You hit on a very sore subject that really gets my juices flowing. Tax free churches and church property. There must be a way that the IRS can monitor these entities to see just how many are using their tax free status for things other than religion. If they are pushing a political agenda their Tax-free status should be eliminated and they should be fined.
Biden will never win the votes of the television, evangelist crowd. Thus it would cost him nothing politically to suggest he would sick the IRS on every televangelist millionaire out there in the name of all the good Christians at work in the fields of the Lord I think it’s time in America for progressives to play, extreme hardball with the far right and kick their asses. And impeach a few justices while We are at it and stack the court. And when the right starts, crying and wailing, we progressives can smile because we played their game and “owned the conservatives”
Yes, the more the government gets into our personal lives the better! In China, USSR and North Korea they hunted down Christians and closed churches. Then the purity of their nations produced prosperity and conformity. And as far as churches with a political agenda losing their tax free status the churches that I know that violate that are on the left. I have never heard a sermon in an Evangelical church advocating for a political party or candidate. But, it is very common in left leaning churches. So that won't work well for your agenda.
Ah, spoken forthrightly by someone without a uterus. So your "party of small government" that according to Project 2025 wants to monitor ovulation, ban contraception/IVF, refuse emergency room treatment for miscarriages and burst Fallopian tubes, jail doctors, nurses, and women for medically necessary abortions (see above referenced burst Fallopian tubes or ruptured placentas) yet not jail rapists is NOT intending to emulate North Korea, Hungary, or Russia in any other way but this?
Now tell us about how Joel Osteen and Liberty University are not advocating for the GOP when they are listed as contributors to Project 2025... this should be as good as selling beachfront property in Yuma or bitcoin investments.
So judging people by the way they look, or if they do or don't have a uterus is ok? The hysteria on the left and the right is no different. It depends on outlandish interpretations of policies, misrepresentation and misinformation. The truth is most Democrats don't adhere to radical socialist policies, they want to be able to raise their families, be represented at the table (capitalists and unions) , and have a fair shake at the American Dream. Republicans don't want an end to democracy, they want the same things most Democrats do. We are so hysteric that we don't talk to each other and come up with sensible solutions. That's what I hope for.
Your comment was "Yes, the more the government gets into our personal lives the better!" The conservatives you are supporting are planning to expand their control into every aspect of a woman's life, and if that isn't the opposite of what conservatives used to stand for, I don't know what is. And yes, if you don't have a uterus and you INTEND to regulate everyone who does, I am going to judge. The majority of AMERICANS do not want their rights taken away by a corrupt SCOTUS and MAGA cultists.
If Republicans don't want an end to democracy, why would they concoct Project 2025? That is what you are supporting when they have put it into print: THAT is their plan for the nation. That plan is written by Christian Nationalists who want to force their skewed version of religion upon every person in the country. Look at Louisiana.
You want a sensible solution? Quit supporting extremist MAGA candidates into positions of authority in our state legislature and federal government. Maybe if conservatives would refuse to support whackadoodle idiots like Wadsack and Lake and Gosar there could be dialogue. But when your party eats its own, threatening election officials and folks like Rusty Bowers, how can anyone trust a thing your party has to say?
My comment was in jest. You are right most Americans don't want abortion to be legal, but only 37% support it in the 2nd trimester and less (22%) in the 3rd. But, as science continues to show us more about the development of the child in the womb, support for abortion after 15 weeks will drop. I don't know who wrote the Project 2025 and I don't know any Christian Nationalists. To be an Evangelical used to mean that we would preach the Gospel of Jesus (evangelize), now that meaning is lost. I am a conservative and support people like Nikki Haley, Juan Ciscomani and Vince Leach. The reason are party has been coopted is because of the fear mongering on the right that resembles the fear mongering on the left that you have illustrated.
