Joseph P-M
@josephpmathews.bsky.social
Gay priest, gay married, gay dad. 🏳️🌈 He/him. Seattle. Late 30s. Lots of reposts.
I promise NK Jemisin has more ideas. That the Nobel Prize exists says we have more ideas. From THE LION KING on tour to Minnesota Fringe there are so many more ideas to explore
America, you have spoken loud and clear: You do not like AI. But what if AI is the way to restart the world’s idea machine?
We’re running out of good ideas. AI might be how we find new ones.
What if the best use of AI is restarting the world’s idea machine?
www.vox.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I promise NK Jemisin has more ideas. That the Nobel Prize exists says we have more ideas. From THE LION KING on tour to Minnesota Fringe there are so many more ideas to explore
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Here are the 28 Dem Senators who voted to advance the first federal ban on trans athletes & a federal definition of sex that would make trans & intersex people non-existent: Angela Alsobrooks (MD), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Chris Coons (DE), ->
By a vote of 76-23, S 1071 passes the motion to proceed to the motion to concur. Won't know who voted for this until the roll call is uploaded, but safe to say it passed with the support of at least 24 members of the Democratic caucus. (Rand Paul probably voted nay and Steve Daines has been absent).
December 11, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Here are the 28 Dem Senators who voted to advance the first federal ban on trans athletes & a federal definition of sex that would make trans & intersex people non-existent: Angela Alsobrooks (MD), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Chris Coons (DE), ->
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Yep. Our best shot right now is an aggressive pruning of dead wood and tending to new shoots, which is exactly the opposite of our tendency.
December 16, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Yep. Our best shot right now is an aggressive pruning of dead wood and tending to new shoots, which is exactly the opposite of our tendency.
Reposted by Joseph P-M
I have come to believe that when the Bible talks about fasting in secret or giving alms in secret it means not publicizing the details of individual instances. Absolutely everybody should know *that* you engage in virtuous practices, just not always the who-what-when-where-how of each case
There is something admirable about wanting to practice virtue quietly, so as not to make it about you showing others that you’re doing it. Indeed, the Bible itself counsels against this. But pushing back against vice requires visible public rebuke.
Muscular virtue. Virtue that asserts itself in the face of vice.
December 16, 2025 at 3:56 AM
I have come to believe that when the Bible talks about fasting in secret or giving alms in secret it means not publicizing the details of individual instances. Absolutely everybody should know *that* you engage in virtuous practices, just not always the who-what-when-where-how of each case
Reposted by Joseph P-M
but the Centrist Commentators assured me that public opinion is a force of nature that must always be deferred to!
December 16, 2025 at 2:54 PM
but the Centrist Commentators assured me that public opinion is a force of nature that must always be deferred to!
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Really great piece. It's pretty revealing that the strongest defense of the term "interim docket" to describe the shadow docket is basically: Yeah, we know it's not descriptively accurate in a lot of cases, but we're annoyed by people who say "shadow docket."
That's not even an argument!
That's not even an argument!
Today's "One First" explains why the "Annie Hall problem" (the idea that critics will never be satisfied by anything the subject of their criticism does) is an especially inapt charge against those who are independently critical of both *what* #SCOTUS is doing in its rulings and *how* it's doing it:
197. The Supreme Court's Annie Hall Problem
Charges that Supreme Court critics are "schizophrenic" because they're making procedural *and* substantive critiques of the Court's behavior are missing the possibility that both claims are legitimate
www.stevevladeck.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Really great piece. It's pretty revealing that the strongest defense of the term "interim docket" to describe the shadow docket is basically: Yeah, we know it's not descriptively accurate in a lot of cases, but we're annoyed by people who say "shadow docket."
That's not even an argument!
That's not even an argument!
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Funny thing for Karoline Leavitt to post considering she gets paid to lie for Trump
December 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Funny thing for Karoline Leavitt to post considering she gets paid to lie for Trump
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Also: note the absolutely otherworldly quality of the diction and tone here. Only the Federal Bureau of Investigation is so precise. Note how the agent has absolutely no ear for what sounds sinister and what sounds silly.
