Althouse: At the Late October Cafe...

October 29, 2023

At the Late October Cafe...

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... you can talk all night.

63 comments:

rhhardin said...: The smooth sumac is about as orange as it gets here. Older trees go deep red, newer ones go orange.

Today an hour ago; 10/29/23, 5:01 PM
Joe Smith said...: I’ve been saying it for years, England is on her last legs. The idiots let in millions who hate their way of life. With a disparity in birth rates, it’s only a matter of time before there is an Imam leading opening prayer in Parliament.

We’re doing no better, btw.

Without a mass deportation program in the U.S., this country will change irrevocably, and not for the better…

https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1718285726415036437

https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1718339315904749688; 10/29/23, 5:39 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: YouTube: Kisin on how otherwise sensible people may find themselves defending Hamas… and high crimes and misdemeanors.; 10/29/23, 5:40 PM
Quayle said...: Crack MC writes: Quayle said...

"Some people wake up in the morning and choose to walk out of their door to fight"

Those people are called Wall Street executives and gangsters. Everyone else is called a citizen of the United States, and - in case you haven't noticed - they're not doing well.

Crack, the citizens of the United States that aren’t doing well are the ones that are going out of the door having chosen already, to dispute and fight. The citizens I know that go out of their door, choosing to serve and uplift others are doing well. and I don’t see race as having anything to do with those individual choice is because all races have lots of people making one or the other. And I am writing this from Detroit.; 10/29/23, 6:00 PM
Saint Croix said...: I'm hoping Crack will see this and comment. But I'd like to know what other rationalists on the Althouse blog think, too.

How should we define "cults"?

Is Christianity a cult? Islam? Judaism?

Are all religions cults?

And can there be atheistic cults?

Like a science cult. The New York Times is apparently filled with insane liberals who want to blot out the sun. Would it be fair for me to call people who believe in blotting out the sun "a cult"?

I'm genuinely curious. To me, cults are small and crazy as shit. What do y'all think?; 10/29/23, 6:10 PM
Kai Akker said...: ---We’re doing no better, btw.

Maybe we are doing better. Gallup data show that, for the first time in 50 years, larger families are about to be preferred to smaller. May be about to be preferred; but the graph shows the trend is gathering steam and larger appears ready to cross over smaller as the most preferred.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/511238/americans-preference-larger-families-highest-1971.aspx; 10/29/23, 6:41 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Great compositions and colors!
A bit of Jocularity is in order!

https://youtu.be/SnOQQ_FQGns?t; 10/29/23, 6:53 PM
robother said...: Assuming Wisconsin is going to get this Colorado cold and snow (low of 10 tonight!) in a few more days, this may be your last time to enjoy one of the most beautiful falls. I certainly don't recall a better one here.; 10/29/23, 7:57 PM
Narr said...: I'll go with 'rationalist' for myself, but only for the sake of this discussion. And I take cult at it's broadest definition, not the pejorative one that is listed last in my dictionary.

I think all religions are cults, and believe that there are secular cults as well. That doesn't mean that all religions are equal, or that all secular cults are equal. It just means that the world is full of people with questions that they find answers to in cultic activities.

One statement of the differences between a cult and a religion are 1) a hundred years, and 2) a million followers. There's truth in that, and it's also true that some religions are large and crazy as shit.; 10/29/23, 8:10 PM
Narayanan said...: Without a mass deportation program in the U.S., this country will change irrevocably, and not for the better…
=======
how will that difference from 'a mass deportation pogrom' in the U.S.,; 10/29/23, 8:56 PM
Narayanan said...: surely there is entropy law for politics?; 10/29/23, 8:57 PM
Narayanan said...: Saint Croix said...
I'm hoping Crack will see this and comment. But I'd like to know what other rationalists on the Althouse blog think, too.

How should we define "cults"?
=======
is there etymology link cult >> culture??!!; 10/29/23, 9:01 PM
Narr said...: We've had some cleaning and freshening rain the last few days--still in drought, but it has helped the leaf color some. Not a spectacular fall here, and the next few unusually frigid nights might end the turn early.; 10/29/23, 9:12 PM
Saint Croix said...: A Democrat Congressman from Minnesota, Dean Phillips, has announced he's running for President against Biden. His campaign strategy is to say nice things about Joe and just point out it's time for a "generational change."

