Althouse: At the Blue Reader Café...

May 20, 2019

At the Blue Reader Café...

... you can write about what you like.

102 comments:

stephen cooper said...: God loves us more than we can imagine.

True or false?; 5/20/19, 8:28 PM
stephen cooper said...: (that question was inspired by the transcendentally beautiful picture of spring trees in bloom); 5/20/19, 8:30 PM
stevew said...: Lovely photo.

Summer broke out here in the northeast of Boston. 85 degrees, sunshine, and humidity. Forecast is for a return of spring tomorrow.

Holzhauer returned and kicked butt on Jeopardy tonight. $1.7m or so at this point. I think Biden has adopted a strategy similar to James' in the quest for the Democrat nomination: quick, high value strikes and bets, and then lets the other 20+ candidates duke it out for dumbest policy proposal, evah!

Lastly, have to say I am not one of those disappointed by the GOT finale.; 5/20/19, 8:31 PM
Birkel said...: The Conservative Treehouse has a bunch of released transcripts of FBI/DOJ people.; 5/20/19, 8:35 PM
narciso said...: Good news;
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/05/19/mann-and-lewandowskys-climate-lament-we-have-lost-australia-for-now/?fbclid=IwAR19vnonVMcvEzS64VOjkWMJkPHGVQsWlKWk-4DbHI6cd0rFivmuJa1TIZc; 5/20/19, 8:35 PM
narciso said...: An interesting perspective:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/globalization-modern-world-rome-satyricon/?fbclid=IwAR1qE0RDfC48DPSqqJf5x3joGbH8wH96lWKx8e2yMXxc2dLy2fe0r1MeR24; 5/20/19, 8:37 PM
mandrewa said...: I just saw the Jordan Peterson interview of Milo, which was posted today.

It is something worth watching. There are very few people in this world as honest as Milo.

It's an hour and forty-five minutes long.; 5/20/19, 8:47 PM
mandrewa said...: Oh, I forgot the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHpvI8oGsuQ; 5/20/19, 8:48 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: John Solomon tells a very interesting account … 3 min video

https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/john-solomon-tells-a-very-interesting-story/; 5/20/19, 8:53 PM
narciso said...: Here they are;

https://dougcollins.house.gov/transparency; 5/20/19, 8:53 PM
rcocean said...: Sorry, I never read National Review anymore. I like my Left/Liberal magazines to be honest about their beliefs.; 5/20/19, 8:54 PM
narciso said...: Hanson is perhaps the lone dissenter there, there was a good interview with bukowski the last of thr major Soviet dissidents; 5/20/19, 8:56 PM
narciso said...: Its about the deplorables vs the elites in imperial Rome; 5/20/19, 8:57 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Thanks mandrewa
Here's a direct link:

Milo: Forbidden conversation

In the age of leftwing fascism and speech police.-- YAY.; 5/20/19, 8:58 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Over the Weekend, The Denver Post gave gov. Leftwing fascist Polis(D) a tongue bath. Calling him a "libertarian" whilst singing his praises on the front page of the Democratic party press paper.
Laughable. I suppose if you're pro-pot, that alone can give you such a noble political distinction.
Goes to show that progressive leftwing Democratic fascism must constantly orb and mutate and run away from itself - with the propaganda machine generating front page ass-kisses right on time.; 5/20/19, 9:02 PM
Scott said...: I searched the phrase "anti-Trump bullshit" in Google, Bing, and DuckDuckgo.

Bing and DuckDuckGo results were very similar and fairly balanced.

Google results clustered around Trump saying bullshit rather than describing anti-Trumpism as bullshit.; 5/20/19, 9:03 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Giving your states electoral votes to California is so freaking "libertarian".
F Off.; 5/20/19, 9:03 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Blossom circles. more yay.; 5/20/19, 9:10 PM
JackWayne said...: But it was the elites who came through the “dark ages” as feudal lords.; 5/20/19, 9:10 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: this guy really "screwed the pooch"-- and yet...