December 16, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Also: note the absolutely otherworldly quality of the diction and tone here. Only the Federal Bureau of Investigation is so precise. Note how the agent has absolutely no ear for what sounds sinister and what sounds silly.
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Genuine terrorists, as a rule, do not write down things they heard in a Tom Clancy novel into the op plan so they remember them
December 16, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Genuine terrorists, as a rule, do not write down things they heard in a Tom Clancy novel into the op plan so they remember them
My husband @brandonpetersmd.com just asked the boys what they want for dinner. T(5) said he wants sushi. F (3) said “Salt and Straw”
December 16, 2025 at 1:47 AM
My husband @brandonpetersmd.com just asked the boys what they want for dinner. T(5) said he wants sushi. F (3) said “Salt and Straw”
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Katherine Clark, the Democratic minority whip, sent this email criticizing the GOP's "wasteful stunt" to pass a resolution condemning socialism on the day Mamdani met Trump.
Only one problem: she voted for it!
@whipkclark.bsky.social, you can't talk out of both sides of your mouth like this!
Only one problem: she voted for it!
@whipkclark.bsky.social, you can't talk out of both sides of your mouth like this!
![Castro, Joaquin [D-TX] Democratic Texas Nay
Cherfilus-McCormick, Sheila [D-FL] Democratic Florida Yea
Chu, Judy [D-CA] Democratic California Nay
Ciscomani, Juan [R-AZ] Republican Arizona Yea
Cisneros, Gilbert Ray [D-CA] Democratic California Yea
Clark, Katherine M. [D-MA] Democratic Massachusetts Yea
Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY] Democratic New York Nay
Cleaver, Emanuel [D-MO] Democratic Missouri Nay
Cline, Ben [R-VA] Republican Virginia Yea
Cloud, Michael [R-TX] Republican Texas Yea
Clyburn, James E. [D-SC] Democratic South Carolina Yea](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7nyt6cyhxcvp4cxcplogg5bg/bafkreiaxco2m5a4zdl3ntiwnzziepprsmfrektdxbczdv3vlgd4ucxlt7e@jpeg)
December 15, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Katherine Clark, the Democratic minority whip, sent this email criticizing the GOP's "wasteful stunt" to pass a resolution condemning socialism on the day Mamdani met Trump.
Only one problem: she voted for it!
@whipkclark.bsky.social, you can't talk out of both sides of your mouth like this!
Only one problem: she voted for it!
@whipkclark.bsky.social, you can't talk out of both sides of your mouth like this!
Reposted by Joseph P-M
The number one source of bombing plots in the US is the FBI. This criminal complaint reads worse than the Whitmer kidnapping plot that ended up being a complete invention by a paid FBI informant.
There's a certain kind of person who just wants to do cloak-and-dagger, vanguard movement shit too
There's a certain kind of person who just wants to do cloak-and-dagger, vanguard movement shit too
static.foxnews.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:57 PM
The number one source of bombing plots in the US is the FBI. This criminal complaint reads worse than the Whitmer kidnapping plot that ended up being a complete invention by a paid FBI informant.
