If you haven’t spent much time in an evangelical church, you may not be familiar with a practice I call “amen begging,” but it’s pretty straightforward concept. Essentially, “amen begging” is when a pastor encourages his audience to show support for a statement or claim he’s just made, a bit like a light up “APPLAUSE” sign one might find on the set of a television show filmed in front of a live studio audience. A pastor doing something along the lines of an “APPLAUSE” sign asking people to clap or feign laughter to make a mediocre sitcom joke seem funnier may appear insignificant on the surface, but I believe it has insidious consequences.

I believe what this really does is condition the congregation to respond positively and visibly for others to see when something spicy or controversial is said, when most audiences would respond negatively to such remarks. This allows for a normalization of the heated statement du jour among the congregation, creating a permission structure for less sure audience members to subscribe to whatever belief or idea was just voiced, and positioning them to be accepting of increasingly outlandish remarks, opening the door for complete inoculation and radicalization. The more “amen begging” that goes on in a particular church, the more cult-like that church is likely to be.

Time for an anecdote: I once had a pastor from the church I grew up in say to me “don’t question me, I’m a pastor” when I raised a concern about his interpretation of a particular bible verse. Rather than engage with the interpretation I offered or answer my question, he called me a wicked, deceived sinner. That is not the mark of a caring leader who wants to guide his sheep to the lord, it’s the mark of someone whose authority is illegitimate and whose professions of faith are hypocritical, who is personally benefiting from his leadership position. For what it’s worth, this pastor was someone who very frequently begged his audience for amens.

If a pastor has done his job correctly, his congregation will applaud or “amen” his sermons appropriately without instigation. An honest pastor’s biblically inspired words will serve as a conduit for divine influence amongst a congregation who think for themselves, while the way for a dishonest pastor to legitimize his claims is to rely on a Pavlovian conditioned response from a mindless audience who’ve been trained not to think for themselves.

If you’re a member of a congregation where your pastor frequently tries to spur these inorganic reactions to his words, perhaps you should do some soul searching on whether or not you’re in the right place. A pastor’s role is to lead their congregations in their faith, but we’ve seen countless perversions of this model by corrupt, greedy individuals who benefit from their roles in the church at the expense of their congregations, whom they invariably lead astray. This tendency toward corruption has led many to believe spirituality and religion are best practiced on an individual level, and that argument holds water. However, I don’t necessarily believe that there can’t be healthy groups of people who practice their faith together without resulting in the cult-like, blind following of clergymen, but “amen begging” should be a red flag for those participating in religious organizations that their leaders may not be as genuine as they appear.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

— 2 Peter 2:1 

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

— 2 Corinthians 11:13-15

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

— 1 John 4:1

I know we’ve had pictures of Mars before, but not like this. These images are really breathtaking and hard to comprehend, even though they’re mostly just pictures of the Martian ground. There are already over 5,000, and I’m sure they’re going to keep coming and weI’ll see plenty more wild sights from Mars, but it’s already well worth your time to click through a few pages of the images NASA has made available.

Here are a few I liked:

Jorge L. Ortiz, reporting for USA Today:

Even as the USA becomes the first country to reach half-a-million COVID deaths – the actual figure was 500,071 as of Monday at 4:40 p.m. EST – there are signs the pandemic may be abating, from the decreasing number of cases, hospitalizations and fatalities to the improved vaccine rollout and production. 

Amid this hopeful scenario, the emergence of coronavirus variants scrambles the picture of what the near future may look like.

[…]

Closing in on the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus outbreak being declared a pandemic – March 11, 2020 – it’s still not clear when the United States, which has reported more than twice as many cases and deaths as any other country, will have a hold on the health crisis.

It’s hard to know who to blame at this point. China? Trump? Ignorant people who refuse to wear masks? State governments who’ve managed to fuck up the response at every step of the way? Take your pick, really. Five hundred thousand deaths leaves plenty of blame to go around.

Get rid of it. Pretty simple.

Don’t get me wrong, there are good points to be made on both sides of this debate, but I think the right answer is to either get rid of the filibuster entirely, or to at least reform it to the point where it can no longer be used to completely kill popular legislation.

As many have pointed out, the filibuster has not always been a tool in the Senate’s tool belt. It has a long and complex history, but it gained its popularity during the Jim Crow era when southern Senators used it repeatedly to halt legislation that would have benefited black people at the time, like the federal criminalization of lynching or the outlawing of requirements that people pay to be able to vote.

