Guard Dog

One thought on the gospels. Of all the disciples only Matthew and Luke were educated men and likely the only literate members. That means those two were likely to have written their own accounting. But no other writing of Matthew is known to have survived. Luke however is a contributor to several books of the New Testament so his gospel is the one best taken as the first hand eyewitness accounting of the life of Jesus. All four books are very similar with the differences being ones of perspective. But the accounting of Luke for certain and Matthew probably are the only worked written by the men who witnessed them. I don't know if that lends them more credibility in anyone's eyes or not. I don't need to know the bible is 100% true for me to accept the truth in it. If fact I'm quite certain it's not 100% true. But that changes nothing about the things I've come to believe. As an aside I read a pretty interesting book about this not too long ago. It took a little bit to get into but once I did it was intriguing. I posted about it in the books thread. The one thing I can tell you is Jesus of Nazareth was a real man. Whether he was more than that is a decision you have to make for yourself. And you don't need to believe he was God made flesh to find in him a worthy example to follow. I think it's more important that Jesus believes in you than for you to believe in Him. Just my $.02

There have been just 23 Perfect Games in MLB history. But you know what's even rarer? An Unassisted Triple Play. There have been just 17 of those. This was the last one. It's the Phillies vs Mets. bottom of the 9th, runners on 1st & 2nd and the Mets trailing 9-7. The winning run is at the plate and then this happens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DviV7CYrc-E 29 days to go with Eric Brunlett and an unassisted triple play.

Somehow I don't think God spends a lot of time brooding over offenses from the likes of us. But, as I've said before, my Christianity is liberally sprinkled with a helping of Deism. God creates the "system" so to speak and gives us a set of guidelines. They are few and simple in practice. Jesus reinforced and clarified those guidelines. Now it is up to us to follow them or don't. What happens to those who don't? I don't know. It's not for me to pass judgement on anyone for anything. I am as flawed as anyone and likely more than most. I figure God is far more qualified for that than I am. But don't presume to know what He's going to say. He may be far less judgmental about things than you'd believe. The "few and simple guidelines" have been made something that is neither few nor simple by people who appointed themselves God's messengers. The word of God (as written and interpreted by humans) has been used as a club to ensure obedience to the state, church, society (through enforcing cultural norms etc). People are told that doing, thinking, saying other is a sin and earns the wrath of God. Maybe it does but to get there you have to believe that people who usually have exempted themselves from God's rules actually speak for God. Seem like a stretch. Accept for a moment the premise that the 10 Commandments came straight to us from Him. Don't kill, lie, steal, or be envious. Don't worship idols. Love your family. Don't cheat on your spouse. Don't tell everyone "God commanded me to tell you this or to do that". Pretty simple right? Most of us are doing all that every day. You could sum it up in one sentence "don't be an a-----e." In fact Jesus did sum it up in one sentence. "Love one another as I have loved you". There are a lot of people in the world today following Christ's example without even calling themselves Christians. So what would make God happier? The self described Christian who does not follow that one simple rule or the person who follows a different faith, or none, that does? I suspect I know the answer but I can't speak for God. And for what it's worth I wouldn't call him an anarchist either. "Render unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's and unto God those things that are His"

I would not call him a socialist in the modern sense of the word. His instructions were for us to love one another and do right by one another voluntarily. Not form a government that does so (in it's own twisted way) on our behalf with the condition that it will murder us or imprison use if we don't go along.

has been explained to us asian beef tastes different not so much 'cause o' fundamental differences 'tween cows, but 'cause o' way in which cows is fed. few folks here in the us has ever actual eaten beef which is fed on nothing save local roughages whereas most asian cows (with the exception o' japan) is more likely to be fed local roughages. us cows destined for plate as steak typically have a high percentage o' grain in their diet--corn, milo, oats and barley. such diet has a dramatic impact on the taste o' the beef, and such grains is not gonna be common fodder for asian cows. in our experience, eat steak from a hokkaido cow fed most on grains and is gonna taste near same as typical american beef cow. eat beef in se asia and you is gonna notice an oddness to beef which is gonna be complete foreign... 'less you has had beef raised on small ranches in the american se which were fed mostly local verdant grasses as 'posed to grains. asian beef, particularly from asian street vendors, tastes familiar... grassy. sharp? fishy grassy? we tend to talk with cooks and chefs wherever we go. is amazing how much folks will tell you if you simply ask e'm, particular if what you is asking is something 'bout which they know or like. admitted, most o' our time in asia has been korea, japan, taiwan, and singapore, so is less zebu and the like, but we also spent a fair amount o' time in the philippines and east timor and a bit o' time in china, cambodia, thailand and laos. have spent only a small 'mount o' time in indonesia and malaysia as there tends to be far fewer opportunities for a free speech/religion religion guy to be getting an invite from local universities and lawyer associations in those nations. no good excuse for having only passed through vietnam a couple times. regardless, explanation from local food experts matches our own experience from eating beef not raised for supermarket consumption. taste o' beef is not so much a result o' fundamental differences in cows but rather in differences in bovine diet. HA! Good Fun! I'll tell you one thing from experience... in a Japanese restaurant in Japan a steak dinner in 1991 set you back about 9k yen. About $70 in those days.

