From my first day in Paris – metro station entrance
Looks like we could use an open thread. What’s going on this afternoon? I’m off to run errands and replenish the very empty frig.
There will be a writing thread tomorrow – we have a guest post that has languished in my inbox for much too long. 12:30/11:30/10:30/9:30 right here.
Open thread.
raven
Oh just the SEC Championship Game.
Major Major Major Major
Omg! I was just going to come here and complain there wasn’t an open thread. Check out this cool X-Files t-shirt.
Yay writing thread tomorrow! I imagine I’ll arrive late as usual, but I always love reading them and getting my two cents in at the end. Preview: I ‘finished’ my novel (draft) and am letting it lay fallow for six weeks, which is driving me insane. Three and a half to go!
Today the plan is to buy insoles, watch Mindhunter, and finish a comic strip. Probably play Witcher 3 or Fallout 4.
Mary G
@raven: I’m sorry you are so alone on the sportsball these days.
lollipopguild
@raven: You are a big Auburn fan right? (Runs away)
opiejeanne
Where is that station? We saw several beautiful entrances to Metro stations when we were in Paris but never saw anything like that.
Ohio Mom
I took a quick glance at the news/twitter/this site early this morning before I headed out for a housing for the disabled conference. It was interesting, I learned a few things and strengthened a few acquaintanceships.
Now I’m back home and do not have the heart to catch up on all the analysis, despair, determination, and strategizing in blogtopia. Maybe after dinner.
raven
@Mary G: Don’t matter, I shut this shit down in 3 minutes.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: I emailed you.
schrodingers_cat
Went to our local farm stand, unfortunately no ice cream. They had cider and cider donuts instead.
Yesterday, I scored two skirts, one wool and one corduroy which still had tags on it and brand new shoes from a tiny thrift store run for a Hospice Center by old ladies who curate their collection. They also fix and clean stuff before putting it on sale. So its slightly more expensive than say Goodwill but the quality is much better. Also got a pretty bracelet with gold rope and tiny pearls. And a Brooks Brothers blazer for the husband kitteh.
Hildebrand
Lecturing on the Book of Job tomorrow. Job’s friends are the original concern trolls.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
Just curious: How did you arrive at 6 weeks as the length of time to set aside your writing?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@opiejeanne: ima guess somewhere on Montmartre. And repost this from below, even though I guess I’m preaching to the choir
trump expressed openness to a 22% rate today, which probably prompted Norquist’s tweet and may cause some turbulence for Paulie Blue-Eyes. If you have an R MoC and a state income tax, you have an issue. Principled Moderate Susan Collins slipped in a 10K property tax exemption. I believe Maine, like TX and FL, has no state income tax but some pretty hefty property taxes
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maine has a state income tax, or at least did when I lived and worked there in the late 90s and early to mid aughts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: right after I posted, I remembered that George and Bar used to use a PO Box in Houston as an official address to avoid paying state income tax in lovely Walker’s Point.
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: It’s the average of one month and two months, the two recommended times I got the most often.
ETA more seriously, it’s about how long it takes me to forget how code I wrote works, and I consider the two closely analogous.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Recommended times for what?
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Didn’t they already take that vote once though?
@schrodingers_cat: Letting a long piece of writing sit unattended before revising it.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You have to pay taxes in the state if you made any income there. I have filed state taxes in three states one year, because we file a joint tax return and I worked in two states and we had two residences and lived in two states. A real pain in the neck.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
Interesting. I’ve tended to set it aside for at least six months, but then, I’m just writing for myself.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks. Will go and check.
opiejeanne
@Hildebrand: Yes they are!
Another Scott
@Hildebrand: Hehe. :-) Thanks.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who always thinks of G.O.B. on Arrested Development when he hears that name.)
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: I think I would legit die, lol.
SiubhanDuinne
One of our own much-published writers, Tom Levenson, has a new article (on antibiotics) in the Boston Globe (link). Scary stuff, but elegantly written.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
I write all day at work, so maybe that’s why. I kind of like the distance it gives me. Will you be publishing?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
maybe hoping that the Senate would save them? and/or that constituents wouldn’t notice. And not a few of them may be too dumb to know what’s actually in the bill. The focus is on NY and California, but I’ve seen Wisconsin and Ohio mentioned as states where people will notice this.
