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You are here: Home / Open Threads / I Get Mail (Open Thread)

I Get Mail (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  March 6, 20166:41 pm| 200 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, General Stupidity

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Commenter Sacrablue shared a prototype for a classy Trump White House Christmas card:

drumph

As valued commenter Corner Stone might say, shutters! Christ, it’s enough to make you miss GWB’s costumed Scotties.

The other day, valued commenter Soylent Green mentioned that he was going to check out a pro-Bundy gang rally at Portland City Hall, and I invited him to send photos to share. He did! Report and photos below the fold…

Soylent Green reports:

The event was uneventful and short-lived, about 90 minutes, and with no more than about 30 people present. They gathered at our city hall (recognizable to anyone who has seen “Portlandia.”) These folks are all locals, not outsiders (wearing Oregon Ducks caps to go with their Lavoy the Martyr T-shirts) and they were relatively subdued. No unconcealed guns, no verbal confrontations. Almost no cops around. I’m afraid Portland is just too civilized a place to see anything more dramatic.

Good. Here are some of the photos:

Open thread!

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Previous Post: « Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: Cage Match
Next Post: Democratic Debate Open Thread »

Reader Interactions

200Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    March 6, 2016 at 6:46 pm

    Stipulating that consulting adults should be able to marry whom they want:

    Can we now put the Trump marriage(s) under the speculative spotlight the way Clintons’ marriage was/is?

    First, Donald: What role do you think your wealth plays in luring women that are obviously out of your league in terms of looks, intelligence, and age?

    Melanoma: On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being biting into a sandwich to find a dirty fingernail and 10 realizing that the co-worker’s applejuice you just drank was not apple-juice, how disgusted are you when Donald starts to put his stubby vulgarian fingers on your supple, dusky, unlined mittel-European flesh?

    Maureen Dowd, a nation turns its prurient eyes to you…

  2. 2.

    Gimlet

    March 6, 2016 at 6:48 pm

    Is that Joe and Mika in the first picture?

  3. 3.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 6:48 pm

    And Trump gains a couple of points in the polls….

  4. 4.

    Ben Cisco

    March 6, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    @Trentrunner: There’ll be no speculation, mainly b/c of envy among those who would otherwise be doing the tut-tutting.

    On an unrelated note, does anyone know why that dude with the 20mm cannon in Predator keeps automatically running some braindead video everytime the site loads?

  5. 5.

    p.a.

    March 6, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    What’s the phrase? Greasy fingered vulgarian?

  6. 6.

    Baud

    March 6, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    Couldn’t agree with the counterprotestors more: KEEP IT PUBIC!!!

  7. 7.

    dexwood

    March 6, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    Trump – Fuck that other guy, I’m the Most Interesting Man in the World.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    March 6, 2016 at 6:52 pm

    … and the message inside the Christmas card is:

    “Rich Or Poor, It’s Nice To Have Money.”

  9. 9.

    JPL

    March 6, 2016 at 6:52 pm

    Soylent Green, Thank you for posting this, since the media is plans on ignoring it.

  10. 10.

    Ruckus

    March 6, 2016 at 6:53 pm

    @Trentrunner:
    First problem, the donald doesn’t think he is in any way out of her league in terms of looks, intelligence and age and that wealth always counts.
    Second problem, there is no accounting for taste or marriage requirements. She might like drinking a co-workers “apple juice,” (assuming she’s ever worked) however disgusting that may be to the rest of the world.

  11. 11.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 6:53 pm

    Trump photo critique from a non-professional: Move the left candelabra to the left so it frames the painting; straighten the candles too.

    Also, we need some soft lighting on Trump to give more of an ethereal glow.

  12. 12.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    March 6, 2016 at 6:55 pm

    @p.a.:
    Short. Short fingered vulagrian. But i would not be surprised if they were greasy also

  13. 13.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 6, 2016 at 6:55 pm

    @p.a.: Or “Vulgar Talking Yam” per Charles Pierce.

  14. 14.

    Ruckus

    March 6, 2016 at 6:57 pm

    @redshirt:
    If you are going to be critical, what about the palm behind the hairpiece? Can’t tell if it makes the hairpiece look better or worse.

  15. 15.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    March 6, 2016 at 6:57 pm

    “When I asked you to be my first lady I meant today”

  16. 16.

    MazeDancer

    March 6, 2016 at 7:00 pm

    Hillary Clinton is on reddit. She is totally fearless.

  17. 17.

    Ben Cisco

    March 6, 2016 at 7:01 pm

    @redshirt:

    Also, we need some soft floor-mounted lighting on Trump to give more of an ethereal a demonic glow.

    There, that’s better.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    March 6, 2016 at 7:04 pm

    @MazeDancer: Holy shit! She’s got balls!

  19. 19.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    March 6, 2016 at 7:05 pm

    The late Leona Helmsley had a hilarious interview in Playboy when she talked about Trump.(Trump said that Leona destroyed her husband Harry, who owned the Empire State Building at onentime, real estate empire) She retorted that The Donald destroyed his father’s and kept on calling trump’s 2nd Marla Maples as Maple Marbles.

  20. 20.

    scav

    March 6, 2016 at 7:08 pm

    Scores severely low on the “Merry” quotient. Nothing says “Seasonal” either, unless the only magi available was Caspar the gold-carrying Ghost and he delivered it all to the saloon cast of the Wild Wild West.

  21. 21.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 7:10 pm

    @MazeDancer: I doubt fear plays much into it. You see, famous and powerful people have this thing called “assistants”.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    March 6, 2016 at 7:10 pm

    @MazeDancer:
    @Baud:

    Looks like she is among friends there. That’s good. People there can be nasty.

  23. 23.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 6, 2016 at 7:11 pm

    Wait don’t tell me, this is Donald Trump’s response to Mitt Romney, one-upping him to make fun of the station wagon roof carrier thing, right?

    The real scandal with that if I recall was Mitt trying to charge the carrier rental to his campaign as “overhead”.

  24. 24.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 7:12 pm

    It’s the tough guy scowl that wins me over.

  25. 25.

    Starfish

    March 6, 2016 at 7:12 pm

    @MazeDancer: Uh no. She just dropped in to say “Thank you.” She is not answering any questions or anything.

  26. 26.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    March 6, 2016 at 7:12 pm

    Speaking of stupid, fucking Dreher, that fucking fuck, knob slobbering over the dried up corpse of some convert bishop that the OCA undoubtedly mistakenly and stupidly elevated. As always, Dreher is theologically and factually incorrect, and is being his regular asshole self.

