WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LET RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT MIX...

People often ask me, "Travis, why do you hate Jesus?!" Okay, not often, but the general consensus is that I hate God and drink goat blood because I don't go to church and don't subscribe to the theory that Christianity can solve every single problem on the face of the Earth.

I sometimes but heads with my Father-In-Law over exactly what the term "Separation of church and state" really means, but I think we both realize the dangers of what happens when laws are based strictly off religious views. Sure, go ahead and tell me, "But we can't kill people! That's in the Bible!" and I'd tell you that you're correct. But people always point to the Ten Commandments whenever they want to discuss how "We base our laws off the Bible," and I think it speaks volumes that out of the TEN, only TWO are actual laws. (Let's hope no one makes "coveting" against the law...or we're all in deep shit!)

But anyway, if there was any doubt that religion and the way in which we govern need to be kept separated for the common good, it's this case of 54 year old British teacher who is going to go to prison and then going to be deported over...wait for it...NAMING A TEDDY BEAR MOHAMMED!!!



And before you just start up with the "Oh, but those are just the wacky Muslums!" keep in mind that to those of us who step back and look at all the religions with a sense of "Hmmmmm" don't see much difference between not being able to call a teddy bear Mohammed and the fact that one of our Presidental candidates believes the Earth might only be 6,000 years old.

Sure, Mike Huckabee isn't going to demand those who think differently to be imprisoned, but that doesn't make the idea any less scary.

Let's save the crazy religious ideals for people to live their own lives and nice sensible laws for the rest of us.

AWESOME INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN KING

An excerpt:

STEPHEN KING: So who's going to be TIME Person of the Year?
TIME: I really don't know, there's a very small group of people who make that decision.
I was thinking, I think it should be Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.

Really?
Yeah. You know, I just filmed a segment for Nightline, about [the movie version of his novella] The Mist, and one of the things I said to them was, you know, "You guys are just covering — what do they call it — the scream of the peacock, and you're missing the whole fox hunt." Like waterboarding [or] where all the money went that we poured into Iraq. It just seems to disappear. And yet you get this coverage of who's gonna get custody of Britney's kids? Whether or not Lindsay drank at her twenty-first birthday party, and all this other shit.

You know, this morning, the two big stories on CNN are Kanye West's mother, who died, apparently, after having some plastic surgery. The other big thing that's going on is whether or not this cop [Drew Peterson] killed his... wife. And meanwhile, you've got Pakistan in the midst of a real crisis, where these people have nuclear weapons that we helped them develop. You've got a guy in charge, who's basically declared himself the military strongman and is being supported by the Bush administration, whose raison d'etre for going into Iraq was to spread democracy in the world.

So you've got these things going on, which seem to me to be very substantive, that could affect all of us, and instead, you see a lot of this back-fence gossip. So I said something to the Nightline guy about waterboarding, and if the Bush administration didn't think it was torture, they ought to do some personal investigation. Someone in the Bush family should actually be waterboarded so they could report on it to George. I said, I didn't think he would do it, but I suggested Jenna be waterboarded and then she could talk about whether or not she thought it was torture. And then the guy from Nightline said, "Well, obviously you've not been watching World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson." But I do — I watch 'em all!

Do you actually think Britney and Lindsay should be on our cover?
Yeah, I do.

Sort of a, 'This is what the media's actually interested it, so let's just put it out there' thing?
I think there ought to be some serious discussion by smart people, really smart people, about whether or not proliferation of things like The Smoking Gun and TMZ and YouTube and the whole celebrity culture is healthy. We've switched from a culture that was interested in manufacturing, economics, politics — trying to play a serious part in the world — to a culture that's really entertainment-based. I mean, I know people who can tell you who won the last four seasons on American Idol and they don't know who their f------ Representatives are.

PREORDER XMAS 3: THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!

I'm lucky enough to be involved with the 2nd coming of KINDERCORE RECORDS and besides having a 2-page story in their first anthology, The Trouble Revolution, I recently finished a 3-page story for their upcoming anthology, XMAS 3: The War On Christmas!



Both of these are collections of comics and music! XMAS 3 will be released both through their brand new online store and on iTunes! (The first comic ever offered through iTunes, I do believe.) But, if you want a good ol' fashioned comic anthology that you can hold in your sweaty lil' hands, you'll have to visit Kindercore's online store...and fast!!! They're only printing 100 of the suckers!

Plus, you'll get an awesome Christmas compliation!

1. Rump Posse - Carol of the Manbarks
2. Folklore - Christmas Ape Goes to The Moon
3. The Observatory - Xmastime (is Xmastime)
4. Fabulous Bird - Everybody Knows It's Christmas Time Again
5. King of Prussia - Christmas on The Other Side
6. The 63 Crayons - Holiday
7. Ruby Isle - Jack's Obsession
8. The Buddy System - Xmas on TV
9. Blak Thor - Noel (I'm Giving Love For Christmas)
10. Murder Beach - All Around
11. Mumbletron 2k12 - Outta Bed
12. Je Suis France - Baby, Please Don't Get Stoned (It's Christmas)
13. Bunnygrunt - The Blues for Xmas
14. Koncak - It's Christmas Time
15. Headlights - Kicker of Elves
16. The Show is The Rainbow - Silent Night
17. The Snowsuit Sound - The Ballad of Black Piet
18. Venice is Sinking - The Grey Line
19. The Jersey Barrier - Grey Skies

MEET THE JOKER...

(click on it to get a closer look)

IS THE WGA STRIKE ALMOST OVER?!

Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog (THE blog for Hollywood insiders) says the strike might be coming to a close in the next couple of weeks!

GO SEE "THE MIST!"

Holy shit, this movie has balls. Huge, brass balls.

Do not let anyone spoil the ending and go see it for yourself. It's really good!

TO THOSE WHO SAY THE SIMPSONS SUCK NOW...

I give you this awesome clip from this Sunday's upcoming episode:



...and for the record, I would totally buy Watchmen Babies.

THE WARNING

Quit being apathetic.

WHO YA GONNA CALL?!

You know what, go ahead and keep repackaging all of my childhood memories for me to purchase once again! If they turn out as awesome as this game looks to be, I'm all for it!

LOST WEBISODES START TODAY

You can watch the first one here.

And check out Damon Lindelof's opinion piece about the WGA going on strike in The New York Times today.

WISH MY HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND WAS THIS COOL

NINE INCH NAILS * THE HAND THAT FEEDS

TV THIS WEEKEND!

TREEHOUSE OF HORROR 18!!!

Holy shit, I'm old. I used to looooooove the Halloween Simpson shows when I was a kid! Say what you will about The Simpsons later seasons, the Treehouse episodes are always fun. I was lucky enought to catch the beginning of this one out at San Diego's Comicon and if you only tune in for the first three minutes, you'll already get your money's worth! (yeah it's free, but still...)

Here's a hint: They manage to make fun of the fact that "remember when these used to air BEFORE Halloween?!" AND those pesky animated advertisements for OTHER shows that crawl all over your television screen as you're trying to watch THIS show AND kill the Dad from Family Guy all in under three minutes. It's fan-fuckin-tasic!

And don't forget that Brian Williams is hosting Saturday Night Live tonight! Anyone who has ever caught him on The Daily Show knows how incredibly funny and dry this man is. An added bonus is that Feist performs as musical guest! Yay!