Toadfish Monastery

That's why I wrote 'publicly professed'.
A lot of mega and MAGA pastors are imo also cryptoatheists.
Given what they do, they must be pretty confident that there will be no posthumous reckoning for them.
And there is a large intersection between those pastors and those politicians

Last Is there a distinct line between fleecers and grifters to begin with? Post

Let's put it this way: That's one of those times one would wish that their publicly professed religion was true and they would suffer the consequences post mortem ad perpetuam.

Last _{Kristian(TM) Karma á la Dante and Doré} Post

Doomsday Book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_Book

Meanwhile in the GOP old US of A Southern States fall over each other to repeal child labor laws and going after librarians. And yet another state came up with a law that bans counties and municipalities from requiring employers to give their workers at minimum a 15 min water break every 4 hours (mainly concerning agricultural workers in high summer). Florida has to keep up with Texas after all where essentially the same law got passed not that long ago (leading to calls to park governor Abbott's wheelchair* in the midday sun somewhere remote for that amount of time).

Last _{despite not being an Englishman. Mad dog could apply though} Post

*with him in it and brakes locked, naturally

BFG

Girl's best friend

A good reason to keep some hostages.
Blown to smithereens (or accidentally shot) can be presented as unfortunate collateral damage. Or even attributed to Hamas.
Drowned corpses or some with signs of contact with chemical warfare agents would be a different matter.
Strongly increased Israeli settler violence under IDF protection in the West Bank is unfortunately for the most part ignored in Western media.

Last _{and someone set himself on fire in front of the New York courthouse where Jabbabonk's trial is currently taking place} Post

From what I heard the tunnel and shelter system was a rather professional undertaking (no pun intended) with careful planning and execution (also useful as an employment program for Gazans and thus quite popular).
I assume Hamas had pretty clear ideas about what the Israelis would and could do and took that into account.
DIY civilian shelters would not have that advantage.

Last _{and the IDF is (are?) not very keen to send their guys into those tunnels for the above reaons} Post

I think shelter digging in Gaza would be futile. Hamas build a huge network of those (in part with money funneled to them by the Yahoo from Netanja) and the US deliver bunker busters to Israel to deal with them (and the other infrastructure above).

Last _{and those are not even the real deep penetrators} Post

Lucy van Pelt

Depending on November 2024 my bet would be on the US. The UK will muddle through somehow.

As for juries: We will need to develop hibernation technology to always keep enough potential impartial jurors that are not "tainted" by prior information on cases.

I call it "The Cryogenic Draft"

Last Post

A new crepuscular anteater found solace in tapping syncopated rhythms using its front teeth and certain keepers held barely back by wire entanglements installed by nefarious and malodorous penguins.  Meanwhile, within a crenellated battlement on top of a gothically inspired garden shed the multifarious congregation of dispassionate but elaborately coiffed and manicured chow chows held a conference of (to them) unknown importance. The head gardener waved incessantly during every episode of the Coronation Comedies before any ceremonial heralds were able to overcome and conquer the ever present yet well hidden banjo playing striped marsupials whose fur - mottled as the major lepidoform hexapode - stuck their hair straight without any discernible or even identifiable sign of nodular protuberances anywhere to accompany their dark and irritating lice. This development called for an insincere acknowledgement of the underlying and syncopated prolonged alterations of magnificent and luminescent lion manes that had ignominiously begun to sprout superficially adipose red lice infested with azure tapeworms.  Resplendent with luxurious overcoats ornated with Swarovski crystals, FrangiPhangi II, the recent High Priestess of fabulous and rabulistic natural ablutions, made an unprecedented appearance at the palatial Palace of the Palatine Hills with her entourage of resplendent and voluptuous pond-maids while her daugther waited for an opportunity to use her new prayer beads to help with the monstrous deeds that her highly disreputable fourth cousin, a misstep of epic proportions, enacted while no single individual within the House of Thurn and relevant areas having any sign of being involved, the President of the musical society, planned to end their tumultuous relationship before any of their appendages exploded.Consequently, no sentients were unconsciously condescending members of the unconsecrated bishops in Konstanz upon Sea but the bishopric of Devil's Vale (Austria) had a non-violent outbreak

