Razor

I do not understand people, like Neil Gorsuch, who will knowingly put other people's lives at risk when a very simply act could give them protection. Liberal, conservative, or otherwise, this is not right. He was raised Catholic but now worships with his wife and two daughters at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Boulder, Colorado, but this action is not Christian. To me this has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with what is right and on this he is wrong. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has diabetes, elevating her risk for serious illness or death should she contract Covid-19. Sotomayor said recently that she doesn’t feel comfortable sitting next to unmasked justices as the highly transmissible Omicron variant surges, so Chief Justice John Roberts asked the court to wear masks. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who sits directly next to Sotomayor on the bench, refused to do so, pushing Sotomayor to do her job remotely when the court reconvened this month. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/neil-gorsuch-stands-endanger-sonia-165444722.html Even when the Chief Justice ask all the SC judges to wear a mask, all did except Gorsuch. https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/neil-gorsuch-reportedly-defied-a-request-from-chief-justice-john-roberts-to-wear-a-mask-out-of-respect-for-sonia-sotomayor/articleshow/88979746.cms

Sorry, I wondered where I should put it and finally decided in General Chats. Thanks for the heads-up.

WASHINGTON — The federal government's website for Americans to order at-home rapid Covid-19 testing kits launched on Tuesday. The website says "every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4 free at-⁠home COVID-⁠19 tests. The tests are completely free. Orders will usually ship in 7-12 days." "Order your tests now so you have them when you need them," said the website. White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed in her press briefing that the site is currently in its "beta phase" ahead of the official launch on Wednesday. “Today, in alignment with website launch best practices, covidtests.gov is currently in its beta phase, which means that the website is operating at limited capacity ahead of its official launch," a White House official told NBC News. "This is standard practice to address troubleshooting and ensure as smooth of an official launch tomorrow as possible. We expect the website to officially launch midmorning tomorrow.” In December, the federal government announced it would start mailing at-home Covid test kits for free to any U.S. household that requests one, as the omicron variant of the coronavirus contributes to a spike in new cases. The White House said at the time it was preparing to ship as many as 500 million kits. Testing remains one of the biggest challenges for the administration, with long lines forming at testing centers and at-home rapid tests selling out quickly, public health officials have said.

The first full moon of the year will make an appearance Monday and it has a special name that is based on a well-known myth. The first full moon of the year, known as a wolf moon, will be visible on Monday evening at about 6:48 p.m. EST, according to NASA. It became known as the wolf moon because wolves were traditionally believed to have howled during the winter because of hunger. NASA says the wolf moon will appear full for about three days around the same time. https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/590076-the-wolf-moon-will-light-up-the-nights-sky-this-week

Here is the link to the current issue: https://jebs.eu/ojs/index.php/jebs Here is the table of contents. All the articles are Pdf A Learning Community in Progress Henk Bakker 1-24 PDF Dutch Baptist Identity (1845–2021): A Multi-Coloured Robe Teun van der Leer, Arjen Stellingwerf 25-50 PDF Investigations into the Logistics of Ignatius’s Itinerary Vincent van Altena 51-76 PDF Rooting Our Systematic Theologies: The Moral Dimension of a Theology of Retrieval Jan Martijn Abrahamse 77-100 PDF Doing Theology Together in a ‘Baptist way’? An Evaluation of the Potential of Curriculum-Embedded Collaborative Research Projects Hans Riphagen 101-120 PDF Growing Grey and Growing Green: Re-narrating Ageing in Baptist Churches in the Netherlands Wout Huizing, Hans Riphagen 121-140 PDF A Conversation about Contemplative Practices Ingeborg te Loo 141-160 PDF Academic Community and the Life of the Mind Regien Smit, Henk Bakker 161-174

I do not like loud music. I have auditory nerve damage on my right side and loud music causes physical pain. So, for me I'd rather not have loud music of any kind. I see no theological problem with drums. I am not very familiar with modern hymns. The few times I have been in a worship service where such hymns, if I can call them that, were sung I found they, not only caused me real physical pain but lacking in theological depth. Often there was what I would call a rock band playing before the church service and during the hymns. I would have to opt out of going to such a church because of the pain. Now, don't get me wrong. I am sure there are contemporary hymns that have sound theology and can be played and sung at less than 100 decibels.

I heard about them but never was at a service where snakes were handled.

Oh, there are women at the services...never doubt that.

The quote Mark 16:18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” The honest ones will tell you if the Lord is not telling you to handle a snake, don't do it. Same with poison. There are scholars who say the last verses of Mark were on in the original texts, but added later. Each person has to decided what they believe. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/was-mark-16-9-20-originally-mark-gospel/

I was not clear when I said tracking. Being owned by Russians I was concerned about bugged software being panted on my computer that might cause trouble in the future. I do have lots of protection to avoid this from happening, but nothing is totally perfect.

I searched a number of search engines beyond Google, such as Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo, BBC, Bing, Reuters and several others. I decided not to use Yandex as I trust it less seeing that most of the owners live in Russia. My lack of trust was not in search results but in the tracking they might use.

Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who flew 409 fighter combat missions over three wars and later helped to bring attention to the Black pilots who had battled racism at home to fight for freedom abroad, died Sunday. He was 102. After the U.S. entry into World War II, McGee left the University of Illinois to join an experimental program for Black soldiers seeking to train as pilots after the Army Air Corps was forced to admit African Americans. In October 1942 he was sent to the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama for flight training, according to his biography on the website of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. "You could say that one of the things we were fighting for was equality," he told The Associated Press in a 1995 interview. "Equality of opportunity. We knew we had the same skills, or better." McGee graduated from flight school in June 1943 and in early 1944 joined the all-Black 332nd Fighter Group, known as the "Red Tails." He flew 136 missions as the group accompanied bombers over Europe. More than 900 men trained at Tuskegee from 1940 to 1946. About 450 deployed overseas and 150 lost their lives in training or combat. McGee remained in the Army Air Corps, later the U.S. Air Force, and served for 30 years. He flew low-level bombing and strafing missions during the Korean War and returned to combat again during the Vietnam War. The National Aviation Hall of Fame says his 409 aerial fighter combat missions in three wars remains a record.

