FOR THE RIGHT, NO GRIEVANCE IS TOO TRIVIAL

A couple of stories of right-wing outrage.

First, Priscilla at News Hounds tells us that the right is upset because the new movie Noah doesn't use the name "God," according to a couple of folks on Fox:

Sweet lil Christian gal, Ainsley Earhardt began her "Fight for Faith" segment with some video from the movie Noah. The chyron read "From Bible to Big Screen, Christians Question Authenticity of Noah." She reported that the movie is causing "controversy among Christians" because OMG "it doesn't use the word God" OMG "not once throughout the entire film." She asked Fr. [Jonathan] Morris how "you make a movie about Noah, the story in the Bible about Noah, who was created by God, without mentioning God, that's like writing an American history book without mentioning George Washington."

Well, actually, it's more like writing an American history book without ever referring to "the Revolutionary War" -- not because you don't discuss that war, but because you've chosen to use a perfectly acceptable alternative, "the War of Independence." Here's what Noah does that has Father Morris's knickers in a twist:

Morris ... said that the movie uses the word "creator" but "the Bible uses the word God."

Yup -- "Creator" is now a God-bashing slur. What, you didn't know that? You have to keep up with these things!

Morris described the movie director's "fancy explanation" of how the movie shows the pre-flood era and as such, the word "creator" was more appropriate; but "it doesn't quite work."

I'm not sure what the "fancy explanation" was, but since it didn't inlude "this film was made by Fox," I'm not surprised that "it doesn't quite work" according to Fox.

I don't really understand what the problem is because, according to Father Morris, the word choice here does the thing Jesus loves more than anything: it offends liberals.

Morris threw in a little dig at the expense of "radical environmentalists" who, according to Morris, would "hate" the word "creator" because they prefer "mother nature."

A word to whoever wrote that particular Fox one-liner: 1971 called. It wants its talking points back.

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And meanwhile, over at Fox Nation, there's this photo of the new Speaker of New York's City Council:





Fox Nation doesn't even feel the need to offer an explanation for this, trusting that its audience can fill in a backstory: Bill de Blasio is mayor of New York now and the whole city's gone commie. The blog Weasel Zippers (FN's source for the photo) offers a slightly different caption:

New Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (speaker on left) and some husky Communist friend of hers.

There seems to be some confusion as to whether the Speaker is on the left or on the right (she's on the right), but the point is clear: she's wearing either a Che shirt or a Che beret, so she's a lefty dupe who's going to crush capitalism in Gotham under her jackboot. Here's more huffing and puffing from Right Wing News:

The woman on the right is not a junior high student trying to annoy her parents or even a gullible coed sucking up to her Marxist professors, but New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Even in New York, which politically speaking has degenerated into a lunatic asylum run by the inmates, you can't attain such a high level of political power without being sufficiently aware of reality to know what Guevara represents: unalloyed bloodthirsty tyranny....

Why would Mark-Viverito pose for pictures with someone wearing a Che Guevara shirt? For the same reason she herself is wearing a communist red star in the picture above, in honor of the ideology in whose name communist governments killed over 100 million of their own citizens during the 20th century.

Yup, that's gotta be it ... unless it's because someone, as a lark, made up a graphic of Mark-Viverito as Che a few months earlier, which is now a running joke in her life....

Which is exactly what happened. From the New York Post last November:

City Council speaker hopeful Melissa Mark-Viverito posted this image of herself -- modeled after the iconic portrait of Che Guevara -- months before Bill de Blasio was likened to the Marxist guerrilla for his love of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas.

"I take this as a compliment," she wrote in an Instagram post that accompanied the homage to Fidel Castro's right-hand the revolutionary.

The image was mocked up as a lark by Jorge Bendersky, a celebrity dog groomer connected with the councilwoman through Instagram and charity work.

"That was a joke," Bendersky said. "It didn't have any political background."

That's the real backstory: an ambitious New York pol with strong ties to real estate developers as well as unions -- in other words, a typical local politician, not a violent revolutionary -- was sent a joke image of herself as Che by a friend, and thought it was funny, so she reposted it. The friend was also not a violent revolutionary -- he's a high-end dog groomer. Specifically, he's this guy:





OK, so there was the Che graphic last fall - why the shirt and beret in the photo?

Well, that photo actually depicts Mark-Viverito with local news reporter Sonia Rincon (the Fox caption was wrong). The photo was taken at last Saturday's Inner Circle dinner, an annual event where city pols mock and are mocked -- it's the local equivalent of those awful D.C. dinners where Karl Rove dances to fake rap music and George W. Bush makes jokes about not finding WMDs. At this year's dinner, Rincon played Mark-Viverito while wearing the Che shirt and beret, then posed with Mark-Viverito. So, um, it was a joke. (Did I mention the fact that the Inner Circle dinner is where, back in 2000, Rudy Giuliani appeared in drag?)

To sum up: New York's new city council Speaker got a gag graphic of herself as Che Guevara from a friend a few months ago, and reposted it. This became the basis for a gag at a political insiders' variety show a few days ago. And now the right thinks the Speaker is a card-carrying communist.

Oh, and if being depicted as Che means you're a commie, then this guy was a commie, too: