So, someone performed religious ordinances in Mormon temples on behalf of Mohandas K. Gandhi. “In a statement from Nevada, USA, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed said on Wednesday it was appalling to note that Gandhi had been reportedly baptized by proxy by LDS. ‘It is insensitive and hurtful to the feelings of about one billion Hindus spread worldwide,’ he said.” (link)

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Now I’m scared.

His Majesty: “Running an empty suit, rather than personally taking power, was one of the options open to me; and although I ultimately decided not to go that way, it certainly has its advantages.”

So, a New York Times columnist, Charles M. Blow, twittered:

“Let me just tell you this Mitt ‘Muddle Mouth’: I’m a single parent and my kids are *amazing*! Stick that in your magic underwear.”

I think I get where Mr. Blow was coming from. His words were in response to Romney saying:

“When you have 40 percent of kids being born out of wedlock, and among certain ethnic groups the vast majority being born out of wedlock, you ask yourself, how are we going to have a society in the future? Because these kids are raised in poverty in many cases, they’re in abusive settings. The likelihood of them being able to finish high school or college drops dramatically in single-family homes. And we haven’t been willing to talk about this.”

Romney called attention to men like Mr. Blow fathering illegitimate children, with the idea that it’s a bad thing. Hence Mr. Blow’s attention drawn to what’s girding Romney’s loins and lashing out as best he may.

Before looking up any other words published by Mr. Blow, I’m 98% certain he has advocated any-sex marriage. As I wrote last week:

“Entwined with our various social pathologies is the noxious phrase, ‘A family is a group of people who love each other.’ Maybe there’s a mother and father married to each other. Or maybe they aren’t married. Maybe the father(s) live somewhere else and love their children from afar. Or maybe Dad is out of the picture altogether, but Mom is there loving her children and they her. Unless she’s not; maybe the kids live with their grandparents. Whatever. It’s all good. Just so long as there is someone who loves someone. That’s what a family is.”

[UPDATE]: In an interview with Brian Lamb, Mr. Blow said that his children where born to his ex-wife, from whom he divorced a couple years after the youngest’ births. If Mr. Blow or anyone on his behalf felt that my erroneous assumption that he had fathered illegitimate children was an insulting misconstrual of Mr. Blow’s tweet, it is heartening that you feel that way.

[‘NOTHER UPDATE]: Mr. Blow has since tweeted a straight-up apology: “Btw, the comment I made about Mormonism during Wed.’s debate was inappropriate, and I regret it. I’m willing to admit that with no caveats.”

Deaths by tsunami in Japan last year: 20,000+

Deaths by radiation exposure in Japan last year: 0.

But that’s not what you’d get out of the press coverage.

His Majesty and I were discussing this over his morning coffee today. He pointed out that there is a definite human preference for being scared of things that we think we can control. We can’t control earthquakes and there are still hard human limitations to what we can do to prepare against the biggest. On the other hand, it is entirely within our power to shut down nuclear plants, even if they aren’t actually what’s killing anyone.

I wondered out loud whether this explains the popularity of global warming apocalyptic scenarios. Climate has always fluctuated, but this time we have a theory that human behavior is causing it and that modifications of human behavior might prevent it. His Majesty started to sneer something, then paused and got thoughtful for a moment. (I think he was about to say that, while there are certainly many sincere proponents of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis, a lot of the popularity lies in the potential for a power grab. But I can’t be sure; I know His Majesty fairly well, but he still sometimes surprises me.) His Majesty did the chin stroke thing, then offered a prediction: If global warming turns out to be a natural phenomenon, it will completely lose the public interest, even if the actual warming that takes place is as bad or worse than anything in the AGW scenarios. People will simply find ways to cope, as they have since the last Ice Age.

I have just been watching Star Wars: A New Hope 633 Squadron, an action film about a squadron of Rebel snub fighters British Mosquito fighter-bombers that are sent out on a near-suicidal mission to destroy the Empire’s ultimate weapon the fuel factory for the Reich’s ultimate weapon before it can destroy the hidden Rebel base the invasion armada for D-Day.

The heroic star pilot Mosquito pilot kisses the beautiful Princess the amazingly lovely Norwegian refugee* whose planet has been destroyed by the Empire whose homeland has been occupied by the Reich before he departs on the dangerous mission. He and his comrades must negotiate a narrow utility trench a narrow fjord protected by powerful laser turrets antiaircraft batteries while also avoiding the Imperial Tie Fighters German Messerschmidts. They must score a precise hit with their proton torpedoes earthquake bombs and initiate a chain reaction a landslide that will destroy the Death Star rocket fuel factory.

I won’t spoil the ending. Er, well, maybe I already have …

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*Really, amazingly lovely.

Animal rights activist solicits murder for hire of someone wearing fur. Anyone over 12 will do.

His Majesty: “Excellent. Having this widely trumpeted in the news should have almost as great a chilling effect on fur-wearers as an actual murder.”

It certainly sends a chill down my spine. Not easily done any more; one of the major power conduits runs that way and it puts out significant waste heat.

There is no one so devoid of conscience as one whose conscience has been consumed by the Holy Cause. We’ve seen it with liberal democracy, we’ve seen it with Communism, we’ve seen it with abortion activists, and, sadly, we’ve even seen it in the Church.

Behold the power of the Dark Side.

I had good reasons for discouraging Leia from dating the Solo boy, but the claim that he was the kind of wuss who would let himself get shot out of a sad devotion to modern Western liberal sensitivities wasn’t one of them.

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It’s not at all far-fetched that the contraception precedent might lead to Jewish day cares being shut down if they don’t feed the tots cheeseburgers.

His Majesty: “Somewhere the ghost of Reynolds is laughing. Bitterly.”

Why is it Korihor who preached against original sin? (more…)

Yesterday, my state’s legislature tried twice to pass any-sex marriage in the lower house and they’ll be at it again at noon today. (more…)

Features castration humor.

His Majesty: “Heigl is a vocal animal rights activist, isn’t she? Once you start insisting your dogs should be treated like humans, it’s only a matter of time until you start treating some humans like dogs.”

About $8 billion, if you’re lucky. Goes some ways towards explaining why they charge you $10 or more a pill.

It also creates a big incentive for the drug company to advertize their drug as much as possible, try to find new uses for it, and push a slightly tweaked version after a few years to try to extend the patent life.

And it creates a big disincentive to find drugs for rare conditions where there is little hope of recovering the development costs.

You can try to force the drug companies to agree to lose money. Or you can throw public funding at the problem. Or you can look for cheaper ways to develop drugs. The last seems the sensible course to me.

His Majesty: “Count on the last to not be the choice that is made, then.”

The Chile Pepper Institute has established that the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is the world’s hottest chile pepper variety.

His Majesty: “I have never really understood the appeal of sticking your tongue into a power outlet.”

I am myself fond of chile, or at least I was back before I started eating everything through a tube.