    A couple of readers rightly correct me for giving the impression that in Orthodoxy, an incorrupt body is incontrovertible evidence of sainthood. It is not. I am personally choosing to take this as a definitive sign, because I knew Vladyka Dmitri. But doing so is not the way of the Orthodox Church. If he is to be canonized, that will be something for the Church to decide, after much discernment.

  27. 27.

    Teddy's Person

    March 6, 2016 at 7:14 pm

    Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like the overflowing bosom of a pouty woman and her constipated gentleman friend.

  28. 28.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 7:17 pm

    @Baud: Reddit is probably close to Patient Zero for the BernieBro. Maybe Hillz is looking for a vaccine.

  29. 29.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 7:18 pm

    @Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: I don’t understand, Dreher supports the so-called “Benedict Solution” or whatever the hell he calls it, which I read to mean the withdrawal from secular society. So why, oh why, must he continue to blog in the secular world? Retire to the monastery Rod, stop blogging.

  30. 30.

    mike in dc

    March 6, 2016 at 7:19 pm

    First pic is a little porny.

  31. 31.

    delk

    March 6, 2016 at 7:20 pm

    Wow! David Beckham has really let himself go.

    Oh wait, that’s not Posh Spice…

  32. 32.

    feebog

    March 6, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    Needs moar Christmas sweater with raindeer.

  33. 33.

    jayboat

    March 6, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    @redshirt:
    Ha. I was thinking the same thing. Not the sort of place one would find T-Rump supporters methinks.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    March 6, 2016 at 7:24 pm

    @Mr Stagger Lee: Maple Marbles, LOL!

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    March 6, 2016 at 7:25 pm

    @redshirt:

    Trump photo critique from a non-professional: Move the left candelabra to the left so it frames the painting; straighten the candles too.

    I think you’d be better off getting rid of the candelabras completely. The one on the left is in an unfortunate position, and moving it to frame the painting will make it worse. The whole scene is too busy, and eliminating a few unnecessary objects would probably improve it. And fire the interior decorator.

  36. 36.

    KB

    March 6, 2016 at 7:25 pm

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): How can he play the piano with such short, greasy fingers?

  37. 37.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 7:27 pm

    @Roger Moore: Candelabras are classy though, as everyone knows.

  38. 38.

    Tim C.

    March 6, 2016 at 7:31 pm

    @Trentrunner: Don’t you understand the rules of IOKIYAR?

  39. 39.

    PurpleGirl

    March 6, 2016 at 7:31 pm

    @feebog: Or lots and lots of snowflakes.

  40. 40.

    Ruckus

    March 6, 2016 at 7:32 pm

    @Roger Moore:
    The only way to improve that picture is to burn it and the drive card.

  41. 41.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 7:34 pm

    @Ben Cisco: Same thing, really. The devil was an angel, after all.

  42. 42.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 6, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    @Baud: They must be from the San Fernando Valley.

  43. 43.

    Mike in NC

    March 6, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    Trump’s classy remodeling of the White House would be only slightly better than what the British did to it in 1814.

  44. 44.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    March 6, 2016 at 7:39 pm

    @LAO:

    As somebody who is Orthodox, the monastics bug the ever living fuck out of me when they want to prattle on about the evils of the secular world and the superiority of their own, all while they mooch donations and hawk product. Historically, that’s where families sent their socially awkward or really unskilled sons and daughters. The monastery was there to retreat to and meditate. Now we get asshole convertsy like Dreher et al. listening to people who have no clue about regular life acting as role models.

    Dreher’s wife must be an incredibly frustrated woman – we had some in our parish just like him.

  45. 45.

    phein55

    March 6, 2016 at 7:39 pm

    Remember when Schwarzenegger was revealed to have slept with a rival’s wife, and had said woman call her husband under some pretext while they were still lying in bed together, then shouted “I fucked your wife!” over the phone?

    Remember how that sunk his candidacy for governor?

    Yeah, me neither. Sexual mores, along with any other societal standards, are for use by the wealthy and the powerful against you, not against themselves.

  46. 46.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 7:43 pm

    @phein55: Clarification: They’re used against Democrats whereas Republicans….. well, boys will be boys, you know.

  47. 47.

    Poopyman

    March 6, 2016 at 7:43 pm

    @mike in dc:

    First pic is a little porny.

    Probably because that’s Trump’s “O” face.

  48. 48.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    March 6, 2016 at 7:43 pm

    @KB:
    I learned a long time ago that sitting at the piano does not indicate one can PLAY the piano. The instrument, like the bimbo, is just a prop to make the short-fingered vulgarian look impressive.

  49. 49.

    PurpleGirl

    March 6, 2016 at 7:46 pm

    In the Trump photo, take away the candelabras and the clock. The clock blocks the painting. It looks like decorator was going for what in the trade was known as Bronx Renaissance. Although it usually included a lot of red velvet curtains and red walls, it also included lots of brass and gold. Decorators joked among themselves that it was look favored by former Jewish Bronx residents when they moved to Westchester County and thought they were being classy.

  50. 50.

    Miss Bianca

    March 6, 2016 at 7:46 pm

    Any word on how big the protest/counter-protest crowds were in Portland?

  51. 51.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 6, 2016 at 7:46 pm

    @Poopyman: I think I need to head to the store for some Brain Bleach™.

  52. 52.

    PurpleGirl

    March 6, 2016 at 7:50 pm

    @redshirt: And an affair in your 40s is just a youthful indiscretion.

  53. 53.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 7:51 pm

    It’s all over but the crying for Rubio, right. This made me laugh.

  54. 54.

    Gian

    March 6, 2016 at 7:53 pm

    @MazeDancer:

    well she did dodge sniper fire

  55. 55.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    March 6, 2016 at 7:54 pm

    It looks like the picture goes back to at least 2007. He looks like a relative youngster there.

    He didn’t have much taste in decorating then, either.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    March 6, 2016 at 7:55 pm

    @LAO:
    It didn’t last, page is gone already

  57. 57.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 6, 2016 at 7:55 pm

    @LAO: Speaking of schisms, they’re apparently about to start the excommunications at the GOS.
    Is this the right exit for Avignon?

  58. 58.

    sacrablue

    March 6, 2016 at 7:56 pm

    @KB: It’s a baby grand.

  59. 59.

    PurpleGirl

    March 6, 2016 at 7:57 pm

    OY: Are we going to have a Downton Abbey thread, it being the last shows of the season and the series. PBS plans to show a BAFTA special about DA at 8 pm; the last episode at 9-10:30 and then a PBS farewell at 10:30.

