Despite the #MuslimBan & rhetoric from Trump, Khizr Khan remains optimistic. Here's why: https://t.co/nwuye4A4oG pic.twitter.com/MWQyODk5KQ
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) April 4, 2017
Bless this man, now and forever. A twenty-three minute podcast might be a little long first thing, but I understand many people use their commutes for good listens like this.
Salutations to those of our Balloon Juice community who will be observing Good Friday, a supremely significant Christian holiday that nonetheless sits oddly in our modern American calendar (Financial markets will be closed, but it’s not a federal or state holiday.) We’ll have a three-day weekend here in the People’s Commonwealth, because Monday is (the original & only true) Patriots’ Day, also known to some as Marathon Monday.
What’s on the agenda as we wrap up another long week?
There’s also another big protest march scheduled this weekend:
An idea that sprung from a law professor’s tweet after President Trump’s inauguration will unfold Saturday on the Mall, where thousands of protesters plan to call on Trump to release his personal tax returns. The demonstration is expected to be the largest of more than 100 affiliated protests planned across the country.
The Tax March, which falls on the nation’s traditional April 15 deadline to file taxes, is expected to be one of the most high-profile demonstrations of the Trump era since protesters around the world participated in women’s marches — marches that served as an unprecedented rebuke to Trump’s presidency on his first full day in office. Presidents are not required to release their tax returns but have done so voluntarily dating to the 1970…
Marchers in Washington are expected to be joined by those in more than 100 other cities across the country and around the world, including New Orleans, San Antonio, Nashville and London, organizers say.
In Washington, organizers have worked with government agencies, including D.C. police and the National Park Service, to obtain permits. The Park Service permit indicates that organizers expect up to 10,000 people.
Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the Park Service, said the Tax March and the Science March the following weekend are among the largest protests the agency is expecting this spring in Washington.
The Tax March will begin at noon Saturday on the west lawn in front of the Capitol, with a lineup of speakers that includes Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.). From there, protesters will march west along Pennsylvania Avenue NW before ending near the Lincoln Memorial. The event is expected to end about 4 p.m.
In an interview, Raskin referred to polls during the presidential campaign that showed a majority of Americans — and a majority of Republicans — believed that Trump should release his tax returns. Raskin said Congress couldn’t have meaningful conversations about a tax revamp without knowing whether proposed tax laws would be a financial boon to Trump and his businesses…
Official TaxMarch website here. (They have a great logo.)
Jeff
Oh, right it’s Good Friday.
Baud
Taxes. AKA Trump’s expense account.
Major Major Major Major
Happy(?) Good Friday to those who observe.
Baud
You’ll notice there’s no Good Monday.
Debbie(aussie)
Wow! No holiday for Good Friday. We here in the land of Aus have a four day weekend. Other than Christmas Day, the only other day that even shopping stops.?
ETA: we get Monday off as a holiday for Sunday.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m still waiting to hear what is good about it. Pretty sure Jesus wasn’t real happy with it.
Baud
@Debbie(aussie): No holiday for Maundy Thursday? Slavedrivers.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: He just acted upset. It was all part of a plan.
A plan to reduce capital gains taxes 2000 years later.
Baud
Interesting story
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Time for my annual excursion into my pet peeve and eye roll:
If any aspect of the myth has a kernel of truth, it is that the citizens of Jerusalem chose Barabbas, for after having a measure of the man in real life, up close, decided his claims of divinity and the ascribed “miracles” were pure horseshit – as were the disciples.
As for me, I blame the Romans for overfeeding the lions prior to public shows; I also have to say they ran the most feeble and useless “ruthless Christian oppression” campaigns in all human history…either that, or the lead in their pipes led them to be exceedingly weak-minded to fantastic claims, and we’re all still paying the price.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: There’s Just Another Manic Monday.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Ah yes, the Book of Greed, 13:4
Major Major Major Major
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: or you could, you know, let people enjoy things.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Aren’t you supposed to be in a cooking class?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
Bright Monday is actually a thing among Catholics and Orthodox. I got to tour Notre Dame at the same time as Bright Monday noon mass several years ago. I picked up their Paschal bulletin, and even though my French is lousy, could see that it was full of normal church stuff – ladies club schedule, some sort of food drive, building committee meetings, announcements of baptisms, weddings and funerals. It was fun to see that it is still, even as an ancient cultural attraction, very much a working parish.