Thank you for the definitions. I'll watch the discussion to gain an even clearer knowledge

I have not found a positive article about him as a person even in the right wing press.

I do not know what radical religious pluralism means. Please enlighten me.

I am perplexed. Which pluralism are you identifying as a tool of Satan? I am not looking for an argument but for information.

Not true. Rhodes did not enter but others did. Rhodes was part of the Quick Reaction Force, rather like reserves in battle. They had weapons and were ready to go to the Capitol and open battle. At approximately 2.30pm, it said, some of the men now charged with seditious conspiracy and other “Oath Keepers and affiliates – many wearing paramilitary clothing and patches with the Oath Keepers name, logo, and insignia – marched in a ‘stack’ formation up the east steps of the Capitol, joined a mob, and made their way into the Capitol. “Later, another group of Oath Keepers and associates … formed a second ‘stack’ and breached the Capitol grounds, marching from the west side to the east side of the Capitol building and up the east stairs and into the building. “While certain Oath Keepers members and affiliates breached the Capitol grounds and building, others remained stationed just outside of the city in quick reaction force (QRF) teams. According to the indictment, the QRF teams were prepared to rapidly transport firearms and other weapons into Washington DC in support of operations aimed at using force to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/13/oath-keepers-capitol-attack-us

It is news. It is strife to you but not to everyone. It is news to me giving more evidence of Trump's lack of business acumen.

I searched the internet and found only the one article that approached being positive. If you or others can find positive articles I'd appreciate reading them. By articles I mean news articles not political editorials which are basically opinion pieces. If and when I find a positive article I'll post it.

I have. I thought the postings on the telescope and the posting on the Stephen Hawking's paradox were positive. Also, I posted on he Flame Nebula and I thought that positive. Good news is positive news. Of course, we must admit that one person's positive news may well be another person's negative news. Now, will you post something positive. I will appreciate it very much. Hmmm, you have rather taken us off topic. I do think it sad that a person with Stewart Rhode's intellect should land himself in so much trouble. I cannot fathom him not realizing he was headed for trouble.

Why don't you post something positive about him? I have found only one news story that says Trump did something good. I have done a fair about of searching on this topic. I will be happy to read others if you can find them. But, earlier this week, he did something genuinely good. In an interview with conservative commentator Candace Owens, Trump not only rejected her claims that "more people have died" since the Covid-19 vaccine became available but also delivered a clear argument for people to get vaccinated. "No, the vaccine worked," Trump said. "But some people aren't taking it. The ones that get very sick and go to the hospital are the ones that don't take their vaccine." He added: "People aren't dying when they take their vaccine." This is, of course, exactly right. Study after study has shown that three Covid-19 vaccine doses continue to do a very good job of protecting you from hospitalization and death -- even from the Omicron variant that is sweeping the country. But, it is also very important for Trump to state that fact because the numbers also show that not only are Republicans are far less likely to have been vaccinated than Democrats, but they are also less mindful of the risks the virus poses to them. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/23/politics/donald-trump-vaccines-support/index.html

No, I am not of that stripe to be happy over other peoples troubles. It is news. The man may be judged guilty or innocent. Time will tell.

Now this is a serious charge. Sedition defined: conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch. More than 700 people have been charged by the Justice Department in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. On that day, a violent mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the building in an attempt to block the certification of the Electoral College tally for the 2020 presidential election. But in the year since the attack, none of the accused had been charged with the crime of sedition, a fact that has led a growing number of Republican lawmakers to question the seriousness of the insurrection. That changed on Thursday, when Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, and 10 of its members or associates were charged with seditious conspiracy, a rare violation of a Civil War-era law that occurs when two or more people conspire to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force” the U.S. government. https://www.aol.com/news/oath-keepers-founder-stewart-rhodes-192749802.html

Very interesting article. The study attempts to put to rest the debate over Stephen Hawking’s famous information paradox, the problem created by Hawking’s conclusion that any data that enters a black hole can never leave. This conclusion accorded with the laws of thermodynamics, but opposed the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics. “What we found from string theory is that all the mass of a black hole is not getting sucked in to the center,” said Samir Mathur, lead author of the study and professor of physics at The Ohio State University. “The black hole tries to squeeze things to a point, but then the particles get stretched into these strings, and the strings start to stretch and expand and it becomes this fuzzball that expands to fill up the entirety of the black hole.” The study, published Dec. 28 in the Turkish Journal of Physics, found that string theory almost certainly holds the answer to Hawking’s paradox, as the paper’s authors had originally believed. The physicists proved theorems to show that the fuzzball theory remains the most likely solution for Hawking’s information paradox. Mathur published a study in 2004 that theorized black holes were similar to very large, very messy balls of yarn – “fuzzballs” that become larger and messier as new objects get sucked in. “The bigger the black hole, the more energy that goes in, and the bigger the fuzzball becomes,” Mathur said. The 2004 study found that string theory, the physics theory that holds that all particles in the universe are made of tiny vibrating strings, could be the solution to Hawking’s paradox. https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-study-further-resolves-stephen-hawkings-black-hole-paradox/