  60. 60.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 7:58 pm

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): damn. It was the picture of Marco in the oversized chair and all the Photoshopping it engendered.

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 7:59 pm

    @PurpleGirl:

    Decorators joked among themselves that it was look favored by former Jewish Bronx residents when they moved to Westchester County and thought they were being classy.

    Or Leonard’s on Northern Boulevard.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    March 6, 2016 at 8:00 pm

    @PurpleGirl: Yes! Got one in the hopper just for the ocassion. Someone else should be putting up a debate thread any minute now.

  63. 63.

    Poopyman

    March 6, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    OT, but I’ll mark the moment.

    There are two times in the year that I hear the snow geese – in the fall as they’re flying south at altitude for at least a few more miles to the Chesapeake, and spring as they head north. For some reason it’s always been after dark, and their ethereal hooting several hundred feet overhead is unforgettable, and a fitting marker.

    I hear them tonight. Spring is coming.

  64. 64.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 8:02 pm

    @JPL: I want to second this. Few reports of how not sizable the “free the Bundy nuts” demonstrations turned out to be. I think JJ McNabb linked to the Bundy Ranch Facebook page where there was angry bitching that patriots stayed home.

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 8:02 pm

    @LAO:

    It’s the tough guy scowl that wins me over.

    Yes. It’s very Christmas-y.

    (“Hey, Santa, you suck, you amateur! And you’re fired!”)

  66. 66.

    Technocrat

    March 6, 2016 at 8:02 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Whooooooo, that is is going to be a lively thread.

    I will say though, it saddens me that political partisans can’t just allow each other to be wrong. We have to be moral failures. Not mistaken, but evil.

    Politics makes people stupid, and is ultimately a suboptimal way to run the joint.

  67. 67.

    Jimbo

    March 6, 2016 at 8:03 pm

    Hi,
    Could anyone here tell me of a dog rescue for special needs animals?
    I’m in Colorado.
    Yesterday I found a male puppy,(Shepherd mix/mutt) that recently went through a rear limb removal, (within a couple months), abandoned behind a Home Depot.
    He was just laying there, anxious, and waiting on his people, I guess. Human projection on my part.
    But it had been a few days, you could just tell. It took 2 hours to get close to him with an offering of water. Then he drank a couple quarts.
    He ducks hands reached for him, and fears the lead.
    I’ve already been to the local Humane Society, but it was the weekend. Pictures were taken, information given.

  68. 68.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 8:04 pm

    @Technocrat: It’s a good way to lay down the line at a blog, though, otherwise, a small percentage of commentators will dominate conversation.

  69. 69.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 8:04 pm

    @SFAW: Seriously, one set of my grandparents took the Bronx to Westchester route and I promise you, their very lovely home in ritzy Purchase, NY looked nothing like that. It was tacky but not gold leaf tacky. Definitely is a Long Island look. Lol

  70. 70.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 8:05 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I think this is a decision to deprive the movement of oxygen.

  71. 71.

    sm*t cl*de

    March 6, 2016 at 8:05 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I think you’d be better off getting rid of the candelabras completely

    Can’t have a LIberace homage without candelabras.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 8:06 pm

    @KB:

    How can he play the piano with such short, greasy fingers?

    He’ll just stick to the first few bars of “C-Jam Blues” and declare himself the world’s classiest pianist. (Or was he going to say he had the world’s classiest p3nis? I can never remember. )

  73. 73.

    delk

    March 6, 2016 at 8:06 pm

    @SFAW: Ha! My husband had his bar mitzvah at Leonards of Great Neck.

  74. 74.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 8:07 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: Personally speaking, I can’t stand the daily kos. I think I’m too old to listen to the never ending complaining.

  75. 75.

    Nutella

    March 6, 2016 at 8:07 pm

    @Trentrunner:

    That’s the worst spellcheck error ever. That poor woman not only has to recline on a hard surfacd while over made up and under dressed, she has to live with Donald Trump. Calling her “Melanoma” is not nice. Her name is Melania.

    Melanoma is a kind of cancer that is often fatal.

  76. 76.

    Germy

    March 6, 2016 at 8:07 pm

    @PurpleGirl: Fun seeing the cast out of period costume.

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 8:07 pm

    @LAO:

    Definitely is a Long Island look.

    LI, represent!

    (Although most people in Great Neck have significantly more class than the decor at Leonard’s)

  78. 78.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 8:08 pm

    @LAO: I keep forgetting the long game! I blame the retreating rhinovirus.

  79. 79.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 8:08 pm

    @Jimbo: Try this:
    http://www.gsror.com/

    German Shepherd Rescue of the Rockies.

  80. 80.

    Applejinx

    March 6, 2016 at 8:09 pm

    @redshirt: Not on /r/hillaryclinton she ain’t. It would be really tacky for Bernistas to go flood her own fan group just to gripe, which probably means they will. I’m Applejinx there too, and I will certainly not be going and sassing her fan group.

    A place like this is MEANT for snarky, partisan discourse. Hassling /r/hillaryclinton would be the height of tacky. I wish ’em joy that their namesake came and expressed good wishes: nice shout-out, and totally on-topic for that subreddit.

  81. 81.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 8:10 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Hey Adam, is this dying thread open enough for a religious (Xtian) question that has me completely confused?

  82. 82.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 8:11 pm

    @delk:

    Ha! My husband had his bar mitzvah at Leonards of Great Neck.

    I would venture to say that the number of bar mitzvah’s at Leonard’s exceeds that for all other venues, combined. At least on the North Shore and Queens. Maybe other boroughs as well. Except Staten Island.

  83. 83.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 8:11 pm

    @Applejinx: You’re on Reddit?! Totally shocked.

  84. 84.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 8:11 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): hopefully, you are feeling better.

  85. 85.

    Jimbo

    March 6, 2016 at 8:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks

  86. 86.

    Technocrat

    March 6, 2016 at 8:14 pm

    @redshirt:

    No doubt. Moderation is essential on the internet. I was more commenting on how the CW is becoming “kos was always a sellout”. See the Booman link in DXM’s post. And I typically find Booman to be relatively even-keeled.

    ETA: When I said “a suboptimal way to run the joint”, I meant the planet, not kos’s blog :)

  87. 87.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 8:19 pm

    @LAO: Thanks – a lots, but clearly the cognition remains compromised. Though that doesn’t explain my Xtian confusion I want to consult Adam about; its way too weird to be blamed on viral fuzz.

  88. 88.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 6, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    @redshirt:

    LOL

  89. 89.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’m intrigued. Hopefully, Adam will respond.

