Funny thing: if some nutjob believer decided they were going to burn Christopher Hitchens' g̲o̲d̲ ̲I̲s̲ ̲N̲o̲t̲ ̲G̲r̲e̲a̲t̲ or Dawkins' T̲h̲e̲ ̲G̲o̲d̲ ̲D̲e̲l̲u̲s̲i̲o̲n̲, I'd just write him off and be done with it. I admire the hell out of Hitchens and Dawkins and what they had to say about atheism and theism, but the ideas remain, even after the book is burned.
This is the concept that neither Muslims nor Christians can get, never mind the fact that they can't deal with people who are sufficiently opposed to their religions and/or holy books that they feel the need to express their dislike in this fashion. Their reaction amounts to: "MOMMY!!! Jimmy burned my Quran!!!" SERIOUSLY??? My advice to those who want to get bent about such incidents is simplicity itself:
When atheist act like this, it doesn't do atheism any favors. It just makes us look like assholes. You know, like them. If we are to stand out, maybe we should do that by acting right and valuing civility, debate and critical thinking. Sometimes these kind of stunts backfire and more people are turned off by it than turned to it. If Christians and right wingers want to ban books and fight against schools, let's not mimic their behavior. For we would be just like they in terms of behavior, except for different ideologies. We are better than that.
I'd rather "burn" THEM with sarcasm, ridicule and quotes from the bible that their pastor doesn't deem fit to share with them. More fun to watch them sputter and stammer.
I agree, really depends on the person I am talking to. If it is a well meaning person, maybe evidenced based reasoning can plants seeds of doubt that later sprout. Maybe the person you are speaking to has an unfalsifiable faith and is hermetically sealed. If someone is open, thoughtful, kind, I think the conversation can be quite fruitful. But, we have seen scores of believers who dogmatically are not open to anything. In fact, if they come here, it is usually to rant and spew their hatred, not to have a good faith dialogue. People like that, as you well know are really not worth engaging at all.
To be honest, I don't see any particular benefit to burning books, other than getting attention (and not generally positive attention at that). I STILL remember Greg Locke burning Andrew Seidel's book, T̲h̲e̲ ̲F̲o̲u̲n̲d̲i̲n̲g̲ ̲M̲y̲t̲h̲, and thinking how utterly stupid and foolish HE looked in doing that.
What we're talking about here (and this includes NOGODZ20's comment) is going the lazy, easy way versus going the harder way of engagement, discussion and debate. The problem with going the hard way (other than the fact that it's HARD) is that it's a slow, painstaking path. Peter Boghossian admits as much in his book, A̲ ̲M̲a̲n̲u̲a̲l̲ ̲F̲o̲r̲ ̲C̲r̲e̲a̲t̲i̲n̲g̲ ̲A̲t̲h̲e̲i̲s̲t̲s̲, and he isn't wrong.
But if there is another way to present and defend our side of the argument, I'm not aware of it.
As always, nail on the head Hemant. People need to understand that one person's religion is another person's stupid superstition. Those people that want to give quarter to the religious and obey the rules of every religion will find themselves in a contradictory situation very quickly. It won't just take The Satanic Temple stepping in. As those of us who have studied the history of religions know, religions evolve over time in response to internal and external pressures.
You noticed that too? So typical. They've got nothing and they know it. Just like all the other claims they make/lawsuits they file that they can't back up with actual facts.
Trump and his minions are Johnny-one-note. All bluster.
People like Steube just don't play well with others. Worse, he wouldn't dare say such a thing if Trumpism and the ReTrumplican party weren't totally sold out to the Orange Nightmare 𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒.
They didn't come out much when Donnie was indicted in New York. They didn't come out much when he was indicted in Florida.
I'm beginning to think that the guilty verdicts coming out of the January 6th trials may be having an impact on what few brain cells Donnie's following are able to maintain!
The issue I have with his protest is not that he went to a non-violent extreme and burned a holy book, or even to provoke Muslims, but the intent was to ban the book entirely in that country.
The response so far has been non-violent, so that’s good. And fair.
We cannot only defend speech we like and not speech we don’t like. Burning flags, books, symbols by individuals should be protected forms of protest, as long as it stops there. (Burning crosses on folks’ lawns or on public property never ended with the fire, nor was it a protest it was a threat) When the government starts burning books and banning them and such, that’s where we need to work ourselves up. Greg Locke burned books, and a protester threw a Bible in their bonfire. It was the right response. No one stopped Locke from burning books. And other right wing loonies who try this crap, except when they destroy the public library‘s books. Same as when the right burns up their Nikes, or Yetis or bud light for going “woke”. Point and laugh. If the message doesn’t get through, then it’s just a failed attempt at protest.
