Jamie123

...just in case she reads this board.
After the brave, brave stand taken by Lady A and The Chicks in removing the terrible words "Antebellum" and "Dixie" from their names, isn't it time you thought about YOUR name...Miss Twain? Twain is a five letter word with an "a" in it...like "slave"...and it even has an "i" in the same position as...Dixie?
See what I'm getting at, Miss Twain?
Also if you jumble up the letters of "Shania Twain"...and take some away...and add some others...you can spell out "General Lee". Rearrange them again, and add a few more, and take away some others and you can make "Ku Klux Klan" and "Uncle Remus". Do you really think no one's ever noticed that??? 
And on top of all that, you have the same surname as Mark Twain, who used the N-word in his books!
I suggest you quickly change your surname to Shania Blacklivesmatter, because black lives matter, and if you don't support Black Lives Matter then you clearly don't think that black lives matter, so you might just as well change your name to Adolf Hitler.
(Sorry to bring my ranting here. It's just that my family tell me they're sick of hearing about it.) 

You know, what REALLY makes me mad is that on TV this morning they had an ad for their new album. "The Chicks are back! With their new album Gaslighter!" No mention that these are actually The Dixie Chicks, and with this look...

...you might well be confused.
"Gaslighter" is the word for it all right! Making out like they had always been called "The Chicks", so that if we thought they were ever called The Dixie Chicks, we must be going crazy!
"Whoever controls the present controls the past".
Ingsoc! Airstrip One! Room 101!
etc. etc. etc...

We'll never be sick of your ranting here, Jamie. 
By the way... you have an A and an I on that name too!  Oooohhhh....

...just in case she reads this board.
After the brave, brave stand taken by Lady A and The Chicks in removing the terrible words "Antebellum" and "Dixie" from their names, isn't it time you thought about YOUR name...Miss Twain? Twain is a five letter word with an "a" in it...like "slave"...and it even has an "i" in the same position as...Dixie?
See what I'm getting at, Miss Twain?
Also if you jumble up the letters of "Shania Twain"...and take some away...and add some others...you can spell out "General Lee". Rearrange them again, and add a few more, and take away some others and you can make "Ku Klux Klan" and "Uncle Remus". Do you really think no one's ever noticed that??? 
And on top of all that, you have the same surname as Mark Twain, who used the N-word in his books!
I suggest you quickly change your surname to Shania Blacklivesmatter, because black lives matter, and if you don't support Black Lives Matter then you clearly don't think that black lives matter, so you might just as well change your name to Adolf Hitler.
(Sorry to bring my ranting here. It's just that my family tell me they're sick of hearing about it.) 

Interesting - I've never heard of "Dark Matter" (in that context - I guessed you weren't talking about astronomy). My "sarcastic comments" (as you call them) were intended as a kind of Adrian Plass pastiche. Plass - probably my favourite Christian writer after C.S. Lewis - sometimes does comical rewrites of scriptures to make them conform to certain "Christian" attitudes that he finds questionable: for example, we have the version of the Prodigal Son, where the father says: "Too right I'll make thee as one of my hired men! Thou shalt from henceforth be third assistant bog cleaner!" 
A "holy vending machine" - I like that analogy! "Let's bring the ark to the battle! Then we can't lose!"
That's very interesting. I still think it was rather hard on Uzzah though - it wasn't like he was personally responsible for all the naughtiness of his nation. But I guess the same could be said of Ananias and Saphira, Lot's wife, the two sons of Aaron who got fried in the Tent of Meeting...and a lot of other people besides. God is very mysterious.
P.S. I think Luke 13:4 may have some relevance here.

...just in case she reads this board.
After the brave, brave stand taken by Lady A and The Chicks in removing the terrible words "Antebellum" and "Dixie" from their names, isn't it time you thought about YOUR name...Miss Twain? Twain is a five letter word with an "a" in it...like "slave"...and it even has an "i" in the same position as...Dixie?
See what I'm getting at, Miss Twain?
Also if you jumble up the letters of "Shania Twain"...and take some away...and add some others...you can spell out "General Lee". Rearrange them again, and add a few more, and take away some others and you can make "Ku Klux Klan" and "Uncle Remus". Do you really think no one's ever noticed that??? 
And on top of all that, you have the same surname as Mark Twain, who used the N-word in his books!
I suggest you quickly change your surname to Shania Blacklivesmatter, because black lives matter, and if you don't support Black Lives Matter then you clearly don't think that black lives matter, so you might just as well change your name to Adolf Hitler.
(Sorry to bring my ranting here. It's just that my family tell me they're sick of hearing about it.) 

