The Off Topic Topic

[lustindarkness]

[Valmy]

Yes!

And we had a seder plate with the egg, bitter herb, and lamb-bone on it, dipped our veggies in salt water twice, hid the piece of mazoh, and set out the glass of wine for the Prophet Elijah to drink. 

Elijah gets pretty hammered on Passover.

[garbon]

http://judaism.about.com/od/holidayssabbath/f/elijah_wine.htm

[Malthus]

Did you put a loonie in with the afikoman for him?

Four quarters. 

[Malthus]

http://judaism.about.com/od/holidayssabbath/f/elijah_wine.htm

In reality, when there are young kids about, the adults send 'em to the door to check if the prophet Elijah has turned up, and drink the cup when they aren't looking. No-one pours the wine back into the bottle - yuck. 

[garbon]

No-one pours the wine back into the bottle - yuck. 

Wouldn't want to spoil that purple drank? ;-)

[Sheilbh]

Yes, but at the time, if he hadn't converted, he could not have been PM - the office required an oath on one's faith as a Christian. Of course, everyone considered him basically a Jew, because of his ancestry (himself included).

Sorry. The first time it sounded like you were saying he converted to become an MP. While it was his dad's decision as part of a decade long argument with his local synagogue

It's interesting how similar the difficulties Lionel de Rothschild had taking his seat are to Charles Bradlaugh as the first atheist MP.

But I think his self-perception and that of those around him matters more than whether he was actually Jewish or not and on any measure he has at least as good a claim as Ed Miliband

[Josephus]

Christians invented this guy who comes down a chimney and leaves gifts

Way better religion.

[Sheilbh]

Britain, 'somewhat proud':

Is Britain suffering a crisis of patriotic feeling? According to the latest British Social Attitudes survey, only 35% of Brits are now willing to say they are "very proud" to be British, down from 43% a decade ago. Another 47%, however, say they are "somewhat proud", which is an increase from last time.

[Capetan Mihali]

No-one pours the wine back into the bottle - yuck. 

Wouldn't want to spoil that purple drank? ;-)

[Ideologue]

Britain, 'somewhat proud':

Is Britain suffering a crisis of patriotic feeling? According to the latest British Social Attitudes survey, only 35% of Brits are now willing to say they are "very proud" to be British, down from 43% a decade ago. Another 47%, however, say they are "somewhat proud", which is an increase from last time.

Why would one be proud to live in a country which has failed them utterly and which they are witnessing fall apart in real time?  Especially when in living memory it was one of the three or four best countries in the world.

[Admiral Yi]

As soon as you elect a black PM the other 10% will finally feel proud too.

[Razgovory]

 

[Capetan Mihali]

Ah, Corrupticut.  From the NYT:

Discussing how it came to be that the former governor became involved in the same race in which the man who had investigated him was running, William Mastrogiovanni Jr., a Clark supporter who was chairman of Farmington's Republican Town Committee, said, "The problem is the state is too small, and everyone knows everyone and that makes some of this inevitable." Another contributing factor, he said, was the part-time status of state legislators, which means "people always have other jobs."

"So you're either an attorney or a union official or you just live with your mom," Mr. Mastrogiovanni continued.

[CountDeMoney]

Daaaaamn.