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April 3, 2025
A Would-Be Buyer at an Automobile Show
April 2, 2025
April 1, 2025
The Greatest Strike in History
March 30, 2025
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/10/25”
If the "threats" were the least bit comparable to what is actually being done, you might have a point.
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The only thing new here is that it’s the government doing it.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln............
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/3/2025”
And I am reminded as is so often the case, of Robert Burns.
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/10/25”
Maybe if she had tried to remove a book.................
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/3/2025”
Some are, some aren't, depending on why they "refuse" to watch it. ("Refuse" is an interesting word choice, suggesting some reason other than mere lack of interest. And what might that be?) I'm not going to see it -- not refuse, just not going to see it -- simply because I have no interest in the entire Harry Potter story.
Is this really hard to understand?
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I'm old school. not up to the minute.
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Heimdahl was white, Goddamit!
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What fun is that?
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How many Anglicans actually know the distinctive teachings of their sect well enough to answer such a question? If my experience with other sects is any guide, not many.
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Nobody is obliged to assist Debate Me, Bro whackjobs looking for exposure.
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Why should I answer my question when you don't?
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Rushdie said he couldn't be a heretic because he wasn't a Muslim. I'll take him at his word.
I don't remember Protestants trying to take communion in Catholic churches, or thinking there was anything odd about it. Maybe the Catholic church has lightened up on that -- I haven't been paying attention -- but they're entitled to change their club rules.
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Leaving aside that that is entirely unresponsive, suppose you tell me what would happen if the Pope or the Grand Mufti declared you a heretic? Do you think they even think they could?
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No, that statement isn't. I take it, then, that we agree on the rest?
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Pinky gave up the hall monitor gig a while ago. I wasn't aware of any popular demand that someone else take it up.
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So? What makes something a "heresy" rather than just an idea is a structure that claims the authority to define what is true and punish those who believe otherwise. Unless that structure manages to co-opt the government into doing its dirty work, "heresy," however interesting to outsiders, is a matter of internal club rules and has no purchase on non- members.
If you can find a manichean or a pelagian out there and you want to argue that their ideas are even sillier than your preferred orthodoxy, have at it. I'll supply the popcorn. But unless you have some enforcement powers we don't know about, leave the "heresy" charges to the club members.
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The zeal of the convert. The bishop of Hippo had the same unfortunate tendency.
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Several years ago, I was representing some people in the maritime industry when a controversy bubbled up about some foreign company bidding to run some facilities in the port of Los Angeles, so I asked them about it. People in the shipping business don't get their panties in a twist about things like that, and many foreign companies, including Chinese companies, run U.S. terminals. (Singapore is particularly well-regarded in that respect, and based on what I saw about Singapore companies on another case, I'm not surprised.) Business is business.
There was never any reason to worry about the Hong Kong company running Panama Canal facilities. If an American-based company is now about to take over, it must have been in the works long before Trump decided to make hay about it. But we all know about the rooster who thinks his crowing makes the sun rise each morning.
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If by "meaningful," you mean something like interesting or instructive, sure. Just like Aeschylus or Shakespeare. Though nobody burns you at the stake for being wrong about them.
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With whom, exactly, are you arguing? I explicitly pointed out a hotly-disputed issue, indeed, in some folks' view, a heresy, in Islam. Is there some reason Saul, or any non-Christian, should care about whether Manicheanism is a "heresy"? A non-Christian might find it interesting that some Christians so regard it and why they do, but whether the club rules of someone else's club are "correct" is meaningless to non-members.
On “Group Activity: President Donald Trump Address to Congress”
A somewhat extreme reaction to Trump's speech:
https://people.com/sylvester-turner-congressman-houston-mayor-dead-11691129?hid=3c053c0efc766c62c665adc1b439a49799be966b&did=16772709-20250305&utm_campaign=ppl_relationship-builder&utm_source=ppl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=030525&lctg=3c053c0efc766c62c665adc1b439a49799be966b&lr_input=ae3c9729e518d1cd658fbf0103513ef6c01d84d8206d0d1191a2f8b45a7004dd&utm_term=news-alert
On “Open Mic for the week of 3/3/2025”
If I'm not mistaken, Saul isn't a Christian, so what some Christians think about Mancheanism is as relevant as who were the rightly-guided Caliphs -- a big issue to Muslims, but irrelevant to anyone else.
On “From Fox News: AG Pam Bondi announces Epstein files will start to be released on Thursday the 27th”
Isn't she too busy getting out subpoenas to members of the Warren Commission?
On “Open Mic for the week of 2/24/2025”
Irony is dead.
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Obama 2016?
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.