Pretty good discussion in The Nation

(garner alert)

Very good discussion at NBC about how all the Democrats in Congress are puzzled. They think he's torpedoed his career.

A moderate Minnesota Democrat, Phillips has been a beloved member of the Democratic Caucus and was seen as a rising star on Capitol Hill.

His personal affability and popularity in the caucus is a big reason why few are willing to talk on the record about Phillips’ quixotic White House bid against the incumbent president. Privately, however, they can’t make any sense of it...

Kudos to Phillips, I genuinely hope he crushes Biden in the primary and sends him out on his ass.; 10/29/23, 9:33 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Saint Croix said...

I'm hoping Crack will see this and comment. But I'd like to know what other rationalists on the Althouse blog think, too.

How should we define "cults"?

One of the reasons it's difficult for me to talk to y'all is because you keep asking me shit that I've been over a billion times, like I haven't been into this shit for so long that OF COURSE I KNOW WHAT A CULT IS. I've been over every aspect of this subject, so many times, that I'm sick of it. Look at the dates on those posts. 2007. That's how long I've been answering people who don't know what it cult is. And they still don't know what a cult is.; 10/29/23, 9:34 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Quayle said...

"Crack, the citizens of the United States that aren’t doing well are the ones that are going out of the door having chosen already, to dispute and fight."

Really? Those are the people who live and die with nothing, clutching their Bibles, after living lives of virtue? Because I've seen a lot of them. Including some of the people who raised me. They picked a fight with no one, did everything right, and got nothing out of it. It's people like you who smear their name and efforts.

"The citizens I know,..."

Are representative of nothing.

"And I am writing this from Detroit."

I rest my case.; 10/29/23, 9:38 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: America After 9/11 | FRONTLINE

In case you Bible thumpers and crystal waivers need a refresher, on how awful the west has been doing, when it comes to military excursions. It's really not been going well - and it's costing us a fortune in lives and treasure - but y'all seem determined to keep doing it. Right or wrong. And no matter how much it hurts.; 10/29/23, 9:48 PM
Roger von Oech said...: A Buckeye victory at Camp Randall Stadium — at night, no less — is ALWAYS very satisfying!; 10/29/23, 10:47 PM
Dave Begley said...: I’m thinking about driving up to Madison for the Husker game in November.; 10/29/23, 10:51 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: X Rasmusen: "I would watch the ballots go by, and there were odd patterns. 7 of those ballots were for Biden, 1 for Trump, 7 for Biden, 1 for Trump, 7 for Biden, 1 for Trump. That clearly doesn't .. that's not statistically possible." (Fake ballots were found); 10/29/23, 10:51 PM
n.n said...: cult (n.)

1610s, "worship, homage" (a sense now obsolete); 1670s, "a particular form or system of worship;" from French culte (17c.), from Latin cultus "care, labor; cultivation, culture; worship, reverence," originally "tended, cultivated," past participle of colere "to till" (see colony).

The word was rare after 17c., but it was revived mid-19c. (sometimes in French form culte) with reference to ancient or primitive systems of religious belief and worship, especially the rites and ceremonies employed in such worship. Extended meaning "devoted attention to a particular person or thing" is from 1829.
- etymonline.com

A universal social construct.

Throw another baby on the barbie and bray (sic).; 10/29/23, 10:57 PM
n.n said...: Human rites, perhaps, performed for social, clinical, criminal, political, and climate progress.

