The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: December 12, 2020

190 thoughts on “The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: December 12, 2020”

1. I’m a few days late, but this is one of the best Sat. Brunches ever. Thanks!

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2. It’s not QUASI-religious.
   It IS a Fundamentalist Cult with the Toddler-in-Chief as LORD and God.

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3. In the USA, we’ll be lucky to reach 50% with all the Anti-Vaxx and Whose Side Are You On Politicization, and that won’t be enough.

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4. Ha! Same in Minnesota…that first few inches of snow in the Twin Cities results in over 1000 fender-benders.

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5. Our grass here in GA goes dormant this time of year regardless of the temps…so right now all lawns are brown.

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6. I do miss snow around Christmas, but I tell ya…mid January unitl April is not pretty in Minnesota…I’ve seen snow a few times in early May. Snow is not common here around ATL…when my wife and I moved down here in 2009-2010, we had snow on Christmas either 2010 or 2011…first time in over 100 years or so there was snow on the ground in Atlanta on Christmas.

   And for bragging rights for up Upper Midwesterners….coldest temps I have experience are around -30F (-34C) for low temp and about -15F (-26C) for high temp…Feb 2 1996. Yes I am a weather geek.

   Still, seeing Christmas lights glimmer on fresh snow is sooooo nostalgic and pretty.

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7. 65 to 70%, I believe.

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8. a curse from Russia’s dictator and oligarchs ???

   ?

   BEHOLD THE RUSSIAN TWO-HEADED EAGLE

   

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9. Trump as ‘a new Messiah figure’????

   no way can I understand this, no

   and yet the evidence comes proudly from the mouths of evangelicals in their comments, and all I could ever think of was ‘Boy Howdy, what kind of SOURCES of information have they been feeding on?’

   I blamed the sources, the mis-information, but I did not skip straight to blaming the evangelicals that I saw as VICTIMS of that misinformation.

   I’m going to hold on and wait and hope for some ‘epiphany’ to come to them that reveals the evil of trumpism, but how many have to die of covid before they will even BEGIN to understand all the lies and manipulation of trumpism? How many?

   My family has two ill now (nurses). One physician in the family tests ‘positive’, has moved out of his family’s home to a temporary hotel-apartment to shelter for a time, as his wife also a doctor is pregnant now and they have a small child also. So for me now the cries of ‘it’s a hoax’ from Christians who are evangelicals has so much more meaning personally, as I see my own family struggle because so many in trumpland cannot find their way to some common sense behavior around a dangerous novel virus.

   It’s hard. I love my evangelical friends. I won’t abandon them. It’s not a choice I have that I can make in good conscience. I hope for somethings to change soon for the better, for healing, for the Sun to come out again, for ‘winter’ to be over in evangelical Narnia. . . . . The evangelicals need their Aslan now. More than ever. some thoughts

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10. I love Greta. She’s a brave young girl who speaks for a generation that wants to have a chance to live on this planet. Her voice is needed.

    in honor of Greta’s homeland:

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11. We will, with the vaccinations, reach “herd immunity.” I’m pretty sure the percentage needed to reach “herd immunity is relatively low; i.e. everybody DOES NOT HAVE TO BE VACINATED for the pandemic to end.

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12. perhaps ‘Jon’ is communicating from St. Petersburg? I shouldn’t be surprised at all.
    Russian security forces are promoting great divisiveness in our country and they are promoting also hatred of China as our ‘enemy’.

    Russia will not suceed. It feeds its oligarchs on the strength of its own people’s earnings and drains the people of what is theirs. . . . .

    Sounds a lot like trumpo of the ‘transactional loyalty’ aimed at himself or else he threatens those who do not play ball.

    Good riddance to Russian influence. Biden knows Russia for what it is, an oligarchy run by a dictator, and Biden is free from Putin’s grasp.

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13. “it so much likelier to get shot”

    With all due respect, this is not backed up by data, in respect to colour, at least in the USA. Not sure about Canada but as far as I know there have been no particular issues of “police hunting minorities” there. But if you insist that Canada is more racist & more violent than the USA, I digress. As for the same in respect to sexual orientation, I agree.
    However, your data about Canada (or from this country, or from any other Western society) don’t say anything at all as to why the traditional Christian morality, or the traditional liberalism, should be incapable of addressing the issues in question.

    “that does not invalidate the concerns of intersectionality, nor of social justice, nor of human rights”

    Nope, what invalidates them big time is seeing the whole society, absolutely everything, through the lens of “oppressor & oppressed”, adding the lens of race for good measure, if you don’t agree I refer you to his Anti-Racist Excellency Ibram Kendi

    “excuse me for being unimpressed by the conservative idiocy and bile.”

    You are excused because I feel the same about the conservative idiocy and bile, I simply dare add some woke & SJW idiocy (see: attack on statues) and bile into the mix.

    But what I noticed is that in all these exchanges you have not addressed what I posted on my first comment, you have chosen to bring up tangential issues. And that does say a lot!

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14. no light in the sky,
    no moon in the creek

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15. “Idiotic aphorisms are not arguments.”

    The force of your argument, i.e. calling common aphorisms or sayings “idiotic” is tremendously impressive!

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16. Not good enough. I could drink a case of her.

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17. You didn’t read me very closely.

    Kemp and Raffensberger , despite being GOP officials and Trump supporters, stood up to Trump’s bluster and certified the election. They did the right thing by doing their jobs.

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18. Getting all those at the same time probably caused a good bit of it. I’m surprised this was allowed. Usually when I get flu shots etc. one of the screening questions is whether I’ve had other vaccinations in the last couple of months. They don’t usually like to give different ones close together.

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19. It never happened.

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20. I didn’t know if I had gotten the placebo shot or the real vaccine

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21. Thank you, Tom. The idea that Trump’s opponents “didn’t accept the results of the election” is one of those oft repeated canards in conservative politspeak. What if Hillary Clinton had acted like DT in 2016 — when the election was closer and the results so much more surprising? She would have been flayed alive as the most un-American person ever.

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22. Susan, I’m glad they will let you visit John on Christmas Day, though the circumstances are difficult. My brother is forbidden to visit his wife in hospital with covid during this time. She is very ill. My sister in law served intensely and became ill about ten days ago. It’s bad.

    I hope Australia did a better job protecting its people than happened here. Soon, with the vaccine, things may be better. Sending hug.

    this time next year may we all be with the ones we love at this season again, God willing. . . . .