SiubhanDuinne
@Hildebrand:
LOL! Also, true dat.
Nicole
Spent the morning at a birthday party my son was invited to at Chuck E Cheese. That place is just a big casino for the under 18 crowd. We know this, right?
The kid had fun, until he realized some of his friends had won more tickets than he did and he got upset and burst into tears. I fear that he is going to grow up to become a Republican.
(note: I don’t really fear that. He just cried; he didn’t try to steal their tickets away from them.)
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: while I enjoy my own stories, I enjoy it more when other people enjoy them too ?
I’ve not found six months to give me any more insight than two months, historically.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hildebrand: “Curse God and die.”
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: classic Wilmerbot.
Nicole
@Major Major Major Major:
Ooh! My husband’s on an episode of Mindhunter. His scene was with Jonathan Groff, who he said was just the nicest guy you could imagine. I saw him years ago on Broadway, in Spring Awakening, and he was great in that. Nice to see him succeeding.
Yarrow
@Hildebrand:
I’ve been saying for awhile now that I need to re-read the Book of Job. Interested to read it if you want to give a summary of your lecture.
Duane
@raven: I’m going to say something I’ve never said before. GO DAWGS!
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Grover Norquist, whose whole schtick is no tax increases ever on anyone, congratulated them on passing the Senate bill, which explicitly raises some taxes, and now has the gall to hit then on the possibility of raising rates that aren’t even law yet.
The obvious con have wouldn’t bother me if he wasn’t still taken seriously by too many.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Major Major Major Major: I let mine sit about a month. It’s very helpful.
At the moment, I also have my draft out with a beta reader because I know I need another draft but I’d appreciate someone else’s perspective on how or whether the story works for them.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Anybody who’s paid the slightest attention knows the California Congresscritters are all knuckle-draggers who will go along with whatever turd comes before them. Maybe an Issa votes against the bill but McClintock, Nunes, et al vote yes with both arms.
MomSense
Congrats to M4 and Mnemosyne for finishing drafts. The plan for my little book is to meet with an illustrator that my book agent has worked with. Coincidentally, this artist did a portrait of my youngest about 11-12 years ago at a fair. She really captured his personality in a short time. I had it framed and it’s one of my favorite pieces. So fingers crossed that she likes my story well enough to consider joining the project.
cope
After savoring a 5-1 Liverpool victory, running errands to the drug store, bank and grocery store, and starting dinner (BLTs and roasted potato wedges), I punted on removing the home-built anti-hurricane buttresses on my fence…they’ll still be there tomorrow. So sue me…
Kicking back with a beverage (oooops, refill time) and some mindless TV while food cooks. Also, too, forgot I have to go out and clean and redirect the track lights on our newly refurbished and rebuilt back porch. The struggle never ends.
Major Major Major Major
@MomSense: good luck!
Didn’t know Mnem finished, must email.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
They don’t like being quiet little turds in a very big punch bowl. They have to make a lot of noise for anyone to even notice them. Would be nice of them to all have heart attacks and be replaced by humans.
jeffreyw
On Dec. 29, a transition adviser to Mr. Trump, K. T. McFarland, wrote in an email to a colleague that sanctions announced hours before by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election meddling were aimed at discrediting Mr. Trump’s victory. The sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, “which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him,” she wrote in the emails obtained by The Times.
Major Major Major Major
@jeffreyw: Once again demonstrating the old rule that most criminals are stupid.
rikyrah
I am from a high tax state, and the few GOPers here … I will volunteer for their opponents
James E. Powell
@lollipopguild:
He’s not alone. It’s just that without an Official College Football Thread® the NCAAF fans go elsewhere.
Early observation – Bulldogs are tense.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: More Rashid Khan goodness, I posted in the morning’s thread that you may have missed.
One is a more easy listening type number while the other one is more hard core Hindustani classical. Enjoy!
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
Ooh great! I’ll go check it out. Things got a bit hectic with the arrival of 5 teens.
Duane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Isn’t it courteous of them to consider a 2% raise in the corporate rate the bastards don’t have much, but they have nerve. Fuckem. Hi efg.
japa21
Just read where the National Association of Realtors expects home prices to drop because of the bill, 10% here in IL. Another thing home owners will love.
