Burr Deming

Violent Video Games, Trump Thumb, El Paso Baby, Shootings and God

Infidel753 has never been much for gun control, but he is incredulous at some of the things conservatives blame for multiple mass murders. Video games? Really?
There has got to be a great beating emptiness right where the man’s heart should be. Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged brings the photo: my President and his First Lady holding the little baby, both parents of the infant having just been murdered in the El Paso massacre, a real tragedy. The photo shows Mrs. Trump smiling, while my President beams broadly while giving a joyful thumbs up. Vixen calls it ghoulish. Good word for it.
Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass reacts to multiple shootings with a certain skepticism about religious faith. In the face of horrible suffering, tragic injustice, I can’t say as I blame him. Don’t know as I’m ready to join him. I will say that, to honest believers, evil in the world is one of the two most critical moral difficulties we face.
North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz takes another look at conservative tribal Christianity, and suggests a missing ingredient. Jesus is nowhere to be found.

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Our President At El Paso Hospital

Consoling victims and families by boasting about crowd size and attacking former Texas Congressional Representative Beto O’Rourke.

He can’t help himself.

My Life: Internet Conversation About Making a Phone Call via Skype

[‎8/‎7/‎2019 11:54 AM]

Me:
I figured it out. What a pain. I have to punch the phone icon on the Jabra headset before making the call. Then I have to quickly move the Sound setting up on the volume mix on my PC. Then I have to find out the client isn’t at her desk after all that.

So I have to throw my shoe across the room, but I haven’t put my shoes on because I’m working from home so I have to throw a sock instead. NOTHING is going right.

[‎8/‎7/‎2019 11:57 AM]

Co-Worker:
omg! I’m glad you’re so smart and figured it out!

[‎8/‎7/‎2019 12:05 PM]

Me:
Yeah, it’s true. I am special. Now I’m trying to find my damn sock.

[‎8/‎7/‎2019 12:08 PM]

Co-Worker:
It couldn’t of gone far…

[‎8/‎7/‎2019 12:10 PM]

Me:
I’ll call information. The operator should know.

[‎8/‎7/‎2019 12:13 PM]

Me:
Okay that worked. She said it was behind the sofa. So I have it now.

Trump as Rock Idol

My dad thought teenagers were just putting a finger in the eye of grownups.
I thought it was all about the music.

Half a century later the debate about the same kids has a ring to it.

I was just a kid. Beatles were bugs. I had heard the new yeah-yeah song a few times. It was different because it had a hard drum beat at the beginning. Kids like me liked it.

I especially knew one line, mostly because some British politician wanted to show he was cool and had his speech writers write out a line for him from the song. He tried to say it. Instead, he showed he didn’t understand anything. The Beatles sang “She said she loves you and you know that can’t be bad.” He said “The country loves us and you know that can’t be, uh, uh, too bad.”

“Too” did him in.

When the Beatles became something more than a bug, when they held concerts with audiences of screaming teenagers, after we learned the name and the music and the popularity, my dad had a theory:
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Baltimore, Racial Repubs, Mueller, Impeach, 2020, Restore US, Boris

Okay, my President attacks another African American Representative, House Oversight Chair, Elijah Cummings. At Mock Paper Scissors tengrain notes the greatest irony about the Trump tirade.
Andy Borowitz finds a government subsidized structure near Baltimore infested with criminals and rats.
Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit recalls a pithy comment that might apply to Republicans who remain party members for reasons other than race-based hatred.
Dave Dubya relates a key segment, without commentary, of Mueller’s appearance before Congress, letting that testimony speak for itself.
Jonathan Bernstein makes a better case than have I. Impeachment would be a horrible move that would significantly enhance the chances of Trump triumph in 2020. But continuous talk about impeachment and the crimes that would justify it provide a useful backdrop. The impeachment dispute in the House is vitally useful, especially if it never comes to fruition.

Continue reading “Baltimore, Racial Repubs, Mueller, Impeach, 2020, Restore US, Boris”

What Should Atheists Support?

found online by Raymond

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.

– More –

Mueller Theatre, Trump Out-Foxed, Immigrants, Trump Jesus, Bernie

Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged offers a realistic lament, that folks like … well … like me, I suppose, were too optimistic about Mueller’s putting a face and a voice to the Mueller Report. The media world has changed with technology. Everyone seems to be a theatre critic, losing the overarching view, focusing on the superficial.
Okay, we do not consider Fox News as a dispassionate provider of factual truth. Scotties Toy Box presents a category by category contrast of coverage between two First ladies that is startling even to someone expecting it (which is to say me).
News Corpse reports as my President gets angry, again, at Fox News because of “Fox Polls, which have always been terrible to me.” Perhaps this is not a marriage made in heaven after all? Nope. We dare not hope for so much.
Iron Knee at Political Irony points out how hating immigrants is economically self-destructive, AND that this administration wants to end, not just illegal immigration, but all immigration. Actually, there is one large group of immigrants that my President is on record as wanting to encourage, having them skip to the head of any line, going past any legal requirements. Care to guess who?

Continue reading “Mueller Theatre, Trump Out-Foxed, Immigrants, Trump Jesus, Bernie”

Refugees and Sanctuary – Sofi’s Choice

One tragic aspect within a tragic era within the history of a great country is now being tragically repeated.

And it is deliberate.

It was 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes had just become President. He did not get the most votes. He made deals with corrupt politicians. He got a special committee to award him electoral votes that should have gone to his opponent.

Part of the deal was to end federal protection for newly freed slaves.
Lynching resumed right after.

The June Issue of the Atlantic Monthly that year contained an article by an author identified only as A South Carolinian.

My principles now lead me to abhor slavery and rejoice at its abolition. Yet sometimes, in the midst of the heat and toil of the struggle for existence, the thought involuntarily steals over me that we have seen better days.

The article chronicled a few enthusiasms of the newly freed slaves, including an apparent passion for travel.

They are literally crazy about traveling.

The author thought it was, well, kind of cute.
Continue reading “Refugees and Sanctuary – Sofi’s Choice”

Trump Racism, Resolution, Omer, Caged Kids, Dumb on Refugees

Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has two direct questions about my President’s demands that four women from Congress love-it-or-leave-it and go-back-to-Africa. I do recall hearing both chants in my youth, just not from a President.
Jonathan Bernstein goes to history, demonstrating that racism is a Trump pattern, something I have recently pointed out.
At jobsanger, Ted McLaughlin reads the papers, including North Carolina’s largest, the Raleigh News & Observer, as they scorch Republicans who tolerate Trump racism.
Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged is glad about one practical effect of the largely symbolic Congressional condemnation of President Trump’s racist attack on the four Representatives who committed opposition to him. It put 187 Republicans on record as comfortable with racism.
tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors tick-tocks a few notable moments leading up to the House Resolution condemning Presidential racism.

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Trump News, Tweets, Todd, UK Amb, ConservAdvice, Profitable Cages

Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged points out TrumpTweets that are so expansively sinister they could have been mistaken for parody.
At Scotties Toy Box we are given an understandable reaction to Trump proclamations.
Jon Perr at PERRspectives senses a bit of hypocrisy as Chuck Todd criticizes Fox competitors for enabling Trump falsehoods, then holds an interview with my President during which his bold stance disintegrates into a wet puddle. I confess to regarding the uber-honored Mr. Todd as a perveyor of endless Twerpism.
Andy Borowitz reports on how the British ambassador was able to conceal his contempt for my President for so long, by writing his messages in English.

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