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23. Maybe next year the Time cover will go to ‘Any Nurse’ who cares for the sick:

    https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/ef64bb168502c4993d3e11258cdc9fa57d47bb88/c=0-79-2297-3142/local/-/media/2015/09/29/USATODAY/USATODAY/635791254351257192-AP-Nurse-Patient-Reunion.1.jpg?width=600&height=802&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

    my medical family has been hit hard by this virus partly because of the intense service of two of these good people – front line folks are exhausted and actually need the public’s support rather than ‘recognition’ but the ‘public’ seems divided on responding with care to slow things down

    very sad for the medical folks who bear the brunt

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24. And what he’s doing now proves we were right about his not being fit. And a majority of the Republican members of the House are not fit either, as evidenced by their signing on to an attempt to get the SCOTUS to throw out tens of millions of votes.

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25. What I don’t get is how tRump can break so many established constitutional bounds and remain in office for his full term.

    Jon, you’re blaming the divisiveness on people who didn’t vote for Tweetster, when the real problem is that Republicans for decades and now in conjunction with the berserk cheeto head kid in the Oval Office are speeding full throttle in the direction of total victory or burned earth.

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26. The existence of a default means somebody programmed it that way. Choices were made, and set on automatic by the makers.

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27. “to kick Trump out of office and make his election seem illegitimate.

    Again, that is not the reality, though I understand that T-rumpers like to say that in response to what may be an inferiority complex.

    No one said after the 2016 election that the election was not legitimate. Rather, about half the nation has constantly said that Trump is not FIT for the office–which he continuously proves of himself.

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28. “They spent the last four years trying to delegitimize the Trump presidency…”

    Not true.

    They, and I, have said all along that tRump is NOT FIT for the office–and he continues to prove that point. I never nor did Dems challenge the legitimacy of his election.

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29. 67 for a high here in NE Tennessee. Looks like our lowest high will be this Thursday @40.

    Snow on Christmas would be very unusual.

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30. I can drink a six-pack of Joni.

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31. I hope so. Her heart is in the right place, but she needs to grow up a bit as a politician and learn to work with people who don’t agree with every word she says. If she can, I expect her to be a political. force for a long time to come.

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32. People just doing their jobs stand out from the political crowd, because so many of their fellows (Do Trumpists count as politicians, or just cult members?) do not.

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33. “They were just doing their jobs. . . ”

    Wasn’t that Eichmann’s defense?

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34. Yikes! How has someone from the mafia not been “Person of the Year”? Thanks for the context here.

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35. We as a nation are at a dangerous moment. Our president is like a cornered animal, but with all the powers of commander-in-chief, and a quasi-religious cult following in the millions that he has metastasized for the last four years +.

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36. My wife had a bad reaction to the first shot of the new shingles vaccine. Her PCP told her she should not get the second shot, even though she’s had shingles outbreaks twice in the last few years — it would be too risky that her reaction to another shot would be even worse. She also won’t be able to take the Pfizer vaccine, since it is not safe for people like her with a history of severe allergic reactions, as the rollout in the UK has shown, even though she is at high risk for a serious case of COVID due to comorbidity. We hope the Moderna vaccine will be okay for her.

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37. Violence against sexual minorities (ie non hetero or cis people) in Canada is more than double that of the rest of the population, according to StatCan. From that report:

    “Significant differences were also observed between sexual minority and heterosexual Canadians with regard to the prevalence of sexual assault in the past 12 months. More than triple the proportion of sexual minority Canadians (7%) reported that they had been sexually assaulted than did heterosexual Canadians (2%)—a difference consistent with what was seen for lifetime prevalence”

    (see the rest here: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00009-eng.htm).

    We can look at the same statistics for people of colour, minority religions etc etc. This is what it is about. While it is not impossible (as I previously mentioned) that some people will react in ridiculous ways, that does not invalidate the concerns of intersectionality, nor of social justice, nor of human rights. And it certainly does not justify hate campaigns by people of power.

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38. Jon, in addition the Muller investigation came up with a number of credible instances of obstruction of justice. So, what we have is: a general agreement among our intelligence agencies and investigators that the Russians indeed interfered in our election (more than just a few fake FB posts, by the way), that the Trump team was open to them (I didn’t say collusion, I don’t think that’s been proven), and that Trump actively tried to obstruct justice in several instances. Add to that all of his associates that did get convicted of crimes and corrupt actions.

    That to me is no witch hunt. Those were the findings of investigators doing their job in the service of overseeing a president and his administration. The fact that he escaped losing his job is more the result of the Democrats being in a minority position when it came to actual power to do anything.

    Trump has simply been the most corrupt and divisive POTUS ever. End of story. Any impartial look at his life and his resume would find that he conducted himself as POTUS in the same way he lived his entire life and career. As a self-absorbed, corrupt, and, indeed, criminal con man and mob boss. He saved himself by somehow using this partisan moment to brainwash almost an entire political party and a substantial number of Americans to make tribal loyalty to his persona more important than the good of our country.

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39. Takes 2 to tango is also a standard response when their is marital discord because one party is an abuser.

    Idiotic aphorisms are not arguments.

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40. To many conservatives etc is all part of the quote. I have never managed blockquotes. Everything after “intro:” is part of the quote.

    JK Rowling is an ass, but if nasty comments on Twitter is persecution, the word has lost its meaning. Weiss and Weinstein I had to look up.

    I really invite you to think about the difference between these examples, and being constantly afraid because your skin colour make it so much likelier to get shot, or being constantly afraid of not being able to afford rent or food, or constantly on the look-out because someone might sexually assault you, or having to hide your sexuality because it endangers you all the time. Or being followed in shops as per Mule’s example elswhere here.

    So excuse me for being unimpressed by the conservative idiocy and bile.

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41. Some days it seems to claim a majority .

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42. It would seem he is a very privileged individual. A statement of fact, not a moral indictment.

    Of the list, the only category that I think would almost universally denote privilege is ‘able-bodied’.

    The others may, they may not. It’s not so obvious that being a man necessarily conveys privilege, when set against other more obvious categories: class (in the UK), and wealth for example. Then there’s the question of personality, and how one fits in a competitive environment.

    As I said, he would seem to possess many advantages. And that might matter if the intent is to comment (kindly and fairly) on his blind spots. Kindly and fairly being the optimum words.

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43. Indeed.

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44. well I wasn’t claiming that. I decided that, for once, I would contribute to this particular ‘conversation’ that often seems to lack good faith and generous interpretation of other comments.

