gehringer_2

That doesn't really hold. The religious story has been the same since the nation's founding along but the persecution complex on the part of the political right wing of US Christianity at the outside might be dated to losing Roe v Wade but really didn't start getting traction until the Bush years. So it doesn't follow from first principles - it derives from the GOP's invention of the culture war and the realization on the part of the conservative movement that selling persecution is their most effective fund raising strategy (for both the pulpit and the political side) to people who would be otherwise uninterested in politics. Or, long story short, it's the product of concerted political marketing. The other aspect historically, is that while Rome persecuted the early Christians, it was the Christians that ultimately emerged in control of the empire, so there is an equally strong streak of triumphalism to balance any sense of persecution.

OK - That's Bacchus - but that's a different shot.

Since May 1, Keith is 297/352/487 (247 PA). He's become the teams best hitter, just like that.

He's just trolling now. But that doesn't mean he isn't weird.

They would no doubt prefer to. But Cleese and the crew have always been completely up front about what they were doing. Cleese even debated the Archbishop of Canterbury on a talk show after the movie came out.

Yes this. Like I said I don't care, but I find the it irritating when people try to backfill their way out what they clearly did - even whether they meant or not. And don't call the viewers the unsophisticated ones here. If they didn't mean what people took it for, it would be that those who created it were ignorant of the existing western art canon they were evoking.

I would say it's the last supper because it's a table, it's 12 around a central character, and the geometry directly evokes several well known "last suppers" such as DaVinci and Dali. And that is what I got from it on first impression 100% before I even read the post. Baccanalia were outdoor affairs as much as indoor. You might depict your participants actually eating or drinking, a satyr or faun or two is a nice add and those folks all have too many clothes on......

Tbh, I’ve seen depictions of Baccanalia and I’ve seen multiple western art depictions of the last supper and to argue the first impression of that graphic anyone would have is not a take on the last supper is simply disingenuous, regardless of what it’s executors claimed. That said, I don’t really care either way!

Does Joe Biden have some condition we don't know about. He's old and we all know that perfectly well, he's out in public not hiding it. His checkup results have been released. How is that not transparent? How is it comparable to Trump who has given us nothing but fantasy medical reports about himself since 2015.

There are always people who are fundamentally in opposition to "western liberal" values who will none-the-less try to abuse them to gain whatever advantages they are seeking in or against Western Society, and it's something we just have to recognize and deal with without throwing the baby out with the bath water.

This is so much at the heart of a lot of things.

well maybe he was, or maybe like most young men there was some transient thing he was hating his father about so killing his father's idol became the obvious logic (to him). He didn't seem to leave much of a bread crumb trail. Unless they find a journal or USB drive or some online handle ID they haven't figured out yet we may never know.

and that's why I say you can't really go by much of what you hear from the people or reporters around the minors (well or the majors for that matter). When Jung was moved there were a number of stories that he was a 'natural' and it would be walk in the park for him, and likewise he put on a good face that he'd handle it. Not true? if not, by not just living with a less than ideal arm in Keith, are they letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in not having two guys in positions each may play better?

It is interesting that all the heat came down on Cheatle - which is fair enough on one level if she either didn't or couldn't find out what was going on, but we know Cheatle wasn't the one making or validating the local arrangements. I suppose this is basically a 'blue wall' episode where everyone who was on the ground is adhering to the code of silence to not blow a brother's cover.

Correct, but that is the whole point isn't it, people who would kill over their private definition of blasphemy are exactly the people we don't want to be aren't they? Christianity historically has a mixed record on the issue of intellectual freedom. Post enlightenment Protestantism and even parts of post reformation Catholocism (e.g Jesuits) have been pretty good on the issue but you'd have to admit that is more the exception than the norm over 2 millennia. The Greeks first gave us the concept and they were pagans - so no current religion really can claim it as their idea.

On Trump's "wound", politically it is probably a mistake to spend any time worrying about whether Trump was hit by flying glass, a bullet fragment or grazed by a passing shot. He was shot at and the guy came close enough to killing him that the detail of how close is immaterial. It does play only at one level, which is that if he was really only hit with some flying debris or fragment, and he's inflating it be a closer call with a bullet, it's just another amusing aspect of his self-aggrandizing. But that neither new nor unexpected, so I don't see the point is wasting too much media oxygen on it.

Hooboy! Yes indeed, faith vs works is probably the oldest and still least resolved argument in Christianity, and your thumbnails of the two extremes accurately nail the failings of both - Catholic guilt and Fundamentalist self justification. But I have no answers to resolve that tension other than to paraphrase Potter Stewart - we know good people when we see them. And as far as human organizations go, all I've ever come up with to judge them is whether they seem to aggregate a higher or lower percentage of good or bad people than the general population..... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Talking about adaption methods is fine, but when you do in the context, which he sets, that warming won't be a crisis, which he is, he's being an apologist. "Your Boys" are working in the ' richest most worker safety aware country in the world. Their situation likely applies for less than 1/4 of the world's population if even that.

I've spent afternoons in Tyvek chemical exposure suits doing clean-out/washdown on potential toxics and know you can check out on even a warm day in less than 20 minutes if you aren't careful. And in the US we generally have all the dousing water we need anytime we need it. In the developing world not so much. The Human body is not well designed to operate at temperatures much above it's own set point.

meh - He may be right as a matter of political calculus for his community, but so what? The staging is silly, but if you are a Christian it's no skin off your nose. If they don't feel any respect for those images, who cares? It doesn't impact you at all in terms of your rights or freedoms in the US. If your community doesn't garner respect in the wider society, it's not because of silly people like this, those problems are a lot deeper and they are in house. When you start telling people who they owe deference not to make fun of, you're on your way to the Islamic Republic. If you are gay in America you still have plenty of reason feel much of the 'organized' Church could stand to brought down a peg or two.

Nice unintended consequence, builds more internal pressure on the Mullah's in Iran.

what rock has he been under that he's never seen Musk? Not to mention all his favorite Democratic demons have children -- Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton(x2), Obama, Biden.

I just posted in the investment thread that the Fed's favorite inflation gauge - released yesterday for June - the "PCE" was up 2.5% year over year and 0.1% for the month. That keeps the Fed on track for a rate cut. That will be one more thing for Trump to burn up bits on Truth Social about (and Harris to campaign on.) 🤣

Lost in the cacophony of politics news filling the cycle, was yesterdays PCE report. From Barron's:

Arb eligible next year, he'll probably cost north of $10M. That's what the Rays do (or don't do depending on how you look at it!)