Mike Pence: "The effect is that of an unctuous church elder selling pyramid schemes to credulous parishioners, never doubting he is doing God’s work."

As a lifelong Hoosier, I'm compelled to warn those of you currently existing on an steady diet of "Impeach Trump" that waiting in the wings is someone far worse, primarily because Mike Pence actually believes the religious mumbo-jumbo to which The Donald pays only bored lip service.

Three entertaining pieces follow. Many thanks to my friend C for these links; his eye for the polemic remains exemplary.

Leading off, why none of Pence's three simple identities qualifies him to be dogcatcher, much less chief executive.

Mike Pence: The servile schemer who would be president, by Richard North Patterson (Boston Globe)

ON THE EVIDENCE of a lifetime, America’s vice president is not a complex man. Instead he is three extremely simple ones: an incompetent ideologue, an obsequious toady, and a self-serving schemer.

As a side note, Patterson offers what is my single favorite paragraph of the year to date, which might be only slightly refashioned to describe Deaf Gahan and his stuffed board of toady housing bootlickers.

It was utterly in character, then, when Pence kicked off the most excruciating display of synchronized sycophancy in memory — the chorus of praise from cabinet members upon their first meeting with America’s Dear Leader.

Awesome. Patterson covers older ground in this column from April.

Mike Pence and the rise of mediocrity (Patterson; Globe)

(Pence's) public persona reeks of smarmy sanctimony — every untruth, evasion, and vacuous bromide delivered in a portentous pipe organ voice accompanied by squints, nods, and shakes of the head which, Pence clearly imagines, convey a pious gravity. The effect is that of an unctuous church elder selling pyramid schemes to credulous parishioners, never doubting he is doing God’s work. Every self-serving self-deception reveals the depths of his shallowness, the breadth of his hypocrisy.

His salvation is not ours.

Indeed. Finally, to end on a deeper and more prosaic note:

Vice President Mike Pence stays loyal to Trump, but it could come at a cost, by Noah Bierman (LA Times)

The Republicans’ signature healthcare bill was in peril in Congress and President Trump was busy warring against media foes on Twitter.

Vice President Mike Pence, wearing a brown suit and his usual earnest expression, was far from the fray last week, here at a warehouse outside Cleveland amid metal rods and wooden crates for a “listening session” with small-business owners. Sitting at a drafting table, he ignored the camera lights as well as the trouble in Washington, dutifully hearing out complaints about healthcare, taking notes on a legal pad and promising the Ohioans that the Trump-Pence administration was close to replacing Obamacare.

This is how Mike Pence copes with the drama that defines life as Donald Trump’s sidekick: acting as though everything is normal, boringly normal.

Verily, I wasn't made for a world this stupid: "Visiting Disney World is the modern version of a medieval pilgrimage."

An occasional reminder is justified, because John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces is a very funny book. This brief extract begins with Ignatius's long-suffering mother, as she dares enter his room in the New Orleans house where they live.

“It smells terrible in here.'

Well, what do you expect? The human body, when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I, too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.”

I prefer the punch line like this:

Veneration of Walt Disney is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate.

Just what we needed.

In a world grown increasingly complex, when reality so desperately demands prompt and scrupulous attention, what we do instead is create another religion, so that local office holders can look longingly to unreality as a basis for revitalization.

Visiting Disney World is the Modern Version of Making a Medieval Pilgrimage According to anthropologists, religious studies experts, and art historians, by Sarah Laskow (Atlas Obscura)

At Walt Disney World, the weeks around Christmas are one of the most crowded times of the year: from all over the country and all over the world, families flock to Orlando to be in this special space for just a few days. Most Disney patrons would probably call their trip a vacation, but to anthropologists, religious studies experts, and art historians, a visit to Disney World looks a lot like another, older form of travel—a pilgrimage.

“Appetites for direct contact with Disney’s creations have transformed the trek to Disney World into a genuine form of pilgrimage,” writes historian Cheryl Krause Knight, author of Power and Paradise in Walt Disney’s World. In the modern world, a trip to Disney has become a rite of passage that transforms those who make the trek, and the design of the park heightens that experience: Disney World resembles a medieval pilgrimage center, designed to connect pilgrims with the supernatural, represented by Mickey Mouse and company.

Mickey is like a supernatural being.

Kentuckians reclaim their religious culture, their racism, their leech-based health plans ...

There's the Creation Museum, and now there's this. Verily, the whole civilized world busts a gut in contemplation of these displays of superstition and religious bumpkinism. Somewhere, H.L. Mencken is laughing out loud.

Kentucky churchgoer tells of deep hurt after interracial marriage ban; Stella Harville not welcome at Gulnare Freewill baptist church after ex-pastor votes to ban couples of different races, by Ed Pilkington (Guardian)

A small baptist church in eastern Kentucky has voted to ban interracial couples from joining the congregation and from taking part in all church functions other than funerals.

Religion as the eternal enema of satire.

Life of Brian would be risky now, says Terry Jones; Monty Python star claims making satire now would be too risky following resurgence in religious belief, in The Guardian

... The 69-year-old said: "I took the view it wasn't blasphemous. It was heretical because it criticised the structure of the church and the way it interpreted the Gospels. At the time religion seemed to be on the back burner and it felt like kicking a dead donkey. It has come back with a vengeance and we'd think twice about making it now."

Rapturedundancy: Come get me off the merry-go-round.