It isn't fear mongering when your rights have already been lost. (See Dobbs decision, gutting of Voting Rights Act, etc.) And the majority of Americans DO WANT ABORTION/HEALTH CARE to be legal. What men do not understand about abortions after the second trimester is that they are NEVER just a whim. NEV-ER. You don't carry a growing fetus for five or six months and then just decide to end it. Those are fetuses that have died in the womb, or are anacephalic, or the placenta has ruptured, or some other medical calamity and both mother and fetus will die if a choice is not made. But that choice IS NOT YOURS and never should be.
Perhaps in your evangelical fervor to shove your religion down everyone else's throats, you neglect to recognize that other religions, including both Judaism and Islam, do not ban abortion.
You would feel right at home in 1933 Germany with your attitude. "Oh, it's just fear mongering words. The National Socialists won't do anything they've said. Our Reichstag will keep them in check."
The American Reichstag burning was January 6 and none of those in Congress who supported the insurrection have been arrested, let alone expelled from Congress. But hey, don't worry about the cultists, it's just fear mongering...
That "Tucson Traffic" 'toon said it all. Amen! As usual, "good ol' FITZ" (no reference to age, I'm the old one here, no contest) nailed it on everything else. So, DMV found "religion?' Now, I have to live long enough to make it through this Thursday. Then I'll need a lesson plan for surviving 'til Election Day ...and the day or so after. Bad enough I'm a very senior 'senior.' Why am I being subjected to all of this other jive? --- Words to remember: Hello. Hydrate. Help. Hell-No.
You just described me, sitting in the passenger seat while my husband is driving. What's wrong with you guys? Can't you SEE that better parking spot? And why do you elect to back out of a parking spot when you could pull forward instead? Hellooooo! The light is green! The arrow is green!!! There's a bicycle up ahead! There's a pedestrian in the crosswalk. STOP!!!!! For the love of God, STOP.
Sunday, driving on the Catalina Highway we got behind a pickup truck that was spewing noxious fumes. I spent over an hour yesterday trying to report the truck's violation of clean air rules. What a runaround and I still haven't been able to give anyone the info. At one point, someone told me to call the police department and talk to a detective. So, Daveed, I'm less impressed with MVD/ADOT/DEQ than you are with your renewal experience.
You beautifully nailed one of the challenges of writing hard sci-fi and that is creating a language for the future much like Anthony Burgess did in a Clockwork Orange. By the time I finish and get around to a rewrite that is an issue I am definitely going to tackle
Absolutely … making it original , not self conscious . I only mentioned it because while I started reading at my head got stuck on ‘texting’. I know you are very experienced reader and writer . You know, doubt have also read Ministry for the Future ?
Your novel will be intimate and inclusive because it is culturally and geographically very specific.
Very much enjoyed and appreciate first installment . Isabel Allende wrote a YA series which came to mind as I read your Luna. I mean this as a very positive comment . Setting with historical depth of the People who have been here 10,000 years anchors beautifully the love and pain we feel as desert dwellers .
Loved the piece on Bad Faith. If you want to see it on the big screen, a bunch of us are showing it at the Screening Room on Monday, July 1 followed by a discussion with Nancy MacLean author of Democracy in Chains, the deep history of the radical right's stealth plan for America. (imagine all of those are in caps)
I am glad you had a good experience and that you passed your eye test! I am also grateful for young people who aren't lemmings of the left, (like I was when I was young), baffled by older people who still march to that drumbeat and curious as to what a Christian Nationalist looks like? I find it odd that someone who is liberal would be judging people by how they look.
She reminded me of you
Great idea, Fitz!!! I'd be first in line to report back to you, but I haven't seen the inside of a church since. . . I can't remember.
You hit on a very sore subject that really gets my juices flowing. Tax free churches and church property. There must be a way that the IRS can monitor these entities to see just how many are using their tax free status for things other than religion. If they are pushing a political agenda their Tax-free status should be eliminated and they should be fined.
