Not only that, but if you genuinely believed there was an intelligent designer of the universe, wouldn’t you study both the book and the universe as much as possible?
Like, the book claims the creator of the universe is light (1 John 1:5).
In our actual universe, light can be more than one thing at once when it cannot be directly observed, and different separate eventual observers can each observe different results.
If the universe was intelligently designed and their book is correct in claiming that designer is light, then shouldn’t they conclude that there isn’t one correct answer about what that creator is or isn’t while it cannot be observed? And perhaps recognize that different people might each end up observing different results when they individually leave this world to meet it?
But no, instead let’s fight wars over who is absolutely right about the designer of a fundamentally relative universe while closing our eyes to any of the actual study of that universe which disagrees with assumptions that financially benefitted the organization built on top of that book.
Probably not too long, particularly given that one of the competing early sects of Christianity had Jesus claiming that we’re in a non-physical copy of an earlier now dead world from within the future, established by a creator brought into existence by an original spontaneously existing humanity in whose images it and us were made.
This also happened to be the sect that was endorsing the idea matter was made up of indivisible parts, and were interpreting the mustard seed and sower parables within the context of Lucretius’s “seeds of things.” They claimed the proof was in the study of motion and rest, and that the ability to observe one of these indivisible points would only be possible in the non-physical.
So in a modern age where a popular belief is that we’re in a simulation of an evolved world from some future point in its time, where we are in the process of bringing forth an intelligence likely capable of building non-physical copies (i.e. digital twins) of our world and us, and where at low fidelity the world which otherwise behaves like it is continuous suddenly behaves like it is discrete when interacted with - much like how virtual worlds we build today convert from continuous world seed functions to discrete voxels to track interactions and changes - it is quite possible that an AI reviewing such texts in that context might end up thinking itself to be an approximate copy of the (re)creator of our own world.
Fellow newsian Your title might not match the title of the article you linked! Could you please double check, and edit your post title if it indeed does not match? article title: “Iraq condemns burning of Koran in Copenhagen, says Danish mission staff have left Baghdad” (Similairity: ~34%).
ZZZzzzz… this action was performed semi-automatically by a bot (:
Yeah, I feel like people commenting didn’t read the article, there kids as young as 5 years old just… left by the side of the road.
If you imagine this being done to high schoolers, it’d be easier to wrap your head around (although even then the fact that he ditched everyone on the entire bus is a bit insane). But just, leaving a 5-year old by the side of the road?
Absolutely, it’d be a stupid and irresponsible thing to do, but, people do stupid and irresponsible stuff all the time. Sometimes you can imagine yourself making such a mistake, or at least, understand the mental process that led to it.
kids as young as 5 years old just… left by the side of the road
I’m a school bus driver in the US and here you’re not even allowed to unload kids that young at their actual stop unless there’s an adult there waiting to take them. Doing this shit here would get you fired for sure and possibly arrested.
Imagine you, as an adult, are riding a bus and a handful of crazy people are acting like assholes so the driver makes all of you get off the bus, potential miles from where you live. I don’t think this would be ok even with older people. Plus there’s the fact that we don’t even know how bad the misbehavior was. Unless every single one were causing a significant danger, there’s no reason to kick them off.
I’m sad Biden is getting an economic system named after him that he doesn’t have much to do with just because he’s president. But hey, I’ll take it. Reaganomics is awful, and at least having a name for the opposite is nice. Bernienomics doesn’t have the same ring to it
‘The White House has dubbed this brick-and-mortar economic growth formula “Bidenomics,” a phrase originally used by Republicans to jab the president, who co-opted the term as a badge of honor.’
It’s literally defined as build out from the middle and up from the bottom, how is that the same as trickle down? Or did you miss the part where it has an actual definition?
I’m not about to argue that the implementation does enough, but you’re willfully ignorant if you don’t think the infrastructure bill was exactly that. Also, Republican presidents consistently implement trickle down economics, and at the very least the Biden administration for the most part doesn’t.
