Psychic Mall Santa Satisfies Ayn Rand, and the God of Miscarriages
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2014/12/22/1353470/-21-Ayn-Rand-Christmas-Cards
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I think the reason people kill themselves around the holidays has nothing to do with depression and everything to do with those Salvation Army bell ringers.
December 23, 2023
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I just ran out to my car to bring in some Christmas presents. I needed to get in the front to unlatch the trunk but my driver's door wouldn't budge. I got in through the passenger door, but then I couldn't get back out. Both front doors weren't frozen shut the way you would expect, it seemed like the internal mechanisms were frozen. No amount of pushing could open them.
Not sure if you heard, but the wind chill right now is -14°.
I tried one of the back doors, same thing. I tried the other back door, my last chance, and it worked! Whew! I would have needed to bust out the windows if it didn't work. I tried to get the presents out of the trunk, but... you guessed it, frozen solid. I ran back in empty-handed, but very thankful!
Fun fact- if the temp drops 26 more degrees, it will be -40°F. Do you know what that is in Celsius? It's -40° in Celsius too, that's where they converge! Not a great night to be stuck in your car.
December 23, 2022
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What the heck was up with that mall Santa? Unprompted, he asked Gretel if she wanted a bike with training wheels. Got her excited for one. How did he know that's what we got her??? You don't think...
December 23, 2017
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All these new laws restricting abortion, even though it's legal...the mandatory fetus funerals, the heartbeat law... they've got me thinking. I'm fine with the government punishing women for getting abortions, but only after God gets the same punishment for all the miscarriages he had the power to stop.
December 23, 2016
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Oh my God, I couldn't have read what I just read...
December 23, 2016
Postscript- News of Carrie Fisher's massive heart attack.
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I hope I'm just a catastrophist, but it certainly seems like Trump will use nuclear weapons. His hypothetical rationale- we have them, there are bad people, let's use them. And if he does, everything he's said to this point will be consistent with his actions, such as "we have to kill the terrorists and their families." (If he doesn't use them, boy will my face be red... which is much better than disintegrated.)
December 23, 2016
Postscript- I'm still literally shocked that he didn't. It's not like he's the type of guy who wouldn't!
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Politico- Trump threatens to upend U.S. nuclear weapons policy
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-nuclear-arms-race-russia-232944
December 23, 2016
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Dan Rather on Trump's new nuclear policy:
https://www.facebook.com/24085780715/posts/10157928632880716
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Robert Reich
"This is why his tweet yesterday, calling for the United States to “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes about nuclear weapons,” and his comment this morning “Let it be an arms race; we will outmatch them at every pass, and outlast them all,” are irresponsible."
https://www.facebook.com/142474049098533/posts/1415529978459594
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New York Times- "The last time the U.S. declared its nuclear weapons policy, it took one year and a 64-page report. Donald J. Trump did so in one tweet."
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/22/world/americas/trump-nuclear-tweet.html
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I call this one "Baby Nosferatu."
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I'll bet if carolers weren't so demanding they'd get a lot more figgy pudding.
December 23, 2011
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On this day in 1889, the Lancaster New Era ran a story about a headless specter in Manor Township.
https://unchartedlancaster.com/2024/01/18/the-headless-specter-of-manor-township/
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Bertrand Russell in letter to C. P. Sanger, December 23, 1929- “I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me."
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The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo were released on this day in 1968, after eleven months of internment in North Korea. Good news for me. That meant that my dad got to got stationed in Korea, instead of Vietnam.
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On this day in 1970, the North Tower of the World Trade Center was topped out at 1,368 ft, making it the tallest building in the world.
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The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster were rescued on this day in 1972, after 73 days, surviving by cannibalism.