And yeah, I know, this post is diametrically opposite of my intensely anti-dogma screed above. I’m full of contradictions on matters of religious observance.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: the Republican Congress, I mean — Sanhedrin of Jerusalem — thought it was a most excellent Friday.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And Ruby Tuesday.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Contradictions with respect to religion? Get out!
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: that was over hours ago. I’m a master chef now.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Are you back yet?
Central Planning
Kids have off today and next week, so I took the days off too.
We’re going to my in-laws for Easter dinner which is a low-key affair (I think salad/sandwiches this year). Most of us aren’t religious, except one sister-in-law who insists on saying grace to praise god every other word during her speech. Strangely, she never says thanks to the people who actually brought or cooked the food for the meals.
Anyway, off to exercise in a bit. Happy Friday!
ETA – Anyone ever been to a Dyngus Day celebration on Monday?
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I come home on the 24th.
Schlemazel
@Jeff:
all Fridays are good
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: He seems to be back from his cooking class, but I think he still has another country to go to.
OzarkHillbilly
The passenger dragged from a United flight lost two front teeth and suffered a broken nose and a concussion, his lawyer said Thursday, accusing the airline industry of having “bullied” its customers for far too long.
No comment
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Immanentize
So on the topic of it being really really bad Friday — If I think of any group here at Balloon Juice as my homebase, it’s here in Anne Laurie’s morning thread. And a few other afternoonees like LAO and Bella ( y’know the lawyers). But I haven’t been around much because:
Well cancer sucks. My wife (49) was diagnosed last week with stomach cancer which has progressed too much for a surgical solution. We have been in medical overdrive since last Wednesday and she starts chemo today. Talk about wanting a resurrection miracle.
File this under ‘No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition.’
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@Immanentize: That sucks. I’m sorry.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: two!
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Gotcha.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
I know it seems too good to be true, but from early on, Louise has been right about so much (from FISA, to Flynn, to Nunes’s hoax), while the general media repeatedly tried to cover for the Trump Crime Family.
Schlemazel
@Immanentize:
We are hoping for the best for her. Chemo is not fun so she has a tough slog ahead but it does work so hang in there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: I think there are a few lawyers here right now, Good Luck with the wife’s chemo.
amk
twitler’s vocab. all of it.
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize:
I’m so sorry. I’m wishing you strength.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Two? Vietnam and what?
ETA: Might be a bad time to visit Korea, on the other hand, best to see it while it’s still there.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: ugh, that’s horrid. So sorry.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Cambodia.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Because killing… those people… is always worth celebrating?
Emma
@Immanentize: Oh God. I am so sorry.
Aimai
@Immanentize: I am terribly sorry, Immanentize. I can’t imagine what you and your family are going through. I will be thinking of you both.
frosty
@rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah! (And I can’t believe I’m awake early enough to say that!)
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I’d cite a line from the Dead Parrot sketch but that seems inappropriate so I’ll just say, sorry to hear that, hope the chemo goes well and that you fish slap that cancer back where it came from.
Cermet
@Immanentize: So very sorry for that truely terrible news. All the best and do keep us informed, as I am sure, better news occurs!
The Thin Black Duke
@Immanentize: Good luck to the both of you.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Forgot to add the link: The Fish Slapping Dance.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I am still not over the stations of the cross from my Catholic childhood. Damn, that was distressing for a young pup.
edit: A good friend invited me to go with him to his church for the special service they have for good friday. I am not the likeliest person to say yes to that in the first place, but when he ended with the comment that the service feels very catholic, I politely declined.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
I’m so sorry to hear that. I’m hoping the chemo works especially well.
Fuck cancer.
Central Planning
@Immanentize: Sorry to hear that. Out of curiosity, did the healthcare system fail your wife with earlier detection? A friend-of-a-friend was told her abdominal pains were nothing to worry about, normal aging, periods, etc. until it was finally diagnosed as stage 3 cancer. :/
TriassicSands
@Major Major Major Major:
Happy Good Friday?
Merry Good Friday?
Somehow, I don’t think there is a celebratory greeting that quite fits.
