Ever hear someone say something and your first thought is "How could YOU of all people say THAT?!" Twice in 24 hours I found myself thinking this, so follow me below the dingledoodlesquiggliedividerthingie fold after a short reminder...
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Case #1: The Tale Of The Rapturist & The News Stories
KC is married to one of Mr. Brillig's high-school friends. Sometime between 15 years ago and when we friended on FB, she went from eccentric in a cute sort of way to scary Rapturist spending her days praying for the end times and discounting evolution. A majority of her updates involve links to articles/news stories/videos talking about the End Times, the rest are... well, you get the point. I have friends of all theological persuasions and we get along well, this one however, I hope I don't read about her kids in a lake so that they go home to Heaven faster, y'know?
With the constant talk about love, grace, forgiveness, submission to God, etc etc and so forth, I was utterly stunned at a recent post of hers. It was about the recent arrest of a man caught watching kiddie porn on his laptop in-flight. Her comment? "We need a death penalty for this."
Ohkayyy, so much for grace and love and leaving it to God to judge. Someone asked her "Really? You'd kill someone for looking at a picture? Think about that..." and her answer was unequivocal: "they can hire me, or even for free, i'd push the kill switch on this"
While writing this up I went back to see if there were any updates, and between the links to "Shine Jesus Shine" and "Give Me Jesus (w lyrics!)" lies her suggested reaction to the gang-rape of a young girl in TX: "Dig a mass grave and shoot them all in. Shovel. Done."
Somehow I'm thinking that Jesus doesn't shine when one of his followers talks about digging a mass grave and killing people, no matter what the "justification." I guess my heathen atheist little evolved-from-protoprimate-ancestor brain is just too simple to spin that way. Because my take on things said that Caesar would deal with the civil punishment, and God would deal with every single one of us in Her own good time. I do NOT remember "take the moneylenders out and gut 'em with the knife we used to fillet those fish last week".
The Case Of The Uninsured Mom and Occupy
I've got this other friend - engaged but not-quite-divorced yet, two small children, multiple health issues, who was unemployed until recently while taking care of a relative recovering from a stroke. She's had no health insurance for as long as I've known her. While working, she drove thru an Occupy protest. Here's our FB exchange:
Her: "Ha! We just blew thru a protest in (city name REDACTED). Occupy This, lazy hippy bitches!"
Me: "The "lazy hippy bitches" who'd like for you to be earning a living wage and have affordable health insurance? Those ones?"
Her: "The ones who should be getting jobs and supporting their families instead of protesting for months on end and jamming up the streets? Yeah, those."
I know I should pull out my mad debate skillz and work on her, but what I really wanna say is "Oh really. Like you were the months you were a less-than-fit role-model for the "hippy bitches"? Or do you mean the ones who do have jobs and families they're taking care of while also giving a shit about yours?"
Instead I'm left wrapping my head around someone I thought I knew better, but realize I don't know at all. The person I thought I knew had been through enough hard times, including a visit to the local ER because she doesn't have the insurance to permit taking actual good care of herself, that I assumed she could expand her thoughts to include others.
So... had one of those WTF moments recently? Do tell...
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Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From Ed Tracey:
In the diary by PvtJarHead about the 6 year-old in Wisconsin being charged with a Class B felony by a county DA for 'playing doctor' with two other children: relatively new commenter darlalalala sounds off on what she sees as prosecutorial excess - and whether all of the children will now need counseling as a result.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
bleeding heart's comment in Chris Bowers' Fake Occupy website tries to undermine Wisconsin recall, claims enough signatures already gathered is useful for anyone interested in why the notion of recall workers stopping signature collection is ridiculous.
Kaili Joy Gray shows Republicans think consensual affairs are worse than sexual harassment. Steveningen has a thought about that.
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Top Mojo from yesterday, November 28, courtesy of mik's mojo magic!
1) great piece, J by david mizner — 183
2) We have a choice of two parties by crystal eyes — 117
3) This should be on the rec list by MinistryOfTruth — 115
4) yeah, it's not like mr obama is the boss of... by joe shikspack — 111
5) So the stress tests that happened in 2009 by pot — 97
6) We don't know about the Trooper by wmc418 — 94
7) Yes by joanneleon — 93
8) Back when by david mizner — 93
9) If it weren't for the $600M in corporate welfare.. by RerumCognoscereCausas — 90
10) Doubtful by looty — 90
11) 'House IQ Drops another 50 Points'.....details at by skillet — 88
12) I signed with my full legal name by Kitsap River — 87
13) I live in fear of this happening by Dallasdoc — 87
14) Excellent Diary by frandor55 — 84
15) And to think I once had contempt for the German by Mayfly — 82
16) It's odd but by SouthernLiberalinMD — 82
17) The political class don't like the internets. by inclusiveheart — 80
18) Southern Pride by ivorybill — 79
19) is it really possible to have faith by Clarknt67 — 76
20) ironic isn't it? by alguien — 75
21) Yeah, because the lessening enthusiasm by Colorado is the Shiznit — 74
22) Just waiting for the UC Davis police by jpmassar — 72
23) This is part of a very clear pattern in the by Ray Pensador — 72
24) Five stars by KBO — 70
25) I have a defined benefit pension by blue aardvark — 69
26) standard tactic by Clarknt67 — 68
27) Will Obama veto? by TomP — 67
28) Part of it may be that ... by davehouck — 66
29) Good grief. Condescending, arrogant, completely by BigAlinWashSt — 66
30) If you don't want your Internet to look... by Clive all hat no horse Rodeo — 66
31) This sounds like they have been by Richard Lyon — 66