scoobdog

Actually, for the cholesterol supposedly.

A whey protein and psyllium smoothie.

Can't they get better looking propagandists?

Here's the problem that no one seems to want to discuss.... Palestinians feel that they have no room for discourse because any discussion about oppression at the hands of the Israeli government are met with calls of anti-semitism, and it's not without good cause. In part because the Israeli government has lumped in its grave mismanagement of the IDF's operations in with the wholly justified operation to eliminate Hamas as an functional entity, criticism of Israel is escalated into and conflated with extemist calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. Even generally well-respected organizations like the ADL have sided with the Israeli government rather than acknowledge that Netanyahu and his cabinet have abused Israel's standing. This is a problem a long time in the making and just every American administration since Truman has had a hand in it. We didn't create a proper two state cohabitation in the very beginning and when successive Israeli administrations punted on reforms that would have allowed Palestinians to exist side-by-side with Israelis, we did nothing. That, ultimately is what's behind the current crisis: a fundamental refusals to acknowledge that Palestinians have an equal right as Jews to govern themselves on the land they've occupied for nearly two millennia. It's not zero-sum - you can't deny Jews the right to their ancestral home so that the Palestinians can continue to live there, and you can't force Palestinians to leave the place they've called home since the Roman diaspora. Both have to co-exist in the same space. This all-or-nothing attitude tends to pervade every discussion without every being explicitly uttered. When it's not identified, it becomes ignored to the increasing peril of both. Extremist groups like Hamas are no different than their white supremacist counterparts here in the US. Like white racists, they find it easier to frame out their extremist charter when they have a conflict to lend moral justification to the "goal" of their cause. For years, conservatives have been using crime as a justification for restricting or outright eliminating programs designed to help minorities overcome institutional gaps on the basis that it gives people the incentive to turn to crime. In turn, that widens the socioeconomic gap and leads to more people turning to crime. Hamas has been able to exploit the sheer disregard by Israel and it allies for the physical and economic well being of Palestinians to justify terrorism which, in turn, makes it extremely difficult for Jewish citizens to side with commonsense measures for Palestinian self reliance, which, in turn, creates an unwillingness for Palestinians to accept the presence of Jews. We are at a point where neither has a path to coexisting with the other, and that will only lead to the eradication of both.

It didn’t suck. Buddy just really hates coffee.

In what sense? Some of the most well know stories in the Torah borrows heavily or is a retelling of myths from older cultures in the Asia Minor region. That’s not an indication that Judaism stole older myths but it is evidence that Judaism could be a successor religion and an indication that Jews themselves are ethnically descendent from older defunct cultures. That is all to say that Jews probably wouldn’t have borrowed from a European culture when there were contemporary Stone Age cultures in the area they succeeded.

The Easter Bunny is an entirely secular institution that has no practical connection to the religious festivals of Passover, Christian Easter, or the Pagan holiday of the same name. The holiday was originally Pascha - “Ressurection Sunday” - and the core rituals were in place before the pagan name was co-opted. FWIW… this isn’t to suggest that all Christianity’s major holidays have no basis in Pagan religion. As opposed to Easter, Christmas was most likely built around a couple of Pagan, Roman holidays for the express purpose you described. The difference is that there isn’t a Jewish analog for the autumnal solstice that could be used as a basis for Jesus’ divine origin myth.

I don’t think it actually did. You learn more as world faith traditions are more openly discussed, but it’s important to remember that Easter is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Christian rituals… meaning it predates the influence of the Romans. It would have had its roots in Jewish symbolism, even if later non-Jewish adherents might make parallels to Roman and pagan practices.

I hadn’t really intended to deconstruct Iky’s statement that way, but I think you framed it perfectly. He’s most certainly correct in that the symbolism within a seder would be lost on a generation of non-Jewish people were it not for Rugrats. It’s a religious practice most would never see.

It's a nicer way of saying Christians appropriated Jewish religious traditions as part of their own. It isn't inherently bad: In part, it's a result of Jesus being a Jew who was explicitly practicing these traditions while seeking to reform Judaism; in part it reflects the universality of human behavior. But, in part it is also a blatant attempt to erase Jewish tradition by making the ritual a Christian one.

As Buddy alluded, Passover is intrinsically connected to Christian Easter traditions, specifically the “Passion of Christ” sequence, so it’s far more likely that earliest exposure to the religious festival would come from more universal pop cultural references like, say, DaVinci’s The Last Supper. Judaism has never secularized its religious practices in the way that Christianity has, nonetheless through the prism of Christianity it gets nearly as much exposure.

The death of Archie is like that too. It's too much a stretch given the original tone of the series.

I didn’t think a phone could gaslight you but here we are.

You know, I think Icarus sounds more balanced than you.

Bro, when you tell a corpse she’s smoking hot, that’s supposed to be figurative…

Don’t tell Chris Rock.

My autocorrect never makes me sound that cool.

He's becoming the new face of traumatic brain injuries.

It was a ducking shame.

Afford doesn’t mean just financially, it means overall capability. In the simplest possible terms, Iran would not be able to defend itself if it got into open conflict with the US without the backing of Russia and (probably) China. They don’t have the manpower, the technologically advanced weaponry, the financial backing, or the regional alliances to sustain their integrity outside of their own borders, and that’s no better exemplified by the assassination that precipitated this. Ultimately their isolation puts them in the unenviable situation of needing to essentially play a very high stakes bluff.

Israel is in a fairly weak position without its big brothers, but it’s immaterial given that everyone besides Israel and the Palestinians treats this as a proxy war… and that includes the United States. The whole point of telegraphing the missile barrage is to see how the US deploys its defense system and who it gets to sign on for the operation. Russia isn’t going to be of any help and China has no interest in getting involved, so who does the US get for their side? TheIranians are inviting the West into the region with this operation, but that might have benefits for the Palestinians. It potentially puts American air forces in the region and makes it more difficult for the IDF to use their aerial attacks as capriciously. It also diffuses the powder keg on the northern border. We’ll see if this eventually pushes everyone toward a ceasefire.

The only thing I can think of to explain this is that Iran needed to retaliate, but still can’t afford an all out war with the West. That in turn suggests that their alliance with Russia isn’t offering the resources it promised.

On that, this whole thing has unfolded in slow motion, which brings up a few points. Iran had to have anticipated the response given the unusually long time between announcing it would retaliate and the actual retaliation. Not that I want more innocent people to die, but it doesn’t seem effective to delay the actual air strike unless there’s another purpose.

Saudi Arabia is mortal enemies with Iran, so they would, naturally, assist any operation that diffuses an Iranian attack.

We don't, or at least, we shouldn't.