This should not be a national holiday in a country that claims to have separation of Church and State. We’re a country with a serious personality disorder when it involves religion.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
I am so sorry to hear that – that sucks.
Positive vibes sent your way.
Baud
@TriassicSands: It’s not a national holiday.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I was happy to see the words “his lawyer said”.
It’s a pretty good game they’ve got going… black males get labeled as thugs while all the while it seems that the police have turned into thugs. When is this going to stop?
satby
@Immanentize: I’m so sorry to hear that Immanentize! Best wishes to your wife in treatment, with hope for a full recovery. Cancer sucks indeed.
Gindy51
@WaterGirl: You’re lucky that’s all you had to get over during your RCC kidhood.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
For a Holiday?
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I am so sorry. I don’t know how you wrap your head around that, especially when it seems like you’re going from zero to 60 in about half a second.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
I’m so very sorry. Sending support to you both. Please let us know how we can help.
HeleninEire
@Immanentize: Sending good thoughts. Good Luck.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Someone should check his kitchen counter tops.
The nerve of that guy, thinking he has rights or something.
Chet
I am in a Dunks in Wakefield MA. Excited because I lived in the area for ten years ten years ago, but this weekend I am back to run the Marathon.
JPL
@Immanentize: I am so sorry
Iowa Old Lady
@Immanentize: I’m sorry.
HeleninEire
@Baud: It is here, sorta. Pubs are closed. I haz a sad!
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: what’s wrong with visiting Cambodia?
Sloane Ranger
@Baud: When I first joined the civil service in 1979 we had a half day holiday for Maundy Thursday but this was later added to our annual leave allowance to be used at any time during the year (UK).
OzarkHillbilly
@Gindy51: She just didn’t want to monopolize the thread. That would just be one more thing she’d have to feel guilty about.
hedgehog mobile
@Immanentize: Oh man. So sorry to hear that.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Also, redefining the meaning of “belligerence.”
Taylor
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: So you consider hate speech directed at people’s religious beliefs to be acceptable?
debbie
@Immanentize:
I am so sorry. Cancer sucks.
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Some of these predictions had better become true or there will be hell to pay.
Sloane Ranger
@Immanentize: I’m so sorry to hear this. You are both in my thoughts.
MJS
@OzarkHillbilly: Probably pretty happy to be getting the fuck out of here. Especially if heaven is anything like the Simpsons’ version of Catholic heaven.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Taylor: I’m not sure that saying you think a religion is bunk is hate speech.
Baud
I blame Balloon Juice
OzarkHillbilly
Some good news this morning: Good boy! Iron dog missing from Venice Cafe is home
The Venice was my longtime home away from home when I lived in STL. I try to stop by whenever I’m up there. Jeff sent me my “Impeach Trump” bumper sticker a month or so ago, and it proudly sits in the center-top of my rear window for all to see and get pissed off about.
debbie
@Baud:
More communication makes for less communication.
Baud
@debbie: Agree.
katinbuffalo
@Central Planning: You’ve got to come to Buffalo. Dyngus Day is a bigger celebration than Easter. Much drinking, eating, dancing and music starting in the morning and going late into the evening. Huge parade at 5pm, which our mayor heads up.
satby
@Major Major Major Major: I’m going to Cambodia after a week in Thailand this fall too. Looking forward to hearing how you liked it!
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: saying they didn’t execute enough of its practitioners is certainly closer than saying it sucks.
satby
@debbie: @Baud: but my online friends are more fun than my IRL ones! ?
Baud
@satby: Mine too. But that’s because I don’t have friends IRL.
Patricia Kayden
@Debbie(aussie): Growing up in Canada, I believe Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays in Canada too. But then the Canadian government also gives taxpayers’ money to Catholic schools so there’s that.
@Baud: Hmmmm. So I guess being too involved in social media leads to isolation versus getting up and going out and socializing with actual human beings. Technological advances sometimes have negative consequences.
Quinerly
@Immanentize:
So, so sorry. Sending you and your wife positive thoughts.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I’ve noticed my nieces and nephews (late teens to early 20s) aren’t very good at making eye contact. They also have trouble reading faces. Neither of these are good signs for the future.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
Terribly sorry to read this. Best wishes to you both.
