30 ’Av 5768: Ro’sh Ḥodhesh/Love Litigating Lawyers Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day:

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions: “Museum defies pope over crucified frog”: Summary: An art museum in Italy has a sculpture of a crucified frog on exhibit; the Pope wants it gone, and the museum does not care what the Pope thinks. I understand well why the Pope does not like the crucified frog sculpture, since it smacks of trivialization of the crucifixion of Jesus. What I do not understand is how the sculpture is supposed to illustrate “human angst” or why something that stupid is supposedly worthy of being deemed “art”. Also, kudos to the Catholics for their civil behavior in this situation. (As opposed to Muslims, whose response to offensive “art” is to riot and kill a few people.)

Today’s news and commentary:

• “McCain's Veep Pick Palin: Open ANWR to Drilling” and “McCain’s VP Choice Prefers the Dark Ages”, not to mention the Wikipedia article on Sarah Palin (Though not the worst possible person for the job, there are some rather disturbing things about her, such as her being a creationist who wants creationism taught in public schools, having anti-science views, being under investigation for ethics violations, opposing abortion in the case of rape and incest, being for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and having little regard for endangered species. This stratagem is not doing anything to reverse my plans to vote against the Republicans in November.)
  
• “Fly Swatting 101”
  
• “The media’s MMR hoax”
  
• “Can we?”
  
• “On Guard”

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “Successful Strategies for Completing Unfamiliar Domestic Tasks”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

28 ’Av 5768: More Herbs, Less Salt Day/According to Hoyle Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Don't Let the Pentagon Get a Free Ride”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Next President Of The United States”
  
• “Fabled Northwest Passage open for business in the Arctic”
  
• “Ancient Amazon Actually Highly Urbanized”
  
• “Pot is good for you? Marijuana fights the superbugs”
  
• “Israel arrests Fatah man who was pardoned but 'returned to terror'” (And why did they pardon this man again?)
  
• “Game-playing astronauts infect NASA computers with virus”
  
• “A raft made of junk crosses Pacific in 3 months”
  
• “Pigeons as Pilots?” (Barry should appreciate this one.)
  
• “Ga. town's scarecrows h(a)unting for world record”
  
• “Judge lets privacy advocate keep Social Security numbers on Web site”

Today’s weird thing is “Hamlet is Stranded on Gilligan's Island”.

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

PS: Yes, that is the sound of William Shakespeare turning over in his grave you hear.

27 ’Av 5768: Dream Day Quest and Jubilee

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Tell Dr. Lark to Stop Selling Squalane!” and “Support the PAW Act -- End Alaska's Aerial Hunting Program!”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Leviticus traps”: David Benkof correctly notes that it pays to know what one is talking about when attacking someone else’s beliefs or practices. The particular case in question is that some object to the Orthodox Jewish views on homosexuality (prohibited according to Leviticus 18:22), and to attack they ask why Orthodox Jews do not practice various other things in the Torah. The attackers in the process display ignorance of 1) what the Torah actually says, missing context and getting details wrong, and 2) what Orthodox Jews actually believe and practice. An attack based on a false premise is, of course, invalid. Kudos to Benkof for his clear thinking.
   
2. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer slaying church attendance among women, study claims”: The title is much funnier than the situation. To quote:

   The report claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their congregations over the past two decades because they feel the church is not relevant to their lives.
   
   It says that instead young women are becoming attracted to the pagan religion Wicca, where females play a central role, which has grown in popularity after being featured positively in films, TV shows and books.

   This is frankly illogical. When choosing a religion, whether deciding to stay with one’s own or to convert to another, the only relevant question is “is it true?” Now, we all live in the same objectively true reality, so whatever is true for one person is true for everyone. (Or if this belief is wrong and we each live in a different reality, my personal reality behaves like this, so I am still right.) Since we all inhabit the same reality, one’s sex is completely irrelevant to what is true. Choosing a religion based on what one gets to do in it is just plain childish, and I hope those abandoning Anglicanism for Wicca are doing it for much better reasons.
   
3. “AZERBAIJAN: Threats and deportation 'to stop us talking about God'”: Yes, lots of people find Jehovah’s Witnesses annoying and irrational. That is not an excuse for how the government of Azerbaijan is treating them. Major rule: there is a huge difference between claiming to have freedom of religion and actually practicing it.
   
4. “Dead Sea Scrolls go from parchment to the Internet”: Nothing wrong here. Making scholarly useful information easily available is always good.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Abie Nathan (1981)”
  
• “Breaking the Gaza Blockade”
  
  
• Mersenne Prime Search reports that the 45th Mersenne prime may have been discovered.
  
• “Dutch say Pisa no longer Europe's most leaning tower”
  
• “"Grease to Greece" racers cross Europe on cooking oil”
  
• “Will All of This Matter In Five Years?” (Just a bit of wisdom.)
  
• “Indicted senator wins Alaska GOP primary” (Would please someone tell me how the gezornenblat this happened?)
  
• “Galaxy Surprise Sheds Light on Dark Matter ”
  
• “45.7 Million in U.S. Lack Health Insurance” (This is disgraceful.)
  
• “Mistaken Beliefs About Cancer Abound” (Very worrying.)

Today’s weird thing is “The Great Office War”.