midwestkag 2/5/2020 4:05:32 AM

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Good morning!

Today, the President will be acquitted for life.

Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 4:44:44 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 6:11:31 AM

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Pouf, the magic drag queen

Lived non-binary

And frolicked at story hour in

The public library...

Alice in Dairyland 2/5/2020 7:35:55 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 2:   Hopefully all of the democrats!

Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 7:37:19 AM

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I imagine y’all have seen how Tantrum Nancy made a show of tearing up Trump’s speech at the end of the address?  And remember, she is now considered the leader of the relatively sober, moderate, sane wing of the party.

Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 7:38:13 AM

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Reply to Alice in Dairyland in 4:

well, no, since that would include my parents and my sister, among others. 

doppelganglander 2/5/2020 7:48:23 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 3: 

+++++++

Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 7:54:36 AM

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Alice in Dairyland 2/5/2020 8:19:58 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 6:   Yeah, well, I feel your pain.  My sister is one too.  So maybe not all of them, some could just enlightened?

Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 10:49:05 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 10:54:19 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 10:

They call themselves Leftists, so why haven't they left?

JCM 2/5/2020 11:11:05 AM

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Is voting to remove and defending the Biden syndicated 

buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 11:28:03 AM

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Reply to JCM in 12:

There's simply Gort to be a "Klaatu Barada Delecto" joke in there somewhere...

Syrah 2/5/2020 12:25:22 PM

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Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 12:33:34 PM

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Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 12:36:37 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 11:

I really believe that if, say, a million of the craziest Leftists could be convinced to go, with the sweetener of, say, $10K/per tossed in to prompt them to do so, it would be money well-spent.  (Again - crucially - on the condition that their US citizenship is revoked.)

buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 12:44:32 PM

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In #16 Occasional Reader said: I really believe that if, say, a million of the craziest Leftists could be convinced to go, with the sweetener of, say, $10K/per tossed in to prompt them to do so, it would be money well-spent.  (Again - crucially - on the condition that their US citizenship is revoked.)

That's strikingly reminiscent of my "Treif, Don't Strafe™" Middle East peace plan: offer the "Palestinians" $50,000 a head to leave the West Bank and Gaza, provided they renounce any claim to any part of Israel forever; reduce the relocation allowance by $10,000 in two months; two months later reduce it by another $10,000, etc.   Two months after the relocation allowance has dwindled to zero, crop-dust the "Palestinian" areas with pig fat.

Occasional Reader 2/5/2020 12:59:50 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 17:

Yep, and you may recall my proposed variation to your last step of the plan; bombardment of the Palis with pork-filled dumplings, which could be obtained plentifully (I imagine) from Tel Aviv-area Chinese restaurants. Of course, the UN and such would immediately and loudly object to these "wonton attacks on Palestinian civilians"". 

JCM 2/5/2020 1:11:14 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 15:

Back at the old joint I remember defending Romney against anti-mormon bigots.

buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 1:35:40 PM

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In #19 JCM said: Back at the old joint I remember defending Romney against anti-mormon bigots.

It's as silly to attack Mormons in general because of Romney as it is to attack Jews in general because of Bernie Sanders or Jerrold Nadler.

As far as Mormonism itself is concerned, I think of it as being intended as an attempt at creating a "distinctly American" Christianity; recall that at the time Joseph Smith founded the religion, there were all sorts of "religious experiments" going on in the still-very-young US.  You had the Amana and Oneida communities, which were experiments in "Christian communal living," you had Shaker communities; Mordechai Noah attempted to found "Ararat, a city of refuge for the Jews," on an island near Buffalo.  There was a conscious attempt to build things that were different from the institutions of tired old Europe, because this was a new nation in the New World.  Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa May Alcott, had his family living in one of these communes for a time.  And, if one wanted to, one could draw a parallel between these American attempts at "experimental living" and the kibbutz and moshav experiments in communal living that helped found the State of Israel---another interesting parallel/bond between the two nations.  For that matter, L. Frank Baum, at the end of the 19th century, wrote "The Wizard of Oz" and its sequels, and a number of other fairy tales, with the express intent of creating new, distinctly American fairy tales/fantasies that were not imports from tired old Europe.

I leave the various Christians to debate what is or is not legitimate about Mormonism; I'm merely observing that it comes out of an American tradition of trying new things, and attempting to re-make old things as distinctly American.