The defense of this should be focused on, just as the Muslims have a right to worship, this man has the right to protest. Muslims have a right to get angry, if the Muslim countries want to make a political statement against Sweden entering the UN (NATO, my bad) then so be it. This too shall pass and NATO will move forward when it’s ready. The body will just have to decide which side will benefit them best. It’s not like the NATO is not without controversy anyway.
Sorry if I started rambling. I don’t like book burning, but I don’t want to ban it either.
It's weird. I was into all that stuff when I was a kid in the 70s. It was debunked back then, but now there are TV shows and entire networks dedicated to it.
I remember one of those. They had a number of groups that were supposed to learn how to "scientifically" look for Bigfoot and they had actual scientists to explain to them what evidence was. Some of them brought back some Bigfoot hair – turned out to be moss. (Which makes a change from bison hair apparently.) The embarrassing thing was they were Native Americans.
A few years ago the History Channel was on while I was at the gym on the treadmill. The show was about whether or not extra-terrestrials played a role in the US Civil War. There were snippets of real civil war scholars talking about various battles in traditional academic manner interspersed with wackadoodles talking about the evidence for ETs. I kept thinking that the real scholars must not have known how their participation was going to be used.
Trader Joe's black forest bacon is one of my favorites. And of course pecan smoked thick cut bacon is quite good. Apple wood and cherry wood smoked are good too.
What should they do? Pretty much just what they have done. Say "hey, kind of a dick move but still legal."
If local Muslims want to protest, have at it. If local Arab Christians want to counterprotest, cool. Just have law enforcement on standby so nobody gets violent.
Of course there are better ways. But they require thought and empathy. Those are not in big supply for those who use religion as a weapon, no matter what side of which controversy they are on.
It may show outrage, but that's about all it does. So if that's the intent, sure. But, what does that serve in the end? Nothing, except draw more angst from the religious. It's not a good long term strategy for success in showing scripture to be nothing but fiction. This will take empathy because removing someone's most sacred heart warming consolations away in exchange for simply believing the truth, however disconcerting it may be is not an easy task. I'm not suggesting it's a war that will ever be totally won anyway.
Just because a thing is legal doesn't automatically make it a good idea. While I have no use for religious zealots and magic books, I also have no use for senseless provocation that accomplishes nothing. I'm not seeing any positive outcome here.
The guy is like a bully, the more attention they receive the more likely they are to do something to garner that attention again. The locals got it right, ignore him. But the world stage, freaking out over one guy's protest and blaming Sweden? Huh, way to ensure it happens again.
"Any book that is considered sacred to its authors must be respected out of respect for its believers and freedom of expression must never be used as an excuse to undermine others."
-- Pope Francis
Do you know who even wrote your bible, Jorge? Do you have any idea who they were? The bible's an omnibus by an unknown amount of anonymous authors. You want us to automatically respect people when we have no knowledge of them?
And that whole thing about "undermining others." That's what believers have used the bible to do.
I remember guiltily watching one on TV once where the commentators said something like "this must be the greatest sporting achievement of the century". It was the 20th century too.
Just got back from the doctors, apparently my blood work is all perfect. He couldn't understand how good my liver was???? Neither could I given the hammering I gave it in my youth. Whatever – my blood pressure is still high and I might have to go on some sort of treatment, but luckily you guys have reassured me that it's not too bad. 🙂
We had a Labrador once that would eat pretty much anything, including apples and lettuce. But only if you gave them to her or put it in her bowl. We had apples lying all over the ground at times because we had 5 or 6 apple trees – them she never touched.
The joke here is Aria despised nearly anything who wasn't meat based and yet she couldn't make the difference. My Rhapsodie loved them and wouldn't touch those made of meat.
Labradors will sometimes eat themselves to death, so I've been told. When we inherited her she didn't have a waist. Had to be on a strict diet for about 6 months, plus lots of exercise dammit – usually about 6 o'clock in the morning. And again when I got home from work. The people that had her before us must have been crazy. She used to chase tennis balls. You'd be innocently taking her for a walk round the block when she dive into all the detritus at the bottom of a hedge, and come out with a tennis ball that had obviously been in there for about 20 years. Other than that she was totally brainless. No traffic sense. Her previous owners had simply trained to stop when they yelled "stop". I don't know how they did it, but she certainly used to do that – I've seen the skid marks. Even in the middle of chasing a cat.
