True believers, and it isn’t limited to Christianity, tend to live in a bubble where their beliefs and delusions are constantly reinforced. They become convinced the only way anyone could object to their message is if they hate God and are under the influence of Satan. They see their religion as the solution to all of humanity’s problems, while ignoring the countless horrors perpetrated by religious people in the name of their religion. They do all this while never putting forward a shred of objective evidence to support their claims.
It is really important, really really important, that these bubble people go and travel elsewhere and meet other people. They need to learn, really need to learn that what they consider 'normal' might be very very strange to other people. They need to learn that other people's 'normal' is not wrong, it's just different.
This is what you get when people have absolutely zero critical thinking skills. So, I’m glad I’m 860 miles away from this idiocy. And it is going to be cooler in SW GA tomorrow than in DC.
Oh yeah. And I remember how we stayed away from the world, unless necessary. Of course, some people interpreted that to mean when we came together, while being really worldly. The funny thing is worldly people are more open-minded.
That song gave me the best example of serendipity in my lifetime. I was driving home westbound going up a steep hill. It had been cloudy, but just as I reached the steepest part the sun came out and I literally could not see anything. And at that EXACT moment, "Blinded by the Light" came on the radio.
There are plenty of churches/cults who have booths at the Iowa State Fair. One has a diorama that includes an ark, dinosaurs, and people all hanging out together. They're silly.
True there are many silly things going on at the ISF, one can not spend all their time in the hog pavilion. But the funniest things I remember is all the politicians wandering around eating corn dogs and acting as this is the best part of their lives while hoping to escape as quickly as possible.
He said it after SCOTUS decided it, IIRC. The hilarious part was that the voter obviously thought it was a terrible idea and Romney was oblivious to that. In general, a midwestern state fair is not the kind of place to be enthusiastic about large corporations, most of which are likely to be perceived by midwesterners as generally hostile to “heartland” values. I say that having grown up in said “heartland”.
But he was a fundamentally decent person; your country would be better off with a few more Mitt Romneys in the senate and fewer Tubervilles .... it looks as you're going to get rid of Ms Collins and you dodged that twat Herschel Walker ...
The Collins race polling is currently in the margin of error. The Dems need to get her speaking in public. She has a serious voice tremor and generally looks her age. Bidenesque, one might say.
Same thing is said of Indiana, though there are deep blue dots across the state (Northwest Indiana, South Bend, Fort Wayne (kinda, sorta), Lafayette/West Lafayette, Indianapolis, Bloomington, the cities around Louisville. I live in an ultra-blue section of Indianapolis, which is likely to be my "forever home".
Even Evansville and Carmel have become MUCH less red.
I'm an older gay person in a liberal religious tradition, and I get almost none of the flack I used to get in Texas *simply because I exist*.
I remember when I was sitting at a table at a barbecue restaurant in Gruene, Texas, eating brisket, when a bunch of Missouri Synod Lutherans came in and demanded that I give the table to them. I realized they were Missouri Synod Lutherans by the three superimposed crosses which is their logo. I was wearing an ELCA rainbow shirt, and I refused to leave. The Missouri Synod Lutherans caused a major scene, stating that I was a "sexual sinner" and 1 Corinthians 5 stated they could not eat at a table where a "sexual sinner" was sitting, and they demanded that the manager evict me. The manager evicted THEM, told them they were unwelcome in his restaurant, and never to come back again. The rest of the people in the restaurant clapped when the Missouri Synod people left, and the manager comp'ed my meal. To say "thank you", I gave the waiter a 100 percent tip.
As a general rule, Missouri Synod Lutherans do not recognize the ELCA (my denomination), the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church or the Presbyterian Church in the USA as being in any way "Christian". The view of the LCMS is that we're "heterodox", "apostate" HEEEEEEEEEEEathen. (Atheists and non-Christians are not regarded as being properly human beings worth any dignity.)
I think the LCMS have gigantic sticks wedged up their asses.
Whenever I have been accosted by one of these believers and they ask me if I know "God loves me", I always say "really? Which God would that be?" It always stops them in their tracks with a slight laugh, then I tell them to go peddle their man made BS somewhere else. At 72 I am simply tired of being polite or nice to these people.
I'm polite only up to a certain point. I will politely tell them that I'm not interested and if they keep pushing I WILL get rude and end the conversation with a "You can fuck off now."
I've had a few run-ins with Jehovah Witnesses which were somewhat interesting. Mostly, I kept my cool, but I never backed down, and in one case, one of my visitors encouraged his partner to leave.
He may have determined that they weren't going to score any points on me! 😁
The other day I was weeding my front garden when a door to door salesman tried to get my attention. He said he was in the area to do roof evaluations after the storm from 6-10. I responded politely enough that I wasn’t interested. Then he asked why I was hesitant (I wasn’t hesitant, I was certain I was not interested). I decided that my polite dismissal and the fact that I hadn’t stopped weeding The Who,e time he was talking wasn’t clear enough so I asked to see his permit for soliciting in the village. He was stumped. He asked if that was a real thing, well he asked “what if it’s not a thing?” I assured him it was. But he asked again, and again I confirmed it was real. (Had I been really on top of it I would have said that I had already given my answer, so not needing a permit wouldn’t change anything.) I might just start with that as soon as I am sure they aren’t from a non-profit seeking donations. I’m a little fed up with the vultures roaming our streets trying to get me to buy shit I don’t need or want.
I would follow that one up with: "Can you demonstrate OBJECTIVELY that your god exists? None of this 'look at the sky or the animals or what the bible says' BS, but hard, testable, verifiable EVIDENCE."
