A Muslim writes a book about Jesus and the world implodes. Oh, yeah, only on Fox News. Author Reza Aslan is the latest guest to make the folks at Fox News look inane.

"You're a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?" asked Fox News' Lauren Green.

His response: "Well, to be clear, I am a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament, and fluency in biblical Greek, who has been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim."

• Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
• This is a photo of Bisbee.

The work of Rembert Browne is one of the highlights of the ESPN-funded home of overly-long writing Grantland, and somehow he's managed to convince whoever's paying for things over there to fund a summer long roadtrip in search of America, which included a trip to Bisbee. The entire article is strange and amazing (just like Bisbee, I guess), but most of it centers around golf-course-manager/local-celebrity Pete Campbell:

Pete Campbell was not from Bisbee, but you wouldn't know it being in his presence. The way he described it, when he moved here over 15 years ago from Santa Fe (originally from New York), he had to earn his way into the fabric of the community, not because it was elitist in any way, but because everyone knew everyone. But now, after paying his dues, with a wife and three children, and serving as the general manager of the Turquoise Valley Golf Course in the neighboring town, he straddles this line of town historian, unofficial mayor, consummate free spirit, and life of the party.

But then again, maybe everyone straddles that line in Bisbee.

After finishing our pizza, he suggested we go back to the hotel, but then suddenly had an epiphany and asked if we wanted a quick tour of Bisbee.

We'd gotten this far on the suggestions of Pete Campbell — why not take it a little further? So we hopped into his pickup truck, and before I could close the back, he put the car in drive.

"Hey, can I put the back up?" I ask, suddenly fearing for my safety.

"You don't have to, man," Pete fired back.

"Yeah, but — can I?" I whimper. "Sure," he responds, and then as soon as we're "safely" situated in the bed, he shoots up a hill.

The steepest hill.

The look my friend and I gave one another, as Pete whipped around corners in the dark, bopping his head to zero music as if he were in a jam band, said, more or less, "Our moms told us not to trust crazy white people, what have we done, how do we get out, we're gonna die."

As we shot up a narrow street that his truck could barely fit through, Pete looked back and said, "OK, so this is a two-way street. I swear to God it's a two-way street."

We responded with nervous laughter from the trunk's bed. "Seems unsafe," I add.

"Yes, very unsafe," he replied back, as we came around a ridge above what looked like a 100-foot drop.

"My son takes piano lessons up this street," Pete added.

"Is he any good?" I asked, assuming he'd say something ridiculous in response.

"He's a fucking genius. He's my son."

Pete Campbell might want to start offering his own tours of Bisbee as a side gig. Could be lucrative.

Robin Thicke's controversial and catchy single "Blurred Lines" has been attracting a lot of attention this summer for being antifeminist. Seattle-based boylesque troupe Mod Carousel decided to respond with their own, gender-swapped version of the video. They reworked the lyrics, staged the set of video, and put some guys in thongs and heels

From the YouTube description:

It's our opinion that most attempts to show female objectification in the media by swapping the genders serve more to ridicule the male body than to highlight the extent to which women get objectified and does everyone a disservice. We made this video specifically to show a spectrum of sexuality as well as present both women and men in a positive light, one where objectifying men is more than alright and where women can be strong and sexy without negative repercussions.

Amazing. The only difference? ALL of the people in this version actually look like they're having fun during the shoot.

Once monsoon begins in Tucson, so does the constant hum of the cicadas. It's our summer desert soundtrack, just like thunder and the rain against a good tin roof, if you're lucky enough to have a tin roof.

Anyway, when I saw the video for filmmaker Samuel Orr's hour-long documentary on the 17-year lives of cicadas that's part of his funded Kickstarter, I wanted to make sure you got a chance to see it too. It will be released and broadcast on PBS in 2014.

