Superbowl Diversity Fallout: Coke Ad Gets The Right Screaming "BOYCOTT!!"

BTW: Katherine Lee Bates was a lesbian.

Joe.My.God
Michael Patrick Leahy, Breitbart:

"Executives at Coca Cola thought it was a good idea to run a 60 second Super Bowl ad featuring children singing America The Beautiful – a deeply Christian patriotic anthem whose theme is unity – in several foreign languages. The ad also prominently features a gay couple. Conservatives instantly lit up social media with objections, with many vowing to boycott the soda company's products. The lyrics of the song, written in 1893 by Wellesley College Professor Katherine Lee Bates, ask God to grant America 'brotherhood / From sea to shining sea.' As far as the executives at Coca Cola are concerned, however, the United States of America is no longer a nation ruled by the Constitution and American traditions in which English is the language of government. It is not a nation governed in the Anglo-American tradition of liberty. It is instead a nation governed by some all inclusive multi-cultural synthesis of the various forms of government in the world, as expressed by the multiple languages used in the Super Bowl ad to sing a uniquely American hymn that celebrates our heritage." (emphasis mine)

Yes, the tweets of outrage came fast and furious:

- #BoycottCoke everything in that @CocaCola commercial was un-American.
- Too bad there were no Americans in the coke commercial about America.. Goodbye Diet Coke never again! #BoycottCoke
- Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border. #americaisbeautiful
- @CocaCola American Patriotic songs should be sung in English only #communist #boycottcoke

Tweets of outrage at Coca Cola for airing a commercial featuring the diversity of America while singing America The Beautiful have actually spawned a "Boycott Coke" movement. Total assimilation, it seems, MUST be honored, especially during that most American of events, the Super Bowl. The "English-only" crowd screamed "BLASPHEMY!"* The commercial could have have been more reprehensible had it featured (gasp!) different religions. David Barton would have been furious, but he would have been appeased by the Budwieser commercial which did not have one truly "un-American" person in it. 

Budweiser, of course, played it safe with Right-wingers and "true" patriots by featuring a totally white homecoming of a soldier. Nothing wrong with that. But Budweiser has never been true to its original roots: Budwies (aka Budvar in Czech) originated in  České Budějovice, in the lower part of Bohemia (now Czech Republic). It distanced itself with Milwaukee and Clydesdales (from Scotland, btw) and never looked back after being eclipsed by Pilsner Urquell of the original Pilsner beers. 

Assimilation: it's how you look at it.

The only foreigners not forced to assimilate when they came to America were the Puritans who were all too eager to assimilate Native Americans into their culture.** After the Puritans, a certain form of "Americanism" was born - and everyone was forced to assimilate into America and it's Puritan ethic. Money and prestige followed. People who assimilated slowly (or not at all), collected in remote sections of the country, but the expansion (Manifest Destiny) demanded that assimilation be the virtual law of the land. 

What "Truly American" Right wingers don't understand about assimilation is that it comes in different degrees and forms: first, second and even third generation Americans are loathe to give up their roots altogether: the concept of America as a "melting pot" is rather terrifying, melting away, watering down actually, everything about your old culture to homogenize yourself with everyone and form a mass of people, molded by the dictates of one particular group that just so happens to be there slightly longer. So many Americans have opted to keep part of their lengthier heritage while blending into the "mainstream" with things like ... Coke. 


Face it, Right-wingers, America is as diverse as your own ancestry: English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and on ... and on ... and on.

The world embraced Coke. Coke Embraced the world. The world embraced America. America embraced the world. Get over it.

*Of course, the Tea Party crowd spells it "BLASFAMIE"
**The first Bible to be translated was translated by the Puritans into the language of the Massachusetts tribe - just before the good Puritans wiped them out.

The Ugly Christians (According To Francis). Who Are They? How Are They Grinching Christmas For The Poor?

The Season Of Getting, Part One

“when you see a Christian who doesn’t want to humble himself, who doesn’t want to serve, a Christian who struts about everywhere: it’s ugly, eh? That is not a Christian: that’s a pagan!”

Pope Francis I has again riled the Christian Right by, in effect, calling most of its leaders "ugly" and "pagan": those who crave the limelight, scream out their proselytizing (ahem, "evangelizing") yet purport to be persecuted (horrendously!) by godless liberals and the media. It was a slap in the face to televangelists, faith-healers, prosperity gospel preachers and righteously arrogant, supposedly "Christian" apologists and pundits. It was his own "War on Christmas" - the Christmas created by corporate/church greed, a Season of Getting as much as one can while Giving very, very little to the people who need help just to survive.

Some Uglies




Ann Coulter - While not a born-again Christian, nor explicitly proselytizing her jaws off, Coulter has enough righteous arrogance to sink a flotilla of battleships. After a particularly testy interview with Donny Deutsch, she said, "Well, we just want to perfect you!" Deutsch is Jewish. He was not amused.