I don't think they'd like that very much ... but then, that IS the idea!
The amount of confidently incorrect people never ceases to amaze me.
> “This country was based on faith, and we believe God has his hand on this nation,” Jacyln Stursman, 46, a tax accountant from Iowa, said as a Mennonite vocal group performed behind her on a huge stage.
> “In the Constitution it says ‘under God,’” her daughter Abigail, 20, who is studying to become a teacher, said — incorrectly. The Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase “under God.” The Constitution’s text makes no mention of a deity.
She probably heard this from her pastor or a Tik Tok video and believes if she repeats it enough it'll be true. If you pointed out she was wrong, she'd just move the goalposts. Remember folks, these people vote, have kids and are active in their communities. We need to do the same. They have gotten way too comfortable being stupid in public.
Christian college to be a teacher most likely. I have had experience with so-called teachers and they were hired primarily because they were "working on" their degrees(were not licensed) but could teach in a Christian school(cheap)but had "zeal for christ."
Consider yourself lucky if you managed to avoid public school in the deep south.
That was most of my experience, and I could write a book on what I learned wrong, or not at all.
(The south still claims that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery, and I only learned of the Cornerstone Speech of the Confederacy on my own, decades after leaving school.)
I asked a relative that once. I could tell she knew the answer but didn't want to say it. Instead, she asked me if I was a democrat. I said no, they are too far to the right for me. We never talked politics again.
“States rights” has consistently functioned as a dog whistle for racial segregation, discrimination, and opposing civil rights. That’s why when they came out after Roe with “states rights” I knew it would be bad.
Ah yes, nothing like teaching your kids that the North just invaded the South for no apparent reason whatsoever. Never minding the fact that the South attacked FIRST.
I actually went to school in both places, and the fact they call it war of Northern Aggression even though they fired on Fort Sumter first and claim it's about States Rights when the Cornerstone Speech exists goes to show that these people are just bad faith, they like social hierarchies and they don't care about facts.
The "War of Northern Aggression" reminds me of the 'Antifascistic Protection Barrier' and the 'Democratic Republic of North Korea' - the first you might know under its other name as the 'Berlin Wall' and the second is a republic but definitely not democratic!
Sadly, I cannot deny the fact that Stupid Idiot Dump have spoiled and ruined this once in a lifetime holiday for everyone to where there is nothing worth celebrating anything at all-- unless Stupid Idiot dies either today or tomorrow or the next day.
I’m not much on big crowds so I likely would not have gone to the Mall even if the events were interesting to me. And even if the weather was tolerable. Trump hasn’t so much ruined this holiday as he has the last decade and likely the rest of my life even if dies tomorrow. This holiday is just the most recent casualty.
I have been keenly watching the utter failure of Chump's attempts to turn the country's 250th into yet another I-love-me rally with what is probably an unhealthy amount of glee. Nothing gets under an authoritarian's skin like public humiliation, and it's hard to imagine anything more humiliating to that odious man's overinflated ego than the grand spectacle of that giant, empty lawn on the National Mall- juxtaposed with the halfassed job he did on the Reflecting Pool, the short, victorious war that has proven oh-so-predictably to be neither of those things, and... well, frankly everything else he touches, of late.
He's losing his teeming multitudes of morons. They aren't showing up for him anymore. He demands the bigliest, the shiniest, and mostest, and all he's getting for what should have been his bigliest, shiniest day ever... is a chorus of crickets. I'm not fool enough to believe the cult is going to outright turn on him, but they aren't 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 to him, either. Not most of them, anyway. I guess a solid decade of the same old song and dance on a loop was too much even for them. He's becoming the worst thing a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur can possibly become: 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴.
I read somewhere that the Pentagon did a study on invading Iran in the early part of this century, one of their conclusions was that it would require 2 million boots on the ground to be successful. And yet der kinder führer and kegsbreath did it anyway.
“Has anyone told you that God loves you and that he has a plan for your life?”
Of course someone has, many times over the course of my life, and they were never invited to. Have you ever met anyone who has not heard about god or Jesus? Be honest. You haven’t, and anyone who hasn’t heard your brand of Christianity just hasn’t gotten into fights over quibbles.
Besides, I might not want gods plan for my life, most of the time it’s a horrible plan filled with pain, suffering and plenty of hate. Why does that sound appealing to you? I can make better plans than anything god has ever setup for someone. Even the wealthy elites get shit on by god in your book of nonsense.
Anyone see the baptismal dunk tank on the lawn? The only way they're going to get people inside that thing is to hope those folks are deperate to escape the heat.
At least the Reflecting Pool, thanks to Dear Leader's tender ministrations, was in too sorry a state to be co-opted for the purpose- and you 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 they would have, the tacky bastards.
Washington (State) is north, too. Pacific Northwest. If I travelled in a straight line from Seattle to Minnnesota (Upper Midwest), I’d land in St. Paul. A straight-line flight path from Sea-Tac International Airport to MSP (Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
Reading the exchange again, I was thinking that maybe I should add a comment about distance: Our two main cities are Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow is in the West, not quite at the coast, but not that far removed. Edinburgh is our capital, it's in the east, again not quite on the coast, but not that far removed. If you wanted to drive from one city to the other, it would take you about an hour. And if you wanted to drive from the coast in Leith to the coast in Greenock, I reckon you could do it in two hours, especially if you were doing it now rather at a time when loads of people are trying to get to or from work.
I've been to the east coast and the west coast, eg Oban and Greenock and Irvine on the west coast and St Andrews, Berwick, and Dundee on the east coast ...