MoxieM
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: well, in fairness, it’s the summer place.
eta: States like Maine with high poverty rates in the general population, but wealthy seasonal visitors really crap out on this kind of arrangement. Sales prices go up in the summer usually, so local communities scavenge higher bits and bobs if they can, but yeah. The wealthy enclaves like Kennebunkport, Mt. Desert Isle etc., put quite a burden on the infrastructure (guess where the good roads are?) but not a lot of tax money to support the schools that year round residents’ kids use, I’ll bet.. I wonder what all the data looks like.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
Jeebus. They don’t even pretend, do they?
Mary G
@trollhattan: Issa voted no, but most of the rest of them voted yes and there are a number of Indivisible groups, at least in Orange County, who are putting pressure on the others. The Orange County Register is concerned, which is a good thing. It’s about 2018 now, and big protests will put a nice target on some backs. Even knuckledraggers can count.
mike in dc
@japa21: A drop in home prices might please new home buyers, but will piss off a lot of suburban home-owners(i.e., largely, middle and upper middle class white people).
Also, Trump at 33 in Gallup…before they start measuring the impact of the tax bill and Flynn plea.
Mnemosyne
This will tell everyone how bad my mood is right now: I’m not even excited that I’m going to see “Hamilton” tonight.
Mary G
I wasn’t always so in love with HRC, but her grace and strength this year have turned me into a total fangurl.
Major Major Major Major
via Clickhole, some inspiring content: Incredible: This Inner-City Teacher Can Finally Use The Private Jet Tax Credit To Take Her Kids On A Field Trip To The Louvre
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@japa21: Just read where the National Association of Realtors expects home prices to drop because of the bill, 10% here in IL. Another thing home owners will love.
another great talking point for Monday morning phone calls. Here’s the NAR’s breakdown state-by-state. It’s calculated without Collins’ exception, but… anything we can use to scare them sumbitches
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@mike in dc: We’re getting ready to sell our house. This is not good news.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Okay, who are you and what have you done with Mnem??
Emma
Open thread? OK. I’ve gotten some good advice on a camera and a tablet from y’all so next question. I already have Amazon Prime, but I’ve decided to get myself another movie/tv show subscription service. Netflix? HuluPlus? Anything specially for foreign movies?
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Unacceptable. How long have you waited for this? Shake it off for a few hours. Let this remind you of the good in this country.
debbie
@mike in dc:
Also, the deduction goes away at $500,000. The McMansions will rapidly lose their appeal.
NotMax
@Emma
Netflix has a quite decent selection of foreign fare, both movies and TV. Still a bargain at the basic rate level of $7.99 per month. Netflix’ drawback is that it can be cumbersome to search through offerings. One plus is that, via their web site, appearance of subtitles can be customized as to color, size and font.
Can’t be 100% sure but believe Netflix still offers a 30 day free trial.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Corey Lelandowski and David Bossie have written a campaign memoir. I don’t think trump is going to like it
Well, he sounds very stable and well-adjusted
hair and skin… of normal human color and texture? Reminds me of Rove’s rant about how guys like Obama thought they were so cool at high school dances
and, seriously, how is he still on this side of the grass? and does McDonald’s make malteds now?
may rage and cholesterol do their stuff when he hears about this
Another Scott
@debbie: Lots of the single-family housing market these days is driven by rentals (investors buying them to rent them out). That part of the market will still be there.
IOW, I’d be surprised if there is really a big effect on housing – it doesn’t look like there has been much of an effect so far (October numbers, but that provision was talked about back then IIRC).
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
Keep up the fire.
PsiFighter37
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He eats all of that in one sitting? I hope the WH chefs simply feed him more and more of it.
Gin & Tonic
Another evening avoiding politics, I am visiting a brand new brewery/pub in Port Jervis, a depressed city experiencing a bit of a comeback.
Duane
@James E. Powell: Dawgs-Tigers is turning into a very good game.