Biden will never win the votes of the television, evangelist crowd. Thus it would cost him nothing politically to suggest he would sick the IRS on every televangelist millionaire out there in the name of all the good Christians at work in the fields of the Lord I think it’s time in America for progressives to play, extreme hardball with the far right and kick their asses. And impeach a few justices while We are at it and stack the court. And when the right starts, crying and wailing, we progressives can smile because we played their game and “owned the conservatives”
Yes, the more the government gets into our personal lives the better! In China, USSR and North Korea they hunted down Christians and closed churches. Then the purity of their nations produced prosperity and conformity. And as far as churches with a political agenda losing their tax free status the churches that I know that violate that are on the left. I have never heard a sermon in an Evangelical church advocating for a political party or candidate. But, it is very common in left leaning churches. So that won't work well for your agenda.
Ah, spoken forthrightly by someone without a uterus. So your "party of small government" that according to Project 2025 wants to monitor ovulation, ban contraception/IVF, refuse emergency room treatment for miscarriages and burst Fallopian tubes, jail doctors, nurses, and women for medically necessary abortions (see above referenced burst Fallopian tubes or ruptured placentas) yet not jail rapists is NOT intending to emulate North Korea, Hungary, or Russia in any other way but this?
Yeah, right.
Have you READ Project 2025? Elimination of the FBI to be replaced with only presidential loyalists and using government troops against civilian protestors doesn't smack of the KGB/FSB? Here, try this: https://x.com/blueatlgeorgia/status/1802904289783767542?s=46&t=38dkbiTLOtgXqtUehWpnZg
Now tell us about how Joel Osteen and Liberty University are not advocating for the GOP when they are listed as contributors to Project 2025... this should be as good as selling beachfront property in Yuma or bitcoin investments.
So judging people by the way they look, or if they do or don't have a uterus is ok? The hysteria on the left and the right is no different. It depends on outlandish interpretations of policies, misrepresentation and misinformation. The truth is most Democrats don't adhere to radical socialist policies, they want to be able to raise their families, be represented at the table (capitalists and unions) , and have a fair shake at the American Dream. Republicans don't want an end to democracy, they want the same things most Democrats do. We are so hysteric that we don't talk to each other and come up with sensible solutions. That's what I hope for.
Your comment was "Yes, the more the government gets into our personal lives the better!" The conservatives you are supporting are planning to expand their control into every aspect of a woman's life, and if that isn't the opposite of what conservatives used to stand for, I don't know what is. And yes, if you don't have a uterus and you INTEND to regulate everyone who does, I am going to judge. The majority of AMERICANS do not want their rights taken away by a corrupt SCOTUS and MAGA cultists.
If Republicans don't want an end to democracy, why would they concoct Project 2025? That is what you are supporting when they have put it into print: THAT is their plan for the nation. That plan is written by Christian Nationalists who want to force their skewed version of religion upon every person in the country. Look at Louisiana.
You want a sensible solution? Quit supporting extremist MAGA candidates into positions of authority in our state legislature and federal government. Maybe if conservatives would refuse to support whackadoodle idiots like Wadsack and Lake and Gosar there could be dialogue. But when your party eats its own, threatening election officials and folks like Rusty Bowers, how can anyone trust a thing your party has to say?
My comment was in jest. You are right most Americans don't want abortion to be legal, but only 37% support it in the 2nd trimester and less (22%) in the 3rd. But, as science continues to show us more about the development of the child in the womb, support for abortion after 15 weeks will drop. I don't know who wrote the Project 2025 and I don't know any Christian Nationalists. To be an Evangelical used to mean that we would preach the Gospel of Jesus (evangelize), now that meaning is lost. I am a conservative and support people like Nikki Haley, Juan Ciscomani and Vince Leach. The reason are party has been coopted is because of the fear mongering on the right that resembles the fear mongering on the left that you have illustrated.
It isn't fear mongering when your rights have already been lost. (See Dobbs decision, gutting of Voting Rights Act, etc.) And the majority of Americans DO WANT ABORTION/HEALTH CARE to be legal. What men do not understand about abortions after the second trimester is that they are NEVER just a whim. NEV-ER. You don't carry a growing fetus for five or six months and then just decide to end it. Those are fetuses that have died in the womb, or are anacephalic, or the placenta has ruptured, or some other medical calamity and both mother and fetus will die if a choice is not made. But that choice IS NOT YOURS and never should be.