Patricia Kayden
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You can be a strong atheist and still respect the fact that there are many Americans who are Christians. No need to be so ugly.
Immanentize
Dear All,
Thank you for your kind thoughts. Life is mysterious whether for good or bad.
Luckily, the place where I teach has been super supportive, so I get to be as helpful to my wife as I can be. And Lyft Dad for my son….
tobie
@Immanentize: good luck to you and your wife. Chemo is wretched but does work, and having someone by your side to hold your hand makes a huge difference in getting through the ordeal. I wish both of you strength in the coming weeks. We’re pulling for you at BJ.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
So sorry about your wife. Cancer sucks.??
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Being that it was 2000 years ago, I think they’re all quite dead.
Immanentize
@Central Planning: on the diagnosis — actually only a short delay for my wife — maybe it’s acid reflux, maybe it’s an ulcer, uh let’s scope the stomach. Nothing wrong, let’s get a biopsy and CT scan — oh fuck! So I can’t blame the medical system that way. She really was a symptomatic until President’s day.
But her Doctor did not take her complaints of serious pain, seriously. That pisses me off. I suspect a man would have been more closely listened to. They still haven’t fully gotten on top her pain.
Patricia Kayden
@Immanentize: All the best to your wife as she begins chemo treatments. Sending positive thoughts your family’s way.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: it’s got a bit of a “the
GermansRomans should have finished the job” vibe, not to Godwin it.Denali
@Immanentize,
Strength to you and your wife. Cancer does truly suck.
eric
@Immanentize: two things….i am so sorry, and remember to take of yourself and your own health while you are helping your wife. from one lawyer to another, if i can help let me know … i am in boston and chicago ….eric
satby
@Immanentize: women still are perceived in medicine as complainers with low pain tolerances, even though that’s seldom true. A dear friend of mine was told she was having panic attacks for years regarding her chest pain, including after she gave birth at age 43. They sent her home with her new baby, she was back in 12 hours in almost complete heart failure. It had been angina, for about 10 years.
She had a quadruple bypass, and is doing great now.
Hoping the same for your wife.
Weaselone
@Baud:
Have they actually established the direction of causality here? Are people who engage in heavy social media use socially isolated as a result, or do socially isolated people use social media heavily as some sort of substitute/coping mechanism?
laura
@Immanentize: I’m so sorry for you both with this news. In this time of miracles and wonder, I wish for good results from chemo and the ability to live with this illness until better options become available.
Baud
@Weaselone: No, they didn’t establish causality.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: “What have the Romans ever done for us????”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Do keep in mind religion is a choice, it is something that you can cease believing in. Hate speech is speech that is directed at a person for things they can’t change(race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation…). I’m not saying his comment wasn’t over the top, his comments usually are, but hate speech is specific; generalizing it, trivializes it.
OzarkHillbilly
Is this a new Trump? Abrupt reversals may reflect experience
Yes, that is an AP headline. No, I didn’t read the article. Not sure you should either but the choice is yours.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I read it more as venting frustration with the divisions and limitations religion has fostered in humanity. Not particularly directed at religious individuals per se.
Kirk
@Immanentize: Chemo is miserable but, well, fuck cancer. Don’t forget to take care of yourself because she will need you.
satby
@Baud: I’m reminded of one of the only things I remember from high school freshman physics class: correlation is not equal to causation. Mr. King would be proud.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: The media is desperate to portray Trump in a positive light no matter how much evidence there is that he is inexperienced, lacks self control and shoots from the hip. It’s as if they are invested in making us believe that Trump is presidential despite his pronounced shortcomings. I doubt they’d be as accommodating to a President Hillary Clinton.
Matt McIrvin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It seems to me that definitions of hate speech more often than not include religion.
However, usually it has to be in some sense directed at modern adherents.
(Is belief voluntary? I’m not sure it entirely is. I’ve sometimes wondered what I would do if it were conclusively demonstrated that belief in God improves your moral behavior, and therefore everyone should believe. Would I be ethically compelled to force myself to believe in God, through some kind of brainwashing? Could I make myself believe something that doesn’t seem to me to be true? It’s logically possible that a belief could be both false and morally obligatory.)