The Padres appear to be pursuing Machado aggressively. If the get him he puts them in the wildcard mix

Exactly 30 days to go until the season begins. We already did a player number count down so how about we do something different? The 30 most memorable MLB moments (as decided by me). #30 Ichiro guns down Terrance Long from RF https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYAxk01E404

As of today all players who have contracts are in camp. And some who should have are not (more on that in a bit). The first Grapefruit & Cactus League games are Friday. I don't know about you guys but I'm ready. There is a lot going on this year. New rule changes are coming. Some good, some... not. Designated hitter in the NL will likely be a thing in 2021. I have a pretty ingrained dislike of the DH but screw it, everyone but the NL uses it so past time they got with the program. Pitch clocks, arbitration changes, extra innings rule changes and just some of what might be coming. What do you guys think? The free agent market has been slow and the players are concerned. Don't look at Harper and Machado. They are both holding multiple contract offers for $275M+ they could sign anytime they want. But teams don't want to do 10 year deals anymore. Who can blame them? Oh hey Albert Pujols... when did you get here? But Dallas Keuchel, Marwin Gonzalez, and Craig Kimbrel are all still unsigned. Kimbrel wants a long term deal but the truth is teams don't want to give over 30 players long term deals. They break down before they reach the end pf them. It's just bad business and the players haven't figured that out yet. The Rays did not get to build their new stadium and the A's are looking like they will get to. If not Portland and Montreal are both ready to pounce. So any predictions for this season? Got any WS picks? AL East: Yankees? Red Sox? Hard to say. But the winner will likely need to win 105+ games to do it AL Central: Indians are better than the Twins but they won't run away with it. AL West: Oakland will make noise I think but the Astros can't be caught. NL East: Anybody except the Marlins. This is the best division in the MLB top to bottom. It will be a dog fight. NL Central: Cubs in a tight race over Cardinals and Brewers. NL West: The Rockies will pace the Dodgers through summer but fade late. Dodgers clinch it in September. WS: Yankees vs Dodgers

He'd never win. He hasn't bombed enough people yet. Probably give it to Maduro

OMG! Best meme this year!

Sorry Rudy I might not know what's true by by God I DO know about biscuits!

OK, one more:

The fence is done at the new place. The guys I hired to cut a new road with a bobcat were there yesterday. They sent me pics and it looks like they did a good job. Sunny and I are going out there is a little bit to look it over. I'm meeting the horse farm guys on Friday so they can see it and sign the lease. That all came together nicely.

You are a good man katphood!

It's funny how much Luke's story echos Mark Hamill's own. In 1977 no one ever heard of him. By 1983 he was a huge star and everyone knew who he was. Then he did a few bad movies and disappeared into the mists of cartoon voice acting. Now he resurfaces as a grouchy old man who's not happy with the role he has to play in things.. You see??? It fits like a glove!!!

You know I've never understood why so many found fault with where Luke Skywalker's story went. I find the idea of a man with unlimited potential failing when it matters the most, finding out everything he ever believed in was BS, then going off to live alone in some secluded rural place to be VERY identifiable. Yes, I think I can relate to all of that!

I'll just leave this here: I wish this f-----g guy were President today instead of the Trump we ended up with. . I used to irony was funny. Not this time.

Working on a mod for OOTP. I've been working on it for a bloody year now along with a few others. I discussed it here before and someone said I was a glutton for punishment. They were not kidding.

Curious, what about retcons makes you come to the time-wasting conclusion? Two of my coworers were discussing why the technology in the new Star Trek movies and new show was so much more advanced than the TOS. They decided it had something to do with something that happened in the enterprise show. I chimed in it was because the TOS was made in the '60s and the new stuff is, well... new. Apparently that wasn't the right answer.

Trumps flaws are many. He's impulsive, arrogant, obstinate, and yes willfully ignorant when the facts are not what he'd like them to be. He has lived so long on a world where he can have his way he's unaccustomed to anything else. He has more than his fair share of hubris and is a true believer in the ends justifying the means. He and his predecessor have that in common. I don't think he's stupid but he's definitely not a man who can rise above his flaws. As to Gromnir's point about the 3.5M votes Johnson received tipping the scales to Trump, LP candidates tend to siphon more votes from the R than the D by a 3:1 margin. However, even if the reserve were true I don't know that I would trade Trump for Clinton right now. We would just be exchanging one set of problems for a different and equally pernicious set of problems. We would still be spending ourselves into ruin and the inevitable default. The national debt would still be at a scary number and getting bigger just as fast if not faster. Lord knows there would still be a score of Congressional investigations going on because there is nothing clean about HRC. Like I said during the campaign, would you rather be bitten by a snake or stung by a scorpion?

If one of them hits the magic number in the popular vote total they attain major party status. They get money from the FEC, and they get included in polling. But the big one is they get automatic ballot access rather than an expensive and difficult 50 state slog they have to do now. Only the LP routinely gets on the ballot in all 50 states of all the minor parties here and it literally exhausts their war chest every election cycle. Success in this system becomes possible the moment success seems possible. Have the LP candidate on the debate stage, in the straw polls, and on every ballot and we might be getting somewhere. Ditto for the Greens and anyone else. On a separate track I find the latest LP overtures to Howard Schultz puzzling considering the way Bill Weld was treated. If Weld was "not libertarian enough" (I hate that expression) then WTF is Schultz? The biggest impediment to the success of the LP isn't the electoral system... it's the members of the LP. There is a steadfast refusal to accept that someone who agrees with you 85% actually does agree with you. That and the notion that everything done in 100+ years can be undone instantly are the two biggest stumbling blocks they face. And both are self inflicted. Absolutism and politics are a poor combination.

And that is unfortunate. You live in California, one of the safest states for a single candidate around. Voting D or R for you is literally accomplishing nothing but padding the popular vote total. One move vote for either elephants or donkeys will not affect who will win the state's electoral votes. But for a third party ever single vote the receive moves them closer to full ballot access, major party status, etc. I didn't think Gary Johnson would have made a good President. But I DO think he LP has something to offer and voted for Johnson because of that. You and I both live in states that are going to go the way they are going to go no matter what. Votes for a third party presidential candidate is the ONLY way we can make our votes actually count.