Rick Warren - Hawaiian shirts aside, Warren is as fake as can be, coming up with fantastic schemes (e.g. P.E.A.C.E,) which few can grasp the meaning of, and constantly touting the miracles of social justice his plans and his church (megachurch Saddleback) have worked both here and abroad (esp. in Uganda). The figures, however, are based on few reliable sources and don't really add up. His publicity machine is about the only thing that seems to exist.




Tony Perkins - Perkins has had more appearances on Chris Matthews' "Hardball" than the show wants to admit. As the Savior of the American Family, Perkins has reigned as a sort of Christofascist king, looking like an innocent, aging choir boy. But he is merely a boy crying wolf (against dreaded homosexual activists) and his pronouncements about apostate Republicans terrorize few Republicans any more. His "Values Voter Summit" is popular with any conservative who wants to say "God told me to run."



Cindy Jacobs - If Francis could make a list of the ugliest and most chest-beating Christians, "prophetess" Cindy Jacobs would be most certainly at the top. Among other things, she has (according to herself and her husband) performed more miracles than Jesus Christ, has cured a woman of her hysterectomy, has raised children from the dead (via television) and is an avowed idol-smasher (Native American artifacts and statues of Catholic Saints). She has also told all of America's indigenous people to repent for the sins of their ancestors. She has bragged about how many things God has blessed her with. Unfortunately, fashion sense was not one of them.





"Bishop" Eddie Long - For sheer humility, have yourself wrapped in the Torah, declared "king" (of something) and have yourself hoisted up, sitting on a throne, while four men decorously parade you around your church. Sheer humility? No, sheer stupidity. Sex scandals just could not keep him out of the limelight.

Some Plug-Uglies



Bryan Fischer - Fischer is the American Family Association bloviator who has a hate-love relationship with everyone (he broadcasts his demonizing points, then tells everyone he is really doing it because he loves them). He has, in fact, carried demonizing to an art form (very ugly art, but art nonetheless) and his faux humility is legendary. He has established himself as a one-man hate group against the LGBT community and insists that "Rambo Jesus" existed.




Terry Jones - When not causing anti-American murder and violence by threatening to burn the Koran, Pastor Jones manages to plummet to the lowest levels of the humility meter by bleating through a bull horn about his Christianity in places like Times Square. He shares the sobriquet of "most hated man in America" with Fred Phelps. Not a small feat.




Scott Lively - Of all the uglies, Lively portrays himself as the most innocent and clueless. He has parlayed thunderous criticism of his book, The Pink Swastika into international Christian martyrdom and has portrayed himself as the most knowledgeable person on the planet in regards to the evils of homosexuality. His purposeful undermining of LGBT rights in places like Uganda has landed him in court. The charge: crimes against humanity.

Dishonorable Mentions

Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, FOX News, Michele Bachmann, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, Franklin Graham, Ken Copeland, T.D. Jakes, Linda Harvey, Janet Porter, Rick Joyner, C. Peter Wagner, General Boykin. If your favorite "uglies" are not on the list, just mention them below in comments. 

Pay Attention To ME! Not The Poor!

Perhaps the ugliest of recent "Christians"/pagans passed away last week: Paul Crouch of Trinity Broadcasting Network, who perched himself on a gold throne-like chair and told those who opposed his empire to go to hell. He spread his wealth only to his family, there being no evidence of any substantial endowments to the less fortunate. He was considered a con man who put himself and his wife Jan first and foremost. The word "humility" was never in his lexicon. It was perhaps his death (and life) that inspired Francis to make his "ugly" point.

Putting yourself before the poor, before your fellow man, humbling yourself to seek out and tend to those in need was the humility Francis was speaking about: focusing on the poor and not yourself.

And as to this particular Christmas Season, the Huckabees, Coulters, Palins and Warrens know that it is not the Season for Giving but for Getting ... attention.

The ugly Christians will be getting uglier ... against Francis. Just wait.

Paranoia Paranoia Burning Bright - In The Forest Of The Right

I'm writing about the paranoia promulgated by the Right - especially the Christian Right. 

Any suggestions/thoughts?

Rabid for Guns: Alex Jones Gives Piers Morgan Reason To Have A Bodyguard

Right Wing talk show host Alex Jones wants Piers Morgan out of the country and gave Morgan good reason to have a bodyguard. 

When someone as rabid-for-guns as Alex Jones - "More Guns Less Crime" - goes on to "debate" Piers Morgan, the result is a one-man tirade that is, at times, incomprehensible. Witness the spewing of "facts and figures" that Jones thinks will help him in his cause to get Morgan deported for daring to take on the issue of gun control. 

Q.: If Jones had a gun at this precise moment, do you think Morgan would be alive?