Missionaries converging on DC when the most corrupt powermongers in DC are Christians. All committing idolatry by worshipping a man who thinks he IS God.
Last night, I went to the fireworks display in my hometown, just because it was the 250th year, even though it had been hot as hell all day long.
About 50 or so years ago, when I was growing up here, firework displays were held at the rec park, where people gathered with blankets and picnics and kids played on the swings and merry-go-rounds until dark. People weren't supposed to bring beer or alcohol, but if they were discreet, didn't cause any trouble, and didn't set up near the children's play area, nobody said anything. Some people even got there early enough to have tailgate parties on the backs of their trucks parked along the road, even bringing grills and grilling hot dogs.
It was easy walking distance from our house (great because we didn't have to worry about parking and fighting traffic when it was time to leave) and my family, along with whatever aunts uncles and cousins we had visiting for the holiday, would walk there about half an hour before sunset with our blankets, towels, and Deep Woods Off, pick spot on the grass and listen to a mix of country and patriotic music playing on the speakers. Just before the show started, the speakers went quiet for a few seconds, then the Star Spangled Banner would play. Everyone who was able to, would stand and sing along, and then the show would begin.
It was a decent, enjoyable 40-minute show for such a small town, because a local business would do fundraising all year just to pay for the fireworks, which back then ran about $25K - $30K. If there were any gaps left in the amount needed to buy the materials and hire the pros when the time came, they would make up the difference. They also brought boxes of paper fans with the company logo to the event and distributed these free of charge to people, and since it was usually a hot, humid evening, these were appreciated.
I mention this as a contrast to last night. The venue was now the local high school football stadium, entry was still free, but you couldn't bring your own food or beverage. The outer perimeter of the fence was lined with food truck vendors offering $8 hot dogs and $6 sno cones. There were law enforcement vehicles everywhere, and at least two ambulances. There were high-tech, portable light towers all over the place and everyone had to wait in line to get in because each person had to be wanded with a metal detector. Women who carried purses had to allow them to be searched. All I had was a set of car keys in one hand, so I got in quickly, but it still irked me.
Of course the parking lot was full of big-assed trucks with big-assed US flags. I expected that. There was also a whole slew of TRUMP USA flags. I wasn't surprised at that either, I was just hoping I wouldn't see any. I saw a lot of Trump tee shirts, including one I hadn't seen before - "GOD, GUTS, AND TRUMP" (Seriously, dude?). At one point, as required by law, Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" boomed through the speakers, rattling plate glass windows in half a dozen adjacent zip codes. There was a stage for live music performances, mostly religious groups and some local pop-rock or country wannabes. There were drones flying around with red, white, and blue lights, and people clapped like they didn't know these were surveillance tools.
The crowd as this event dwarfed the crowd from 40-50 years ago, even though the town's actual population had decreased slightly. Everything that could possibly be monetized, was monetized outrageously. The show leading up to the fireworks display was dripping with religious overtones.
But the fireworks display was amazing, comparable to anything I've ever seen in Atlanta or Minneapolis, with patriotic music playing in the background. I tried to imagine how much it must have cost, but I have no idea. I'm sure that even allowing for inflation, it would dwarf the cost of 40 or 50 years ago. I also have no idea how this was funded.
I thought about the last time the US had such a big milestone - the Bicentennial. Remember what a big deal it was? Remember the Bicentennial Minutes? People seemed a lot more excited and a lot more optimistic back then. Sure, we were only a few years past Watergate, but Jimmy Carter had just been elected and it seemed we were on the right path toward a better future.
This time we have an evil, vile orange troll squatting in a half demolished WH, with his obscenely rich troll buddies hollowing out the economy, shitting all over the Constitution while their brain dead base cheers. We may be through as a democracy -- I don't know yet, I hope I'm wrong, but even if I am, I won't live long enough to see it return to anything functional again.
Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer. Just the way I'm feeling at the moment.
It really isn't just you. I've been sort of feeling the same way myself. I think a good chunk of my personal feelings are the current MAGA folks and their behavior, personally, but the rampant monetization of most of the celebrations annoys me as well. I swear, one day they're going to try and charge us for breathing.
I was about a year away from entering Jr High when the Bicentennial happened. Our town had festivals, re-enactors, artists. Every week of the school year artists came to our schools to show us how to colonial era goods were made. We had native peoples come to talk to us. It was something I will not forget. This year is depressing at best.
For the looks and sounds of things, there will be more preachers and evangelists than ordinary attendees to Trump "Great American State Fair." Figures, too – for a lot of people, the blush is off the rose as it comes to Trump and his would-be massive rallies. It's been a while coming, but even some MAGAs are being turned off by Trump's utter failure to actually GOVERN or to deliver on the promises he made on the campaign trail. The fact that he couldn't get any A-list entertainment to perform at his little soiree doesn't help matters, either.
So what are all those bible-thumpers going to DO? Convert each other? [shrug] THAT might be fun to watch ... for about five minutes! 😝
It would be entertaining if there are missionaries who think each other’s flavor of Christianity is wrong. Pre-tribulation rapture versus post-tribulation rapture. Go on! Convert one another!
"𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘳 250𝘵𝘩" Chumpy boasted online... yeah, sure. You'll let a little rain stop you from paying respect to fallen soldiers, but you won't let it stop you from singing your own praises in front of an audience of... wet grass and crickets. That tracks.
I think Hemant more or less took all of this nonsense apart, and with only minimal sarcasm, but there’s so much to say.
