Home » Open thread 3/30/24

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Open thread 3/30/24 — 52 Comments

  1. As someone stated before, dogs are angels sent to us, and we do not deserve them.

    (We’ve had 14 dogs over the course of our marriage, and have 4 now, ranging from 1.5, 4, 12, and 16. The 16 yr old is still getting around and hanging in, the 12 yr old acts like she’s 7… all Icelandic Sheepdogs.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Sheepdog )

  2. RE: Biden the Fabulist i.e.

    From Biden in a bunny suit to a little girl collecting Easter eggs–“Did I ever tell you you about how I rode past Jesus’ tomb every day on Amtrak?”

    See the cartoon here at https://www.lucianne.com/

  3. Stella is a well-trained dog! She won’t put her feet up on the couch to get the treat, and she won’t cross the road by herself.

  4. I was surprised that Stella took so long to jump in the water. My Lab takes every opportunity to jump in the water.

  5. Trump’s weaknesses with GOP voters go beyond the suburbs – how many GOP voters can Trump afford to lose?

    ..there’s also a significant bloc of voters who did not want Trump in more exurban, red-leaning counties — the kinds of places that were skeptical of Trump in the 2016 GOP primary and, while largely voting for him in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, have remained somewhat resistant to his takeover of the Republican Party.

  6. My blue Weimaraner would sit with her nose two inches from that treat and whine for someone to give it to her. Even if she was the only one in the room, she would not take it. When she was a pup, she was actually a kind of a purple color in the sun. At one point we called her (as a joke) Violet the Purple Pup.

  7. so thats a lot of words signifying nothing, of course if you can churn out ballots like monopoly money, you can overwhelm any advantage,

  8. Nice to see that to the WH and Dems, Easter is a Trans Day, not a day for Christians to celebrate the Resurrection.

  9. do they go for the statue of dylan mulvaney, instead of the Golden Calf,

  10. The White House had insisted that egg decoration designs for its Easter contest cannot have religious symbolism or content. Why bother with an Easter event at all? Do they allow Muslim items at their Ramadan iftar? Do they light a menorah at their Chanukah event?

  11. I’m gonna buy me a dog
    Because I need a friend now.

    Davy: Hey, you need all the friends you can get, I’m telling you.

    –The Monkees, “Gonna Buy Me a Dog” (from the TV show)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41JjZfY22a4

    _____________________________________

    People forget how much of a delight the Monkees were. Sure, they were derivative of the Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night,” but if you’re gonna steal, steal from the best.

  12. The devoutly Catholic Biden Administration has apparently joined the progressive crown in declaring Easter Sunday as the very first, inaugural, “TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY”

    When I first saw this, I thought it might be the Babylon Bee, but sadly, it’s not.

    Whoever created this video should be subjected to the same treatment as he visited on Stella, for ‘kicks and clicks’.

  13. When I first saw this, I thought it might be the Babylon Bee, but sadly, it’s not.

    Aggie:

    Me too!

  14. It’s apparently not the first “Transgender Day of Visibility,” but it may well be the first with a presidential declaration. Speaking as an observant, although imperfect, Christian, I wonder how Joe dares to receive communion.

  15. Now Gov. Hochul has announced that famous landmarks in New York will be illuminated with transgender flag colors in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility, tomorrow. Happy Easter, New York.
    ==
    Gov. Hochul exhales the kultursmog. She’s bereft of ideas of her own.

  16. We have definitive answer to appeals possible for John Eastman, President’s attorney under a provisional debarment. Posed a couple days ago. https://www.thenewneo.com/2024/03/28/a-california-judge-has-recommended-th

    Eastman’s legal representative, Berkeley Law prof (Boalt School of Law, IIRC) John Yoo, former US solicitor under the younger Bush, tells us that the Judge simply did not listen to his claims.

    Counsellor Yoo says the other John can appeal to a higher California Bar Court, than to the California Supreme Court, and potentially even the US Supreme Court.

    SOURCE — 3WHH, The Three Whiskey Happy Hour, a weekly podcast:
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/03/podcast-the-3whh-to-obscenity-and-beyond.php

  17. I have another café friend who is an Episcopalian acolyte. He invited me to an Easter service at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Abq. I choose their Saturday evening service tonight at 7pm. Not quite a full-blown midnight mass, but close — two hours long, lots of incense and included a baptism and some confirmations plus a rollicking organ toccata at the end.