Skepticat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: We have state income tax and absolutely insane property taxes in Maine. My dear senator’s big-whoop exemption isn’t going to cover the taxes for even my small, ancient, rickety place on an island off Portland–and it certainly doesn’t offset an infinitesimal part of the damage her traitorous vote will cause so many other people.
raven
@Duane: The pick on the TD was horseshit but these things tend tend to even out.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Used to pass through Port Jervis regularly on the way to and from the Poconos. Not too far upriver is the hamlet of Pond Eddy, which had (may still have) a tavern with a large selection of foreign brews on tap.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
@debbie:
My bad knee hurts, and I have the beginnings of a migraine, and both of those things are going to make for an uncomfortable experience at the theater. And I’m just in a cranky-ass mood in general because I’m mad at myself for falling and screwing up my knee so badly that I’m going to need surgery.
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
If you really like foreign films, you might want to look into Filmstruck. Raven has a subscription and he seems to really like it.
Laura Olin
I recently wrote a book for kids about Barack Obama, since I can’t stomach the thought that Donald Trump is the first president kids like my nephews will come to know. Available until this Thursday via Kickstarter.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Pond Eddy has been dead for years. Narrowsburg has been trendy for a while.
There’s a bridge over the Delaware in Barryville built by John? Roebling of Brooklyn Bridge fame. Except this bridge carried six feet of water, for barges to cross the river. So technically an aqueduct.
Cckids
@Mnemosyne: Yikes!
Want to dump your tickets? Asking for a friend ?
But seriously, hope you feel better and can enjoy!
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I can still remember when, on my 40th birthday, I decided that McDonald’s wasn’t doing me any good and I had to give it up. Mind you, even then I only ate it once a year, on my birthday. But my yearly filet-o-fish, fries, and chocolate shake made me so sick I realized the whole thing was poison. I live a 2-minute drive from a McDonald’s and I never go there.
But DJT seems to be of the Dracula sort.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
I didn’t realize your knee’s no better and am so sorry it’s ruining something you’ve looked forward to for so long.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
I smell a Narrowsburg meetup in the offing.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
We can’t let the Trump era ruin it for us.
PaulWartenberg
NANOWRIMO update:
I got over 52000 words but the novel is a complete mess and in dire need of rewrite. I know it’s a rough draft, but this thing’s rougher than the surface of Mars…
PaulWartenberg
@Mnemosyne:
DAMN REPUBLICANS. They’ve ruined HAMILTON! >:(
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: I’m not here often.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Heh. Used to make occasional trips to Narrowsburg back when the purchasing age for alcohol in NY was 18 versus 21 in PA.
Rather a famous one that you mention, serving as a demonstration of the principles of wire suspension bridges (or in this case, aqueduct) which led directly to the later construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
While not a Roebling construction, the bridge downstream at Dingman’s Ferry sports an impressive history as well.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lewandowski wrote that? I thought he was a big Trump loyalist.
@Mnemosyne: I’m so sorry, Mnem. Do you have something for the migraine especially?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@PaulWartenberg: Anything is better than writing a first draft. I love revising. I can see the book getting better.
Mnemosyne
@debbie:
I found out this past week that there’s an actual nickname by orthopedists for what I did to my knee: “the Unhappy Triad.” I managed to damage my ACL, my MCL (the big ligament on the inside of the leg), AND my meniscus all at the same time. So i’m still wallowing in being pissed off at myself for having the accident in the first place.
@PaulWartenberg:
Step away from the rough draft! Let it cool off for at least a month before you start re-writing it. One good tip I saw is to start making a list of the things you know need to be fixed/changed, but don’t start revising right away or you’ll make yourself crazy.
Daddio7
@schrodingers_cat: What’s that called? Oh yeah, rich people’s problems. My property tax is $550, 13 acres of pine woods land and an old mobile home, want to trade?
Duane
@raven: Scores are hard to come by. That was a big blocked FG by Georgia.
Mnemosyne
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Excedrin usually works just fine — in fact, it’s probably about time to take another dose, if not past time for it. I’m also laying down in a dim room with an ice pack on my knee, which is helping the pain, if not my mood.
Mnemosyne
@Daddio7:
Are you going to take over her job teaching physics at the college level? I have a sneaky feeling you may not qualify.
Major Major Major Major
@PaulWartenberg: well you did write it in a month.
Major Major Major Major
@Daddio7: I don’t think s_c is rich, but I could be wrong.
James E. Powell
@Duane:
I wish the Bulldogs would stop making things more difficult for themselves with penalties.