JCM 2/5/2020 1:52:17 PM

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Senate acquits.

No surprise.

buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 2:01:07 PM

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Reply to JCM in 21:

Well, as the saying goes, "acquit while you're ahead."

Syrah 2/5/2020 2:01:37 PM

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I am going to make a bold and risky prediction. 

Now that the impeachment farce is over, the House and senate Democrats will step back and cease to be little more than a collection of angry, tantrum tossing anti-Trump zealots,....for about an hour and a half.

Then they get back to their primary task finding some come crime, som indiscretion, misspoken word or offensive gesture for which they can bring new and even more devastating articles of impeachment.

Syrah 2/5/2020 2:05:58 PM

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Trump responds in Twitter

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1225174713992990721?s=21

lucius septimius 2/5/2020 2:06:52 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 20:

A friend of mine is convinced that hellmouth is under the Finger Lakes on account of all the stuff that arose -- Mormonism, Oneida, Spiritualism, and, of course Feminism.

It is noteworthy that for many of these religious movements (and speaking as the product of one of them) the ideal was pre-Temple Judaism.  Among Mormons, there is a view (perhaps going back to Joseph Smith himself) that Smith had discovered the original "true" strain of monotheism that existed in Egypt before the Exodus and which the Israelites took with them when they left.  He was interested in Egyptology, and in those days mummies were being recovered by the bushel and shipped to America.  Inside mummies one often found bits of papyrus -- Smith apparently claimed to have deciphered these and "discovered" the original religion.  In the mythology he created, that pure strain had been brought to America.   One implication was that the Revolution prepared the way for the new Gospel that he was given to proclaim -- just as the expansion of the Hellenistic world and the rise of the Roman Empire had prepared the way for the rise of Christianity, the discovery and settlement of America and the Revolution and creation of the new American empire paved the way for the proclamation of the "true" religion in its purest form.  

It's clear he derived many of his ideas from Masonic ritual which in turn developed out of Hermeticism.  That too was based on a newly discovered religious text -- the Corpus Hermeticum -- supposedly of Egyptian origin that contained the "pure" religion that existed before the Exodus.  The Hermetic enlightenment was supposed to unify Christendom (and possibly pave the way for the reconciliation with both Judaism and Islam).  And just like Joseph Smith's revelation, it was based on elaborate forgeries (though in this case, unintentionally).

buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 2:48:38 PM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 25:

You're far better versed in these things than I; my immediate reaction was to simply make a crack about "...when I opened the Seventh Hermetic Seal..."

Actually, though, what strikes me most is your reference to Masonic ritual, since an obsession with that drives the invention of the Nation of Islam too.  If one reads that charming forgery, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," when Malcolm X is in prison and one of his brothers is trying to convert him to the NOI, all the references/contrasts/proofs that the NOI is the One True Religion are based on arguing with, and one-upping, Masonic ritual. Of course, back in those days, "lodges" were a big thing in both black and white communities---the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Moose, Elks, etc., etc.  I've seen more than one store selling Masonic paraphernalia when I've driven through black communities; I've never seen such an establishment in a white community.  Farrakhan's NOI is basically Amos 'n' Andy's "Knights of the Sea" (or, if you will, Kramden and Norton's "Raccoon Lodge") with a big dollop of Afrocentrism, a slightly-smaller dollop of old-time evangelism, and a sprinkling of Islamic jimmies on top.

PaladinPhil 2/5/2020 2:53:47 PM

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Aspiring musician charged after false coronavirus claim says he hoped to make viral video

buzzsawmonkey 2/5/2020 3:07:23 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 2/5/2020 3:42:59 PM

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In #10 Occasional Reader said: Trump should announce an “expatriation benefit“ proposal. Modest financial assistance to all the leftists who are swearing they’ll leave the country if he is reelected, in order to help them do so; on the condition that their citizenship is permanently revoked. “Let’s help them put their money where their mouths are“ could be the slogan.

With extra support for socialists willing to move to Venezuela or North Korea

lucius septimius 2/5/2020 4:22:19 PM

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doppelganglander 2/5/2020 4:51:59 PM

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In #25 lucius septimius said: (and speaking as the product of one of them)

I still think you should write a book about it.