I theorize that the fragile straights aren’t actually straight. Which I assume is what the developer is poking fun at with the quotation marks.

Our social default is still to assume that most people are straight. It doesn’t make sense for a straight person to have a driving need to prove that they are straight … unless they think someone would have a good reason to put them into a “non-straight” category.

They do. There are a few elite non-religious private schools in Louisville.

But they are far outnumbered by parochial schools.

I grew up in the Assemblies of God denomination. When I graduated from high school, I left home to go to college, expanded my horizons, and ultimately ended up deconstructing my religious beliefs. I have considered myself to be an atheist for more than 20 years, but I still have strong ethical beliefs that basically parallel the Christian teachings of empathy for the marginalized and the disadvantaged.

For the past 8 years, I’ve watched my “decent Christian” family slide further and further into Trumpism. They are unrecognizable as the people who taught me the value of Christlike behavior.

Most days, I feel like I’m a better Christian than they are. I’ve wondered for a long time how the same people who instilled those values in me have been led so far astray.

I recognize in hindsight that they were motivated by fear of God rather than love for their fellow humans. Fox News and Trump have preyed on that fear and gradually expanded it until it has turned to hatred of anyone who doesn’t look or vote like them.

American voters do seem to have very short memories.

Even faced with actual data that indicates that the economy has consistently performed better under Democrats over the past 75 years, they still pretend that the party of the oligarchs is somehow going to solve the problems of the working class.

Donald Trump is very open about his own anti-labor policies as an employer, yet the very people who hate being screwed over by their bosses worship him.

I don’t understand how anyone can function with this level of cognitive dissonance.

Are we definitely skipping the 2028 election, then?

I don’t see any recommendations for The Lost Boys yet. It’s super '80s in the “both Coreys” way. It’s dated, but still a lot of fun.

Prince of Darkness is a guilty pleasure for me. I love religious horror, so it’s my favorite John Carpenter movie. There are some fairly violent bits, but it’s not overly gory like a slasher flick. If you’re okay with The Thing, this one should be fine.

The Endless is also religious horror, but it’s more psychological. There’s not much violence, but it’s very tense.

Little Monsters (the 2019 one) is a heartwarming comedy about a teacher who has to protect her class from a zombie apocalypse during a field trip. It’s got a moderate amount of zombie-movie gore, but it’s treated in a humorous way. If you’re okay with Shaun of the Dead, it should be fine.

Hubs and I didn’t love the movie, but we totally adore the series.

I’m in a book club that is reading Brave New World. Several members bristled when I pointed out that sporting events and booze are basically our equivalent of Obstacle Golf and soma.

I’m pretty sure the goal of public radio and television is basically this. Maybe see how you can help your local stations.

I recently saw a shirt for sale online that says, “I’m sorry for everything I said when I was evangelical,” and that really just about sums it up.

If Dobbs continues to be the law of the land for any real length of time, we can also expect crime rates to rise in 18 to 20 years, just as they fell in the same time frame after Roe. But I’m sure the GOP is already planning to spin that as the Democrats’ fault, too.

To be honest, I don’t trust The Telegraph any more than I trust The Onion. At least The Onion is straightforward about what they are.

Yes. Yes it does.

From Media Bias/Fact Check:

Bias Rating: RIGHT

Factual Reporting: MIXED

Country: United Kingdom

MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE

Media Type: Newspaper

Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic

MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY

It has taken the better part of 50 years to get from there to here. I wouldn’t say it was easy.

The evangelical bloc was the hardest to convince. They had to get some capitalist representation in the churches to counteract all of that business about “helping the poor” and “blessed be the meek” that Jesus was always going on about.

Once they got Joel Osteen to convince millions of viewers that Jesus wanted them to be rich, that really clinched it for them.

Every case of a random person hiring a “hitman” that I have heard of has, in fact, been someone hiring an undercover cop. And the people soliciting the services went to jail for a good long while.

There’s a big cake mix manufacturing plant near where I grew up, and I knew a lot of people who worked there. They all confirmed that the only difference between the name brand cake mix and the store brand they made was the box they put it into at the end of the process.

Teacher here. I consider all of the teachers I’ve worked with, and I consider how few of them I would trust with a loaded firearm under the best possible circumstances (maybe 10 percent).

Then I consider the number of those who would actually consider using a firearm (down to about 3 percent).

And then I consider how many of those I would trust with a firearm in a room full of students… and it’s zero.

I finally just avoided the problem by moving to a country where civilians are not generally allowed to own guns and school shootings are not a problem.

Oh, man. What a day that was. I was in first grade, still too young to understand that there were people in that thing and that those people died.

When we watched it blow up like fireworks, I don’t think we realized that wasn’t what it was supposed to do. Our poor teacher had to process it pretty quickly so she could explain it to us.

I have yet to take a flight where my Bluetooth earbuds will connect to the screen built into the seat in front of me.

The way that someone responds to you is a reflection of them, not of you. If someone in your life is wildly inconsistent, all you can do is make sure that you are maintaining consistency yourself.

I’ve worked with a number of people who acted like we were besties one day and then gave me the cold shoulder for weeks. I spent too many years wondering what was wrong with me before I finally figured out that their mood swings had nothing to do with me.