I tend to look at a lot of things as sociologist. One of the basic tenets of organizational sociology is that bureaucracies don’t necessarily exist to serve the organization. Eventually, bureaucracies exist to serve the bureaucracy, to expand it, to protect it.
So they fill out a little card saying how many people they expect to reach out to. I suspect that’s easier than actually reaching out to them. They’ve got an app that shows where everybody is and was that has been reached out to. More busy work. I mean there’s an app for everything. It’s amazing how many of them are poorly designed and don’t work very well. But at least it gives you the appearance of doing something. In that way, it’s all a little bit like prayer, which is what you do when you don’t want to do anything at all, but you don’t want anyone to notice .
And they want to rise above partisan politics? Miss Abigail is already a Nationalist Christian. But she’s so ignorant that she doesn’t actually know it. And you know what party nationalist Christians belong to? It’s not the Nat-C party.
It’s the Republican Party! I know! Who could have seen that one coming?
So the phenomenon is pretty obvious. The Nat-C’s think they’re doing something, but they’re not. It’s all a show, but the marks are the people participating in the show. The marks of the marks are not the real marks.
IT’s all very Marksist.
Hemant clearly gets it. “ these evangelists think visitors to the Massive Trump Rally can set aside politics when the very place they’re all at is an extension of our current broken Republican-run system.”
And at the end of the event they can all get together and compare notes and slap each other on the backs and congratulate each other about how many souls they "saved".
True believers, and it isn’t limited to Christianity, tend to live in a bubble where their beliefs and delusions are constantly reinforced. They become convinced the only way anyone could object to their message is if they hate God and are under the influence of Satan. They see their religion as the solution to all of humanity’s problems, while ignoring the countless horrors perpetrated by religious people in the name of their religion. They do all this while never putting forward a shred of objective evidence to support their claims.
It is really important, really really important, that these bubble people go and travel elsewhere and meet other people. They need to learn, really need to learn that what they consider 'normal' might be very very strange to other people. They need to learn that other people's 'normal' is not wrong, it's just different.
This is what you get when people have absolutely zero critical thinking skills. So, I’m glad I’m 860 miles away from this idiocy. And it is going to be cooler in SW GA tomorrow than in DC.
Oh yeah. And I remember how we stayed away from the world, unless necessary. Of course, some people interpreted that to mean when we came together, while being really worldly. The funny thing is worldly people are more open-minded.
Blinded by the Light! Remember that 70s song?
That song gave me the best example of serendipity in my lifetime. I was driving home westbound going up a steep hill. It had been cloudy, but just as I reached the steepest part the sun came out and I literally could not see anything. And at that EXACT moment, "Blinded by the Light" came on the radio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcWVL4B-4pI
I prefer the original from Bruce Springsteen. .
youtu.be/V83JR2IoI8k
And in response to your spot on post, one showed up today to prove you right.
There are plenty of churches/cults who have booths at the Iowa State Fair. One has a diorama that includes an ark, dinosaurs, and people all hanging out together. They're silly.
True there are many silly things going on at the ISF, one can not spend all their time in the hog pavilion. But the funniest things I remember is all the politicians wandering around eating corn dogs and acting as this is the best part of their lives while hoping to escape as quickly as possible.
I think it was the Iowa State Fair where Mitt Romney in 2012 enthusiastically said to a voter, “Corporations are people too!”
He was not wrong, was he, just a bit ahead of the times, I think it was a year or two later when the supreme court made the same pronouncements ....
He said it after SCOTUS decided it, IIRC. The hilarious part was that the voter obviously thought it was a terrible idea and Romney was oblivious to that. In general, a midwestern state fair is not the kind of place to be enthusiastic about large corporations, most of which are likely to be perceived by midwesterners as generally hostile to “heartland” values. I say that having grown up in said “heartland”.
You're right, of course.
He was not blessed with the common touch, was he.
But he was a fundamentally decent person; your country would be better off with a few more Mitt Romneys in the senate and fewer Tubervilles .... it looks as you're going to get rid of Ms Collins and you dodged that twat Herschel Walker ...
And Mitt was and is a decent person. An old school Republican. Not a MAGA idiot and unwilling to pretend to be one.
Much as I despise Trump, I despise the congressional Republicans even more for their spinelessness.
The Collins race polling is currently in the margin of error. The Dems need to get her speaking in public. She has a serious voice tremor and generally looks her age. Bidenesque, one might say.
So stop hurting their feelings!
Nah....I live here.
Why are you trying to antagonize Joe?
Same thing is said of Indiana, though there are deep blue dots across the state (Northwest Indiana, South Bend, Fort Wayne (kinda, sorta), Lafayette/West Lafayette, Indianapolis, Bloomington, the cities around Louisville. I live in an ultra-blue section of Indianapolis, which is likely to be my "forever home".
Even Evansville and Carmel have become MUCH less red.
I'm an older gay person in a liberal religious tradition, and I get almost none of the flack I used to get in Texas *simply because I exist*.
I remember when I was sitting at a table at a barbecue restaurant in Gruene, Texas, eating brisket, when a bunch of Missouri Synod Lutherans came in and demanded that I give the table to them. I realized they were Missouri Synod Lutherans by the three superimposed crosses which is their logo. I was wearing an ELCA rainbow shirt, and I refused to leave. The Missouri Synod Lutherans caused a major scene, stating that I was a "sexual sinner" and 1 Corinthians 5 stated they could not eat at a table where a "sexual sinner" was sitting, and they demanded that the manager evict me. The manager evicted THEM, told them they were unwelcome in his restaurant, and never to come back again. The rest of the people in the restaurant clapped when the Missouri Synod people left, and the manager comp'ed my meal. To say "thank you", I gave the waiter a 100 percent tip.
