Are you GameStation’s slave?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s holidays:  Day 17 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Friday of the Second Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), St. Messalina/All Hookers’ Day (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Help Eliminate Measles Worldwide - Take Action Today @ The Child Health Site” and “Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) | Co-sign our open letter to Republican Leader Boehner”.

Topic 1:  Silly anti-Semitism:  “UK Bans Western Wall from Israel Tourism Ads”.  The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority has prohibited Israel from claiming or implying in tourism advertisements that eastern Jerusalem is part of Israel.  This is despite Israel annexing the territory in 1967.  Or Jews having being in Jerusalem for millennia.  Or the fact that the Advertising Standards Authority does not have any real authority to dictate what territory belongs to which state.  Note the logical fallacy of proof by assertion:  anti-Semites claim enough that eastern Jerusalem (or any part of Israel) does not belong to Israel (or is not Jewish), expecting this to be taken as the truth.  Of course, reality does not work this way.  I could claim billions of times that the Sun is purple, and the Sun would never turn purple.

Also notable on anti-Semitism:  “Not quite free” (on Europe covertly sticking its nose into Israeli politics through funding nongovernmental organizations) and “A dangerous silence” (on the hypocrisy of the US government treating Israel shabbily while coddling Muslim dictatorships, with little in the way of protest).

Topic 2:  “7,500 shoppers unknowingly sold their souls” and “GameStation: "We own your soul"”.  In a twist on the classic Faustian bargain, GameStation added a clause to their terms and conditions of sale asserting that they owed on-line purchasers’ souls unless they opted out.  88% of such purchasers did not opt out, strongly suggesting that few people read such contracts.  (They are pretty dull and too long.)  The point proved, GameStation nullified this clause.

I would like to note my puzzlement at the notion of selling one’s soul.  One’s soul is not merely a part of oneself; it is oneself.  Literally selling one’s soul would thus be tantamount to selling oneself into slavery.  There is also the question of what the buyer would do with a soul.  If the buyer is Satan (as in the classic Faust story), then one is going to Hell.  However, if the buyer is mortal, like the people at GameStation, then it is unclear what he/she could do with a soul, especially if there were no body still attached with it.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Basement Cat”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

The patheticness of jihad by law abuse and “Sixteen Tons”

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Mishpaṭim).

Today’s holidays:  Feasts of Jerome Emiliani and Josephine Bakhita (Roman Catholicism).

Topic 1:  More contemporary anti-Semitism:  “BMJ's Selective Editing” and “UN likely to refer Goldstone findings to The Hague”.  The first article things going wrong in medical journals in the UK.  The second deals with a pathetic attempt at jihad by proxy.  Islam does not have a good track record of tolerance (and I mean tolerance in the sense of treating non-Muslims as equals rather than second-class citizens and scapegoats), and there have been regular Muslim attacks on Jews in Israel (even before the current state) since at least the 1920s.  Having utterly failed militarily, the current tactic has shifted to other means, including abuse of legal systems.  And now to heap the abuse on this and all other tactics they have used that they truly deserve, please note that there are over a billion Muslims on Earth, but only about 13 million Jews.  If they really wanted to, Muslims could easily summon the manpower, funding, and supplies necessary to accomplish their stated goal of killing or at least forcing all Jews into dhimmitude; when you outnumber your enemy 77 to 1, this is not hard.  That they have failed to do so multiple times is a display of complete, utter military incompetence and total unmanliness.  The very fact that Muslims have resorted to jihad by PR and abuse of the law only underscores how pathetic they truly are; unable to do the job themselves and putting their military incompetence on display for the whole planet, they try to convince others to do the dirty job for them.  Listen up, jihadists:  you suck.  Be real men, stop wasting your lives on fighting a war you have effectively admitted you cannot win, and do something more worthwhile.

Topic 2:  Recently I watched Joe Verus the Volcano while donating platelets.  The movie opens with a depiction of horrific working conditions, and the song played very appropriately during this is the famous “Sixteen Tons”.  It has occurred to me that there is a bit of the Faust legend in “Sixteen Tons”.  The singer says, er, sings in the refrain “Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go / I owe my soul to the company store”, putting the company metaphorically in the place of Satan.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “basement cat wanted to have ceelin cats power so he hid at the stairs and attacked ceelin cat ceelin cat ceelin cat got up and scratched him by libertymize”:


Peace.

Aaron