Lord Ludd
Lord Ludd's JournalSpooky action at close range
I recently bought a Dell XPS 13 laptop. For the setup process, I placed it directly in front of my HP desktop, up & running, which has a beautiful cat pic as desktop background. While setup was running on the Dell, the same cat pic suddenly appeared there as desktop background without any prompt from me.
The HP & the Dell were not connected in any way. Did the Dell's camera somehow activate & copy the cat pic from the HP? Or was it just a stunning coincidence? Or......?
Celebrity lookalikes
Mike Richards, exec producer & possible new host of Jeopardy
Actor Richard Kind
Additional name for atheists?
Haven't posted here often, but hey, since this group exists (unlike that other entity), why not get some feedback on the non-believer name I go by: cosmost.
Cosmost combines 'cosmos' with 'most', in the dual sense that the cosmos is all that exists & also is 'the most', a complimentary term common among '50s teens, hipsters, Beats, & jazz devotees. Admittedly, the latter definition is meant as a joke (which is what I consider theism to be), but I think the main idea is apparent.
Cosmostism can be equated with Naturalism & its offshoots, but I'm not aware of any atheistic label that refers specifically to the universe. If there are any, please post.
Anyway, just a thought for The Day HE Came Back. (Sam Raimi, are you listening?)
Covid vaccines given to us by god
Sorry, can't provide a link*, but early today I skimmed over a headline stating that some believe the vaccines were provided to us by The Big Guy.
The question this begs is so obvious that I won't even put it in writing. Just wanted to add one more item to the Theist Faulty Logic List.
*Tried several Google search strings, no luck.
A graffito I saw in Vietnam aptly describes The Former Guy
Hadn't thought of this 'til now. After Tet '68 the army transferred me to the sprawling former marine base way up north in Phu Bai. (The marines were shipping out to attempt to break the siege of Khe Sanh.) Scrawled in tiny letters near the base of the mess hall's back wall was this memorable graffito: "USMC -- 192 years of Death, Destruction, and Boundless Stupidity."*
Replace 'USMC' with 'Trump' & '192 years' with '4 years', & you're up-to-date. (Actually, the last 4 years felt like 192 years.)
*Does not necessarily reflect poster's opinion.
A scene I'd like to see
Bruce Castor spends the opening moments of his next Senate appearance trying to rationalize his previous ramblings, whereupon Trump suddenly bursts in out of nowhere & starts pummeling Castor the way he pummeled Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania. Only this time Trump won't be faking.
I have no expertise in manipulating video, so just imagine Castor's face in place of McMahon's. (Heck, their suits are identical!)
Cue @ 0:23
The education of a conservative
I know this is not an original idea, but its implementation has increased in recent weeks & months to a point I didn't think possible. (Although I should have realized that when it comes to the GOP, there is no bottom to which they can't descend.)
The idea (if I may frame it fancifully) is this: When first-term Republicans enter the House & Senate, they are given classroom instruction & study materials (with yearly refreshers) in these disciplines:
Lying With a Straight Face
Dealing With Cognitive Dissonance
Changing the Subject
Projection
Obfuscation (aka Throwing Sand in Their Face)
Word Salad
Hypocrisy
Conspiracy Theory
Whataboutism (definitely not to be confused with Wahhabism)
That's just for starters. Additions welcome.
Joe Biden May Have Only Two Years To Get Things Done
In the Senate in recent decades, the filibuster has morphed from the long-winded speeches portrayed by Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” into a silent but lethal tool that lets any one senator raise the threshold for passing bills from a simple majority (where the framers set it) to a supermajority of 60 votes.
The harsh reality is that when the dust settles on the chaos and violence that marked the end of the Trump presidency, Republican senators will have the same powerful incentives to deny Mr. Biden the 10 or so votes he will need, in addition to all 50 Democrats, to pass most bills in the Senate.
With Republicans needing just a handful of seats to take back majorities in the House and Senate, they will seek to make Democrats look feckless and ride voter discontent to gains in the 2022 midterms. In all but three times since 1914, the party that won the White House — in this case, the Democrats — loses House seats in the midterms. The next two years may be Mr. Biden’s best and perhaps only window to pass his agenda.
He can choose to avoid this fate, all while restoring the institution he spent 36 years in and empowering moderates. He and his fellow Senate Democrats can choose to reform the filibuster.
[snip]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/opinion/democrats-filibuster-congress-mcconnell.html
Interesting history of the filibuster & how it became Standard Operating Procedure.
Chief Justice Roberts showing his bias
At both of Obama's swearings-in (the first of which Roberts famously flubbed), he ended with a question, "So help you god?" Same just now for Biden.
Four long years ago, Roberts uttered the above line correctly, as a statement to be repeated, not as a question to be answered.
On 1/20/25 , before Biden (or Harris, if Joe decides not to run) takes the oath, s/he (or a spokesperson) should politely advise the CJ of the proper way to end the oath. (If he did that to me I would just throw the question right back at him, followed by, "Hey, I just repeated what you said, chief." )
Obama 2009
Obama 2013
Fatso 2017
Biden 2021
Jessica Campbell, 'Election' and 'Freaks and Geeks' Star, Dead at 38
Jessica Campbell, who played Tammy Metzler in 'Election,' has died at the age of 38.
Campbell’s family confirmed the news to TMZ, stating that Campbell died on December 29th, 2020, in Portland, Oregon. Campbell, who left acting to become a naturopathic physician, spent the day seeing patients at her practice, her cousin Sarah Wessling told the outlet. She went home to visit with her mother and aunt, and went to the bathroom and never returned.
Her aunt later found her collapsed on the bathroom floor; Campbell was unable to be revived when the EMTs arrived. Her family is waiting for the results of the autopsy, which was conducted by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner in Oregon.
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/jessica-campbell-freaks-and-geeks-dead-obit-1113874/
Profile Information
Member since: Sun Feb 9, 2020, 10:31 PMNumber of posts: 585