Illegal Alien Convicted of Raping Dog to Death Released by Sanctuary State

"They're not sending their best.They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” -Donald Trump; 5/20/19, 9:24 PM
gilbar said...: in last year's april; i escorted my father to Washington DC on an Honor Flight (he was in the 3rd Infantry in 1952 (in North Korea); and we got to DC just in time to find the ground carpeted with cherry blossoms. I suppose it would have been neat to see them on the trees; but it was SO COOL to see the ground pink. It was like snow (pink snow).; 5/20/19, 9:27 PM
William said...: I thought Michelle Dockery was the star of Downton Abbey, but she never had any break out role after that series. I wonder if there will be any break out stars from GoT. I thought Emilia Clarke had the most soaring moments, but maybe she subverted her star power this past season.....Maybe some stars have one great role the way some writers have one great novel. James Gandolfini never created another character with the impact of Tony Soprano.; 5/20/19, 9:31 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "...the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It's a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it is also tragically short."; 5/20/19, 9:40 PM
Narayanan said...: ,,,Giving your states electoral votes to California,,,

Is this really fait accompli ?

Has anyone reviewed State Constitutions to establish if relevant State Official can certify anything beyond State boundary or jurisdiction?

What's delaying lawfare?
Are Republicans waiting to pounce, and attack; 5/20/19, 9:49 PM
Narayanan said...: Speaking of Downton Abbey, have you noticed the ubiquitous American acquiescence to their caste system when the actors are interviewed on American TV?

I find it nauseating.; 5/20/19, 9:57 PM
tim in vermont said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/20/19, 9:58 PM
J. Farmer said...: @mandrewa:

I just saw the Jordan Peterson interview of Milo, which was posted today.

Been debating whether to listen to this or not. I'll probably give it a go during a long commute later this week. I kind of feel like Milo and Jordan have each jumped the shark. I forced myself to listen to the Peterson/Zizek conversation, and by the end I wished I had hadn't. Milo's mix of bon vivant and enfant terrible was interesting but gimmicky. Peter's pained, plaintive style reminds me of a lot of old psych professors I know. Every time i hear him brag about saving vulnerable young men from the alt-right, my eyes automatically role to the back of my head.; 5/20/19, 9:58 PM
tim in vermont said...: Now dost thou see that we poets can be neither wise nor dignified? That we must needs go astray, ever be wanton adventurers of the emotions? The magisterial guise of our style is all falsehood and folly, our fame and prestige a farce, the faith that the public places in us in nothing if not ludicrous, and the use of art to educate our the nation and its youth is a hazardous enterprise that should be outlawed. -Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

Substitute entertainers for poets and you see the seeds for the destruction of the West.; 5/20/19, 9:59 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Nobody:

Substitute entertainers for poets and you see the seeds for the destruction of the West.

I think the "seeds for the destruction of the West" were planted much longer ago and are much more widespread than merely the entertaining class. The Establishment is progressive in its orientation. It has been since at least the time of the Wilson administration and despite slight blowback in the 1920s has remained that way since. It controls the political parties. It controls the mainstream media outlets. It controls the major corporations.; 5/20/19, 10:08 PM
stephen cooper said...: Thomas Mann was not a poet.

God loves all of us more than we can imagine.

Thomas Mann, the poor sap, chose to ignore that fact.

So let me rewrite what he said "Dost thou not see that I am a selfish man, an ignorant man, much less gifted than Goethe was, and even less gifted than Goethe would have been had he been born in my day. Dost thou not see that .... trying to understand my art is "a hazardous enterprise that should be outlawed.?_"

well, to be fair, I understood his art, it was not all that hazardous, nobody who has read deeply in the Bible is tempted to think that the works of Thomas Mann are temptingly transcendent ...
interesting, of course, but transcendent ----- I don't think so.
Funny guy though, and talented.

No, the West will not be destroyed. Too many people love it, and too many people have risked their life for it.

Everybody loves the good they have known: French people obviously wake up every morning happy they are French, and that is something that will never change: but that is true of all peoples, I think, except for the worst of the worst.

I mean, here we are in 2019 and NOBODY wakes up and says damn I wish I were waking up in the Aztec Empire, or damn I wish I was waking up in some similar nasty uncivilized place.

"God loves us all the way we are but loves us too much to let us stay that way."; 5/20/19, 10:11 PM
Seeing Red said...: Via Insty: might be true, might not be true:

A mob of eight to 10 males wielding hammers descended upon bystanders at the East Bank Light Rail station on Friday night injuring several, according to recorded police dispatch audio.

