oblong

Baptist, by definition, means independent. There are larger groups of denominations that call themselves "Baptist", like Southern Baptist, that have a structure. But anyone can form a church and call it Baptist. You don't answer to anyone. You can join an affiliation which tells members that you believe "X,Y, and Z". It's like a mission statement. But Joe Bob Baptist Church on Groveland Avenue in one city has no link to Jim Crack Corn Baptist Church on Fremont Street in another city. Nobody can come to you and say "You can't call yourself that". But of course there are affiliations and whatnot that will hold you accountable if you wish to join up. And if you call yourself a Baptist church but are preaching God awful things about Mary and Saints then word will get out that you are too "Catholic". The affiliatons and networks lead to a breeding ground. Start a church. Then a school. Then send those graduates to an associated "College" to churn out more pastors. Then they go out and start their own church. Multi Level Marketing that leads to a LIberty or Bob Jones University. Then you have your cult. How much of the church starting is a calling to preach or just to create a job for yourself? Get 100 member families to donate $50 a week.... that's $15K a week plus some other stuff and you can bring in 1/3 of a million a year in revenue, minus your costs... a pastor finds himself making six figures. Nothing stopping you. Nobody can tell you that you can't call your church that.

I think Haley will be the nominee. And she will have a decent shot at winning. The sense of urgency will be gone and then it becomes a question if Trumps **** will translate into voters for her. He may push for her if he thinks he can get a pardon.

Trump had a lot of generally normal people around him. He didn’t expect to win. Look at his first CoS. His cabinet. Generally they were mainstream if not moderate republicans. Throw in Tillerson and Mattis… a second term will not have that. It will be the Rudys and Flynns and Powells. He will fire Wray. Just look at who was left in his final weeks. We would look back and wish we had Barr and company.

Javier Baez will be an LCS MVP in 3 years (I made this joke about Jhonny Peralta once after Edgar Renteria won it.)

Not any Christianity. Only those who believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. These are people who think the earth is 6-10K years old. It’s a narrow form of evangelicals. Methodists. Out. Presbyterians. Out. Catholics. Out. Lutherans. Out.

I like how the release says New York (NL) instead of the Yankees. Yet earlier in the release they use the team nickname on themselves. Little things like that get my attention. I want to know the protocol or standards.

It’s only wasteful spending when it’s the other side. It’s only gerrymandering when it’s the other side. And in some situations a gerrymander is the result of complying with the VRA.

Can’t wait for the “that’s it?!?” Reactions from the self appointed experts.

I think it’s just because there’s so many. The nation was founded by one group of Christians then mass immigration later on from another group of Catholic Christians. They emigrated west and the world needs ditch diggers. They got here first. I suspect practicing or orthodox Jews didn’t feel comfortable out in the Wild West.

It’s an element of “privilege”. Being a small number of the population and largely in urban areas then a culture where education is stressed then it just gets passed down from generation to generation. success gets passed down. The blatant anti Semitism during and after WWII created isolated communities. We don’t have mass immigration of other Jews coming here to take up the remedial jobs like in other cultures. In Detroit the Jews stuck to their areas of comfort and stayed “high” so to speak.

I’m waiting for the tweet that Cabrera is selling his waterfront mansion in the Pointes. Where he lives in Detroit is in the old money FU area. The titans of industry. AJ may just be trying to capitalize on a hot market. At his level they still don’t have that money for life thing yet. Maybe he just wanted something different. Perhaps an extension is coming and he’s getting a house a few blocks over.

Saw flower moon tonight. Easily best work by Scorsese and DeNiro in a very long time, yes I am including departed and Irishman in that analysis. And Robbie Robertson’s music was fantastic. Don’t know what kind of Oscar category he would be eligible for but it would be a great posthumous honor. Music is tricky because if they incorporated anything from prior work it’s often ineligible. This and Oppenheimer will be like No Country and There will be blood in 2007. I read about 60% of the book prior. Tried to finish it but last night I got to a point where I wanted the movie to finish it off. I didn’t know how it ended.

Some things should be private.

Is it a backhanded compliment? I don’t know. Like assuming Indians are doctors?

Good point. I actually forgot about DH because we didn’t have to think about it too much lately.

He’s 26. He will be playing in Japan in 10 years.

An outfielder with shaky defense is hardly untouchable. Every team has a Kerry Carpenter.

So let’s knock him for the bad system we say hes created by not trading those bad players for good players. #fanlogic And yea… ultimately Chris Ilitch is the only one he answers to. He signs his check.

I want Harris go do well for the extraneous reason to shut up Tigers Twitter who think they know everything. Scott Harris doesn’t give two ****s about what someone on the internet thinks of his performance. They act like he’s doing things for them or at their behest. Like they are mentors. They say things like “Ok kid, now show me something”.

I thought it was mid 90s? I’m not that old yet. I distinctly remember getting a newspaper when it happened, might have been during the paper strike and my UAW mom cancelled it so I had to go get it. The Arab party store guy and another guy there were jokingly asking “did you kill Rabin?” That stuck with me.

I leaned ChatGPT in terms of knowledge and facts is current as of 2021? a few months ago I was researching some things and using Wikipedia. Simple factual things from 50-60 years ago, regarding aerospace crews,( astronauts and X-15 fights, etc) decided to try ChatGPT and the answers were straight up wrong. (An example is I knew 1 of the 3 answers so that was my clue). I corrected it and it apologized. So the next time some geek wants to know this they will hopefully be given correct info.

Players stick together and are unique in knowing the struggles and challenges they face. They don’t talk about it because they know fans and media don’t want to hear millionaires talk about how hard things can be, especially on a personal level. They miss so much of their family time. Not just the fun time but dealing with problems and issues. These guys understand it and if they see a fellow player go thru it they are more sympathetic than we would be. “That could be me and I hope the guys have my back if it is”.