"77% Believe Jesus Rose From the Dead."

Is that likely voters? What's the margin of error? Rasmussen has a poll.

Seventy-eight percent (78%) think Jesus was the son of God. Sixteen percent (16%) don't believe that's true.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) believe Jesus rose from the dead, while 16% reject the central Christian tenet of the Resurrection.

What's with the 1% who think Jesus was the son of God but did not rise from the dead?

It's a survey of 1,000 adults and the margin of error is is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Does your religion have less than a 3 percentage point margin of error and more than a 95% level of confidence? Should one defer to the choice of the overwhelming majority of your fellow citizens? Isn't it funny that, historically, that's what most human beings have done?

Predictably, Evangelical Christians, other Protestants and Catholics believe strongly in Christ’s divinity. Most non-Christian Americans believe Jesus did exist, but they are more evenly divided on whether he was the son of God and rose from the dead.

What?! Non-Christians are evenly divided on whether he was the son of God and rose from the dead?! Who are these people who believe Jesus was the son of God and rose from the dead but don't call themselves Christians? I'd like to ask them a few more questions. Are these people who think that you shouldn't call yourself a Christian if you are not doing a good enough job of following the teachings of Jesus Christ?

Most Americans of all racial backgrounds believe in the divinity of Christ, but black adults share this belief even more than white adults and adults of other races.

For all our talk about race, we don't talk that much about the role of religious beliefs. I'd love to see the percentages on that, but the linked article doesn't say, and though I have a Rasmussen subscription, I'd need a Platinum subscription to get to that level of detail.

Do you think you need to believe in Jesus to go to Heaven when you die? Rasmussen didn't ask that question. Maybe believing in Jesus is like having a Platinum subscription.

Just kidding.

Happy Easter to everybody, everywhere.

"Y'know who'd make an awesome Easter flick about Christ's Resurrection? George Romero."

Kevin Smith dabbles in the obviousness/blasphemy that is Twitter's #HesComingToRedeemYouBarbara.

In the Easter Chapel...

... you can celebrate anything.

Rush Limbaugh puts the Resurrection in perspective.

Today, Rush Limbaugh went off on Obama for saying this about Easter:

We are reminded that there's something about the Resurrection, something about the Resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts everything else in perspective.

It's not the most eloquent or insightful thing anyone ever said about Easter, but, good lord, let it go. But Rush does not let it go:

I've just never heard [the Resurrection] discussed this way.  When he discusses the call to prayer in the Muslim world as being one of the sweetest sounds in the world, I mean that's an eloquent way to describe the Muslim call to prayer.  Here we're talking the Resurrection.  There's something about that....

You know, after hearing him describe it that way, I'm actually surprised that Obama doesn't think of Easter as the day a big rabbit comes out of his hole and, depending on whether he sees his shadow or not, tells us if we're in for a long winter.  

Rush repeats the line "puts everything else in perspective" 13 times in that segment. The only reason for getting that worked up about the casual, nonspecific way Obama talked about the Resurrection would be if you if you felt profound reverence toward it. But if you felt profound reverence about it, you wouldn't use it for cheap political leverage against the President.

At the Pulsatilla Nightclub...

... that's a pasque flower, representing Easter. What do you make of that?



Talk about Easter... or anything.

"On Good Friday, Dagwood makes the risen Christ weep with his horrifying rabbit fursuit."

"85 percent of the people in the 'furfans' and 'Blondie fans' Venn diagram overlap are now writing clarifying letters to King Features, emphasizing that Dagwood was not the character they wanted to see dressed in a sexy bunny outfit."

Bonus at the link: "Oh, your husband’s a terrible lout, is he? If you ever need a sympathetic ear, I’m here for you … listening … nodding thoughtfully … drinking your pain, your darkest emotional pain, like the sweet, sweet divine nectar that it is … oh, God, tell me, tell me, TELL ME…"

Glenn Reynolds poses with a dispassionate judge.

Just kidding. Poses with the Easter Bunny.

Lent over, blogging cockroach reemerges.

With Easter greetings:

happy easter
i love easter it s so hopeful
and the food isn t bad
mom and dad here at the house
are having some friends over
for easter dinner yay crumbs
and maybe lots of other goodies if mom
is sloppy as usual i adore hollandaise sauce
one of mom s good friends who s coming
is jewish and her husband is oirish
from the old sod plus there are the
mexican chinese jewish polish couple
and remember mom is french so
welcome to cambridge
which is identity enough for all the kids
who happily say grace over dinner
and love to hunt easter eggs
while i m under the fridge waiting
for hollandaise sauce from heaven
hoping they don t decide to look
too carefully for those eggs

Happy Easter.

Last night — baby chicks and ducks:

David Letterman apologizing now for censoring Bill Hicks back in 1993.

Here's a piece about it:

On Friday, Letterman brought in comedian Bill Hicks's mother to apologize to her personally for having, in 1993, cut what would have been Hicks's final appearance (his 12th) on the talk show.

Hicks died several months later of pancreatic cancer....

When Hicks was performing in the early 1990s, freedom of speech, among the pundits and the public, was under constant attack....

Hicks, who knew he was dying of cancer at the time, was heartbroken, as was his family, though he blamed the USA, “The United States of Advertisers.”

So Letterman making up with Mary Hicks now was both poignant and depressing, and this mood was palpably felt: The sketch did not get big laughs....

Here's the video of Letterman explaining what he's going to do, then apologizing to Hicks's mother. And here's the censored performance from 16 years ago — and you really can see why it was censored:



At the end of that, we see Letterman groveling before Hicks's mother. "What was the matter with me?... It says more about me as a guy than it says about me Bill, because there was absolutely nothing wrong with that." Yes, but there was something wrong with it. It encourages the assassination of specific celebrities (particularly Billy Ray Cyrus). There's other material that could be viewed as homophobic and it is hateful toward pro-lifers and mildly blasphemous about Jesus, but I think the real problem was the creepy encouragement of violence (quite aside from whether it might actually have inspired murder).

Is there some reason why Letterman is now making his amends? If the pain he caused Hicks and his mom is something that gnawed at him all these years, why do something about it now? Does Letterman or someone he loves have cancer? Or does Letterman suddenly have a newfound hate for Billy Ray Cyrus?

IN THE COMMENTS: Diamondhead said:

Bill Hicks was "heartbroken" because the full sting of his comedy wasn't felt by his intended targets? That's funnier than anything in his routine.

Happy Easter.

Does cute inspire tipping?

I think so.

Easter cake.

A bakery window on Court Street in Brooklyn.