Onan, Tamar, and birth control

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Monday February 20, 2012 · 11:46 AM PST

2012/02/20 · 11:46

These verses from Genesis have been debated for thousands of years, but I can't help giving my two cents and sharing my opinion on the issue. The Bible is a fascinating book, but I often get the sense that many people try much too hard to find interpretations within minor parts of a story- in essence missing the forest for the trees. I think that happens with this passage in a fairly major way.

Note: This post does not address whether a business owner can enforce his religious ideas on his employees, that's clearly an unconstitutional horrible awful bad idea. I'm simply trying, as a Christian myself, to understand a rule that other Christians follow and consider important. And I disagree with them.

jrcjr

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Monday November 08, 2010 · 11:51 AM PST

2010/11/08 · 11:51

From Sarah Palin, via Twitter, Nov 8:

Will discuss Fed's quantitative easing plan(print $ out of thin air)tmrrw@ tools trade assn speech;then edit addl "Sarah Palin's AK"episodes
--10 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

Now that the Palins are apparently editing their own infomercial, should we consider TLC/Discovery on its way to becoming yet another propaganda network? Have a look at the great post over at the Immmoral Minority, where they note how this could possible strengthen Joe McGinniss's case.

Poll

95 votes Show Results

What's the best way to confront Discovery over Palin's show?

95 votes Vote Now!

What's the best way to confront Discovery over Palin's show?

Don't watch the special

44 votes

Do nothing

5 votes

Boycott the Discovery Stores

1 vote

Boycott/confront her advertisers

22 votes

Stop subscribing to all their networks

11 votes

Ignore her and she'll go away

5 votes

Enjoy delicious rhubarb pie

7 votes

why Obama is taking on the Court

jrcjr

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Wednesday March 17, 2010 · 8:58 PM PDT

2010/03/17 · 20:58

(cross-posted at my blog)

Why does the White House appear to be picking a fight with the Supreme Court over its 5-4 ruling in Citizens United? The President's comment at the State of the Union was talked about for days (perhaps because of Justice Alito's reaction), and the White House seemed to treat the Chief Justice's recent comments as an opportunity to strike out again, rather than something needing a defense.

The White House is beginning to put public focus and pressure on the Supreme Court before its conservative ideologues radically change US law by overturning long-settled law or striking down his own initiatives. And to lay the groundwork for its own nominees. Read More

Barack "Magic" CD helping Saltzman

jrcjr

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Wednesday December 31, 2008 · 7:38 AM PST

2008/12/31 · 07:38

Wow.

In their aggressive quest to fully remake the GOP into the all-white all-southern party, GOPers are coming out in supportof Chip Saltsman for giving out "Barack the Magic Negro" CD's for Christmas.

jrcjr

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Wednesday December 10, 2008 · 10:16 PM PST

2008/12/10 · 22:16

In all the discussions about the auto industry's struggles, I've seen a lot of comparisons to foreign-based companies operating here, and many comments about health and retirement costs, but not a clear look into what direct role US trade policy may be playing, if any, in bringing these two issues together.

After finally making many overdue structural changes and long-term investments, the big three are now strapped, just in time for a serious economic downturn. While it may very well be true that the management has a lot of blame for this situation, spite, arrogance, and ideological opportunism seem to be taking a larger role in the discussion than trade policy and the current recession.

jrcjr

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Sunday July 20, 2008 · 10:55 AM PDT

2008/07/20 · 10:55

As many pundits have pointed out, Barack Obama surely must be too arrogant to be president.

It is easy to see this in action: one only has to visit the Obama campaign website to see bumper stickers for sale with his name on them, transcripts of Obama speeches, fawning photos of the senator with his family, and other shocking behaviors.

He speaks to his supporters by using the word “we”, which clearly means “I”.

He speaks to large crowds, instead of carefully selecting supporters for a "town hall" style discussion.

It even appears that he may be running for president because he is cocky enough to believe that he would make a good one. Or even that America's days of greatness may not be all in the past.

As a public service, I have attempted to lay out the areas in which this unbridled arrogance and self-confidence can be dangerous for the country:

jrcjr

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Thursday June 26, 2008 · 8:32 PM PDT

2008/06/26 · 20:32

What does Rove's nonsensical description of Obama at the country club say about Republican strategies for the fall?

