gehringer_2

ISIS is 10,000 miles away and there are 2 billion Muslims on the planet. If America cannot find a way to inoculate American born citizens culturally, emotionally, logically against ISIS's appeal or close the US to the existence of ISIS on the web, then I would submit that is 100% an American problem - because there isn't anything in the world we can do to get rid of Islamic radical theology (anymore then we can 'get rid' of US evangelical fundamentalism - ). So there we are.

did you know that you get longhorns to grow really long horns by castrating them? (stupid piece of data but somehow I found it amusing)

But to pick up on Rob's post that set this sub thread off, I think you would have to admit that guys like Johnson who wear their religion on their sleeve and constantly refer to it as the motivation behind their political actions, make it rather hard to go very far in a discussion of current US politics without running into religion in the subtext. In a more perfect world, people who take political stances for religious reasons could at least try to find non-religious, common good, utilitarian or other secular basis arguments to get those position so it would have some accessibility to the body politic as a whole. When my SOTH admits that he is governing as a member of a small religious sect whose concept of truth and reality may be quite different than mine, and that those imperatives are enough for him, I can't have a good feeling about that.

and no tele-prompters in those days.

Making rules is usually the 1st thing any organized church wants to do and it is also the seeds of the beginning of the end for them as soon as they do so. It's only a matter how long it takes the edifice of rules to come crashing down in the face of whatever reality they inevitably deny. Granted it can take a long time though, and a church may be just flexible enough to reboot itself as needed without ever actually looking like it (e.g the RCC).

This is the politics forum. AFAIK, the only thread here that's ever had discussion limits is "Investing."

Yup. It seems it can only continue to devolve into increasing chaos until one of two things happen - it will either be along the lines you've suggested: a player's union and a CBA; or Congress establishes a legal framework for amateur sports, though that would have been much easier before the intervening court decisions that have mucked everything up. There might be enough exhaustion in Congress around all the traditional political battles that I could actually see some erstwhile political enemies cooperating on something like this that has no obvious red/blue side to it. But probably wishful thinking.....

Not sure Fontes wanted one - or at least not very badly. He seemed pretty happy to walk away, but who really knows?

I'm just here to make sure everyone stays sharp.

that is why I did say "re-interpreted." Preachers in every era create their own pastiches from bits and pieces of scripture or whatever other 'inspirations" they have. I'm not sure how big a thing that particular trope is across Christianity as a whole or even evangelicalism as a whole. It's just one stroke on a pretty big canvas. I suppose it's because of their political cohesion in the US, but US evangelicals get far too much credit for speaking for all of Christianity, of which they are only a small part.

the use of the word 'rapture' come from the translation of the Latin (or maybe even the greek) for the word 'taken=raptus'. In english we see this root in the word "rapt" as in "rapt attention" or 'raptor' for bird of prey. It always bears repeating that none of the Bible was written in English! Not a single English word does or doesn't appear there.

I think Thomas Dolby tried that,

What is frustrating about the LasVegas incident being immediately, inextricably and wrongly linked to NOLA is that a situation where a man who served with distinction for something like 20yrs, and who was probably suffering PTSD, CTE or some other service related impact, is going to be swept under the rug with none of the issues implied aired.

I wouldn't say invented - re-interpreted perhaps. There are multiple allusions in the NT to those still alive "at the last trumpet" being converted or taken up into immortal from - 1 Thess 4:17 being maybe the closest image to the evangelical trope.

I take licence with mi spelleng

I find it somewhat amusing that our usually quantitative fanbase here is throwing Spenser to the trash heap in favor of guys who didn't come close to his performance over the last two months of the season. He was 150pts OPS points better than Keith and 250pts better than Malloy. I understand (and share) the frustration that he hasn't been better than he is, but folks seem really ready to cut off their noses to spite their faces on this one. I hope the team isn't where there board is though I tend to think they are.

"Net Neutrality" is dead. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/technology/net-neutrality-rules-fcc.html

WAPO/Reuters reporting Biden is going to block Nippon Steel purchase of USS. It will play well on the news but likely to be Pyrrhic victory for those opposed to the sale. Hard to see the most likely result as anything but a USS bankruptcy.

There is 'seeing a guy' and then there is "Seeing a Guy." None of these guys went to winter ball or played in any live game competitive situations with those new position assignments. They could have seen him work out or scrimmage at 1b, but nobody is going to see him actually play 1st until ST.

and don't forget Goff. The way he's grown into the leadership of this team, on one level it should become his offense as much as any other input.

That's the question - is Petterssen a baby man or does Tochet allow a room that no decent person should have to put up with? I have no clue either way but either could be true in the NHL.

Oldest trick in the book and it still works!

"Anybody can play 1st base" but not many guys actually play it well and a guy that can't save throws will cost your team more outs than any bad middle infielder's glove errors. If Keith gets the footwork down I think his hands are probably fine and he should be OK, but I'm guessing it's 50/50 at best for Malloy. But Malloy has a bigger problem, which is getting his bat on more strikes. If 781 OPS didn't sell them on Tork at 1B (his numbers after his return), 544 (Malloy's last two months) sure isn't going to either.

All I know is that I have no idea what the league thinks the crease rules are.

Or he would be back by May 1. But he has to make more contact. I've been as hopeful about him as anyone but at some point he has to produce more. It can go 3 ways: the capability is there and he finally gets over some counter productive beliefs about how to hit and he succeeds; Or he can't bring himself to trust doing it differently and he ends up eventually bouncing around the minors until he gets his head on right or ends up out of baseball; or the pitch recognition was never there to begin with and he's never been more than Christin Stewart with a prettier swing. Which ever it is I don't think he's going to get much more rope from the Tigers.