Rhapsodie (half labrador) tended to overeat and steal food but it could have been because she didn't eat her fill before ending in a shelter. A couple of years after I adopted her, she stopped forcing herself to finish her dinner and left some for a night snack.
I'm not convinced video games are a sport either, but apparently you can make some good money at it. Education, no we don't need to spend money on that. Guys sitting on their asses playing games, that's worth a few million dollars.
Auto racing (especially NASCAR). Not a sport. It's driving and the car is doing all the work. The driver just has to keep the thing on the track and not crash.
I think it was Oscar Wilde who said something like golf is a good walk spoiled. But I just heard Freddie Flintoff on YouTube saying that tennis and cricket were boring as was Formula One. And he played cricket for England. Apparently it was "A means to an end." Don't blame him in a way, a five-day test can be dire if they don't have a bit of fire in their bellies.
I'd be careful about that. Some time ago, I met Al Unser, Jr., at the baggage claim in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he and I had a nice chat about racing and related topics. When he shook my hand, I'm here to tell you, he had a grip like iron. That came from wrestling an Indy car (with NO power steering) around a track at well over 200 mph. There's also the matter of water weight loss during a race, which can be up to 10 pounds over the course of a 2-3 hour contest. In other venues, especially rally racing, I suspect that the physical demands on the body are even more severe.
Granted, this is a gearhead talking ... but IMHO, race car drivers ARE athletes, and auto racing IS a sport.
Had one at an agricultural field day the other day. They did a creditable German sausage whose name I've forgotten. It was about 15 inches long. The bun however was only about 3 inches. Country people are strange.
I really enjoy a good Boerewors, but it's hard to get.
We had a place here called Uli's Famous Sausage at Pike Place Market that I used to get a sandwich from but COVID closed them up. When they reopened, they scaled operations and meat offerings way back. One of the victims was Boerewors They sell packets of the stuff, but they won't make you a sandwich anymore.
Last time I went by there it looked like they were closed again.
That's why bulemics have problems with esophageal scarring and dental problems due to acid erosion. Had a friend dealing with that in college. Wasn't very pretty.
I feel one where he explained. He just calorie counts. I think something like if he eats 8000 cal one day, he doesn't eat for the next 3 or 4 days. It seems a little weird but it keeps him happy. 😁
He's part of an extremist Catholic movement. Wonder if he'd consider making a film of the 3rd Century church when they became the state religion of Rome and answerable to no one. Would he make the molesting clergy the heroes?
See that wouldn't be much of an endorsement from me. When Blockbuster ran low back in the day, they borrowed from my collection. (I also currently have over 700 movies on VuDu, and yet I can never figure out what to watch. I need a boyfriend with an opinion)
You and me, both. I've seen 𝐹𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑦 a couple times, and it was interesting. I also remember the Infocom game, "Trinity," which I thought was among the very best text-driven computer games I ever played!
Hope this thing dies a quick death among the rational. You know the cristers will flock to see it. Mel knows the kind of sadistic crazy he's appealing to.
I can't for the life of me see what burning a Koran or a Bible or a Torah adds to the debate about religion or lack of it. It's a stunt, not a debate. There were places in the ancient world that set aside public spaces for religious arseholes to debate each other. Let them do it, it's futile. I'm happy to sit on the sidelines and watch them make arses of themselves.
1.9 billion Muslims on the planet x 5 prayers per day x 365 days per year = 3.47 trillion prayers this year alone to Allah. Net result: nothing. Alluh Deafbar: God ain't listenin!
Gone are the Disqus days when I could do special characters/functions. I can understand why Substack wouldn't want a "newsletter" to be plastered with memes/GIFs, but special characters? What's so terrible about that?
Press the windows key and the period key* to bring up the emoji picker, then click on the omega symbol at the top of the window that opens. ™ is the third down on the rightmost column.
* For some reason the period key on the numerical keypad doesn't bring it up
Funny thing: if some nutjob believer decided they were going to burn Christopher Hitchens' g̲o̲d̲ ̲I̲s̲ ̲N̲o̲t̲ ̲G̲r̲e̲a̲t̲ or Dawkins' T̲h̲e̲ ̲G̲o̲d̲ ̲D̲e̲l̲u̲s̲i̲o̲n̲, I'd just write him off and be done with it. I admire the hell out of Hitchens and Dawkins and what they had to say about atheism and theism, but the ideas remain, even after the book is burned.
