Apparently Ivanka Trump has inspired a cult of Chinese admirers. Update!

Goddess Ivanka with her very first worshiper.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

Her father's brand may be struggling for popularity in the US, but Ivanka Trump is cultivating a cult following in China. 

An online fan club on the website Weibo, which is similar to Twitter, even refers to the president's daughter as 'Goddess Ivanka'. 

NBC News reports the page with the same title has about 12,000 followers, many of whom are effusive in their praise for the 35-year-old. 

Hu Xingdou, a Beijing professor, told the network much of Ivanka Trump's popularity comes from people thinking she is supportive of China. 

'Most people in China love Ivanka because of her friendly gestures towards the Chinese people,' Xingdou said. 

'Ivanka is an important bridge during this period of uncertainties in China-US relations.' 

Seriously?

I swear that Trump has people so freaked out that they will cling to any possibility that somebody can rein him in.

However as John Oliver pointed out over the weekend, it is unlikely that Ivanka is that person.
Yeah let's face it the only thing that can rein Donald Trump in is a conviction for treason and some much needed prison time.

Hopefully that is what looms in his future.

Update: Apparently the Germans are not quite as gullible as the Chinese.

This is what happened when Ivanka attempted to defend her father during a  W20 conference in Germany.

Ivanka gets booed and hissed by audience when she says her father is a"tremendous champion of supporting families."

— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) April 25, 2017

The crowd audibly rumbled, booed when Ivanka mentioned her father's support of women.

— Emily Jane Fox (@emilyjanefox) April 25, 2017

Well that seems like a more rational response to Trump's little apologist.

Thou shall have no gods before me.

And to this god we sacrifice hundreds, if not thousands, of our people every year.

Iceland to build new temple in order to worship Norse gods for the first time in 1,000 years.

Courtesy of of The Globe and Mail:  

Icelanders will soon be able to publicly worship at a shrine to Thor, Odin and Frigg with construction starting this month on the island’s first major temple to the Norse gods since the Viking age. 

Worship of the gods in Scandinavia gave way to Christianity around 1,000 years ago but a modern version of Norse paganism has been gaining popularity in Iceland. 

“I don’t believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet,” said Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, high priest of Asatruarfelagid, an association that promotes faith in the Norse gods. 

“We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology.” 

Membership in Asatruarfelagid has tripled in Iceland in the last decade to 2,400 members last year, out of a total population of 330,000, data from Statistics Iceland showed.

So a temple that worships gods that the faithful know full well were created by man, simply so they can enjoy their cultural heritage and the fables of their forefathers.

Best reason to build a temple ever!

And SO much easier to accept than the Judeo Christian god with all of his rules and threats of eternal damnation.

If Thor gets mad at you he simply strikes you with lightning and that's it. Seems much more reasonable.

If you believe that Atheists need a temple to worship in, then you simply do not understand atheism.

This is the graphic that accompanied the Huffington Post article. Because apparently an "Atheist temple" must look like a giant dildo. Which is the ONLY part of the article I agree with.

So the other day I read this in the Huffington Post:

Atheists have long criticised devout followers of faith. But now it seems Atheism is stealing from that very religious tradition by erecting a temple of worship. 

Author Alain de Botton announced plans to build an Atheist temple in the U.K., reports DeZeen magazine. 

A collaboration with Tom Greenall Architects, the structure will be built in the City of London. 

Dedicated to the idea of perspective, the black tower will scale 46 meters (150 ft), with each centimeter honoring earth's age of 4.6 billion years, notes Wired. 

But a place of worship isn't the only attribute from organized religion that Atheists can benefit from, says de Botton. In his newly released book "Religion For Atheists," the author points to design, art and community to inspire and attract a following.

Realizing I could not possibly deal with this information while completely sober, I poured myself a glass of wine and read it again. Nope, brain still hurts.

Did this guy actually write a book called "Religion for Atheists?" WTF?

I suddenly realized that I needed to find a reliable atheist, whose opinion I respect, to weigh in on this subject.

Enter Richard Dawkins.

"Atheists don't need temples," said Dawkins. "There are better things to spend this kind of money on. 

You could improve secular education and build non-religious schools which teach rational, sceptical critical thinking."

Thank you Richard, my head feels so much better now.

The whole idea about being an Atheist is NOT that we simply do not like to worship in the way that Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, etc., worship.  It is that we find no fears which need to be soothed, concerns that need to be quieted, nor emptiness inside of ourselves which needs to be filled, through worship.

Personally I do not feel left out because I do not have any place I can go to for fellowship and solace on Sunday mornings, I feel liberated.

If I am looking for a place where I can find peace and feel at one with the universe, I simply step outside and allow the universe to find me. After all I DO live in Alaska.

I don't think that most atheists want to have a place to remind the world that they exist, nor to force their opinions on others. They just don't want other people's faith to dictate how they live their lives, educate their children, or choose their political representatives.

And if you still don't understand the difference between atheism and religion, perhaps this image will help to explain it better.

Welcome to your Monday morning WTF?

This YouTube video is described thusly:

Michael P. Vigilante worshiping through song and dance with "Mighty to Save" and "Caroline" at Grace Community Church to give honor to the LORD, Jesus Christ.

And Michael seems cool with it since it seems he was the one to upload it to YouTube.

However I have to wonder if Michael showed this to anyone else before he decided to share it with the world.



Say something nice Gryphen.  "Uh well..he..I kind of...you know..uh..he seemed to be enjoying himself."

Since this took place in a church I thought perhaps we were about to witness a miracle. I don't know like perhaps Michael might miraculously learn to dance, or find the correct pitch, or suddenly find the courage to come out to his parents. But nope he just butchers two songs like fatted calves and then uploads the massacre to YouTube.

I have to agree with one of the commenter's over at YouTube, I ALSO would like to have seen camera turn and pan over the audience.  I can hardly imagine what the look on their faces must have been.

However I have to say I did not hear one suppressed giggle or gasp from the audience, which kind of makes me believe that the congregation of Grace Community Church have to be numbered among the nicest people in the WORLD. Unless of course they were simply in shock.

A Palin-bot makes a pilgrimage to Wasilla, the Jerusalem of the north.

On the Fourth of July, a thousand people gathered on the banks of Lake Wasilla for a Tea Party, one of those anti-tax, pro-liberty bits of street theater. ... Adrienne Ross, the media director and New York organizer for the 2012 Draft Sarah Committee, had been in Wasilla for only two days. But she said she had already "witnessed history," had a salmon bake -- using Palin's recipe -- ... and, just that morning, met Palin's parents and joked around with Piper. It was like going to Sarah Palin fantasy camp, and, regardless of Palin's next move, Ross said, "I am exactly where God wants me to be."

This is the Sarah Palin base that will NEVER be educated enough to abandon Queen Ester.

They worship at her feet, and believe every forkful of word salad that falls from her lipstick saturated mouth. They seem unable to recognize the lack of intelligence and the narcissism that the rest of us find so repulsive.

They make excuses for her limitations (if they recognize them at all) and blame her critics for manufacturing falsehoods when they point out her lies or mistakes. To them she is flawless.

Fortunately they are few in number, and though they are intensely vocal (as demonstrated by the small raucous group that protested outside of David Letterman's studio), they seem to be relatively harmless.

They are also of the "faith not logic" group of people who are always so easily seduced by televangelists and the two bit hustlers that find them such an easy mark. These people will always be taken advantage of by SOMEBODY and right now their victimizer is our (soon to be ex-)Governor. Pity is the most that I can offer them.