Perhaps in your evangelical fervor to shove your religion down everyone else's throats, you neglect to recognize that other religions, including both Judaism and Islam, do not ban abortion.
You would feel right at home in 1933 Germany with your attitude. "Oh, it's just fear mongering words. The National Socialists won't do anything they've said. Our Reichstag will keep them in check."
The American Reichstag burning was January 6 and none of those in Congress who supported the insurrection have been arrested, let alone expelled from Congress. But hey, don't worry about the cultists, it's just fear mongering...
That "Tucson Traffic" 'toon said it all. Amen! As usual, "good ol' FITZ" (no reference to age, I'm the old one here, no contest) nailed it on everything else. So, DMV found "religion?' Now, I have to live long enough to make it through this Thursday. Then I'll need a lesson plan for surviving 'til Election Day ...and the day or so after. Bad enough I'm a very senior 'senior.' Why am I being subjected to all of this other jive? --- Words to remember: Hello. Hydrate. Help. Hell-No.
Hydrate yes. I went for a midday walk yesterday and regretted it because of the high humidity despite all the water I took with me.
You just described me, sitting in the passenger seat while my husband is driving. What's wrong with you guys? Can't you SEE that better parking spot? And why do you elect to back out of a parking spot when you could pull forward instead? Hellooooo! The light is green! The arrow is green!!! There's a bicycle up ahead! There's a pedestrian in the crosswalk. STOP!!!!! For the love of God, STOP.
Kudos to the driver's license folks for their speed and courtesy! Can we relocate them to Texas?
Last week made it through Flagstaff MVD to renew my license in 10 minutes! They were just as efficient and courteous as yours in Tucson! Amazing.
It just ain’t right
Sunday, driving on the Catalina Highway we got behind a pickup truck that was spewing noxious fumes. I spent over an hour yesterday trying to report the truck's violation of clean air rules. What a runaround and I still haven't been able to give anyone the info. At one point, someone told me to call the police department and talk to a detective. So, Daveed, I'm less impressed with MVD/ADOT/DEQ than you are with your renewal experience.
PS probably want to create a new jargon for ‘texting’ ….
You beautifully nailed one of the challenges of writing hard sci-fi and that is creating a language for the future much like Anthony Burgess did in a Clockwork Orange. By the time I finish and get around to a rewrite that is an issue I am definitely going to tackle
Absolutely … making it original , not self conscious . I only mentioned it because while I started reading at my head got stuck on ‘texting’. I know you are very experienced reader and writer . You know, doubt have also read Ministry for the Future ?
Your novel will be intimate and inclusive because it is culturally and geographically very specific.
PS it is coined Cli-Fi
Very much enjoyed and appreciate first installment . Isabel Allende wrote a YA series which came to mind as I read your Luna. I mean this as a very positive comment . Setting with historical depth of the People who have been here 10,000 years anchors beautifully the love and pain we feel as desert dwellers .
Isabel Allende is a great writer, for sure. Being compared to her really is a compliment.
“Closing in on 3800.” Congrats!
Loved the piece on Bad Faith. If you want to see it on the big screen, a bunch of us are showing it at the Screening Room on Monday, July 1 followed by a discussion with Nancy MacLean author of Democracy in Chains, the deep history of the radical right's stealth plan for America. (imagine all of those are in caps)
I am glad you had a good experience and that you passed your eye test! I am also grateful for young people who aren't lemmings of the left, (like I was when I was young), baffled by older people who still march to that drumbeat and curious as to what a Christian Nationalist looks like? I find it odd that someone who is liberal would be judging people by how they look.
We admire the same people! I wish more people knew Tony Davis' fine understanding of the water issues. And Mort is Mort. Both are for the ages.