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45. THIS!!

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46. The president’s tweets are all source documents for future historians. Not that they’re factual, but as the written words of a president trying to influence politics and the public.

    And if we’re reading the president’s tweets daily, whenever he decries ‘FAKE NEWS!” we can remind him that our primary source is his Twitter account.

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47. “That is not an example of intersectionality…”

    Nope, it was for the “good” v “bad” division,….I never said IS is exclusivity of the left, but that’s where is more prominent now…it always takes two to tango! Like for the division thing!

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48. I applaud you for volunteering for this. Thank you to everyone who is working to create and test these vaccines.

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49. Not only supple, but in supply…

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50. That is not an example of intersectionality used as a clobber (unless you can point to specific examples). Intersectionality is not a synonym for left wing either.

    So try again

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51. Two-Headed Hydra
    R. Rosenkranz (2008)

    When did our democracy
    morph into a monster,
    become a hideous two-headed hydra.

    One head pulls left
    toward the bottomless abyss
    of Big Government,
    a free-fall into entitlements for all,
    believing everyone deserves something,
    never mind the cost.

    The other head pulls right
    toward the dark pit
    of Big Business,
    a plunge toward unbridled greed,
    believing people deserve whatever they can get,
    never mind the cost.

    Meanwhile the masses,
    who just want to move forward
    along the path of life and liberty,
    are left to wonder why there aren’t other heads,
    ones more interested in what’s best for the body.

    But there are just those two heads,
    pulling in opposite directions,
    tearing the whole in half.

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52. Ha! That RBG figure stands as the genius loci of my computer desk. She’s not in such appropriate surroundings as the one in the photo, though. I may have to redecorate for Christmas. I wonder if FCTRY makes an Anthony Caucus action figure?

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53. “can you provide me with any evidence that this actually occurs…?

    See Rick Ro.’s comment not far above.

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54. The symptoms you describe sound very similar to the ones my wife and had earlier this fall from the Shingrix vaccine. Mine were milder than my wife’s. The day after the first shot, she was in the bed the 2nd day and back to normal the 3rd.

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55. What I’m seeing right now is less Hitler-ish and more Stalin-esque. Hitler rarely had loyalists go against him, or at least he rarely got paranoid about them. Stalin… man o man… if he felt someone had gone against him… PURGE! Even his most loyal folks got taken down by his paranoia and feelings of being slighted.

    If I were a Trump loyalist, I’d be a bit worried. “Toe the party line or else, Komrade!”

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56. Including the Chrsitianese version, Holy Nincompoop Syndrome.

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57. Sometimes I feel the same, Joni.

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58. One thing we’ve all learned through this “Year of Covid”: Patience.

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59. And/or “EVERYONE STAY LOCKED DOWN! FOREVER!!!”

    After eight months, Cabin Fever is hitting Critical Mass and (outside the ever-booming stock market) the economy is also reaching Collapse Critical Mass. And the “NO I WON’T! AND YOU! CAN’T! MAKE! ME! FREEDOM!!!” anti-mask attitude sure doesn’t help.

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60. A couple months back I got a flu vaccine, TDap, and first does of shingles vaccine all at the same time. That night, I thought I was gonna die: feverish (but no fever), difficulty breathing, the world went spinning, I thought I was gonna need my wife to drive me to the ER.

    I’m still of the belief it was the shingles shot that did me in. I’m due for my second/final dose, but kind of afraid to take it!

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61. This is what Klasie meant when he once said that fascism is not just a threat to those it targets for oppression, but also for those whose interests it claims to support and represent.

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62. That WAS a strong reaction.

    As for the Pfizer COVID vaccine, I heard (radio news source) that the first shot alone confers about 50% effectiveness within one week after injection and the second booster ups that to over 90%. MedCram’s reportage of the vaccines as they come available states that for both Pfizer and Moderna, if infected after vaccination (the 10% where it didn’t prevent infection) the case is much less severe — no fatalities, next to no hospitalizations. Sounds like even if you catch COVID after being vaccinated, it gets cut down to something like an average bout of the flu. No word yet on whether you can still be infectious (i.e. a carrier/spreader) after vaccination, or how long the vaccine immunity lasts. Dr Fauci on the latter estimates “more than one year and less than 20”, because this can only be known over time.

    And like the Sabin Vaccine superseded the Salk Polio Vaccine, there will probably be more advanced second-generation COVID vaccines coming out over the next few years; the ones talked about target a different “N-Protein” on the virus which would mutate much less than the current-target spike proteins and could confer permanent immunity.

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63. 106 Congressional Republicans, that is more than half of House Republicans, supported the TX AG’s attempt via that suit before the Supreme Court, to have my vote as a Pennsylvanian, along with the votes of tens of millions of other Americans in four states, discarded to overturn this election. When they say the political is personal, well it doesn’t get anymore personal than this.

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64. Back in an earlier life I was an hourly grunt in a Walmart. I don’t know if they still do this, but they would sometimes test store security by sending in employees from a different store to shoplift. I desperately wanted to do with, teaming up with my black buddy from the electronics department as the decoy. Sadly, we never got to try this.

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65. Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. We here in the Seattle area have a left-wing nutcase on the City Council who is the flipside of the Trump coin… anyone who doesn’t see things through her leftwing lenses gets her ridicule and the ridicule of her semi-nutty fan base. And I don’t see HER changing/mellowing any time soon.

    Idealists… hard-core idealists… rarely change. Especially when they already have a core fan base to propel them.

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66. –> “Slipper Slope!”

    Is this some kind of new toy by Whammo! ?

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67. Other than social media types, can you provide me with any evidence that this actually occurs (nevermind if it is widespread)?

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68. I did have a chuckle at the Biden/Harris “Person of the Year” Time thing myself. I mean, talk about an unsurprising, yawn-inducing announcement…

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69. Same priorities here in CA.
    First health workers, then nursing home high-risks; that’s all they have announced right now.

    After which the fight begins as to who’s next in line. “First Responders” is the expected, then “essential workers” where the real “ME, not Thee!” Game of Thrones will kick off. Still better than the “Kiss My Ring or You Get Nothing!” I’d be putting big money on if Trump was still “Absolute Authority” after Jan 20.

    And Pfizer’s not the only vaccine in town. Moderna (similar but can be stored at normal freezer temperatures instead of heavy-duty cryogenic temps) is expected to be approved next, then Oxford (which stores at refrigerator temperatures and costs less than half per dose) in a few weeks. I’m still wondering about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which needs only ONE shot instead of two a month apart.

