Jewsday Tuesday: Lepers, Levites, and Laments

The Torah reading this week is from the jawbreakingly named “Behaalotecha,” which basically means, “Roll up for the Mystery Tour.” And talk about weird and scattered.

We start with Aaron getting orders from Yahweh to light the tabernacle’s candelabra every day. But not just any old candelabra- Yahweh is a god of taste, refinement, and distinction. THAT candelabra has to be made of hammered gold, presumably by a hammered goldsmith. But Yahweh is never simple, and the instructions start getting more and more ornate. The next thing that has to be done is getting the Levites assembled. But before they can assemble, they have to ritually bathe and shave themselves. Not just their beards, we’re talking full Brazilian. Dingleberries are common in the desert, but they are not kosher fruit. Once cleaned, shaved, and assembled, all the other Jews have to surround them and do the Wave. I am not bullshitting, this is the stuff that Yahweh thrives on, much like Moses and macaroni pictures. Afterwards, the Levites are supposed to lay hands on a couple of calves, and in the inverse of the Christian ritual of healing via laying on of hands, the calves are killed.

Nothing is simple with Yahweh.

Now this seems like a lot of work for Aaron, but the whole point is that the Levites now have to pitch in and do this work as well, interspersed with bathing and shaving and getting the Wave. It’s no fun being a Levite.

In the manner of a book written by an Aspie, suddenly we’ve changed the subject, and now we’re talking about Pesach. See, there’s weird taboos about touching dead bodies, and a bunch of guys who touched dead bodies (I think they were people with legitimate functions, not corpse-fuckers) pointed out that because they were ritually unclean and had to sit outside the city for 7 days, they missed all the Pesach fun. They said to Moses, “This sucks! Here we are doing our jobs, following the rules, and what happens? We get punished for it! We want the goddamn 4 cups of wine and matzo brei!” Moses, being the corporate lackey that he was, nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s a good point. Let me kick this one upstairs and see what the Boss says.” Moses got past the secretary and managed to ask the Boss, “OK, these guys are doing what we’re telling them to do, how do we deal with this?” Yahweh, who despite other flaws was a reasonably competent HR manager, thought about it and responded, “Good point, I guess we hadn’t thought that one through. Tell ya what, if someone misses out on the Pesach fun because they touched a body or they were on a long trip and couldn’t get back in time, we can have a Make-Up Pesach. We’ll make it, I dunno, maybe a month later. yeah, that’s the ticket. But let me be clear- this is for corpse-touchers and frequent flyers only. If you missed the fun because you were procrastinating, fuck you.”

SCREEEECH! We change the subject again, now to tents, clouds, and trumpets. Not just any trumpets, hammered silver trumpets, presumably made by a hammered silversmith. This is all the shit involved in telling the Jews when to stay and when to get moving, using hammered silver trumpets as the signal. I mean, 40 years wandering around, that’s going to take some direction, and the bugle hadn’t been invented yet. Of course, bugles are brass anyway, and that’s kind of insulting to Yahweh. In any case, after a year in the same spot, the Jews all started moving again.

SCREEEEECH! Just as you were getting comfortable… Jews start whining and complaining. First, they whined at Yahweh. “Manna for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for dinner, we’re getting damn sick of this. And all the walking! Isn’t there a nice chair somewhere and maybe some meat? Kreplach would be nice, but a brisket would do.” That pissed Yahweh off a bit, and he returned the favor by raining down fire. So the whining got redirected to Moses, who was lacking in the raining-down-fire department. There were six hundred thousand whiners involved in this, which was a bit much for Moses to handle alone. So he did what any good middle manager would do and complained to HIS boss. “These people are driving me fucking nuts. I can’t get anything done because I’m busy listening to one whiner after another.” Yahweh nodded and said, “OK, I’ll authorize a headcount increase. Hire seventy people for the Complaint Department. And by the way, I have a little trick up my sleeve…” Remember the famous Mencken quote about the definition of democracy? Well, it wasn’t original with him, Yahweh got there first. And channeling a speech from the future (omniscients can be ruthless plagiarizers), Yahweh said, “We’re going to get meat. We’re going to get so much meat. We’re going to get so much meat, you’re going to be so sick and tired of meat, you’re going to come to me and go ‘Please, please, we can’t eat any more meat.’ You’ve heard this one. You’ll say ‘Please, Yahweh, we beg you sir, we don’t want to get any more meat. It’s too much. It’s not fair to everybody else.’ And I’m going to say ‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to keep getting meat, getting meat, getting meat, we’re going to make the Children of Israel great again.’”

