Wednesday, March 01, 2017

The strange thing is the msm kinda liked the Trump Address

RE President Donald J. Trump's first address to a Joint Session of Congress last night the New York Times called it "a presidential speech" (read that again). I watched the bulk of it on ABC News and right after when you get to the post-game the commentators said the latter part was even lyrical. CBS and NBC noted a softer and different Trump, less combative who tapped into some unifying themes. Sure he massaged the nuts of the base at times ($54 billion in increased military spending, crime in Chicago) but it's like a big jug of cough syrup came over the msm in that they were positively and pleasantly subdued. Sure for much of the night the Democrats just sat there stone-faced and sullen, Trump could've offered up a true bona-fide cure for cancer and they still would've sat there with their diarrhetic expressions but I even caught Nancy Pelosi near the end furtively clapping over something. The most emotional and poignant moment of the night came of course when Trump had the widow of the slain Navy SEAL stand up, the wife of Petty Officer William Owens who was killed in that commando raid in Yemen that President Trump ordered in January. That cut across the boundaries and the Dems momentarily came out of their stupor and stood and clapped too. Sure the New York Times has to remind us they have to fact check everything (run it through Snopes?) but it's as if we were witnessing an alt-Trump.

139 comments:

  1. Like the rest of us, the dead veteran's family remains divided .

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  2. Give the devil his due. He gave a great speech.

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    1. "‘They lost Ryan’: Trump blames his own generals for Yemen raid that killed Navy SEAL...“This was a mission that was started before I got here,” Trump said. “This was something that was, uh, you know, they wanted to do. They came to see me, they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected. My generals are the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan.” Are we glad he changed his tiny
      mind when he trotted out the widow?

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    2. So clearly you weren't moved by the speech. Ivanka wrote part of it. Was he supposed to not acknowledge the widow? I found it an interesting night of tv.

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  3. Pondering your link aren't military strategies by their very nature inherently controversial and that depends on the results. Just think if the raid that killed OBL went really bad...always puzzled me why Obama had a full Muslim ceremony for bin Laden's burial at sea.

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    1. Yes, we recall Carter's ranger raid into Iran. Cost him the election (that and Reagan promising aid to
      Iran if they kept the prisoners until he was electied). Used to keep that stuff secret, like the
      huge casualites at Slapton Sands in England practicing
      for D-Day, or the few armed nukes that fell into the ocean accidently. But Oh Boy, if it is anywhere near
      successful, the pres hogs the credit. I served, the boy king got five deferments..you know where I stand.

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  4. They say the speech got something like 43 million viewers, much more than the Oscars. Did you boycott and sit on your porch pipe-smoking?

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    1. Both: read about the origin and development of ISIS during the Oscars. Watched a 40 minute program on the
      Lewis & Clark Expedition during the Presidential speech. In all fairness, I very rarely watch presidential speeches, no matter who it is; just as
      phoney as the Oscars. But, I did send a nasty e-mail to Paul Ryan, the GOP leader of the house, about my
      opinions of his favorite TrickleDown..basically it causes problems, not solve them. I am really into Lewis & Clark, have and have read the 9 volume books
      of their journals. Haven't read the 'Art of the Deal'
      though. Today's chef trivia: the rarest listed job
      in the US is 'personal chef', preparing meals soley for a single family. 270 jobs, no detail on pay.

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    2. Some have told me cooking for West Point would be the job to have. Probably a tremendous workload. I envision long hours, sacks of potatoes, sacks of onions, boatloads of produce, various meats. Perhaps I should google.

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    3. West Point cuisine may have it's downside .
      As if you don't already have workplace stress.
      They also have that fancy Thayer Hotel. I've been
      to WP, very impressive, but I never ate there.

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  5. Oh I got another colonoscopy bill today. It never ends.

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    1. Neighbor lady, 85 years old keeps fainting. They determined she was losing blood internally. The told
      the poor woman last night to prep overnight for an
      early morning colonoscopy. What a night to remember.