Yes, as you know we at Weekly World Central love The Militant Baker. So when we recently hopped on her blog and read her analysis of the controversial Robin Thicke video and lyrics of "Blurred Lines," we were happy to read the kind of thoughtful, intelligent, fun and open-hearted analysis the Baker is known for:

As a society we shame the sluts, and applaud those who carefully limit their sexual interactions. Ever seen What's Your Number? It's insulting, and by encouraging women to follow this expectation we continue to create a world where men are allowed to want casual sex and women are expected to only desire significant relationships. This is notably highlighted in the dating world. Ever looked at "casual encounter" ads on Craigslist? Ever notice how there are a million ads for NSA men seeking women, and rarely more than a handful the other way around? Wanna know why? Slut shaming, that's why. We indoctrinate the public with the belief that if you're a woman wanting casual encounters, you are inherently dirty and desperate and it's because of this that nearly every post by a woman in this category is flagged and taken down. Slut shaming in its truest form, reinforced by that notion that women should only want meaningful monogamy. Conversely, if you look at the ads for LTR's there are usually more women looking for men (compared to men looking for women) though this is not necessarily representative of what all women want.

Full disclosure: I am a woman who likes sex. And all different levels of sex at that. Long-term-relationship-you're-a-soul-mate sex, we've-been-dating-for-a-few-weeks-and-I-think-you're-cool sex, AND painfully-attractive-smarmy-guy-at-the-party-I'll-probably-never-see-again sex. Can this last one be totally consensual? Yes. Could I actually love it? Totes. Does it make me a bad person to enjoy it? Nope. And I am really good at playing a "good girl" *wink wink*. Are you catching on yet?

And here's some of the criticism that just doesn't see it the same ways as our Baker from the Daily Beast:

The song is about how a girl really wants crazy wild sex but doesn’t say it—positing that age-old problem where men think no means yes into a catchy, hummable song.

“Good girl, I know you want it,” sings Thicke, who has all of his clothes on, as one of the near-naked models dances and pouts next to him. “Talk about getting blasted, I hate these blurred lines, I know you want it, but you’re a good girl, the way you grab me, must want to get nasty.”

Not surprisingly the combination of the lyrics and the video’s nudity has irked some female music fans.

“Has anyone heard Robin Thicke’s new rape song?” Lisa Huyne wrote in a post on her blog, Feminist in L.A. “Basically, the majority of the song (creepily named ‘Blurred Lines’) has the R&B singer murmuring ‘I know you want it’ over and over into a girl’s ear. Call me a cynic, but that phrase does not exactly encompass the notion of consent in sexual activity … Seriously, this song is disgusting—though admittedly very catchy.”

Not an easy topic, but leave it to the Baker to remind us that being sex positive is actually a good thing, and leave it to the Baker to remind Robin Thicke to give up the creepy sunglasses. Viva la Baker!

In yet another instance of apparently missing fact-checkers, Oakland's KTVU was taken on a sad, sad ride when it displayed the following names, which were supposedly those of crew members aboard the Asiana Airlines crash last weekend in San Francisco.

Upon further review, it's fairly obvious they were not:

• Gawker
• You'd think they'd have picked up on the theme.

Seriously, aside from the names being rather obviously racist ("Man, don't Asian people have funny names? High five, bro!") that's fairly damn embarrassing.

According to Gakwer, KTVU claimed that the names were confirmed by an official from the National Transportation Safety Board — something that the NSTB refuted, as the official policy is to not give names out.

Something appears to be rotten in Oakland — aside from the Raiders, of course.

In Tucson, we complain about the heat every summer even when we know that come July, it will be hot. We live in the Sonoran Desert. We live in Tucson. During the summer it's hot. That's the way it is always going to be.

But this NSFW video making its way through the internets captures the internal conversations we have with ourselves every summer. In Moldy Pueblo speak, that's "I am not a lizard" (and while wiping sweat from our necks while watching a band at Club Congress: "Why do I live in Tucson? Why did I leave my house tonight?").

For the past few weeks, the folks over at KGUN have been running a gimmick where they use the natural heat of the Sonoran desert to do silly things with food — baking, making smores, so on and so forth — on Fridays. Because, y'know. Fry-Day. As in, it's hot enough to FRY things during the DAY, in case you needed that spelled out for you.

You probably didn't.

But today's Fry-Day event started out innocent enough, and now seems a bit, uh...weird.

Apparently, the idea was to correctly guess how many inches the cactus ice sculpture would lose as it melted in the heat during the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts...then, this photo happened.

• KGUN/Facebook
• Nope. Nothing strange about this.

