Massachusetts Nail Biter

I am going to be so pissed at Massachusetts if Scott Brown wins the Massachusetts Senate race next week. I may have to go there and smack the lot of them. Do you hear that, Massachusetts? Beware the wrath!

The rightie blogosphere is declaring the race over and Brown already the winner. Of course, they were saying that about Doug Hoffman before the New York 23 election earlier this year. Nate Silver says it really is a tossup, though.

Update: Variations on a theme — see John Cole, “Money Well Spent,” and then Nate Silver, “Liberal Website Helpfully Tests Messages Against Vulnerable Democrat, Finds Them Wanting.” First rate snark.

Stuff to Read

I anticipate being frantically busy all day today, but please read the article “System Failure” by Christopher Hayes at The Nation. Really good.

Also — last week I complained in “I Am Misquoted by Bill O’Reilly” that I had been slammed by a number of Christians, including The Anchoress, for my reference to the “cast the first stone” story in the gospel of John.

I used the reference to mean that it’s hypocritical for a Christian to think Christianity is uniquely qualified to provide spiritual guidance to the sexually wayward. However, some Christians thought I was comparing conversion to Christianity to being stoned to death. Truly, there hasn’t been this much Christian martyrdom in the world since Septimius Severus ruled Rome.

Well, today I found an article on the Washington Post‘s “On Faith” website in which, wonder of wonders, an evangelical minister used the same Gospel reference to make pretty much the same point I was trying to make (see item 5).

So there.