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    2. Medical billing is confusing. I will get 4-5 bills
      serially, then find out that it was all covered by
      Medicare and my health insurance supplement. I think
      the clinic as a woman robot (Siri) that just types the darn things up. I called their finance office once and they said "Oh, just ignored them". And we ponder that they think they can fix healthcare. Yeah, maybe if we copy Europe.

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    3. Well I guess they have no choice about the colonoscopy. I was gonna say maybe the prep alone would be too much for an 85-year old but the elderly are known for not eating much anyway.

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    4. Medical billing. My medical folder is the fattest of them all and it's not like I'm dying or anything.

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    5. They found a rather large malignancy in the old lady. Small town, everybody knows everybody, so they
      rammed through surgery for Friday. Once the polyps
      start to go, watch out. Delightful old gal, pioneered up in the Idaho Mts after coming from Iowa
      before WWII (the Big One).

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    6. Medical billing is the sole reason I avoid going to the doctor. It's as sure as the day is long that you will get an invoice that is screwed up. You'll spend 4 hours on the phone trying to resolve it. You'll get a verbal confirmation that the issue is resolved and they'll send you an updated statement. Then 2 weeks later you get the invoice and the process repeats itself. It's hell on earth.

      No trip. No invoice. That's my motto.

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  6. Why isn't Trump taking responsibility for Ryan's death? The Pres is the one who orders the raid, he bears the responsibility. Obama and Clinton accepted responsibility for Benghazi and the outcry was neverending against them. Trump screws stuff up and blames it on other people. This is the trending topic on Shaw.

    In cooking news I am trying to cook with soy curls today. I have a crockpot bbq recipe I'm trying out. I'll keep you posted.

    And I'm waiting for FedEx to come pick up a package. It's supposed to be a morning pickup; it's 1042 now. I'm getting impatient. If they don't make it by 12 am I okay to leave or should I stay in case they're running late? My life is on hold.

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    1. FedEx is up the street from me at the airport and there is a mailing/shipping place two blocks away
      that ships UPS/FedEx/USPS and will package for you.
      I've even sent ammunition with them. A small perk
      for not living out in the wilderness. As for the
      TrumpAdmin/Russians, I have been going over the hacks and leaks vs Clinton's polls and find it quite compelling that Putin won the election. If they investigated Hillary 8 times, seems only fair to get
      to the bottom of the taxfree Pres, no?

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  7. 60 something votes to repeal the ACA and they still have no replacement. So no surprises they don't want to look into something that might spell impeachment. I am hoping that Richard Burr (NC) will finally step up and do something with these investigations. But not too much hope, because it seems the whole GOP is stonewalling.

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  8. BB, hearing about you reading Lewis and Clark, that sounds very interesting. I read the story of the Donner party (spoiler; they had to eat each other) and although it's a departure from what I normally read it was quite good. Right now I'm 75% of the way through the Malleus Maleficarum straight out of the 16th (or maybe earlier than that) century detailing everything the informed magistrate needs to know about witches and archer-wizards. A bit dense at times but overall a good read. I may look up Lewis and Clark on Amazon.

    BTW, FedEx never showed up. I called the company and pickup is now scheduled for Monday. I may end up taking it into Durham and finding a facility I can drop it off at. One of the perks of living in the wilderness.

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    1. Malleus Maleficarum; one of the many reasons the Age of Faith was also known as the Dark Ages.

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  9. Tom hanks still uses a typewriter . I like that. Saty, about Lewis & Clark, you could watch a 42 minute National Geographic film, which hits
    the highlights. I've read their journals (both men wrote
    daily for almost three years in the wilderness) three times
    and that is a long tedious read except for the hard smitten.
    IMO, plus I live near their starving crossing of the Bitteroot Mts. Their expedition and the Civil War were major factors in the growth and evolution of the US, yet were examples of the grit of the common person back in the day.


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  10. Tom Hanks sent an espresso machine to the WH Correspondents' room with a note for them to uphold the truth....