As a general rule, Missouri Synod Lutherans do not recognize the ELCA (my denomination), the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church or the Presbyterian Church in the USA as being in any way "Christian". The view of the LCMS is that we're "heterodox", "apostate" HEEEEEEEEEEEathen. (Atheists and non-Christians are not regarded as being properly human beings worth any dignity.)
I think the LCMS have gigantic sticks wedged up their asses.
Whenever I have been accosted by one of these believers and they ask me if I know "God loves me", I always say "really? Which God would that be?" It always stops them in their tracks with a slight laugh, then I tell them to go peddle their man made BS somewhere else. At 72 I am simply tired of being polite or nice to these people.
I hear you on "being polite." I guess my style is being polite while simultaneously ripping their arguments to shreds. Then, too:
... 𝑎 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑, 𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑦𝑝𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑡𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑧𝑒.
-- Robert A. Heinlein, The Star Beast
I'm polite only up to a certain point. I will politely tell them that I'm not interested and if they keep pushing I WILL get rude and end the conversation with a "You can fuck off now."
I've had a few run-ins with Jehovah Witnesses which were somewhat interesting. Mostly, I kept my cool, but I never backed down, and in one case, one of my visitors encouraged his partner to leave.
He may have determined that they weren't going to score any points on me! 😁
I haven't found it yet, but I am sure they have a posting to avoid my house.
The other day I was weeding my front garden when a door to door salesman tried to get my attention. He said he was in the area to do roof evaluations after the storm from 6-10. I responded politely enough that I wasn’t interested. Then he asked why I was hesitant (I wasn’t hesitant, I was certain I was not interested). I decided that my polite dismissal and the fact that I hadn’t stopped weeding The Who,e time he was talking wasn’t clear enough so I asked to see his permit for soliciting in the village. He was stumped. He asked if that was a real thing, well he asked “what if it’s not a thing?” I assured him it was. But he asked again, and again I confirmed it was real. (Had I been really on top of it I would have said that I had already given my answer, so not needing a permit wouldn’t change anything.) I might just start with that as soon as I am sure they aren’t from a non-profit seeking donations. I’m a little fed up with the vultures roaming our streets trying to get me to buy shit I don’t need or want.
I would follow that one up with: "Can you demonstrate OBJECTIVELY that your god exists? None of this 'look at the sky or the animals or what the bible says' BS, but hard, testable, verifiable EVIDENCE."
I don't think they'd like that very much ... but then, that IS the idea!
They can’t even verify the existence of the supernatural itself. No supernatural? No god.
but, but what about the human eye? Surely that must be proof....................
https://thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/tumblr_o0oek06j6j1v4coijo1_1280.jpg
What about that parasitic worm that burrows into the eyes of kids and makes them BLIND? Sir David Attenborough cites that frequently and properly so.
And while we're at it, there's all sorts of data on how eyes have developed over the eons ... but of course, evangelicals don't want to hear THAT.
"Bone cancer in children. What's that about?"
-- Stephen Fry
Pediatric cancer wards when they say "god created so many wondrous things."
And what's the deal with airline food?
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ6bPjRC6aiHkn1J9unF-gDYca8PdL3ywKJTbjXOPHhZ8B_4fydT9Mj2TI&s=10
At least eight times, IIRC.
You mean my eyes that need corrective lenses?
Well, human eyes were perfect until Eve tricked Adam into taking a bite of the Forbidden Fruit. It's been downhill ever since.
You just missed his special on miraculous ophthalmology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi8HT6Ux8FM
Tim Minchin strikes AGAIN! HIGH-LARIOUS!
They deflect or change the subject.
They'd TRY. Aron won't let 'em, and he has this NASTY HABIT of grinding down his opponents! He's rather good at that, too! 😁
The amount of confidently incorrect people never ceases to amaze me.
> “This country was based on faith, and we believe God has his hand on this nation,” Jacyln Stursman, 46, a tax accountant from Iowa, said as a Mennonite vocal group performed behind her on a huge stage.
> “In the Constitution it says ‘under God,’” her daughter Abigail, 20, who is studying to become a teacher, said — incorrectly. The Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase “under God.” The Constitution’s text makes no mention of a deity.
She probably heard this from her pastor or a Tik Tok video and believes if she repeats it enough it'll be true. If you pointed out she was wrong, she'd just move the goalposts. Remember folks, these people vote, have kids and are active in their communities. We need to do the same. They have gotten way too comfortable being stupid in public.
I am not sure which is more troubling, that Abigail thinks under God is in the constitution, or that she is studying to be a teacher.
Christian college to be a teacher most likely. I have had experience with so-called teachers and they were hired primarily because they were "working on" their degrees(were not licensed) but could teach in a Christian school(cheap)but had "zeal for christ."
My great nephew is a maga and teaches at a christian school, he's been "getting his degree" for over ten years.
Nothing wrong with BOTH.
Great point, both things are entirely troublesome.
It’s the combination.
PT,
Consider yourself lucky if you managed to avoid public school in the deep south.
That was most of my experience, and I could write a book on what I learned wrong, or not at all.
(The south still claims that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery, and I only learned of the Cornerstone Speech of the Confederacy on my own, decades after leaving school.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone_Speech
They claim it was about state's rights, but have no answer when you ask 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 state's right.
I asked a relative that once. I could tell she knew the answer but didn't want to say it. Instead, she asked me if I was a democrat. I said no, they are too far to the right for me. We never talked politics again.