Mary G
@Emma: I think Hulu has a one-week trial and though I haven’t had it in a while, they used to have the Criterion collection, which had some good old or foreign stuff.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
I am genuinely sorry about your knee. Was hoping it would be a simple strain or sprain.
But please enjoy Hamilton! I’m sure you will, and I look forward to your review.
Mary G
@jeffreyw: WHAT!
jl
Woah… heard part of an interview on news radio with a legal pundit saying Trump really really better delete that tweet! Then the anchor person said more legal analysis of Trump tweet and what Mueller might do later today.
So, WTF did the idiot tweet out this time?
jl
@jeffreyw: Huh… eventful day in Trump corruption and collaboration, I guess.
Ladyraxterinok
@Hildebrand: Do you have this and other lectures online? Job bugs/fascinates me.
debbie
@jl:
This shows he knew about the lying before firing Flynn, when previously he said he knew nothing.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@jl:
What did they say?
Major Major Major Major
@jl: @debbie: not that deleting the tweet would do anything.
bystander
@NotMax: That place is out of business.
@Gin & Tonic: We have a place in Pike County Pa, and we really don’t need twitler damaging house values further.
sukabi
@debbie: depending where you live $500k could buy you a mcmansion, or a really crappy bungalow.
Seattle it’s an old bungalow…50+ miles out with a shotty commute it’s a mcmansion…
jl
@debbie: Oh. Thanks. We already know Trump has been obstructing justice, I guess the hold up is that off-the-cuff public admissions aren’t enough for a criminal indictment or impeachment (at least in this Congress), I guess. Main thing we don’t know is exactly why.
debbie
@jl:
Adam Schiff was on NPR. Is that what you heard? There’s also this from CNN.
ETA: Trump also said something to reporters before coptering off to NYC.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie:
also, too, they have decided to throw one of his lawyers under the bus
a transparent lie, and I don’t know what if any consequences there would be for said lawyer, but why would anyone jump on this grenade for trump?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would never draft a tweet for a client. WTF.
jl
@debbie: Double thanks. I heard another report while driving from local CBS news station. Local law prof said (very loose paraphrase) ‘Ya know, a guy can only admit to committing felonies so many times in public and then sooner or later, gosh darn it, you have to start taking it seriously’ So, that wrapped up, and the anchor person said they would have more legal experts on what Mueller might do about Trump’s latest admission of guilt.
Edit: and a comment just added reminds me the law prof also mentioned that now there is evidence that Trump knew Flynn had done something wrong before taking other actions to try to stop the investigation. i guess Trump’s team could argue he is mentally incompetent at this point.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wouldn’t a lawyer, being up on legal language, say “pleaded guilty,” not “pled guilty”? Pled isn’t really used anymore.
Calouste
@jl: The shitgibbon said that he sacked Flynn back in February because he lied to the FBI. After admitting a while back that he asked Comey the day after the sacking to take the investigation on Flynn easy. It’s pretty much an admission of an attempt at obstruction of justice.
James E. Powell
@sukabi:
In Culver City, $500K will get you about a 1000 sq ft condo on an okay but not great street.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Nice catch.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@mike in dc:
Ironically, Trump blamed the 1986 tax reform for the recession that led to George Bush Sr. being ousted and to Trump’s real estate business going bankrupt. Prior to the reform a lot of high income people would buy homes and rent them, using the depreciation as a tax shelter on their income. Tax reform killed that which led to a dip in home purchases and a decline in prices. Now he’d doing it all over again by removing state and property tax deduction.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hey they didn’t blame Obama for drafting the tweet. Progress!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: @debbie: and what lawyer would say he lied to the FBI and his actions were lawful?
I think he’s down at Mar-A-Lago with just the family. Slab-head Donnie* came up with this one and Eric said “Yeah!”. Barron must be at the pool and wasn’t there to point out how dumb this was
*with apologies to the poster from yesterday I stole that from
danielx
Am I the only one who is getting madder and madder as the day wears into evening? The kindest phrase describing Mitch McConnell I can come up with is turtle-faced shitbag. As for John McCain, fuck him. Just die already and get it over with before you do any more damage, you goddamned fucking pissrat.
This isn’t helping, it’s only making me more angry. Those miserable Republican walking, talking piles of ambulatory human waste, those weeping pustules….