    People were different back then. They took on challenges we would never dream of and did things we'd think were impossible. Is it just progress or are we a different species? Evolution, a dilution of the stock?

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  11. About a year ago I read "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence on my tablet. Didn't intend to but Aldiko Book Reader offered it as a free download. Wanted to see what makes it a classic. Found it a ponderous and tedious read. Liked Henry James "A Turn of the Screw" alot better.

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    1. Had to read 'A Turn of the Screw' in college lit class. Didn't get it, but aced the course with my
      34 page paper on 'The Effect of German Submarine Warfare on Allied Shipping 1942-1943' 85 references
      (Google wouldn't be invented for another half century)
      Damn, I was a boring nerd from the git-go.

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  12. Watched a documentary on Fatima last night all 2 1/2 hours of it. An arch-traditional Catholic production. They go into the numerous prophetic visions of various saints that towards the end of time there is supposed to arise a Great Catholic Monarch from France who with his stupendous armies will crush and vanquish the infidel Muslims and other enemies. All republics and countries will then convert to the Roman Church and it will be a Catholic One World Order. Imagine that, the entire world doesn't practice birth control.

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    1. I'm imagining; 65 billion catholics, BB with a rosary,
      Saty hiding Hindus from the Bill Donahue Inquisition,
      Charles de Gaulle running the world from Paris, Pat Robertson in the monastery of St. Cuthbert, Trump going to regular confession and Z-Man still has tinnitus. Yikes!

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    2. The second half of the title of this YouTube movie is "The Last Pope Will Be Under the Control of Satan." The latter half of the movie ponders the possibility of Francis fitting the bill although no firm conclusions are drawn. Much is made of the Masons in the Vatican and their hatred of the late John Paul II. The whole thing is eschatological in tone. I haven't explored Flat Earth yet but I heard about it.

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    3. Deja Vu! The DaVinci Code again? I sort of thought
      the Knights of Columbus were the Catholic masonic
      order..you know plumes, swords, mysterious ceremonies. Guy came to our lab one time, he was in charge of Masonic magic and had run out of magic
      powder. He said he needed something to through over the burning oil pan that would make a big red
      puff as they did some incantation. Told him I didn't do incantation stuff, but another chemist made him up a dandy blended powder of strontium nitrate, sulfer, carbon, calcium resonate and manganese dioxide. Guy came back a week later and
      he, the magnum poobah and six initiates had all lost their eyebrows in the Masonic poof. Go figure.

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    4. Then you have your Fatima sceptics and debunkers . We ponder why every thing
      now days has two diametrically opposed realities.

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    5. I'll be the first to criticize skeptics and debunkers, it's often a bias in itself that prevents an open-minded and objective look at the evidence but in the two links cited the authors present legitimate problems with Fatima. Of the 3rd Secret vision imo it makes no sense that the contents were retrofitted to point to the attempted assassination of John Paul II. IMO it seems more like a major terror attack on Rome sometime in the future which is an avowed fantasy of ISIS.

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    6. My limited knowledge of Masonry from what I read is that they are Luciferians but not Satanists. The founding fathers were masons and a cornerstone is tolerance of other religions which is one reason why traditional Catholics hate Masons. It's vague to me but they're not gonna hang your cat upside down in your yard. Supposedly Bob Dole and other secret society types worshipped a huge owl statue somewhere in CA. Dunno;)

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    7. 14 Presidents were masons. IMO, based on masons I know, it is sort of a semi-religious club where anyone can work their way up and be sort of famous within their lodge. Based on some of their incantations, I find bits of the ancient Knights Templars and it has been noted that their origins
      were based on the guilds of the middle ages, where
      all bakers, carpenters, merchants etc had to join
      and work their way up through apprentice levels to
      master. Not unlike cub scouts. I don't view it as harmful (except for their red puff powders).

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    8. But it is a subject I've been meaning to google. Some popes have issued scathing encyclicals against masonry as being enemies of the Church. My understanding again is they're tolerant of all religions and the Bible is freely used in their ceremonies. They don't seem to be atheists and pagans per se and they're big on science hence the compass and protractor I guess.

