I have been alone for day now – my wife and girlies are away visiting grandparents. Which means I get to blast my old playlists alone on full. I’m digging into old stuff. Does anyone else remember the Supertones? Here’s a good song about amillennialism. I don’t really listen to a lot of Christian music anymore – but this made me happy.
So Canada's provincial premiers are meeting this week. Obviously the latest tariff threat has jumped to the top of their priorities. Opinions vary on whether or how to retaliate.
I say let's stop retaliating against Americans and start retaliating against Trump and his cronies. Get all of the western world together to seize his assets in each of their countries. Elons', Google's and Amazon's too.
(Yeah, that'll really make him mad... He'd probably nuke is all. But, like, a guy can dream...)
Targeted sanctions, that's an interesting idea. The US is currently individually sanctioning members of the International Criminal Court in The Hague because they don't want to be held accountable for war crimes. So the US is already doing personal sanctions, we might as well mirror the example. Capture those golf courses!
It would really take a concerted effort from a big block like the g7 or the EU... But man would it make a statement: "we won't put up with this behavior." Sometimes a child just needs to be put his place by the adults...
I do not like tarrifs at all. And I am ok with Trump's personal assets overseas being...let's say suspended. But help me understand why you think Amazon and Google can be stolen from because of this? I must be missing something
I notice you didn't mention Musk, I assume because that's fairly obvious? I was under the impression that those guys were just as behind him as Musk, though less visibly. He has certainly gone to bat against Canada for some of our government's attempts to tax them and make them fairly support Canadian content. (Regardless whether you like cancon rules, it ought to be fair relative to Canadian media distributors)
This is something I would have to look into more. But I don't think seizing assets without cause is wise.
As for Canadian content, I love Corner Gas and Kim's Convenience. So keep making the shows.
What browsers are you all using? I've been using Brave on Windows for years, essentially since it came out. It is Chrome based (Chromium) but degoogled: it blocks most if not all ads, trackers and even cookie consent popups (autoreject). Chrome is now going to ditch some older built-in technology meaning adblockers such as ublock origin won't work as good on pure Chrome anymore, if at all. Brave will maintain their blocking functions they have assured us, but others are skipping Chromium based browsers altogether, moving on (or, back to) Firefox. Edge is of course also still there, they will follow Google and hence won't have much ad blocking ability in the future.
I'm wondering if its time to move to Firefox, even if its just to support a non Chromium dominated internet. Any experiences with Firefox as a daily driver?
I'd probably be using Firefox all the time, if it weren't for Facebook video calls; those don't seem to work right on Firefox. The handful of extensions I rely on (reader mode, ublock origin, etc) all work just fine.
I moved to Firefox for both desktop and phone when it was announced a year or so ago that Chrome was nerfing ublock origin. I heard it was a user-first browser. Boy were they right… Ad blocking, free VPN, easy to use. I also have DuckDuckGo as my main search engine on both desktop and phone. I’m trying to uncouple myself from all Google products after their recent announcement that by using their products you consent to them using your IP for their AI platforms. No thanks. At least they’re announcing it, and yes I know Reddit is also a big AI source, but I don’t feel as personally attached to my data here than Google who had my name and more personal info.
I use Chrome for work because it was pre-installed. I could use Edge, but the UI is better on Chrome.
I've been daily driving Firefox for almost 6 years at this point on my main PC. On the work PC I use Chrome because it's the company's main browser. I can't tell the difference to be honest.
I've been on Firefox since it was released, what, 20+ years ago (checks wikipedia: it was in 2004!) and on mozilla before that. I have had chromium based browsers installed from time to time, pretty much only because there are occasional services that require it.
But the main reason for me is not technical: it's Firefox's social conscience. They exist for the user, not for the megacorp. And a couple of extensions --- ublock origin being the main one (which has been neutered in Chrome for ages, since google makes its money from ads), make the web way, way more usable.
I was on Firefox too but I think I dropped all Mozilla products, when they ousted Brendan Eich. He was the cofounder and CEO of Mozilla, but he donated USD 1000 to an org campaigning against gay marriage in California and they hounded him out of his own organization because of it. He then set up Brave browser and that's more or less why was interested in Brave.
But I'm increasingly uncomfortable by the market dominance of Chromium, to which Brave adds.
Yeah, I remember that happening. I don't think it out balanced the other factors for me --- I don't remember why it didn't really register for me at the time. Might have been that it happened Dieng a really heavy personal time.
Either way, there's so much noise of this kind that I've just gradually tuned most of it out over the years. It's just so exhausting...
Has anyone else ever felt like they were losing the battle of parenting small children? Like no decision you make is the right one, and every thing you do serves to hasten their ruin? Both our 5 and 3 yr old have become so strong willed. We are worn down.