Oh brilliant response!
But OF COURSE it involved "states rights," more specifically the states' right to KEEP SLAVES! D'OH!
“States rights” has consistently functioned as a dog whistle for racial segregation, discrimination, and opposing civil rights. That’s why when they came out after Roe with “states rights” I knew it would be bad.
I always say yes, states rights to own other human beings, and point out that each state succession charter specifically states that.
Ah yes, nothing like teaching your kids that the North just invaded the South for no apparent reason whatsoever. Never minding the fact that the South attacked FIRST.
Exactly, Brianna.
I was fortunate to have a father from out west who may be the most politically liberal human I ever encountered, and Mom was fine with that.
It could have (theoretically) gone otherwise, as it did for every (MAGA) relative and neighbor I know of for miles and miles, here in rural SC.
It should be a fucking crime to brainwash children with lies and propaganda but here we are in a country chock FULL of lies and propaganda.
Made infinitely worse by the fact that such practice is being encouraged by example from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
I actually went to school in both places, and the fact they call it war of Northern Aggression even though they fired on Fort Sumter first and claim it's about States Rights when the Cornerstone Speech exists goes to show that these people are just bad faith, they like social hierarchies and they don't care about facts.
The "War of Northern Aggression" reminds me of the 'Antifascistic Protection Barrier' and the 'Democratic Republic of North Korea' - the first you might know under its other name as the 'Berlin Wall' and the second is a republic but definitely not democratic!
I know that anger, P.
I've felt the need to express it myself.....
"Lies For Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner"
https://medium.com/@foofaraw/lies-for-breakfast-lunch-and-dinner-420c272ed7d0
You can't fix stupid.
Imagine having this idiot do your taxes! Or teach your children.
“At some point, mathematically, these missionaries have to be trying to convert other missionaries, right?”
If they all convert each other, that’s twice as many christians leaving the show than originally went there. It’s a miracle.
Circle jerk
Can anyone attend?
Made me laugh, thank you for that!
Sadly, I cannot deny the fact that Stupid Idiot Dump have spoiled and ruined this once in a lifetime holiday for everyone to where there is nothing worth celebrating anything at all-- unless Stupid Idiot dies either today or tomorrow or the next day.
I’m not much on big crowds so I likely would not have gone to the Mall even if the events were interesting to me. And even if the weather was tolerable. Trump hasn’t so much ruined this holiday as he has the last decade and likely the rest of my life even if dies tomorrow. This holiday is just the most recent casualty.
I cheer myself by imagining the crowds if Jesse Welles were to put on a free show one block away from the Mall.
Or even better, standing in Dr. King's footprints at the Lincoln Memorial!!!
Dictator for a Day.
Laughter is the New Resistance (TM).
Rent today on YouTube, Tubi, Apple TV.
I have been keenly watching the utter failure of Chump's attempts to turn the country's 250th into yet another I-love-me rally with what is probably an unhealthy amount of glee. Nothing gets under an authoritarian's skin like public humiliation, and it's hard to imagine anything more humiliating to that odious man's overinflated ego than the grand spectacle of that giant, empty lawn on the National Mall- juxtaposed with the halfassed job he did on the Reflecting Pool, the short, victorious war that has proven oh-so-predictably to be neither of those things, and... well, frankly everything else he touches, of late.
He's losing his teeming multitudes of morons. They aren't showing up for him anymore. He demands the bigliest, the shiniest, and mostest, and all he's getting for what should have been his bigliest, shiniest day ever... is a chorus of crickets. I'm not fool enough to believe the cult is going to outright turn on him, but they aren't 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 to him, either. Not most of them, anyway. I guess a solid decade of the same old song and dance on a loop was too much even for them. He's becoming the worst thing a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur can possibly become: 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴.
And I am 𝘴𝘰 here for it.
He should of had a clue from last years birthday parade, but that would have contradicted a temumussolini decision.
I read somewhere that the Pentagon did a study on invading Iran in the early part of this century, one of their conclusions was that it would require 2 million boots on the ground to be successful. And yet der kinder führer and kegsbreath did it anyway.
Dictator for a Day.
Laughter is the New Resistance (TM).
Rent today on YouTube, Tubi, Apple TV.
“Has anyone told you that God loves you and that he has a plan for your life?”
Of course someone has, many times over the course of my life, and they were never invited to. Have you ever met anyone who has not heard about god or Jesus? Be honest. You haven’t, and anyone who hasn’t heard your brand of Christianity just hasn’t gotten into fights over quibbles.
Besides, I might not want gods plan for my life, most of the time it’s a horrible plan filled with pain, suffering and plenty of hate. Why does that sound appealing to you? I can make better plans than anything god has ever setup for someone. Even the wealthy elites get shit on by god in your book of nonsense.
That's why Trump loves evangelicals. They believe in nonsense unquestionably.
Anyone see the baptismal dunk tank on the lawn? The only way they're going to get people inside that thing is to hope those folks are deperate to escape the heat.
At least the Reflecting Pool, thanks to Dear Leader's tender ministrations, was in too sorry a state to be co-opted for the purpose- and you 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 they would have, the tacky bastards.
On top of that you've got no idea what kind of stuff they've tipped into that thing, it's definitely a chemical soup in there!
Ooh, good point. Rational people dodged a bullet there.
Have you been to DC in the summer? I can’t blame anyone for going through the motions for a little relief.
And THIS summer is going to be one for the record books. Apparently DC is hotter than 99% of the planet right now.
Won't you get arrested for that?
Never been further east than Minnesota, and that was decades ago.