Getting rid of the filibuster entirely is a scary concept, because then a simple majority in the Senate would be able to pass whatever legislation they wanted. However, I think it would also force more cooperation from the minority party, who would have to be less hostile towards their across-the-aisle colleagues in order to have a say in amending the passing legislation to benefit their constituents. You would also see more unique coalitions of senators who could come together to pass legislation that isn’t perfectly aligned with one party’s platform or the other, instead bringing together more specifically focused factions of senators whose aims would be to help their constituents rather than to toe the party line. It would free up a lot of the gridlock in Washington, and even if you don’t agree with everything the party in power wants to do, at least progress could be made, unlike the past several decades of stagnation. If a law were passed that proved to be unpopular or to have negative consequences, then a faction of senators opposing the legislation would be able to remove it from the books the next time they take power (assuming the legislation in question is actually unpopular with voters, and not just the special interest groups who fund the senators’ campaigns). Everyone says they hate Congress because they never get anything done, and the filibuster is to blame for that.

For those who aren’t aware, Taylor Swift is in the process of re-recording her first six albums.

My hope for the re-recordings was that they would be as similar to the originals as possible. I’ve never been a fan of remixes, and Taylor’s old songs in particular hold such a sacred place for so many people. I was very afraid that we’d end up with pop versions of country songs that would just sound like garbage, and that’s probably the worst case scenario. I wanted to be able to listened to the re-recorded songs instead of the originals, not have them as supplemental versions.

While the originals will always hold a special place in my heart, from what we’ve heard so far, I think I’ll be able to make a clean break from them, and leave them in the past to prevent Taylor’s bullies from profiting off of their underhanded deal to buy her music out from under her.

The first re-recorded song to be released was “Love Story,” and it sounds incredible. It’s so similar to the original that you may not notice it isn’t the original, but once you’re clued in, you can hear subtle differences, like the more present violin in the chorus, and a few words that Swift pronounces ever so slightly differently. On the whole, her voice is smoother and more mature, but the song is just as authentic as ever. It’s nostalgic, it really feels like you’re revisiting a moment in time.

The album artwork is great, it’s a similar pose to the original album, and it makes use of the yellow/gold color, but it too is more mature. Like the other albums Taylor owns, the cover does not feature her name.

The rest of the re-recorded “Fearless” album comes out April ninth, and you can go ahead and pre-order/pre-add it to your library here.

Ben Hall, reporting for News Channel 5 Nashville:

Police were warned Anthony Warner was making bombs in his RV more than a year before his Christmas morning attack in downtown Nashville.

The tip came from Warner's distraught girlfriend in August of 2019.

Police went to Warner's home the day of the complaint, but were unable to make contact with him.

The case was later closed as unfounded.

“He’s not home, case closed!”

She told officers that her boyfriend - Anthony Warner - "was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence."

Yes, completely “unfounded.”

The police report states that an attorney who was also there and represented both the woman and Warner - told police that Warner "frequently talks about the military and bomb making."

Attorney Ray Throckmorton told police that Warner "knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb."

"I made a report on the spot for him to get checked out and I did all that I knew I could do," Throckmorton said.

The police suck at everything they do (except lynching black people and getting away with it). Defund the police. Fuck the police.

Sami Fathi, also reporting for MacRumors:

Starting with iOS and iPadOS 14.5, Apple will proxy Google's "Safe Browsing" service used in Safari through its own servers instead of relying on Google as a way to limit which personal data Google sees about users.

While Google doesn't know which specific URL you're trying to visit, it may collect your IP address during its interaction with Safari. Now on iOS/iPadOS 14.5, that's no longer the case.

Juli Clover, reporting for MacRumors:

The iOS 14.5 beta, available to developers and public beta testers, adds a new Apple Maps feature that lets you report accidents, hazards, and speed checks along your route when getting directions.

Apple is out for blood with the privacy measures, and I’m here for it.

The change for safe browsing doesn’t seem like a big deal and it isn’t something users will notice, since Google wasn’t getting the URL you were gong to in the first place, but this also prevents them from getting your IP address, and a good rule of thumb is the less information funneled through Google, the better.