I honestly think you have been reading too many British tabloids.  Here in the USA it is just the opposite.  No one sues poor people (someone that is not well financed), groups, companies or organizations that have no money to pay.   What happens with the rich is that the suit gets settled out of court with a NDS (Non Discloser Agreement).   
I assume this is the same in the UK - there are two kinds of courts.  The criminal courts and the civil courts.  Citizens cannot sue in a criminal court so it is beyond stupid to expect money from a criminal court- which BTW is under the control of the government.  Civil courts are a whole different matter.  Anyone can attempt to sue anybody for anything they wish - it does not mean that it will go to court but the paper work can be done for anything and I believe it is simple enough that you do not even need a lawyer.  I am not an expert but I think if the amount is under $5,000 the suit will go to small claims court where most of the time there are no lawyers anyway.  Since the lawyer gets a lot (often half the settlement) - some of the wealthiest lawyers are those that specialize in claim settlement.
My point is two fold.  First - that here in the USA it is very easy to file a law suit and claim damages.   Second - if there is any remote chance you were treated badly or in any way can be made to seem or appear that they treated you badly; by anybody with financial resources - the lawyers here in the USA will line up and beg you to allow them to represent you.  Lawyers have much better chances of making a bundle in a law suit - even if it is sketchy at best - than by anybody purchasing a lottery ticket.  When was the last time you purchased a lottery ticket thinking you might will something?
 
The Traveler

My apologies to @JohnsonJones for saying that he lied. I don't know that he lied. That is not my call to make. I'm sincerely sorry.
My apologies also to @Jamie123 and to the rest of the list for introducing contention into this thread.

I rather thought it was now about Republican vs. Democrat flags - so being neither I'm keeping out of it!

Though perhaps "vending machine" doesn't quite work. After all, you need to put something into a vending machine in order to get something out. Maybe it was more like "the goose that laid the golden egg".

Interesting - I've never heard of "Dark Matter" (in that context - I guessed you weren't talking about astronomy). My "sarcastic comments" (as you call them) were intended as a kind of Adrian Plass pastiche. Plass - probably my favourite Christian writer after C.S. Lewis - sometimes does comical rewrites of scriptures to make them conform to certain "Christian" attitudes that he finds questionable: for example, we have the version of the Prodigal Son, where the father says: "Too right I'll make thee as one of my hired men! Thou shalt from henceforth be third assistant bog cleaner!" 
A "holy vending machine" - I like that analogy! "Let's bring the ark to the battle! Then we can't lose!"
That's very interesting. I still think it was rather hard on Uzzah though - it wasn't like he was personally responsible for all the naughtiness of his nation. But I guess the same could be said of Ananias and Saphira, Lot's wife, the two sons of Aaron who got fried in the Tent of Meeting...and a lot of other people besides. God is very mysterious.
P.S. I think Luke 13:4 may have some relevance here.

Interesting - I've never heard of "Dark Matter" (in that context - I guessed you weren't talking about astronomy). My "sarcastic comments" (as you call them) were intended as a kind of Adrian Plass pastiche. Plass - probably my favourite Christian writer after C.S. Lewis - sometimes does comical rewrites of scriptures to make them conform to certain "Christian" attitudes that he finds questionable: for example, we have the version of the Prodigal Son, where the father says: "Too right I'll make thee as one of my hired men! Thou shalt from henceforth be third assistant bog cleaner!" 
A "holy vending machine" - I like that analogy! "Let's bring the ark to the battle! Then we can't lose!"
That's very interesting. I still think it was rather hard on Uzzah though - it wasn't like he was personally responsible for all the naughtiness of his nation. But I guess the same could be said of Ananias and Saphira, Lot's wife, the two sons of Aaron who got fried in the Tent of Meeting...and a lot of other people besides. God is very mysterious.
P.S. I think Luke 13:4 may have some relevance here.

FFR = Freedom From Religion foundation.  They've made it an effort to point out stories like this (quite out of context) and "put God on trial".
Dark Matter is... "a source" ... of people making fun of stuff like this about religion in general, but most conspicuously about the Judeo-Christian God.  Your sarcastic comments about how Uzzah would have responded is actually something that they did.
As far as background, this is what I meant.
All of Israel had already been very wicked and prideful.  They had been warned many times that they were falling off the path. But they continued down the road of sacrilege and treating the Ark as if it was a vending machine for God's blessings and protection.
The Ark was supposed to be carried on a litter -- by MEN, not oxen.  This was a final straw.
Whenever God does something this harsh it is ALWAYS after an extended period of granting much mercy.  But narratives like yours focus on the last domino of punishment that fell -- never the first 489 dominoes of mercy before it.