The incident was apparently reported to 911 just before 10 p.m. on Friday according to the audio and other social media police scanner reports. A 9:48 p.m. Facebook post on 2nd Precinct Minneapolis Crime Watch page said that University of Minnesota (U of M) police were requesting assistance from Minneapolis police (MPD) and Metro Transit police for “a group of 8-10 males chasing people with hammers” and that some people were injured. A Facebook post a minute later on Minneapolis Scanner page said that the three police departments were responding to “multiple [911] calls” about “10-12 Somali teen males armed with hammers chasing people,” also with “several injuries reported.” Both Facebook pages regularly post summaries of police scanner audio....; 5/20/19, 10:16 PM
narciso said...: It's a nice sentiment, but the message isnt even conveyed by the leading representative of the church, he engages in pharaisiacal exposition, on all things but god.; 5/20/19, 10:17 PM
Fen said...: God loves us more than we can imagine. True or false?

False. Because the word we have for "love" doesn't define what He "feels" for us. It's something greater than love that we cannot imagine.

Yes, the Wife finds me unbearable at times.; 5/20/19, 10:18 PM
Big Mike said...: @William, go watch Clarke in “Me Before You.”; 5/20/19, 10:19 PM
David Begley said...: I saw Tim Ryan today. A sleeper candidate.

Kamala Harris Friday AM. Bay, fly into Omaha and we will quiz her together! We can then have lunch in the Old Market.; 5/20/19, 10:19 PM
J. Farmer said...: @stephen cooper:

God loves us more than we can imagine.

True or false?

I have never been able to accept this idea. The notion of a creator god who has a personal interest in the lives of human beings is simply not something I can accept. Aside from the problem of suffering, the gods of the sacred texts have always seemed petty and provincial to me. Nonetheless, I think organized religion is a feature of civilization, and I accept its role in that way.; 5/20/19, 10:25 PM
narciso said...: He hands down some simple rules we must abide by.; 5/20/19, 10:30 PM
Francisco D said...: The notion of a creator god who has a personal interest in the lives of human beings is simply not something I can accept.

It is simply a notion that makes people feel better about living in an uncertain world.

Religion makes more sense to me when it is mixed with a modest tolerance for ambiguity.

I suspect that people like Stephen proselytize because it helps them solidify their emotional attachments.

That said, I am a person of faith.; 5/20/19, 10:34 PM
mandrewa said...: J. Farmer said, "Been debating whether to listen to this or not. I'll probably give it a go during a long commute later this week. I kind of feel like Milo and Jordan have each jumped the shark. I forced myself to listen to the Peterson/Zizek conversation, and by the end I wished I had hadn't. Milo's mix of bon vivant and enfant terrible was interesting but gimmicky. Peter's pained, plaintive style reminds me of a lot of old psych professors I know."

I listened to the Peterson/Zizek debate also. I wasn't that impressed with it. Peterson was okay, but I felt like Zizek avoided talking about real things. Zizek was afraid of losing a debate.

What makes the Milo interview impressive was Milo. He was remarkably honest. It was different from the stuff I've seen Milo do before.; 5/20/19, 10:40 PM
Ken B said...: Instapundit has a link to a good article by Chait about how Bernie Sanders wants to destroy the best schools that inner city black kids can attend. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/bernie-wants-to-destroy-the-best-schools-poor-city-kids-have.html; 5/20/19, 10:44 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: if a creator God had a personal interest in human beings, he would empty himself of his deity, and become like one of us-- live and rejoice and suffer like us, but all the while be a perfect example, and would even give his life to prove the extent of his love; 5/20/19, 10:45 PM
Narayanan said...: Asking fans of alternate histories,...

Is it possible to consider Atlas Shrugged as one?
America sitting out in isolation but adopting progressive, while rest of world succumbed to the socialist etc.; 5/20/19, 10:49 PM
stephen cooper said...: I do not proselytize. I merely state the facts.

I merely say what everyone knows, or should know, in their heart,

God loves you more than you can imagine.

You want to talk about ambiguity?, maybe we can talk about the suffering we have undergone, you and me.

But I see that Jesus suffered much more than me, and every moment of suffering I or you suffered was something that Jesus , who loves you more than you can imagine, was not willing for you to suffer, at least not without knowing, in his divine heart, that he had done all he could to make you realize that God does not want you to suffer: that he is wiling to suffer every moment of pain and rejection along with you, if that is what it takes to make you understand the joy of realizing:

God loves you more than you can imagine.

There is nothing ambiguous about that.

(for the record the idea that I have emotional attachments that make me untrustworthy is , objectively, ridiculous - you have no idea how nasty the people I was fated to be be born among were - the idea that I have some juvenile emotional attachment to any of the coldhearted people or organizations who made my childhood a desert in this world is ridiculous. And as an adult, I have my faults, but no, I do not have some misleading emotional attachment that makes me misunderstand the world.