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Nope, nein, nyet. Not going to read that, going to consider how best to fight against the media fifth column that’s destroying this country with bullshit.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I wasn’t saying it was hate speech, just that it was closer to hate speech than merely “your religion sucks”.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Who said there was? It was just an obscure music reference from an old.
p.a.
@Immanentize: So sorry to hear. Sending positive thoughts. Hope your wife kicks its ass.
Just One More Canuck
@Patricia Kayden: Just about everything is closed on Good Friday, but Easter Monday is in between – schools and most government offices are closed but most businesses are on regular hours (thankfully, liquor stores (government run here in Ontario) are open Monday
Immanentize – I’m very sorry – I hope things go well for her and for you
Humboldtblue
@Jeff:
Exactly the way I feel. What you mean I won’t have to remain quiet for three hours with no books (other than a fucking bible) or distractions and meditate on the death of an ancient magical Jew?
@Immanentize:
Today is the day my mother was born. Just over five years ago she told her doctors she could not endure another round of chemo. Five years ago in March she she died.
Fuck cancer.
Here is wishing all the best for you and your wife and your clan.
Major Major Major Major
@Matt McIrvin:
This assumes that something can be conclusively demonstrated, which outside of certain types of mathematics is not presently a safe assumption.
@SFAW: you guys sure are full of those here.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: The media theme of the day seems to be “learning curve.”
schrodingers_cat
@Immanentize: {{{ }}} and best of luck to your wife, may the chemo kick the cancer’s ass. Neutropenia can be a really bitch as the chemo progresses and also dietary difficulties. I am keeping my paws crossed for you and also don’t forget to take care of yourself.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Taylor:
Your concern is noted.
Fuck off.
Weaselone
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You’re threading a fine needle here. Now that we know that hateful speech directed at Muslims and Jews, based on religion can’t be deemed hate speech, what about that directed at people who can pass? Sure, they can’t change if they are gay, transgender or their grandfather is a black Kenyan, but they choose to not pass themselves off as straight, cisnormal and Italian.
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: Oh man, that sucks. Hoping for the best for you two.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: But here’s the thing. That is not religion doing that, that is humans using religion to justify what they want to do (“KILL THE HERETICS!!!”). A lot of atheists love to blame religion for the terrible things done by people in the name of religion. It’s like a “Get out of Jail Free” card
Religion doesn’t make anybody do anything. Just look at all the Catholic School girls on birth control. According to the Church, their parents are all going to Hell, but Catholic mothers everywhere have said, “No pregnancies on my watch!” And then they go protest at the abortion clinic or celebrate the homicidal nut job who just killed an abortion Doctor (“He was a misguided individual overcome with concern for all those unborn babies.”)
People make these choices, of which parts of their religions they will follow, because they know that God has nothing to do with how their Religion is practiced, the Arch-Bishop/Imam/Rabbi ad infinitum does, but only so far as the individual allows.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: That seems to be the MSM consensus this morning — at last, the long awaited pivot! Also had to laugh at a Fareed Zakaria op-ed in WaPo, in which he cautions liberals not to succumb to “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” It’s a classic squid cloud of butthurt prompted by the righteous roasting he received for his stupid “Trump became president when he dropped a bomb” comments.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I wonder when they are going to get on a learning curve.
bemused
@satby:
Gosh, I can’t imagine which gender has propagated the belief that women’s pain experiences should be downplayed and dismissed!
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: absolutely agree with you. Religions can call to the highest aspirations of selflessness in people, and can also empower the worst bigotry and cruelty. I tend to see “religion” neutrally , but I judge believers by how they interpret and apply their beliefs. Judge very harshly in many cases.
And I’m not a believer, personally.
satby
@bemused: spot you the first guess.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
On this, Fareed and I are in full agreement. The only thing standing between the US and Armageddon is liberals. If they succumb to it like the GOP did, we are all DOOOOOOOMED!
Yarrow
@Immanentize: So sorry to hear about your wife’s diagnosis. Wishing the best for her as she proceeds with her treatment. Please keep us updated. Remember to take care of yourself so that you can take care of her.
artem1s
@Central Planning:
Dingus Day is a considered a major holiday here in CLE. Large Polish population. And of course, lots of polka. https://clevelanddyngus.com/
Humboldtblue
@Weaselone:
And that hate speech is almost always directed at Muslims and Jews in a way that demeans their humanity, their community and their culture and the immutable characteristics of race and ethnicity. It’s certainly not about the Talmud and Torah versus the bible and the teachings of Aquinas and Augustine because the hate isn’t about the differences between faiths.