This is the concept that neither Muslims nor Christians can get, never mind the fact that they can't deal with people who are sufficiently opposed to their religions and/or holy books that they feel the need to express their dislike in this fashion. Their reaction amounts to: "MOMMY!!! Jimmy burned my Quran!!!" SERIOUSLY??? My advice to those who want to get bent about such incidents is simplicity itself:
𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗨𝗖𝗞 𝗨𝗣.
When atheist act like this, it doesn't do atheism any favors. It just makes us look like assholes. You know, like them. If we are to stand out, maybe we should do that by acting right and valuing civility, debate and critical thinking. Sometimes these kind of stunts backfire and more people are turned off by it than turned to it. If Christians and right wingers want to ban books and fight against schools, let's not mimic their behavior. For we would be just like they in terms of behavior, except for different ideologies. We are better than that.
I'd rather "burn" THEM with sarcasm, ridicule and quotes from the bible that their pastor doesn't deem fit to share with them. More fun to watch them sputter and stammer.
I agree, really depends on the person I am talking to. If it is a well meaning person, maybe evidenced based reasoning can plants seeds of doubt that later sprout. Maybe the person you are speaking to has an unfalsifiable faith and is hermetically sealed. If someone is open, thoughtful, kind, I think the conversation can be quite fruitful. But, we have seen scores of believers who dogmatically are not open to anything. In fact, if they come here, it is usually to rant and spew their hatred, not to have a good faith dialogue. People like that, as you well know are really not worth engaging at all.
To be honest, I don't see any particular benefit to burning books, other than getting attention (and not generally positive attention at that). I STILL remember Greg Locke burning Andrew Seidel's book, T̲h̲e̲ ̲F̲o̲u̲n̲d̲i̲n̲g̲ ̲M̲y̲t̲h̲, and thinking how utterly stupid and foolish HE looked in doing that.
What we're talking about here (and this includes NOGODZ20's comment) is going the lazy, easy way versus going the harder way of engagement, discussion and debate. The problem with going the hard way (other than the fact that it's HARD) is that it's a slow, painstaking path. Peter Boghossian admits as much in his book, A̲ ̲M̲a̲n̲u̲a̲l̲ ̲F̲o̲r̲ ̲C̲r̲e̲a̲t̲i̲n̲g̲ ̲A̲t̲h̲e̲i̲s̲t̲s̲, and he isn't wrong.
But if there is another way to present and defend our side of the argument, I'm not aware of it.
christians burning Harry Potter books.
The book that has a wizard's duel. You know...like the bible did.
Something of a double standard there.
Silly rabbit, Christians don't READ their bible.
Well, c’mon, reading the bible is HARD.
As always, nail on the head Hemant. People need to understand that one person's religion is another person's stupid superstition. Those people that want to give quarter to the religious and obey the rules of every religion will find themselves in a contradictory situation very quickly. It won't just take The Satanic Temple stepping in. As those of us who have studied the history of religions know, religions evolve over time in response to internal and external pressures.
OT
Hypocritical MAGAt says what?
"U.S. Congressman Threatens Joe Biden With Treason, Punishable By "Death"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/u-s-congressman-threatens-joe-biden-with-treason-punishable-by-death/ar-AA1dqoqV
It's not Biden who's committed treason, Steube. It was YOUR boy. Where was all this talk of treason then, you reichwing conspiracy fantasy loony?
Funny, they never get specific about what Biden did or present any evidence. Meanwhile, Trump brags about committing treason.
You noticed that too? So typical. They've got nothing and they know it. Just like all the other claims they make/lawsuits they file that they can't back up with actual facts.
Trump and his minions are Johnny-one-note. All bluster.
Don't be silly. How cold a Messiah™ commit treason? He's the guy who makes the rules about that stuff, isn't he?
He's just a naughty boy.
Very?
A messiah who's trying his damnedest not to suffer the same fate as Jesus.
Puny messiah.
Even if it is just in his head.
People like Steube just don't play well with others. Worse, he wouldn't dare say such a thing if Trumpism and the ReTrumplican party weren't totally sold out to the Orange Nightmare 𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒.
Just another hotshot wannabe.
I see the Desperate One (Trump) is pleading with Americans to hit the streets on his behalf.
Hey, Donny...How's that been going for you so far? Your Bund rallies aren't packin' 'em in like they used to.
They didn't come out much when Donnie was indicted in New York. They didn't come out much when he was indicted in Florida.
I'm beginning to think that the guilty verdicts coming out of the January 6th trials may be having an impact on what few brain cells Donnie's following are able to maintain!