And trust me, whether you think condescendingly about me or not: the basic fact about the world is this: God loves you more than you can imagine.

God loves you more than you can imagine.

you probably know that in your heart but if you don't WAKE UP; 5/20/19, 10:50 PM
stephen cooper said...: ingachuck - I see what you did there

you basically paraphrased those verses in the Bible which explain what Jesus did for us

God loves us all; 5/20/19, 10:53 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: @Begley,

"Kamala Harris Friday AM. Bay, fly into Omaha and we will quiz her together! We can then have lunch in the Old Market."

I've never been to Omaha, but if I get out there, I will definitely ring you up.

I trust you to grill Kammy. Don't ask her about past blow jobs proffered to Willie Brown. That would be unnecessarily coarse. Ask her how black males she sent to jail as a prosecutor, and whether it was more than 14% of her cases. If so, she is a de facto racist.; 5/20/19, 10:54 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "One Of Us"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K1hckf1C3I

matt 25:40; 5/20/19, 11:06 PM
Fen said...: The notion of a creator god who has a personal interest in the lives of human beings is simply not something I can accept.

Fair enough, but it's a failure of imagination. He could have a simultaneous personal interest in every life form, even the ant crawling on your window ledge.

Try to imagine a new color.; 5/20/19, 11:11 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: "how many"; 5/20/19, 11:13 PM
Fen said...: Besides, after 4 decades of the Left proselytizing their religion on late night comedy show, movies and theaters and tv shows and museums comics and football games and 4th of July holidays, Christmas and Thanksgiving and Presidents Day and Black History Month, and pretty much everywhere else you are a captive audience... I find I don't mind the Christians so much.; 5/20/19, 11:16 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "... I don't mind the Christians so much."

they're the 'speed-bump' between you and the advancing wave of __________ .; 5/20/19, 11:21 PM
stephen cooper said...: Fen.

Thanks, I guess.

My best guess is that, offline, I have tried my best to convert a thousand people. Maybe two thousand, it was not easy. Online efforts are what they are: probably not too much, just sitting somewhere, or crouching somewhere, and typing stuff into a computer. I would be embarrassed, on the last day, to even mention the times I tried either to (a) convert people online (b) to shake people up online and make them think they should not be comfortable in this world, if they did not repent of their faithlessness.

Well God bless you Fen.

But please don't think for a second that I don't know that if I were a better friend of God than I am that I could have had my pal God send hundreds of angels to wherever you are to make you understand

GOD LOVES YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE.

But maybe God wants you to understand how much God loves you, on your own.

and yes God loves you more than God loves me, Life is mysterious.; 5/20/19, 11:31 PM
Narayanan said...: Democrats are promising to de-Trumpify America.

Fair question: will Kamala undo prison reform? But offer to allow vote from jail!; 5/20/19, 11:39 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Francisco D:

Religion makes more sense to me when it is mixed with a modest tolerance for ambiguity.

One of the problems I have with religion is the concept of revealed knowledge. The notion that god has a special message for humanity and has chosen to spread this message through specific supernatural interventions in the physical world at specific points in history is an idea I have a very hard time accepting. Christianity was created by a man who never knew, and never claimed to know, Jesus during his life. The creator of Islam claimed to receive his knowledge via an archangel. Given the variety of claims for divine intervention in the world, it seems one is left with believing all of them, believing some but not others, or believing none of them. I've simply chosen the latter.; 5/20/19, 11:55 PM
Quaestor said...: and yes God loves you more than God loves me...

An interesting theology. I'll call it the God is the Prom Queen/Head Cheerleader and You Are the Hopeless Twerp school.; 5/21/19, 12:06 AM
narciso said...: Any rand projected the progressivism she saw in the 30s and fast forwardes to see how the revolution would be carried out by the state; 5/21/19, 12:12 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: I've simply chosen the latter."

but what was the choice based on? Lack of evidence re: a creator god?
You are living in his creation.
Is it, and all of life, an accident? If so, is life pointless?
Are Truth, Love, Justice, Beauty, etc real? Are they real because we imagine them to be real? Is that ultimately pointless, even though regarding them may help socialize us and therefore help "perpetuate the species"? For what or to what ends?
Is it just our imagination? Do we have a 'soul'?

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."; 5/21/19, 12:43 AM
stephen cooper said...: Questor:

actually, it is more like this.