    It’s been 15 years since I attended mass on Easter 2009, at a very progressive Episcopalian church in San Francisco. I was already halfway out the door after several years of being one of three outspoken conservatives in that congregation.

    The rector on that Easter gave a weepy sermon about being a sad gay teen in Texas. I have sympathy for him as a kid, but … it was Easter! The day of Christ’s triumph over death, a profound joyous celebration for Christians.

    I knew that was my last day at that church. I thought of shopping for another, but I just couldn’t bring myself to it.

    Tonight’s sermon was more of a meditation on Easter. The priest was wondering what the Resurrection was like. Did Jesus suddenly zap back into life like he was hit with those electrical paddles? (Actually I’ve wondered about that myself.)

    However, as the priest grew older, he decided that the Resurrection was likely gradual like a sunrise or a flower blooming. He suggested that even people who can remember their Come To Jesus moment, had a history leading up to it. His final question to the congregation was to consider how a gradual personal resurrection might be working in their lives.

    Which IMO is applicable to our discussions of political change here. It’s a process, before and after. It’s exciting when the Change hits, but it usually takes a while to arrive and it’s not over after it arrives.

  18. Boned Looser:

    Keep sending your cards, letters, and bit coin to Vlad, he has uses for useful idiots.

  19. huxley, I’ve seen the photos of the Shroud of Turin, which keeps getting test results validating its age and regional origin. If it’s real, the Resurrection was a flash of energy. But I like that priest’s idea of gradual renewal and repair in our lives.

  20. Kate:

    I once read a Shroud of Turin book and it mentioned that the Shroud showed evidence of being blasted with a great flash of energy from within.

    I don’t know how any of this works or doesn’t. It’s a very strange story. Something changed those early Christians. Something still is changing people. Something changed me.

    I thought it would be straightforward to connect that with churches and Christians, but that hasn’t been so simple.

  21. huxley, the problem is, when you were changed (for which thanks be to God!), churches were also changing, in a way that leads them away from the Gospel revelation to something more “nuanced.” And then, of course, churches of all types are filled with fallible humans.

  22. Kate:

    Yes, we must do something about all those fallible humans. 🙂

    My sense is churches are too nuanced. Christians believe so many things and for me beliefs are not the point. Beliefs miss the point.

    Of course, practically there has to be some agreed-upon framework of belief for a movement to cohere. I don’t have a solution for that either.

  23. Sunday Open Thread:

    Global Arms Exports – Winners, losers & trends in the race to rearm – Perun,/b>

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfMYpmrTGm0

    Timestamps
    00:00:00 — Opening Words
    00:01:00 — What Am I Talking About
    00:01:38 — The Arms Trade Leaderboard
    00:06:57 — The Market Shifts
    00:07:58 — The USA
    00:13:42 — Europe
    00:20:28 — Other Rising Providers
    00:33:46 — The Biggest Losers?
    00:51:10 — The Forward Trajectory
    01:01:56 — Brakes On Sales Volumes
    01:04:56 — Channel Update

  24. Are you a Russian male between 18 to 30 years old? Putin has some good news for you:

    Putin calls up another 150,000 men for Russian Army conscription amid Ukraine invasion – the highest figure for eight years

    I show roughly 442,170 killed + 1,326,510 wounded Russian troops since start of reinvasion in 2022. Don’t worry—Putin says:

    Russia has promised that those forcibly enlisted for one-year military service will not be sent to the conflict zone in Ukraine.

    (PrivatebwwaaaahahaaaahaAAAHAHAAAAAHAAAAAHAAA snicker–snort–snicker!!)

    Ukraine says:

    It was possible to achieve such a quantity of fresh ‘cannon fodder’ thanks to an amendment to raise the conscription age.

    (Private – Now, if Putin’s puppets in America’s GOP will help pass a bill to resupply the Ukrainian military…)

  25. Basic HTML for commenting on sites where it is not offered. This doesn’t work on all sites, but it does here—for anyone interested—here is a link to simple PIC guide.