I have no problem pointing out the beliefs — even the most closely held and sacred — of all the religions are in the end contradictory inconsistent made-up bullshit. You choose what to believe. You don’t get to choose your family and until you’re older you don’t get to choose your community and the hate and anger directed at the “other” — they dress funny, they talk funny, they worship funny and eat funny foods and hold silly rituals — is based on regular old human bigotry and ignorance.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Neither am I.
satby
Further to the open part of the thread, soliciting input on painting the new cabinets in my kitchen that replaced the ridiculous hut roof that concealed a shop light fixture over the counter. Satin latex, special cabinet paint, or one of those fancy cabinet resurfacing kits? Same color as the walls or closer match to the original woodwork and cabinets (which will not be painted)?
gbbalto
@Immanentize: So sorry to hear that. I hope for the best…
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Wait, is Trump no longer deranged?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’m going to clarify a little – I suspect I’m completely BG off a bit harshly.
I was raised and currently work and do all of my leisure in a deep blue city surrounded on each side by festering red pustule states. Spent my childhood in a Southern Baptist congregation favored by my RWNJ, George Wallace voting mom, then went to a blue collar Catholic high school. As an adult, wandered into the Greek Orthodoxy of my paternal grandparents. I never was particularly dogmatic, but was comfortable and didn’t think too much about the underpinnings.
As time has gone on and the biggest assholes in the world donned the judgmental, pharisaic mantle of America’s Best Christians, I came to think things through, maybe in a fashion similar to what Jefferson did. In hearing the fevered pronouncements that made my own childhood Baptist congregation seem left liberal by comparison, I found every logical underpinning to be farcical, tired of my previous priest’s rightward lurches do to some brief fundamentalist convert incursions into Orthodoxy, and started staying away. Even now, as my home parish has a really nice priest who has restored the parish to the open, tolerant, nonjudgmental and fun culture it had before, my mind tells me that the liturgy (which I genuinely enjoy) is intellectual vaporware.
My harshness comes from the fact that everything good about this city is under attack from the Mayberry Machiavellis (or as one friend says, “hayseed legislooters”), happy to take A LOT of our money while trashing our open, tolerant culture. It wears on me.
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: Fareed Zakaria is a liar and a thief. Let us not forget his plagiarism habit.
Booger
@SFAW: It’s tough, kid, but it’s life
Betty Cracker
@satby: I’d definitely recommend special cabinet paint vs. latex, which probably won’t stand up to the constant wear cabinets receive. Regarding color, maybe choose something altogether different since you’re not going to try to match the other cabinets? Something bold?
artem1s
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
She’s been interesting to follow. But I have to admit to large amounts of skepticism. Not because of her credibility, but because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in some drooling at the mouth stupor, raving about how he is going to jail now any day. I watched too many people go down the CDS and ODS rabbithole over the last 8 years. Every single thing was the crime of the century and sure to put them all away for sure this time.
I want this to be real so we don’t have to live thru this nightmare anymore. But I also want it to be legal and solid, so we don’t have to live thru this nightmare anymore for real. The most troublesome thing to me is that if it is real, it’s going to go on for a long time. Maybe years. Maybe decades. And if it is real, it should. I don’t see the resistance being satisfied with taking back the WH and/or Congress. They/we aren’t going home and pretending that the GOP is going to get sane this time or that blue dog Dems won’t sell the farm as soon as they get the chance. If it means taking down some Dems who got caught up in looking the other way on the hacking, so be it. It probably means Bernie’s campaign managers go down too…and him with it. I just don’t see how they can do a thorough investigation of Wikileaks and the Russian interference without more of the details on that coming out. The GOP will make it happen if only to sow the seeds of ‘Democrats in disarray’ and ‘both sides do it’. They will have to. I just wonder how many of the resistance/indivisible Bernie hard liners realize that there is a smear campaign coming their way. All of that stuff in the GOP opposition reports that JEB never used is coming out. And its gonna be ugly.
amk
@OzarkHillbilly: Forget it, jake. It’s all about cable noise bombgasm.
