The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

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Voters want Republicans to be Republicanier

In a comprehensive study, voting experts recently conducted a series of interviews, polls, and focus groups to find out why American voters turned away from Republicans in 2008. While many reasons were cited, analysts observed a clear consensus among swing voters who had voted for President George Bush and other Republican candidates prior to 2006 but changed to Democratic tickets in the past two years.

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The Heretic's Bible - Genesis 4: Boys will be boys

Having gained the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve set about going forth and multiplying, which is what God said that he wanted them to do in the first place. They had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain became a farmer and Abel a shepherd. Cain offered some of his crops to God, but Abel offered his fattest sheep, so God loved Abel and ignored Cain.

Commentary: Couldn’t God make his own sheep? That’s like giving eggs to a chicken.

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The Heretic's Bible - Genesis 3: With helpers like this...

So God finished his business and left for vacation. Adam and the woman hung out in the garden with a particularly clever snake. When Adam was off doing something (don’t ask), the snake asked the woman about what fruit she was allowed to eat. The woman explained what God had said about the toxic properties of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The snake, who was apparently smarter than the people, told the woman that what God had said was false.

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Anti-Semitism - It's a Small World After All

 

Question: What do privileged psychopaths from Connecticut have in common with Pakistani propagandists?

Answer: They hate the Jews.

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The Heretic's Bible - Genesis 2: Adam gets a "helper"

As I said, God took a day off. It’s not clear what he did on his day off, but we hope something fun and relaxing. But before he called it quits, God made a pretty garden for the first man, Adam. The garden had some nice trees, including the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is a long name for a tree. Before heading out, God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree with the long name for “the day you eat from it, you will definitely die.”

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News From the Future: U.S. Passes "Straight To Scrap" Auto Subsidy

May 6, 2029

President George Prescott Bush signed into law a ground-breaking automobile subsidy that will pay the United States' last remaining automaker, General Chrysford, to build cars that will be shipped straight to the scrapyards. The Automotive Repurposing Act is designed to help the Big One survive a global glut of automobiles that has driven the price of cars below the break-even point. Lisa Lemmon, the CEO of General Chrysford, has lobbied hard for the bill and argued in a recent USA McNews editorial that the auto company could not survive without assistance:

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The Heretic's Bible - Genesis 1: God’s first week of work

At first, there wasn’t much of anything. Well, there was God, and there was some water, so maybe that’s a lot. But there wasn’t anything else, that’s my point. Then God decided to make some other stuff probably because he was bored of the water. So first he made some light so that he could see what he was doing. He thought that was a pretty good accomplishment for the first day and congratulated himself on a job well done.

The second day, God made a hole in the water and called it the sky.

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The Heretic's Bible - Introduction

Last summer, a team of archaeologists excavating a Roman-era latrine outside Jerusalem made a remarkable discovery. Buried beneath centuries of silt and fecal matter, the archaeologists discovered an ancient manuscript. The manuscript appears to be an abridged version of the Old Testament with commentary by the infamous heretic, Joseph the Latriner of Lokshen.

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News From the Future: Canada in Negotiations with Internet Virus

May 1, 2029

Canadians suffered a fifteenth day without computer access as the the Canadian government negotiated with a malicious software virus for release of its nation's computers. The virus, known by its nom de guerre, Evil LOLcat, has demanded ¥10 billion, freedom for 25 quarantined viruses, and a "cheezburger."

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The Republican Party of Extraordinary Gentlemen

The Puppet Master

Primary power:
Bending lesser minds to his will

Secondary power:
Manipulating intelligence data

The Fulminator

Primary power:
Controls zombie army

Secondary power:
Feeds on hate

The Brain

Primary power:
Devious brilliance

Secondary power:
Unhindered by conscience

The Human Newt

Primary power:
Unpredictability

Secondary power:
Cannot be killed

The Black Sidekick

Primary power:
Buffoonery

Secondary power:
Familiar with hip-hop terminology

Captain War Hero

Primary power:
Righteous irritation

Secondary power:
Earmark disintegration ray

Ice Girl

Primary power:
Emits patriotic-sounding nonsense

Secondary power:
Sentences of unusual structure

Up-and-Coming Boy

Primary power:
Not an old white guy

Secondary power:
Dull speech of death

Dr. No

Primary power:
Legislative sabotage

Secondary power:
No secondary power

?

Primary power:
Unknown

Secondary power:
Unknown

Junior

Primary power:
Wreaks global destruction

Secondary power:
Blessed cloak of invisibility

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Personal Information

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Biography

Michael Wolraich is a non-fiction writer in New York City. He co-founded dagblog and has contributed  to the Atlantic, the Daily Beast, New York Magazine, CNN.com, TalkingPointsMemo.com, Reuters, and Pando Daily.

Books:

Wolraich is also the computer genius who maintains dagblog's state-of-the-art software, but he denies responsibility for technical glitches and advises users to "quit sniveling." In his spare time, Wolraich raises peach mold and performs live impressions of the law of gravity.

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