    And yes, the vaccines cause “flu-like symptoms” for a day or two after injection. This is actually very common for anti-viral vaccines in general. Which is why in the Stage 3 trials the placebo was usually a meningitis vaccine to produce similar side effects.

    P.S. I understand the Oxfoed vaccine (AKA AstraZenica) was developed with global distribution in mind — including to Third World countries without the high-tech storage needed for the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines and/or too poor to afford the more expensive ones. This leads to the possiblility of Pfizer/Moderna being used in the First World countries and Oxford in the Third World.

    Russia and China also have vaccines in Stage 2 or 3, but these would most likely be for internal domestic use — Nobody outside of Russia trusts their Sputnik 5 vaccine, China’s population (and required number of doses) is so Huge, and both countries have a de facto “RUSSIA/CHINA FIRST” protocol.

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70. He’s even been nominated for Nobel Peace Prizes, three of them, if I’m not mistaken!!!

    Let’s see if Biden/Harris can accomplish that feat! Let’s see if Seneca goes crazy if they do!

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71. I’m already hearing this kinda “overthrow” crap on FB feeds. Trump has deluded his base so much that they’re ready to go nuts. And his “off with the heads of anyone who I don’t like, even those once loyal who’ve turned against me” nonsense puts EVERYONE in jeopardy from crazed Trump believers, except for those who continue down the path of the crazed, nutty narrative he’s placed in their heads.

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72. “generic version of “Holier Than Thou””
    Yes, basically leading to the same divisions of society in “four legs good” and “two legs bad” which have not shown any glorious results wherever practiced so far.

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73. Isn’t that Rabbi from Nazareth supposed to meet us where we are, not in Grand Visions of Political Turnover to Perfection but in our daily life of “raising my kids and improving my community”?

    Isn’t Judaism the faith that emphasizes “Live your Life!” instead of always preparing for Heavenly Utopia?

    A Heavenly Utopia like Screwtape coaching Wormwood to keep his patient/prey constantly “Living in the Future” for much the same reasons?

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74. Klasie, reply refers to both this post and your previous one.

    “Unchartered waters? Really?” Well, yes, because Marx has never been tried in the West, even as we already know the utter failure in the East. I would say he and he other two gonzos, plus Sartre maybe, make for the quasi-deadly mix we see within leftism today, ask J.K. Rowling, Bari Weiss, Bret Weinstein et al for more info (and please note I’m not talking “socialism” in the ridiculous meaning that most Trumpians/Repubs/Conservatives talk in this country).

    “I have yet to see that argument made by people that are actually experiencing suppression (I am not talking about those that make a life of imagining oppression).”
    That’s because it’s a tough & fallen world in general, but I would say the latter are those who shape public opinion in a much greater extent than the former, see especially the fragile DiAngelo still milking with a not-so-fragile success the fragile cow of white fragility.

    As to defining “traditional Christian morality” I abstain, because it’s not a subject for a blog post. But reading the history of the Western civilization may be a good start.

    “To many conservatives, intersectionality means…” Not sure why you are placing me among conservatives, but anyway.

    “coined in 1989 by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw…” I just demurred placing her among the other blokes, whom for some reason you totally ignore in your otherwise detailed replies.

    “it accurately describes the way people from different backgrounds encounter the world.” No contention here, but you seem to have missed my point, which was that there’s no reason to stop at sex & race…why not keep adding oppressed categories ad infinitum?

    “..Crenshaw…is attempting to demolish racial hierarchies altogether.” I think BLM, DiAngelo, Kendi etc would seem to disagree.

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75. Next step:
    Make the Rapture Bet.
    “This world is not my Home… I’m Just Passin’ Thru…”

    “Twinkle Twinkle coming Christ —
    BEAM ME UP TO PARADISE!”

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76. “Everything Ees POLITICAL Matter” was also the shtick of the Soviet Union (and its Third World imitators).

    And they’re not the only ones who turned Politics into a Fundamentalist Religion. When you get followed up the stairs and even into the bathrooom to get Lectured about Politics, there’s something seriously wrong. All that’s missing are the POLITICAL versions of the Romans Road and/or Four Spiritual Laws tracts.

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77. Florida is supposed to receive 180,000 doses this week; that’s out of a population of 20,000,000. It’s gonna take time.

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78. What should be done?

    Use Hiram as the decoy if you actually DO rip off the Apple Store?

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79. P.S. And when you factor in “the more oppressed”, you get PERSECUTION PORN!

    Don’t tell me you haven’t seen this all before, in a God-talk context.

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80. The thinking that “the higher on the intersectional oppression pyramid (i.e. the more oppressed), the more morally superior you are”

    It’s just more Virtue Signalling, the generic version of “Holier Than Thou”.
    With the same attitudes, actions, and side effects.

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81. Thanks, Sen.

    Su, I’m so glad you’re feeling better. I wish people in your church remembered John; he sounds like a dear man.

    Nothing else I want to say. We need rain where IAM, and are always relieved when there’s good snow pack in the Sierras.

    Dana

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82. Rush Limbaugh was also Donald Trump’s John the Baptist/Elijah figure, as prophesied here by Internet Monk some 11 years ago:
    https://internetmonk.com/archive/the-limbaughization-of-evangelicals

    Take a Limbaughized American Evangelical Church, let ferment for a decade or two with a diet of even more late-period Limbaugh, introduce a New Christ/Messiah figure come in the flesh in Donald J Trump, and why shouldn’t you get what’s happening now?.

    Rush Limbaugh was Elijah/John the Baptist, Preparing Ye the Way of The LORD.
    (Or the Silver Surfer, Herald of Galactus. Take your pick.)

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83. Shocking?
    If it doesn’t have an APPLE APP, folks don’t want it.
    I’m told that book paper ignites at 451 F.

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84. AOC is also young and inexperienced, with the Angry Young Activist Syndrome. I expect her to mellow out with experience.

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85. So any use of the words communist or Mao or Stalin or whatnot shows profound ignorance, if not clownish idiocy.

    It reminds me of the John Birch Society during the Cold War — “THE COMMUNISTS! THE COMMUNISTS! THE COMMUNISTS!”

    What do you think the Court Evangelical Code Words “Cultural Marxism” mean?

    And there’s always been an overlap between Birchers and Born-Again Christians.

