Lewis2
1mo ago
A couple of points. First, although I suppose it wasn’t clear, I was responding to RandomRanger’s last sentence, which I do think is wrong. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a group that is more stable than the Amish, even though they have opted to go without modernity to some extent (the extent varies by Gemeinde).
Secondly, going back to coffee_enjoyer’s comment, I didn’t take him to be saying that we would need to adopt the Amish life wholesale, but instead that we could carefully pick and choose which parts we wanted to adopt (“incorporating such things into modern life”), just as the Amish carefully decide which parts of modernity they want to adopt. Some kind of synthesis between the two cultures would probably be a net gain over the current state of the modern West. If nothing else, I think the average modern person would benefit massively from the strong sense of community that the Amish have.
Lewis2
1mo ago
I imagine this is an extremely fringe view even among Holocaust revisionists, but I know a few people who deny that the Germans ever intended to exterminate the Jews, because the Germans are just too civilized to commit such barbarism. When pressed about the large number of Jews who went missing during the war, they blame the Russians. Everyone knows they’re bloodthirsty and evil, and we know they committed genocides against other groups. Clearly they must be to blame.
I don’t really find it all that convincing, but it is a view I’ve encountered several times before.
Lewis2
1mo ago
I’ve never heard of that before, and Google isn’t helping me out. Do you happen to have a source handy? I’d be interested in learning more.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Thanks! I don’t pay any attention to different types of phones, and I don’t really trust that anything Google would serve me wouldn’t be bought and paid for by some company or another, so I really appreciate the feedback.
One question: when you say that the SE has five years of support left, has Apple stated that somewhere, or is that just your best estimate?
Lewis2
1mo ago
sometimes inconsistently tried to provide services in Guarani and Quechua.
What sort of services are you thinking of? It can’t be the mass, surely, since that wasn’t permitted to be celebrated in the vernacular until post-Vatican II. Or were exceptions made for Latin America?
I’ve only grown a few inches since then, and most of that growth was in my limbs.
Lewis2
2mo ago
In a certain sense, yes, but only insofar as our legal system isn’t perfect. You also have to hazard the odds that your girlfriend will die from complications arising out of the abortion.
Edit: Of course, even should she choose not to abort the baby, there’s nothing forcing her (or you) to raise it. Adoptions are a thing.
Lewis2
2mo ago
My (very limited) experience is the opposite. I know two, now older, Filipina mail order brides, one of whom I knew when she first came over here. She was quite pretty, tall, thin, and is, probably not insignificantly, either half or quarter Spanish (I forget which). She has a number of other female relatives who became mail order brides, and I’m guessing they were probably similarly attractive. I don’t know what my other mail order bride acquaintance looked like when she was young, but her daughters are both attractive, if a bit short, so I’m guessing she was good-looking when young as well.
Lewis2
2mo ago
High school proms also feature a lot of tuxes, though those seem to be less popular than they used to be.
Lewis2
3mo ago
Easy come, easy go. The only thing I really lose by creating a new account is my saved comments and posts.
Lewis2
12hr ago
Eh, I know a number of Lutheran clergy who speak multiple languages fluently and additionally have a reading and sometimes writing knowledge of several more. It’s not at all uncommon to come across pastors who speak fluent English, German, and one or more of Spanish, Italian, one of the Scandinavian languages, Afrikaans, Russian, Japanese, etc. These same guys can generally also read Koine Greek without much difficulty, maybe ancient Hebrew (if they retained it after graduating from the seminary), and frequently also Latin.
The ministry is one of the few professions that still heavily emphasizes the learning of foreign languages, so it’s not altogether surprising that it attracts people with a propensity in that direction.
Lewis2
13hr ago
I used to have a neighbor (not a Boomer, a Gen Xer) who mowed his yard a minimum of three times per week, and sometimes even daily. I’d occasionally come home and find that he’d mowed my yard for me, having apparently decided that I was letting it get a bit too long. (I think he also knew that I didn’t care for yard work, so I always appreciated his donated time and expense.)
Lewis2
16d ago
I’ve had bear meat on several occasions, and while it is good, I don’t think it’s that much better than venison, squirrel, or beef. It’s also not exotic enough. Mammoth, whale, and giant tortoise meat all seem like winners though.