  90. 90.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    March 6, 2016 at 8:29 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    He should just rename it the Broman Tribune. What a bunch of useless “hot take” whining about ways white men are now having to check their privilege when the stakes are unacceptably high for literally everyone else.

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 8:33 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): sure, though I’m going to step out for five and stir my soup! Or put it in the debate thread.

  92. 92.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    March 6, 2016 at 8:39 pm

    @sacrablue:
    How are women like pianos?

    When they are not upright they are grand.

    Thanks-you , don’t forget to weigh your tipster, I’ll be here all week

  93. 93.

    Miss Bianca

    March 6, 2016 at 8:39 pm

    @Jimbo:

    Aw, poor little critter! Where in CO are you?

  94. 94.

    Jimbo

    March 6, 2016 at 8:45 pm

    @Miss Bianca: @Miss Bianca:
    Right now I’m working in Pueblo, which is where I found him.
    I took him up to my brothers place in Colorado Springs, big yard, and other dogs to mix with.

  95. 95.

    dantanna

    March 6, 2016 at 8:47 pm

    Lady looks like a dude on the piano.

    Tranny and the Trump?

  96. 96.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 8:48 pm

    Ugh. Just reached the rodent infested portion of hoarders. I think I’m going to be sick. (I know, ridiculous show that capitalizes on the mentally ill but I can’t help myself!)

  97. 97.

    Joel

    March 6, 2016 at 8:52 pm

    @Ben Cisco: doesnt a minigun use standard NATO 7.62 ammo?

  98. 98.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Cool. I’d rather put it here so as not to distract from more important things like the debate thread. No rush, obviously, but I need help getting my brain around this.

    There is this overtly (by which I mean loud and proud) Christian family that I know, by circumstance rather than choice. When they moved from one state to another they selected the town where they settled – at least in part – based on the warm welcome they received from the pastor and congregation of a church they visited there.

    A few years later, they are returning to their home state. Interesting and potentially related/relevant details can be provided upon request. What’s puzzling me most is that the wife told me in an email that she expected an invitation to her in laws for Easter, not so much for the fellowship as to help with the cooking.

    She went on to say that they don’t know how to tell the in laws that they are no longer evangelical Christians and don’t celebrate that holiday. Am I more uniformed than I believed? I thought all Christians celebrate Easter and it’s sort of a foundational event marked by the holiday. And the holiest day of that religious year. Most of my Christian friends have been doing it wrong their entire lives.

    Can you help? If it’s a) not obvious and b) important, the entire bunch is dumber than a bag of hammers.

  99. 99.

    bystander

    March 6, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    @Baud:

    Holy shit! She’s got balls!

    She’s KEEPING IT PUBIC!

  100. 100.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 8:55 pm

    @dantanna: Yeah, good call. Sheesh!

  101. 101.

    Miss Bianca

    March 6, 2016 at 8:57 pm

    @Jimbo:

    besides the GS rescue Adam Silverman mentioned, there are good shelters round about in Pueblo AND Springs:

    http://www.pawspueblo.org/‎

    PawsPueblo specifies that they are a no-kill shelter

    Humane Society of the Pikes Peak region:

    https://www.hsppr.org/pueblo

    They also have a branch in Springs.

    Then there’s this shelter, also specified no-kill, in Springs:

    http://palsforever.org

    Good luck! Burns me up to hear about abandoned doggies.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    March 6, 2016 at 8:59 pm

    @Jimbo:
    I know of someone in CO who I used to work with who deals with animals with less than the requisite number of legs. Email Betty and have her email me so we can get together and I’ll contact my friend and see if he can help.

  103. 103.

    Jimbo

    March 6, 2016 at 9:02 pm

    @Ruckus: OK, thanks. He gets around really well, from what I saw.

  104. 104.

    Jimbo

    March 6, 2016 at 9:05 pm

    @Miss Bianca: I went through the list that came up on google, and the Humane Society is definitely not something I’m a fan of.
    Teller county was the nearest “No Kill” shelter.
    He’s just a puppy.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 9:05 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I think there are two different issues here. The first is that they’ve stopped being evangelicals – of whatever flavor of evangelical they had been. This would be enough to put up a social (socio-religious) barrier between them and the members of the former congregation where they are moving back to. Though I would think those folks would take it as a chance to try to bring wayward sheep back into the flock.

    The second is are there Christians/Christian denominations that don’t celebrate Easter? Yes, yes there are. The United Church of God:
    http://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/christians-who-dont-celebrate-easter-what-do-they-know

    And its offshoots, such as the Christian Biblical Church of God:
    http://cbcg.org/should_christians_celebrate_easter.htm

    Also, Jehova’s Witnesses, some Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, and some of the Amish and Mennonites and others of the plain folk.
    http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/jehovahs-witness/TQ3S5BUIKGMA69K2B

    As a trained (in comparative religion) outsider looking in I think one of the major issues is where the focus is. I’ve heard Catholic theologians, and some Catholic priests, as well as Mainstream Protestant ones often lament that the focus of Easter is on the wrong things. It either winds up on the passion, and you get a celebration of the violence around the Crucifixion, or it winds up on the modern American commercialized Easter of bunnies and chocolates and eggs. Their concern was that the real emphasis of the holiday, on the actual good news (gospel) of the celebration, should be on the risen Christ and the fulfillment of the promise of redemption in the resurrection.

    I hope that helps.

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 9:07 pm

    @Ruckus: @Jimbo: I’ll do it right now, I’m in here and this way you don’t have to wait. So expect a digital intro email from me to the two of you in about three minutes.

  107. 107.

    Pogonip

    March 6, 2016 at 9:09 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Are they Worldwide Church of God (Armstrongists)? That cult calls itself Christian but celebrates Jewish holidays instead of the Christian ones.

  108. 108.

    Miss Bianca

    March 6, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    @Jimbo:

    No, there are “no kill” shelters in Pueblo and Springs. But the Humane Society in Buena Vista, where I have adopted and taken dogs, is just excellent:

    http://ark-valley.org/

    I have to go up that way myself sometimes, so if it comes to it I might even be able to come get him and take up there for you – but I wouldn’t be able to get to you till Tuesday/Wednesday.

  109. 109.