A religion is a behavioral protocol or model. Judge a moral (ethical, legal, etc.) philosophy by its principles, not principals. And beware those who indulge liberal license to conflate logical domains.; 10/29/23, 11:04 PM
Jimmy said...: October 11: Cornell wins HEED Award for its commitment to diversity and inclusion

Oct. 15: Cornell professor calls the Hamas massacre "exhilarating"

Oct. 25: Cornell's campus is covered with graffiti targeted at Jewish students

Oct. 29: Cornell's Jewish students put on lockdown over death threats
The comments on the Cornell blog relating to this included such gems as 'rape all jewish girls, jews are scum, kill all jews.
An american university. As I write this Cornells response is for Jews to shelter in place. Nothing about expelling those responsible.
If you misgender someone, or question covid rules, or say bad things about feminists, you are instantly destroyed.
I'm sure the leftists on this blog are proud of all this. as is the race based bigot who posts his vomit here repeatedly.
All university faculty, admins etc should be on record as being against this. It is just like Germany in the 30'sw
But in the 30's, yale stanford and harvard all turned a blind eye to it, in fact, much of the schools supported it.
when people, like the ones i mentioned above, want to put me in camps for refusing the covid shot, it is a very short way to putting Jews in camps. Again.
I would suggest that all american professors actually take responsibility for this maddness. but then none of them, NONE of them, current or retired, will do anything of the sort.
I would be ashamed to have been a part in the so called teaching profession, but thatdoesn't exist here. unless of course they are against reparations,(bullshit),feminism, or teaching little little kids about sex. then you will have committed a sin against the religion of the university.
but then I suppose cruel neutrality would have worked in the 30s as well as it works now.; 10/29/23, 11:11 PM
Ampersand said...: Tom Wolfe famously defined a cult as a religion without political power. Semantically, the term has connotations of weirdness, extremity, danger, and the surrender of selfhood. It therefore has pejorative heft that is inescapable.
Consider rural snake handlers. Sure does look culty, until you consider all the serpent religions and deities in places like China, Macedon and Athens.
The term "cult" is a tool by which we try to win arguments before they get started.
Now, can any of us think of words that are used to comparable effect in contemporary political discourse?; 10/29/23, 11:57 PM
wildswan said...: Narr said:
"I think all religions are cults,"

Nietzsche thought that the rationalist position of his time left people with no answers to questions that they would need to have answered if they were not to become nihilistic in outlook. He thought that as they realized that (for them) "God is dead" they would become nihilistic because with the realization that 'God is dead" would come the realization that they had to supply the whole program formerly supplied by nature and its creator. And they would realize that whatever they chose to do or not do, did not matter - it was an empty dance through a void and then it was over.
But it could be argued that the rationalist position of his time - and ours for Nietzsche was a secular prophet - was and is based the impossibility of solving the contradictions of idealism, which since Descartes has been seen as only acceptable philosophical starting point. Over time idealism also came to be seen as involved in contradictions and as a result really only capable of proving we know nothing worth knowing.
However, the contradictions of idealism are not present in realism. Realism contains rational proofs for the existence of a God, a founder of nature, and has since the time of Aristotle. All major religions accept the fact there are people in this world who approach religion from a rational angle and all religions claim that they can show a good faith inquirer that there is a rational basis for religion. Religion is more than a proof for the existence of God or, if you will, a founder of nature but it can start there. And I would say that the major difference between a cult and a religion is that a cult makes no provision for the rational inquirer and in fact opposes rational inquiry. It solves questions by demanding blind adherence.

The arguments I refer to were presented for 20th and 21st century readers by Mortimer Adler, by Jacques Maritain and by Etienne Gilson.; 10/30/23, 1:14 AM
gadfly said...: As a point of clarification, I would point out that the latest Clarence Thomas gift fiasco has a few points that need to be addressed. I am referring to a $267M loan that Justice Thomas received from Anthony Welters some 25 years ago. Thomas used the loan to purchase a luxury R.V.

The loan called for interest-only payments and Thomas apparently made these payments for about 10 years. Then Welters sent a note informing Thomas that he had received more interest than the loan principal amount so he now considered the loan fully paid.

Taxable events took place during those 10 years. Welter received interest payments which required him to declare interest income each of the 10 years on his tax return and that gave Thomas interest payments to itemize on the Justice's annual returns. And when Welters said I don't want any more of your money, Welters gave a gift and immediately was required to file a Gift Tax return because donors pay gift taxes.