And to prove his point, Yahweh inundated the Jews with quail. They set upon it like a freshly-baked stoner on a plate of chocolate chip cookies. “Poultry, this is more like it!” As always, though, Yahweh was a consummate asshole and managed to infect all the quail with the Plague. “HAR HAR HAR, THE JOKE IS ON YOU, WHINY HEBES!”

SCREEEEEECH! Just when you think there’s a theme developing, we suddenly change directions again. Moses’s sister, Miriam, and his brother, Aaron, started their own complaints. “That fucking brother of ours married a shiksa, but he still gets all the glory while we get bupkis.” Do NOT dis Yahweh’s favorite middle manager because that’s gonna piss Yahweh off royally. And it did. So Miriam get hit with leprosy. This freaked out Moses, who said to Yahweh, “Look, she’s a meddlesome Jewess, but she IS my sister. Can you let up a bit before her hands fall off or something? And since you left Aaron alone,  we might be open to a sex discrimination suit. Satan does have all the lawyers, after all…” In the interests of worker morale and staying out of court, Yahweh said, “Look, she has to be taught a lesson. How about she just has leprosy for a week?” Moses thought about that, and said, “Yeah, I guess a suspension is better than termination.” So Miriam had to stand outside the city for a week until it went away, and she managed to save most of her hands and feet. Aaron still skated. For now.

Yahweh has a tough job, head of HR.

 

 

Comments

170 responses to “Jewsday Tuesday: Lepers, Levites, and Laments”

  1. Yusef of Ganjastan

    God is vengeful

  2. Donation Not Taxation

    So, a lot like Numbers 8:1 – 12:16?

    1. Old Man With Candy

      No, that’s English shit. It’s from Bamidbar.

      1. commodious spittoon

        Nobody reads the Silmarillion.

        1. Donation Not Taxation

          Yet it sold about a million copies its first year in print.

      2. Donation Not Taxation

        If you’re sure that the 34th part of the serialization of the Torah came first, then maybe there’s a plagiarism suit in there somewhere. Numbers 8:1-12:16 is part of The Book that has had more copies printed than any other (to date) in human history. KA-ching!

  3. AlexinCT

    And to prove his point, Yahweh inundated the Jews with quail. They set upon it like a freshly-baked stoner on a plate of chocolate chip cookies. “Poultry, this is more like it!” As always, though, Yahweh was a consummate asshole and managed to infect all the quail with the Plague. “HAR HAR HAR, THE JOKE IS ON YOU, WHINY HEBES!”

    You would be one heck of a Rabbi man…

    1. Old Man With Candy

      True story: About 15 years ago, my uncle died. I flew back to Baltimore to go to the funeral. And at the funeral was… the rabbi from my old Hebrew school. I went up to him and exclaimed, “Rabbi XXX, I’m surprised you’re still alive!”
      He looked at me and immediately responded, “(Fill in my real name), I’m surprised you’re not in jail!”

      We grinned at each other, shook hands, he instructed me to call him by his first name, and we had a delightful talk.

      1. AlexinCT

        Oh man, that is one heck of a story bro. Life has a funny way of rolling on. And I empathize, I can’t remember the number of people from way back when that all told me they had expected me to be dead or in jail too based on my, erm…, rebel nature as a youte.

  4. YHWH is awfully particular.

  5. Satan does have all the lawyers, after all…

    Now that I can believe.

  6. Rasilio

    Yahweh got there first. And channeling a speech from the future (omniscients can be ruthless plagiarizers), Yahweh said, “We’re going to get meat. We’re going to get so much meat. We’re going to get so much meat, you’re going to be so sick and tired of meat

    Yahweh is Steve Smith?

    1. Rhywun

      you’re going to be so sick and tired of meat

      Now they’re just making shit up.

      1. Sean

        you’re going to be so sick and tired of meat

        Yeah. I can’t even with that.