    Bill Arnold

    March 6, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    @Technocrat:
    A similar sentiment (though with less research backing) is Politics is the Mind-Killer (Eliezer Yudkowsky, an AI researcher/philosopher)

    Politics is an extension of war by other means. Arguments are soldiers. Once you know which side you’re on, you must support all arguments of that side, and attack all arguments that appear to favor the enemy side; otherwise it’s like stabbing your soldiers in the back—providing aid and comfort to the enemy. People who would be level-headed about evenhandedly weighing all sides of an issue in their professional life as scientists, can suddenly turn into slogan-chanting zombies when there’s a Blue or Green position on an issue.

  110. 110.

    hellslittlestangel

    March 6, 2016 at 9:14 pm

    Caption: Good evening, Mr. Bond.

  111. 111.

    NotMax

    March 6, 2016 at 9:19 pm

    @SFAW

    It’s still there. Gallery of pictures for those who have never been exposed to the ‘wretched excess retro-moderne’ school of decoration.

  112. 112.

    Jimbo

    March 6, 2016 at 9:23 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Good info. I just want him to end up someplace “nice”.
    He has had a rough start so far.

  113. 113.

    Miss Bianca

    March 6, 2016 at 9:30 pm

    @Jimbo:

    Let me know if I can help. I’m sure that nice Dr. Silverman would be willing to set up a way for us to communicate directly. : )

  114. 114.

    Jimbo

    March 6, 2016 at 9:35 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Yes indeed, I’m in conversation with “Ruckus” on this now.

  115. 115.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 9:36 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Its Adam and I’m taking care of it now.

  116. 116.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 9:40 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Speaking of Adam, is there any reconciliation of the two origin stories in the Old Testament regarding Adam? IE Lilith and Eve?

  117. 117.

    Miss Bianca

    March 6, 2016 at 9:41 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Holy crap, you’re on it already?? What are you, the eye of the Panopticon? ; ) Does this mean that I should be watching my email or something?

  118. 118.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 9:46 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: The United Church of God, and its offshoots, such as the Christian Biblical Church of God are both totally news to me, so thank you.

    Also, Jehova’s Witnesses, some Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, and some of the Amish and Mennonites and others of the plain folk.I knew of those, and my bias didn’t let me think of the JW/FDLS as Christian (or LDS for that matter).

    I’ve not gotten a good sense of what variety they were in NY, since I didn’t much care but the church they joined in VA was Providence Church “a church in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches Augustine Presbytery,” which sounds pretty Calvinist:

    We believe that the elect were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to live holy and blameless lives.

    (from website statement of faith)
    How the hell can a Calvinist evangelize? Do you recruit people you recognize as elect?

    That church was most supportive when the adult son was arrested shortly after their arrival, and apparently remain supportive as his release date approaches, which a church member providing employment and a fiend of another renting him an apartment. Indeed the pastor has told son that it’s his home church as long as he wants to be part of the church.

    It’s his family they haven’t told – they can just not go to church there and plan to move to western VT as soon as they find a place.

    @Pogonip: That’s not it, but it’s one I’d forgotten about and think of as kind of the conjoined twin of Evangelical Jews.

    I thank you both for the information. The bottom line, I suspect, is that they just don’t want much of a church experience at this time, or they may have found themselves drawn to one the first two Adam mentioned, since they won’t be going plain.

  119. 119.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 9:49 pm

    @NotMax:

    It’s still there.

    Of course. It’s been there for 50 years, why would it disappear now? I try to resist the urge to gawk when I drive by it. In some ways, going there for a bar mitzvah is not unlike a hajj.

    Gallery of pictures for those who have never been exposed to the ‘wretched excess retro-moderne’ school of decoration.

    I notice that it’s now “Leonard’s Palazzo.” The “Palazzo” thing certainly makes it much more classier.

    Of

  120. 120.

    muddy

    March 6, 2016 at 9:50 pm

    @NotMax: So fancy. Reminds me The Morris Hotel. My family used to use this hotel in Philadelphia when we visited the in the US in the 60s and 70s. I guess it had initially been a clean decent place, and convenient to downtown when they first stayed there, but they’d gone overseas in the 50s so things had changed a lot. I don’t know why we kept going there each year except that they knew where it was and it was cheap. Tradition!

    The elevator had shiny gold wallpaper with red flocking. I thought it was amazingly beautiful because I was a kid. It was this peel and stick stuff, and they gave me a spare piece which I installed in my folding dollhouse. My parents had a weird attitude about my beautiful paper, which I didn’t understand.

    Until I was grown and realized that The Morris Hotel was prostitute central. The ladies hanging around by the tv in the entry were so pretty too, and wore sparkly clothes. I kept telling my mom to get nice outfits like that. Oh dear.

  121. 121.

    EthylEster

    March 6, 2016 at 9:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: focus on the risen Christ is one reason no depiction of dead boys on sticks in southern baptist sanctuaries.

  122. 122.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 9:58 pm

    I’ve been thinking about the Trumps picture and this thought just occurred to me; do you think, when you are obscensely wealthy, nobody has the guts to tell you you’re tacky? I grew up in the 80s surrounded by real old-school wealth and I’ve never seen anything or anyone as tacky as Trump.

  123. 123.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 9:58 pm

    @redshirt: Its like Adamception…

    So there’s two different issues here. The first is that yes, there are two different accounts of creation in Genesis, but neither of them specifically mentions Lilith. Lilith is never mentioned in the Torah.

    Let’s take the divergent accounts first: The first of the two accounts is often referred to as the Priestly account and delineates that man and woman were created at the same time. This is Genesis 1:26-27. The second and later account, sometimes called the Yahwistic account, is in Genesis 2 and is the one most people know. I actually wrote a paper on this about twenty years ago. The first account, in 1:26-27, is likely both the older and original narrative account. The second account, the one everyone is familiar with where Even is formed from a rib of Adam, is the later one. D. S. Margoliouth, the ur-Semitics scholar at Oxford in the early 20th Century wrote an interesting text entitled The Relations Between Arabs and Israelites Prior to the Rise of Islam. Margoliouth’s thesis is that the group we come to know as the Hebrews and then the Israelites and then the Judaean remnant and ultimately as Jews, were originally from SW Arabia – the Hijaz area of what is now Saudi Arabia and the Hawdramut in what is now Yemen. A portion of this community was living/trading (surviving? fleeing?) in Northeastern Arabia, specifically the Levant. He posited that the cataclysm that created the Sahara and turned Arabia into a desert ecosystem trapped this community in the Levant. Because they worshiped the Deity by the Semitic name of Ya (there were six traditional Semitic names for God: Ya, El, Eloha, Um, Ba’al, and Malik) and the Levantine Arabians they were now stuck with also worshipped God under the name of Ya, that each community decided they were related and merged to survive the ecological shift. This merged the two traditions together and led to multiple, and often contradictory, narratives in the Torah.