Duane
@James E. Powell: Auburn’s got a ways to go now. Georgia’s gonna try to run it out. Could have another upset here.
Mnemosyne
@danielx:
I finally joined Swing Left to try and boot the Republican who represents CA-25 out of office, so at least I feel like I’m trying to do something.
ETA: My district already has a solid Dem, Brad Sherman, so I’m helping a sister district.
Suzanne
Brock Turner is appealing his sentence because he haz sadz about having to register as a sex offender, and I am just done with dudes for today.
LurkerNoLonger
@Laura Olin: Congratulations!
Baud
@Laura Olin: Oh nice.
Jeffro
Brunch was great, MEAN GIRLS (the musical) was outstanding – going to be a huge hit on Broadway for years to come – and now we’re all here at home fat and happy on pizza, garlic knots, and salad trying to figure out what to watch.
Also, Go Dukes! after beating Stony Brook today. Let’s make it two national titles in a row!
Steve in the ATL
@Duane: @raven: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGS!
SIC ‘EM!
WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF
Duane
@jl: Trump can take the cue of Sessions and claim he didn’t know what he was doing. Nice defense they got there.
zhena gogolia
@danielx:
I hear ya.
Adrift
@danielx:
I find that several tall cans of Pabst and drinking directly from a bottle of Jameson help temper some of the anger, but not all. Hope this helps.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I always throw a tantrum and break shit when I did nothing wrong.
sukabi
@Baud: cue Trey Gowdy for his Hillary did it investigations..
Steve in the ATL
@Adrift: new thread open. Looks like you killed this one too!
Adrift
@Steve in the ATL:
I always knew that I had a hidden talent. Looks like it’s confirmed.
debbie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
He’s destroying federal property.
Mnemosyne
@Suzanne:
Well, come on, who knew it was illegal to sexually assault an unconscious woman? I mean, it’s not like she’s going to remember it, so no harm, no foul, amirite?
/barf
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I wish. When you are an immigrant, you go where the jobs/opportunities are. We lived in MD outside DC, I worked in NoVa, then husband kitteh got a job in NY. All in the same year. Hence 3 states.
debbie
@Suzanne:
He’s really pushing it. He got off easy, as it is.
debbie
FFS
Sister Golden Bear
@debbie: $500,000 is far less than the median home price in the SF Bay Area, so it’s going to hit far more than McMansion owners.
(As a data point, the estates my own house are priced far more than that, and it’s 800-square-foot home on a 3,000 square-foot lot. I’m just exceedingly lucky I was able to buy before prices skyrocketed, and that my house is on an usually small lot, which brought the price just within reach.)
Millard Filmore
@jl:
Along the “I’m too brain damaged to know better” line, maybe:
1) Trump remembers he had to fire Flynn for lying to Pence
2) yesterday Trump heard about Flynn lying to the FBI
3) He mashed the 2 ideas together for his tweet.
Saying this tweet is an admission of obstruction assumes a mental capacity that Trump might not have. So Trump is either ready for Amendment 25 or he is guilty of obstruction.
debbie
@Sister Golden Bear:
I think McMansions around here (central Ohio) are different from those on the coasts. Here, they’re built on regular-sized lots. The house extends from edge to edge, just inches from neighboring properties. The houses are too large for the lots, hence the “slur.”
Another Scott
@Laura Olin: Neat. Good luck with the stretch goal!
Cheers,
Scott.
Duane
@Adrift: Do what you do best!
Adrift
@Duane:
It’s all I’ve got left.
Hildebrand
@Yarrow: @Ladyraxterinok: Here are some of the highlights of the lecture:
To start, the introductory scene in God’s court shows God as a pretty typical monarch with a full court. Satan, which should probably be translated as The Satan (use the definite article – its a title, not an individual’s name), acts as the court provocateur (adversary), and challenges God about Job (his name likely means ‘Where is God?’) – essentially, Satan argues that Job is only good and faithful because God has given him everything. Take it all away and he will turn on you like a rabid dog. So, God wipes him out. The whole thing is a set-up to talk about questions of justice, suffering, the law of retribution, and the inscrutability of God. The ancient Israelites knew this was about a legendary character (Job isn’t an Israelite, which sets him up as a good person but not of the tribe, thus we can talk about him at length), and thus are not hung up on a lot of the details, but it gives them a chance to ask big questions and sort out their relationship with God. The book belongs in the Wisdom literature genre, which the ancients understood meant it was all about asking uncomfortable questions, and often getting not wholly satisfying answers.
