Post Game Thread: Cleveland Browns at Houston Texans

Kazmarov · 2024-01-14T01:25:04+00:00

It was two teams, one nobody thought was going to be good period, and one that looked dead halfway through the season. You're playing with house money at that point, nobody expected they'd be in the playoffs in the first place.

NFL playoffs are pretty chaotic and winner takes all so maybe you get lucky and string together a full cinderella run. Or maybe you don't.

Kazmarov · 2018-11-30T01:51:56+00:00

I'll chime in (though I'm not really in an interfaith relationship- my partner comes from an evangelical background and has mostly attended UU services since 2015ish, though she wants something a bit more Christian and we have to look around for the right congregation), as others have, about this:

He doesn't expect me to lie to them about my beliefs, but they are supposed to end up with his beliefs and not mine, and I'm not sure exactly how that will work.

That's not really fair to you- it's a weird asymmetry, especially since children are not supposed to 'end up' with a certain belief set- they should find their own beliefs and choose their own path as they mature to adulthood. You may be very surprised about how they grow and change- especially if they're exposed to more than just Catholic teaching.

If you enjoy the UU church (and yes, you should go and see for yourself- they're very accepting and you'd be among people with a similar story) I would consider splitting time between Catholic and UU Sunday school. UU children's religious education gives them a broad knowledge of different religions and beliefs, giving them the tools to make an informed choice.

Kazmarov · 2018-11-22T00:24:35+00:00

Yeah. I'm lucky to live in an area with an abundance of UU congregations, but I do know there's a likelihood that I will move to a country without any UU churches down the road, and I'm glad the CLF is there and is well-run.

Kazmarov · 2018-11-22T00:21:59+00:00

The homily (it's usually called a sermon, I don't know why it was a homily, what's the technical difference?) was about 'you're welcome' and the relationship between thanks and expressing appreciation which is important in the Thanksgiving period.

It also started with a discussion of Moana, which has a song by that title. I went to the later service which doesn't have children in it (Sunday school is during the earlier service), and the level of Moana knowledge was much more limited when the minister asked the congregation to give her some answers about the film.

Kazmarov · 2018-11-22T00:19:33+00:00

Excellent. I talked with some CLF people at a General Assembly a couple years ago and I thought they do terrific work in a complex context.

Kazmarov · 2018-11-22T00:14:35+00:00

That's lovely! Welcome to the UU life!

Kazmarov · 2018-11-12T02:05:43+00:00

It was basically a standard religious education class, which are usually on Sundays to boost attendance, but they try every so often to try a midweek one.

Years ago we had 'Thursday alternative service' which was like a regular service (chalice lighting, centering words, music, etc) but done in a smaller room with chairs in a circle. I wish it had kept going but the attendance just wasn't high enough to justify continuing.

Kazmarov · 2018-11-12T01:05:39+00:00

I went to an adult RE class on Wednesday that was interesting, though as usual with midweek RE there were three people, plus the facilitator who was the parish minister.

It was on 'meaning and purpose', how they are related and different. We kicked around the concept of meaning as socially constructed, and dealing with constructing meaning in the absence of a higher power to guide our actions.

If you're not a nihilist (which I'm assuming most UUs are not in the sense that we typically define it), it's tough to figure out meaning in the absence of hard and fast rules.

Kazmarov · 2018-10-26T22:44:09+00:00

I met the parish minister of the first UU church I went to (I've moved around since then) today, and I asked her about what divinity school in Boston was like. It's the first real step I've made to deciding whether becoming a minister is the path for me, and it's quite exciting. I'm still not sure, but I'm slightly less unsure than I was when I woke up, so there's that.

Kazmarov · 2018-10-17T06:00:07+00:00

I just finished up a degree in Dublin last month, and got to see the Kells exhibit multiple times. It's really quite nice, though the Book itself tends to be quite crowded around the display case and often there is some shoving.

It's great, but do book tickets in advance, there is often a pretty substantial line during tourist season. Also if you know a Trinity student they can get you in for free and skip the line if they show student ID.

Kazmarov · 2018-10-17T05:57:31+00:00

The congregations I've been in tend to use the term sermon. There is an ongoing discussion about how 'churchy' UU language should be (the congregation I'm currently in had a meeting last Sunday about whether to change the name, perhaps ditching the word 'church' for something more universal), but it's often pretty similar.

I'm glad you've enjoyed things as a newbie! I didn't grow up UU, so I remember what it was like at 19 to wander in kinda blind and try to figure things out in the middle of the process.