Me and God are pals, and we have spent lots of good times together, and I told God, look, if it makes people happy, feel free to tell them that you like them more than you like me,

And God told me, that is ridiculous, why would I do that?

And I said, look, God, you have no idea how hard it was to be an unloved creature. I was the one who lived that life, not you. There is no way you would have wanted to change places with me. My parents were spergerite losers, my prom date was not very kind, and I wanted to find a good woman and be a good husband to her, and it was, the first time around, hopeless, because I did not know, that first time around, enough to know that I needed a better salary: I thought being a good man was enough, I did not understand the finances. Well, that was long ago, in another world, not this world, where I have dozens of grandchildren and everybody thinks that I was, for my wife, "the love of her life".

So this is what I say to God - and this is not theology , this was just a friend talking to a friend: Sure you made me an ancestor of thousands, but that is not what we are talking about. You, God, have been loved every moment of your existence, and my wife - to - be left me. That never happened to you, God. Sure you gave me thousands of descendants from another wife, who loved me, and I appreciate that, but:

Here is what is important.

God is my friend, and I gave him permission to let everybody know that He loves me less than he loved everyone else he created.

That is not theology, that is just how my life worked out.

If you don't like it, too bad.

I am fine with it.

God loves you more than God loves me.

I know what I could have had, and I know what I never had.; 5/21/19, 12:55 AM
Joan said...: J. Farmer, Paul didn't invent Christianity, and you know that, but you say it anyway because it's quite the bon mot.

Regarding revealed truth, some circuitous route took me to Six Days Science, a fascinating blog by a former atheist astrophysics PhD who became Christian. The linked post is about the revealed truths in the creation story in Genesis. It's a fascinating analysis.; 5/21/19, 1:04 AM
Quaestor said...: Me and God are pals.

I'm truly sorry you spend time composing that lengthy response to my jocularity because I couldn't read past that one.

As pals perhaps you double dated from time to time? God's been going steady with the Virgin Mary for two millennia now (The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Virgin, how did Mel Brooks miss that one?) so who did you date? Since God dates a mortal, wouldn't it be fitting for stephen cooper to take out a goddess? (I can definitely recommend Athene; she puts out for studs like me.)

What other palsey-walsey things did you and the Master of the Universe do? Did He help you install that Holley four-barrel carb, getting all greasy and grimy together like pals are wont to do for each other? I can see it in my mind's eye:

sc: Hey, Jev, pass me that 23-millimeter socket.

Jehovah: Do don't have a 23-millimeter socket.

sc: I don't?

Jehovah: Don't worry. I'll create one for you [ZAP!]

sc: Wow! Keen. Thanks, Jev.

Jehovah: Don't mention it... On second thought, do mention it. A lot. I dig mindless repetitive praise.; 5/21/19, 1:28 AM
Quaestor said...: I know what I could have had, and I know what I never had.

That presents a rather formidable ontological problem, which has been par for the course since stephen cooper contributed his theology this evening.; 5/21/19, 1:35 AM
Crazy World said...: Ingachuck @ 9.24 that dog story is absolutely revolting, I lived eight years in that state and i want to puke at what they have ‘evolved” into.; 5/21/19, 2:29 AM
Big Mike said...: I do not proselytize. I merely state the facts.

Of course you’re proselytizing Either you forgot to look up what the word means or you are lying to yourself.; 5/21/19, 3:02 AM
Original Mike said...: Another cafe hijacked.; 5/21/19, 4:11 AM
Original Mike said...: "Try to imagine a new color"

There aren't any new colors. All frequencies are spoken for.; 5/21/19, 4:19 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: J. Farmer wrote:
The notion that god has a special message for humanity and has chosen to spread this message through specific supernatural interventions in the physical world at specific points in history is an idea I have a very hard time accepting.
The 'God changes natural law to make miracles" belief is one of many. Catholics believe that at every mass the communion wafer and wine becomes the flesh and blood of Christ. Every moment of every day, we are immersed in the supernatural.
Or, to take another tack, if there is free will, then my choosing, or not choosing, to pick up a stone lying on the ground is action in the physical universe with no cause in the physical universe, and that is as much a supernatural occurrence as the Resurrection.; 5/21/19, 5:02 AM
tim in vermont said...: I think the "seeds for the destruction of the West" were planted much longer ago and are much more widespread than merely the entertaining class.

