Jewish date: 3 ’Iyyar 5769.
Today’s holiday: Day 18 of the ‘Omer.
Today’s quasi-holidays: Write an Old Friend Today Day, Babe Ruth Day.
Worthy cause of the day: “Urge the Obama Administration to Protect Polar Bears and Other Vulnerable Wildlife”.
Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
- Bad idea: “Religious Revolt: New Christian Sect Battles Demons, Raises the Dead, Campaigns for Sarah Palin”. People ought to know by now that the evidence for the existence of demons and witchcraft is nil and that faith-healing is a fraud. On the bright side, at least some Christian pastors are fighting back against the darkness: “Nigerian Withcraft: Pastor fights deceitful counterparts”.
- Religious intolerance: “Hindu radicals attack old church”.
- Time for a few comments on the latest episode of Kings, “Judgement Day”. There does not seem to be much of anything in this episode directly traceable to Samuel. King Silas sitting in judgement over his people is more reminiscent of Shelomoh (Solomon) than Sha’ul (Saul). Jack continues to play politics in a very un-Yonathan (Jonathan)-like manner with little regard for the lives of other people, making a big mess for Michelle/Mikhal and David/Dawidh to deal with. This episode reflects largely on the themes of God, justice, and the rule of law, with Silas, Michelle, and David all put in dilemmas about whether it is more moral to play by the rules or whether it is sometimes necessary to subvert them. Silas considers himself God’s representative while judging, and in the end, satisfied with Silas’s judgement, declares that God works through the king. Michelle also reveals to David that she is promised to someone else, a major roadblock to progress on their relationship. We will have to wait until June 14 to find out what happens next.
- “Swine Flu?” and “What is swine flu? US declares public health emergency”: Paradoxically, there is very little to worry about from swine flu, avian flu, or other new infectious diseases for the very reason that governments are so worried about them. The response of governments is to quarantine every new case, because there is no way in Hell they are going to let swine flu or any such disease spread. The easiest way to kill an epidemic disease is to keep it from ever becoming an epidemic—and the last thing any nation or humanity as a whole needs, on top of everything else going wrong on this planet, is another epidemic. Because humanity’s governments have gone crazy clamping down on new infectious diseases, humanity in general has very little to worry about them.
- “New Statesman: Israel = Racist”
- “Jewish legacy inscribed on genes?”: Submitted by Dad. Interesting notion. Time and research will tell whether the hypothesis is correct.
- “Found: Missing link ancestor of modern sea lions, seals and walrus”
- “Bionic penguins take to the water – and the skies”
Enjoy and share the weirdness.
Aaron
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