A new crepuscular anteater found solace in tapping syncopated rhythms using its front teeth and certain keepers held barely back by wire entanglements installed by nefarious and malodorous penguins.  Meanwhile, within a crenellated battlement on top of a gothically inspired garden shed the multifarious congregation of dispassionate but elaborately coiffed and manicured chow chows held a conference of (to them) unknown importance. The head gardener waved incessantly during every episode of the Coronation Comedies before any ceremonial heralds were able to overcome and conquer the ever present yet well hidden banjo playing striped marsupials whose fur - mottled as the major lepidoform hexapode - stuck their hair straight without any discernible or even identifiable sign of nodular protuberances anywhere to accompany their dark and irritating lice. This development called for an insincere acknowledgement of the underlying and syncopated prolonged alterations of magnificent and luminescent lion manes that had ignominiously begun to sprout superficially adipose red lice infested with azure tapeworms.  Resplendent with luxurious overcoats ornated with Swarovski crystals, FrangiPhangi II, the recent High Priestess of fabulous and rabulistic natural ablutions, made an unprecedented appearance at the palatial Palace of the Palatine Hills with her entourage of resplendent and voluptuous pond-maids while her daugther waited for an opportunity to use her new prayer beads to help with the monstrous deeds that her highly disreputable fourth cousin, a misstep of epic proportions, enacted while no single individual within the House of Thurn and relevant areas having any sign of being involved, the President of the musical society, planned to end their tumultuous relationship before any of their appendages exploded.
Consequently, no sentients were unconsciously condescending members of the unconsecrated bishops in Konstanz upon Sea but the bishopric of Devil's Vale (Austria)

I was asking that myself.
Is there a way to call a general assembly?

But I get the impression that this is not the only web forum where activity has been low in the recent past.
Everyone busy digging shelters* expecting several conflicts to spread farther still while the year proceeds?

Bibi costing Biden the election while complaining that the US is not delivering bombs etc. fast enough to keep up with expenditure, the GOPsters in Congress calling for sending everything to Israel and nothing to Ukraine, also refusing to spend anything on rebuilding that bridge in Baltimore because there are too many n-words there and the huge financial damage amassing daily by the port being blocked is seen as a plus because bad economic news can be blamed on Biden, also working on a bill to make lab-grown meat illegal and demanding that any support of electric vehicles stop immediately (discouraging bike use and walking as a matter of principle too of course)...

*Politicians have in all seriousness called for rebuilding of air raid shelters and preparing kids in schools for the eventuality of a war coming.

Last _{indeed, few good news} Post

At least my work as a tutor since late last year to help schoolkids with (mainly) math gives me some satisfaction.

A new crepuscular anteater found solace in tapping syncopated rhythms using its front teeth and certain keepers held barely back by wire entanglements installed by nefarious and malodorous penguins.  Meanwhile, within a crenellated battlement on top of a gothically inspired garden shed the multifarious congregation of dispassionate but elaborately coiffed and manicured chow chows held a conference of (to them) unknown importance. The head gardener waved incessantly during every episode of the Coronation Comedies before any ceremonial heralds were able to overcome and conquer the ever present yet well hidden banjo playing striped marsupials whose fur - mottled as the major lepidoform hexapode - stuck their hair straight without any discernible or even identifiable sign of nodular protuberances anywhere to accompany their dark and irritating lice. This development called for an insincere acknowledgement of the underlying and syncopated prolonged alterations of magnificent and luminescent lion manes that had ignominiously begun to sprout superficially adipose red lice infested with azure tapeworms.  Resplendent with luxurious overcoats ornated with Swarovski crystals, FrangiPhangi II, the recent High Priestess of fabulous and rabulistic natural ablutions, made an unprecedented appearance at the palatial Palace of the Palatine Hills with her entourage of resplendent and voluptuous pond-maids while her daugther waited for an opportunity to use her new prayer beads to help with the monstrous deeds that her highly disreputable fourth cousin, a misstep of epic proportions, enacted while no single individual within the House of Thurn and relevant areas having any sign of being involved, the President of the musical society, planned to end their tumultuous relationship before any of their appendages exploded.
Consequently, no sentients were unconsciously condescending members of the unconsecrated bishops in Konstanz upon Sea but the bishopric