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On this day in 1996, in Macon, Georgia, perhaps the greatest entrance in the history of professional wrestling- Roddy Piper. Gives me chills. That look on his face, that's the way everybody should approach everything.
https://youtu.be/K4CFNGmmH4w
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On this day in 1997, Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn were married. They've been together 25 years, a happy marriage with two adult adopted children. For what it's worth, she was not his daughter, and they never had any type of father-daughter relationship. If you read Woody's autobiography, read Soon-Yi's article, Moses Farrow's blog, and Robert Weide's defense, there is simply no question that we should just be happy for them.
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The Thin Red Line was released on this day in 1998.
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The Simpsons' Harry Shearer joined us on this day in 1943. Somehow he provides the voice of Flanders, Burns, Smithers, Skinner, God, Otto, Kang, Kent Brockman, McBain, Lenny, Dr. Hibbert, Reverend Lovejoy, Scratchy, and presumably several hundred more.
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A tip of my hat to Bill Kristol who joined us on this day in 1952. I disagree with him on policy in general, but I respect him for being a true to his conservative principles, for standing up to Trump, and not losing his mind with the flock.
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Cracked- The Secret True History Of 'Jingle Bells, Batman Smells'
Thanks to Cracked, I've ALWAYS wondered about this. And that is THEE best Christmas lawn decoration scheme in the history of Christmas lawn decorations.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-secret-true-history-jingle-bells-batman-smells/
December 23, 2016
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Frank Capra, on the motivation for It's a Wonderful Life:
“There are just two things that are important. One is to strengthen the individual’s belief in himself, and the other, even more important right now, is to combat a modern trend toward atheism.”
Haha, when I just watched it with my kids they asked me what was going on at one point, and I told them that it was just a ridiculous part about angels.
https://billmoyers.com/2014/12/23/wonderful-life-comrade/
December 23, 2020
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The Hill- Trump pushes back on Candace Owens: ‘People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine’
To quote Trump: “Oh no, the vaccines work… The ones who get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don’t take the vaccine. But it’s still their choice. And if you take the vaccine, you’re protected. Look, the results of the vaccine are very good, and if you do get it, it’s a very minor form. People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine."
Ummm, yeah... that's... correct. (Or at least very true-ish.)
http://hill.cm/UJqHFpt
December 23, 2021
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New York Times- Joan Didion, ‘New Journalist’ Who Explored Culture and Chaos, Dies at 87
Oh no, Joan Didion died. A Year of Magical Thinking is required reading. I always liked this bit from Blue Nights:
"I continue opening boxes. I find more faded and cracked photographs than I want ever again to see. I find many engraved invitations to the weddings of people who are no longer married. I find many mass cards from the funerals of people whose faces I no longer remember. In theory, these momentos serve to bring back the moment; in fact, they serve only to make clear how inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here. How inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here, is something else that I can never afford to see."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/books/joan-didion-dead.html
December 23, 2021
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The TCM 2023 In Memoriam, always a knockout.
https://youtu.be/i-OggxFtRLE
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Marilyn Monroe with her mom Gladys.
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Euripides- "Life is like a theater; often very bad people occupy the best seats."
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Rik- "Euripides trousers, you-mend-a-these trousers."
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Plato- "Ignorance is the root and stem of all evil."
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Graham Greene- "Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt"
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Hicks- "The worst kind of non-smokers are the ones that come up to you and cough. That's pretty fucking cruel isn't it? Do you go up to cripples and dance too?"
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Arthur C. Clarke- "It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value."
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Tom Segura’s favorite Anthony Jeselnik joke:
"When I finished high school I wanted to take all my graduation money and buy myself a motorcycle.
But my mom said no. See, she had an uncle who died in a horrible motorcycle accident when he was 18. And I could just have his motorcycle."
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Hitchens- “If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world.”
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Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent- "I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen."
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Vonnegut:
To be is to do - Socrates
To do is to be - Sartre
Do Be Do Be Do - Sinatra
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Steven Wright:
I don’t have to walk my dog anymore. I walked him all at once.
Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?
I play the harmonica. The only way I can play is if I get my car going really fast, and stick it out the window.
It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.
If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?
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Joan Didion left us on this day in 2021. From The Year of Thinking Magically:
"We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all."
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