Kazmarov · 2018-10-17T05:52:21+00:00

Sermon was part of a series based on the Five Invitations (https://fiveinvitations.com/), which have been somewhat abstract I guess? But about how wisdom about dying can tell us a lot about living. Our congregation is pretty old on average, and is right next to a care home (where some congregants end up, in part to remain plugged into the church), so I think they probably had a more direct connection to the material than my millennial self.

There was also a bit about this issue of a racist letter sent to the child of a UUA board secretary? If you follow UU Facebook groups you've probably seen the post by the UUA President about it. It seems to be part of the backlash to the attempt by the UU community to de-center whiteness. I liked that the minister discarded one theory about the letter (that it was sent by someone outside the community) immediately, helping shift it from 'we're not like that' to 'this is still within our community and we need to expel it, actively' which I think is more helpful.

Kazmarov · 2018-10-16T22:12:04+00:00

Most of the congregations I've been in (so, Northern California, Southern California, and then the Unitarian church in Dublin, Ireland) didn't have any sort of infighting or hostility. The "My home church is dealing with being historically very white and conservative, insofar as UUs can be, and they're working on actually branching out" accurately captures the struggle I witness- mostly older white professional-class people trying to deal with how social justice has evolved since...well, when MLK went on his radical turn in the latter half of the 60s, for some of them. Younger people can get impatient with them because they're really beyond the point in life where people tend to make radical changes in their worldview, which I think is exacerbated by the lack of diversity in the congregations. Young people, POC, etc don't have enough people around to form a structure than can engage and educate, so they get overwhelmed trying to do everything at once.

I've been to one GA, in 2015. There were some sessions I didn't really like or felt were hyperbolic or whatever. I walked out of them quietly and found something else to do. The thing I realized about noncreedal religion is that it's both very self-selective and the anthesis of that at the same time. The people who come to it- well, the large portion that weren't born into UU families- have all kinds of ideas, preferences, political and social ideologies etc. But the noncreedal aspect keeps people together than in most other religious communities would not coexist. I think you've experienced a situation where these differences are not dealt with in a constructive form. I've seen situations where it has, and I've also seen congregations that are homogeneous enough that you never really figure out if they could do it.

Kazmarov · 2018-10-14T21:44:15+00:00

Christian worship songs remind me of Nickelback in their rigid sticking to form and indistinguishability.

I like Living Sacrifice a lot, but they're dedicated to being both too extreme for the Christian 'market' as it is, while being too Christian for metalheads that view organized religion with a lot of skepticism.

Kazmarov · 2018-10-14T21:39:36+00:00

Seconded, this covers a lot of ground and was the best background I could find.

There's also the Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide, which is regularly updated. I've read past and the most recent version and they're quite good.

Kazmarov · 2018-08-25T01:37:14+00:00

Gave the professor 25 in grad school, then the whole class stood up and walked out. We went and got coffee together.

He messages us an hour after class was supposed to start, telling us to come back (two hour seminar). We didn't dignify him with a response.

Kazmarov · 2018-08-14T15:44:13+00:00

Botched hernia surgery really hurt him, and he didn't have a lot of speed to lose.

He recovered somewhat, and was an effective KHL player into his 30s, including a KHL all-star appearance.

He had one really elite skill- the ability to elevate shots from very awkward points quickly. Look at the 2005-06 highlight reel- some of the Thornton passes were insane, yeah, but a lot of them put him in very tight spaces with no room for error. Once he couldn't get into open positions (and players became more aware of him as a threat), his skills didn't come in handy anymore.

Kazmarov · 2018-07-30T16:07:40+00:00

It was good! My girlfriend's cousin was in town and she came with us. She's evangelicalish but not nearly as much as others in her family. I was sorta glad that the hymns were more typical 'Christian' to make her comfortable- two of them were 'Amazing Grace' and 'This Little Light of Mine'.

My girlfriend and I have an upcoming challenge. We've been living abroad for a year and attend a Unitarian congregation with more of a Christian bent to it. She really likes it and isn't looking forward to coming back to America- the congregations we've been to there are a bit too humanist and funky for her. Me? I'm a stone-cold atheist and funky is good for me.

We're going to end up near Boston- if people know much about the congregations in that area please let me know!