        1. Tundra

          Yahweh as Donny Two-Scoops is pretty funny though.

  7. Tundra

    Nothing is simple with Yahweh.

    No shit. I think Yahweh might just be fucking with y’all.

    It sounds as if he was a little bored, drunk or perhaps both.

  8. Tundra

    Speaking of messing with the Jews:

    John Cusack stepped on his (presumably uncircumcised) dick.

    “It was a bot!”

    He hasn’t made a good movie in quite some time, but this seems like an odd way to get better parts.

    1. Rhywun

      After reading that, I’m amazed he can tie his shoes, let alone make a movie.

      1. Brett L

        His sister carries him in most of his movies.

        1. kinnath

          He’s just fine in Grosse Point Blank and Tape Heads.

          But that was a long time ago.

          1. Tundra

            Better Off Dead, High Fidelity, Say Anything, One Crazy Summer and The Sure Thing are all good.

            But yes, a long time ago.

          2. AlexinCT

            Was he not in that movie Room 1409 with Sam Jackson too? That movie was not as good as the book, but he actually didn’t look like he was out of his element and being asked for two dollars…

          3. Rhywun

            I like 1408 – I should look for the book.

            I also like Identity – which is a terrible movie but in a good way.

          4. Timeloose

            Grifters -> a depressing but very good movie.

        2. mexican sharpshooter

          Nicholas Cage carried him in Con Air.

    2. commodious spittoon

      Heh.

      neontaster
      ‏ @neontaster

      “I didn’t realize we pillaged and massacred a village full of Jews. I thought they were just Zionists.”

      – John Cossack

    3. Rasilio

      Lets see, he was in Maps to the Stars in 2014 and Adult World in 2013 which were both supposed to be pretty good, although he was not the lead in either. He also played Nixon in The Butler which was supposedly very good in 2013 but again he was only a supporting actor in part of the movie there. The last thing that he was the lead actor in that was generally regarded as good was the horror flick 1408 back in 2007.

      So it’s been a dozen years she he was the star in a good movie but he hasn’t had much of a problem landing leading roles in trashy action/comedy films and high profile supporting roles in good movies since then so I doubt this is a ploy on his part to get more/better roles

    4. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      “but this seems like an odd way to get better parts”

      This is an unintentionally (?) funny line

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        Also, High Fidelity is overrated.

        1. Trigger Hippie

          I’m glad somebody said it…

          1. He just prefers the crackle and hiss of LoFi systems

          2. Trigger Hippie

            Boo this man.

          3. I thought the normal punishment was a Swiss Stare.

        2. Rasilio

          Generally I agree, it was good but also overrated. As opposed to his movie later that same year, Serendipity was AWFUL. How do you make a Love Story starring 2 very good actors in the leading roles and have the audience walk out hating both main characters and having hoped they never actually got together.

      2. Tundra

        Thanks, but it was a happy accident.

        Like me.

  9. DOOMco

    “you’ve been eating pigeon all day and loving it.”

  10. commodious spittoon

    Is G-d a big troll or the biggest diva?

    1. Yusef of Ganjastan

      He has a wicked sense of humor

      1. Rhywun

        That’s a blasphemous rumour.

        1. Yusef of Ganjastan

          I expect He’s laughing, I did

  11. Raston Bot

    oh shit that was funny. has this been a running series? i’ll need to go back and catch-up.

  12. commodious spittoon

    So Miriam had to stand outside the city for a week until it went away

    I thought maybe she’d miss Pesach in that week.

    *Curb theme plays*

      1. Gustave Lytton

        Now you’re just burning bridges.

  13. AlmightyJB

    Love these stories! Can’t wait to read this later after work.

  14. kinnath

    The wookie plays dodge ball.

  15. Raston Bot

    OT

    this dude was called out for listing hate crime hoaxes so now he’s providing the details behind every trans murder in 2018.

    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1140891300968796160

    They can’t stand exposure of hate crime hoaxes because it makes it harder to politically exploit violence against LGBT people. The 26 killed trans people in 2018 were not all killed for being trans. This is important. I will go through each one-by-one.

    lots of drug and/or prostitution circumstances which makes them more victims of prohibition than inherent bigotry.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      The notion that facts dissuades religious fanatics from staying true to their faith is one of the strangest positions held today. This is very much like someone showing a feminist that the gender pay gap has absolutely nothing to do with discrimination, but is instead due to individual choices. You cannot dissuade fundamentalists.

