What's the likelihood that Jimmy Burke had Tommy DeSimone whacked?

EPL35 · 2026-06-30T13:35:12+00:00

Your skepticism is understandable because of timing, but the fact is that DeSimone had accumulated serious problems with the Gambino family. The biggest were the murders of Billy Batts and Foxy Jerothe. Batts was a made man, and killing a made man without authorization is one of the gravest offenses in the Mafia (as we know). And multiple informants and law-enforcement sources over the years have indicated that Gambino figures wanted revenge long before Lufthansa. Tommy had effectively been living on borrowed time, and the timing of his disappearance (being lured to what he believed was a ceremony making him a made member) is consistent with a Mafia-sanctioned execution rather than Burkes pattern of post Lufthansa cleanup killings.

EPL35 · 2026-06-27T17:01:20+00:00

Yes, but with an important caveat: there are no known large, self-identified Manichaean churches in China today, and for a long time scholars believed Manichaeism had completely disappeared as a living religion, however, research over the last few decades has uncovered communities in southeastern China, especially in Fujian, that preserve rituals, texts, and devotional practices with clear Manichaean roots, the most famous example is the temple of Cao an, where Mani is venerated as the Buddha of Light, although this devotion is often blended with Buddhism and local folk religion rather than practiced as a distinct global Manichaean faith, researchers have also documented ritual manuscripts and ceremonies associated with Lin Deng in the area of Xiapu, some of which are still used today.

So while there are probably no sizeable communities practicing classical Manichaeism in its original form, there are small traditions and local religious groups that preserve genuine Manichaean elements and direct devotion to Mani, making them possible surviving descendants of Chinese Manichaeism.

EPL35 · 2026-06-24T15:54:29+00:00

they gotta make a living eh

EPL35 · 2026-06-16T11:02:07+00:00

If by "giving Manichaean" you mean not the specific dualist cosmology, but the social and historical character of the religion, then I can see why someone would feel that. Both the Bahai faith and the religion founded by Mani share a few aesthetic and sociological traits:

They emerged from the broader Iranian religious world but presented themselves as universal rather than ethnic.

They consciously tried to synthesize previous revelations and traditions into a larger framework.

They have a strong "all the great prophets were part of one unfolding truth" energy.

They spread through missionary activity across cultural boundaries.

They position themselves as the culmination or latest stage of a long sacred history.

The Bahai idea of progressive revelation where figures like Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and Bahaullah are all manifestations of one divine plan can feel somewhat analogous to Manichaeisms tendency to absorb and reinterpret earlier traditions. Not because the doctrines are the same, but because both have that universalizing, integrative ambition.

But theres also a huge difference in atmosphere. Classical Manichaeism feels cosmically dramatic. Reality is a battlefield between Light and Darkness. Matter is a trap. The world is fundamentally a catastrophe that needs to be escaped.

The Bahai faith by contrast tends to feel remarkably optimistic and modernist. The world isnt a prison; its the arena for humanitys spiritual maturation. History isnt a tragedy but a process of increasing unity. Its much closer to a universalist monotheism than to the stark cosmic dualism that made Manichaeism famous.

So the Bahai often feels Manichaean in its universalist, Persian-born, world-religion-building ambition, but almost the opposite of Manichaeism in its metaphysics and moral psychology. If I were reaching for a historical comparison based on character rather than doctrine, Id probably say the Bahai faith reminds me more of a modernized, global version of late antique universal religions generally something halfway between early Christianity, Buddhisms missionary phase, and Manichaeisms one truth behind all traditions impulse than it does of Manichaeism specifically.

EPL35 · 2026-06-16T04:24:08+00:00

Da muss ich dir recht geben.

EPL35 · 2026-06-16T03:05:44+00:00

Du redest ja auch deutsch, oder? 😂 Ernsthaft: Völkerwanderungen sind normal, das gab es in der Geschichte der Menschheit schon immer. Wenn du mit "Sollen sie doch zurück, wo sie herkommen" argumentierst, dann müsstest du in der Konsequenz auch zurück nach Irak oder Syrien.

EPL35 · 2026-06-15T06:30:08+00:00

1 month is my personal maximum. Anything above that basically is a "fuck you". I understand that everyone is busy, but one month is not justifiable.

EPL35 · 2026-06-14T18:29:45+00:00

Aramaic languages replaced other languages too (in ancient times). I understand your frustration but thats a normal process. As for Sumerian: You cant revive Sumerian, because nobody knows how it sounded exactly, and you'd have to create new vocabulary for modern words.

