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Ghost of LL

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Posts posted by Ghost of LL

  1. 22 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

    Not a criticism GOLL, but I disagree with the bolded statement.  “Protestant” includes everything from the Anglican church to evangelical snake handlers and the abomination that is the politics-centric cowboy church.  The term protestant is perhaps the least theologically exclusive term you could find…they cover the theological map from Catholic-light to bat shit crazy.

    And if you are approaching this from the Catholic perspective, that church has a list of rules and requirements for salvation that appear nowhere in the Bible - yet make up some of the core tenets of the mother church (the list of sins requiring confession to a priest, last rights, Papal infallibility, etc.)

    I'm not talking about Protestants broadly.  I commented on "Protestants who fetishize the Ten Commandments."  And that's a lot of them.  But it's certainly not all.

    I'm fairly atheistic these days, but I grew up Catholic.  And at least when I went through CCD, the Church was pretty fucking supersessionist.  I assume it still is, based on my occasional readings of what the Pope has to say.  So I tend to think of this weird love of the Ten Commandments among purported "Christians" as a purely Protestant phenomenon. 

  2. On 6/24/2025 at 6:25 AM, HornOnTheBayou said:

    Right there with you. I also thought about putting it next to the board where I write announcements, like "Test on Wednesday", because I know students never look at that.

    But in all seriousness, I cannot in good conscience put this in my classroom. Off the top of my head, in my classes last year I know I had Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and athiests in my classes last year. I am not going to hang up an official sign from the government that says "I am the Lord, your god. You shall have no other gods before me."

     

    On 6/24/2025 at 7:15 AM, Goofyboy said:

    Sure you can. Put it up with some stuff said by Zeus, Ra, and others and label it Mythology. Have fun with malicious compliance.

    I don't think it's even a matter of squaring that circle.  It's just a fucking circle.

    If you look back at the original text--and any Biblical scholar worth a damn will agree with this--Yahweh isn't saying "I am the only god out there."  He's saying that "you shall have no other gods before me."

    That necessarily implies the existence of "other gods."  Now, Yahweh is a jealous fucker.  He doesn't want you putting Baal or Zeus ahead of him.  But he's not saying that they can't be co-equal.  And he's sure as shit not saying that Baal and Zeus don't exist.

    So fire away and hang your Vedas and Sutras and whatever else.  Just don't hang them above the Ten Commandments, I suppose.

    Or maybe do.  Jesus told y'all fuckers that the Ten Commandments don't really matter.  There are really just Two Commandments: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  

    I'll just never understand Protestants who absolutely fetishize the Ten Commandments in the face of Jesus's actual fucking words.

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  3. 34 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

    "God Bless Israel" in a POTUS address to the nation

    Cracking Up Lol GIF by GIPHY IRL

    AMERICA FIRST!

    4 minutes ago, Vegas64 said:

    We aren't going to war. We are bombing Iran from afar and letting Israel put boots on the ground and die in that manner.

    If this is truly contained, and we did truly obliterate (taking both statements with a bath tub of salt), then this was an amazing and awesome military exercise and America, the region (specifically Israel) and the world is better for it.

    This is every client I've ever had who said "we're just filing a quick suit for declaratory judgment."  Yeah--those counterclaims are a real bitch, though.

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  4. 23 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

    Generally speaking, we have our shit in buildings, not out on a tarmac day to day.  

    I think that's wrong.  Just put into Google Maps "Minot AFB," "Barksdale AFB," and "Dyess AFB" and count the number of B-52 are out on the flight line of the first two and how many B-1s are on the flight line at Dyess.

    And to be real honest, I don't see just a whole lot in the way of hardened shelters for the aircraft at those bases.  I see the hardened shelters for the weapons.  But it looks like those would be driven to the flight line and loaded on to the aircraft.

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  5. 2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    You can still have cold water oysters in the summer.  Some tasty PNW oysters in June is a good, good thing.

    Yep.  I'm going to be at Eventide Labor Day weekend.  I plan to eat all the oysters.

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  6. 1 hour ago, Mo Horn said:

    I had the best oyster I've ever had in my life a month ago at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo. I didn't get the largest one and it still took me 3 bites to eat it. 

    20250422_112907.thumb.jpg.bbb845ad6f43e97319b11e35f0a5e375.jpg

    The two I had at Tsukiji were unreal.  It's like they were the gozira of oysters.  They were every bit as good as a Wellfleet (which is generally my go-to).  But they took three or four bites to get through.  It was just unbelievable.

    My general preference is PNW.  But they're hard to get here in Austin.

