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Stephen Hammer at Harvard


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3 hours ago, Whydon'ttheyspeakintongues said:

And before anyone thinks this family is starting to sound progessive by fundie standards - their son started a blog where he said that slavery was a good thing (before his evil porn addiction took over and he nearly burnt the house down from all that rubbing apparently).

I think that was Oliver's blog when he was a teen.  He wrote a fairly standard essay (for the VF types) full of Biblical quotes defending slavery.  It was awful but there are plenty of VF videos saying the same putrid things.  I think it is Dan Horn who is one of the worst offenders. The Alexanders took the blog down pretty fast when Oliver was called out.  They probably agreed with it though.

Elliot is the one that struggles with temptation and porn.  Elliot is apparently "not a Calvinist" any more. http://esalexander.blogspot.com/

I haven't been keeping up with the Alexanders but I think Elliot and Oliver are still working on the dairy farm although both have done short-term missions.  

The younger boys are still minors - Sullivan is about 18 and Harrison is around 16.

 

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36 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

I think that was Oliver's blog when he was a teen.  He wrote a fairly standard essay (for the VF types) full of Biblical quotes defending slavery.  It was awful but there are plenty of VF videos saying the same putrid things.  I think it is Dan Horn who is one of the worst offenders. The Alexanders took the blog down pretty fast when Oliver was called out.  They probably agreed with it though.

Elliot is the one that struggles with temptation and porn.  Elliot is apparently "not a Calvinist" any more. http://esalexander.blogspot.com/

I haven't been keeping up with the Alexanders but I think Elliot and Oliver are still working on the dairy farm although both have done short-term missions.  

The younger boys are still minors - Sullivan is about 18 and Harrison is around 16.

 

Don't you just hate it when you get your slavery-apologists confused with your porn-addicts?  I know I do.... 

Elliott is married to the daughter of the people who run WIT ministries - they run a programme for men addicted to porn.  Now wouldn't that be a funny story to tell the grandkids when they ask how you met?   They got a bit of coverage on the Duggar website a while ago - maybe Josh needed extra prayers?  

I did some digging on their fb page and the pictures of the wedding might just show Sheridan in another mini-bride outfit....

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Are they related to the Alexander who married a Morton, and sired Alexandria Alexander, surely up there in the canon of Terrible Fundy Names?

(I know, Alexander is a common surname, but i love the spiderweb links between families...)

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33 minutes ago, Lurky said:

Are they related to the Alexander who married a Morton, and sired Alexandria Alexander, surely up there in the canon of Terrible Fundy Names?

(I know, Alexander is a common surname, but i love the spiderweb links between families...)

Nope. As far as I know there is no connection between the two Alexander families.

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8 hours ago, ophelia said:

Well maybe he just REALLY wanted to dance the vertical tango!

 

Maybe he actually loves Meredith, wanted a family, and is happy with their life. 

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23 minutes ago, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

Maybe he actually loves Meredith, wanted a family, and is happy with their life. 

I certainly hope that's true. I think many FJer's (including me) find the relationship problematic because of the way it began. It seemed very cold and calculating on Stephen's part. Meredith isn't a school or a degree or a goal, yet it almost seemed as though, to Stephen, she was just another box to tick off. 

Stephen's life, in so many ways, reminds of how the Kennedys lived in the Forties and Fifties. I have often wondered if he is consciously or subconsciously imitating them (however different his political views may be). 

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11 hours ago, Hisey said:

Well, it sounds like he did make a journal, even it wasn't the law review. That shows he hasn't completely lost his over-achieving ways. I don't know anything about the law firm he worked at last summer, does anyone know anything about it? 

I don't know the policy at Harvard, but at many schools, you're not allowed to be on more than 1 journal. It could be that the journal he is on suits his interests more than the law review.  

A public policy journal would certainly square well with the firm where he worked. Cooper & Kirk is a mid-size boutique firm that specializes in appellate litigation and regulatory litigation.  I know the founder is active with Federalist Society.  Mostly I know of the firm because they have represented various legislators on different things, including a case here in VA where the legislature challenged the governor's authority to enter a particular executive order.  They're also involved in representing plaintiffs in a suit again Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that's been making headlines.  If Hammer has an interest in government or public policy work, this firm is well-known in those circles even if it's not one of the huge 500+ attorney ones.