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  13. The saint thing is kind of confusing: Joan of Arc, teenybopper warrior led an extraordinary life, called by
    God to rid France of the English. Burned at the stake for
    heresy at age 19, it took the Church until 1920, 458 years later, to canonize her. Yet that dumbkopf St. Gregory of
    Tours was canonized almost as soon as he was buried. IMO,
    saints should be ranked from great and deserving to shysters.

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    1. St. Dymphna's story is lurid. I'd have to wiki it again but long story short her father the King lost his beautiful wife. He refused to marry another woman unless she closely resembled his wife so he proposed to his daughter Dymphna. She refused and fled to a place in Belgium where he tracked her down. She refused to go home with him so he unsheathed his sword and cut off her head on the spot. Nineteen I think she was. Patron saint of those who suffer from nervous and emotional disorders.

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    2. Many legends about saints, especially the 2-4 century martyrs to the barbarians, are elaborate
      to the point of credulity. IMO, part of the reason
      was to impress the barbarians, "So Saint So & so chopped down your favorite Druid Oak. You killed him, but guess what?" An example is St. Denis of Paris:
      "St. Denis was Bishop of Paris during the 3rd century – and a good one at that! (Perhaps too good.) His preaching was so successful at converting people to the Christian faith (what’s supposed to be the primary job of any bishop, by the way) that the local pagans arrested him and had him beheaded. But to their surprise, Denis picked up his head and walked away from the execution site preaching the Gospel. Needless to say, the whole beheading thing did eventually catch up to him and after about 6 miles he finally collapsed and died." In saintly hagiography, getting decapitated and hauling your still preaching head is known as
      a cephalophore. There are at least over a dozen hagiographic cephalophors in the list of saints. Surely Reddit
      covers that?

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  14. Memory is a weird thing. Off today so I took a walk on the Old Croton Aqueduct in Dobbs Ferry and saw an old piece of equipment by John Deere. Only thing is I have a fairly strong memory of it being John Deare in some gardening store up the line although both spellings seem right to me. Looked it up and many people remember a John Deer without the final "e" which I never heard of that one before. I think we're all fucked up;)

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    1. John Deere started out making steel plows at the time of the Mexican-American War and as far as I know it has always been Deere. Confabulation, gotta love it.
      I had a couple of cousins, folks operated a lake resort in N WI. We would be out on the lake, or in the woods and their ears would perk up at the sound
      of a motor way off in the distance, "That's a Deere",
      "That's an Allis-Chalmers", "International Harvester"
      ..then a motor boat would start up across the lake-
      "There goes an Evinrude" We all grew up and those guys became a diesel mechanic and a foreman at Brigg's & Stratton. Now days its hard to tell the difference between a Chevy and a Ford. (BTW, the cousins called those "chevalier and Fjord". Me, all
      thumbs: once tried to drain the radiator on my '51 ford. Turned the entire bolt until it came out. No
      fluid. Kid up the street came by and noted that I
      had unbolted the frame and the wheels would probably fall off next.

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  15. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva Switzerland just got a new pixel tracker. I know you're excited.

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    1. Does it track anti-pixels too?

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    2. Rumors CERN is working on subquantum parabolic
      hyper boson scatter to review alternate universes
      and locate the one where Hillary won the election.
      Rumors, of course.

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    3. CERN issues a breathless press release and you can't understand it.

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    4. Also the one where the Falcons won against the Patriots as they should have.

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    5. "CERN ..press release and you can't understand it."
      Absolutely. The replacement installation of their
      pixel tracker sure looks like an orbital docking of
      of the supply rocket to the space station.

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    6. There's alot of anti-CERN websites out there mainly Christian ones claiming CERN has opened up a portal to Hell and released all the bad stuff. Then again look at the election and the Super Bowl:)

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    7. Of course Christian websites are anti-CERN. Ever
      try to get a theoretical physicist to tithe? Plus,
      their anti-Christian jokes:
      Quantum theory posits that among other things, the
      bosun enables the property of mass to larger particles...'Boson enters the church, priest says
      you can't come in. Boson says, "well you can't have mass without me".

