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Mole

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Everything posted by Mole

  1. I've been associated with similarly minded groups. There were always a certain amount of disaffected old hippies and people on the fringes of society. See the Jesus movement/Jesus freaks.
  2. It seems like a good opportunity to not religiously persecute then. Most (almost all) Christian claims of persecution in America are complete nonsense, but some of this stuff here is treading dangerously close. It's a perfectly valid line of questioning to determine if the potential Justice will fairly apply the law, but when those questions are predicated on caricatured and often bigoted interpretations of a person's religious beliefs, that's an entirely different matter. The word covenant is a bit of a conservative Christian shibboleth; describing it as a "loyalty oath" is generally not accurate. No doubt though, some covenants are really bad for those signing them, so it's a good personal rule to avoid them. My knowledge of People of Praise is about 1 inch deep, but their materials and the articles read a lot like many Christian groups that I've been associated with except for the Catholic obsession with hierarchies.
  3. I don’t know if there’s a good solution, but there’s something broken about our system here. It seems cruel that she felt that she needed to stay on the court through all of this and it seems cruel that her dying wish was a political one. I don’t blame or begrudge her; it makes sense given the way our system works, but it’s somehow broken. I’m probably doing a poor job of articulating my thoughts.
  4. I’ve seen enough educational outrage from the right to understand that we’re missing a lot of context. An assignment is usually given within the context of a classroom discussion. This could be a right wing teacher “indoctrinating” students, a ham handed attempt at “balance”, or a thoughtful assignment ripped entirely from the bigger context. I’m a college professor. I’ve given out assignments that could be used to attribute all sorts of terrible political and social beliefs to me. If a teacher brings up critical race theory in the classroom, they might not be engaging in Marxist indoctrination. Likewise, if a teacher brings up this shooter kid as a modern hero (in certain circles he’s widely described as such), they might not be advocating support for his cause. When you do these things, there’s a certain amount of trust that students (or their parents) will think deeply and not use you as ammo for their political cause. It’s important to teach students to think deeply and critically, so most good educators will keep doing this, but it carries some personal risk. You could face personal and professional repercussions for doing what you’re supposed to do. Sometimes there’s a bigger perspective, sometimes you’re trying to teach students to consider various assumptions, sometimes you’re trying to reach critical thinking by challenging them in various ways, and sometimes you miss the mark. If we want a truly educated populace, we need to accept these risks.
  5. 8x8 is 54 in duodecimal, which is a better system anyway.
  6. Darrell Huff’s How to Lie with Statistics contains a chapter on the slipperiness of the word “average.” It’s most commonly used to describe mean, but it could also correctly be used to describe mode or median. “Average” is a useful word when we want to introduce vagueness into our language and use of numbers. Sometime the context clarified the use, but sometimes we’re left guessing.
  7. Giant Steps or bust.
  8. Regarding the sax, Harvey Pittel (retired UT professor and world renowned classical sax player) has some great videos on YouTube discussing technique and how to play in a healthy manner. Pittel studied with Joe Allard, who taught most of the great players from the pervious generation. There’s a great, extended interview with Joe Allard on YouTube if you look for it.
  9. Same here, but my text came after dinner time last night.
  10. Well Q and Mark are often described as the source for the Gospels, so it makes sense that modern day Q would help write a new gospel.
  11. I’d add to this, for me, the Texas game has been the first sports I’ve watched since March. The NBA playoffs are one of my favorite events (the world’s best athletes in a 7 game chess match is awesome), but I haven’t really had much interest this year. It isn’t the social issues or the weirdness of the environment or some sort of illegitimacy for the seasons; it just seems less important. For me, this is for two reasons: 1. I’ve personally seen enough suffering and death related to our current situations that watching games that I’m not REALLY invested in seems uninteresting. Escape is good, but I’d rather be productive. 2. The current state of our world means that my work life is busier and way more complicated. I’m simply too busy and too tired to sit through a game unless I’m invested in the players. I work in higher ed and most of my students seem to be walking around in a similar fog. It was really nice to watch the Texas game though. The lack of band, etc. made it less colorful, but the lack of sucking made up for it.
  12. Let’s be honest, there are few questions where a good answer is “we need more lawyers.”
  13. A few scattered, sometimes related points: 1. Come on, Ted. Stop exploiting the culture war for votes. 2. The claims that the show, which seems intended as cultural criticism, is normalizing the sexualizing of children seems to be a bit much. The culture war always demands a target though. 3. Criticizing how our culture deals with the sexuality of children, particularly girls, is valid. We are exploitive and need to change. To the extent that this show accomplishes that, good for them. 4. Critiquing the over-sexualizing and sexual exploitation of children, particularly girls, by sexualizing them seems to be a bit much; exploitive even. It can be a murky line to walk, but I think that line is discernible. 5. The show appears to be guilty of the very things it is criticizing. When it comes to artistic expression, I tend to value freedom of speech above all else, but this is pretty icky. 6. Seriously though, come on, Ted. Coming after this admittedly icky show while simultaneously supporting your president’s predatory behavior and involvement in the exploitation of children (Miss USA, trafficking and the border mess, his admissions on tape, his possible connections to actual child traffickers, etc.) seems disingenuous.
  14. Mole