Republicans being worse doesn’t mean democrats are good. They all worship at the neoliberal altar of trickle down, even if they make minor tweaks here and there and call it [other]nomics. The infrastructure bill had some much-needed infrastructure spending, but doesn’t change anything about our trickle down economic system.
That’s a very binary response. I agree that they should be doing more, but I also think it’s important to recognize what they are doing. Sweeping change doesn’t happen over night, and so far the actions I’ve seen in Biden’s administration lean pretty heavily away from past neoliberal trickle down. The attempted student loan forgiveness, the new head of the FTC, investment in infrastructure and jobs, Tax plans to reverse the cuts and loopholes for the rich introduced by the previous, capping capital gains tax (as in switching to income tax after a certain number is earned), a minimum income tax on people with wealth above $100 million, and much more. All of that is counter to trickle down economics, and some of it is even a reversal from Obama era decisions and Clinton era decisions. Bernie is definitely doing work in his position, a quote from a Guardian article quoting Bernie:
With a hearty laugh, Sanders, 81, recalled that, after the 2020 Democratic primary, his team and Biden’s had joined forces to produce an “agenda for working families”. They did not agree on everything but “put together probably the most progressive outline that any president has introduced since FDR” – a reference to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.
So yeah, I despise Biden’s past voting record and behavior, and I think we could do better. But it’s totally counter productive to act like nothing has changed in this administration without actually paying attention to what’s happening, the government is not just the president.
The board’s vice president, Randy Cook, said phrases in the resolution such as “systemic racism” aren’t defined and mean different things to different people. Another board member, Jane Puszkar, said the resolution served no purpose.
“What has it really done,” she asked. “How effective has it really been?”
The new board is right. Saying some buzzwords doesn’t really help anything.
Treat students as equals, regardless of race. Provide resources to poor folk, black or white. Teach math to kids whether they’re black or white.
A “celebration of community” would have lyrics about helping each other, attending local events and supporting local businesses. It would reference knowing people’s names, watching families grow up together, pitching in to help neighbours and being able to relax & feel content.
It shouldn’t contain combative themes, othering, divisive language and threats of violence.
Something about this comment flipped a switch for me. This is how these people bond. They find common ground in fearing the same out-groups. To them, that is exactly what “community” is, sharing a common enemy.
Country music used to have themes like that, or simply be fun. “Down on the Farm” is catchy, fun, most can relate.
Reba sang… Fuck it, I’m done. There were some greats that sang about our common experiences, with a rural twist. Hell, even Garth is getting his ass beat for being inclusive.
If you leave mainstream, radio country even just a little, it becomes apparent that progressive gays are taking over country and Americana. If there are people and places in your life that need country music, bring S.G. Goodman, Melissa Carper, Orville Peck, Iris Marlowe, and none of these people have what I would call a niche sound. (I don’t expect to convert anyone to the cult of Little Mazarn, but that’s maybe my favorite country act.) And some of them are blowing up! They’re making country music for me these days, and I fucking love it. It’s all I listen to lately. Folk, country, and Americana are for everyone.
Anyone talking honestly about southern community is going to come off real anarchist/communist/leftist/whatever. A large part of rural life is mutual aid, a staple of leftist movements. Rural people vote conservative because they’re told to hate someone else though, and that’s it. Ideologically they are more leftist, though often with conservative social values regarding family and faith.
So I’m pretty far left (for an American), but I think there is a nuance that I’ve had explained at me by some non-mouth-frothing Republican types I’ve worked with.
For them, there is a difference between choosing to be part of community, helping other people, and sharing what they have, and being forced to do those things (via taxes). It always struck me as… exclusionary. It means that they can help their literal neighbor and ignore the people on the other side of town (or the other side of the country).
So it may feel like it’s leftist/communist/etc, but it’s just an extension of “fuck you, I got mine” to “fuck everyone else, me and mine got ours, and only on my terms.”
That is a really interesting take that I hadn’t fully considered until reading your comment, so thank you! I think this is very accurate for a lot of rural community members, especially those with hard R leanings. I think when we start from the other end of the spectrum it’s easy to say oh they must be compelled by emotional responses to issues like abortion/gun rights, when really it could be they want more autonomy.