One can but hope. 🤞
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1583adUqSg
The issue I have with his protest is not that he went to a non-violent extreme and burned a holy book, or even to provoke Muslims, but the intent was to ban the book entirely in that country.
The response so far has been non-violent, so that’s good. And fair.
We cannot only defend speech we like and not speech we don’t like. Burning flags, books, symbols by individuals should be protected forms of protest, as long as it stops there. (Burning crosses on folks’ lawns or on public property never ended with the fire, nor was it a protest it was a threat) When the government starts burning books and banning them and such, that’s where we need to work ourselves up. Greg Locke burned books, and a protester threw a Bible in their bonfire. It was the right response. No one stopped Locke from burning books. And other right wing loonies who try this crap, except when they destroy the public library‘s books. Same as when the right burns up their Nikes, or Yetis or bud light for going “woke”. Point and laugh. If the message doesn’t get through, then it’s just a failed attempt at protest.
The defense of this should be focused on, just as the Muslims have a right to worship, this man has the right to protest. Muslims have a right to get angry, if the Muslim countries want to make a political statement against Sweden entering the UN (NATO, my bad) then so be it. This too shall pass and NATO will move forward when it’s ready. The body will just have to decide which side will benefit them best. It’s not like the NATO is not without controversy anyway.
Sorry if I started rambling. I don’t like book burning, but I don’t want to ban it either.
EDIT to correct the UN to NATO.
I am waiting for the first dumbass trying to burn bottles of bud light.
I'm sure some redneck tried. Hopefully he set his pickup truck on fire while attempting to burn the beer bottles.
I think that would produce a flame about the same as a nice cinnamon-scented candle and smell a lot better
Keep your distance and wear safety goggles because the bottles will go BOOM!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiJRp1BEptw
Back when I still brewed beer, I had some bottles go BOOM. Getting the carbonation right was always the trick.
Several, including Kid Rock, have shot cases of Bud.
Shooting cases of Bud is better than doing shots of Bud.
Nitpick: It was NATO, not the UN. The UN Human Rights Commission was mentioned in that they're actually giving the Muslim countries a hearing on this.
I stand corrected. Thank you.
Burning Yetis? Aren't they an endangered species?
Probably. Small populations isolated on specific mountain tops with no safe way to genetic exchange.
If you can find them. The evidence for them is pretty sketchy (as in "no evidence at all").
It's weird. I was into all that stuff when I was a kid in the 70s. It was debunked back then, but now there are TV shows and entire networks dedicated to it.
I remember one of those. They had a number of groups that were supposed to learn how to "scientifically" look for Bigfoot and they had actual scientists to explain to them what evidence was. Some of them brought back some Bigfoot hair – turned out to be moss. (Which makes a change from bison hair apparently.) The embarrassing thing was they were Native Americans.
A few years ago the History Channel was on while I was at the gym on the treadmill. The show was about whether or not extra-terrestrials played a role in the US Civil War. There were snippets of real civil war scholars talking about various battles in traditional academic manner interspersed with wackadoodles talking about the evidence for ETs. I kept thinking that the real scholars must not have known how their participation was going to be used.
Did any of them mention the vampires?
https://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Vampire-Seth-Grahame-Smith/dp/0446563072/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Abraham+Lincoln%3A+Vampire+Hunter&qid=1688601905&s=books&sr=1-1&unfiltered=1
I saw one. The people in it tried to catch a Bigfoot with his mating call 😅
I've seen Bigfoot many a time. He's in all those commercials for Jacks Links.
His name is Harry.
*Confused dog*
What a waste of a perfectly good piece of bacon.
I occasionally see Xtian enemanozzles push the "Make 'em eat bacon!" nonsense, I educate them with this:
https://midamarhalal.com/collections/beef/products/breakfast-beef
I've had it (I know the owner), it's quite good. 🙂
(in Homer Simpson's voice): "Mmmmm. Baaaa-coooon."
Trader Joe's black forest bacon is one of my favorites. And of course pecan smoked thick cut bacon is quite good. Apple wood and cherry wood smoked are good too.
It's bacon, not French cognac.
Bacon marinated in French cognac. Food of the gods.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry
10-year-old cognac, at the very least.
Marinate bacon?!?!?! WT holy F? This is blasphemy against St. Krispy!!!
for shame!
But it's goooooooood bacon.
Hmm. Trader Joe's near me in both The U (University District) and over in West Seattle.
https://images.app.goo.gl/r2aGrNa3G7wHZJzM9
Yuck. No. No. No. Nononononononono.