    When BIrcher John Schmitz inherited the American Independent Party after George Wallace got shot in ’72, I remember his political ad flyers that looked and read like Jack Chick tracts, complete with “WHAT SHOULD WE DO?” at the end including PRAY! and several chapter-and-verse Bible quotes.

    Radio preacher named Billy James Hargis opening his half-hour sermon shows with “Billy James Hargis — For Christ AND AGAINST COMMUNISM!”

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86. Ees Party Line, Comrades!
    TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS FIVE!!!!

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87. Agree

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88. It is when Donald Trump or Q-Anon is tweeting.
    Then it’s more than a source — Inerrant SCRIPTURE!

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89. At the local walgreens I walked over and looked at the magazine rack. There are still quite a few. Half a dozen magazines just for gun enthuiasts.

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90. Yep, this is true. First snow every year I rejoice that I don’t drive anymore as all the hills up into the ‘hood will be blocked by cars spinning thier tires until they end up parked sideways.

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91. Grew up in Minnesota/North Dakota and now live in South Carolina, so I understand the sentiment. I don’t miss the 4-5 months of those winters but I wouldn’t mind a couple of weeks around Christmastime.

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92. Again, just not important enough to me at the time to etch in my memory that in February of 2003 there were protests against the war in Iraqi. But if you actually read what I wrote, I said it was with the Iraq war that Bush truly became divisive after 9-11

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93. Ah. I do envy you. Here in SK the rollout will be elderly, high risk and health workers vaccinated by April, then the rest of us thereafter. It will be awhile before moi gets it…

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94. My goodness, your wife had a strong reaction. I would consider mine a lot intense.

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95. Beats getting Covid.

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96. Don’t forget that Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer first and a political commentator second. He worked in radio for years before getting into politics and eventually starting his nationally syndicated show. Yes, he can be a blowhard at times, but his show would have never taken off had he not found some way to keep his audience engaged. In a day and age when radio stations typically employ personalities for only a few years at most, the fact that Limbaugh’s show has remained essentially unchanged for 32 years and counting is quite remarkable.

    In addition, Rush Limbaugh been credited with saving the AM radio band from extinction, something which delights this old DX listener with childhood memories of picking up out-of-town stations on his small transistor radio.

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97. To be honest, what should be done is not an easy question. Diversity training for employees can help (a fair amount of people are simply not aware of the biases, and honestly will try and be better). Legislation against discrimination in general can only go so far.

    Basically, cultural evolution takes time. But think of the difference in society from only 30 years ago – we have come along way. But change takes one person at a time. And speaking up against arseholery in person, and leading by example, are the best.

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98. No, I doubted I had the real deal after the first shot but after the booster I checked other sources and was as sure as i could possibly be that I had the actual vaccine.

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99. Larry, trust me, even in areas where it snows every winter, a large portion of people forget how to drive for the first 2 or 3 weeks of winter weather. Truly, it remains one of the great mysteries of human behaviour.

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100. So, help me out here. Like you were talking to a fifth grader.

     My life on easy is that no one suspects me when I walk into the Apple store. When I go in with Hiram, who is black, some of the people there go on alert, even though he’s in his seventies and I’m the one who knows better how to disable the security and actually could steal something.

     What should be done?

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101. Also, this “intersectionality thing” is not what you say deem it to be. Here is a good intro:

     “There may not be a word in American conservatism more hated right now than “intersectionality.” On the right, intersectionality is seen as “the new caste system” placing nonwhite, non-heterosexual people on top.

     To many conservatives, intersectionality means “because you’re a minority, you get special standards, special treatment in the eyes of some.” It “promotes solipsism at the personal level and division at the social level.” It represents a form of feminism that “puts a label on you. It tells you how oppressed you are. It tells you what you’re allowed to say, what you’re allowed to think.” Intersectionality is thus “really dangerous” or a “conspiracy theory of victimization.”

     This is a highly unusual level of disdain for a word that until several years ago was a legal term in relative obscurity outside academic circles. It was coined in 1989 by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap. “Intersectionality” has, in a sense, gone viral over the past half-decade, resulting in a backlash from the right.

     In my conversations with right-wing critics of intersectionality, I’ve found that what upsets them isn’t the theory itself. Indeed, they largely agree that it accurately describes the way people from different backgrounds encounter the world. The lived experiences — and experiences of discrimination — of a black woman will be different from those of a white woman, or a black man, for example. They object to its implications, uses, and, most importantly, its consequences, what some conservatives view as the upending of racial and cultural hierarchies to create a new one.

     But Crenshaw isn’t seeking to build a racial hierarchy with black women at the top. Through her work, she’s attempting to demolish racial hierarchies altogether.”

     From here: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

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102. Unchartered waters? Really?

     Also, being oppressed does not make you morally superior. I have yet to see that argument made by people that are actually experiencing suppression (I am not talking about those that make a life of imagining oppression).

     “Traditional Christian morality”. Define tradition, or better still, pick which tradition you want – and from how long ago. Also define Christian, and who is included and who not. And finally, define morality.

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103. Those were just the biggest. While protests were held across the US and the world, here are some other US cities that had major protests:

     LA, Austin, Seattle, Palm Beach, Colorado Springs, Philadelphia, Chicago, Palm Beach, Gainesville, Juneau, etc. etc. etc.

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104. Mike,
     What they basically amounts to is the Russians put out some fake stories, and Donald Trump’s people were happy about it as long as it helped them. No surprise there. Still not collusion. Still not the basis of the investigation. And quite frankly fake news from Russia is not nearly as concerning as our own people in the media happily suppressing stories that might hurt their preferred candidate?

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105. Maintaining the status quo as a political act: My go-to example is from baseball history. In 1867 a “colored” club tried to join the Pennsylvania state association. This was soon enough after the Civil War that northerners felt awkward about rejecting them, but reject them they did. Later that year there was a rumor that they might try to join the national association. The association preempted this by passing a motion excluding any club with any “colored” members. This motion was praised in the straight, cis, male, middle class, white press, for keeping politics out of baseball. There was no hint of irony.

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106. John Scalzi compare this to playing a video game on the easy setting. You still have to play the game, but you have an easier time of it than someone playing on a harder setting.

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107. My wife had a shingles vaccination a couple of weeks ago. That night she started feeling achy. For the next 2 days she couldn’t hardly get out of bed and took Tylenol and Advil like candy, and had 100 deg fever. After the 3rd day she started to feel better. She had the shingles years ago and her body was fighting off what it thought was another bout. That’s why the second COVID shot causes more side-effects – it means the first one worked!

