Update Season X - "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Vol. I."

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Bushie is caught in an exploitative economic system in common with the rest of us, but that doesn't mean that he's poor within the context of that system or that none of his problems are his fault. Most of them clearly are to anybody who's been paying attention. Misapplying the relevant concepts of oppression to his case is insulting to people who actually are victims in the way that opebo is talking about and frankly to the concepts themselves.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

asking for permission to do anything is weird, creepy, misogynistic and just wrong.

no 30+ year old man needs permission from parents to date or marry.  craziness.

I think the issue is more whether a ~30-year-old woman needs permission from her own parents.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I like memphis's idea of learning to cook something for her--even if it is inevitably going to be simple and unpretentious, that's far from a bad thing, at least with certain types of people. Allison seems like the sort of person who'd be charmed by it. On the other hand I also agree with the given reasoning for why this is better reserved for a later date. I'd say somewhere around the fourth or fifth but that's just an intuitive shot in the dark since I have so little actual experience in this area.

In fact I think it far better serves Bushie to go for simple and unpretentious than to try to do something really fancy, as long as he remembers that 'simple and unpretentious' does not mean 'sloppy'. Applebee's isn't bad, really, especially considering what he has to work with, but it doesn't strike me as great either.

I think church is a really weird idea for a date, but that might not hold true in an Oklahoman, low-church, pietist cultural context.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Is Bushie attracted to Allison as a person or is he just attracted to idea of marrying anyone female who is willing to marry him?

I also wonder what Allison will think about Bushie's porn habit. This is Oklahoma after all.

I know plenty of women here in what TJ once called the 'Western Mass uber-liberal zone' who'd look more than a little askance at Bushie's porn habit.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Does Bushie's church believe in contraception? Or are they going to Duggar it up?

of course not.  sex for pleasure is a bad thing.  god does not approve.

We're not Catholics, so birth control is approved.  We preach abstinence, but if something does happen, real Christians don't judge, they offer support and comfort.

abstinence doesnt work.  it didnt even work for mary and joseph.

Mary got pregnant by a miracle from the Holy Spirit.  Joseph did not have sex with Mary until Mary's second pregnancy.  Jesus was not conceived like every other baby.  Mary was still a virgin until her second pregnancy, that of Jesus' half brother Assumption.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Here's a change in subject for you.  It's that time of year again so this Monday, the first day of my break, I will be putting up my Christmas Tree in my room.  Mom and Dad have one in the shop, so I'll put it up Monday.  I may not be able to put it up this early past next year so I want to make the most of it!

Allison doesn't believe in Christmas?

Since her birthday is Nov 22 she doesn't start Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving.

(normal)

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Is the suggestion here that America is a wealthy country because of divine intervention? That's quite a strange outlook on history.

That appears to be the implication, yes.

Which, we should add, is a lot weirder than the idea that Jesus has blessed it in some generalized sense. A lot.