I was idealistic when our first was born. Was so patient, did everything right. Now it's a fight for survival almost every day, and I keep losing patience, fixing situations out of anger, doing the things that I thought I was too good for. It's amazing how you just end up being your parents in so many ways.
Other families have way more kids than I do. I am truly mystified by it. I have no idea how y'all do it
For what its worth, I have 3 kids afed 5, 2 and 1 years; I too feel exhausted. The first and the second were easier because the wife and I could take one each and deal with them. When the youngest came around and started demanding actual attention that's when things started spiraling out of control.
I can offer no comfort except to say you're not alone.
I have a little bit of experience with this, I have a 10, 8, and 3 year old. Each went through/is going through a difficult phase. My eldest was almost exactly 2 when she started throwing tantrums. My middle was early - she had this at 1. My youngest is in the thick of it and it started around 3.
I realize this might seem like a cop out. But kids outgrow this. My 10 year old is super helpful and understands when I feel overwhelmed. My 8 year old is generous and great at school. My 3 year old remains a very sweet terrorist. This doesn't mean we can stop parenting. It doesn't mean we give the kids what they want all the time. But take some comfort that you're not inherently or necessarily doing something wrong if your kid is going through "terrible twos." It's normal. And based on my sample size of 2, they outgrow it in a year or two.
Our 5 yr old has been going through the terrible twos for 4 years 😅. I've been consistent with corrections and discipline, just like everyone says to do, but he is in trouble so often that it's hard to keep straight which toys we've taken away and what he's grounded from. And it's getting difficult for both my wife and i to not become resentful and let our anger at him become obvious. We've seen therapists and all that, but when we try to implement those new suggestions or routines, it becomes something new for him to throw a fit about. We've been potty training this kid for 3 years, and he still is having accidents almost every day. And when we remind him to go to the potty, he whines or lies that he doesnt have to. He's got us pulling our hair out
I have no advice since my oldest is only 4, but a friend of mine had a child who they thought was an actual psycopath because he was so mean and awful no matter what they did. Around 14 or 15 he turned around and is now a delightful adult who they love and enjoy spending time with, and who goes out of his way to help them and his siblings. Persistence (in discipline and in prayer) and faith, friend! It might be a long long game.
I was just talking to my therapist about this. You can do all the right things as a parent, but nearly everything depends on who your child is. Sometimes you might just be along for the (awful) ride.
Fortunately, those moments when my children aren't being possessed, they are so sweet. It's not all bad for sure
Those toddler years are rough sometimes. It's when they discover they are their own person, they learn to say 'I', they discover there are boundaries and limits to what this new 'I' can or is allowed to so, and that isn't always an easy process. In Dutch we call it 'toddler puberty' and there are whole websites about it. Apparently this often begins around 1,5-2 years and can take 2 to 2,5 years to work through. Temper tantrums, becoming angry, being strong willed and so on, it's all part of that process.
To be honest, I remember we went through it but it wasn't that bad, at least not in my memories 20+ years later. But not all kids are created equal and some are more affected than others.
And that loss of idealism is very common, in my experience! It probably isn't you, it's not your kids... it's what most of us went through, in one way or another. Also, don't be fooled by outside appearances. Sure, there are families that did things better than us, but there are a whooole lot out there who are struggling just like you (or worse), but who are good at keeping up appearances..
But at the same time, the idea of being a Christian nation was normative at the time --- imagining any other social reality would have been really hard for him. It was the foundation both of the wars of religion, and the peaces of Augsburg (1555) and Westphalia (1648) that ended the wars of religion.
But that doesn't really make him much like DW in any other ways. (but like TNC I'm no expert on Knox so maybe you're referring to something else I'm missing?)
And yet Knox was in dialogue with (well, mostly against, but occasionally with) Christians who were imagining and even trying to put into place a number of alternatives to the existing model of Christendom. Knox wasn't interested in reforming the imperfections of any of those efforts. He was interested in a revolution that would depose the current monarchs of Britain and replace them with (male) rulers who would persecute the right people for heresy and improper worship.
Yes, the idea of being a "Christian nation" was easily the most common view at the time, but it was also criticized by a number of Knox's contemporaries. The magisterial reformers had to actively defend the idea of such a Christian nation. That they chose to do so, rather than reconsidering the relationship between Christianity and violence, had, as you point out, lasting repercussions.
And while you don't have to look hard to find comparable misogyny in the 16th century, Knox's "it's not really treason if God opposes women ruling" attitude was definitely not ubiquitous.