      They might as well try convincing Evangelicals who believe that the world is 10,000 years-old that they are wrong by showing them fossils that disproves their hypothesis.

      If you are not viewing the progressive position as one informed by a blind faith then you do not understand the historical roots of progressivism or why they seem so delusional today.

      1. Tonio

        It is often difficult for rational people to wrap themselves around the worldview of people who have blind faith in things.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          It truly is. Especially among libertarians who tend to view their political opponents as merely ignorant. I have no idea why conservatives have not realized that their opponents are motivated by faith, especially since so many of them are religious people.

          I mean, you are not going to convince a Mormon that Native Americans are not the lost tribes of Israel simply by provided genetic testing results any more than you are going to convince a progressive that “rape culture” is not a real thing and not supported by any data.

      2. R C Dean

        I have a post in the rumination phase which starts with the fact that you cannot reason the Left out of their beliefs. Once you take that as a given, then what?

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Every time I see the music you link to I think “Tundra is a pretty cool guy, even if he does live in MN”

          2. Tundra

            Lol. Thanks, I think.

          3. Left Hand of Radar

            Tundra, you’re one of a few Glibs who I swear has the exact same record collection as me!

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          You treat them no different than we treat people who still believe in intelligent design. You note that they are motivated by faith (and faith alone), rather than data, and you insist that religion should not impose its beliefs on public policy. At the same time, being actual liberals, progressives should be afforded religious accommodation like any other faith.

          I’m not joking, either. This is most certainly a faith and it should be identified as such.

          1. R C Dean

            The difference is, intelligent design believers are highly marginalized, hold no levers of power or influence, and are easily ignored.

          2. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            Now they are (which was not the case in the 1920’s), because the narrative was repeated over and over again that their idea was based in nothing, but faith.

            The only real difference between intelligent design believers and progressives is that progressives are wealthy elites, whereas the intelligent design believers never were. So, naturally you have to discredit the elite in our society, which shouldn’t be that hard since they are doing a pretty good job of discrediting themselves.

          3. R C Dean

            Even in the ’20s, I don’t think the ID true believers were pushing a totalizing ideology to fundamentally transform the country from the commanding heights of academia, the media, and the administrative state.

          4. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            No, they weren’t, because *whispers* this is controversial to say, because it is so historically accurate that it aggravates people, but the US has never had an “alter” like in Europe. Meaning that religious diversity has been so large in the US since its beginning that no religious group has ever tried to seize the commanding heights. A de facto de tente has long prevailed. In fact, different religious groups have assisted one another to avoid government intrusion.

            Progressivism is the only faith that has attempted to seize the “alter”.

          5. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            *altar*

            stupid spell check

        2. Old Man With Candy

          Swift wrote, “Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.”

    2. Rhywun

      Being killed over your identity is a fundamentally different kind of crime in terms of what it exposes about the state of our society.

      Sure, Jan.

      1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

        Allow me to defend Jan. Let’s ignore the fraught nature of hate crime laws even existing, isn’t Jan’s point true, though? If people were being killed explicitly because of their sexual identity wouldn’t that reveal something about our society? Likewise, if people were not being explicitly killed because of their sexual identity also reveal something about our society?

        1. Rhywun

          Not with the tiny numbers involved.

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            True. Although, the transgender population is very small. Hypothetically, if 25 transgender people a year were being killed because of their sexuality, wouldn’t that be (in relative to the transgender population) a rather large number?

            I know that 25 transgender people are not being killed because of their sexuality every year, but if this were true wouldn’t it say something negative about our society?

            Sorry for being an ass here

          2. Caput Lupinum

            Not really. The murder rate among the trans population is still several times less than the murder rate for the population at large. Compared to the rates of prostitutes and drug addicts, the trans rates are downright minuscule. At a rate of less than thirty murders a year in a country of more than 300 million, the instances are so rare that positing anything to society at large seems incredibly specious.

          3. Their suicide rate, however, is still astronomically high.

            Could be something to do with using surgical mutilation to treat a psychological issue.