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108. It was Bush’s response to 9-11 that caused the divisions. The attack on the Taliban was popular at the time, even though I knew no one had pacified Afghanistan since, what, Genghis Khan?

     If we had doubled down on internal security and a full court press on Israel to establish a single secular state solution, I think we would have been much better off, and the world would be far more stable.

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109. Talk radio: I first became aware of Rush Limbaugh around 1990. I was in my car, surfing the radio, and stumbled across him. My initial reaction was that he was hilarious: a pitch perfect parody of the right wing radio blowhard. Only gradually did my mistake dawn on me.

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110. “So, unless he is disabled, he basically, in terms of intersectionality, holds the royal flush so to speak”

     You seem to forget he may be ugly, short, burly, big-headed and whatnot. My point is that the intersectionality thing is apparently contributing close to zero in any serious efforts to address the (many) issues of our society, and of all the West in general. The thinking that “the higher on the intersectional oppression pyramid (i.e. the more oppressed), the more morally superior you are” is pitting groups against each other in a race to the bottom: striving to show which group is the most oppressed one. I don’t see much help in embracing these ideas that clearly echo Marx, Nietzsche, and especially Foucault. Would it perhaps be better to stay with the traditional Christian morality and make adjustments to it, rather than hit uncharted waters with those three? Just a thought.

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111. How did you feel about Time’s selection for 1980?

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112. I know America was involved in Afghanistan before that, I didn’t know what the particular protests you mentioned were over. I was still in college and protests in New York and San Francisco didn’t really concern me, so even if I heard about it, I just don’t remember it.

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113. I believe our last white Christmas in the DC area was in 2009, when snow remained on the ground from a major storm a few days earlier. On the other hand, there are two possibilities for snow next week. I hope not, especially considering one of them is on Wednesday. I’m scheduled for an outpatient medical procedure on Wednesday morning at a facility about 10 miles from where I live. I live in an area where plenty of folks don’t know how to drive under optimal road conditions, much less in winter weather.

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114. Evidently, TIME created a special category for him (and health care workers in general)…

     https://time.com/guardians-of-the-year-2020-anthony-fauci-frontline-health-workers/

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115. You ought to give more attention Jon. I was living in South Africa at the time and we were well aware – as was most of the world.

     It was over Iraq. The US got involved well before that in Afghanistan.

     Seriously, what do they teach them in these schools… ? 😉

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116. No I don’t, honestly. Were they over invading Iraq or going after the Taliban? If it was about Iraq, then yes they were right.

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117. Klasie,
     I just disagree, I am under no misapprehension. There was no legitimate reason for the investigation. Obviously an investigation is necessary to determine guilt, but even the launching of an investigation should require good evidence that the investigation is necessary. The only evidence they had was a dossier that the intelligence community already knew was full of false information. Personally I think their real goal was to use the Russian investigation to hopefully find some legitimate dirt they could use against him.
     The Hillary investigation at least involved something that actually happened. And quite frankly if she was just an ordinary citizen and not the former first lady and secretary of state, she probably would be in jail. But once it became clear that nothing would come of it, the Republicans should have just dropped it, but it was too convenient of a weapon to use campaigning against her.

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118. Definitely a better choice.

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119. I think it should have been Anthony Fauci.

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120. So do you know if actually got the vaccine or the placebo? Other than your own experience.

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121. No. There is no “default”. Society is an accumulation of choices.

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122. “The country was more united….” For how long? Do you even remember the anti-war protests in February 2003. Estimates of between 300,000 and 400,000 in NYC alone. San Francisco’s estimate for Sunday 16 Feb was about 200,000.

     And in retrospect the protestors were shown to be right.

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123. Uh, Jon. The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by a Republican, confirmed Russian interference in the 2016 election in favor of DT and also confirmed that DT and his people welcomed that interference.

     https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/04/21/senate-intel-report-confirms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171

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124. This is the thing:. Evey one is political.

     The person who says “I don’t do politics” is most definitely making a political statement:. I’m fine with the status-qou..

     Pretending you can opt-out is arrogant and obnoxious. There is the option to not say anything.

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125. +1

     Twitter is not a source.

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126. PFIZER VACCINATION; ONE MAN’S STORY.
     ______

     I think I mentioned a couple of months back that I had volunteered and been accepted into the Pfizer Covid Protocol
     ___

     My experience with the two shots
     First shot, I didn’t feel particularly good the next day, I had gone out and played 9 holes of golf. I didn’t know if I had gotten the placebo shot or the real vaccine.. Though I didn’t feel real good [ or real bad ] I determined I couldn’t really judge what I had got. Another friend of mind, also in his 70s, had gone thru the protocol and experienced chills and other other mild symptoms after the first shot.

     With my booster shot, 10 hrs later I was very achy when I went to bed; popped a couple of Tylenol twice in the next 24 hrs. The next day I was pretty exhausted. Didn’t got anywhere, just layed around. When I woke up the next day, I was “good to go.” I did NOT experience any nausea but I didn’t feel like eating either. So that’s my personal experience with the Pfizer Vaccine. Physically and psychologically I tend to take things in stride. If you’re quite sensitive physically, you might have more discomfort. Everybody is different.

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127. Jon, you labour under misapprehension. Launching an investigation does not mean a guilty verdict is guaranteed. It means there is a possibility of guilt. Innocent until proven guilty, remember? What the investigations did find was a lot of evidence of corruption, but nothing that clearly indicated that collusion took place. So, it was a good investigation – it showed that there was a lot of smoke, but this was from a different fire.

     Same with the Benghazi investigations. An investigation was warranted, but showed that while things could certainly have been done better, no guilt could be established. However, in that case, it was followed by another, and another, and another, and another… all trying to do the same thing with a different outcome.

     To equivocate the 2 is simply profoundly dishonest. What I was showing was not both-sideism, but that what you accuse the one side of, the others had been doing clearly over and over and over again.

     Not, btw, that I am particularly fond of the Democrats either. In a sense it is the Devil and the Deep Blue see, but we do have a boat….

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128. I would have prefer to see American Health Workers are “Heroes of the Year”.