The crazy thing is that they DID question him.  It can even be heard on camera with the rookie asking him (or actually saying they don't think it's right) about the correct procedures!  At least Twice!
I can understand the one who was on Floyd's neck being investigated and charged.  The others...I think it's mob justice in this instance, ESPECIALLY for those who were trainees that day.  The other guy is more questionable (as he was also a veteran police officer) as he probably could have spoken up.  However, he was also not really actively involved in holding Floyd down and was doing crowd control at the time from what I understand.  So, he may have been able to speak up, but most of his attention was keeping the area clear and his back was to the situation much of the time as he was focused on the crowd around the situation. 
I think that there probably should be a serious investigation and charges to one of the officers, but the other three I think is far more questionable.  The two rookies I think being charged is actually more of travesty, especially with them losing their jobs over this.  The other veteran officer doing crowd control, I don't know enough of the situation to really say...but from the outside with the little information I hear, it also seems rather wrong with what happened to him.

I'm not positive of @Carborendum intent, but if I had to guess, it would be the Freedom From Religion (FFR) groups.  They have the slant that Uzzah's death showed something different and that an all knowing deity which was merciful would have done something different than what occurred.
Their ideas differ as they take modern chasis of what they feel is moral and try to apply it to an ancient story which is more than just a story, but also a symobology of man's relationship with deity and how man should act in accordance with deific or religious oversight.
As for Dark Matter, I'm not sure of it's relationship to this.  I know in Astrophysics there is an idea called Dark Matter.  It affects much of the theories of gravity and how gravity differs in what appears in our sight of the space beyond our hemisphere, and what we do not see out there.  Far more to it than that, but I'm not sure how it relates.
There IS a show that I know my son-in-law has on their shelf called Dark Matter (DVD or Blu-ray or something like that) and it may also be in relation to that.  I haven't watched the show so I don't know what relation it has to the story either, except that I think it is also a science fiction show of some sort.
Those are my best guesses.

OK, @anatess2 (I know how to do it now!!!) has piqued my conscience, so I'm going to say some nice things about America:
Not being ashamed of the flag. People in America are not ashamed to show off "Ol' Glory". People have flagstaffs in their front yards, where they proudly raise the "Good Ol' Red White and Blue" (which are actually the colours of any number of other countries' flags, but let's not talk about that). Well, my father-in-law does at any rate, but I've seen enough flags in other peoples' yards to think he's not the odd one out. If I put up a flagstaff in my front garden and flew the Union Jack (OK...Union Flag if you want to be pedantic) everyone would call me a fascist. Which is very sad considering Britain fought alongside the USA against the fascists. Not being ashamed of your alma mater. A few years ago, Loughborough University (where I was once a grad student) sent me a beautiful little enameled pin, with the school coat of arms on it. It is ever such a nice object, and I like to take it out sometimes and look at it. But I don't dare to wear it, 'coz I'd be made fun of. Americans on the other hand often wear T-shirts with "University of This-that-or-the-other" on it. This has, perhaps, a lot to do with inter-varsity sport (which is a lot stronger in America than here) but it's still nice to celebrate that you belong to something. Supermarkets. American supermarkets are like Aladdin's caves compared to British ones. I can spend many pleasant hours in them, wandering around looking around all the fascinating stuff. My wife finds them sad, because she remember all the quaint little shops that were put out of business by the supermarkets, and I can kinda agree - I have been in some of the remaining little-shops, with creaky floorboards, where they pack your things in sturdy paper bags. That's a beloved part of "America" to me too. But I still like the supermarkets. Roads and Road Signs. American roads are wider than ours. I suppose they had to be once, considering how big those whacking great "thunderbirds" used to be. But American cars have shrunk so they're now not that much bigger than British ones, but the roads have stayed the same. There's a feeling of freedom about them that you don't get here. Also, street signs are better. In the UK they only put them at the ends of streets, not always at intersections, and they put them close to the ground so they are hard to see. In America they put them on poles high up, so you can easily see them. That'll do for now. The people here are starting to bug me to cook supper, so I have to go. I'm sure I'll think of some more to add later! 

