(Good?) News from Ohio, folks. The long wait for the replacement Jesus statue may finally be winding down, says Darlene Bishop, co-founder of the Solid Rock Church outside of Cincinnati whose “Touchdown Jesus” statue burned down in a freak (or God-sent?) lightning strike back in June. According to Bishop, the field of potential savior-portrayers has been narrowed down to 5, and a decision will likely be made sometime this month. The new portrait won’t be an exact replica of the old one. Rather than a bust, the new one will likely be a full-body sculpture, and it...
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What's Next for Touchdown Jesus
As you’ll recall, last month a 62-foot statue of Jesus burned down after a lightning strike. It happens that this monstrosity is right along the highway I take from the airport when I visit my family in Ohio, so I got to see the skeletal remains of TD Jesus when I was there last week. I was curious about the church’s plans– perhaps after the fire, they’d had an epiphany that there are more worthy uses of $250,000 than reconstructing hideous flammable statuary? Ha! Of course not. Pastor Darlene Bishop brushed off such suggestions, saying that Solid...
Continue reading...Oh Noes! Traficant's comeback bid thwarted by one of the most ridiculous of roadblocks
Oh Mr. Traficant, maybe among my favorite of former disgraced congressman, I have to admit this news makes me terribly sad: Former U.S. Rep. and convicted felon James Traficant’s improbable bid to return to Congress appears to have ended before it began. The Ohio Democrat, who spent seven years in prison on a bribery and racketeering conviction, fell about 100 names short of the necessary number of signatures to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate in Ohio’s 17th congressional district, according to Trumbull County Board of Elections official Jodi Dibble. Traficant had submitted 4,000 signatures...
Continue reading...Report from the heartland: Tea Party in Ohio
My mom mentioned recently that there’s a Tea Party guy running for state representative in my home state of Ohio. No great surprise there, but what worried her was how many yard signs she’d seen for him in the neighborhood. Now, my parents do live in one of the more conservative parts of a pretty conservative town. But there’s a difference between conservative and fringe, and up til now, it seemed like the Tea Partiers could be clearly distinguished from the usual run of the mill strident Republicans. My parents are friendly with their neighbors, and for...
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