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129. Burro, I think you are wrong on both. The country was probably more united after 9-11 than any other time in my life. It was with the Iraq war debacle, that really had nothing to with 9-11 but used 9-11 as a pretext, that Bush became truly divisive. And Obama was divisive from the start, which I’m sure many on here will attribute to racism, but that wasn’t really the problem. It was the condescension with which he treated people who disagreed with him, the “clinger” comment and “You didn’t build that” that got things rolling and it only got worse from there.

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130. He didn’t say he wasn’t political, he said he was less political and described his lack of faith that things will actually change.

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131. No. Nothing is “the default” in politics. There are always active choices being made.

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132. By becoming “non political”, that is what he is doing. Choosing not to act is still a choice. He is upholding the status quo, which is a political act.

     And of course, this is ignoring the fact that in a statement about how he isn’t political he states that Democrats will end up with Mao.

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133. So no, there was no collusion, and really no warrant for the investigation, no warrant to spy on an opposing presidential campaign, no warrant to put the country through this mess. And saying “Well the GOP does it too.” Well yeah that’s the problem isn’t it? Neither side is doing what it ought for the good of the nation and the people who elected them.

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134. I think both Bush and Obama really tried to make it work, but Bush got blindsided by 9-11 and Obama worked against a headwind even from the beginning.

     There’s no money in unity these days.

     Nothing compares to what we’re currently going through.

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135. Hell, something has to be the default. Even language doesn’t work if there are no contrasts.

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136. Exactly.

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137. Twitter comments by randos, sure. How about party leadership?

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138. How does one repair a division with people who reject the rule of law and the rights of those whom they disagree with?

     https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/voter-fraud/617354/

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139. Stacey Abrahams in particular is an exceptional individual. I listened to a podcast where David Tenant had a conversation with her. You can find it on Spotify under “David Tenant does a podcast with…” . Highly recommended.

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140. I think he might have started out that way, and nostalgically wants to get back to it.
     I hope he can find his way back.

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141. > they were just doing their jobs.

     But these days…

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142. And if he openly engages in politics to retain his privileges?

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143. > you don’t even have a major left wing party in the US. … And the GOP under trump is on the far right

     Yep.

     It is hard not to snort out loud when someone talks about AOC’s extremism.

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144. Slipper Slope!

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145. “””Cis Straight White Man says he is not political, and in the same statement says that one party in the USA will end up with a genocidal leader because of reasons. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t terrifying.”””

     +1,000,000,000,000,000,000

     When society has so normalized your politics you cannot recognize it as politics.

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146. Erik Erikson is an Atlanta radio personality who came under the tutelage of the odious Neal Boortz. These guys are everywhere on the radio down here. Boortz was a Randian libertarian who was always pushing the flat tax and tried to convince everyone that it was to our best interests to let the rich keep all their swag. After all, don’t you want to keep yours when you get it?

     . Erikson kinda came up behind him as a kindler, gentler, corporate shill who positioned himself as a ‘muh Constitution’ kinda guy. The degree to which Donald Trump was willing to disregard the Constitution to get what he wanted shook him up a bit. I think it shook a lot of people up, including me. But Erikson’s taking baby steps. To expect him to say anything nice about Democrats when you’ve built your career telling people they are mostly homosexuals and their Black enablers is asking a lot.

     I think the AM radio “talk” show industry carries a lot of blame for the polarization of our country, and it didn’t start forty-five minutes ago

     But yeah, comparing even the most liberal Democrats to Chairman Mao is still irresponsible and a ‘dog returning to his vomit’ as it were. I have to say I have been impressed by Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossof, Stacy Abrams, Brian Kemp, and Brad Raffensberger, but the point is, they were just doing their jobs. I shouldn’t be so impressed with people who are just playing by the rules the way political candidates, activists, and public servants are supposed to.

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147. Cohen was sentenced because of Campaign finance violations.

     The Russians and Russian companies were indicted because of targeted misinformation campaigns directed towards the presidential campaign.

     Now we also know that the entire report is not available to the public. But it is clear that at the very minimum there was enough smoke to warrant an investigation. So to call it bogus is completely disingenuous. But investigations against the opposition is part of American political life. And not unique to Democrats. I seem to remember 10 investigations (6 of which were GOP Congressional ones) against the same person for the same reason that yielded the same result every time. A bit of overkill, right? I’m sure you are equally distressed at that….

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148. Yes. It absolutely does. It is easy to pretend to not be political when you are in the privileged classes. The status quo and upholding the status quo is often considered apolitical, whereas any change is considered political. So, a person who is doing OK in general can afford to ignore “politics” because they don’t see that the world needs to change. But if you are being oppressed, you can’t ignore politics or be apolitical.

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149. Trump’s presidency was an incredibly divisive one. But it is not like the Democrats have been working hard to repair that division, to set an example of true statesmanship and unity, over these last four years, or even in the years before that. And until people wake up to the fact that the fault really does lie on both sides, and start calling out the corruption and erosion of political norms from both sides, it won’t get any better.

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150. Robert, no they didn’t take that route. They just took the route of doing everything thing they could, legitimate or not, to kick Trump out of office and make his election seem illegitimate.

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151. It does. It places him in 3 privileged classes right there. And obviously he is not in the poorer class (happy to be corrected), nor is he an immigrant. And he is also in the religious majority. So, unless he is disabled, he basically, in terms of intersectionality, holds the royal flush so to speak.

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152. He had to be pardoned from a partisan judge who refused to let the case go even after it was dropped. Flynn’s crime was supposedly lying to the FBI, even though the officials who actually interviewed him didn’t think he was lying, but rather misspoke.
     And what were the federals crimes they were charged with? Did it have to do with Trump’s campaign itself, was there any evidence that Trump actually colluded with Russia? What was even the basis for the investigation? A fake and debunked intelligence report.

     There is a lot of crazy in the Trump camp and he’s certainly not above doing whatever he can get away with for his advantage. But that doesn’t mean every allegation is true.

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153. What Trump is dong now is not just pathetic, it is the express route to destroying any coherence this country still has. I don’t remember the Democrats or Trump adversaries filing fifty + frivolous losing lawsuits after the 2016 election to discard tens of millions of votes, nor do I remember them calling members of their own party — Democratic leaders— traitors and agents of foreign countries in an attempt to force loyalty to Clinton’s baseless claims that there was systemic fraud enabled by Democratic state leaders. None of this do I remember. Do you?

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154. Does it matter that he is cis, straight, and a man etc?

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155. “I’m a Christian who thinks a lot of Christians have turned politics into religion. I’m a husband who wants to take care of my wife. I’m a dad who just wants to raise my kids to love Jesus and improve their community.” People will probably focus on everything else he said, but that’s the money quote right there.