Minnesota is north. ; )
Washington (State) is north, too. Pacific Northwest. If I travelled in a straight line from Seattle to Minnnesota (Upper Midwest), I’d land in St. Paul. A straight-line flight path from Sea-Tac International Airport to MSP (Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.
It's not a straight line. The Earth is round, not flat. : )
Noerthwest? You yankees have weird accents. ;)
Told you I was old. Typo fixed.
Minnesota is in the west.
No, it is neither east nor west. It's Upper Midwest.
I was trying explain that I'd never been to DC or the east coast and that the furthest east I've ever been was Minnesota. See?
Reading the exchange again, I was thinking that maybe I should add a comment about distance: Our two main cities are Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow is in the West, not quite at the coast, but not that far removed. Edinburgh is our capital, it's in the east, again not quite on the coast, but not that far removed. If you wanted to drive from one city to the other, it would take you about an hour. And if you wanted to drive from the coast in Leith to the coast in Greenock, I reckon you could do it in two hours, especially if you were doing it now rather at a time when loads of people are trying to get to or from work.
Yes, we are a small country.
I know, I was being cheeky ....
Btw, I've never been to DC. Nor Minnesota.
I've been to the east coast and the west coast, eg Oban and Greenock and Irvine on the west coast and St Andrews, Berwick, and Dundee on the east coast ...
😃🤣😄
I’ve never been to Spain, it I kind of like the music.
I've been to both. Minneapolis for a PTK Honors Convention, and DC for the national convention.
Already happened.
𝐃𝐂 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 '𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬' 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dc-fair-attendee-cooled-off-in-baptism-pool-after-seeing-stars-in-extreme-heat/ar-AA275CMW
Knew it would happen. Easiest prediction in the world.
Missionaries converging on DC when the most corrupt powermongers in DC are Christians. All committing idolatry by worshipping a man who thinks he IS God.
"I could run for God, and I'd probably win."
Donald Trump in 'Trump vs. God' in Dictator for a Day.
Last night, I went to the fireworks display in my hometown, just because it was the 250th year, even though it had been hot as hell all day long.
About 50 or so years ago, when I was growing up here, firework displays were held at the rec park, where people gathered with blankets and picnics and kids played on the swings and merry-go-rounds until dark. People weren't supposed to bring beer or alcohol, but if they were discreet, didn't cause any trouble, and didn't set up near the children's play area, nobody said anything. Some people even got there early enough to have tailgate parties on the backs of their trucks parked along the road, even bringing grills and grilling hot dogs.
It was easy walking distance from our house (great because we didn't have to worry about parking and fighting traffic when it was time to leave) and my family, along with whatever aunts uncles and cousins we had visiting for the holiday, would walk there about half an hour before sunset with our blankets, towels, and Deep Woods Off, pick spot on the grass and listen to a mix of country and patriotic music playing on the speakers. Just before the show started, the speakers went quiet for a few seconds, then the Star Spangled Banner would play. Everyone who was able to, would stand and sing along, and then the show would begin.
It was a decent, enjoyable 40-minute show for such a small town, because a local business would do fundraising all year just to pay for the fireworks, which back then ran about $25K - $30K. If there were any gaps left in the amount needed to buy the materials and hire the pros when the time came, they would make up the difference. They also brought boxes of paper fans with the company logo to the event and distributed these free of charge to people, and since it was usually a hot, humid evening, these were appreciated.
I mention this as a contrast to last night. The venue was now the local high school football stadium, entry was still free, but you couldn't bring your own food or beverage. The outer perimeter of the fence was lined with food truck vendors offering $8 hot dogs and $6 sno cones. There were law enforcement vehicles everywhere, and at least two ambulances. There were high-tech, portable light towers all over the place and everyone had to wait in line to get in because each person had to be wanded with a metal detector. Women who carried purses had to allow them to be searched. All I had was a set of car keys in one hand, so I got in quickly, but it still irked me.
Of course the parking lot was full of big-assed trucks with big-assed US flags. I expected that. There was also a whole slew of TRUMP USA flags. I wasn't surprised at that either, I was just hoping I wouldn't see any. I saw a lot of Trump tee shirts, including one I hadn't seen before - "GOD, GUTS, AND TRUMP" (Seriously, dude?). At one point, as required by law, Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" boomed through the speakers, rattling plate glass windows in half a dozen adjacent zip codes. There was a stage for live music performances, mostly religious groups and some local pop-rock or country wannabes. There were drones flying around with red, white, and blue lights, and people clapped like they didn't know these were surveillance tools.
The crowd as this event dwarfed the crowd from 40-50 years ago, even though the town's actual population had decreased slightly. Everything that could possibly be monetized, was monetized outrageously. The show leading up to the fireworks display was dripping with religious overtones.
But the fireworks display was amazing, comparable to anything I've ever seen in Atlanta or Minneapolis, with patriotic music playing in the background. I tried to imagine how much it must have cost, but I have no idea. I'm sure that even allowing for inflation, it would dwarf the cost of 40 or 50 years ago. I also have no idea how this was funded.
I thought about the last time the US had such a big milestone - the Bicentennial. Remember what a big deal it was? Remember the Bicentennial Minutes? People seemed a lot more excited and a lot more optimistic back then. Sure, we were only a few years past Watergate, but Jimmy Carter had just been elected and it seemed we were on the right path toward a better future.
This time we have an evil, vile orange troll squatting in a half demolished WH, with his obscenely rich troll buddies hollowing out the economy, shitting all over the Constitution while their brain dead base cheers. We may be through as a democracy -- I don't know yet, I hope I'm wrong, but even if I am, I won't live long enough to see it return to anything functional again.
Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer. Just the way I'm feeling at the moment.
It really isn't just you. I've been sort of feeling the same way myself. I think a good chunk of my personal feelings are the current MAGA folks and their behavior, personally, but the rampant monetization of most of the celebrations annoys me as well. I swear, one day they're going to try and charge us for breathing.
I wouldn't be surprised.
Useless triva: In Heinlein's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝐻𝑎𝑟𝑠ℎ 𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠, visitors to the moon were charged for the air that they would breathe.
I remember that. Good thing Trump doesn’t read R.A.H.
Trump READS?!?!?
Not useless. Illustrative.
I get it. The Bicentennial was a whole year of fun and education and hope. This year is like a Dollar General version of a celebration.
The State Fair was purchased on Temu.
The one I saw at Costco looked like a better deal.
Yes, exactly. You put it much more succinctly than I did.
I was about a year away from entering Jr High when the Bicentennial happened. Our town had festivals, re-enactors, artists. Every week of the school year artists came to our schools to show us how to colonial era goods were made. We had native peoples come to talk to us. It was something I will not forget. This year is depressing at best.
“Has anyone told you that God loves you and that he has a plan for your life?”
Many, many times. At no point did it stop being really fucking creepy and unwelcome.
I suppose everyone needs a hobby.....
(The "reading the book silently and alone" part, not the "irritating total strangers" part.)
For the looks and sounds of things, there will be more preachers and evangelists than ordinary attendees to Trump "Great American State Fair." Figures, too – for a lot of people, the blush is off the rose as it comes to Trump and his would-be massive rallies. It's been a while coming, but even some MAGAs are being turned off by Trump's utter failure to actually GOVERN or to deliver on the promises he made on the campaign trail. The fact that he couldn't get any A-list entertainment to perform at his little soiree doesn't help matters, either.
So what are all those bible-thumpers going to DO? Convert each other? [shrug] THAT might be fun to watch ... for about five minutes! 😝
All the A-list celebrities attended the opening of Obama’s Presidential Library. Guaranteed THAT set Orangeutan off.
Obama being elected set him off.
Obama winning the Nobel set him off.
What DOESN'T set him off??? 🤪
OF COURSE, they did and OF COURSE Trump did! At this point, any kind of class act wants to hang with and represent a class act.
Obama is a class act. Trump isn't within 10 light-years of being one.
Deporter-in-Chief Barack Obama is a ruling-class act. You forgot that bit.
An event der kinder führer wasn't invited to. 😆
It would be entertaining if there are missionaries who think each other’s flavor of Christianity is wrong. Pre-tribulation rapture versus post-tribulation rapture. Go on! Convert one another!
You mean like the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front?
Nah. It would only satisfy Trump who loves a cafe match to the death.
*cage match 🙄
Covfefe match.
THERE you go! 👍👍👍
I think a cafe match would be much more interesting.
Can I contribute a new word to the discussion about the event?
Omnishambles.
OT- C'moooon lightning bolt. C'moooooooooooooooon lightning bolt!
https://apnews.com/article/america-250-weekend-heat-united-states-1eeaf21e91ed583595611251649db93e
"𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘳 250𝘵𝘩" Chumpy boasted online... yeah, sure. You'll let a little rain stop you from paying respect to fallen soldiers, but you won't let it stop you from singing your own praises in front of an audience of... wet grass and crickets. That tracks.
Lightning is an Act of God. :D
You don't think it might be the planet's way of protecting itself?
I think Hemant more or less took all of this nonsense apart, and with only minimal sarcasm, but there’s so much to say.
I tend to look at a lot of things as sociologist. One of the basic tenets of organizational sociology is that bureaucracies don’t necessarily exist to serve the organization. Eventually, bureaucracies exist to serve the bureaucracy, to expand it, to protect it.
So they fill out a little card saying how many people they expect to reach out to. I suspect that’s easier than actually reaching out to them. They’ve got an app that shows where everybody is and was that has been reached out to. More busy work. I mean there’s an app for everything. It’s amazing how many of them are poorly designed and don’t work very well. But at least it gives you the appearance of doing something. In that way, it’s all a little bit like prayer, which is what you do when you don’t want to do anything at all, but you don’t want anyone to notice .
And they want to rise above partisan politics? Miss Abigail is already a Nationalist Christian. But she’s so ignorant that she doesn’t actually know it. And you know what party nationalist Christians belong to? It’s not the Nat-C party.
It’s the Republican Party! I know! Who could have seen that one coming?
So the phenomenon is pretty obvious. The Nat-C’s think they’re doing something, but they’re not. It’s all a show, but the marks are the people participating in the show. The marks of the marks are not the real marks.
IT’s all very Marksist.
Hemant clearly gets it. “ these evangelists think visitors to the Massive Trump Rally can set aside politics when the very place they’re all at is an extension of our current broken Republican-run system.”
And at the end of the event they can all get together and compare notes and slap each other on the backs and congratulate each other about how many souls they "saved".
It's all just performative nonsense.
God's own Brownie points.
That also.
"the basic tenants of organizational sociology"... but who is the landlord?
I dictate my stuff for the most part. I changed it to TENETS. Apparently God did didn’t know about it, and left it the way it was. Praise God.
He moves in mysterious ways, his lexicographical errors to perform.
You’re not being fair here. It’s not like English is his first language.
What are you talking about?
Genesis 1:3 "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
That's English right there!
You can't fool me into thinking god spoke in one-a-them heathen lingo's.