The main bulk of the book is taken up with Job’s discussion with his ‘friends’. The friends are more interested in protecting God’s justice, or at least their own construction of the idea or theory of God’s justice, or even God. Job is in full lament mode, he doesn’t need theological or scientific answers, he needs them to sit and drink with him, and say, “That sucks, you can cry on my shoulder if you want.” When they only try to figure out what he has done wrong, Job gets rightly pissed off that they aren’t at all interested in finding out why God is acting like such a piker. His friends argue that Job’s anger and indignation simply reveals the depths of his sinfulness, and if were just to admit his guilt, everything would be back to normal. Job doesn’t want normal, he wants to know why God is doing something so patently unjust.
The last third of the book gets a little confused. A number of chapters were likely dropped in from other sources, this is especially true of 28, which is an interesting exploration of wisdom, but it doesn’t really feel like it fits the rest of the work (the chapter says that, essentially, only God knows the path to wisdom, but that as long as we recognize God’s central role, the quest for wisdom isn’t a bad thing). Job then launches out on his final defense – noting that he has always been a good and faithful person, and that he just wants to know why he has been treated so shabbily by the God he has never forsworn. He gives a negative confession, noting all the things that he has not done wrong, and demands that God weigh his deeds on balanced scales (the implication being that God rigged the game at the beginning (which he did)). After a short interlude of one more interlocutor (who is offering an additional defense of God’s prerogatives), we finally get the confrontation between God and Job.
God gives two speeches at the end of the book – they don’t contain answers to Job’s many questions, but perhaps they can be answers for Job (answers that transcend what Job thinks he wants to know). The goal may be to re-frame the way Job is thinking about all of this. The speeches seem to imply that there is a plan, that God is in control, and that Job simply cannot see the big picture. The idea is that chaos is not overwhelming order – that even in those moments when it feels like chaos is winning, there is still order, that God is in control. Which may be true, but it may not be all that helpful to Job. Job responds that all of this succeeds in making him feel small (but still would love to actually understand). God comes back at him in the second speech and starts to ask another series of questions that Job simply cannot answer. The first round was about creation, this round is about bringing the wicked to justice. Job didn’t want to have power, he wanted to understand why these shitty things were happening.
What Job ultimately realizes is that God is too big to understand, but he is satisfied by this because before he was only told that this was true, that tradition told him that this was true, but now, he has experienced it. He has the lived experience of arguing with God and actually knowing that God is too big to understand. One is second-hand knowledge, the other is first-hand. He still doesn’t have answers, but at least God gave him the opportunity to argue with him.
The epilogue, wherein Job gets everything back plus is a lot like the tacked on ending of the original Blade Runner – something added later because people wanted a damned happy ending.
The book is about asking questions, and that the ancients felt okay about asking inscrutable questions, and getting answers that weren’t wholly satisfying, as long as you had the opportunity to actually ask questions of the one who might be able to answer them. Seems pretty important to talk about this, especially for an audience that likely doesn’t even recognize that asking questions, especially of the divine, is a good thing to do. It certainly makes for interesting conversations (not always fun, as people do tend to get cranky when you explore some of these topics, but definitely necessary).
Well, that’s the thumbnail. Glad to explore further
Another Scott
@Hildebrand: Sounds like a great lecture. Thanks for the Genuine Official Balloon-Juice Condensed Version. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
James E. Powell
@Duane:
Vengeance is ours, sayeth the Bulldogs.
No One You Know
Coming to terms with my mere 21,000-and-some words for NaNo. I’m carrying on. I have a bunch of questions for people who know more than I do. Might join a local writers group.
J R in WV
@Adrift:
“drinking directly from a bottle of Jameson…”
Hey, if you like Irish, I found a brand that is really good. It’s called “Green Spot” and has a somewhat feathered-edge green spot on the label. Old fashioned pot still, triple distilled, very smooth. Not cheap, but then so few really great things are also cheap. Not an arm and a leg, either.
And now a pause while I taste the small glass I just poured…. ummm. good.