Month: July 2019

 
From Max’s Dad:

Then I went downstairs where Dad, Mom and my brother were gathered. The Moon Landing was on. Shit, really? The Moon Landing paled in comparison to my obvious blatant screw job I’d just endured. Right?

Then it came on TV. Wow! What baseball team? What summer camp?

The Moon Landing in 1969 was such an event as Neil Armstrong said for mankind. I remember Cronkite (my Dad never watched anybody but Uncle Walter and later Dan Rather) taking off his glasses and exclaiming a joy and pride in his nation. So similar a gesture as it was in 1963 when he took off his glasses to fight back tears.

It is one of the childhood memories of being with my family and witnessing history I cherish.

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From Evan Sarzin The Moderate Voice:

Pascal’s Wager popped up most recently in the US Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked bi-partisan measures to provide heightened security for the 2020 presidential election. I’d like to know what he was thinking.

If we protect the electoral process and the Russians and others don’t hack it, we’ve lost nothing more than a little pocket money. On the other hand, if we are hacked and we’ve done nothing, then our electoral process is destroyed. Or, as Pascal might conclude, we’ve gone to Hell in a handbasket. And we would have Mitch McConnell to thank.

But it’s no wager. Pascal had no proof of the existence of God (thank you, Rene Descartes, mais non). His wager is about faith. Election meddling is a fact, Jack.

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From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

Yes, the renaming of schools to other people named Lee in order to save money is a real thing.

In addition to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Bruce Lee, Spike Lee, and Gypsy Rose Lee, how about Stan Lee? I also like the school in Texas who changed the word LEE into an acronym for the Legacy of Educational Excellence.

However, some people are against removing Confederate names, claiming that it is equivalent to changing history. But they have it backwards.

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From nojo:

It always arrives with the force of a hurricane.

Trump provokes. America reacts.

Every time.

Without fail.

It’s happening right now. Trump provoked. Something about Baltimore. But it wasn’t really about Baltimore. It was about the black congressman representing Baltimore. It was about the black people living in Baltimore.

But it wasn’t even about that.

It was about black people.

That was the provocation.

Every time. Black people. Brown people. People from shithole countries. People from shithole cities. People who aren’t white. People who don’t know their place.

Them.

Every time.

And every time, it works.

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From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

We have seen in white Evangelicals and Donald Trump, a level of mercy they were simply incapable of during the previous eight years.

Yes, he said he could grab women by the pussy.
Yes, he said he “moved” on a married woman, “like a bitch.”
Yes, he said that he “tried to f*ck her.”
Yes, he’d been credibly accused by multiple women of sexual assault.
Yes, he’d been an unapologetic serial adulterer.

A Presidential candidate representing the Christian “Families Values” party with this growing resume of immorality. Certainly, this kind of abject ugliness would have been a spiritual disqualifier, for men and women who were morally offended by President Obama in a tan suit? For a people fully outraged at Michelle Obama’s bare upper arms? For believers indignant at the phrase “Happy Holidays” on a coffee cup?

For Christians apparently sickened by the then President’s supposedly brilliantly-hidden Muslim faith?

Surely Trump’s putrid moral malfeasance would be a deal breaker for faithful disciples of Jesus.

Nope.

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From News Corpse:

It has long been said of Donald Trump that he is behaving like a cornered criminal who shoots wildly in all directions out of fear and desperation. That characterization has never been more true than now. With the congressional Mueller hearings concluded, Trump seems to recognize the legal jeopardy he faces. Mueller’s testimony, while not particularly dramatic, did establish that Trump and his associates welcomed and encouraged Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and then lied in order to cover it up (aka obstruction of justice).

Now Trump is lashing out with some of the most nauseating assaults on anyone he perceives to be his enemy – which is not just his political opponents, but at least half of the American people. In a White House press avail on Friday, Trump did what he does best: Whine! Then he focused his attention on his archenemy, President Barack Obama. This was a bizarre rant that could only have been triggered by his personal hatred and racism.

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From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

Shameless Christians, forgetting the Good Book condemns bearing false witness (Romans 13:9), lie about atheists and defame their character.

Why do Evangelicals act this way towards atheists? The short answer is that for Evangelicalism to have value, there must a clear distinction between good and evil; Christian and atheist. Evangelicals present themselves as pillars of moral virtue — that is until they are caught with their pants down, and then they are just like the rest of us, they say — so it necessary for atheists and other non-believers to be portrayed as people lacking morally and ethically. The Christian life is presented as the most awesome experience ever — all praise be to J-E-S-U-S — so it is necessary for atheists and other non-believers to be portrayed as having empty lives lacking meaning, purpose, and direction.

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From PZ Myers:

I agree completely on the importance of church/state separation, and I think it’s important to get religion out of our schools, for instance. But why? Think about the deeper motivations behind atheism.

There are many reasons why people should oppose religion. I oppose it because it’s antithetical to good science, and that religion is used by people to endorse ideas that are contrary to the evidence. I consider that a very good reason.

Another very good reason, though, is that religion is behind many of the most repressive policies in this country.

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