Yarrow
Well, this cheered me up this morning:
I hope Ivanka’s orange jumpsuit is stylish enough for her.
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
Virtual (((hugs))) to you and yours, and may you find the courage and serenity to see this through.
bemused
@satby:
If men were birthing babies and nursing them for months, the world population numbers would be dramatically lower, imo. I doubt many men would disagree. Co-workers in the jobs I had were predominately male and we few women did a lot of eye rolling over some of the excessive whining over minor illnesses or injuries. Then there were the cranky guys taking their bad moods out on everyone. We called them the PMSers. oth, equally frustrating are the guys who ignore symptoms or minimize seriousness of injuries.
satby
@Betty Cracker: tempting! Thanks.
My problem is I have too many choices.
Baud
@bemused: C’mon. Paper cuts hurt.
satby
@Baud: see, this is why I love you. You make me laugh.
bemused
@Baud:
So you’ve met some of my ex co-workrs.
Yarrow
@artem1s:
This caught my eye this morning:
Also, multiple investigations:
Yarrow
@bemused: Obligatory: Man Cold.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@artem1s: Also worth keeping in mind that the Trump people are so stupid, inept and arrogant they can easily have committed plenty of other crimes that get can them an indictment besides treason like tax fraud or lying on their security clearances.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Is that why your comments are always short and pithy? Are you cheating on us? Saving your words for people in real life???
(where’s the interrobang when you need it the most?!?!?!)
danielx
OT:
You are in no danger from ordinary felis domesticus….unless you are between them and a piece of ham.
Doug R
@Immanentize: Colorectal cancer took my 48 year old brother about 20 years ago.
There’s been some success with clinical trials of Genetically Modified viruses to treat cancers, including stomach cancer, here’s hoping you find something that helps you guys win the fight.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/is-immunotherapy-a-cancer-game-changer-heres-why-scientists-say-yes
http://www.ohri.ca/newsroom/newsstory.asp?ID=271
https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: oh, my God. No words. Except to say, so sorry to hear it.
bemused
@Yarrow:
I remember that one. Hilarious. The videos of men wearing labor pain simulator belly vest were interesting too.
hovercraft
@Immanentize:
I’m so sorry to hear about your wife. Best of luck with her chemo, and our thoughts and best wishes are with you both. Stay strong.
Uncle Cosmo
@Immanentize: Ouch. Earnest hopes for Ms Immanentize’s complete, speedy & minimally-uncomfortable recovery (in roughly that order, I guess). Got news yesterday that wife of a buddy from HS was diagnosed–looks like they caught it early & prognosis so far is favorable. Fingers crossed for them both. Fuck cancer!
Betty Cracker
@artem1s: That’s pretty much how I view it. Mensch has had at least one genuine scoop, but she’s also a conspiracy nut who thinks Putin assassinated Breitbart. I take what she says with a HUGE boulder of salt. Just from the facts we know to be true right now, I consider Trump’s election illegitimate, and I hope more facts emerge to take the bastard down. But I can just as easily see it all getting swept under the rug and the US government learning exactly ZERO lessons from it, which will allow Russian and other state and non-state actors to interfere in future elections.
schrodingers_cat
Since T has started dropping bombs, watch how the neocon press has suddenly discovered that they like T. Fareed Zakaria was just the first one out of the gate.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Immanentize:
OH NOES! Please know we’re here to give you whatever support we can. I’m so sorry, but hopeful, and you should be too.
I’m not religious at all, but observe the niceties of Christian traditions like gathering with family and friends to mark the occasion. Since I moved out of the big suburban house a lot of my furniture ended up with one of my daughters (in Medford, Immanentize) so I get to enjoy my old dining room set as it’s been repurposed by her. Another thing I will do this weekend is watch the movie The Way again. It’s one of my favorite all time movies – Wizard of Oz meets pilgrims on the El Camino de Santiago. It’s a lovely, sweet buddy film, with gorgeous scenery, and the scenes in the cathedral at the end get you, whether you’re a believer or not. Martin Sheen is the main character, everyone else is a who dat.