You are right but only because it's too salty 😝
No such thing. (I told you, my cardiologist hates me)
Not your urologist ?
WTF?
> "...said his protest was intended to get the book banned in the country."
I don't see a connection between his action and his expressed intent. Why would burning a book cause the Swedish government to ban it?
OTOH, he did prove something... that the Muslim world will erupt in anger and even violence at the most minor affront.
Sounds an awful lot like the christian god.
What should they do? Pretty much just what they have done. Say "hey, kind of a dick move but still legal."
If local Muslims want to protest, have at it. If local Arab Christians want to counterprotest, cool. Just have law enforcement on standby so nobody gets violent.
Pretty weak god that needs human intervention to stop its book from being burned.
"My book? Who said it was my book? What do you think, I faxed it down here?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ikHdcIjNmM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0fZWVb9JXw
Personally, (Just my humble opinion), I think there are better ways to win a war of ideas than simply being a dick.
Of course there are better ways. But they require thought and empathy. Those are not in big supply for those who use religion as a weapon, no matter what side of which controversy they are on.
It may show outrage, but that's about all it does. So if that's the intent, sure. But, what does that serve in the end? Nothing, except draw more angst from the religious. It's not a good long term strategy for success in showing scripture to be nothing but fiction. This will take empathy because removing someone's most sacred heart warming consolations away in exchange for simply believing the truth, however disconcerting it may be is not an easy task. I'm not suggesting it's a war that will ever be totally won anyway.
Absolutely.
But being a dick is a feature of Christianity, not a bug. Their own history has shown this.
As in a dick the size of the Empire State Building. I haven't met many non-christians who could out a-hole a christian.
Christians set the bar so high in assholery, Olympic pole vaulters can't get over it.
Exactly. When I was a professional Christian barker, one of my main sermon themes was: "God wants you to not be a shitty person."
Just because a thing is legal doesn't automatically make it a good idea. While I have no use for religious zealots and magic books, I also have no use for senseless provocation that accomplishes nothing. I'm not seeing any positive outcome here.
The guy is like a bully, the more attention they receive the more likely they are to do something to garner that attention again. The locals got it right, ignore him. But the world stage, freaking out over one guy's protest and blaming Sweden? Huh, way to ensure it happens again.
Exactly.
"Any book that is considered sacred to its authors must be respected out of respect for its believers and freedom of expression must never be used as an excuse to undermine others."
-- Pope Francis
Do you know who even wrote your bible, Jorge? Do you have any idea who they were? The bible's an omnibus by an unknown amount of anonymous authors. You want us to automatically respect people when we have no knowledge of them?
And that whole thing about "undermining others." That's what believers have used the bible to do.
OT: Hotdog eating contests should not be covered on the sports page.
I remember guiltily watching one on TV once where the commentators said something like "this must be the greatest sporting achievement of the century". It was the 20th century too.
Just got back from the doctors, apparently my blood work is all perfect. He couldn't understand how good my liver was???? Neither could I given the hammering I gave it in my youth. Whatever – my blood pressure is still high and I might have to go on some sort of treatment, but luckily you guys have reassured me that it's not too bad. 🙂
I can't imagine gorging myself on wieners.
Oh wait... 😉
The nitrites would kill me immediately with a migraine from hell.
2-3 maybe, but dozens? You start to run out of room pretty quickly.
I'd be vomiting in no time.
Imagine trying to poop all that out a few hours later.
I remember the time DM bought by error Herta vegetarian knackis instead of the meat based ones. Aria gulped them without complaining.
We had a Labrador once that would eat pretty much anything, including apples and lettuce. But only if you gave them to her or put it in her bowl. We had apples lying all over the ground at times because we had 5 or 6 apple trees – them she never touched.
The joke here is Aria despised nearly anything who wasn't meat based and yet she couldn't make the difference. My Rhapsodie loved them and wouldn't touch those made of meat.
Labradors will sometimes eat themselves to death, so I've been told. When we inherited her she didn't have a waist. Had to be on a strict diet for about 6 months, plus lots of exercise dammit – usually about 6 o'clock in the morning. And again when I got home from work. The people that had her before us must have been crazy. She used to chase tennis balls. You'd be innocently taking her for a walk round the block when she dive into all the detritus at the bottom of a hedge, and come out with a tennis ball that had obviously been in there for about 20 years. Other than that she was totally brainless. No traffic sense. Her previous owners had simply trained to stop when they yelled "stop". I don't know how they did it, but she certainly used to do that – I've seen the skid marks. Even in the middle of chasing a cat.
