Our family movie night this past week was "Roman Holiday."

It's the easiest thing in the world to say "they don't make them like this anymore," but I think it would be useful to consider exactly why they can't or won't.

https://twitter.com/JReubenCIark/status/1786133556885864937

So, some disclaimers to start:

I know it's not fair to compare the best of the past with the normal stuff of today, but bear in mind that this is a romantic comedy, it's not "Ben Hur" or "The Best Years of Our Lives" or some other "important" film (although Audrey Hepburn won best actress for it). And yet it feels timeless in a way basically none of its modern analogues do.

And yes, Audrey Hepburn is 1-of-1, it's unfair to compare anyone with her, but at the same time I think it's fair to ask why it seems impossible that someone like her could happen again, or whether we'd even recognize such a person if they did emerge.

When a governing party fails and becomes unpopular, the natural thing is for the minority party to win an election and become the new governing party.

*Sometimes* the minority party has actually learned something from its prior losses and is ready to govern. Sometimes not. 2020 was clearly an election where the Covid economy caused the dems to win an election after having learned *nothing* from 2016. And it's not something inherent to dems, 2008 was an election where dems were properly strategic and picked an anti-war candidate.

Do I even need to say it?

https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1790799523327132025

It would be cruel to blame these parents for "letting" this happen, I won't do that.

I'll only point out how insane it is that the default response to this situation is to complain *20* times while still sending him to the torture chamber every day, all day.

One of the questions I'm asked regularly is "where is the famous JRC weight loss/marriage thread?"

It is time for it to be reposted.

I have been waiting for someone to post the correct take about the Iowa Satan statue and have yet to see it, so the duty falls to me. Among people who actually think it's a bad thing that there is (or was) a Satan statute in the Iowa statehouse (that is, the only people whose opinions matter), there have been essentially two schools of thought.

The first fundamental defect of marital sex discourse (the Putting Out Q) is that the wrong people are talking to the wrong ppl.

For ex., who is ideally situated to tell a man that he's doing something that makes his wife not want to sleep w him? You might think "his wife," and while she obviously has the most at stake, and the most info about what's going on, she's also, in his mind, withholding love and affection.

And if she tells him why she's not sleeping w him, he hears "I don't love you and it's your own fault."

Went to the temple tonight and did some thinking about the days of creation and why the Earth was created in the order that it was.
1/ Here's a handy summary from Genesis. Some of the order is self-evidently necessary; e.g. you need land before land animals. Other parts are not so obvious. Light on the 1st day but no sun until the 4th?
2/

Those of you who followed me way back in 2016 may remember that I was actually against charging Hillary. Yes, she committed a felony, but using the criminal justice system against a major party candidate is a total pandora's box, it allows prosecutors to pick the winner. She committed her crime for what amounted to political reasons, her punishment should be political: everyone knows she's corrupt, they get to take that into account when they vote.

Now, it should have been AG Loretta Lynch who made that decision. Comey gave her political cover.

#ComeFollowMe BTW I saw @LeilandTanner last week making the very controversial statement that The Book of Job is a true story. Had no idea what he was responding to, but then some ppl in SS were saying it didn't really happen, it's just a poem, etc. This has to have come from a podcast, right?

It is seriously disturbing to me how many kids tv shows/movies are meta-stories about show business. Thinking about this a little more....it's not just that they have plot lines about making a movie or show, though they often do. But it seems like even non-show bus6plot lines spend half the time portraying *media* coverage of what's happening.

Anyone else excited for August, aka #MusketFireMonth?

https://twitter.com/JReubenCIark/status/1458841898467020803?t=BYOoiaRBSMBriWpQR3d7NA&s=19

I'm learning so much, did you guys know that there are ZERO government programs for poor women who give birth?

It's true; Medicaid, TANF, EBT and WIC literally are only available to members of the Trump family and white girls named Brookelynne.

So we gotta kill those babies. GUYS I just had a great idea.

Since you can solve a kid's poverty issues by killing them, let's offer to abort ppl w student loans, that would wipe out the *entire* debt.

Read through Alito's opinion, v thorough, no big surprises, explaining that Roe is unconstitutional is not rocket science.

One thing I learned is that under the common law an abortionist who accidentally killed the mother could be charged w murder, unlike any other med procedure Alito calls this a "proto-felony-murder" rule; felony-murder rule is that if you commit a dangerous felony and it results in a death, even if u didn't kill them, you are charged with murder.

E.g. two thugs rob a store, the owner kills one. Surviving thug can be charged w murder.

A social ethic of encouraging people to get married young (like early 20s) is a linchpin of a functioning Christian civilization, for reasons I will explain below. First, the desire among young people to pair off and have sex is extremely intense. This is good, it's what God wants. It is absolutely NOT natural to have to wait until your mid-30s to begin that phase of your life.