Sure, we all got plenty of giggles out of the professional demise of former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard. It's fun to watch someone fall from egotistical self-proclaimed spiritual leader to disgraced homosexual prostitute patron and meth head. But the fact that Haggard was a lying asshole aside, you don't have much of a heart if your joy didn't eventually turn into pity. At least a little bit. Here's a guy working under a system that not only won't let him admit who he is sexually but actually pretends that his natural biology is some sort of disease. Plus, who doesn't like man whores and a little bit of meth every now and then? Aside from most of us. Anyway, Haggard has finally been released from the gag order (easy now...) placed on him by his former church. While it may sound a little extreme that he wasn't allowed to publicly talk about his personal problems, the church actually gave Haggard a pretty fair deal: one year's salary (about $130,000) in exchange for not running to the media and giving them any more of a bad name. But now Haggard has slipped on his trainers and is running to HBO, where a documentary called The Trials of Ted Haggard will air later this month. In lieu of a new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, this documentary might not be too bad a replacement. At the very least it'll offer some hilariously awkward social situations. More details here. And you can watch Haggard's confrontation with Richard Dawkins over the absurdity of creationism below:
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Schadenfreude: The Return