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    8. That's good. The thing is alot of folk sense something is off. The weather (over here 70 one day 30 the next), Trump winning, the Pats highly unusual comeback win that almost seemed scripted...better to blame the harmless scientists at CERN studying muons and antimatter.

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  16. Tough job, riding the Trump coat tails . In bright red South (fricken) Carolina,
    yet. Will Trump and the US ever settle down?

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  17. Wife's Swiss relatives are intrigued by our speed limits out west (as fast as conditions allow-Montana) 80-85 normally elsewhere. In Switzerland, if you are caught speeding more than twice, you have to see a psychiatrist
    to be evaluated for possessing your license. And some people worry about traffic cams. :)

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    1. What is the shrink business in Switzerland that slow?

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    2. Yeah. They don't have a Trump.

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    3. Did you have his phones tapped BB?

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    4. Nah...I get his twitterfeed. Nuff for me.

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    5. If the Trump-o-phone was tapped, it was most likely the Russians, no?

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    6. Alt-facts is a broad all-encompassing term. Obama did have his phones tapped because Trump thunk it. It's a philosophical thing, you wouldn't understand.

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  18. Have you gotten the secret GOP plan to repeal and replace?
    Is your name mentioned in it? Does it have a chapter called
    'Lock Her Up'? Trump's fans are very loyal. They see beauty marks where most of us see acne. All hail to the
    Twitterchief.

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    Replies
    1. Every day's a soap opera. Again what we need is a boring president like Gerry Ford.

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    2. Gerry didn't know how to tweet.

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  19. Replies
    1. I read the story. Horrible yes but Shaw's point being...?

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  20. I anticipate that Trump will have The Terminator investigated next; causing a drop in ratings, etc. IMO,
    the grade school technique of lying and accusing others of it, bullying and accusing others of it, spinning out false
    fantasies and wearing a baseball hat over a comb over are
    not presidential. I mean look at James madison. Now there
    was dignity.

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    Replies
    1. Narcissism, paranoia, megalomania...where to begin?

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  21. George Bush is looking quite good in hindsight. I always thought if he hadn't saddled himself with Darth Cheney and his politithugs, he would have done much better. Meanwhile,
    we suspect that the current state of affairs will continue
    to devolve into a Kafka/Orwellian mélange of an alt-America.
    Hope someone has hidden the nuclear codes.

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  22. Oprah vs. Trump in 2020?

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  23. So what we have is our first openly mental president. These are interesting times.

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  24. I too am nostalgic for the days of GWB. Never thought I'd say that but as you mention these are interesting times.

    It's funny, the Catholics are all about a one world order and no one really gets worried about them. In my mind they're the more insidious, except they keep shooting themselves in the foot with the child molesting. Kennedy was discriminated against because he was Catholic. A lot of people don't even consider Catholics Christians.

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    1. I think BB's right, Cheney pulled him under. Catholics - correct me if I'm wrong but no other Christian denomination requires you to go to Confession.

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    2. During the late Dark and Early Medieval times, there
      was a great power struggle between the Church and State, Popes insisting that they represented God/Christ on earth and therefore were superior to
      all European kings. But that struggle began from the time of Constantine (Nicea) and the continuing
      struggle to maintain orthodoxy. The goal was world
      order, a hierarchy from pope to bishop priest, King
      to Duke to knight...and the 99%: peasants. In a way
      not unlike the ISIS goal of a one world caliphate.
      However, the problem is such a case is that it depends on overwhelming military strength, blind obedience and the support of all; a most difficult
      attainment in local and country areas, let alone the globe. Some call it the saving of souls, some
      call it lust for power. It is what it was.

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    3. It's not what Christ taught.