          4. Rhywun

            Several people in the twit-thread are making the case that transes are being killed at a lesser rate than the general population. I have no idea if that is accurate or not but at the very least it doesn’t seem like there is a “crisis” despite the best efforts of advocacy groups to promote one.

          5. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            I agree that what they are saying is not borne out in reality.

            I just meant hypothetically if what they were saying was true, it would suggest something negative about society. But, of course, that is merely hypothetical, because reality contradicts their point

          6. Scruffy Nerfherder

            If you contradict their victim narrative, you are victimizing them.

          7. Rhywun

            Sigh. OK, I will concede that your hypothetical *might* say something, if and only if every single such murder was random and motivated solely by “hate”. As we both know, that is not even remotely true – and probably never has been since the time that transgenders first started getting themselves noticed.

          8. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            I’m sorry for being an annoyance, Rhywun. But, this is who I am- annoying

          9. Rasilio

            I just meant hypothetically if what they were saying was true, it would suggest something negative about society.

            Not necessarily as you would have to control for several other conflating factors first.

            Transexuals are more likely to engage in sex work and sex workers are more likely to encounter violence than the population at large

            Transexuals use drugs at a far higher rate than the population at large

            Transexuals have far higher rates of mental illness

            Transexuals tend not to live in stable households or have stable jobs

            etc.

            Even if Transexuals were being killed at a higher rate than the population at large you would have to show that the they are being killed because they are transexuals and not because they are prostitutes, are drug users, are mentally unstable, or have chaotic lives

          10. Rhywun

            @Tulsi

            Not at all. It’s what we’re here for.

          11. I’d argue no, if for no other reason than 25 instances of anything happening cannot possibly reveal any greater truth about the roughly 3.3 billion people who live in the United States. The sample size is just too small. This is stipulating that there were 25 separate people who called the police station immediately afterwards and said, “I murdered person X because he/she was transgender.”

            I’m willing to wager that 25 people in the US did anything for any reason that you can think of yesterday.

          12. Sorry, that should be 300 some-odd million. Got my stats mixed up.

          13. Scruffy Nerfherder

            What’s the murder rate of the mentally ill? That should give you a larger pool to pick from.

          14. Rasilio

            The prevalence of transexualism is estimated at between 0.3 and 0.6% of the population. That works out to a total trans population of somewhere between 1 and 2 million in the country.

            According to the fact presented in the linked twitter thread (and posted by a trans activist so there is no reason to doubt it is undercounting significantly) the number of trans murder victims is ~25 – 30 a year so lets call it 30 murders a year

            30 murders in a population of 1 million gives a murder rate of 3 per 100k
            30 murders in a population of 2 million gives a murder rate of 1.5 per 100k

            The murder rate for the US population as a whole is ~4.5 per 100k

            If anything the numbers show that transexuals are significantly less likely to be the victims of murder than the cisgendered however it is just barely possible that they are murdered at roughly the same rate as everyone else if you assume trans murders are undercounted by a significant number.

        2. So, I’d give Jan the point if she was referring to a significant number of murders being committed because of the victim’s identity. IOW, if, say, 20% of homicides were “hate crimes”, where there was no relationship between the victim and the murderer and the sole motivation was the murderer’s hatred for the victim’s demographic.

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            And that’s what I meant. In a hypothetical world, where what Jan has said is correct and not just a religious dogma (which it is in reality), I think that Jan would be right to conclude that this says something negative about our society

          2. Sure, and I think that when you add up all of the “hate crimes” and are really, really flexible when it comes to your standards you still get nowhere near that number. Jan would need a world so far different from our own that she might as well say that the number of people turning into werewolves says a lot about how our society treats lycanthropy.

          3. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            I agree. My first comment was to call these people religious zealots.

            All I’m trying to flesh out is that it would be considered a negative reflection on our culture if transgender people where being murdered in a large number (relative to their size) due to their identities.

            Because I think it would say something very negative about our society if what they say is happening actually was happening

          4. Oh, no doubt. And to your point about religiosity, I totally agree. I think they start with the conclusion that our society is horribly flawed and in this case transphobic to a homicidal degree, and then they go and find instances of “proof”. Because they’re working backwards it’s no use trying to shift them on their proofs being inadequate to the point; they’ve already built the foundation, those are just the curtains.