Lewis2
22d ago
Bed, chair, recliner, couch, floor, wandering around the house, sitting in the car, on the John, at a table or desk, on top of the kitchen countertop. . . . I’m not at all consistent.
Lewis2
1mo ago
In some sense that’s true, but as long as property taxes are based on a certain percentage of a property’s assessed value, when that value goes up, the taxes do too. Obviously the government could lower the rate, but inertia makes that unlikely.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Eh, I’m here, aren’t I? I’m clearly not that happy.
I will say that I enjoy the absolute bafflement on some people’s faces and in their voices when they learn just how disconnected I am from large sections of modern life. I don’t have home Internet, I don’t have a TV, I refuse to download all but a very few mobile apps, I’m forever forgetting my phone at home or in the car, and these days, I’ve almost entirely given up radio as well. Other than news I pick up from IRL conversations, my connection to the modern outside world is mostly through a handful of websites, including this one.
There are some things I am not happy about in life, but my voluntary semi-seclusion from modern life isn’t one of them.
Lewis2
1mo ago
It’s rather fascinating to me that confession is seen as a draw to converts, given the strong resistance to it among many members of my own church body. When the denomination was organized, congregations were initially required to introduce private confession wherever possible, but that provision was dropped within a decade or so due to massive pushback from the laity. I wonder if the difference is just that private confession seems “too Catholic” to many Protestants, while pagans have no such hang-ups, or if there are other factors at play.
Lewis2
1mo ago
But the split happened in Europe. If that made Christianity stronger why would the effect be more pronounced in the US?
As aardvark2 pointed out, Europe has traditionally operated on the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, which eliminates the competitive spirit that proved to be an advantage in America. Aardvark2 is also correct in saying that attendance rates differ dramatically between Europe and the United States, even if nominal church membership is similar.
I hate to dip my toe in the pool of “lived experiences,” but I do think that might be at the root of our disagreement here. Your country recently (within living memory) witnessed decades-long violent strife over a tangled knot of politics and religion. In that context, I can see why sectarian divisions would seem like a definite weakness. From my American perspective, however, things look differently. Calls for “church unity” in this country have historically led to the creation of groups like the United Methodist Church or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, denominations whose founding mergers were accomplished by ignoring the real doctrinal differences between their predecessor church bodies. In other words, unity has become synonymous with laxity and indifference. I don’t think true unity of doctrine was possible in 16th century Europe, which means the only other options were superficial unity (a la mainstream Protestantism in the US) or forced unity (hence the wars of religion).
As I see it, the zeal that drove armies to kill each other over the existence of purgatory is the same zeal that led thousands of missionaries to convert the populations of North and South America, and Africa, and East Asia, and India, and so forth (some with greater success than others). Today, few Christians have that zeal, but many Muslims do. The very fact that Muslims aren’t willing to paper over their differences for the sake of a superficial unity is proof that Islam is still a force to be reckoned with.
Lewis2
1mo ago
However, compared to therapy or some other religions, Christianity is fairly cost-effective.
Not if you’re tithing. Becoming a Christian is probably more effective than going to the shrink down the street, but the shrink usually doesn’t make a claim on 10% of your income.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Truck stops often have mini supermarkets with microwaveable meals at halfway reasonable rates, plus some combination of hot pizzas, pizza rolls, burritos, hot dogs, cinnamon rolls, fresh cookies, etc.
Lewis2
2mo ago
If we’re talking a pure power play—“I have the votes and you don’t”—then sure, this conversation is pointless. But don’t pretend that invalidates the workability of a law requiring supposed rape victims to actually file a police report. It just reduces the likelihood that such a law will be passed.
Lewis2
2mo ago
Sure, and the police should be able to use the DNA to track down the supposed rapist. If it turns out she lied, then she can face the legal consequences for filing a false police report. Looks like up to a year in prison in my state, plus whatever additional penalty she may face for getting an illegal abortion.
Oh, I agree. Like I said, I don’t find it convincing, but it is a few I’ve encountered several times in the wild, always from Americans of German descent. I imagine there is a bit of motivated thinking as a result of their ancestors’ ethnic background.
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