Collimator
Collimator's Journal"You cannot love your fellow man if you don't love God."
So says Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick according to this Huff Post piece.
"You cannot love your fellow man if you don’t love God,” he said. “And we have a country where we’ve been working really hard, particularly on the left, to kick God out.”
As Mike Myers' character on "Coffee Talk" used to say: "Discuss among yourselves."
I am a little too upset to talk right now.
Amber Ruffin has been sharing stories. . .
about her encounters with police. Ruffin is a writer for Seth Meyers' show and the last two nights her personal accounts have sort of acted as the "openers" of Late Night.
Her story last night was about running afoul of a police officer for skipping down the alley behind a police station.
If you have never seen Amber Ruffin, I can tell you--she is flat out adorable. She has a smile a mile wide and and as bright as the sun. If a person like her can somehow infuriate a police officer just by skipping while black, then you know that some cops are just dangerous weapons stuffed into a blue shirt and pants.
I want to thank Amber for sharing some of her difficult experiences. And I want to thank her for being bright, charming and clever as hell. Every time she shows up on Late Night, my happiness increases.
Need to vent about one of my housemates. . .
He just looked up from his phone and said, "Breaking news: Almost 70% of Minneapolis residents have finished their Christmas shopping."
Har. Har.
I try to keep peace within myself by reminding myself that I don't have to let him live inside my head just because we live in the same house. But I am finding it harder to keep my peace/piece(?) around him.
Some of his other pearls of wisdom includes a comment made months ago regarding black men having problems with the police. "Seems to me if you just keep your mouth shut and do what you're told you won't have any trouble." Translation: It's black people's fault when police get heavy-handed.
He was watching Tiger King when one of the women on the show talked about being raped at knife point by three men when she was 14 years old. "How desperate were they?", he asked.
One of my favorites: Espousing his opinion on Chef Jose Andres when nobody asked. "It's great that he's feeding people and all that. But I don't get why he supports illegal immigrants. If somebody is doing something illegal, that kinds of makes them a criminal, right?"
A few months later, during a conversation going on around me (most of these conversations go on around me in the sense that I am not participating) another housemate made some comment on about this dude's former career selling weed. But he wasn't like some of those other weed dealers, who were gang members. Translation: When he sells a controlled substance that is currently illegal, that doesn't really make him a criminal.
This morning around 10:45, he poured his vodka and whatever mix into a tall glass and took his pot paraphernalia downstairs to the lounge area. Honestly, the best parts of my days are whenever he leaves.
Thanks for letting me bitch. And yes, I do judge people who drink so early in the day at every possibility while I do think that marijuana should be legalized. Maybe I am just a judgy bitch. But I know better than to pontificate pedantically about the experiences of people whose skin that I don't live in.
(I also have an unnatural love of alliteration.)
Just re-reading another article about the Ramble incident. . .
And it seems that woman in question said something to the police about ". . . he's threatening me and he's recording me. . ."
Well, whenever I threaten someone is some illegal manner, I always record the situation on my phone to provide plenty of evidence for law enforcement so that they can convict me.
Look into The Last Man on Earth, with Will Forte
Again, I am amazed that no one is talking about this show during this point in history.
One of the episodes was filmed (or more likely in post production) after the 2016 election. In it, we see a survivor in a luxury bunker (played by Kristin Wiig) watching the news of a species-ending virus unfolding in the world.
A super-cut of news announcers talk about the funeral of President Trump, President Pence and eventually, President Betsy De Voss.
It was certainly an interesting show, and uncanny in its prescience.
Finally, Something Scarier Than Melanin
Will the Coronavirus be the thing to dim the shine in those Trump-Worshippers' eyes?
Trump taps into the fear responses in the amygdala, now there is something looming that competes for his amygdalaite army's attention besides the threat of black and brown people getting health care, having decent schools, working at more prestigious jobs than they have or possibly marrying their daughters.
When you see Trump's followers wearing hoods now, it will be to keep them from breathing air-borne viruses. He's already pretty much given them permission to bring the white robes out of the back of the closet and wear them in the light of day.
When the robes don't keep them healthy any more than they can manage to keep the world lily-white, maybe they will re-think Trump. Of course, what they need to do is to start burning white robes and hoods instead of burning crosses.
At this point, I would settle for them abandoning Trump. Teaching them to accept their brown-skinned fellow human beings may take a few more generations.
We need Trump and his Climate-Change denier pals out of power so that we can have those generations to lift more people out of fear and into the light of what should be true democratic values.
Happy Birthday, Susan B. Anthony!
Let's hear it for the girl!*
* Yeah, I know. It should be "woman", not "girl", but I was thinking of the song.
The Original "Lady in Red"
Susan B. Anthony's birthday is February 15th. Ms. Anthony was known to wear a red shawl as she traveled around the country on her speaking engagements.
If you have a chance to get a hold of a red shawl, consider wearing it between now and Valentine's Day. When people note the color or ask if it related to the lover's holiday, you can bring up the subject of the famous Suffragette.
It's a small way to bring history and women's rights into a conversation. It helps people to think about the way the world has changed and how hard people worked in the past to affect those changes.
Remembering a mighty American hero is never a bad thing. Especially now, we need to hold on and celebrate the memory of all those heroes whenever we have a chance.
Thank you, Susan B., Sojourner, and Lucretia. Thank you for being the sort of "outrageous" women that Republicans would decry and for making it possible for even women to become stupid Republicans. 
When Don Jr. made a comment about Satan quoting Scripture. . .
. . . To suggest that Nancy Pelosi lied when she stated that she prays for his father, I knew that he was incorrect.
My Bible-believing days are behind me, but I did remember that in one of the Gospels Satan quotes Scripture to Jesus.
Well, thanks to this article at Huff Post, my memory was jogged with a brilliant insight.
The story of Satan's temptation of Jesus is related in three of the four Gospels. But what is really interesting is that the point of the story is that Satan tries to get Jesus to use his Super-Savior powers to pump up his own (Jesus') profile.
Satan is basically telling Jesus, "Come on, Dude. If you have it, flaunt it. Enough of this humility act."
Since that perspective pretty much sums up the Trump Family Credo, then Junior being in ignorance of this particular moral lesson from the New Testament is rich in irony supplements.
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Gender: FemaleHometown: Bawlmer, Murlind
Home country: United States
Current location: Trump Household
Member since: Wed Dec 6, 2017, 11:45 PM
Number of posts: 1,639