Rhapsodie (half labrador) tended to overeat and steal food but it could have been because she didn't eat her fill before ending in a shelter. A couple of years after I adopted her, she stopped forcing herself to finish her dinner and left some for a night snack.
Depends on the kind of weiner?
That's why the winky emoji. :)
Agreed. That's just gross.
I'm not convinced video games are a sport either, but apparently you can make some good money at it. Education, no we don't need to spend money on that. Guys sitting on their asses playing games, that's worth a few million dollars.
A very small number of people can make money at it. Just like real sports.
Golf. A game, not a sport.
Auto racing (especially NASCAR). Not a sport. It's driving and the car is doing all the work. The driver just has to keep the thing on the track and not crash.
Neither of which make any sense as spectator sports. "he's making a left turn." "Oh, he's making another left turn." ad infinitum.
And televised golf is prescribed as a sleep-aid.
"Golf is not a sport...golf is men in ugly pants walking."
Can't remember who said that, but it must have been from a while back, before women started making significant inroads in the game.
I think it was Oscar Wilde who said something like golf is a good walk spoiled. But I just heard Freddie Flintoff on YouTube saying that tennis and cricket were boring as was Formula One. And he played cricket for England. Apparently it was "A means to an end." Don't blame him in a way, a five-day test can be dire if they don't have a bit of fire in their bellies.
https://youtu.be/LnET4RKXx5k
I think some sports are not "spectator" sports, like golf and marathons.
I'd be careful about that. Some time ago, I met Al Unser, Jr., at the baggage claim in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he and I had a nice chat about racing and related topics. When he shook my hand, I'm here to tell you, he had a grip like iron. That came from wrestling an Indy car (with NO power steering) around a track at well over 200 mph. There's also the matter of water weight loss during a race, which can be up to 10 pounds over the course of a 2-3 hour contest. In other venues, especially rally racing, I suspect that the physical demands on the body are even more severe.
Granted, this is a gearhead talking ... but IMHO, race car drivers ARE athletes, and auto racing IS a sport.
"For example, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes chess as a sport, "
🙄
In the words of Bugs Bunny: "Ohhh, bruddah!"
Miki Sudo of Port Richey (FL) was disappointed in her winning total of 39.5 hot dogs, which was nine short of her all-time high.
https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/2023-07-04/pasco-resident-successfully-defends-hot-dog-eating-title
Somebody eats that many hot dogs...more than once, even...and I want to ask where the funeral will be held.
I could barely manage a big one with two sausage and that's all I ate that day. I wouldn't be able to do it again.
I've eaten footlongs with no issue. Anything more and I bow out.
Had one at an agricultural field day the other day. They did a creditable German sausage whose name I've forgotten. It was about 15 inches long. The bun however was only about 3 inches. Country people are strange.
BRATWURST! Just remembered.
Pig in a tiny blanket?
I really enjoy a good Boerewors, but it's hard to get.
We had a place here called Uli's Famous Sausage at Pike Place Market that I used to get a sandwich from but COVID closed them up. When they reopened, they scaled operations and meat offerings way back. One of the victims was Boerewors They sell packets of the stuff, but they won't make you a sandwich anymore.
Last time I went by there it looked like they were closed again.
One foot and 5 inches from the converter I used.
Ick. That made me nauseous just to read that. And I love a good hot dog or two on the Fourth of July.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2_DzFKqkCE
Dunno how he stays so thin.
Barfs it all up later?
🎶Oh I love to eat them Oscar Mayer Wieners
That is what I'd really like to do-o-o-o-o-o
Cause if I eat them Oscar Mayer Wieners
You will find me barfing in the loo.
Must hurt with all the acid.
That's why bulemics have problems with esophageal scarring and dental problems due to acid erosion. Had a friend dealing with that in college. Wasn't very pretty.
I feel one where he explained. He just calorie counts. I think something like if he eats 8000 cal one day, he doesn't eat for the next 3 or 4 days. It seems a little weird but it keeps him happy. 😁
Our former governor, Charlie Crist, eats only one meal a day. Which is odd considering his father was a pediatrician.
Very high metabolism*. It doesn't mean his heart, kidneys and arteries are in good condition.
* I had the canine version for 14 years. 22 kg, no layer of fat on her ribs and could inhale between 800 g and 1 kg of food (most of it meat) a day.
Not to mention what that must do to one's stomach.