    Another one...

    If only; how do the rules of engagement compare?
  15. The Fox website is running with Woodward should have gone public with the COVID stuff to save lives.
  16. I’ve gone back and forth on the responsibility of the anonymous sources to come out. My current view is that once they come out, they become the story. Their credibility, which is defined as loyalty to Trump, becomes the focus. The moment they are revealed, a new excuse will emerge. As long as they are anonymous, the story remains the focus. I think anonymous is good for now. It’s been confirmed by multiple outlets, including Fox. It rings true based on his own words. The denial was marked by verifiable untruths. As is, it’s extremely credible.
  17. For as dark of a timeline as it is, we do have a consistent and coherent artistic aesthetic. It’s weird, but it’s coherent and appropriate for the time. 100 years from now, Chinese art history PHD candidates will be studying meme art and satirical collage during the fall of the American empire.
  18. So the Trump flags in general, that’s really weird, right?
  19. This is a fair point. This broke my brain in a way I can't fully articulate. I'm still trying to understand it. I think it has something to do with our shared values. Our government has been cruel since its founding, so Trump's cruelty isn't a new thing, it's just a different brand. Toddler law is horrifying and terrifying, but so are so many things we've done throughout our history. That's not an excuse or whatabout for horrifying policies, it's just a question of degree rather than kind. It's easy to settle into a quasi both sides cynicism. This military thing isn't simply name calling, it's an open rejection of the foundational and remaining bipartisan values that we all tend to exalt: selfless sacrifice for the common good. Military funerals and cemeteries are meaningful because of the values they represent. Trump's statements are a plain rejection of these values. If you see Trump as a human-like manifestation of our national character, this is disturbing in different way than the kids in cages were. They were far more cruel to the kids, but it represented cruelty towards an outsider or perceived enemy. Even if I don't agree, I can understand how a person might end up at that conclusion. But if my country doesn't even aspire to our own values any more, I'm not sure what to even do with that. I can understand the cruelty even if I hate it; this breaks my brain. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. I do know this aroused a very different kind of anger.
  20. There are absolutely unhealthy things about this country’s relationship with its military. There’s the over-the-top hero worship; there’s politicization where criticism of policies or lack of proper respect to the symbols of patriotism is recast as disrespect to the people who serve (see Kap taking a knee); and of course there are the endless and perpetual wars. There’s a real discussion to be had there, but as you noted, this isn’t what’s happening and isn’t the place. This is profaning the core values of everything we should hope to aspire to. There’s no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend. It doesn’t say “there’s no greater loser.” Any post-hoc justifications of this is 100% dishonest.
  21. Neil Young’s Trans is a beautiful album.
  22. I like the Beatles and think they were the most important popular music group of their era, but I still think they’re wildly overrated.
  23. I’ve learned something about myself over the past few months. Nothing brings up my righteous anger like profaning the sacred. Places of worship are sacred places to me and the tear gas photo op introduced me to a new kind of political anger. Military cemeteries and fallen servicemen are sacred to me and this feels the same. Unlike some, I appreciated when he skipped the WWI memorial because he had no business there, but his articulated disgust towards actual selfless service short-circuits my brain.
  24. In order to lie effectively, you need to tell the truth once in a while, otherwise everyone can always assume that you’re lying.
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