I'm not sure what's tortured about it. I'm advocating for doing what you can to help others, even when those people aren't necessarily deserving of your help. And I wasn't shaming Sesame Street - who did offer to help. I was arguing against the mindset taken by the author, who seemed to have a problem with them…

"Good people should do right by other people, even when those other people are bad. And, yes, especially when there are kids involved."

Fair enough. I'm not saying they'd be a cure-all to whatever is broken with the event. I'm simply arguing against the schadenfreude mindset of the author.

No, it's not. PBS turned the other cheek and offered to help anyway, which was commendable. I took issue with the author, not Sesame Street.

Sesame Street is a show for kids. This children's event is apparently struggling. Unless they're all booked up, it would seem pretty cold to say, "No, we'd rather not help the kids just to spite the President." That seemed to be what the author was arguing for.

"Good. PBS should laugh in the White House’s face at this request…"

Interesting. I dunno. It looks like only a few translations say love and most say (as you did) mercy. http://biblehub.com/hosea/1… "Love" is the first translation I'd heard so I think that's what always stuck with me.

I'll take it!

I'm patiently awaiting the tide turning on that episode, which I still think is one of the worst of the show. I realize I may be waiting a while.

I didn't really buy them bringing Paige to see Gabriel; it felt like a big leap forward in plot and not really consistent with the slow-moving nature of the show, almost like a flash-forward. Otherwise, I thought it was an excellent episode.

Yeah, it's the NIV translation (the book of Hosea). I've seen your translation, as well. They both express the same sentiment - that God won't show love, mercy, or forgiveness for Israel because of their rebellion. I'm sure your translation is more accurate (I don't speak Hebrew); I think the NIV translation is…

I thought the first ASM trailed only Spiderman 2. ASM2 was a mess, but not quite as horrible as Spiderman 3. So, that's not too bad.

I was really pleasantly surprised by how that movie handled Walker's death. I had assumed his character would die, which seemed morbid. I thought they did a great job.

Rogers Hornsby was a great baseball player so maybe there's hope for your brother.

Lo-Ruhamah (it means “not loved”) has always been a particular favorite of mine.

"More insidious are Leslie’s and Lee’s paths to faith, both of which are enabled by very patient black people…with no mention here of Strobel’s stance on abortion or gay marriage. (Take a guess, though.)"

This article was so obnoxious it almost made me NOT want more Matrix movies. And I liked all three of them.

I just think it's weird that they're all tall and thin, with long faces. At my house we took to calling them The Marfans.

I think that's an appropriate question, though. His rebellion is pretty inconsequential considering all that was actually happening at the time in the larger world. That the movie ignores it either speaks to how myopic it is or to how silly Benjamin's rebellion really is. I lean toward the latter.

It's what makes the movie great. Without the look at the end, it's two kids rebelling against nothing of actual consequence with a silly happy ending. Although apparently it was kind of an accident, which makes me wonder what exactly Nichols intended with the movie.