Um.... what.... aka, this is the dumbest thing I've ever read

Naturally.

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just like when the cops investigate themselves

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I thought he was Jeshua ben Miriam…son of Miriam.

He didn’t become Christian till he died…my goodness, no wonder everyone argues over religion, it’s SO confusing!

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“replica and inert explosives”… *facepalm*

They’ve since seen the silliness of the position, but it was still pretty dumb in the first place.

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WTF????????????

ETA:

She added: “We really don’t get into censorship in such selections other than making sure that what we put in our school libraries are age-appropriate materials for our classrooms.”

I think this school superintendent needs to look up the definition of “censorship”

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I wouldn’t count this in Random Silly Grins, although certainly it is silly.

I’ve managed to spot a few of Rowling’s literary sources over the years. In the Name of the Rose has a herbalist monk named Severus, and the monks of his order drink pumpkin juice. The monastery itself is like a giant stone puzzle, and may have inspired some of the descriptions of Hogwarts. I think I’ve spotted some influences from John Le Carre’s George Smiley novels too.

She pulls from British folklore as well, but since those don’t trace back to a single book usually I don’t always catch those.

I’ve never had the stomach to read the Malleus Maleficarum, the infamous witchfinder book first published in the 15th century, but whenever this sort of thing comes up, I think Rowling must have at least browsed it.

“These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception,” Rev Dan Reehil wrote. “The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.”

A Catholic can’t claim this with a straight face unless they’re referring to the Malleus, pretty much. Bad news for Rev Reehil: the authors made that shit up. So if Rowling used it as a reference for curse and spell names (possible, since all her terms sound Latin-ish), they’re going to sound “real” to anyone credulous enough to take the Malleus at its word.

And I can’t find a reference on-line, but I know I’ve been told/have read more than once that it was discovered in the 19th century that their permission to publish was discovered to be a forgery. That is, they never had papal blessing.

Even if they did publish with permission, their claims about witches have been contested nearly since the first publication. From a scholarly point of view, it seems to be much more interesting for the attitudes it captures and the damage it did than for any actual witch behaviour it captures.

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Thanks! That’s very interesting.
Yeah, I think I should have put this in the Wha. . . this is the stupidest thing I’ve read thread.

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@ChickieD, thanks for moving these.

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Okay, to some of you this may make sense…BUT NOT TO ME, LOLOLOLOLOL!
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/icebreaker-questions-to-use-when-meeting-new-people?from=career_guide_newsletter_2019_08_jsx_for_cg_us_template_v1&utm_campaign=jsx_for_cg&utm_source=career_guide_newsletter_2019_08_jsx_for_cg_us_template_v1&utm_medium=email

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Thread (I advise not having anything at hand to throw at your screen, especially when you reach Tweet #4):

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You’d think he’d be ashamed to be so terrified of a girl.

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There’s so much to unpack here. You have the Deputy Press Secretary making a statement that nobody asked for Pence is totally not anti gay. And for evidence he points out that Pence had a meal with the PM of the country he was in - who so happened to be gay. Like he was supposed to just tell him to fuck off or something.

I guess what do we make of Trump’s meetings with various fascist and authoritarian dictators based on this logic?

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My ideal answer for almost all of those would be something along the lines of, “I’ll do some introspection on that and get back to you.” I guess some people just go around memorizing those questions and canned answers to them?

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Also in, the administration is totally not racist. They are friends with Kanye.

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I’m reminded of this immensely painful exchange:

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My brain hurts now.

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And, in the same email that provided me with that information…

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/how-to-format-a-cover-letter-example?from=career_guide_newsletter_2019_08_jsx_for_cg_us_template_v1&utm_campaign=jsx_for_cg&utm_source=career_guide_newsletter_2019_08_jsx_for_cg_us_template_v1&utm_medium=email

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The person who I know who wrote a book on resumes says pretty much no one reads the cover letters. They take about 7 seconds to skim a resume. I kinda do a form cover just do it’s there.

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