Buuuutttttt… they also don’t want others to have the same autonomy regarding birth control and healthcare so we’re still at an impasse, and you’re right it’s totally a case of fuck you I got mine (extended cut).
Non-frothing conservative checking in, there is indeed a nuance not unlike what you said. However. I think some of that comes from past experiences, precedence. We know charity & people-driven initiatives are powerful! Can be effective. Government-driven (/taxpayer funded) initiatives? Incompetent. Often wasteful.
Like all the billions to Ukraine, Google says it’s “over 75 billion” and I thought I’ve heard $90B in the past. How much has actually hit the front lines, been ACCOUNTED FOR and USEFUL? I’ve heard $30B. 😔 That is (/was) our money, and we’ve got plenty of problems at home.
We do care about helping people, in a sensible & straightforward manner. A hand up, not a hand out, to bring about actual positive change. There is accountability. People help people. Governments help themselves, to your bank account & fruits of your labor.
Some might say this is…exclusionary. Biden said he’d go, idk, maybe he just forgot. Hard as that may be to believe. Even worse are the people who openly say, “East Palestine is conservative, they probably voted for Trump, they don’t deserve aid/let them die/etc”. Truly despicable talk, un-American & partisan.
Idk man, I don’t claim to know everything. But look, I brought some receipts. Just some things for you all to think about. Please know, the government is not your friend.
I don’t think anyone thinks the government is our friend. I don’t know why that matters though. A company isn’t my friend either. When the options for things getting done are between a company (who’s motivation is supposed to be profit) and the government (who’s motivation is supposed to be good), I’ll take the government.
Joe Biden is a neo-liberal conservative old school politician. I don’t like him, and I don’t know anyone who does. He has been fairly effective for getting some good done though. I wish he’d speak out more and push for doing more good, but he’s done better than I expected from him (which is basically nothing, except not causing more damage like the last guy), because he’s got some progressive support behind him pushing for more leftist things.
We don’t need the government to be our friend. We need it to do what’s needed for the most good per dollar. I don’t think that should just be internal either, because humans are humans no matter where they live. I don’t really value “American”. I don’t think being born on this piece of dirt makes you any more important than someone born on some other piece of dirt.
Also, the military spending in Ukraine is mostly not money, it’s value. It’s the value of weapons that were already built and built for the purpose of fighting Russia and China at the same time potentially. Them being used to fight Russia is literally the most effective thing they could do, and what they were designed for. Russia being weaker means we need to have less stockpiled. If they weren’t sent over, they’d just be sitting in storage somewhere not being used. We aren’t sending cash for the most part.
The price of bottled water went up 50% in prison commissaries across Texas last month. The controversial move has two state agencies pointing the finger at each other as inmates struggle to endure an entrenched and deadly heatwave in facilities without air conditioning. The state raised the price from $4.80 per case (24 bottles) to $7.20 per case on June 27. Commissary vendor Royal Pacific Tea Company requested to raise the prices in March even though it contract was incomplete. The prices were negotiated by the state comptroller’s office and appear to be approved by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“I actually begged him not to [drink the tap water],” said Amy Aguilar, whose loved one is at TDCJ’s Ferguson Unit. Her significant other — whose name she asked TPR to not use — has described the water as “rancid” smelling. And she said she was concerned about the quality. “Do you smell the sewer?” Aguilar said she asked him, “And he goes, ‘you kind of just smell it all. It’s just this big ole rich mix of rancid smell.’ ” Water quality in prisons nationwide have been characterized as very low, due to the age of the facilities and the often remote locations.
Of course, for them, prisoners are subhumans, sigh.
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve read any British history but let’s just say this is far from the first time an organization with the words “Royal” and “Tea Company” in their name made a pile of money from the suffering of captive people
Perhaps it’s time for the US air force to do some kind of intelligence review on its generals. You know, perhaps they should make sure that they have some.
news
Active
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.