Apropos of nothing, thieves stole a circus van which, unbeknownst to them, contained a lion.

This is interesting:

Hi, I'm Marty, and I'm a recovering Republican

I was a feminazi-hating, liberal-bashing loudmouth who tried to befriend Bill O'Reilly. Man, I was such a douche

...

I should have seen the danger of sealing myself in an echo chamber to prevent contamination from outside viewpoints; I began only hanging out with conservative true believers, only reading conservative books, only getting my news from conservative media outlets. In order to avoid journalistic "left-wing bias," I embraced right-wing bias, foolishly confusing sensationalist entertainment with debate and truth-telling. Outrage became my drug of choice.

Apropos of nothing, thieves stole a circus van which, unbeknownst to them, contained a lion.

They really crossed a lion with that theft.

Better them than the deer. Though I guess it's too much to hope for the same outcome? Okay, not the same, but they should walk away with some scars at least.

My brain hurts. I need to haul off the couch and get to the pool. But no point getting there before 6:30. Mob swim until then.

Except shit - he's all about that forgiveness crap. Damn. Surely he'd make an exception? I mean, right? It's not like they'll repent.

Your honor, my understanding is that Jesus is only required to forgive if the person in question is sorry for their sins. I submit that they are not sorry, and therefore there is no requirement for forgiveness.

Siegfried & Roy had a van full of tigers stolen many years ago, and they went on all the media begging the thieves not to hurt the cats. The van was eventually recovered in an ally after an anonymous call to the police.

Your honor, my understanding is that Jesus is only required to forgive if the person in question is sorry for their sins. I submit that they are not sorry, and therefore there is no requirement for forgiveness.

But Jesus asked God to forgive those who crucified him, even though, "They know not what they do."

Jesus is allowed to go above and beyond his obligation I guess.

I can't even read any of those articles about the massive cruelties of multiple dioceses across the country. It's all barely recognizable to me as the same church as the crunchy Northern California post-hippie social justice spiritualitycakes covered in Vatican II sauce I remember from my childhood. It's just scary angry people saying and doing things that sound like the complete opposite of everything I thought I knew and loved. Just about every fuzzy inclusive rights-and-justice-expanding lefty principle I hold dear is, for me, directly and deeply tied to what I believe the founder of my faith expects of me in this life, in this world. These people running the Church make me feel like either I'm an insane space alien or they are.

At least it makes me feel good for the first time in forever for being so poor -- I haven't contributed to anything but emergency funds to fix the roof or buy books for the schoolkids in my tiny local parish since probably 2003, so at least I know I'm not funding these assholes. Though I'm scared that it also means that it doesn't matter if I write angry letters threatening to leave; they're just going to shrug and say, "Ehn, no skin off our noses" and go on doing just what they were doing before.