It's a sport, with leagues and all.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Eating
Bet their membership numbers are low and that they give out a lot of awards posthumously.
OT
And this is what religion does to the mind...
"The Passion of the Christ 2" is 'Like an Acid Trip,' Says Mel Gibson"
https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/1302836-the-passion-of-the-christ-2-is-like-an-acid-trip-mel-gibson
Had a few too many bad tabs, Mel? It shows.
Mel is a wingnut, bigtime.
The religion unhinged him. Religion does that.
More christian gore. Just what the world needs.
He's part of an extremist Catholic movement. Wonder if he'd consider making a film of the 3rd Century church when they became the state religion of Rome and answerable to no one. Would he make the molesting clergy the heroes?
He probably dismiss the pedophiles priests as hoaxes and/or isolated bad apples.
“One bad apple spoils the whole barrel.”
SERIOUSLY??? 😝🤦♂️🤢🤮
If they liked it once, they'll love it twice. Hollywood's guiding principal.
Edit: Hence the movies that never happened.
Needless to say, I shall be spending my money anywhere but this this religion-fueled tripe.
Last night my gal and I watched 𝐷𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑠: 𝐻𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟 𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑠 on Paramount+. It was a LOT of fun and very much worth our time.
I hadn't gotten around to it yet. (Chris Pine, yum!) But then I like the Justin Whalen 'Dungeons and Dragons' movie from 20 years ago.
Chris Pine is fun in his role as Edgin, but the whole cast really delivers well. Fact is, I liked it well enough to consider getting it on Blu-Ray!
See that wouldn't be much of an endorsement from me. When Blockbuster ran low back in the day, they borrowed from my collection. (I also currently have over 700 movies on VuDu, and yet I can never figure out what to watch. I need a boyfriend with an opinion)
Chris Pine ... double yum. :)
Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" will be making its debut in theaters this month. Looking forward to that one.
That looks good. Probably won't see it in theaters though. I pay for a hundred streaming services, might as well get some use out of them.
You and me, both. I've seen 𝐹𝑎𝑡 𝑀𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑦 a couple times, and it was interesting. I also remember the Infocom game, "Trinity," which I thought was among the very best text-driven computer games I ever played!
"All prams lead to the Kensington Gardens"
The Oppenheimer with deadly toys ?
"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
Yeah.
https://i.gifer.com/1mxG.gif
Stan and Kenny decided to get their money back from Gibson after seeing "Passion of the Christ." They discovered what we already knew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG5fhtqb2HI
$631 millon. Endgame beat that in 5 days. And as far as ROI, PoC 21x, Juno 35x.
Wait...there's another one coming out?!?!??!?
Mel, honey, take your meds and chill the fuck out. We don't NEED another one of your ghastly horrors let loose in the world.
Hope this thing dies a quick death among the rational. You know the cristers will flock to see it. Mel knows the kind of sadistic crazy he's appealing to.
He knows his fellow kkkristers will have to go see it. Virtue signalling, dontcha know.
It'll basically be a PureFlix production with a bigger budget, bigger numbers at the box office and a very niche audience.
I can't for the life of me see what burning a Koran or a Bible or a Torah adds to the debate about religion or lack of it. It's a stunt, not a debate. There were places in the ancient world that set aside public spaces for religious arseholes to debate each other. Let them do it, it's futile. I'm happy to sit on the sidelines and watch them make arses of themselves.
The problem is they keep bring WMDs to the debates.
1.9 billion Muslims on the planet x 5 prayers per day x 365 days per year = 3.47 trillion prayers this year alone to Allah. Net result: nothing. Alluh Deafbar: God ain't listenin!
But if it gives them comfort, what's the harm? (TM) ;)
(sorry. had to do it)
™
Was copying how XJC does it. :)
Gone are the Disqus days when I could do special characters/functions. I can understand why Substack wouldn't want a "newsletter" to be plastered with memes/GIFs, but special characters? What's so terrible about that?
alt + 0153 ™
alt + 0153
Didn't work.
Press the windows key and the period key* to bring up the emoji picker, then click on the omega symbol at the top of the window that opens. ™ is the third down on the rightmost column.
* For some reason the period key on the numerical keypad doesn't bring it up
You have to use a numeric key pad, which half of the planet doesn't have anymore since laptop makers decided they just wasted space.
alt0153
alt-0153
alt+0153
Nope.
*Looks for the alt button on her keyboard*
Burning books is wrong.
They should be pulped and recycled into paper for re-use as something useful, even if it is only (only?) toilet paper.