However, the change for Maps is huge. If it proves popular, it could effectively kill Waze on iOS. Apple’s implementation of crowdsourced traffic conditions certainly isn't as robust and feature heavy as Waze, but honestly, Waze was a pain to use from a design perspective, and its feature set was bloated. Apple’s option is a lot more straightforward while still conveying most of the data you’d want. I could see them expanding it a little bit in the future (to give more specific options for road hazards, or to indicate heavy traffic without any apparent accidents), but since it is a feature that most people will use while driving, the simpler it is to report conditions, the better.

These are two great steps to reducing iOS users’ reliance on Google, but the most obvious step remains: stripping Google’s status as the default search engine in Safari. That may not be super popular with users at first, but if more people realized that Google remembers every query they make and then uses that data against them, AND the new default search engine is at least 90% as good as Google (which has been getting steadily worse, increasingly bloated with advertisements), I think Apple could throw up a splash screen that would convince people to try the new option (or just don’t even clue users in until they start making queries and notice they aren’t landing on Google). Speaking of that new option, I think the best bet would be for Apple to just build their own search engine, but they could also set DuckDuckGo (the browser I personally use, because it doesn’t track or record your search history and sell you out to companies looking to buy that data) as the out-of-the-box browser and make users change it back to Google if they don’t like DDG, perhaps even explaining the privacy differences in the settings menu or forcing them to tap accept on a pop up acknowledging that they’re choosing to use a search engine that tracks them.

Be sure to check out the whole list, but here are a few highlights from AZQuotes.com’s list of Rush Limbaugh’s top 25 quotes:

Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.

Ideal women: 36-24-36, five foot seven, flat spot on top of the head, deaf mute. The flat spot on the top of the head is for your drink.

When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult; it's an invitation.

There is no conclusive proof that nicotine's addictive... And the same thing with cigarettes causing emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease.

Even when I think I'm wrong I'm right. I am all-knowing.

It wasn’t cancer that killed Rush Limbaugh, it was karma.

While it’s a bit uncouth to relish someone’s death, Rush Limbaugh’s absence from this world is inarguably a net good. Mourning his death would be a bit like mourning for Joseph Goebbels. Speaking of whom, I’m sure those two peas-in-a-pod propagandists will have a splendid time falling in love with each other over brunches in hell.

Don’t miss: Another tally mark in the “Fuck Florida” column, as Governor Ron DeSantis issues a brazenly partisan order to lower flags to half staff for this asshole. Disgusting. Next time Florida threatens to secede, I say we let them.

Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson, reporting for The New York Times:

Surrendering our privacy to the government would be foolish enough. But what is more insidious is the Faustian bargain made with the marketing industry, which turns every location ping into currency as it is bought and sold in the marketplace of surveillance advertising.

[…]

A source has provided [The New York Times with] another data set, this time following the smartphones of thousands of Trump supporters, rioters and passers-by in Washington, D.C., on January 6, as Donald Trump’s political rally turned into a violent insurrection.

[…]

The sacking of the Capitol was a shocking assault on the republic and an unwelcome reminder of the fragility of American democracy. But history reminds us that sudden events — Pearl Harbor, the Soviet Union testing an atomic bomb, the Sept. 11 attacks — have led to an overreach in favor of collective security over individual liberty that we’d later regret. And more generally, the data collected on Jan. 6 is a demonstration of the looming threat to our liberties posed by a surveillance economy that monetizes the movements of the righteous and the wicked alike.

The data we were given showed what some in the tech industry might call a God-view vantage of that dark day. It included about 100,000 location pings for thousands of smartphones, revealing around 130 devices inside the Capitol exactly when Trump supporters were storming the building.

[…]

The data presented here is a bird’s-eye view of an event that posed a clear and grave threat to our democracy. But it tells a second story as well: One of a broken, surreptitious industry in desperate need of regulation, and of a tacit agreement we’ve entered into that threatens our individual privacy. None of this data should ever have been collected.

[…]

This collection will only grow more sophisticated. This new data set offers proof that not only is there more interest in location data than before, but it is also easier to deanonymize. It gets easier by the day. As the data from Jan. 6 eerily demonstrates, it does not discriminate. It harvests from the phones of MAGA rioters, police officers, lawmakers and passers-by. There is no evidence, from the past or current day, that the power this data collection offers will be used only to good ends. There is no evidence that if we allow it to continue to happen, the country will be safer or fairer.

