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February 22, 2023 12:10 AM UTC

Wednesday Open Thread

  • 18 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“The biggest rival I had in my career was me.”

–Jack Nicklaus

Comments

18 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread

  1. Happy Birthday, George — however old you might be.

    George Washington was born in Virginia on February 11, 1731, according to the then-used Julian calendar. In 1752, however, Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar which moved Washington's birthday a year and 11 days to February 22, 1732.

  2. Some somber, Ash Wednesday words for those Christian Nationalists who lurk here :
     

    OUTGROWING PAUL 

    The apostle Paul has been used by some of the worst elements of the church to dehumanize members of our human family. Paul, like every ancient writer, was a flawed product of his own time and culture. I personally think Paul would be horrified that so many churches have placed his teachings over those of Jesus. I think he would be mortified at churches that have learned nothing in the past two thousand years and would rather worship the words of a dead Paul, than to outgrow his limited vision and become ambassadors for a fairer and more loving world. 

    As in the case of EVERY other ancient writer, Paul’s teachings should be heard as the first word in an ever growing understanding, not as a finished elegy etched on the hallowed tombstones of the dead.

    As Paul was facing his own death, he told his students to let their “epiekés” be known to all. Usually that Greek word is translated into English as “gentleness,” “moderation,” “fairness””willingness to yield,” or “patience.” None of those translations include an important aspect of the word, which is “to be reasonable.”

    Matthew Arnold translated the word “epieikés” as “sweet reasonableness.” The word refers to a virtuous willingness to yield to new facts. The word means accepting whatever is true in ideas with which we disagree. The word means admitting when the church’s traditional teachings contradict honest reason and science.

    The word “epieikés” doesn’t just reject literalism, it also rejected legalism. In William Barclay’s Daily Bible Studies. “Epieikés” describes the (one) who does not stand upon the letter of the law. The word refers to those times we must break the letter of the law to affirm the spirit of the law. Aristotle said of this word that it denotes “indulgent consideration of human infirmities.” He said, “The (one) who is epieikés is ever ready to avoid the injustice which often lies in being strictly just.” 

    So “epieikés” means choosing honesty over dogma and compassion over legalism. It means openness to differing ideas and making room for those whose lifestyles are different from ours. As Martin Luther King so often noted, love sometimes means breaking cruel and unfair laws that disregard human need. 

    Finally, we might note that the word “epieikés” is an adjective. This means the word refers more to the qualities of our character than to the externalities of our actions. Even moderation can be a problem if practiced out of habit and not out of awareness and compassion.  

    Paul knew himself to be a flawed vessel of a new vision for humanity. Paul seemed to know that he did not fully understand that vision but was “looking through a glass darkly.” Nothing is less in the spirit of Paul than believing him when he is wrong. Nothing is less “Pauline” than obeying him when to do so is cruel or unjust. If we cannot outgrow Paul’s imperfect understanding, we have missed his whole point.

    1. "Epieikés" is the exact opposite of the belief that the Bible — all of it — is the literal Word of God, which is a belief that prevails in many "conservative" Christian sects today.

      And, connecting this to today in history, it's interesting how Paul's request echoes in George Washington's desire for an America ever at the forefront of justice and liberality.

  3. Here is yet another example how today’s Republican Party seeks to manipulate and corrupt the truth to keep their feeble-minded sheeple in the dark.

    Nearly a year after the 2020 election, Arizona’s then-attorney general Mark Brnovich launched an investigation into voting in the state’s largest county that quickly consumed more than 10,000 hours of his staff’s time.

    Investigators prepared a report in March 2022 stating that virtually all claims of error and malfeasance were unfounded, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post. Brnovich, a Republican, kept it private.

    In April, the attorney general — who was running in the GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat — released an “Interim Report” claiming that his office had discovered “serious vulnerabilities.” He left out edits from his own investigators refuting his assertions.

    The records show how Brnovich used his office to further claims about voting in Maricopa County that his own staff considered inaccurate. They suggest that his administration privately disregarded fact-checks provided by state investigators while publicly promoting incomplete accounts of the office’s work. The innuendo and inaccuracies, circulated not just in the far reaches of the internet but with the imprimatur of the state’s attorney general, helped make Arizona an epicenter of distrust in the democratic process, eroding confidence not just in the 2020 vote but in subsequent elections.

