German Christmas Market (Shanghai, China)

In December I went to a German Christmas market here in Shanghai, called Christkindlmarkt. Here are my photos~

You can view a larger version of this image here

Blogaround

 Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Tuna Sold at Trader Joe’s, Costco, Walmart, and More Recalled Over Botulism Risk (February 10, via)

2. The Hardest Sudoku I've EVER Solved (February 6) Exactly what it says on the tin. 3-hour-30-minute sudoku solve video.

3. Gov. Pritzker signs 'Karina's bill' to remove guns from domestic violence situations (February 11) Good news here.

4. This is Arousal (February 4, via) 20-minute video. This is a video about the supposed "fact" that the most exciting part of playing a new board game is opening the box, and then you have to read the rulebook and your excitement plummets. (And therefore, board game designers are always trying to make the rulebook shorter.) 

It's an interesting discussion of the phenomenon where people always repeat a supposed "fact" because there's a study that lends evidence to it, but the way that people understand the "fact" is SO FAR AWAY from what the actual study was about. The study discussed in this video was actually about families with children playing Hasbro board games- a completely different situation from the adult board game nerds who talk about this "fact." And what was measured was "arousal", not people's actual enjoyment of the games.

5. Risky heroics (February 16) "Our ethical assessment of any given action is determined by all possible outcomes, not just the actual outcome. After all, at the time that you make the decision, you do not know the actual outcome."

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A comic strip from @emilyscartoons. In the first panel, one person says, "Let's not talk about politics anymore, I can't bear it" and the second person says "same." In the second panel, they just sit there. In the third panel, they say, "THE THING IS THOUGH" and "THOSE FUCKING IDIOTS." Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

1. The ABA supports the rule of law (February 10) "There is much that Americans disagree on, but all of us expect our government to follow the rule of law, protect due process and treat individuals in a way that we would treat others in our homes and workplaces. The ABA does not oppose any administration. Instead, we remain steadfast in our support for the rule of law."

2. Theobro social Darwinism earns a papal smackdown (February 12) "I mean, jeez, that’s devastating. If Vance were an honest person, or if he were a person capable of shame, or if he were a person interested in what is true this would be an edifyingly humbling experience for him. Alas, he is immune to both humility and to edification because he is none of those things — not an honest person, nor a person capable of shame, nor a person interested in what is true."

Yeah you never want to be the person in a bible story asking, "But who is my neighbor?"

3. If you're not already giving monthly donations to a group that helps immigrants, please consider doing so. Many of them were receiving government funds but now those have been cut off. The reality is, they won't be able to do as much, with less funding. This is terrible- immigrants are under attack and we really need to do more to help immigrants, not less.

Find a local organization that helps immigrants. Or, donate to RAICES.

4. Microbiologists, hang your head in shame (or fight back!) (February 10) "The major scientific societies in Nazi Germany were quick to pander to Hitler, and they had the same kinds of arguments: they were patriots supporting their country, they had to fire all those Jewish professors to keep government support, etc., etc., all while they were looting conquered nations and doing secret work on nerve gasses and sieg heiling their way to bigger grants."

5. Pour one out for the CFPB (February 13) "So, if consumers can’t even see when an institution is being fair and honest, it’s a competitive disadvantage to even bother."

6. Park Service Goes Full Stalin, Literally Takes The 'T' Out Of sTonewall (February 14) "In an act of revisionist history Joseph Stalin might admire, the National Park Service disappeared all references to transgender and queer people from its main page for the Stonewall National Monument in New York City yesterday." 

How will I explain this to my children?

Blogaround

1. I've seen a lot of people on the internet talking about this, and I think it's really important: You don't have to burn yourself out constantly being horrified by everything the orange antichrist is doing. It doesn't actually help anyone if you read every news article and feel bad all the time. Figure out a tangible action you can take to help people (for example, donating money to trans people), and do that, instead of trying to keep up with all the news.

Soooo you don't have to read any of these links, if it's not good for your mental health. Go do something nice for a trans person instead.

2. A German Eye On Elon Musk's Hitler Salute (Yes, That's A Hitler Salute) (January 22) "The gesture speaks for itself; it's documented on video."

3. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde confronts Trump in sermon (January 21) "Towards the end of her sermon Budde said, 'I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.'"

Yes! Love this!