Now there is the matter of rules that require Justices to list gifts received annually under 5 U.S. Code § 7353, "Gifts to Federal Employees." But there is no penalty when SCOTUS Justices don't abide by this law.; 10/30/23, 1:56 AM
wendybar said...: This man and his son, fund an awful lot of hate and division in this country....

https://nypost.com/2023/10/28/news/soros-funneled-15-m-plus-to-groups-rallying-for-hamas/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=social; 10/30/23, 3:44 AM
gadfly said...: So our grifter ex-president is campaigning in Iowa - Sioux Falls. Somehow the University of Iowa got moved from the smack-dab middle of downtown Sioux City to South Dakota on the way to Wall Drug - just follow the signs. Dementia Don was then compelled to ask how many people from Sioux Falls live in Sioux City or vice-versa.; 10/30/23, 4:10 AM
Political Junkie said...: Photo 2 had me thinking of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.; 10/30/23, 4:12 AM
wendybar said...: "The case against the four officers was rigged from the beginning. As she recently revealed in a deposition for a sexual harassment suit, prosecutor Amy Sweasy spoke with Hennepin County medical examiner Dr. Andrew Baker the day after Floyd’s death.

“I called Dr. Baker early that morning to tell him about the case and to ask him if he would perform the autopsy on Mr. Floyd,” said Sweasy. “He called me later in the day on that Tuesday and he told me that there were no medical findings that showed any injury to the vital structures of Mr. Floyd’s neck. There were no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation.”

"As is well documented, Roger Mitchell, the D.C. medical examiner and a well-connected black political activist, called Baker once he learned about Baker’s finding that Floyd had not been strangled or suffocated. Mitchell threatened to ruin Baker unless he added “neck compression” to his assessment. Baker gave in, and four innocent officers went to prison for a crime they did not commit.""

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/the_rise_of_jacobin_justice.html; 10/30/23, 4:53 AM
gadfly said...: Vox: New House Speaker Mike Johnson faces a long to-do list and a caucus with short patience for compromise. The House will face this new normal with a weak speaker in a scenario that one veteran Republican insider compared to “Lord of the Flies” after the defenestration spree of the past three weeks that led not only to McCarthy’s ouster but to Republicans electing and then rejecting three speaker-designates in turn.

So now on Halloween, we have another nickname for MAGA Mike. The name given the "Lord of the Flies" is Beelzebub. Here he is in the KJV Bible.; 10/30/23, 5:21 AM
effinayright said...: Narayanan said...
Without a mass deportation program in the U.S., this country will change irrevocably, and not for the better…
=======
how will that difference from 'a mass deportation pogrom' in the U.S.,
***************

What bullshit. A mass deportation is a....deportation.

A pogrom is an organized massacre.

See if you can fire up a synapse or two to discern the difference.; 10/30/23, 5:40 AM
wendybar said...: "But there is no penalty when SCOTUS Justices don't abide by this law."

No penalty to Democrat Presidents either gad...Why aren't you bitching about THIS?

https://nypost.com/2023/10/29/opinion/anatomy-of-a-biden-family-coverup-executed-by-our-own-fbi-and-doj/; 10/30/23, 5:51 AM
effinayright said...: Ampersand said:

The term "cult" is a tool by which we try to win arguments before they get started.
Now, can any of us think of words that are used to comparable effect in contemporary political discourse?
********

Sure. Let's start with "right-wing". Or "fascist" applied to conservatives who want limited government and maximum personal freedom.

Or "toxic masculinity" and "testosterone poisoning". (But counter with terms like "raging hormonal imbalances" and suffer the rage of wymyn. ); 10/30/23, 5:52 AM
Breezy said...: Mass migration, illegal or not, appears to have effectively spread anti-semitism throughout the West. Appearing almost by design, Oct 7 triggered a world-wide reveal of the ideological incursion. All the adherents called to action. Anti-semitism exists in the West on its own, of course, but the scale of this unified uprising is frightening.; 10/30/23, 5:58 AM
effinayright said...: gadfly said...
As a point of clarification, I would point out that the latest Clarence Thomas gift fiasco has a few points that need to be addressed. I am referring to a $267M loan that Justice Thomas received from Anthony Welters some 25 years ago. Thomas used the loan to purchase a luxury R.V.
**********

Jeez, for $267 million Thomas could have bought Mar-a-Lago, twice!; 10/30/23, 6:00 AM
Quayle said...: Crack MC writes “ Really? Those are the people who live and die with nothing, clutching their Bibles, after living lives of virtue? Because I've seen a lot of them. Including some of the people who raised me. They picked a fight with no one, did everything right, and got nothing out of it. It's people like you who smear their name and efforts.”