Culture is upstream from politics.

t has been since at least the time of the Wilson administration

The passage was published in 1912. It was a timely warning we didn’t heed.; 5/21/19, 5:18 AM
tim in vermont said...: Trump got elected partly on his promises to protect US industries from competition from China, but all the New York Times can see is ideology and peddling access. Still they wrote this:

The lobbying campaign has, at times, come close to the edge of the federal rules, including the law that prohibits foreigners from donating to election campaigns, an examination by The New York Times found. But it has also proved highly successful in encouraging actions that have benefited Mr. Zekelman’s company’s bottom line and his American employees.

The administration has ruled in favor of Zekelman Industries on a series of claims the company has made against foreign competitors. Sales and profits have surged at the privately held company, which has annual revenues of nearly $3 billion. Employment at the company’s 14 plants in the United States — in Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, Ohio and other states, which operate under names including Wheatland Tube, Sharon Tube and Atlas Tube — has increased by 600, and he hopes to add another 500 jobs this year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/us/politics/hes-one-of-the-biggest-backers-of-trumps-push-to-protect-american-steel-and-hes-canadian.html

This is all bad stuff people! We are supposed to laugh when Americans lose their jobs to dumped foreign steel! The whole article is about an evil plan to support Trump in his efforts to protect American jobs by nefarious America steel producers.; 5/21/19, 5:34 AM
tim in vermont said...: He’s Canadian! That’s almost as bad as Russian! Stay with me people!; 5/21/19, 5:35 AM
stlcdr said...: What’s with Democrats wanting to destroy every physical remnant of history? Tearing down statues, renaming anything Jefferson related?

I listened to Scott Adams podcast and he said that there’s no problem because we can learn about it...from where? History books don’t exist anymore, it’s all digital media in the hands of those who can pick and choose what they want to tell us. Even Scott himself was interviewed (some time ago) by a reporter, and he read the resultant article, which was nothing like the interview, or him!

Should everything historical be destroyed? Is that not a problem? If you can learn about it and recreate it in a virtual reality, there’s no need for a physical presence? In fact, Adams noted that you could in the near future go to where a confederate statue once was and ‘see’ it...if you wanted. That last part is important.

In the digital era we can not only see what we want to see, but can be told what they want to tell us. The Information Age no longer exists.; 5/21/19, 5:44 AM
tim in vermont said...: Scott Adams tries so hard to be counterintuitive on account of he is so darn smart!

What’s with Democrats wanting to destroy every physical remnant of history? Tearing down statues, renaming anything Jefferson related?

The destruction of cultural identity through the replacement of beautiful public art with the buttigig ugly shit we have been seeing is all part of Gramsci’s writings. You know, Gramsci? The Italian communist that Buttwhatever’s dad mad his living translating and teaching in college? Culture is upstream of politics.; 5/21/19, 5:51 AM
Rusty said...: Blogger Original Mike said...
"Try to imagine a new color"

"There aren't any new colors. All frequencies are spoken for."
I think he meant it more like a koan, Fen was being zen-like.; 5/21/19, 5:56 AM
Original Mike said...: "I think he meant it more like a koan,"

Sure, but this one doesn't work. At least not for his purposes.
Just as there is no room for a new color, ....; 5/21/19, 6:20 AM
Humperdink said...: I have to laugh when I read a pro-death political person says Roe is settled law. The attached link summarizes the changes to Roe since 1973.

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/abortion/upload/Summary-of-Roe-v-Wade-and-Other-Key-Abortion-Cases.pdf; 5/21/19, 6:59 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Blogger stlcdr said...

"What’s with Democrats wanting to destroy every physical remnant of history?"

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
― George Orwell; 5/21/19, 7:11 AM
narciso said...: Saul of tarsus was an interesting fellow, like patronus mentioned above he was a cosmopolitan figure knew Greek and Latin, he was a pharisee of the gamaliel school as such he persecuted jesus followers, until the time of his conversion the bible series is the first to depict him, as is the Taylor Caldwell book I've mentioned in the past.; 5/21/19, 7:14 AM
mockturtle said...: Only totalitarian regimes destroy history. Because they must. But without history, how will anyone learn that grave truth? By sad experience? We're starting to find out, aren't we?; 5/21/19, 7:18 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: I'm waiting for the left to discover FDR's real persona.; 5/21/19, 7:21 AM
Rusty said...: Original Mike said...
"I think he meant it more like a koan,"

"Sure, but this one doesn't work. At least not for his purposes.
Just as there is no room for a new color, ...."
Jesus, Mike. You can't hear one hand clapping either. C'mon work with me here.