Quite a bit, actually.

"Even if you never met him, you know this guy," Rove said. "He's the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by."

Most of us have read the quote, and it doesn't even make sense.

But that's the first clue that there must be strategy behind it. In fact, Rove's statement makes too little sense not to have an underlying meaning that people are expected to to pick up over time.

First of all, no one stands against the wall if they have a beautiful date. Generally, most guys want to show off, they can't help it. The guys making snide comments are always alone. And that's the key to seeing this statement's intent.

jrcjr

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Thursday March 06, 2008 · 11:09 AM PST

2008/03/06 · 11:09

Of torture, Justice Scalia said yesterday:

"It’s a bad thing to do. But not everything that is bad is unconstitutional."

Outrageous? Or obvious?

Democrats rely on the Supreme Court because we accept, even expect, poor articulation of liberal ideas, weak legislators, and bad laws. We have improbably taken the last line of defense, a Supreme Court hearing, and turned it into our often first and only defense against bad ideas.

This transformation of the court's importance is entirely the fault of us liberals: by relying too long on this last line of defense, we have lost the ability to pass good laws in the first place. We focus hard on confirmations and on individual cases because we lost our arguments in the public sphere. This feeds into Republican stereotyping of Democrats as out-of-touch or elitist, and allows them to paint good judges as 'activist.'

jrcjr

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Sunday February 24, 2008 · 9:28 AM PST

2008/02/24 · 09:28

Rep. Kingston-- caught your appearance on Bill Maher.

jrcjr

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Monday December 04, 2006 · 4:25 PM PST

2006/12/04 · 16:25

"We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here."

We've all heard that argument, and most sane people dismiss it just another justification, presented by an Administration clutching for a believable story. The President himself has even continued to make this point recently.

I've decided to go out on a limb and cynically accept that the Administration believes this. Now that I've done that, the Administration's bluster makes a perverse sort of logical sense, and may even become predictable. It is only cognitive dissonance that kept me from seeing it.

In fact, this is the only logical and believable Administration argument, for while it means that the war must go on forever for us to "win", it also means we are now "winning" in Iraq.

jrcjr

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Wednesday September 13, 2006 · 10:50 AM PDT

2006/09/13 · 10:50

GOP Projection and tarring Democrats with GOP traits.

Reading Daivid Niewert's excellent recent entry, Projecting fascism, http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/... I was reminded that this is not the first time that Republicans have deliberately and relentlessly projected their own failings onto Democrats. I encourage you to read it if you haven't already.

Projection of the GOP's own failings onto opponents has been a very successful tactic for quite some time. There have been many strong variants of this and "fascist" is only the latest. While this may not have the effect of totally demonizing the GOP's opposition, it is not intended to. It works for its purpose of taking attention away from Republican failings first, before a legitimate attack is made.

Here are a few easy examples:
Read More

Did the Geneva Conventions change American Law?

jrcjr

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Thursday July 13, 2006 · 4:10 PM PDT

2006/07/13 · 16:10

Did the Geneva Conventions, when ratified, really change how America treated prisoners of war?

The main right-wing argument claiming that the Geneva Conventions don't apply to terrorists, suggests that before they were enacted, that the American government had no qualms about executions, torture, or lifetime imprisonments.

I had always believed that those treaties were signed mainly to keep other nations to our own standards, not something forced upon us by more-civilized nations. With those conventions, we were pledging to treat their captured troops as well as we would treat any other prisoner in our country.

Is this correct, or am I missing an important aspect of our history?
Read More

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Onan, Tamar, and birth control

TLC/Discovery - Promoting Palin

why Obama is taking on the Court

Barack "Magic" CD helping Saltzman

Is Detroit the next deliberate GOP failure?

The "Dangerous Arrogance" of Barack Obama

Barack Obama: Country Club Elitist

Scalia is right- so do something about it

My Letter to Jack Kingston, R-GA

Fighting them over there - Why I finally believe Bush

Tarring Democrats with GOP traits

Did the Geneva Conventions change American Law?