          5. R C Dean

            Well, yeah, a society that was hunting down and killing trans people for being trans would be pretty terrible. Good thing that’s not this society. Not even close.

    3. Tonio

      Yeah, every time a trans person dies from violence my FB lights up with how this is a crisis. Those tearful accounts are always short on details. I’m glad he went to the trouble of doing this.

  16. Trigger Hippie

    ‘THAT candelabra has to be made of hammered gold, presumably by a hammered goldsmith.’

    ‘Not just any trumpets, hammered silver trumpets, presumably made by a hammered silversmith.’

    Yahweh is Yukon Cornelius?

    1. AlexinCT

      Scrooge McDuck…

  17. The Late P Brooks

    There’s so much I don’t know.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    This is what real journalism looks like, people!

    Control of Sports Illustrated’s media operations has changed hands once again, just three weeks after the now former SI owner Meredith Corp sold the magazine’s name and licensing rights to Authentic Brands Group. Per a press release posted by Meredith and sent out to SI staffers, Sports Illustrated’s print and digital publishing operations will now be run by a company called TheMaven, a relatively unknown start-up run by two notorious media fuck boys.

    According to an SEC filing published by Market Screener today, TheMaven has entered into a 10-year licensing agreement with ABG, which will give it control over SI’s print and digital operations. TheMaven prepaid $45 million to ABG against future royalties.

    Sports Illustrated is now in the hands of James Heckman, the founder of Scout.com, a sports media company whose business model relies on unpaid and underpaid labor, and Ross Levinsohn, a former Tronc executive who has twice been sued for workplace sexual misconduct, as NPR reported last year.

    “Fuck boys”?

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      Dude, it’s Deadspin.

      The last thing of value that they produced was when their editor was interviewed for a puff piece at the New Yorker and insisted that she was not just another upper-middle class white liberal hack by saying that she lives in Brooklyn and then adding “the part where there are Hispanics”.

      Ted Cruz runs a solid site.

    2. Caput Lupinum

      A fuck boy is the new term for player, a man that is only interested in sexual relationships and that leads multiple women on at once while avoiding commitment to any of them. It has also become a general insult for men that that are percieved as immature and dismissive of women.

      1. The Other Kevin

        So we might get back to sports and models in swimsuits?

        1. Caput Lupinum

          If not, we always have Q.

        2. Scruffy Nerfherder

          God forbid we get an another Paulina Porizkova

      2. Tonio

        Thanks. FB has a distinctively different meaning in my world; it’s a synonym for butt-boy.

        1. Caput Lupinum

          I was confused when it started popping up in the bios of straight women’s dating profiles, since I knew of it in the older meaning among gay men, and figured either AuH2O was leaving a baff impression on a lot of women or they were using it differently, so I looked it up.

  19. Francisco d’Anconia

    Hammered seems to be a big thing in Jewdom

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Don’t make me post the photos of you passed out on your couch.

      1. Francisco d’Anconia

        Anyone who hasn’t already seen pics of me hammered isn’t looking very hard

  20. mexican sharpshooter

    This freaked out Moses, who said to Yahweh

    I thought Moses couldn’t talk.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Hhhhhe cccccccould, bbbbbut he ttttended tttto sttttttutttttter.

      1. mexican sharpshooter

        I knew a guy with a stammer. He went for an AWACS slot…he didn’t get it.

        1. My dad has a stutter – something he had to deal with entire life. What is -odd- is how he got it. When he was 11 years old, he was crossing the street and got hit by an ice truck. When he woke up in the hospital, he began to stutter right there ‘n’ then. As he’s gotten older, it does seem drastically reduced than before – at least I remember it being worse when he as a 30 or 40-something.

          I also suffer from a small stutter – but only if I’m nervous or have to answer something on the spot. Otherwise it isn’t there at all.

          1. *entire = most of

          2. Sensei

            There is a student in my language class who has genuinely natural stutter, but only in Japanese. In native English no stutter.

            It’s the oddest thing – it isn’t him searching for the correct word or phrase, but an actual stutter the same way someone stutters in English.

          3. Old Man With Candy

            B-b-b-b-bakkayaro!

          4. Sensei

            Exactly!

      2. Dr. Fronkensteen

        Moses talked it was Jesus who didn’t.