Just tell me crack, how many of these people you refer to, died praising God until the day they died? You know the answer. They didn’t and don’t think they got nothing out of their lives. They all believed they were going to eternal glory with God. And many people I know here in Detroit are some of the most faith-filled people one could meet.

It’s been my personal experience with my own life, and no one else’s, that the mind and spirit of resentment will canker one’s soul; the spirit of gratitude is nourishing and the only way forward.; 10/30/23, 6:06 AM
Big Mike said...: “The fight between Israel and Hamas is between civilization and savagery, between good and evil. There is no comparison between a group that worships death and a group that cherishes life. Every single life lost in this conflict is on the shoulders of Hamas, Hamas alone.”

— former and future President Donald J. Trump

However I disagree with him — the blame belongs to Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah jointly. Other than that, he’s right.; 10/30/23, 6:17 AM
rastajenk said...: Dave Begley said...
I’m thinking about driving up to Madison for the Husker game in November.

That ought to be a good ol'-fashion B1G West slobberknocker, of the 13-to-11 variety.; 10/30/23, 7:08 AM
Fritz said...: "Jeez, for $267 million Thomas could have bought Mar-a-Lago, twice!"

Ten times, using the judge's valuation.; 10/30/23, 7:12 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Quayle said...

"It’s been my personal experience with my own life, and no one else’s,..." which was my point all along. I've seen whole neighborhoods of religious, Salt of the Earth type people get completely overwhelmed by America's love affair with gangsterism and corruption, until the world they lived in was obliterated and completely unrecognizable to them, right before a new wave of ruthless immigrants and illegals replaced their own children in their miseries. And your contribution to it, as a citizen, has been to delude yourself.

Thanks.; 10/30/23, 7:31 AM
Iman said...: It must really suck to live a life wherein one is constantly disappointed in others… one grievance after another.

Just sayin’…; 10/30/23, 8:01 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ampersand said:

'The term "cult" is a tool by which we try to win arguments before they get started.'

Most of you just make statements without providing links, or anything to back up anything you say. I gave you two 6-point, easy-to-understand examples, above, showing how to identify a cult. You just ignored it, so you can keep jabbering on and on about what you "think." Pay attention. A cult has:

1) A Name - examples: Scientology or Yoga.

2) A Founder or Leader - L. Ron Hubbard and Patanjali

3) True believers and followers - Tom Cruise, John Travolta, etc. and too many others to list here.

4) Popular slogan - "We Come Back" and "Mind/Body/Spirit" (further popularized by the Hitler Youth. Himmler had concentration camp guards doing it.)

5) Mystery/Mumbo-Jumbo - Thetans, Xenu, or the idea that "stretching" is exercise and/or has mystical properties.

6) Pecuniary interest: selling "auditing"; and/or yoga "classes" and other bullshit to accommodate it for a fee.

Try it on any belief system. It wipes away all the guesswork. You're welcome.; 10/30/23, 8:02 AM
Iman said...: A messianic complex in an atheist. How unique.; 10/30/23, 8:04 AM
Iman said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/30/23, 8:04 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Breezy said...

"Mass migration, illegal or not, appears to have effectively spread anti-semitism throughout the West. Appearing almost by design, Oct 7 triggered a world-wide reveal of the ideological incursion. All the adherents called to action. Anti-semitism exists in the West on its own, of course, but the scale of this unified uprising is frightening."

These events are too well coordinated to be spontaneous. Where are the protesters getting all the flags and signs? Someone is pumping lots of money into these protests.; 10/30/23, 8:07 AM
Saint Croix said...: I've heard that the film After Death is amazing. Still playing in theaters, I think. It's a documentary about people who died, and then they recovered. They talk about what they saw, what they witnessed.