But wow the reaction from MAGA land. My goodness. They hear the *actual teachings of Christianity* and they post screeds on social media about how it's extremist "woke" Trump-hating political ideology. These people are gonna be all *surprised pikachu* on that day when Jesus says to them "I never knew you." 

In particular, the orange antichrist called Budde's sermon "nasty", which, uh, what? She wasn't nasty at all. Her remarks were extremely polite, she didn't say anything bad about him at all, she just asked him to have mercy on vulnerable people who are scared- specifically, gay people, trans people, and immigrants. He hears that as an attack on himself. That says a lot about him.

Additional links on this: The Bishop Who Pleaded With Trump: ‘Was Anyone Going to Say Anything?’ and Bishop Mariann Budde tells NPR 'I won't apologize' for sermon addressing Trump

4. I love the Washington Post's new mission statement and so should you (January 16) "We do not speak truth to power; we do not uncover scandals by those put in positions of public trust, we do not have anything there about Facts or Accuracy or Democracy or Information. All of it is sidelined to bring you an almost violently generic mission statement scraped off any one of hundreds of television and movie pitches."

5. Judge blocks Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship (January 23) "'Where were the lawyers' when the decision to sign the executive order was made, the judge asked. He said that it 'boggled' his mind that a member of the bar would claim the order was constitutional."

6. Reddit won’t interfere with users revolting against X with subreddit bans (January 23, via) "Since Tuesday, hundreds of subreddits have discussed and/or implemented bans against the site formerly called Twitter, as reported by 404 Media. Dozens of subreddits have already agreed to disallow the sharing of any links to X, with moderators (volunteer Reddit users) agreeing to enforce the bans."

Blogaround

VOTE!

If you are a US citizen, then make a plan and vote!

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1. Trump's Recreating Actual Racist History Not Just Remaking 'The Purge' (October 1) "Aaron Rupar compared Trump’s call for extrajudicial police violence to the German Kristallnacht or the 'Night of Broken Glass' when Nazis led a violent riot against Jews as German authorities stood and watched. Nazi paramilitary forces ransacked Jewish homes, hospitals and schools. They destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. More than 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps."

2. Canceling subscriptions has to be as easy as signing up, the FTC says in a new rule (October 16) Wow this is great. This is revolutionary.

3. We Need To Get Junk Science Out of Courtrooms (2023) "Isn’t it outrageous that we have lay jurors that are relied upon to distinguish nonsense from sense in criminal courts where life and liberty is at stake? There’s no federal oversight. There’s isn’t something like the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] where consumer products like toothpaste and aspirin are tested for their safety before they’re used by the general public, because we care about the reliability of those products. We care more about the reliability of mouthwash in this country than we do about forensic sciences that are used to sentence people to death and to life in prison."

4. The Weaver Bird Dilemma: Creationism’s Struggle with Diversity (October 7) "This striking bird, with its enormous tail, builds a very different type of nest compared to the Southern Masked Weaver. Yet according to most YEC classifications, these birds would be considered part of the same 'created kind.'"

5. Musk offers voters $1 million a day to sign PAC petition backing the Constitution. Is that legal? (October 21) 

6. Missouri AG in abortion pill lawsuit argues fewer teen pregnancies hurt state financially (October 22) Yes, really, they are really arguing this in a court case. I don't even know what to make of this, because it goes against the typical "pro-life" talking points about "if you didn't want a baby, you shouldn't have had sex"- presumably abstinence would also "hurt" the states of Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho by reducing the teen pregnancy rate. It's like... instead of a "pregnancy is the punishment for having sex" "pro-life" argument, it's more along the lines of "women [and teenage girls] should be required to have sex and then required to have babies." ??? I haven't seen "pro-life" people making this argument before. (Though I suppose it's kind of implicitly there in all the "pro-life" hand-wringing over low birth rates.)

7. On Univision, ordinary citizens step in for cowardly journalists (October 18) "Why didn't Trump have a ready answer to this question? Why hasn't he been asked this before? Why haven't journalists asked him this every time he makes his terrifying calls for mass deportation? How can we be less than 20 days from the election, and Trump doesn't even have a pretense of an answer to the most fundamental effect of his most frequently stated policy?"

8. Targeted Advertising: Good or evil? (October 22) "So if failed advertisements are the worst kind, then you must prefer targeted advertising, right?"