Anyway. When I read this stuff on the nature of god I have to remind myself that what we know was written by other people. God is infinite.; 5/21/19, 7:23 AM
Browndog said...: Breaking: DC judge Amit Mehta upholds House subpoena for Trump financial records

What I find interesting is the judge refused to grant a stay pending appeal, basically saying "public interest" outweigh any potential damage to the plaintiff.; 5/21/19, 7:32 AM
wildswan said...: All Christians 2.2 billion, Moslems 1.6 billion, and Jews 15 million believe in a God who will hold them responsible for their actions. All Hindus 1.03 billion believe the universe will hold them responsible. All Communists believe in holding people responsible (for not being Communists.)

How did the universe bring into being a group which believes so universally in personal responsibility if personal responsibility is not part of the universe that made them?

Meaning that you care what you do because God (or Karma) cared first.; 5/21/19, 7:33 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Original Mike said...

There aren't any new colors. All frequencies are spoken for.

That would be a fine argument, if the color we perceived simply corresponded to a frequency of light entering our eye. It does not.

If a mix of red and blue light enters our eye, we perceive it as purple, even though no photons with a frequency corresponding to purple have reached our eye. Our brain just maps mixes of colors as best as it can.

Some people are Tetrachromatic. What colors do they see?

Also, if you can't imagine a color that does not correspond to a frequency, then how do you deal with what the rest of us perceive as "brown"?; 5/21/19, 7:39 AM
mockturtle said...: Per narciso's post: Saul of Tarsus [the Apostle Paul] was the first and best theologian.; 5/21/19, 7:42 AM
narciso said...: Paul is proven right again in romans 1, it's rather striking.; 5/21/19, 7:42 AM
daskol said...: Honoring seAson's entry to the race, Bernie rushed to reaffirm his belief that urban black and Hispanic kids must subjugate their interests to those of the teachers unions. It's progressive don't you know; 5/21/19, 7:44 AM
daskol said...: er DeNmark's entry; 5/21/19, 7:45 AM
daskol said...: Oy...deBlasio, My new tablet doesn't want to say his name.; 5/21/19, 7:46 AM
Humperdink said...: "Per narciso's post: Saul of Tarsus [the Apostle Paul] was the first and best theologian."

Agree, as evidenced by writing more than half of the New testament.; 5/21/19, 7:50 AM
Fernandinande said...: Fair enough, but it's a failure of imagination.

Imagination = make up stuff because no evidence.

The primitive superstitions expressed in this thread are pretty creepy and rather disappointing.; 5/21/19, 7:52 AM
JZ said...: My crabapple tree slowly opened its flowers. Then they began to fall and I got a little sad. Except that the shower of petals was as pretty as the earlier view. It's all over now but it was beautiful while it lasted.; 5/21/19, 7:55 AM
narciso said...: Like Voldemort, I call him mayor bane.; 5/21/19, 7:56 AM
narciso said...: Putting some context:

https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/20/was-the-steele-dossier-a-crown-operation/; 5/21/19, 8:01 AM
wildswan said...: JZ said...
My crabapple tree slowly opened its flowers.

The blossoms on the crab apple trees here in Milwaukee near the river are just opening. So that to look forward to; 5/21/19, 8:28 AM
tim in vermont said...: What I find interesting is the judge refused to grant a stay pending appeal, basically saying "public interest" outweigh any potential damage to the plaintiff.

Not political at all.; 5/21/19, 8:31 AM
Big Mike said...: You can't hear one hand clapping either.

Wrong! [Big Mike rapidly slaps his fingertips against the bottom of his palm.]; 5/21/19, 9:44 AM
tim in vermont said...: You can't hear one hand clapping either

Somebody who has never been camping and attacked by mosquitos.; 5/21/19, 10:31 AM
Narr said...: HLM, from memory:

Theology is the explication of the unknowable, in terms of the not worth knowing.

Religion meets the needs perfectly, of those whose needs it meets.

+++++++

I realized I wasn't religious by the age of 16, and that I wasn't even spiritual by the age of 26. Nothing since has suggested to me that I've missed anything.

Narr
Pray for me--it's your time to waste; 5/21/19, 10:48 AM
mockturtle said...: Somebody who has never been camping and attacked by mosquitos.

The battery-operated bug zapper racquet has revolutionized mosquito swatting.; 5/21/19, 10:53 AM
Fen said...: Fair enough, but it's a failure of imagination.

