I believe in respecting the dignity and worth of every human being, which means assuming that people on the street asking for money are not all potential scammers. If I get scammed once in a while, it’s a small price to pay for not treating homeless people like children, addicts, or criminals. And sorry, but the…

I didn’t see this earlier—I have a little nephew whose parents ((my brother and sister-in-law) would love that for him . . . along with the “Baby Loves Quantum Physics!” board book he’s getting from his uncle).

No, I’m not. I’m not going to turn away from someone on the off chance they’ll use my money for alcohol. And I’m certainly not going to use that as a rationalization for doing so.

Yeah. Especially the Muppet version. The last verse should be sung by Animal, dammit!

There really aren’t nearly enough pseudoreligious entries on this list. I submit to you, for your listening pleasure, the song that threatens to make me spontaneously vomit in the aisle whenever I hear it in public:

That scene from Love Actually was hysterical.

Church musicians almost universally loathe and despise “Mary Did You Know.” Actually, I’m kind of surprised not to see it on this list.

And parking meters—I never drive downtown without dipping into our change jar for a few quarters. Some cities now have apps that allow you to pay online, but I don’t want to waste time on that when I’m just going into the post office for ten minutes.

Our usual coffee shop’s digital POS system only gives the option of $1, $2, or $3 tips for purchases under a specific amount (maybe $10?)—I’m guessing tips of that size are normal and expected. For a $5 cup of coffee, $1 is 20 percent.

Username checks out.

In the meantime, I’m sure your servers are grateful for the copy of the Socialist Worker you no doubt customarily leave with your bill instead of a tip. Makes great kindling when you can’t pay your heating bill.

No need to patronize me. I do that too. I just donated 15 pairs of good-quality thermal underwear to the backpack project with which my church is involved, along with sanitary supplies for homeless women, and I regularly give a sizable amount to the emergency fund our parish maintains for people in the community who…

I have the soundtrack on perpetual loop but have never seen the show. I have to watch it one week when my atheist husband is out of town so I don’t have to hear his annoying commentary. Except then I’ll lie awake all night worrying that his plane will drop out of the sky.

I suspect some of the prophets were schizophrenic or suffering from some mental illness associated with auditory and/or visual hallucinations, like Samuel, the boy prophet who supposedly heard God calling to him in the middle of the night. Which makes the line between crazy and visionary rather fuzzy. (Ezekiel had…

. . . none of which has any grounding in actual Scripture.

It’s also incredibly perverse. We’re not supposed to know who will be saved and who will be damned, but somehow the blessed are identifiable by their earthly prosperity, which is clearly a sign of God’s approval. Forget the meek inheriting the earth.

Sadly, people who subscribe to Rapture theology tend to be Calvinists who believe in predestination—a belief that your eternal fate is predetermined no matter what kinds of asshole stunts you pull in this life.

In this day and age, I carry $20 in small bills precisely so I can give something to someone in need. There’s nothing about means testing in the Gospels.

What kind of Chinese? Szechuan, Cantonese, Yunnan, Fuxian? How about Taiwanese? For me, Taiwanese would be > everything else.

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