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  25. Auricular confession is one of Protestantism's big beefs with Catholicism. The power, it is said, is given to no man to forgive sins. So confession is just another one of those ways Catholicism asserts its complete control. It really is one of the most authoritarian structures there is. If you don't confess, you can't have Communion, which is the whole core and basis of everything.

    Interesting thought, I was recently at my mom's and had brought the first canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam with me, that I'm studying. She was baffled by it (the idea of me studying Scripture) and it didn't help when I said in reply to her asking me why I was doing it and I said, well, why do people study the Bible? And it didn't help her understanding. Catholics don't study the Bible. I spent eleven years in Catholic school and we never had a class that went into studying the Bible and really we never had any kind of Bible study at all. This too can be found in original in the history of the Church, where reading the Bible was actively discouraged for the laity on the grounds that people might interpret what they read on their own and thus discover that a lot of the Church's teachings are found nowhere in the Bible. In fact people were punished so far as death for reading the Bible (that kind of behaviour was usually accompanied by other heretical practices and beliefs). Martin Luther's big thing, along with the English translators, was giving the Bible to the masses. Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses are the only groups I know of that have specific Bible translations they use (the Douay and the New World Translations of the Greek Scriptures, respectively).

    I found on Amazon an eight-volume set of Church History. Before investing the 1.99 (for the Kindle version) I downloaded a free sample. It's written with an almost excessive pro-Catholic bias but I may get it anyway.

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    1. I would think if a woman commits adultery that's between her husband and her God not between her husband and her God and the priest.

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    2. Her God, her husband and his lawyer.

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    3. If the priest married them then I think it is fair to say he has a vested interest. Surely there are some priests whose marital success rate is sub par at best.

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  26. According to the NY Times Mark Levin on the radio was the source of the conspiracy theory that Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped but where did Levin get his information?

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  27. Trump recently talked about a terrible terrorist attack in Sweden that never happened. Kellyanne talked about a Bowling Green Massacre down south that never happened. What are the odds the wiretapping is true?

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    1. Maybe Bannon is wiretapping Preibus?

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    2. With Trump's foraying into alt-reality if I were Max Tegmark of MIT I'd be very interested in this.

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    3. Hard to imagine working for the strange leader.

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    4. I was never on the Trump ship so I don't have to worry about manning a lifeboat when it starts to go down. Michelle Malkin is a happy skipper.

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  28. Flicking through the channels a few minutes back and ran across Berenstain Bears. Bearanstien Bares...baronstein
    Bars, Burowsitz Cubs. Golly..only Mandella knows for sure.

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    1. The creepiest mandela effect for me remains Depend adult diapers when we all grew up with Depends. It's not the marketing name change that scares or walking through the supermarket aisle now seeing Depend next to Tena. No what gets me is all those people on Reddit who try to educate the rest of us it was Depend from the very beginning (cue Twilight Zone music).

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    2. A hardy band of loyalists believe that Elvis did not die of a drug overdose, heart attack or banana
      and peanut butter consumption: he is alive and in a
      Witness Protection Program. You may have seen him around, he is that 82 year old humming 'cain't help
      falling in love' and nibbling a peanutbutter, banana
      cronut.

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    3. That's a fairly benign conspiracy theory, fun even but how to explain those people Alex Jones among them who believe Sandy Hook was a hoax. There would have to have been too many people involved in this from the parents, police, school officials and funeral directors and to what end gun control? Stretches logic past the breaking point.

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  29. The healthcare situation is about to get very, very bad. AARP has formally come out against the legislation. The conservative wing is screaming that it isn't draconian enough. Millions will lose their health insurance and the ones that are left will end up paying outrageous prices with less for it. So much for Trump's 'terrific' health care.

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    1. Two modern countries insist on private sector health care, the US and Turkey. The rest have superior outcome at half the price. However, the GOP is expert
      in convincing voters to regularly vote against their
      own self interest, and here we are. I'm sick of it. I
      just wrote my very conservative congressman of my disgust for the repeal/replace farce, recommended singlepayer, threw in the pertinent data and asked for a response. These political hacks work for big
      Biz, Big Insurance, Big Pharma and Big Banks: the
      responsibility for the huge and growing gap in income, the disintegration of the middle class and
      and the great divisiveness in this country lies directly at their feet. I am sick of it.