        A burglar broke into a house one night. He shone his flashlight around, looking for valuables, he heard, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying, “Jesus is watching you”.

        He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off and froze. When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, promised himself a vacation after the next big score, then clicked the light back on and began searching more valuables. then clear as a bell he heard, “Jesus is watching you. ” Totally rattled, he shone his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.

        Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.

        “Did you say that?” He hissed at the parrot.

        “Yes,” the parrot confessed, then squawked, The burglar relaxed. “Who are you are anyway?”

        “Moses,” Replied the bird.

        “Moses” the burglar laughed.

        “What kind of stupid people would name a parrot ‘Moses’?”

        The bird promptly answered: “The same assholes that would name a Rottweiler ‘Jesus’!

  21. robc

    Due to a conversation on another site about Pete Gray (1-armed outfielder of the St Louis Browns in 1944), I looked up his wikipedia entry. Here is the best bit:

    In 1941, after the attack of Pearl Harbor, Gray attempted to join the Army, but was denied on the basis that he was an amputee. Gray was quoted about being denied entrance into the Army that, “If I could teach myself how to play baseball with one arm, I sure as hell could handle a rifle.”

    1. Sheesh, make the guy a grenadier, he already has the throwing arm for it..

      1. related: WWI soldier-poet Siegfried Sassoon single-handedly disposed of 60 German soldiers using only hand grenades

        Nevertheless, his most highlighted moment on the battlefield was on July 4, 1916, during the First Battle of the Somme. Sassoon, armed only with a bag of Mills bombs on his back (and a dash of sheer luck), decisively stormed a heavily guarded enemy trench at Mametz Wood in the Hindenburg Line.

        Strongly believing that signaling for reinforcements was futile, he instead hid in the German trench and began reading a book of poems that he had brought with him.

        In broad daylight, he solely went over with bombs, supported under safe covering fire from a couple of friendly rifles, and successfully managed to scare away the occupants. As he ran through the line, he pulled the safety pin with his teeth for throwing the grenades at a faster rate. The two-handed approach managed to scatter a trench full of 60 hardened German soldiers.

        When he returned from the German trenches, he did not even bother to report. Colonel Stockwell, who was in command of his company, was furious by Sassoon’s reckless act of bravery and raged at him:

        “I’d have got you a D.S.O., if you’d only shown more sense.”

  22. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/billionaire-conservative-donors-will-now-give-to-democrats-to-guard-against-progressive-upstarts-like-aoc

    OT: Koch network to begin funding “moderate Democrats”

    You really shouldn’t be as surprised by this as you are.

    1. You incorrectly assume that we are surprised.

      1. Sean

        I’m surprised that people believe that “moderate democrats” exist.

        1. I’m sure they’ll find people willing to don the label for cash.

        2. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          They went from supporting pro-war Republicans to supporting pro-war Democrats. They’re still on brand.

          I mean it’s not like they would donate most of their funding to Rand or Massie or even Amash (until he went to kiss the ring when the Chamber of Commerce tried to unseat him). Rand, Massie, and Amash didn’t even receive any Koch cash for their initial campaigns. The Ron Paul donor list was the source of their financial backing in those races.

          1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            TL/DR: Rich white people reflect the values of their class. The Kochs are no exception

          2. Chipwooder

            I imagine they’ll be surprised when the progs still try to get their names taken off of buildings.

          3. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

            And we’ll laugh, much as we did when woke college kids tried to de-platform ENB. You get what you deserve and no one should care when you receive what you’re asking for.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I, for one, am shocked… shocked I say.

    1. Rhywun

      I dunno but I did a double-take at one of the French players – she is like a foot taller than everyone else and, uh, kind of not-feminine looking. *shrugs*

      1. Raston Bot

        Wendie? she’s homely but i’m not sure i’d call her manly.

      2. LJW

        Other than the Brittney Griner lookalike, the French women’s team has several woulds.

    2. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Man-lady seems more appropriate.

    3. At first, my reaction was, “I don’t know, bro, if that’s a lady-boy that dude isn’t even tryin’.” So take that for what it’s worth.

    4. Old Man With Candy

      You’re giving Heroic Mulatto a boner with that, you know.