  26. Actually the basics of belief are standard He is the Son of God there is no path but through him and keep the Commandments they are suggestions or post it notes

  27. @ Miguel > “He is the Son of God there is no path but through him”

    Pretty straight-forward, but hard to follow.

    Wishing everyone here and their families a joyous Easter and blessings throughout the year.

  28. I do have to say, Stella comes across as a remarkably stupid dog.

    😛

    Karmi: Although it’s not very commonly needed, there is also the Strike tag: I want to strike something out.

    There is also the Blockquote tag:

    this is a quote!

    }}} Huxley: I have another café friend who is an Episcopalian acolyte.

    One thing to grasp about the Episcopalians is that they had a massive schism about 10-15 years ago, which led to a large percentage of them leaving the Episcopalian church and joining the Anglican church itself. I believe part of this was the decision to allow female priests, but it also may have been tied to homosexuality. I could very much be wrong on that last.

    The net result was a huge influx of members for the American Anglican Church.

    In general, there was a lot of internal dissatisfaction in the congregations about how Those In Charge were pretty much making s*** up and ignoring obvious strictures in the Bible.

    Locally, I know this schism was a fact, as a friend of mine’s entire congregation left the Episcopalians and went over to Anglicans. The local Episcopalian church structures never got re-vived, and were sold to local commercial developers.

  29. }}} Stella is a well-trained dog! She won’t put her feet up on the couch to get the treat, and she won’t cross the road by herself.

    Yes, but she isn’t smart enough to just knock the treat off the arm, and somehow she managed to get her ball 50y down and across the road. She dives in to get the blue ball out of the water, but then… drops it so it falls right back into the water.

    I love dogs, but she’s just not all that bright in general. She seems to be worthy of getting her picture in the dictionary, as the poster dog under the phrase “Dumb Dog”… undertext: “Boy, is she dumb.”

    😉

  30. Open Thread Sunday – And Now for Something Completely Different

    It’s Not Loxosceles – The Music Video (Brown Recluse Identification Aid) – Travis McEnrey (These are the spiders in your house.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X2QS2DBuKY

    Regarding Stella. She’s a Labrador Retriever. Labs are very bright, trainable, and can be very focused, driven. Not dumb.

  31. It’s a stickup. Hand it over or you’ll feel bad about yourself.

    There isn’t one reference in the article to a request for money. Do you get ever get tired of being an utter fraud?

  32. ObloodyHell: Yeah, I was doing a blog post for sites that don’t have Disqus or their own Tag comment apps available—like many WordPress blogs & also here. I don’t use Strike very often, for commenting anyway.

    That Pic link had Add a link, Bold text, Italic text, and Quotations/Blockquotes basic tags that I mainly use on the couple sites I comment on.

    The W3Schools’ has some stuff like free HTML intro for anyone looking for more tags.

    I used the Pic because it was easier to avoid getting the actual HTML code showing up instead of the tag info on how to do it. 🙂

  33. OBloodyHell, there were two waves of Episcopalians leaving to form new churches. The first, in the late 1970s, was related to rejecting female priesthood. Those churches are called “Continuing” Anglicans. The second, following the 2003 consecration of an actively gay bishop, was much larger and led to the formation of the Anglican Church in North America. Remaining Episcopal churches are declining, with some exceptions.

  34. om, it certainly began in the Spong era. There were far too many bishops who didn’t have the spine to remove false teachings from their dioceses. It wouldn’t be “nice,” plus it might offend some people who put money on the offering plate. Nor is the Episcopal church the only one with this weakness. Most of the mainline Protestant churches have gone off the edge, to be replaced in many cases by more traditional alternatives, and only look at the problems the Catholics have with some of their bishops.

  35. I’d long given up using strike, despite liking the ability to stupidly snarkily be incorrect in a way I wanted folk to see, but realize it’s not quite the word I’m choosing.
    Using the del tag, in LR carrots seems to work. Tho also “s” as in “strike fails works”. (I’m also in favor of some quotes inside the period.)

    Karmi, like so many sometimes blowhards, sometimes has good things to say, too — thanks for this good one, the link. (I would have liked to see the tag to get strike, so did this comment.)

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