    One final point: the description of Eve’s punishment, and please remember that Judaism doesn’t have original sin (unless you’ve come up with a really unique and novel transgression recently…), is a pretty accurate description of life for Israelite women after the conquest of Canaan, as well as most Levantine women before that regardless of tribe or religion. The need to toil and labor and at the same time to have multiple pregnancies to produce enough children to assist with eking out an existence in an area that is tantalizingly fertile at times and frustrating infertile at others.

    Now back to Lilith. Because there were these two accounts of creation a folk tradition developed that Adam became displeased with the first woman for some reason and asked God to cast her out or sent her away himself. This led her to a hatred of men and to find away, through arcane means, to become the Mother of Demons. This legend was probably created by a guy who couldn’t get a date… The reality of it is is that there never was a Lilith in the Genesis story and both creation narratives refer to the same man and same woman being created.

    Here’s a link to Margoliouth’s essay:
    http://muhammadanism.com/Margoliouth/relation_arab_israel/relation_arab_israel.pdf

  124. 124.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:00 pm

    @Miss Bianca: We control the horizontal and the vertical…

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:04 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): All of the evangelical varieties are all five point Calvinists. Remember that the Puritans, who were the original in America five point Calvinists and huge adherents to the theology of pre-determinism, also believed that everyone still had to adhere strictly to the church’s teachings, theology, and dogma. Despite there being a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, did I say very?, very small chance of anyone being predetermined to go to Heaven as one of the elect, you could screw it up. So everyone had to adhere and the community had to police itself. This created a very interesting dynamic of personal and communal responsibility among the Puritan communities.

    For modern evangelicals, regardless of flavor, it is similar. A lot of these denominations have jettisoned or downplayed the pre-determinism portions, but all of them that I know of are rooted in five point Calvinism.

  126. 126.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:05 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: How much is the Lilith narrative referenced in modern teachings of the Torah, specifically the origin story?

  127. 127.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 6, 2016 at 10:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Not a fan of Calvinism…think how much better our culture would be without that toxin….

  128. 128.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:11 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: So called “Prosperity Gospel” is a form of Calvinism, is it not? You’re rich because you were meant to be rich because God chose you to be rich.

  129. 129.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 6, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    @redshirt: You’re agreeing with me, right? Unless your flock just bought you a G-4!

  130. 130.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:14 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Yes. But it’s a really twisted form of Calvinism, and I think it might be the dominant form in American Christianity right now. I don’t know though because I have zero religious background so I defer to anyone that knows about the subject.

  131. 131.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:15 pm

    @EthylEster: Yep.

  132. 132.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:16 pm

    @redshirt: I’ve never heard it taught in that context. Its not in the text and its not in the commentary, including Rashi’s. Its a medieval legend to scare people. And to drive the second and third seasons of Supernatural.

  133. 133.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 10:18 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This legend was probably created by a guy who couldn’t get a date…

    The origin of the MRAs?

  134. 134.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:19 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks. That was the answer I was looking for.

    It seems like a lot of current religious myth stems from middle ages horror stories. Dante, for example, who defined almost everything about the current Christian afterlife. As a fiction writer.

  135. 135.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:20 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:
    @redshirt: The made in America variants of Christianity, which include the evangelical denominations, as well as the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Seventh Day Adventists among others, all have a very different context, and flavor, because of where and how they were created. Almost all of them come out of the Great Awakening and the Burnt Over District and where heavily influenced by the apocalyptic rhetoric and fervor used against the English in the Revolution just fifty or so years before. They were also heavily influenced by trying to grapple with America’s original sin of slavery, as well as the contrasts between urban and rural settlement in the new States coupled with the rapidly building dynamic of early industrialization in the cities and its impact on society.

  136. 136.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 10:24 pm

    @LAO: All the real old school wealth I’ve been around is very low key. Including attire – they wore what they wanted and didn’t give a shit what people thought. Because I pretty much never gave a shit what anybody thought, I was often mistaken for a member of the old money class. I’d just laugh, which did nothing to disabuse them, even though I wanted to. I continue to be mistaken for a Jew – and how do I politely deny that? I’m actually not, but I have lots of Jewish friends? The young Palestinian from Jordan I dined with a few times 25 years ago never did believe me.

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes, I should know better. It’s all rooted in the five points, I let myself get taken in by the downplaying by so many groups of limited atonement/pre -determinist stuff.
    Like Steve in the ATL, I believe our culture would be vastly improved without Calvinism.

  137. 137.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:26 pm

    @LAO: Just an FYI, but you’re including your whole comment in the quote brackets rather than just the part you wish to quote.

  138. 138.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:26 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Our culture would of course be vastly improved without religion of any kind. But I won’t belabor that point.

  139. 139.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 10:29 pm

    @redshirt: I know. I can’t figure out how not to.

  140. 140.

    beachbuckeye

    March 6, 2016 at 10:29 pm

    @Trentrunner: If it does happen she is as much a pig as him.

  141. 141.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:32 pm

    @LAO:

    I know. I can’t figure out how not to.

    I hit “reply”

    Then I hit the quote button. Then I copy and paste the text I want, then hit the quote button again.

    You’ve now linked to the original poster and quoted only the text of theirs you wanted to. Everything after that final click of the quote button is your response to the quote.

    Try it on me. Quote this line for ease of use.

  142. 142.

    Corner Stone

    March 6, 2016 at 10:34 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And to drive the second and third seasons of Supernatural.

    Really fun first several seasons. Had to stop watching when their tame angel became god. I think season 9 or 10?

  143. 143.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 10:34 pm

    @redshirt:

    Try it on me. Quote this line for ease of use.

    Thank you. (Even if I feel like a an idiot)!

  144. 144.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:35 pm

    @LAO: It would not surprise me. Were there a lot of MRAs coming out of medieval yeshivas?

  145. 145.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 10:37 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I laugh. Nobody thinks I’m Jewish. Could be the freckles or the nose job at 15. What? It was a requirement growing up in Westchester. Lol

  146. 146.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 10:37 pm

    @LAO:

    Thank you. (Even if I feel like a an idiot)!

    Success!

    Don’t feel bad. This is not an intuitive system.

  147. 147.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 10:41 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: hahaha. Orthodox Judaism is fairly misogynistic. Wouldn’t surprise me. I was raised reform “diet Judaism” as I used to call it.

  148. 148.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:41 pm

    @Corner Stone: The tame angel is now possessed by Lucifer.

