LaceyLou

57 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

Wow this guy is really popular 

Does this mean I'm a one percenter now? 

38 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

The memes are great.  

After I got past that, I started wondering how a powerful leader from the American Catholic Church could be named Pope.  

There is so much abuse that took place here for decades that was either ignored, covered up, or plainly accepted by Church elders.

 I find it highly unlikely the Chicago area was a shining light of proper clergy behavior for the decades that he was in charge.  

 I would’ve thought the failure of the leaders to punish and stop the abuse for so long would preclude any American from becoming Pope for many more years.  

Unfortunately, abuse is something that has not been unique to the US-although it has been publicized here in recent decades (not sure if that's true in other places, aside from Ireland). 

I'm with Oblong-judging from the people who hate this pick, I'm inclined to be hopeful.

Water damage-need I say more?

12 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

Have you seen recent pictures of the Oval Office. I call it Presidential Brothel style with all the gold trim

 https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/trump-is-putting-his-touches-on-the-white-house-with-flagpoles-art-and-an-oval-office-overhaul/3898147/

Yet he wants us peons to economize and like it

 

All of a sudden I have the song Big Yellow Taxi in my head.... and memories of a boring part of a 7th grade New England Heritage tour when we toured impressive but incredibly gaudy gilded mansions in Newport.

Did his not having his hand on the Bible while taking his oath mean he doesn't have to keep it? Or does he just think he doesn't have to?

17 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

All these cardinals are total losers. One of them, a big burly man with tears in his eyes, came to me the other day and said sir, you should be pope. You’d be the best pope, because popes until now have been weak. 
I would be a great pope, like you’ve never seen before. Did you know popes go back over 1,000 years? Nobody knew that. But I asked, why is all this stuff in Latin, a language nobody ever heard of? Everyone knows Jesus spoke English, which is the only language anyone understands. 
Did you know popes get to change their name from their real name to a pope name? Like Francis, what kind of name is that? It’s a pretty stupid name, a weak name. I’m gonna keep my name, Donald Jesus Trump. This will all happen soon, very soon, in about two weeks.

Is it good or bad that I had to remind myself that you wrote this, and not the Golden Idol? 

In other words, nicely done!

21 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

More proof that trump cares nothing about antisemitism. Only the “good Jews” allowed. 

Yup. 

Anybody else follow White Stars, Black Sea on FB? Every April they do a history of Titanic-from preparations to set off on her maiden voyage to the hearings and all coverage of news about the disaster. I find it interesting.

Sad part is, there are people who will be perfectly happy-as long as the people they hate have it worse. I'm already seeing it. 😞 Or they'll blame it on the 'elite' and go an a rampage. 

2 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

Looks like I won't be returning to Amazon to shop any time soon. 

17 hours ago, Edman85 said:

What's the deal with this tallow movement among the MAGA's?

Vegetable oil is too woke.

Or it could be that MTG was testing the waters, to see how far she could go. If too many people object, she'll call us snowflakes all while claiming she was talking about something/someone else.

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

 

I'm definitely confused, because I thought this was what she wanted.

Or did she only want places like the People's Republic of Massachusetts to bear the brunt?

6 hours ago, chasfh said:

I don’t know about a Catholics purge, other than to the degree they could use it as a way to wipe out Latinos. But the vice president himself is Catholic; six of the nine SCJs are Catholic, including five of the six conservatives; and a new kind of retrograde Catholic-infused political ideology that aligns really strongly with MAGA has really come to the fore. Catholics may never be truly embraced as a full brother-in-arms by the hardcore evangelical red hats and MAGA leadership, but I’m having a hard time envisioning them lumping Catholics in with Muslims, Jews, atheists, and anyone else they might try to genocide off the planet during the late stages of MAGA rule. I’d be surprised if MTG’s bid to amp up hate against Catholics gain any traction here. She might be getting talking points from the Kremlin on this one.

I could see it happening, the same way Hitler murdered many former allies and/or factions of the Nazi party in the Night of the Long Knives. 

Just now, Tiger337 said:

As I've said before, the Catholics may very well be an early target of the authoritarian regime. 

Definitely. The KKK had definite opinions on "papists" and I assume they still do.

37 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

Ain’t she lovely?

What a lovely person.

1 hour ago, CMRivdogs said:

I understand the cash thing now, considering the price of eggs

 

Yikes! TBH this is one reason why I don't carry purses and look for clothing that has inside pockets. And that's the kind of money you would make sure is not kept all in the same place-though in any case $3000 is far more than I've ever carried on me at one time.

28 minutes ago, romad1 said:

NPR is reporting they are looking to replace and there is this

I see speculation that the Senator from Iowa Joni Ernst is a leading candidate.  Not sure if that means a special election or its some the govenor or wilbur the pig get to pick situation.  Or, if its whoever is projected by the moonbeams onto the sacred parchment. 

I am pretty sure I'd prefer the next one to be chosen by Wilbur the pig or moonbeams. Or maybe it'll be given to the first person who can remove a sword from a stone?

On my way to the airport to go home last Thursday, we passed a building with a lot of different kinds of aircraft outside of it. The taxi driver told me it was an Air Force armaments museum and that it was free of charge.