In theory you're right, but you know as well as I do that legal proceedings are complicated (requiring specialist knowledge) and therefore cost money (to pay the specialist). This isn't just the case in America...it's just as true in Britain. There are good lawyers who cost a lot, and there are bad lawyers who don't. And judgement you get depends (at least to some extent) on how much you can afford to pay. If you think otherwise, then ask yourself why all the best lawyers can charge so much. By your model they should all have priced themselves out of the market.
The difference I'm proposing is that in America at the moment, cops can take your property without reference to any court or judge. The default position is that the seizure was legal. If you consider it to be illegal, the onus is upon you to fight your case - which means lawyers - and therefore money. Like @Carborendum (I'm getting good at this!) and @mrmarklin say, this is being challenged as unconstitutional. I certainly hope the challenge is successful!

I've thought of something else:
American Radio. In 1992 I did my first American road trip from Dallas/Fort Worth to New Orleans and back. I was all alone, in a rented Ford Mustang, travelling from motel to motel. I visited several plantation houses, took a swamp tour, went on a river boat up the Mississippi, saw the aquarium at NO, had an asthmatic attack and had to spend a few hours in hospital (which led later to an insurance argument - but that's not part of the story), and tried (and failed) to find "The House of the Rising Sun". At first I had no clue how to operate an automatic car, and had to ask a passing lady to explain it to me. Once she'd gone I still couldn't do it - until I discovered (quite by accident) that the stick won't move unless you have your foot on the break. After that I got on OK - though the trip was half over before I discovered cruise control. But one thing I really loved was the Country and Western radio stations. All you had to do was press SEARCH and it would find you one. When it started to crackle as you got out of range, you just pressed SEARCH again and it would find you another just as good. Hour after hour of open road, the occasional stop for soda (in glass bottles out of old-fashioned vending machines) and music. ACTUAL music...not the occasional bit of music in between the inane jibber-jabber of DJs like you get on UK radio. Good music too: Confederate Railroad, Patty Smyth, The Dixie Chicks... ...though (and this REALLY makes me mad) they are just "The Chicks" now. First Lady Antibellum...now The Dixie Chicks. Much as I hate slavery, this is going too far. 

I feel bad for the other officers. They were rookies, and Chauvin was supposed to be their mentor. You can just imagine them seeing him kneeling on Floyd's neck and thinking "Is that right? He must know what he's doing. At least I hope he knows what he's doing...or does he? Should I say something?" but not quite having the nerve to question their superior.

OK, @anatess2 (I know how to do it now!!!) has piqued my conscience, so I'm going to say some nice things about America:
Not being ashamed of the flag. People in America are not ashamed to show off "Ol' Glory". People have flagstaffs in their front yards, where they proudly raise the "Good Ol' Red White and Blue" (which are actually the colours of any number of other countries' flags, but let's not talk about that). Well, my father-in-law does at any rate, but I've seen enough flags in other peoples' yards to think he's not the odd one out. If I put up a flagstaff in my front garden and flew the Union Jack (OK...Union Flag if you want to be pedantic) everyone would call me a fascist. Which is very sad considering Britain fought alongside the USA against the fascists. Not being ashamed of your alma mater. A few years ago, Loughborough University (where I was once a grad student) sent me a beautiful little enameled pin, with the school coat of arms on it. It is ever such a nice object, and I like to take it out sometimes and look at it. But I don't dare to wear it, 'coz I'd be made fun of. Americans on the other hand often wear T-shirts with "University of This-that-or-the-other" on it. This has, perhaps, a lot to do with inter-varsity sport (which is a lot stronger in America than here) but it's still nice to celebrate that you belong to something. Supermarkets. American supermarkets are like Aladdin's caves compared to British ones. I can spend many pleasant hours in them, wandering around looking around all the fascinating stuff. My wife finds them sad, because she remember all the quaint little shops that were put out of business by the supermarkets, and I can kinda agree - I have been in some of the remaining little-shops, with creaky floorboards, where they pack your things in sturdy paper bags. That's a beloved part of "America" to me too. But I still like the supermarkets. Roads and Road Signs. American roads are wider than ours. I suppose they had to be once, considering how big those whacking great "thunderbirds" used to be. But American cars have shrunk so they're now not that much bigger than British ones, but the roads have stayed the same. There's a feeling of freedom about them that you don't get here. Also, street signs are better. In the UK they only put them at the ends of streets, not always at intersections, and they put them close to the ground so they are hard to see. In America they put them on poles high up, so you can easily see them. That'll do for now. The people here are starting to bug me to cook supper, so I have to go. I'm sure I'll think of some more to add later! 