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    2. If you can come up with a plan where I don't get ten bills for a colonoscopy that happened months ago I'ma gonna vote for you.

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  30. Apparently the CIA can do alot of things, maybe even remotely hack your washing machine. If you decide to live in a cave dining on squirrel fritters over an open flame you may be beyond their reach.

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    1. By law, the CIA cannot perform clandestine operations within this country. But they can trace foreign intelligence operatives here. Unlike they FBI, they
      cannot arrest people. On the other hand, they can
      muck around all they want overseas, they have-and
      screwed up a lot. As I understand it, though, there
      are over a dozen agencies that are under the 'security' umbrella. Like the old NSA that Nixon
      used to spy on Dr. Spock, Jane Fonda and Daniel Ellsworth. Much of the old apparatus was cleaned up
      after the Church (an Idaho DEMOCRAT!) commission; supposedly a court order is required to wire your
      washing machine or cave. The current MO is to monitor
      tons of communications and sort out ISIS and terrorist types. Doubt they would find much interest
      in us.

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    2. The CIA is known for following the law of course (see MK-ULTRA).

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    3. Apparently you have read Time Weiner's Legacy of Ashes ? Or at least a brief summary ...

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    4. No relation to Anthony? Sounds like a great read. I doubt Bill O'Reilly would approve though. He got mad over all those Jason Bourne movies because it made the CIA look bad.

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    5. I don't listen to talk radio but a friend on Facebook mentioned AM 830 had a guest to discuss the Wikileak's dump. Host Green wanted to be assured that the CIA was only using such intrusions against terrorists, not citizens. Assurance was given. Then she mulled how great it would have been if it could have been used to stop the San Bernardino shooter. The guest agreed. Who wants to tell me what's wrong with this picture?

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    6. Exactly and thank you Chris. We might overlook the creepiness factor if the CIA were preventing these major terror attacks but they're not. Likewise there was no NSA algorithm to stop Adam Lanza.

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    7. There have been times in the past I've sent people important text messages which they never seem to have gotten but from my end they were posted. Technology is glunky and yet reading the latest revelations maybe they have programs like the NSA did where they just collect data en masse even if it's mostly irrelevant. Interesting dump;)

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  31. Oh snap! You gotta watch this.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/5yeefj/alexa_are_you_connected_to_the_cia/?ref=share&ref_source=link

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    1. I just did. I'm hoping BB watches this and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts he'll have something debunking to say about it.

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    2. It's still creepy though.

      Delete
    3. I appears the Alex tape is no longer available: some
      copyright thing. So I can't debunk, bunk or rebunk the contents. I've only dealt a few times with the
      CIA/FBI in my professional career. They seem like pretty much nice normal people. Although, like some
      movies, there do seem to be rogue actors. IMO, almost all of them do routine stuff, going around doing background checks, sitting at some CIA HQ computer translating from Farsi and Kurdish or eyeballing hundreds of satellite photos. Knew a
      lady prof that was fluent in 12 languages, all dead, but available in old scrolls etc. You still got your healthcare, Z-Man?

      Delete
    4. As of today yes. Maybe I can squeeze in a doctor's appointment. Tomorrow who knows? If the CIA were nice and normal they wouldn't scare people. Nice 'n' normal were behind MK-ULTRA, covert ops and probably a few assassinations.

      Delete
    5. True; but that is old history. Consider that the CIA couldn't convince Darth Cheney there wasn't squat in Iraq- no WMD, no terrorists, nada...so he
      just made up his own 'intelligence'. Like wise
      Trump: as he stated, he knows more about world
      terrorist affairs than the spooks on the ground.
      Seems like they are pretty much neutered, IMO.

      Delete
    6. But how come they know how to remotely hack your car? Is it so they can slow you down, make you obey the traffic laws and reduce highway fatalities?