     Good Brunch today.

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156. Well you can certainly read twitter comments about how these voters should be locked up, and, in one tweet, ‘sent to the gulag’.

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157. “bogus Russia investigation”

     Well as of February this year, Mueller’s team has charged eight Americans once affiliated with Trump’s campaign or administration, 13 Russian nationals, 12 Russian intelligence officers, three Russian companies, and two other people with federal crimes.

     In addition, remember Flynn being pardoned by Trump a few weeks back? He had to be pardoned from doing something.

     But I guess crimes are only crimes when “the other side” do it.

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158. This guy doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t want to secede. He’s just pandering to the Trump base for political reasons. But he’s playing with fire, because he underestimates how much the Trump base does mean it, and thinks secession would be a solution.

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159. Exactly. Profound ignorance is in great supple.

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160. That’s because the Democrats won. They spent the last four years trying to delegitimize the Trump presidency with a bogus Russia investigation and a ridiculous impeachment. What Trump is doing now is pathetic, he needs to stop, those supporting him in this need to stop. But this is just a continuation of the crazy the Democrats started the moment Trump won in 2016. Now that they have won they want to pretend like they actually care about civility and not abandoning the historic norms our of politics. It’s a load of BS. If Trump had actually won there would still be cities burning in the protests.

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161. We have had a foot of snow on the ground since the first week of November. And while it hasn’t been that cold (barely under freezing) till now, normal winter temperatures are in store as of this coming week. For reference that is night time often or even mostly below -20°C (-4 Fahrenheit) and daytime below -10 (14 Fahrenheit).

     Here being central Saskatchewan of course.

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162. Indeed. Statements like this

     “and the Democrats are going full bore socialist secularists who’ll eventually get their own Mao and deny it while trying to silence people like me.”

     indicate that he doesn’t actually listen to what the opposition is saying, trivializes the horrors of Mao and the deaths of millions, and frankly speaking, makes just another privileged idiot.

     As the rest of the world keeps on pointing out – you don’t even have a major left wing party in the US. A few Democrats are left of centre, but the party as a whole is centrist to right of centre. And the GOP under trump is on the far right (they used to be a mix of far right and centre right, but the centre right wing has been decimated). So any use of the words communist or Mao or Stalin or whatnot shows profound ignorance, if not clownish idiocy.

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163. “Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.”
     —Joni Mitchell

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164. I don’t know of anyone on the liberal side who is questioning the numbers and validity of Trump’s votes. They’re dismayed at the number, but you don’t hear them talking about how to disenfranchise them. That talk is all on the Republican side.

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165. Seneca, if it makes you feel better, Time’s Person of the Year award has also gone to Hitler, Stalin, Khrushchev, Nixon, and the Ayatollah Khomeini.

     And Greta, last year.

     Also Giuliani, after 9/11, but he’s not nearly as hard to spell as Khrushchev, it turns out.

     They’re saving next year for you.

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166. You know if the suit had won in SCOTUS, the votes of four states had been thrown out, and the Democratic Party Chair of a Blue state had called for secession as a result, this same TX GOP Chair would have called it treason.

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167. Every year, I hoped that THIS year the Grinch would man up and dump all the stuff down Mount Crumpett. And every year, he caved. 😛

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168. And the conservatives don’t like it – oh, how they don’t like it.

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169. I keep telling you guys – the two sides are so far apart and so polarized that they can no longer live together in peace. I fear it’s going to happen – the only question being how violent the process will be.

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170. “Are there no workhouses?”

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171. HUMBUG!

     Sorry, couldn’t help it…

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172. Hey, at least this time Texas isn’t seceding so they can keep owning slaves. That’s a step up from the last two times they did it.

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173. Yes, the difference is that “they” are speaking up and being heard.

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174. Texas GOP Chair is calling for secession as a result of SCOTUS decision. Should we call it treason? No? Why not?

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175. it’s December —
     every day is waiting
     for serious snow

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176. He says America has been turned into an us vs. them society in recent times, but he’s wrong. It has always been an us vs. them society. He mistakenly thinks that the relative quiet of earlier times — which weren’t really as quiet as he thinks they were — was due to greater unanimity, when, to the extent that it actually existed, it was really due to oppression and suppression of other voices. This is the conservative error.

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177. Was thinking the same thing.

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178. Its just the natural evolution of things. First it is access to healthcare for all citizens, then it is genocide. Just look at New Zealand and Canada!

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179. I can say from personal experience that the Christmas lights at Kew Gardens are just as spectacular in person…

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180. The reasons seem pretty self evident at this juncture…

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181. Trump was person of the year in 2016. Quit whining. 😛

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182. Cis Straight White Man says he is not political, and in the same statement says that one party in the USA will end up with a genocidal leader because of reasons. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t terrifying.

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183. Demand a recount! Take it to the Supreme Court!

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184. Even more shocking: What’s a magazine?

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185. Corner Lot, not Not

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186. More shocking: Time Magazine still exists? How on earth?

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187. Dec.12 here in western Michigan: 40s, light rain, grass is still green, a few plants in the flower boxes still standing. Haven’t seen a White Christmas in a few years and this one does not look promising.

     I don’t mind. I own a large corner not – and that is a whole lot of sidewalk to shovel.

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188. Time Magazine has named Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as Person of the Year. Really?

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189. I like the 1:1 scale Taxi Christmas Ornament. Cool.

     Christmastime in Georgia. Many houses decorated with Christmas lights…sans snow…

     Meh.

     Christmas lights on homes with fresh snow on the ground…

     Now that’s more like it!

     (observation by a former Minnesotan)

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190. I think the razzle dazzle of Christmas is more evident in colder climes. No chance of snow where I live.
     Summer is slow in coming and the nights where I live are chilly. Howling gale here today and my sun bake was cancelled by me.
     Having not attempted Christmas shopping due to my ill health and surgery I have found time for contemplation and quiet phone calls and some emails to those I care for. Online shopping for my grandchildren,
     My visit to John on Christmas Day will be just to feed him. He wont know it is a special day. This is the man who lived to make our Church community work each Sunday and at feasts and festivals. They have long forgotten him.
     I live daily through the opportunity for prayer and contemplation. Possibly the quietest Christmas I have ever had.
     The celebrations when I was a child were very much around all the family sharing time at church, laughter, food and fellowship.
     I guess I live in those sweet memories.

     Susan

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