scoobdog

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.

I know they did, and it's utterly unforgivable that we have to address the ineptitude of Netanyahu's government and the IDF rather than talk about the atrocities committed by Hamas.

What gets me about all this is that no one has really discussed the third possibility, that he did it and that this might have been the first high profile case of CTE.

Nah, that was just my family reunion.

Ghosty, we all know you stand for justice and the rights of all people.