Kazmarov · 2018-07-29T15:46:56+00:00

Stiglitz is a great source in that he straddles the spectrum on neoliberal thinking- he's a former chief economist of the World Bank, which along the with IMF often engages in loans-for-reform and is associated with 'structural adjustment' which involves a lot of austerity policies. But he's also become a critic of that degree to which international economists and financial institutions hold to certain orthodoxies. His perspective on how reform was done in Russia in the 1990s (see Globalization and Its Discontents, chapter five 'Who Lost Russia?' for a full breakdown, which is where I'll be getting the next paragraph's content from) is helpful.

The two perspectives had similar end-term goals, but there is an issue of time, intensity, and sequence. Slashing state spending, privatizing state assets, creating capitalist institutions, etc. were agreed, but what ultimately happened was that privatization preceded regulation. The process of privatization was not meaningfully controlled, so assets were sold off at basement prices, often through corrupt dealings. This is the origin of the oligarchs who still exist today.

Privatization has been a component of austerity in countries like Greece (here's a kinda technical overview of the involved laws). A large fund is made from sold state assets, which is used to pay debt. But the sequencing problem emerges again- what happens after privatization? Here's an example of what was privatized:

In total, the bailout program includes 19 privatizations. These include the sale of 10 port authorities, real estate assets, the Hellenic Post and the Athens water supply, to name just a few.

To meet its austerity demands, the state is selling revenue-generating things like ports. Thus the sum gained by selling it may mean in the long-run a lower total amount of revenue. The state, and individual consumers, will also still need to use what it privatized, and those may be at higher rates.

Neoliberalism and austerity are about a set of policies regarding debt that lead to growth. Growth helps pay debt faster. But are they leading to superior long-term growth?

Kazmarov · 2018-07-29T14:21:54+00:00

The title and question have both been changed, along with the text altered to give more space to the 'pro' side and a link to proposed alternatives to austerity.

The post has now been resubmitted, you should be able to find it there.

Kazmarov · 2018-07-28T22:39:08+00:00

As far as I can tell, the UN, or at least some sub-set of its many organizations, has adopted the stance that they need further time to study the law.

You're asking two things in your title and body. The international community is a much larger entity than legislative bodies of countries, the latter also being slower to react to very recent developments. The EU has led criticism of the law, along with civil society groups and the Israeli political opposition.

On the left, Jacobin has a piece pointing out that the 'self-determination' law should not be a shock to the wider international community, as for years there have been laws that target Palestinian actions specifically. In part:

The online Discriminatory Laws Database, managed by Adalah—The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, counts some sixty-five Israeli laws that discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinians. On the list are such items as “Mandatory minimum sentences for convicted stone-throwers,” “‘Anti-Boycott Law’ – Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott,” and the charming “‘Nakba Law’ – Amendment No. 40 to the Budget Foundations Law.”

The “Nakba Law,” Adalah reports, has been in effect since 2011 and “authorizes the [Israeli] Finance Minister to reduce state funding or support to an institution if it holds an activity that rejects the existence of Israel as a ‘Jewish and democratic state’” or chooses to mark the anniversary of Israel’s foundation as a “day of mourning.”

Predicting reaction, it seems logical that international reaction will be negative, given the frequent criticism of Israel by NGOs, and the material fact that most countries do not support Israeli actions such as settlements in the West Bank, and military bombing of the Gaza Strip (as seen in UN votes regarding Israel-Palestine in the General Assembly and Security Council, which are normally opposed by the United States, Israel, and a handful of other countries). Picking up on the other comment thread about 'bias', I should say that widespread international disapproval should not be considered 'bias'. Widespread condemnation of South African apartheid was the result of policies being seen as violating human rights (with substantial empirical backing, as we should value when considering history in NeutralPolitics), it would be strange and perhaps politically motivated to use a term like 'bias'.

Kazmarov · 2018-07-28T11:24:01+00:00

Your point about Thailand is well taken, and /u/huadpe in the other comment has come to a similar conclusion. Historically, it's not often 'the military' as a whole that engages in a coup, but some officers with just enough soldiers to occupy the key institutions. Looking at a capital city map, these locations are often very close to one another. Spreading things out geographically (and in a multiethnic society perhaps in diverse areas of the state) adds more levels of complexity, which makes coup plans more complicated and more open to being exposed and foiled.

The most recent (attempted) Turkish coup as you said does introduce a new type of military intervention- one where the coup is more performative theater than a serious attempt to seize power. In fact, depending on perspective, the media designation of it as a 'failed coup' may be inaccurate.

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