      Delete
    7. So they can tax you based on mileage would be my guess.

      Delete
    8. Newer cars are full of electronic gadgets. An interesting target for the hacker hobby . Heck, my old truck
      could end up on WikiLeaks, or Assange could back it
      out of my garage. Wait til ISIS starts using remote
      driverless cars full of boom boom. A fringe benefit
      of the wireless generation?

      Delete
    9. The CIA is hacked but we're doing all our banking online.

      Delete
    10. Better to put on an overcoat and sunglasses and walk to your local bank?

      Delete
  32. In the Boys Will Be Boys Department, we notice that the
    US Marine Corps and
    Italian priests continue to be a frisky bunch. Semper Fi, Father.

    ReplyDelete
  33. If they would only allow the clergy to marry I think you'd see a lot less of this. You never hear of this in the Orthodox churches.

    ReplyDelete
  34. The RC Church always has to be different.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is a rationale for
      religious celibacy, based on sacrifice and service.
      In the Shaker religion, all were celibate to that end; as well as the end of the Shaker religion. Peeking in from outside the box, we note the pre and early thoughts and practices of what seems to be an unnatural and difficult lifestyle.

      Delete
  35. Does E-Harmony have a section for this ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In Japan men fall in love with pillows.
      http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-2DLove-t.html

      Delete
    2. I'm thinking when you reach that point in life maybe it's time to throw in the towel. On the other hand no arguments.

      Delete
  36. In the AI Department we note:
    Bad robot
    naughty little robot
    Heal thyself robot
    Escaping robot
    --Geez, they are as bad as humans!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are we as approaching the singularity BB?

      Delete
    2. IMO, the French girl with the robot fiancé is already there.

      Delete
    3. Transhumanism - on the plus side robots don't hate.

      Delete
    4. Regular modern day tin woodsmen, those bots.

      Delete
  37. Jewish guy at work were discussing heaven hell and theology. He said something perfectly true: nobody really knows where the dead go. It's really kinda profound. Do you go to an auditorium? Are you walking in a field for no reason? Maybe they don't know they're dead. Just another day at work;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm thinking Hell is a place where they change daylight savings time twice a week forever.

      Delete
    2. A sacred tradition nobody understands but we just blindly do it. Doesn't Trump have a position? Sometimes the little things mean alot. If Trump got rid of it I'd respect him 5%.

      Delete
    3. He might; DST has to interfere with his wee hours
      tweetingtime.

      Delete
  38. He just fired Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. What was he just in the mood to fire somebody? Stellar prosecutor too, a real swamp drainer. Is Trump a gator?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He needed a place to put Sarah Palin?

      Delete
  39. Could a clever entrepreneur rig up a little spraycan of black paint on a state of the art drone and used to coat
    traffic cams? You could get famous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The question is can they be hacked?

      Delete
  40. Daylight Savings Time Day of Penance: got all the clocks
    changed one hour, spring ahead. Again this Spring, our DVD
    unit provided the most challenging. Engineering manual and
    45 minutes of pressing buttons until something happened.
    What the hell was wrong with the old hour glass?

    ReplyDelete
  41. The creepy crawly world has introduced the first transplant of a worm brain into a robot. We suspect that the
    wormoid is a step towards Singularity.
    At least for worms.

    ReplyDelete
  42. In the International Relations Department, we offer the opinion from a personal source in Australia:
    "But it’s the coming years that concern me.
    Shortly after Trump had his interesting phone call with Turnbull, which was probably overblown in reports... our foreign minister, Julie Bishop, happened to be meeting her Chinese counterpart.
    He kissed her. Warmly. On both cheeks. An unprecedented gesture.
    They know, we know.
    We’re between a 4000 year-old civilisation and a pussy-grabbing reality show dickhead. And it’s been said by China: ‘some day you might have to make a choice’ "
    Should we send Kellyanne over there to explain, or Bannon
    to beat them up?

    ReplyDelete
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