bluefoot
@Central Planning: I grew up in Buffalo, where it’s practically required to go to Dyngus Day celebrations. When I moved away, I was surprised at hard it was to buy pussy willows before Easter in the rest of the country. :)
I was back home a couple of weeks ago, and took my Polish-American brother-in-law from NYC to the Broadway Market. He loved it. The whole Lenten and Easter season in Buffalo is one of the things I miss most.
sheila in nc
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, yes and no. A religion in which you have been raised from childhood is more than a choice; it’s the basis of your entire worldview, your framework for thinking about everything around you — people, life, the natural world, the cosmos. People lean on that, depend on it psychologically, in a way that atheists sometimes struggle to appreciate. This was brought home to me by my sister, who is a recovering alcoholic and whose faith is important to her in dealing with her disease. I would toss off a lot of post-Enlightenment dismissal of religious dogma in the course of regular conversation — she finally had to tell me how hurtful my words were to her, how they caused her grief in the context of how she was trying to cope. So I’ve backed off at least expressing it so forcefully.
sheila in nc
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Totally get it. I have to confess that I was well into my thirties before I realized that the only thing I got out of church was the opportunity to make music — that none of the rest of it meant anything else to me except as the comforting repetition of language from my childhood. “And it came to pass in the days of Caesar Augustus…”
Kathleen
@Immanentize: Prayers to you and your wife. So sorry to hear that.
Kathleen
@Chet: Congratulations and Good Luck.
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
Oh, no! I’m so sorry. They really have made some amazing advances in cancer treatment, so I hope her doctors are able to find the right combination to fight the tumor. We will think healing thoughts for Mrs. Immanentize.
NotMax
Wrong-o-roonie.
It’s been a state holiday here since, well, statehood. And elsewhere:
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
It’s still not a federal holiday, Mr. Pedant.
Aleta
@Immanentize: Best wishes as you progress through her treatment and healing.
PaulWartenberg
I just finished one story I needed to complete, and now I need to work on two more today to feel like I’m getting stuff done!
Origuy
Good Friday is a holiday in India, which means that my 9am conference call was cancelled. My Indian co-workers didn’t want to call in on the evening of a holiday, even if they aren’t Christian. Fine with me.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
And a cheery top o’ the mornin’ to you, too.
What’s your point? Never said or implied it was a federal holiday, merely pointed out a correction to the clause.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize: Damn but that’s horrid news. My thoughts are with you both. May your wife’s chemo be both well tolerated and successful.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize: They really need to get on top of that pain. If I can help with any legal drafting for your practice from OH, have Adam give you my email. I’ll gladly do whatever I can, and have plenty of free time.
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
So sorry to hear about the diagnosis, really hoping the newer chemo/radiation therapies help put the cancer down. Fuck Cancer!!
A dear friend is alive today years after her local doctors told her to call Hospice. Her husband took her to UVA med school the next day for virulent breast cancer, she had surgery immediately, and many cycles of radiation/chemo.
She stopped those cycles after many months of misery, but so far so good. Has gotten to watch her first grand-baby not be a baby any more!!
So hang in there, new techniques sometimes really work! Keep us posted. We care!
J R in WV
@Taylor:
Calling ancient stories myths is not hate speech. Not even close. I deleted my real comment and decided to stop there. Hope you appreciate it!
Central Planning
@katinbuffalo: I always plan to, but then the kids always have off from school. I don’t think I want to bring them yet ;)
J R in WV
@satby:
My Mom told me to use a really thin foam roller on cabinets, and enamel paint. That worked well for us. She did their old steel cabinets after they were taken out of the kitchen, and used them in her work room. You couldn’t tell they had been painted until chips happened from being in a work area as opposed to a kitchen.
If you want a more modern look, use a bright color on the cabinets, or match the wall paint, for a more traditional look, go for a wood-like tone.
The Lodger
@NotMax: This is Easter. The holiday with the connection to the clause is Christmas.
wild-eyed socialist
@Immanentize: I just lost my mom to lung cancer 17 March. (Fucking cigarettes) Your wife will probably feel cold after chemo; invest in an electric blanket. Make a cancer card for her so she can wave that around if someone is not listening to her. (humor usually gets attention or makes one memorable) If she is on pain meds, keep ahead of the pain. I set the timer on my phone for every four hours. Do not be afraid to ask for help. You will need a break too. I am sorry to hear about the cancer.