In our previous investigation, we wrote that Americans deserve the freedom to choose a life without surveillance and the government regulation that would make that possible. While we continue to believe the sentiment, we fear it may soon be obsolete or irrelevant. We deserve that freedom, but the window to achieve it narrows a little more each day. If we don’t act now, with great urgency, it may very well close for good.

Excellent reporting, you should really read the full article. For additional context, also check out their 2019 piece, “One Nation, Tracked” as well as CopyrightBro’s commentary on it.

The thing to understand here is that it wasn’t just the insurrectionists at the Capitol that were being tracked, and they weren’t specifically targeted for this tracking beforehand. Granted, they’re probably a little bit stupider on average than most Americans, but probably not to the extent that they were more susceptible to the tracking and data collection that made it possible for a private company to compile all this information and recreate minute-by-minute itineraries of their little field trip to D.C.

Everyone’s phones (Android devices to a greater degree than iPhones, but still) are collecting troves of data about their lives and their behavior, practically at all times, and turning it over to creepy companies you’ve never heard of that can sell it or use it themselves to do astoundingly unethical, privacy-invasive shit like what we’ve seen here. Sure, there are some settings you can change to make it harder for them to spy on you, and CopyrightBro is committed to helping you understand what you can do, but this problem is too big to be solved by any amount of accountability journalism, hard hitting exposés from the New York Times, or even attempts by well intentioned companies like Apple to pressure their competitors to play by a fair, understandable set of rules. This problem requires sweeping regulation.

This is so much bigger than any one company, but it bears repeating: #deletefacebook

Ryan Mac and Rosie Gray, reporting for Buzzfeed News:

The Trump Organization negotiated on behalf of then-president Donald Trump to make Parler his primary social network, but it had a condition: an ownership stake in return for joining, according to documents and four people familiar with the conversations. The deal was never finalized, but legal experts said the discussions alone, which occurred while Trump was still in office, raise legal concerns with regards to anti-bribery laws.

Talks between members of Trump’s campaign and Parler about Trump’s potential involvement began last summer, and were revisited in November by the Trump Organization after Trump lost the 2020 election to the Democratic nominee and current president, Joe Biden. Documents seen by BuzzFeed News show that Parler offered the Trump Organization a 40% stake in the company. It is unclear as to what extent the former president was involved with the discussions.

Nothing says “capitalism” like shady white collar crime wherein you bribe a corrupt demagogue president with partial ownership of your company in exchange for his exclusive endorsement and use of your product.

Parler was a dangerous joke. John Matze was a dangerous joke. Donald Trump was a dangerous joke. Rebekah Mercer is still dangerous and she isn’t a joke: it’s people like her who use their money to pull the strings, and it’s people like her that we need to be paying attention to.

Adi Robertson, reporting for The Verge:

Stock trading app Robinhood is facing dozens of lawsuits after the company restricted several stocks popular on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. At least 30 parties across 10 states have sued the company in federal court, many seeking class action status. They allege that Robinhood users lost millions of dollars because they were unable to buy or sell stock during the freeze, and that the company chose to “manipulate the market” to help other financial institutions.

[…]

Disgruntled users aren’t the only threat for Robinhood, however. The company’s decision drew bipartisan condemnation from lawmakers, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and others calling to investigate the company’s decision.

Fuck Robinhood. What they did, regardless of the reason — let’s be clear, their own financial unpreparedness is not an excuse — was market manipulation and they should be held criminally liable. Even if their woe-is-me story about not having enough money to cover the trades makes sense, it’s much easier to believe that they did what they did because it directly benefited the hedge funds who were losing money even though it came at the expense of their users, for whom Robinhood claimed they were “democratizing the stock market.”

Many people didn’t realize this, but Robinhood is actually financed by those hedge funds. Their entire shady business model is based on selling information to hedge funds about what trades their users are making, so that the hedge funds can make split second trades before Robinhood actually processes their user’s trades. If you use Robinhood, you might as well delete your account because they’re more than willing to sell you out. I’ve already deleted my personal account.

Clearly, the free market is only free for the wealthy. When the little guy loses money on investments, they say “oh well, if you play the game you run the risk of losing,” but when it looks like big banks on Wall Street might lose, they just turn the game off.

Eat the rich.