@avclub-4b85256c4881edb6c0776df5d81f6236:disqus Fundamentalism, properly speaking, refers only to Christianity: it takes its name from the idea that Christianity needed to refocus on "the fundamentals" of historical doctrine. Some of its leading voices published a magazine called "The Fundamentals." The term has since…

A horribly bigoted comment, or else one that thoroughly misunderstands the meaning of the word "fundamentalist." If by "fundamentalist" you mean an anti-intellectual, knee-jerk religious person, you are at least within the realm of truth. But fundamentalism is not the same as anti-intellectual knee-jerking (and I say…

You could just say, "Ich möchte ein Berliner, bitte." And I think it would be funny to hear JFK try to say "möchte": it would probably come out like "mush-tuh."

Right. Because when is the king who proclaims himself a living embodiment of the divine (that's the meaning of "Epiphanes" in "Antiochus IV Epiphanes"), deliberately desecrates the holy places of a subjugated nation, and bans them from practicing their own religion the bad guy, amirite?

Buddha the Ill-figure. No idea what it means, definitely gonna ask people to call me that.

@avclub-93e06678bf43969ed7f3b3377605aa8c:disqus If you're going for the face, you need to hit chin or jaw. It still might hurt like a bitch, but it won't cut you up, and that's your best chance to drop him.

Does anxiousness actually help you do anything? Knowing you need to do something does not need to be accompanied by anxiety. Anxiety is usually counterproductive: it's an energy drain, it's distracting.

In context, it means specifically worrying about whether you will have enough food or clothing. The implication being, do the work you need to to get those things, but don't spend your time being anxious about them.

Todd, does everything you write have to come back to the horrors of fundamentalism?

In the biblical account he lays siege to Jerusalem, but then the Hezekiah (the king of Judah) prays at the temple and God sends an angel who kills thousands of the Assyrian troops. Sennacherib's armies retreat, and then later his sons murder him while he is making sacrifices at one of his own temples. #TheMoreYouKnow

"Gigantism."

It would be "cerca del rio," no? And if memory serves, they actually had a Spanish-language Matt Foley skit, although I believe he was in Spain, not somewhere in Latin America.

NOW THEY'VE GONE TOO FAR.

Buddenbrooks is great, too. And the Joseph tetralogy.

Why does everyone always think of that story when they think of Thomas Mann? "Tristan" is better. So is "The Joker" (sometimes translated "The Clown"), not to mention some of his novels.

I was born in 1991.

The Boondocks, bitch! Huey quotes the whole bit about pain being like a medicine and trusting the physician.

I read it a couple of years ago (when I still was a teenager), and I thought it was pretty but not especially profound. It has a certain quasi-sacred-text flavor to it, which can be nice aesthetically, but it's not going to rock your world if you've ever read anything comparable (even, for instance, biblical…

@avclub-7cb1afde44997f2c8ac907d6f384a92f:disqus If everyone is self-interested by definition (and unless by "self-interested" you mean something much milder than I did), no one can claim to be trying to do right, politically.

@avclub-622d01b3bbbc25a61458c0a49dc71f1e:disqus Not every conservative favors disproportionate tax breaks for the wealthy. I, for one, do not.