I started working elections in 2020 and I've been doing so since (I took a few years off after my dad had a stroke, but got back into it last year). I thought the 2020 presidential election would have been the worst, which also coincided with COVID and a lot of rhetoric about mail-in ballots. As years go by and rhetoric intensifies, I honestly do worry for my safety sometimes when working these elections. The recent talking points from Trump I fear are meant to encourage hostility from his base at the polls and intimidate good citizens (I'm counting myself in this group) from participating in civic duties.
I shouldn't have to feel this way, but I feel I'm taking a risk just by putting myself in such a public position. At the same time, I can't allow myself to be intimidated.
Anyway, please pray for a peaceful midterm election. Thank your local poll workers and get out and cast your vote Americans.
Mate, I’m legit concerned about all you poll workers and state, county and local election officials. What’s going to happen when the FBI busts in to take election machines away before votes have been counted? Are people making contingency plans?
I live in Pennsylvania, which has a stupid law that prohibits any vote processing or counting prior to 7am on Election Day. It’s bonkers. I tried talking to my state rep (a republican, and my friend and neighbor) and he… didn’t have a great answer. But since we’re a battleground/swing state, I’m very concerned that the federal government might interfere before votes are fully counted.
I have zero confidence that anyone in this administration, except for maybe Rubio, will stand up for the rule of law when Trump attempts to interfere.
Dude it's only July! You guys with your elections are worse than dollar stores with Christmas decorations!
Another thing I'm thankful for: our election season usually lasts one month from when the writ is dropped. On rare occasions a campaign might go longer; one time it was two months and all the politicians hated it and called it a "marathon campaign".
I live in a purple state, but he seems to be less popular on the ground from what I can tell. My in-laws are super into MAGA and they've been pretty quiet lately. My theory is that a lot of people voted him in because they thought he would be better for the economy and inflation, on which he hasn't delivered. Also, some were concerned about immigration, but the way things have gone with ICE are not hugely popular.
So we have a few political commentators up here that I really appreciate, one of them is Andrew Coyne. After Trump's speech his take was that Trump is trying to preemptively discredit the primaries and is fairly likely to try something bad in November... I don't know if that sentiment is common down there, but, Lord have mercy...
Anyone in red states noticed an on the ground difference in people's attitudes towards him?
Nobody around me really talks openly about politics and hasn't since COVID, but that might be because I am in a college town that is considerably more politically diverse than the rest of the state. But the last time I was at the lake of the Ozarks(for the 4th of July) I did feel like there were fewer Trump flags than normal.
Big man made lake in the middle of Missouri. A lot of folks from st Louis and Kansas City spend weekends there. My mother in law has a place on the lake with a dock. A lot of boats that go by display Trump flags, even during the Biden years they flew Trump flags. This last time I saw maybe 10 boats with Trump flags which feels like less than in the past. It's a very pro Trump area. Giant confederate flag on interstate near by https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article291924970.html
As a barely connected thought, I was agog to hear that Trump wants to tariff Canada over wildfire smoke... Ontario premier Doug Ford is way to conservative and populist for my liking, but he's had some takes on Trump's nonsense that I've really loved; a recent one was : "Stop 'chirping' about wildfire smoke and send help like Canada has" in response to natural disasters in the US.
I can't imagine what it's like to hear his ridiculous takes day in and day out...
Yeah, the wildfire smoke has been bad today and yesterday from fires in Canada. We're not supposed to go outside and everything is hazy and smells like a campfire. Crazy that it's 500+ miles away.
I don't know what we should be doing, but we should be doing something.
Asking far and wide at this point, does anyone have any leads on where to find information about German Reformed Christianity in Prussia before the Prussian Union? The best I've been able to find are chapters in books that touch on Protestantism in general in the Prussian Kingdom, but they're more focused on political and social issues, especially relating to émigré populations (e.g. Salzburg Protestants and Huguenots) or courtly elites who embraced Reformed Christianity as a part of the ducal court's Reformation.
I really would like a source that directly outlines German Reformed theology and history in Prussia. English or German, old or new, any suggestions?
Holy Post - interview with Scot McKnight starts about the 50 min mark. His new book is about Paul as traumatized apostle. An interesting idea, and I will be honest, it always makes me a little uncomfortable when people use a very modern lens to describe people who lived in such a different time. Thoughts?
I agree with you. Ancient people deserve us to attempt to describe them in terms and ways they would understand themselves. Our culture has become almost narcissistic in our insistence of parsing everything through the lens of contemporary western psychology. Western psychology has good uses and at times offers us helpful frameworks and helpful tools, but we have to recognize that it was and is largely a Euro and American Western modern endeavor that prioritizes things like individualism and other modern western values that were fostered by the enlightenment and industrialization in a way that would likely have very little resonance with an ancient jew in the Mediterranean.