Based on real near-death experiences, After Death explores the afterlife with the guidance of New York Times bestselling authors, medical experts, scientists, and survivors that shed a light on what awaits us.; 10/30/23, 8:20 AM
Saint Croix said...: Hamas = Satanic death cult

Israel = secular, worldly, moderate state; 10/30/23, 8:41 AM
Old and slow said...: Blogger Saint Croix said...

Hamas = Satanic death cult

Israel = secular, worldly, moderate state

Absolutely accurate, and yet so many people choose to condemn Israel and justify the actions of Hamas. It is more than a little disheartening.; 10/30/23, 9:46 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Saint Croix,

Hamas = Liberation cult w/a death wish

Israel = settler colony overseeing apartheid era concentration camps

Palestinians = Israel's concentration camp captives who Hamas aims to liberate

The fact you guys ALWAYS forget the Palestinians even exist explains why Hamas feels compelled to act.; 10/30/23, 9:49 AM
n.n said...: Another Obama/Biden ethnic Spring... two premature withrawals, hundreds of billions in cash and disputed funds, coups, abortions, rape, diversity, and liberal fiscal policies are first-order forcings of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change.; 10/30/23, 10:00 AM
Narr said...: If there is a rational basis for religion (per Aristotle), does that mean that there is no rational basis for non-religion?

According to his pal Bellow, Allen Bloom always said that he reassured his undergrad students that Nietzsche was wrong, and admitted to his grad students that Nietzsche was right.; 10/30/23, 10:22 AM
Breezy said...: MadTownGuy -

“These events are too well coordinated to be spontaneous. Where are the protesters getting all the flags and signs? Someone is pumping lots of money into these protests.”

I completely agree…. Who are the people allowing all this migration, encouraging it, even, over the last 15 years? Look to WEF, climate change fearmongers, Soros, etc. Obama? Why feed Iran with $$? There’s been an indefatigable energy to cause chaos and disruption of relatively settled societies. From Europe to the Nordics to Australia to North America…. High debt, illegal immigration, crime, homelessness. Poor energy policies. Poor agriculture/food production policies. Increase in no-go zones. It’s such a mess. Anti-semitism is just one thread…. What is the end game?; 10/30/23, 10:34 AM
Joe Smith said...: 'how will that difference from 'a mass deportation pogrom' in the U.S.,'

Congratulations...dumbest comment I've read online today.

'Illegal' was implied in my comments.

If you don't understand how deporting criminals is different than murder, then God have mercy on you...; 10/30/23, 11:06 AM
Joe Smith said...: 'The loan called for interest-only payments and Thomas apparently made these payments for about 10 years. Then Welters sent a note informing Thomas that he had received more interest than the loan principal amount so he now considered the loan fully paid.'

Really?

Does anybody want to tell him?; 10/30/23, 11:09 AM
Quayle said...: Crack MC wrote: "It’s been my personal experience with my own life, and no one else’s,..." which was my point all along. I've seen whole neighborhoods of religious, Salt of the Earth type people get completely overwhelmed by America's love affair with gangsterism and corruption, until the world they lived in was obliterated and completely unrecognizable to them, right before a new wave of ruthless immigrants and illegals replaced their own children in their miseries. And your contribution to it, as a citizen, has been to delude yourself."

You and I would probably not disagree on the wrongfulness of the above. But the question is how to remedy the suffering and oppression. I would suggest that conflict and political solutions will never work. Only the approach advocated and demonstrated by Christ will work. The dynamics of his day and time were not so different. His answer was that "the kingdom of God is within you." and "Render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's and unto God that which is Gods."; 10/30/23, 11:31 AM
gadfly said...: Ford assured investors last week that its generous deal with the United Auto Workers wouldn’t threaten its profitability. Maybe. The same can’t be said of its electric vehicles, which lost $3.1 billion during the first nine months of this year.

How long before automakers start begging for bailouts as they struggle to sell government-mandated EVs?

For now, automakers are simply pumping the brakes on their electric vehicle investments. Tesla recently paused plans for a new factory in Mexico. General Motors CEO Mary Barra last week scrapped the company’s electric vehicle production goals, citing flagging demand.

Honda on Oct. 25 scuttled plans to manufacture low-cost electric vehicles with GM. EVs are “a pretty brutal space,” Mercedes CFO Harald Wilhelm said the next day. “I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody.”