    About ten years ago, I was up in Seattle with a group of guys going to a Rangers-Mariners game.  That's a great park, and we were just bar-hopping from our hotel to the stadium.  Along the way, we happened into a place that had Happy Hour $1 Puget Sound oysters.  The first dozen went down quick.  We're snacking on the second dozen when a couple of the guys said "we need to go or we're going to miss first pitch."  Fuck that--I'm missing first pitch.  I think I finally made it for the third inning after downing a couple dozen more.

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  7. With the contract situation with the core of this team, you've got probably five years to win a Cup.  That's plenty of time if you're thinking DeBoer isn't the guy.  Even if it takes a year or two for the new coach to implement his system, you've got the players locked down for that.  

    But if you think DeBoer might not be the guy, then you've got to pull that trigger now.  And I have no problem with that decision.

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  8. 22 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    The result of this ambiguity and the completely overheated rhetoric deployed against “Zionists”  means that among people who are most inclined to take dramatic and potentially illegal action, the difference between “Zionists” and “Jews” is nearly eliminated, especially since the vast majority of Jews, even those who oppose Netanyahu and the conduct of the war, believe that Israel has the right to exist as a uniquely Jewish entity.

    I think Israel has a right to exist as a uniquely Jewish entity.

    But the right to exist is different from a supposed right to expansion.  And that's particularly true where it want to retain its Jewish character.  

    If Israel is going to be both an expansionist entity, then it either needs to be a multi-ethnic country or a practitioner of ethnic clensing.  I don't support the latter option.  But that's the option that this Israeli government is undertaking.  

    I don't think opposing that renders one either anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, or anti-Israel.

    27 minutes ago, burnt beanz said:

    What's their exact status?

    Were they granted asylum?

    No lawyer, but I'm guessing if you're here under asylum and a family member carries out a terrorist attack then there is legal justification to remove you from our country. Seems pretty straightforward.

    Is there a legal justificiation for removing someone from the country based on the actions of a family member?  Can you please cite the legal authority for that proposition?

    Punishing family members for actions in which they did not participate is pretty anathema to our system of justice.  And I'm not familiar with any circumstance in which we have done that before.

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  9. 15 hours ago, Mdhorn said:

    These are all parks you could die in, make no mistake. Elephants toss cars as do the cape buffalo. They're parks where the animals roam free and you don't carry, which is fine.  I remember being on top of a hill overlooking a lake with signs that said you could exit at your own risk with an overlook.  I walked over and looked down at kudu carcasses littering the shore of the lake.  It was a killing zone when animals went down to drink.   

    We did a "walking safari" in the Serengeti.  We didn't go really far from the lodge.  I honestly don't think we were much out of sight of the lodge the entire time.  But actually, that made it all the more terrifying.

    We walked out with a guide and one Ranger with a rifle at the front and two Rangers with rifles at the back (one of whom was kind of always walking backwards).  We were told to walk single-file.  Along the way, we came across a herd of buffalo, and they started to get into defensive position.  That's when our guide said very calmly that we were going to change direction a little bit and to make sure you didn't look directly at the buffalo.  They'll fuck you up.

    But the whole way, the floor of the Serengeti was covered in bones.  You couldn't walk more than a couple feet without walking over a bone from a large animal.  And generally, these were not peaceful deaths; buffalo don't die peacefully in their sleep in the Serengeti.  And again--we're within sight of the lodge almost the entire way.  It's every night--there is death and terror just steps from your very nice room at the Four Seasons.

    Sleep tight.

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  10. 14 hours ago, Tonesky said:

    This is on my Radar.  Likely focused on SA (Kruger, etc.), as I have lots of distant family there - grandfather left 6 siblings there when he hopped a boat for America at about age 19.  Many of their descendants later left themselves, but many remain, mostly in Capetown.  Will probably be me and my, at time of trip, 18-19 year old son.  We want to do it right, but not likely to the expense of Four Seasons and similar luxury.  Any suggestions on specific operators, lodges, etc. for the safari portion?

    Particularly if you're doing South Africa, call Daisy du Plessis (https://www.rhinoafrica.com/en/about-us/meet-the-team/daisy-du-plessis/131).  She worked with us on our southern Africa stint and was a lifesaver when Covid shut down South Africa.  

    As you can probably see from my initial post, I am not a big fan of travel agents.  I like doing my own research and booking my own shit directly.  But in Africa, there is still a strong culture of using travel agents.  Some lodges won't even let you book directly; they only deal with travel agents.  That's how I came to use Daisy--I really wanted the Thorntree River Lodge in Zambia, but I couldn't book with them directly.

    By the way--I do strongly recommend taking a few days to see Victoria Falls.  It's amazing.  I was like "ok--it's just a waterfall."  Yeah; no.  It absolutely blew me away.  But beyond the Falls, staying at Thorntree was great.  You're right on the River, and you wake up to the sounds of the hippos snorting.  

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