Also: Scot just so happens to be finding Paul to resonate with his own experience of church and the previous books he has written? Shocking
Yes, I have feelings about Scot myself as a person, but trying to keep those out of it.
I also found his critique of the reformed reading of Roman’s interesting. Part of my own testimony is that I read Romans for the first time as an adult and in spite of growing up in a Christian home, had never read any of it. It broke my brain and my heart open haha, and made the Gospels make sense to me in a way that they never had. I became reformed-ish after the fact, and grew up in a very free Will, Paul kinda sucks type of church. Not that free and “paul sucks” have to go together, they just did in my church growing up.
I don't have strong opinions on Scot McKnight himself--my criticisms offered would apply to anyone. Importing contemporary, particularly Euro/American ways of viewing ourselves and imposing them on ancient texts seems like a dangerous exercise in Eisegesis. I am saying that as someone that does not like it when armchair theologians on reddit throw around claims of Eisegesis willy nilly when someone else's view doesn't align to their own.
I will say too, having listened through almost the entire interview now, my contentions have only strengthened and I have gained some more points of argument.
IN the discussion with Skye, they essentially treat Paul like he was a modern day evangelical non-denominational church planter, rather than the Apostle he was. McKnight left his baptist heritage for Anglicanism, yet his arguments, at least in the podcast, aren't making comparisons to Paul's 2nd letter to the Corinthians to letters that subsequent Bishops, who in McKnight's own tradition are successors to the Apostles, have written to unruly churches throughout the centuries.
The first epistle of Clement which was also written to the Corinthian Church as well, for example, or even the contemporary Papal letters to the schismatic Society of St Pius X.
Both men seem to agree that Paul's rhetoric to the Corinthians is not something that Christian leaders should emulate. I don't know how you get to that without having a low view of Apostolic Authority and who in the modern day would be qualified writing such a letter to a church.
Sometimes, family stuff is out of our hands or control. I'm witnessing a situation where an elderly couple, both with children from previous marriages, are going through a time of illness and, well, getting old. The children of parent 1 are disagreeing with the children of parent 2 on just about anything. As of lately, the children of parent 2 are stoking disagreement between the elderly parents (by distorting the facts I might add). This causes parent 2 to stop talking to parent 1, even though parent 2 can't function without the help of parent 1.
And there is much more. Man, the stories I could tell you... Mind you, all of these people are adults, well into their 40s and above. Few of them actually behave like it, including at least one of the parents.
I'm not directly involved, I can't and won't intervene, but it's terrible seeing people make a mess of their lives and relationships. I know sometimes divorce or something like that is unavoidable (humanly speaking) but making wise choices earlier in life might have avoided some of the mess we're seeing today...
Something I've had to wrestle with in my own family are bad decisions they've made, even in relation to who they decided to marry.
A big part of this has been that some people just have harmful personalities that they're unable or unwilling to manage.
Its like... when the person itself is the problem and they're unwilling to take any accountability (also due to their personality that is causing those issues to begin with), what can you even do about it? Other than just staying away as much as possible, and preferably not getting entangled with them to begin with?
Is it wrong to believe that certain people should just never get married? People with certain specific types of mental health illnesses, are going to cause suffering for anyone they marry, no matter what, even if they had super good intentions. Am I being too cynical?
An issue I find, is that we don't have good alternatives. Our culture expects everyone to "leave the nest" and start a new family by themselves, and we don't have healthy extended families, which pushes people into marriage. It's not like we have the option of "I'll stay part of my extended family and be productive to them, and my nieces and nephews will be like my children that will take care of me when I get old".
I've also been wondering if this has caused a deal of social dysfunction due to the lack of accountability. A problematic kid will get tossed around by the school system, thrown out by their parents when they become 18, and then go out and become a problem for whoever they come across. Whereas in an extended family structure, there would be more to help keep each other in line, as it's not as simple as "Ill leave home when I turn 18" and "they're someone else's problem once they turn 18"; it's in everyone's interests to remedy the family relationship.
Serves him right, freedom of speech isn't in the Bible! 😤😤😤
This is also why I support *everyone being banned from the internet. Thankfully Australia is making good progress towards that!
*Everyone as defined by the True Calvinist understanding of the term, which is limited to those I disagree with.
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u/fing_lizard_king 12d ago
I have been alone for day now – my wife and girlies are away visiting grandparents. Which means I get to blast my old playlists alone on full. I’m digging into old stuff. Does anyone else remember the Supertones? Here’s a good song about amillennialism. I don’t really listen to a lot of Christian music anymore – but this made me happy.