      1. Undoubtedly he just moved up several rungs for administration postings consideration by the entire 2024 GOPer field, and equally important, among the FOX wags.

        Dishonesty is an invaluable commodity in these circles.

  4. I don't know why I'm paying attention to speculation around the next Colorado GOP chair. They're just gonna pick some chucklehead who throws their hat in the ring the day of the vote.

    Extra bonus points if that person turns out the be from Colorado AND a Republican.

  5. Fascism is a Psycho-Social phenomenon, not just a political philosophy.

    I've been thinking about the definition of Fascism posted by KW the other day:

    “Fascist” defined:

    often capitalized  a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

    That definition doesn't talk about why people desire an autocratic leader and how dictators manipulate opinions. 

    One thing is the obsession with fear of "the other". Us vs Them, nativists vs foreigners, Bigotry with Racial underpinnings.

    Secondly, Fascism expresses a fetish or obsession with violence. Fascist leaders use explicit calls to violence that has an attraction to seemingly normal people. When Ronald Reagan called for the national guard to shoot hippies, he was making a fascist appeal to violence to serve the bloodlust of people who hated hippies.

    One of the more searing memories from the Kent State shootings is the story told by a student who was attending the demonstration. He walked home stunned by the violence, and encountered his mother. Her attitude was "Finally, someone is going to do something about those dirty hippies."

    Today we have the MAGA Fasxists hating on the libtards, and calling for the execution of Fauci.  This is straight out of fascist psychology.

    Gun Fetishism is not just a Libertarian yeoman capitalist fantasy. It is tied to a fantasy of punishing "those" people. 

    1. Yes, fascism depends upon "othering" and dehumanizing fellow humans; brutal violence and suppression follows logically from that.  Also, paranoia that they want to take our stuff, and that in the zero-sum game of laissez-faire capitalism, there can be no sharing of resources. There's only room for 1% at the top of the hill.

      And gun fetishism flows from the perceived need to kill large numbers of those "others"  quickly and efficiently, i.e., the way the military does.

      Which is why we have to keep promoting tolerance, diversity, equity and inclusion, no matter how many people deride those values as "wokeness". And we have to win, or at least fight, the culture war. Woody had it right.

  6. Can someone with their own pacer access or better google fu than me find Exhibit 154 from the Dominion/FoxNews lawsuit.

    If only for the Surviving the Game staring Justice Scalia fanfiction 

      1. No. I am looking for Dominion v Fox News Exhibit 154: an email memorandum of an unidentified third party female that Sidney Powell provided as evidence of election fraud to Fox News.

        “In addition to promoting lies about  Dominion, the sender claimed that Justice Scalia was purposefully killed at the annual Bohemian Grove camp during a weeklong human hunting expedition and that former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes (who died in 2017) and Rupert Murdoch secretly huddle most days to determine how best to portray Mr. Trump as badly as possible Ex.154 at FNN001_00000010.

        The author continued: Who am I? And how do I know all of this?… I’ve had the strangest dreams since I was a little girl… I was internally decapitated, and yet, I live… The Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it. Id.atFNN001_00000011;Ex.98,Bartiromo133:25-134:13.

        The full force of the email’s lunacy comes across by reading it in its entirety. Ex.154.”

         

        1. "All exhibits cited in this Brief are attached to the Affidavit of Katherine Peaslee filed herewith."

          I don't think those are public at the moment as far as I can tell after 10 minutes of googling but maybe someone with more time/interest can find something. Those are some choice snippets though!

  7. What better way to keep kids safe in school?

    Superintendent Resigns After Third Grader Found His Gun in School Bathroom

    Robby Stuteville, superintendent of the Rising Star Independent School District in Texas, left his gun in an elementary school bathroom, where it was discovered by a student.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/us/texas-superintendent-resigns-gun.html
     

    Probably must be one of those dreaded "woke" districts, though.  Why else would a responsible gun-owner patriot have to resign?  Greg Abbott's gonna' get this fixed, you can bet.

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