haven't seen any response yet from any of the Duggars about this latest revelation.

However, People just posted an article earlier today expressing that the Duggar family is "still stunned" that the public hasn't gotten over our collective disgust over these family sex abuse scandals. I'm sure Josh's latest scandal won't help us move on...

My frequent themes are crossing over this morning. CBN's "700 Club" discussed the news that Josh Duggar was one of the paid subscribers to the Ashley Madison "cheating spouse" website for about 40 seconds. Here's what Wendy Griffith had to say about it:

The Bible says, “Your sins will find you out.” And now some hackers are making sure of it. They’ve stolen information from nearly 40 million private accounts on the Ashley Madison website, which helps people cheat on their spouse. The hacking is threatening to expose countless public officials since thousands of accounts have government email addresses. And it appears to have claimed its first high profile victim.

Gawker.com reports that Josh Duggar paid nearly $1,000 to subscribe to the site over several years. Duggar was forced to resign from the Family Research Council this year after he was exposed for molesting his younger sisters as a teenager.

You can watch that segment here.

I still haven't seen any official response from any of the Duggars or from the TLC Network.

Incidentally, it's worth nothing that Duggar was an executive leader for the Family Research Council and actively advocating against LGBT rights and families while actively seeking to cheat on his wife.

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