There's a certain kind of person who just wants to do cloak-and-dagger, vanguard movement shit too
There's a certain kind of person who just wants to do cloak-and-dagger, vanguard movement shit too
Reposted by Joseph P-M
why would immigrants do this www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
December 16, 2025 at 12:21 AM
why would immigrants do this www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Nosily poking around parochial report statistics: the church where I first served as 1/4-time priest-in-charge called a full-time vicar with diocesan support after I left. It has since nearly doubled ASA (from 37 in 2017 to 67 in 2024) & more-than-doubled plate-and-pledge. ⚓
December 16, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Nosily poking around parochial report statistics: the church where I first served as 1/4-time priest-in-charge called a full-time vicar with diocesan support after I left. It has since nearly doubled ASA (from 37 in 2017 to 67 in 2024) & more-than-doubled plate-and-pledge. ⚓
Reposted by Joseph P-M
The bear is now one of the renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web
December 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
The bear is now one of the renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web
You didn't notice her at first, but she was an old school butch
December 15, 2025 at 9:35 PM
You didn't notice her at first, but she was an old school butch
If someone asked you “How do I learn more about Centering Prayer and Contemplative Prayer?” what book would you recommend? Their professional background is as an artist and art teacher. 📕
December 15, 2025 at 9:04 PM
If someone asked you “How do I learn more about Centering Prayer and Contemplative Prayer?” what book would you recommend? Their professional background is as an artist and art teacher. 📕
Reposted by Joseph P-M
the unstated assumption of Yglesias saying that we need to be with the Nazis for Discourse Reasons is a presumed interest in finding common ground with or convincing Nazis to stop being Nazis.
i'll just say that is not how i, personally, am interested in solving the Nazi problem.
i'll just say that is not how i, personally, am interested in solving the Nazi problem.
December 15, 2025 at 6:41 PM
the unstated assumption of Yglesias saying that we need to be with the Nazis for Discourse Reasons is a presumed interest in finding common ground with or convincing Nazis to stop being Nazis.
i'll just say that is not how i, personally, am interested in solving the Nazi problem.
i'll just say that is not how i, personally, am interested in solving the Nazi problem.
Reposted by Joseph P-M
Our ethical program is not mythological. But it is theological. We act out of immense, indescribable gratitude for the reconciliation that Jesus Christ has authored for the cosmos. If we act out of anything apart from Spirit-enabled gratitude, we violate the law of faith (cf. Romans 14:23).
December 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Our ethical program is not mythological. But it is theological. We act out of immense, indescribable gratitude for the reconciliation that Jesus Christ has authored for the cosmos. If we act out of anything apart from Spirit-enabled gratitude, we violate the law of faith (cf. Romans 14:23).
Reposted by Joseph P-M
The Supreme Court's Purcell "principle" is an intentionally flexible standard that allows the justices to do what it takes to help Republican candidates win elections
How the Supreme Court Warps This “Bedrock Principle” of Election Law to Help Republicans Win
Republican lawmakers are brazenly gerrymandering their states because they know the Republican justices will have their backs
ballsandstrikes.org
December 15, 2025 at 5:45 PM
The Supreme Court's Purcell "principle" is an intentionally flexible standard that allows the justices to do what it takes to help Republican candidates win elections
This is the difference between an historian and a "history buff"
the other thing that strikes me about dreher’s take — and related ones — is that they depend on the conceit that political history began, at most, 10 years ago.
One more example of "the Woke Right" narrative, where the right tries to frame members who have gone too far as actually sort of leftist. In Fuentes case, it is the overt nature of the anti-semitism. Dreher has no problem working for a govt whose leader (Orban) engages in dog-whistle anti-semitism.
December 15, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This is the difference between an historian and a "history buff"
Reposted by Joseph P-M
the other thing that strikes me about dreher’s take — and related ones — is that they depend on the conceit that political history began, at most, 10 years ago.
One more example of "the Woke Right" narrative, where the right tries to frame members who have gone too far as actually sort of leftist. In Fuentes case, it is the overt nature of the anti-semitism. Dreher has no problem working for a govt whose leader (Orban) engages in dog-whistle anti-semitism.
December 15, 2025 at 4:27 PM
the other thing that strikes me about dreher’s take — and related ones — is that they depend on the conceit that political history began, at most, 10 years ago.
Ora pro your boy. Kids' bedtimes have been hell since Thanksgiving week and it's wearing all of us down. Well, it's wearing the adults down
December 15, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Ora pro your boy. Kids' bedtimes have been hell since Thanksgiving week and it's wearing all of us down. Well, it's wearing the adults down