      1. Raston Bot

        then HM has set the bar very low for Thai lady-men.

    5. Unreconstructed

      If so, (s)he didn’t help much against the USWNT.

  23. Tonio

    “Not just their beards, we’re talking full Brazilian.”

    I have done extensive research on this topic and jews and arabs are among the hairiest of peoples.

    1. Gadfly

      And coincidentally, both Judaism and Islam have some of the strictest grooming standards of any religion.

      1. LJW

        Not sure if this is an intentional double entendre.

      2. Scruffy Nerfherder

        As opposed to dirty hippie Christianity?

        1. Gadfly

          Relatively? Yes. The ruleset is way more extensive for Judaism and Islam than for Christianity. Christianity is generally laxer than the other two, except when it comes to sexytimes, in which case it is stricter. Which come to think of it might be related to the laxer rules governing hygiene.

          1. Scruffy Nerfherder

            I was making a lame hippie Jesus joke.

          2. Judaism all bets are off as long as the load eventually ends up in a vagina.

      3. What about Mormons?

    2. Truth.

      Extra effort is definitely required to meet the standards set by your typical nubile nymphet.

    3. Chipwooder

      STEVE SMITH TOO HAVE DONE RESEARCH ON TOPIC, AND BY “RESEARCH”, MEAN…..

  24. one true athena

    Saying hello to Pie and any other Glib in Eastern Europe, from Vienna and Bratislava, where the family is vacationing. (we’re not getting any closer to Bucharest but Slovakia is sort of close, right?)

    uh Jewish connection. being in a place there aren’t any, anymore? and great big ostentatious Be Grateful To The USSR For Liberating You monuments.

  25. Donation Not Taxation

    As long as you are talking about transsexuals…On Green Acres, Ralph is female by birth, dresses male, goes by a male name, and is one of the “Monroe brothers,” but Ralph is romantically interested in Hank Kimball. Does that make Ralph a transsexual or not? If so, was Green Acres “woke” back in the 1960s?

    1. MikeS

      Tomboy

      1. kinnath

        correct

    2. Old Man With Candy

      She flirts with Oliver as well.

      SP and I noted that they use the word “wetback” on that show pretty often, so no, not woke.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Huh, never realized that. Of course, maybe I would have if I had watched more than two episodes

        1. Stinky Wizzleteats

          It’s a great old show, Mr. Haney was one of the best TV characters of all time.

          1. Old Man With Candy

            That’s the nickname for one of our sales guys at work.

            SP loves loves loves Hank Kimball.

    1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

      This whole antisemitic continual news loop (every. single. God. damn. week.) should be resolved by having woke millennial anti-Semite AOC mud wrestle one of these IDF girls. If she loses, she resigns her seat. If she wins, she can go on spouting anti-Semitic crap and the media can continue to give her a pass for saying shit that would make Pat Buchanan blush.

      I’m flexible on this proposition, though. Instead of mud wrestling it could just be a catfight with hair pulling and all that jazz. Her choice

      1. Tundra

        No, I think mud wrestling will be fine.

        1. “Tulsi Gabbard Apologist”

          True. Gives her a sporting chance. Those IDF gals know krav maga

          1. I volunteer to make an army of Jew-lets with 17.

        2. Scruffy Nerfherder

          Long live the patriarchs

        3. Florida Man

          Pistols at dawn is always the correct answer.

          1. R C Dean

            I could settle for Jello wrestling.

    2. Florida Man

      Blocked by work. What’s the gist?

      1. Tundra

        Bewbs.

      2. Hot Jewesses with guns.

        1. Florida Man

          I’m guessing it’s the guns part.

          1. Guns both metaphorical and literal.

          2. Gadfly

            These days it could be any one (or more) of the three parts.

    3. Tundra

      So, do these lovelies actually fight?

        1. Tundra

          Love that movie.

          1. l0b0t

            Don’t forget The Eagle Has Landed

  26. R C Dean

    Ay caramba. The migrant invasion is washing up in my hospital now. What a giant clusterhump. I hope Trump beats the Mexican and Central American governments into shape on this, because this cannot go on.

  27. creech

    OMWC would make a totally awesome Vacation Bible School teacher!

    1. AlmightyJB

      I’d like to see his OT translations compiled into a book.