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2 hours ago, DomWackTroll said:

I certainly hope that's true. I think many FJer's (including me) find the relationship problematic because of the way it began. It seemed very cold and calculating on Stephen's part. Meredith isn't a school or a degree or a goal, yet it almost seemed as though, to Stephen, she was just another box to tick off. 

Stephen's life, in so many ways, reminds of how the Kennedys lived in the Forties and Fifties. I have often wondered if he is consciously or subconsciously imitating them (however different his political views may be). 

That's funny, because on her old blog, Meredith used to aspire to being like Jackie Kennedy.

1 hour ago, GenerationCedarchip said:

I don't know the policy at Harvard, but at many schools, you're not allowed to be on more than 1 journal. It could be that the journal he is on suits his interests more than the law review.  

 

I knew a guy who made law review and chose to turn it down because he was more interested in another journal. Good for him! However, he was viewed as an idiot by his classmates, because law review is so well-known as THE most prestigious journal, the sort of thing everyone has heard of and knows about. Of course, this was a mediocre law school, and students needed as much help as they could get.

Maybe Stephen is like my friend. Maybe he feels like he has enough accolades, and that as a Harvard Law/Rhodes Scholar/Princeton grad he is sure to get a job anyway. However, if he were interested in politics, Law Review would have served him better, IMO.

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2 hours ago, Hisey said:

However, if he were interested in politics, Law Review would have served him better, IMO.

Perhaps.  But he may be interested in going to work on the Hill or in the White House.  What he's doing could also set him on a track for academia or one of the think tanks.

I think he is obviously bright and very ambitious. However, I also think that here at FJ, many of us  have been assuming  he wants to be a politician.  Maybe his ambition is pointed in another direction.

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On 3/16/2017 at 1:08 PM, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

Maybe he actually loves Meredith, wanted a family, and is happy with their life. 

There is some question as to whether he was  virgin upon marriage to the virginal Meredith.

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2 hours ago, gustava said:

There is some question as to whether he was  virgin upon marriage to the virginal Meredith.

What does that have to do with his reasons for getting married or being happy in his current life?

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On 3/16/2017 at 3:11 PM, GenerationCedarchip said:

Perhaps.  But he may be interested in going to work on the Hill or in the White House.  What he's doing could also set him on a track for academia or one of the think tanks.

I think he is obviously bright and very ambitious. However, I also think that here at FJ, many of us  have been assuming  he wants to be a politician.  Maybe his ambition is pointed in another direction.

 

That's exactly what I've been saying. There's manydifferent directions a bright young lawyer could go in. In fact, his outstanding qualifications opens a lot of doors. Just because he married a pretty, naive young wife and immediately had kids doesn't mean he is going into politics.

In fact, if they are going to continue having kids at this rate, he might choose to go to a law firm or some other job that would pay a big salary. How is he going to pay for college for all those back to back kids? Maybe he plans on only sending the boys. If he plans on sending them all, he'll have four in college in about 17 years.

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1 hour ago, Hisey said:

That's exactly what I've been saying. There's many different directions a bright young lawyer could go in.

Can we talk about those different directions a bit?  Part of the problem here may be due to me using "politics" far too loosely when it comes to Stephen.  He does seem to be focused on policy rather than criminal law.

His trajectory seems very planned and a few years ago he said his ambition was to be a judge.  He may have changed his mind.  I don't think he specified State or Federal, but his ambition and his qualifications rather made me think Federal.  I sort of think judges are political but you may disagree.

How are judges selected anyway?  I know some are elected and some are appointed but it makes no sense to me.  What experience do you have to have to be a judge?  

He could end up as a prosecutor or defense lawyer on his way to the judiciary.

A lot of lawyers also become legislators at both State and Federal levels.  He might have to start at the state level before being elected to US Congress.  That is political.

He could end up working for name that conservative think tank or work for the FRC as a lobbyist. Political.

He could be a General Council for a governmental agency, big charitable nonprofit or university.

He could end up working as a corporate lawyer.  He could teach.

Heck, the possibilities are endless.  It is a very versatile degree.