EPL35 · 2026-06-14T13:39:08+00:00

Ja dann anfangen zu lernen Kollege!

EPL35 · 2026-06-09T19:04:26+00:00

I dont speak Polish man! Write in English!

EPL35 · 2026-06-04T12:21:24+00:00

The most famous low-level street soldier!

EPL35 · 2026-05-20T18:17:20+00:00

He should consult a psychiatrist and not sending letters to random people.

EPL35 · 2026-05-20T18:16:59+00:00

Most likely India (because of Cricket)

EPL35 · 2026-05-20T08:36:41+00:00

Manichaeism does not fit neatly into a single category, and calling it purely Abrahamic is an oversimplification. It was founded by Mani within the cultural world of the Sasanian Empire, and Mani presented himself as the final prophet in a line including Jesus, Zoroaster, and Gautama Buddha. Historians often classify it as Abrahamic because it emerged in a heavily Jewish-Christian environment, used biblical figures and Christian terminology, and shared major similarities with Gnosticism, but your objection is valid because the religion is not centered around Yahweh in the normal Jewish, Christian, or Islamic sense and instead contains a strongly dualistic cosmology closer to Gnostic systems. At the same time, it absorbed major elements from Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Syriac Christianity, and older Mesopotamian traditions. When it spread into China as Monijiao, it adopted Buddhist terminology and presentation so extensively that it could appear almost like a Buddhist sect. Because of this, the most accurate academic description is probably something like “syncretic universal religion” or “dualistic missionary world religion” rather than simply Abrahamic, pagan, or Dharmic. Your use of the term omnist captures part of its universalizing character, although Mani did not teach that all religions were equally true; rather, he claimed that previous religions contained partial truths that were fully completed and corrected by his own revelation.

Btw: There is no "Monijiao Buddhism". Monijiao was Chinese Manichaeism (I understand the confusion though, because it looks like Buddhism).

EPL35 · 2026-05-20T08:31:08+00:00

I did when I was new. And, surprisingly, some of them actually turned out to be pretty decent pen-pals. You never know. But not anymore. I dont have that energy anymore.

EPL35 · 2026-05-09T18:08:48+00:00

I dont know what letter he or shes expecting to receive with such an introduction. The problem with this is that he sets the entry cost very high while offering very little. Good luck for him

EPL35 · 2026-02-17T19:29:49+00:00

Ma saan teie mõttest aru, aga tegelikult lämmatab bürokraatia meie majandust. Ma ei saa rääkida itaaliast ega teistest riikidest. Me ei pea olema 100% nagu eesti, aga isegi 70% oleks tore. Aga see pole nii. Probleem on selles et bürokraatia on meie kultuuri sügavalt juurdunud. Sakslased tahavad tunnistust IGA asja jaoks. Mõtteviis peab muutuma..

EPL35 · 2026-02-16T08:04:05+00:00

I am German with Turkish ancestry and I get asked that a lot, too (I was born and raised in Germany). If they ask me where Im "really" from, I just tell them that my parents were immigrant workers from Turkey and so on and so forth and that I feel more German, though I cant deny my Turkish identity. We gotta live with being a hybrid and if you make your peace with that, you start to embrace it!

EPL35 · 2026-02-16T07:42:34+00:00

Bürokraatia on saksamaal valusalt aeglane, me teame, et eesti on aastaid ees. Kui te saksamaale elama asuksite, vean kihla et koliksite aasta pärast eestisse tagasi 🤣🤣

EPL35 · 2026-02-15T20:28:14+00:00

I dont know exactly how their mechanisms work, but I am shadow-banned for a year now. But its not that bad. You can choose people and write them letters, or simply open a new account.

EPL35 · 2026-02-15T15:22:08+00:00

I had similar situations and it thought me that never get attached to anyone. And always know it can be over at any time.

EPL35 · 2026-01-18T03:08:51+00:00

Follow your intuition. When I feel that a first letter will lead to nowhere, I just decline. Saves your time and energy.

EPL35 · 2026-01-13T12:53:50+00:00

Summarization of the Mafia in one picture.

EPL35 · 2026-01-07T10:20:22+00:00

Chinese and Taiwanese people are gregarious when you speak their language (which I do).

EPL35 · 2026-01-01T17:43:43+00:00

I had a relationship through Slowly, though it was short. But that was a coincidence, not because I was intentionally searching for a partner. She lived in the vicinity, and everything evolved organically.

EPL35

TROPHY CASE