OK, @anatess2 (I know how to do it now!!!) has piqued my conscience, so I'm going to say some nice things about America:
Not being ashamed of the flag. People in America are not ashamed to show off "Ol' Glory". People have flagstaffs in their front yards, where they proudly raise the "Good Ol' Red White and Blue" (which are actually the colours of any number of other countries' flags, but let's not talk about that). Well, my father-in-law does at any rate, but I've seen enough flags in other peoples' yards to think he's not the odd one out. If I put up a flagstaff in my front garden and flew the Union Jack (OK...Union Flag if you want to be pedantic) everyone would call me a fascist. Which is very sad considering Britain fought alongside the USA against the fascists. Not being ashamed of your alma mater. A few years ago, Loughborough University (where I was once a grad student) sent me a beautiful little enameled pin, with the school coat of arms on it. It is ever such a nice object, and I like to take it out sometimes and look at it. But I don't dare to wear it, 'coz I'd be made fun of. Americans on the other hand often wear T-shirts with "University of This-that-or-the-other" on it. This has, perhaps, a lot to do with inter-varsity sport (which is a lot stronger in America than here) but it's still nice to celebrate that you belong to something. Supermarkets. American supermarkets are like Aladdin's caves compared to British ones. I can spend many pleasant hours in them, wandering around looking around all the fascinating stuff. My wife finds them sad, because she remember all the quaint little shops that were put out of business by the supermarkets, and I can kinda agree - I have been in some of the remaining little-shops, with creaky floorboards, where they pack your things in sturdy paper bags. That's a beloved part of "America" to me too. But I still like the supermarkets. Roads and Road Signs. American roads are wider than ours. I suppose they had to be once, considering how big those whacking great "thunderbirds" used to be. But American cars have shrunk so they're now not that much bigger than British ones, but the roads have stayed the same. There's a feeling of freedom about them that you don't get here. Also, street signs are better. In the UK they only put them at the ends of streets, not always at intersections, and they put them close to the ground so they are hard to see. In America they put them on poles high up, so you can easily see them. That'll do for now. The people here are starting to bug me to cook supper, so I have to go. I'm sure I'll think of some more to add later! 

I have to confess, I don't. What is FFR? And what is Dark Matter?
P.S. You mean about the ark having been returned from the Philistines, after it caused them so much trouble? OK - I'd forgotten that part of the story. But I still don't know what you mean by "FFR" and "Dark Matter".
P.P.S. I'm still trying to work out what you mean. You're referring perhaps to the fact that it was the Philistines (and not the Israelites) who provided the wagon to return the ark - which makes a bit of a nonsense of part of what I said? If so, my bad...I should perhaps re-read these stories before "trying to be clever" about them. But I still don't know what FFR is. "Fractional Flow Reserve"? "French Rugby Federation"? "Franciscan Friars of the Renewal"?

Well... Luther is basically Uzzah.  He had good intentions but because he did not bring his intentions to fruition within God's order was plagued by his conscience as he witnessed until his dying breath the unintended chaos - political, cultural, and religious - he caused.  @Carborendum might agree with me that Luther is like Sanderson's Lord Ruler, trying to steady the ark using his own wisdom by trying to bend the heavens to his will and harvesting ash and soot and blood instead as he stumbles from irascible foible to foible.
The days of Luther is pretty much reflected in today's progressive movement... using theses instead of tweets.

@anatess2
When you type '@' followed by some characters you should get a dropdown. If you select the name from the dropdown you get the tagging. If not, you get plain text.

Perhaps @anatess2 can provide some insights on how Catholics view Luther. But having thought about it a bit, I wonder if perhaps it's a case of people being judged according to their lights. Luther no longer saw the Pope as infallible, so there was no "ark" for him to steady when he posted his 95 theses. Similarly the Philistines did not immediately drop dead when they took away the ark, because for them it was just a foreign religious artifact*. Uzzah, having been brought up to know exactly what you can and cannot do with the ark, should have known better.
P.S. How do I make it so that Anatess' name gets highlighted and she gets a notification that I've mentioned her? I've seen people do that so many times on this forum, but could never see how it was done.
P.P.S. * I suppose it was also God's plan that the ark should go into captivity - which would hardly have happened if the Philistines who took it away immediately dropped dead. By the same token, perhaps it was also God's plan that Uzzah should drop dead as a warning to anyone else who thought of trifling with what was holy. Scary thought.