Why yes, that is KGUN news personality Liz Kotalik somewhat awkwardly embracing that large, tall, hard-looking cactus-esque sculpture — and maybe it's the heat, maybe it's just our warped minds over here in Alt-Weekly world, but we just can't get past how ridiculous (and awkwardly risque) this looks.

A sampling of opinions from the Weekly staff, KGUN commenters and other folks I showed the photo to:

- "I'm thinking of some COMPLETELY different captions for that photo"

- "It'd be more interesting to conjecture how many inches an erection would lose just by thinking about the ice sculpture."

- "Aren't they copying a Phoenix station? [Note: Cooking things with the sun isn't a particularly original idea, but yeah, KSAZ is doing it too.] And isn't that a bit phallic ... at least by six inches. What happened to cooking eggs on the sidewalk?"

- "Their viewers will love it. She'll need a shorter skirt, though."

- "Well, there are all sorts of shrinkage jokes to be made there."

- "This is hot on so many levels."

- "Get Liz' hot hands off of it or it will melt faster."

- "Just the tip."

Yeah, that's a good one to stop at. Hopefully, the next ice sculpture they go with isn't something that isn't quite so phallic — or at least that maybe they rethink putting the pretty, young 23-year-old reporter next to it.

Oh, for the record: at last check (and admittedly, I'm not checking with great frequency) the statue went from 38 inches at 4 p.m. to something very determined to turn into a puddle, as seen here at 5:45 p.m.

Apologies to KGUN's Liz Kotalik, hugger of the ice cactus.

• The New Yorker

The New Yorker's Culture Desk blog has this from the artist of this week's cover:

“It’s amazing to witness how attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime,” said Jack Hunter, the artist behind next week’s cover, “Moment of Joy.” Hunter, who originally submitted his image, unsolicited, to a Tumblr, continued, “This is great for our kids, a moment we can all celebrate.”

Gawker, however, notes that the cover was submitted to a Tumblr ran by the New Yorker's art editor, Françoise Mouly — though that's neither here nor there, at this point.

The thing is, this cover has already generated a tremendous share of followers since its announcement but...I'm sorry, I just don't like it.

Not because it celebrates the acknowledgement by the federal government that yes, gay couples are just as human and relevant and equal as straight couples (something that's taken too damn long, in my opinion), but because it bothers me that the biggest visual statement by a respected publication on gay marriage features two puppets who are assumed to be gay because they're living together.

It's an acknowledgement and validation of a stupid schoolyard joke — the same kind of joke saying that Barney is gay because he's a purple dinosaur, or that Tinky Winky of Teletubbies is gay because he/she/it is purple and carries a purse.

The same kind of stupid joke that makes people think that it's fine to make assumptions of someone/thing's sexuality because that person or thing fits into a particular stereotype — in this case, male best friends living together.

I suppose that the cover fulfills the various functions of the New Yorker's desire to remain the most dryly-witty, clever -for-the-sake-of-being-clever thing in media today (which is why Andy Borowitz still gets paid to write head-smackingly dense "satirical" news stories, I guess) — but it's not difficult to envision how much more important and impactful the cover of that magazine could have been if it featured an actual, real-life, we-acknowledge-the-fact-that-we-are-gay-and-in-love couple.

But hey, puppets are cool too. Whatever.

Now, in acknowledgement of the idea that I'm getting too damn serious over a silly magazine cover, I present a funny tweet:

Maybe The New Yorker cover will convince Bert and Ernie to finally come out & admit they are actually just a guy's hands.
— CC:Indecision (@indecision) June 28, 2013

My spine is still tingling after watching Texas Sen. Wendy Davis' filibuster on Tuesday and the aftermath of how it was covered (and not covered) by the national news.

That said, I have to share this inside perspective that went up on the Good Men Project yesterday.

A snippet:

Yesterday, I witnessed women’s rights under fire, a crippled legal system that didn’t represent its people, a corrupt government body attempting to commit a crime in front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, and the complete failure of the main stream media. I also witnessed a woman performing a nearly superhuman act to do what was right, the power of the people making themselves heard both in person and online, and the extraordinary value of one young man with a cellphone making sure people saw and heard the truth about what was going on.