Ford joined the pileup and postponed $12 billion in planned electric-vehicle investment, stating that buyers weren’t willing to pay a premium over gasoline cars—even with a $7,500 federal tax credit and hefty state subsidies. “The customer is going to decide what the volumes are,” Ford CFO John Lawler said. Has the company checked with its regulators about that?; 10/30/23, 11:58 AM
Narr said...: If there is a rational basis for religious belief, does that mean there is a rational basis for belief in Zeus? In Allah as the Muhammedans present him?; 10/30/23, 12:33 PM
MadTownGuy said...: The Crack Emcee said...

[Ampersand said:

'The term "cult" is a tool by which we try to win arguments before they get started.']

"Most of you just make statements without providing links, or anything to back up anything you say. I gave you two 6-point, easy-to-understand examples, above, showing how to identify a cult. You just ignored it, so you can keep jabbering on and on about what you "think." Pay attention. A cult has:

1) A Name - examples: Scientology or Yoga.

2) A Founder or Leader - L. Ron Hubbard and Patanjali

3) True believers and followers - Tom Cruise, John Travolta, etc. and too many others to list here.

4) Popular slogan - "We Come Back" and "Mind/Body/Spirit" (further popularized by the Hitler Youth. Himmler had concentration camp guards doing it.)

5) Mystery/Mumbo-Jumbo - Thetans, Xenu, or the idea that "stretching" is exercise and/or has mystical properties.

6) Pecuniary interest: selling "auditing"; and/or yoga "classes" and other bullshit to accommodate it for a fee.

Try it on any belief system. It wipes away all the guesswork. You're welcome."

You missed one key identifier, and I'm surprised. Mind control, or authoritarianism. both terms apply as forms of coercion, sometimes subtle, other times (as in Scientology), more extreme. You wanted a link, so here's one:

Dr. Steven Hassan, America’s Leading Cult Expert

Here's a summary:

"
Destructive mind control can be understood in terms of four basic components, which form the acronym BITE:

Behavior Control
Information Control
Thought Control
Emotional Control
It is important to understand that destructive mind control can be determined when the overall effect of these four components promotes dependency and obedience to some leader or cause.

It is not necessary for every single item on the list to be present. Mind controlled cult members can live in their own apartments, have nine-to-five jobs, be married with children, and still be unable to think for themselves and act independently. –

Source: [An older version of] Mind Control – The BITE Model, Steve Hassan, Freedom of Mind"; 10/30/23, 2:19 PM
MadTownGuy said...: Breezy said:

"...It’s such a mess. Anti-semitism is just one thread…. What is the end game?"

Gazans, asylum seekers, people seeking a better life, along with the bad actors - terrorists, criminals - they're all pawns in the game, the object being uniparty oppressive rule. Once the objective is achieved, they will all be expendable, along with anyone else who won't get with the program. And even those who do will forever be looking over their shoulder, unsure of their place in the new regime.; 10/30/23, 2:27 PM
gadfly said...: effinayright said...
gadfly said...
As a point of clarification, I would point out that the latest Clarence Thomas gift fiasco has a few points that need to be addressed. I am referring to a $267M loan that Justice Thomas received from Anthony Welters some 25 years ago. Thomas used the loan to purchase a luxury R.V.
**********

Jeez, for $267 million Thomas could have bought Mar-a-Lago, twice!

Sorry, $267,000. But Mar-a-Lago is not worth $1.5 billion - no matter what TFG claims. Palm Beach County says its value is less than $20 million for the real estate.; 10/30/23, 2:32 PM
Saint Croix said...: Crack, I appreciate your response at 8:02. Thanks!; 10/30/23, 3:12 PM
Narr said...: Remember how POTUS DJT tried to move a recon company from one desert base to another? Remember how it was sure to spark a genocide against Our Oldest Allies (Before Ukraine Even) The Kurds, if not WWIII itself?

Such innocent times.

I agree with Saint Croix that Islam is a religion (cult, if you will) with many sincere adherents, not all of whom are wankers.; 10/30/23, 6:41 PM