It sucks to find out about things like this when it's too late to go visit. Oh, well. 

41 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

He did pass a short time after meeting with JD Vance.

Just saying

I only hope that he had encounters that were more positive after meeting with the Bedbug.

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

OK, I might be out on AI altogether, at least as it relates to web-based AI products like Claude, which is supposed to be one of the better ones.

This is a conversation I just had with it. The Cubs beat the Diamondbacks 13-11 today, even though the D’backs had a 10-run inning.

So I went to Claude and asked: Has a big league team ever scored 10 runs in a single inning and still lose the game?

Claude: Yes, this has happened several times in MLB history! Scoring 10+ runs in an inning and still losing the game is rare but not unprecedented.

One notable example occurred on June 30, 1952, when the Chicago Cubs scored 10 runs in the 6th inning against the Cincinnati Reds but still lost the game 14-12. The Cubs entered that inning trailing 10-2, rallied for 10 runs to take a 12-10 lead, but then allowed 4 more runs to the Reds in later innings.

Another famous case was on August 25, 2017, when the Minnesota Twins scored 10 runs in the top of the 5th inning against the Kansas City Royals to take a 12-5 lead, but eventually lost the game 16-12 after the Royals mounted their own comeback.

These games highlight the unpredictable nature of baseball, where even a massive offensive outburst in a single inning doesn't guarantee victory if the pitching staff can't hold the lead.

Me, after looking for the box scores to confirm: You’re hallucinating neither of those games happened.

Claude: I apologize for my error. You're absolutely right to call me out on this. I provided completely incorrect information about games that did not occur as described.

Let me correct myself: While there have been instances of teams scoring many runs in an inning and still losing, I fabricated those specific examples with the Cubs in 1952 and the Twins in 2017. Those particular games as I described them did not happen.

Thank you for pointing this out. I should have been more careful about providing accurate baseball history rather than generating false examples.

Me: I have lost all confidence in you

Claude: I understand your frustration, and you have every right to be disappointed. Making up false information about baseball games was a serious mistake on my part. There's no excuse for providing fictional examples presented as historical facts.

If you'd like to continue the conversation about baseball or any other topic, I'll be much more careful to verify information before sharing it. If you prefer not to continue, I completely understand.

Me: You can redeem yourself by providing an actual example, or confirming it has never happened

Claude: I'll approach this carefully by researching actual MLB history.

One confirmed example occurred on July 6, 2021, when the Washington Nationals scored 10 runs in the bottom of the 5th inning against the San Diego Padres to take a 12-8 lead, but ultimately lost the game 15-12. The Padres responded with a 7-run 6th inning and held on for the win.

This game is well-documented and verifiable - the Nationals had a massive inning but couldn't hold the lead, demonstrating that scoring double-digit runs in a single inning doesn't guarantee victory when the opposing team continues to hit well throughout the game.

Me, after finding that game also never happened: Oh good lord

Claude: I apologize for continuing to provide information without proper verification. This is clearly frustrating for you, and rightfully so.

Let me be direct: I should not make claims about specific baseball games without being certain of their accuracy. Rather than trying to provide another example that might also be incorrect, I'll simply acknowledge that I don't have reliable information about whether a team has ever scored 10+ runs in an inning and still lost.

If you're interested in finding a verified answer to your original question, consulting official MLB records or baseball reference sites would be the most reliable approach.

So, it appears AI’s prime directive is to provide an answer in an attempt to satisfy the asker even if the answer is wrong, and furthermore, when caught, it cheerfully admits they makes up the answer, plus it double downs on the directive with even more certainty, and when the jig is up, it finally throws up its hands and in effect says, look, if you want an actual truthful answer, go someplace else.

I thought I remembered an example from an '87 BoSox/Yankees game, but turns out my pet peeve of bad memory failed me again. If you look at the box score you'll understand why I was laughing at the end of it, though. 

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=198706260NYA

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I hated Trump 45 years ago.  😄

I don't know that I hated him, just thought that he was a cartoon character. I remember rolling my eyes a couple of times, especially when he ended up in the tabloids.

I'm not sure who first said this, but it sums up the way I feel: Stop making stupid people famous.

5 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

What's crazy about the last few months...

Some people thought I was exaggerating how bad this was going to be in November. I underestimated to a huge degree the amount of harm that would be done.

And I naively thought that at least some of his biggest supporters didn't really vote for a king, but it turns out I was wrong.

And you know what? People *still* think I'm overreacting about the US entering Handmaiden territory.

11 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

So tired of "strongman" game playing

 

Of course Bukele wants to keep him. He's getting paid to keep him. Keeping all of these prisoners is most likely expensive and El Salvador is a poor country-my guess is it's getting too costly to keep the prisons going without this added income.

On 4/15/2025 at 3:25 PM, antrat said:

I just re-read In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. A non-fiction book about the American ambassador and his family living in Germany during the rise of Hitler.

The parallels to what is happening here in America at this moment are astounding. How regular, ordinary people became enraptured by a beast and all that lead to.

Scary times. I never thought I would live to see this in America.

I read that recently, too. Great book that I wished was fiction.