  149. 149.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:42 pm

    @LAO: You weren’t allowed to live in Westchester as a teenager unless you got freckles? That is some really restrictive community charter BS.

  150. 150.

    joel hanes

    March 6, 2016 at 10:42 pm

    @Poopyman:

    I hear the snow geese

    Envious.

    Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac has a piece about goose music, and the emotions it engenders spring and fall.

    In the spring, hope and renewal.
    Let us hope it’s an omen.

  151. 151.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:43 pm

    @LAO: I’m well aware of the misogyny.

  152. 152.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 10:46 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: lol

  153. 153.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 10:48 pm

    @LAO: I mean that’s just mean.

  154. 154.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 10:49 pm

    @LAO: Many years ago, I was in a courtroom where I was assigned for September and October. One morning in early October, the judge was startled to see me. “What are you doing here!?” “The city docket.” “But, it’s um, a holiday” “It’s Rosh Hashanah,I know. I’m not Jewish, so here I am.” It looked like he really wanted to ask “are you sure?” It hasn’t helped that I now live in a traditionally very Jewish suburb, as in developed by Jewish folks who were not permitted access to a similar suburb.

    @Adam L Silverman: So what is a polite correction to an assumption that I’m Jewish? If I were going to adopt an organized religion it would be Judiasm, but I don’t speak Hebrew so it seems inappropriate. Particularly since my mother grew up in a nominally Baptist community.

  155. 155.

    BubbaDave

    March 6, 2016 at 10:50 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    It’s also possible that they joined an Orthodox church and what they mean is they don’t celebrate that day as Easter Sunday. Due to Gregorian/Julian calendar differences, Orthodox churches will typically celebrate Easter (aka Pascha) on May 1 this year, vs March 27 for Catholic and most Protestant denominations.

  156. 156.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 10:55 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m laughing at you making fun of me. Maybe I should take back that lol, nah. If I can’t laugh at myself, I’d just cry.

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): every one thinks I’m Irish (except in Europe, then they think I’m German – which I mostly am). Saint Patrick’s day is a nightmare. Why aren’t you wearing green? Why aren’t you drinking? Are you going to the parade?

  157. 157.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 10:59 pm

    @BubbaDave: Good thought, and thanks for the reply! I’m sure they didn’t do that.

    I learned to ask my friend of Greek heritage “when’s your Easter this year?” many years ago and within the last 5 years learned its called Pascha when I had an Orthodox board member at my NAMI affiliate. I always look it up every year and send them a card on the Julian date because I think that’s polite. I also find them an genuinely religious Christmas greeting card because I know it is important to them, and my Merry Yule cards, however attractively I might design them would not feel right to me.

    @LAO: In this town, “Peerless noses” are quite recognizable, still, in a certain age cohort.

  158. 158.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:01 pm

    @redshirt: I picked up the first volume of sandman (I’m generally losing my mind but I’m pretty sure you recommended it to me yesterday).

  159. 159.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 11:02 pm

    @LAO: Probably. Keep in mind the first volume is a little rough but it just gets better and better with each subsequent story.

  160. 160.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:03 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You could whip out a Bacon, Lobster, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich and chow down?

    If you mean a polite one: thank you, and while its happened all my life, I’m not Jewish.

  161. 161.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:06 pm

    @LAO: Wait till they ask if you can Celtic/Highland dance!

  162. 162.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:07 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I was a pretty mature 15 year old, asked the dr not to give me a “ski slop nose” which all the girls were getting. And then, about a year after surgery my dog head butted me and broke my nose. So it ain’t perfect.

  163. 163.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: you’re right, it could be worse. (What a Jewish attitude! )

  164. 164.

    dantanna

    March 6, 2016 at 11:13 pm

    @redshirt: And Trump is channeling Liberace!

  165. 165.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 11:13 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If you mean a polite one: thank you, and while its happened all my life, I’m not Jewish.

    Not that it matters a whit, but this is surprising, based on name alone. What is the background for your name, if you know it?

  166. 166.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:16 pm

    @LAO: I’m not making fun of you. I’m just stunned at the authoritarian burghers of either Westchester, NY or Westchester, PA. Where were the patriots to reverse their tyranny? Why was the Tree of Liberty not watered? Making a teenager go get freckles, that is just beyond the pale.

  167. 167.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:17 pm

    @LAO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AFf0ysgNiM

  168. 168.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:19 pm

    @redshirt: That was for Hip Hop as a response.

    I’m (nominally) Jewish American. As in my religion is Jewish, I have a somewhat unique understanding of the Deity, and my own religion’s rituals and ceremony makes me antsy. And since I’ve been studying Asian martial arts for 30 years, I’ve got a deep appreciation for Taoism.

  169. 169.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:19 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Westchester, NY. It’s terrible. Now, I would hope they insist upon sunscreen. But when I was a child, it was a different, more horrible world.

  170. 170.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 11:20 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Thank you; I appreciate your reply. It’s just always creeped me out because any correction sounds potentially critical. And “actually I’m Zoroastrian” sounds flippant.

    I’m sure things like asking if the Pesadich Coca Cola has arrived yet don’t help, or it may simply confuse store people when they see a half pound of BH Tavern Ham at the top of the basket. In such a Reform centered town, that might not be shocking.

  171. 171.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:21 pm

    @LAO: Did the students at that Xavier guy’s special school have to get freckles too?

  172. 172.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:24 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I think, given what you’ve described about where you live, that some of it is simply also a lazy default assumption that since the area was founded as a suburb for and by Jews who were at the time being legally covenanted out of other suburbs, that everyone there is likely Jewish. And if you look Jewish, or they think you look Jewish, then even a lazier assumption.

    Since I look Asian-American, I don’t get that. I did get asked a couple of times, last June when accompanying my aikido sensei – a 76 year old Japanese master instructor who is a naturalized American – through Chinatown in NY to get his calligraphy and other supplies, how many grandparents were from China. Its the eyes. My Dad looked Mongolian – actually my Dad looked indigenous. When he was in Hawaii they thought he was Polynesian or Samoan, when he was in New Mexico they though he was Dine/Navajo (Athabascan features), in Israel they thought he was a Mizrahi (Jews from the Middle East). If he’d had any proclivity for foreign language he’d have made a great covert operative. Just drop him in and let him blend in.

    The working theory is that one part of the family went east, not west at some point. Eventually working into Mongolia and then across the steppes into Russia. My dad’s mom and her mom looked like the strawberry blonde, blue or green eyed Mongols that live on the Russian side of the steppes. We can’t really prove it, but it would explain a lot. Of course if I ever had the DNA test done, I’m sure I’d find out we were from Patagonia or something equally silly.