Fernandistein: Imagination = make up stuff because no evidence.

No, someone had to imagine gravity to make up the theory of it. And that was using touchpoints they already could see and touch - an apple falling, ground to catch it.

Now try getting there without the apple, without being able to see, without any concept or awareness of weightlessness. Try to imagine a new color.

You don't understand what I'm even talking about. Which is my point.; 5/21/19, 4:25 PM
Fen said...: The primitive superstitions expressed in this thread are pretty creepy and rather disappointing.

Don't be insulting dear, you are the primitive who can't imagine fire.; 5/21/19, 4:27 PM
Rusty said...: OK. Mike. Now you're just being an asshole.

Ferd. How is Christianity any more a superstition than, say, global warming, or socialism?
The failure of imagination is nihilism.; 5/22/19, 8:24 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Cafe- so presumably most anything goes.

There seems to be something arising from all the stuff being released about Spygate, and, in particular FISAgate rhat seems worrying. I hope that I am wrong, but have seen this too much.

FISA requires that each and every FISA warrant be certified by the #1 or #2 in both the DoJ and FBI. A lot of legal analysts, esp on the right, have been saying for awhile that the people who signed the certified FISA applications for their respective agencies, including Comey, McCade, and Wray for the FBI and Yates and Rosenstein for the DoJ, would be in felony level trouble if it turns out, as seems very likely, that they verified the applications containing information that they knew or should have known was false, or left out exonerating or other material information (which both seemed to have happened). This is the way it works on the crime nail side for district court warrant applications.

Over at CTH last night, I read the article about Sally Moyer’s Congressional testimony transcript. She was an attorney who helped oversee putting FISA applications together. She seemed to say that that wasn’t what “verified” meant in FISAland. Instead, it merely meant that the statements in the application were properly footnoted and if attachments were referenced, they were properly attached. Essentially she seemed to be saying that “verified” didn’t mean to them that the application was accurate, but rather that it was internally consistent. Very similar to what law students learn as Blue Booking, or maybe what used to be copy editing for newspapers. Pointing out the obvious, this essentially would mean that lying in a FISA application could be certified, as long as it was properly footnoted.

I hope like heck that I am wrong there, because if I am not, the rot goes far deeper than most of us suspected. I have little doubt that the requirement for certification by the very top FBI and DoJ people in Title I of FISA was designed to protect the rights of US Persons who are subject to Title I FISA surveillance, and not to protect the bureaucrats submitting it to the FISC ex parte. At a minimum, those US Persons targeted have 4th Amdt rights. Normally, there is no way that FISA subjects even know that they have been surveilled under a FISA warrant (and we really don’t know yet if Carter Page was the only official FISA target in Spygate). The way that Moyer seems to be interpreting the certification doesn’t address or protect 4th Amdt rights at all, but instead turns it into a paperwork requirement.

If this is indeed what was happening, and partially explains the explosion in the number of FISA warrants that the FBI had procured in the last couple years of the Obama Administration, then either the people involved were interpreting it wrong on their own, or they had formal guidance to do so, and in that case, my heavy favorite for having promulgated it would be former DAG Sally Yates, who blew apart FISA protections, with her rule reinterpretations the Title VII FISA protections that allowed contractors to view raw NSA data, and many more people in the White House to see unmasked Title VII searches. Her tweaks here and there, in isolation appear to be benign, but in total, together, blow At least Title VII protections apart. We shouldn’t be surprised if she did the same thing for Title I surveillance. And if that is the case, I think that she would be the one person in the entire Spygate scandal who deserves a firing squad, instead of merely an extended vacation at a federal prison.

I hope that I am wrong.; 5/22/19, 9:13 AM
Rockport Conservative said...: I was reminded of your "MY" posts when I heard an advertisement for a heart medication. The actor, supposed user of said medication, said, "When I had my heart attack."
It reminded me of one reason I don't like to take possession of some things by using my. I've had a number of surgeries starting at age 17. I've also had some pretty big health bumps through the years. I've never wanted to become my disease or take possession of my surgeries by saying, my hysterectomy, my appendicitis, my arthritis or any other thing like that. I say I had a surgery, I have had arthritis, I have had fibromyalgia, and a number of things I could list. But I am not my disease, they are something I have, they don't have me! Therefore they are not mine.
It's got me through to 82, and I plan quite a lot more.; 5/22/19, 8:19 PM