obligatory

That scrofulous bit comparing Obama's mother to "a white female horse" ranks among the uglier things I've read.

That said, I can't say that I'm terribly surprised to see this; now that Obama's situated for a run at the White House, this sort of thing will be stinking up the seedier parts of the internet right up to November. The idea that the Antichrist will "destroy by peace" has long been an arrow in the Premillenial Dispensationalists' quiver. Often they use it as a condemnation of the United Nations and/or multilateral attempts to stabilize the Israel-Palestine conflict, but it's manifestly clear that they're just as happy to stamp a pacifistic presidential candidate with the number of the Beast. If he's of abominably mixed race too, well, that's just gravy.

this is funny until one realizes that the viral nature of mass email and direct mail and push polling has spread all over the US the "Obama is a Muslim" meme. even if he spends the next 9 months campaigning wearing a "I LOVE JESUS" shirt, there's no way to tell whether this will eventually sink his run. I mean, his dad was a Muslim, he did live in Indonesia, his mom was indeed an atheist, and his name is indeed Barack Hussein Obama. it's a good start: just wait until the GOP digs deeply into Obama's past and his family's past; wait for the Swift Boaters '08 version, they're out there, waiting to see who's the nominee to start doing their work.

I love this one:

Sun Myung Moon This leader of the Unification Church openly claims to be the Messiah. Moon recently was sent to jail for tax evasion. Jesus, by having a tax collector on His staff, didn't suffer from tax problems. You pick which one was the smarter Messiah.

More seriously, the "true" anti-christ is the one who doesn't feed the hunger, slake the thirsty, visit the sick, etc. Just my two cents.

Here's a fun anecdote about the crazy shit people on the far right are desperate to believe about Obama.

My brother-in-law's sister lives in Chicago; her girls go to the same school as Obama's daugthers. So there's a birthday party this weekend at someone's house, and my BIL's nieces will be there with the Obama girls.

My BIL made the mistake of mentioning this to my neo-con mother (who is in town this week helping my sister as she recovers from surgery). Mom's response: "oh, I don't think that's wise -- those children have been raised to slit the throats of whitey's children if they get the chance."

That kind of brought the dinner conversation to a screeching halt, let me tell you.

And yes, she did actually say "whitey." So points to my mom for knowing who Paul Weller's drummer is, but I fail to see what he's got to do with it.

"...those children have been raised to slit the throats of whitey's children if they get the chance"

They should call them whitey whackers!

(scody, that story is Fucked. Up.)

Whitey Huston?

If you need evidence of how deep into the mainstream these memes can get, I heard "but didn't he go to a madrassa?" from the mother of Sen. Feingold.