  173. 173.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:25 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: yes. It was a county wide requirement. Although at the time I assumed it was merely directed at public school kids. But at my temple youth group, I learned the shocking truth.

  174. 174.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 11:27 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m tracking.

  175. 175.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 11:30 pm

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    So what is a polite correction to an assumption that I’m Jewish?

    What sometimes works is saying, quite loudly, “I’m NOT a goddamn Jew, you anti-semite! And what if I were? Goddamn NAZI! Where the hell is Simon Wiesenthal when you need him?!?!”

    Oh, you said “polite.” Never mind.

    But you could try my way. Guaranteed to break the ice at parties.

  176. 176.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 11:33 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I partially (long story) grew up where the Jewish folks were covenanted out, and have joyfully moved to this lovely place. I’m sure part of it may be “female lawyer who doesn’t back down” but I was amused by the Palestinian guy. I don’t much look Jewish, so it’s weird.

    It could be worse; they could mistake me for an evangelical fundie.

  177. 177.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:35 pm

    @SFAW: when I was in 4th or 5th grade, I was getting off the school bus and a kid shouted “kike” at me. Then another kid yelled at him and “she’s no kike”. I had no idea what that meant. I asked my mom and that was it for the bus. Walked home (1/2 mile) the rest of the year.

  178. 178.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    March 6, 2016 at 11:36 pm

    Thanks for all the great discussion. I’m off to slumberlandia.

  179. 179.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:39 pm

    @LAO: That Xavier guy’s school, more properly known as Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, is the formal cover for the X-Men. In the comic books Xavier’s home, which is both school and headquarters, is in Westchester, NY.

  180. 180.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:39 pm

    @redshirt: Look at you!

  181. 181.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 11:41 pm

    It amazes me to hear of Jews being covenanted out. I grew up in a very Jewish town on LI, and although the Holocaust was (at that time) still a fairly recent memory, and I knew a couple of people with tattoos – but not the kind one sought out — there was never any talk (that I heard) regarding shit like that. Yeah, I know that some country clubs were still keeping Jews out, and so forth, but not a whole town. I guess I led a more sheltered life than I realized.

  182. 182.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:41 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I know. I may not approach your level of geekdom, but I have two brothers and my dad was a superman fanatic. I am well aware of the x-men.

  183. 183.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 11:43 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: When I turned 12 I developed incredibly debilitating dizzy spells. I assumed, from reading the X-Men, that this was the beginning’s of my mutant powers.

  184. 184.

    SFAW

    March 6, 2016 at 11:45 pm

    @LAO:

    when I was in 4th or 5th grade, I was getting off the school bus and a kid shouted “kike” at me.

    Nice. Asshole was lucky he didn’t try that in my town.

    I’m sorry you had to go through that.

  185. 185.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:45 pm

    @LAO: Okay, I couldn’t tell from your response if you got the geekiness.

  186. 186.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:46 pm

    @redshirt: lol. That’s awesome

  187. 187.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:46 pm

    @redshirt: Were you also trying to make other people dizzy by focusing on them? Or was this a power that had little practical use in battle save to remove you from the fight? And would your codename have been The Ditz?

  188. 188.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:47 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I was playing it cool. I should know better. My nieces and nephews often remind me that I’m not cool.

  189. 189.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 11:49 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh no, the dizziness was the cocoon of my new mutant powers. What powers would emerge from such suffering?

    This is the fantasy, of course. Weather control? Super speed? Strong as Hulk?

  190. 190.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:50 pm

    @LAO: No worries. It happens to all of us.

  191. 191.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:50 pm

    @redshirt: Well that makes more sense then.

  192. 192.

    PurpleGirl

    March 6, 2016 at 11:52 pm

    @SFAW: Any number of older wedding palaces have closed over the years. I forget the name of the place where my sister and a number of her friends had their receptions. It was a former movie theater in Jamaica, NY. There’s a place on Roosevelt Avenue that’s now a Spanish Evangelical church.It does happen in catering.

  193. 193.

    LAO

    March 6, 2016 at 11:52 pm

    @SFAW: honestly, it wasn’t a big deal. I was more pissed I couldn’t the bus with my friends. Anyhow, I wound up dating the kid who yelled ” she’s not a ….” In high school. All I remember about him was he had one blue eye and one brown eye.

  194. 194.

    redshirt

    March 6, 2016 at 11:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Some kind of brain condition that I apparently grew out of. Hooray!

  195. 195.

    Adam L Silverman

    March 6, 2016 at 11:59 pm

    Well you all have a good night, I’ve got to go give the four foots some attention before there’s real trouble.

  196. 196.

    PurpleGirl

    March 7, 2016 at 12:10 am

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Re your comment on how old wealth dresses… The non-profit I worked for was founded by a group of middle class women and a few of the old wealth class. (One of the founders was Mary Harriman Fisk.) And yes, they very much downplayed their wealth. Mrs. Fisk was a volunteer who worked in a public school in East Harlem for 4 days a week for 20-odd years. She stopped her work only when she died unexpectedly.) There were several women just like her. And they were nice and treated every one with dignity.

  197. 197.

    NotMax

    March 7, 2016 at 1:09 am

    @PurpleGirl

    Yup yup. .And then there was the Great Recession as well.

    Too, Leonard’s was always rumored to be owned by The Mob.

    @SFAW

    Ya never know. The venerable Scobee Diner (a/k/a Scobee Grill) and also Pat’s Pub* in Little Neck, just a hop skip and jump down Northern Blvd. from Leonard’s, went bye-bye.

    *Shore and begorrah, but it was a little bit of Erin set down in the tail end of Queens. Great lamb stew on the bill of fare there.

  198. 198.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 7, 2016 at 1:22 pm

    Who’s the dame?
    Nice rack!

  199. 199.

    Jack

    March 7, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    @p.a.: u

    It’s not a 20mm mini gun, the weight and recoil is far too much for any human. It was an experimental 5.56mm (same military round the M-16 rifle fires ) developed by GE. There is a 20mm mini gun, but it is mounted in aircraft or vehicles.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM214_Microgun

  200. 200.

    Jack

    March 7, 2016 at 3:23 pm

    @Ben Cisco: @Ben Cisco:

    It’s not a 20mm mini gun, the weight and recoil is far too much for any human. It was an experimental 5.56mm (same military round the M-16 rifle fires ) developed by GE. There is a 20mm mini gun, but it is mounted in aircraft or on vehicles.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM214_Microgun

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