Somehow I doubt that he'll end up writing wills or conveying houses in some small town.  Valuable as those attorneys are, I don't think that is Stephen's plan.

As far as student debt goes, I don't think Stephen is necessarily overloaded, although I have no idea how he is supporting a wife and 4 children in Cambridge.  He's the ultimate scholarship kid, the ROTC helped, and I expect he qualified for some educational benefits through the military for his J.D.,  although I don't know how far that would go.

 

 

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Is that really how they met? He googled SAHD blogs and started looking for one? Do we have a thread ? I think this is my new rabbit hole

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Yup, he shopped for her like he was on PetFinder.com. There are some old discussions in the Archived Topical Threads forum.

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2 hours ago, Mela99 said:

Is that really how they met? He googled SAHD blogs and started looking for one? Do we have a thread ? I think this is my new rabbit hole

Go here for more than you may wish to know. 

Just in case: :ferret::ferret::ferret::ferret:

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On 3/18/2017 at 3:20 PM, Hisey said:

In fact, if they are going to continue having kids at this rate, he might choose to go to a law firm or some other job that would pay a big salary. How is he going to pay for college for all those back to back kids?

I knew folks in law school that started large families right away and my husband has worked with some folks like that, too. Most of the ones I knew went into government service of some sort (state Attorney General's office, US Attorney's office, etc...) because the benefits are better than in the private sector. Work-family balance plays out a little better much of the time, too. 

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21 hours ago, Mela99 said:

Is that really how they met? He googled SAHD blogs and started looking for one? Do we have a thread ? I think this is my new rabbit hole

Someone reminded me recently that I wrote the summary of Meredith and co for the SOTDRT who's who.  It needs updating, is far too long, and the snark ran away with me, but it does give the background if you don't want to search yuku.  

 

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On 3/18/2017 at 2:16 PM, Palimpsest said:

As far as student debt goes, I don't think Stephen is necessarily overloaded, although I have no idea how he is supporting a wife and 4 children in Cambridge.  He's the ultimate scholarship kid, the ROTC helped, and I expect he qualified for some educational benefits through the military for his J.D.,  although I don't know how far that would go.

 

 

Possibly affluent grandparents, living or dead.

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On 3/15/2017 at 2:24 PM, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

I don't ever look at her Facebook, but she seems happy enough on IG. Seems being the operative word here. Anyway, it just burns my butter when people get on about moms looking tired or checked out. I look exhausted all the time (because I mostly am lol) and I've aged quite a bit in the last few years, but I'm quite happy. 

How do you follow her there?  Her account is private.

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2 hours ago, Rosie said:

How do you follow her there?  Her account is private.

I'm a fundie? It gives me an in, I suppose. Helps to have mutual acquaintances. Have you tried requesting to follow her?

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On ‎3‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 1:42 PM, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

What does that have to do with his reasons for getting married or being happy in his current life?

It wouldn't matter here in Realville, USA.  But we're talking about fundies -- their rules are totally different.  A fundie having premarital sex would be like a Jewish vegan having a cheeseburger.

(no offense to any Jewish vegans reading here)

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On 3/18/2017 at 5:42 PM, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

What does that have to do with his reasons for getting married or being happy in his current life?

@JMarie has a point.

Apart from possibly claiming that his college conversion to a form of evangelicalism somehow reconstituted his virginity or at least his sexual purity, Stephen's premarital fling(s) would seem to be a disqualifier by all the rules that Meredith & her family say they live by. 

On the other hand, perhaps Princeton + Rhodes Scholarship + fundie conversion trump sexual sin. Who knows?

Then again, there's always the standard fallback with these people: Do as we say, not as we do.

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I get what y'all are saying, but I fail to see how it relates to my comment. I said that maybe he really loves Meredith and is happy. Gustava said he might not have been a virgin when they married. And I ask again what has that to do with him loving her and being happy?

I think we had someone come and claim to have known Stephen in high school or something to give us the dirt that he partied a little and had some flings. Big whoop. Many fundies are not going to be concerned with a young person's past before being saved, or "turning their life around", because many fundies are in the same boat, with sordid pasts they've left behind. And, yes, that goes for women too. 

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