When is killing justified among the Soldiers of the One?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 Marḥeshwan 5771 (Parashath Lekh-Lekha).

Today’s holidays:  Monday of the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St Sid Vicious/St. Nenslo/St. Lt. Colombo (Church of the SubGenius).

Note:  I have finally finished reading The White Goddess by Robert Graves.  I still have such a negative view of it that I intend to title the review “I Spit on Robert Graves”.  However, Graves is not trivially wrong, but rather wrong in a truly ingenious manner.  It will thus take some time to write the review, so please be patient.

Topic 1:  In the interest of catching up, the latest episode of Caprica, “Unvanquished”.



This episode is mostly dedicated to making Sister Clarice (you know, the woman from the monotheistic Soldiers of the One with moral issues) into a psychopath.  The episode begins with a simulation of a bombing of a sports game.  This simulation is presented by Clarice to her superiors as her idea of what they should be doing:  killing people and letting those who are worthy be reborn virtually (incorrectly called “apotheosis”).  Fortunately, Clarice’s superiors do not approve of this plan—after all, murder for the most part is considered an abomination—one of them going so far as to call Clarice’s virtual heaven a “blasphemy”.  She is given no approval to go ahead.  Quite the opposite; despite their being much more tolerant than Clarice, the Blessed Mother of the group is approached, and she reluctantly gives approval to have Clarice killed, they consider her that dangerous.  Lest anyone think they are overreacting, Clarice’s followers murder one of her rivals, and Clarice starts talking to the Blessed Mother to promote her plans.  This episode may be viewed as reflecting Muslim internal politics.

Topic 2:  The daily dose of anti-Semitism (yes, this was coming sooner or later):  “"Squeezing Out Christians and Muslims" - Irish Times Blames Israel” and “MSM, Stone Throwers Collude and Collide In Silwan”.  The former deals with the claim that Jews are to blame for Christian woes in Israel, which can only be accomplished by completely ignoring Muslim persecution of Christians.  The later dissects a recent incident in which photographers collaborated with Muslim stone-throwers to create a photo-op.

Also:  this video makes for dim prospects for peace.



Also:  “The Other Existential Threat” by Daniel Gordis gives an interesting perspective on Iran trying to acquire nuclear weapons.  The jist is that is what is wrong with the situation is not so much that Iran would necessarily use them to wipe out Israel, but rather that Jews would be returned to depending upon the whims of others for their mere survival.  Being dependent on the mercy others just to live was the state Jewry was in before there was a State of Israel.  If anyone needs to be reminded of how well that worked out, see appendix 2 of my “No honesty allowed: a review of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”.  The list of anti-Semitic incidents listed there is extensive, and it would have been much longer had I done more research or extended it past the publication of On the Origin of Species.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: ““Letz sharpen clawz”:



Peace.

Aaron