The Fast of Ṭeveth and the non-end of the World

Jewish date:  10 Ṭeveth 5773 (Parashath Wayḥi).

Today’s holidays:  Fast of Ṭeveth (Judaism), Fourth Sunday of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Saturnalia and Larentalia (Roman religion), Feast Day of St. John Belushi (Church of the SubGenius), HumanLight (Secular Humanism).

Greetings.

1) Today is the Fast of Ṭeveth, which commemorates the siege on Yerushalayim.  More information can be found in “Asara B'Tevet” and “Fast of 10th of Tevet Marks Siege of Jerusalem”.  Needless to say, because of the fast, I am not particularly active today and will not wax poetic on anything.

2) Friday was supposed to be the end of the World according to various New Agers and a Christian sect known as “Almighty God”.  Also needless to say, these people were wrong.  The articles on the “Mayan apocalypse” did not stop, so today you get a followup.

• “'Mayan day of apocalypse' arrives”
• “Celebrations in Mexico as world survives Maya "end of days"”:  Not everyone who believed that Friday was something special thought it was the end of the World.
• “Denver sirens are just a test, not doomsday signal”:  Your humble blogger cannot make this up.
• “End of an era: Mayan 'apocalypse' today”
• “Hot spots draw believers, but not doomsday”

Peace and have an easy fast.

’Aharon/Aaron

Biased cropping and Helen Thomas’s bigotry

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Qoraḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Tuesday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Iggy Pop (Church of the SubGenius).

Topic 1:  More on recent anti-Semitism, dealing with the Mavi Marmara incident:  “Special Analysis: Fauxtography - Reuters Caught Again” deals with the photographic equivalent of quoting out of context:  biased cropping.  “"Go Back to Auschwitz": A Message From the Flotilla” deals with the flotilla’s blatantly anti-Semitic communications to the Israeli Navy and that there were known terrorists on board. Reporter Helen Thomas’s historically ignorant comments that Jews should leave Israel, which resulted in her extremely quick and extremely just firing, are discussed in “Helen Thomas: Israelis "Go Back to Poland"” and “Helen Thomas and Open Season on Israel”.  The latter notes the contemporary context of Jewish anti-Semitism and Jewish tolerance of anti-Semitism.

Topic 2:  Just some reminders that religious persecution is not limited to a single part or even a few parts of this planet:  “RUSSIA: Dagestan's controls on Islamic education” and “Religious leaders launch tirade against Ahmedis”.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “shun!!1! shun the non believer!”:

This is actually a Charlie the Unicorn reference, but the sentiment does occur in real religious behavior.

Peace.

Aaron

Why should anyone hate terrorists committing an act of war?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Shelaḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Feast Day of Marcellinus and Peter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Marquis de Sade/Yell “Fudge” at North American Cobras Day (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Tell Your U.S. Senators: Senate Leadership Must Act!”

Image of the naval ensign of the good guys via Wikipedia

Topic 1:  By now you have almost certainly heard of the “peace activists” (a euphemism if there ever was one) who tried breaking the Israel naval blockade of Gaza, were consequently boarded, attacked Israeli soldiers with life-threatening force, and thus the Israelis to save their own lives killed nine or ten of the “activists”.  Anti-Semites are having a field day, because by ignoring such basic facts as the people of Gaza voted a terrorist organization hell-bent on destroying Israel into power (thus making supporting Gaza at all very morally questionable in many moral systems) and that one does not need sophisticated weapons to kill (something which chimpanzees know and take advantage of), they can spin tales of what rotten people the Israelis allegedly are.  “Special Alert: Flotilla Battle Unleashes Anti-Israel Wave” discusses what really happened on that ship, including aspirations to Islamic martyrdom.  Rav Shmuley Boteach discusses the anti-Semitic hypocrisy in “The Provocative ‘Peace’ Flotilla that Ended in Tragedy”.  “Liveblogging the Free Gaza Media War” and “Liveblogging the Free Gaza Media War: June 2” discuss coverage of the media fallout as it occurs; I strongly recommend the latter, as it contains revealing cartoons and video.  One of the cartoons, the one by Michael Ramirez, was also independently sent to me by Harold.

Topic 2:  More religious oppression:  “TURKMENISTAN: Jailed conscientious objectors punished again”. “RUSSIA: Dagestan's controls on Islamic literature”, and “RUSSIA: Dagestan's Sufi monopoly”.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Lucifer cat”:



Peace.

Aaron

Why is China opposed to “defamation of religion”?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast of Mansur al-Hallaj (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Repower America | We got next”, “Take Action: Send Congress Your State's Invoice for Foodborne Illness.”, and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Republican Leaders: Condemn the hate”.

New cool software:  Ancient Semitic Scripts, which is a collection of fonts for Hebrew and Aramaic based on historic texts.  Mac OS X users can put the font files (things ending with “.ttf”) into the Fonts folder of the Library folder (personal or system).

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism:  “Not the White Response” and “Muslim-Jewish tensions roil a Swedish city”.  The first article deals someone saying something outrageous and then trying to rationalize it, thus metaphorically only stuffing his foot further into his mouth.  The second deals with anti-Semitic hate crimes in Malmo, Sweden, much of them connected with Islam.

Other religious persecution:  “Pakistani Christian couple refuses to convert: husband is burnt alive, wife raped by police”, “Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India”, “Kidnapping reflects fears of Pakistan minorities”, “Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws”, “Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home”, “RUSSIA: Lutheran extremists?”, and “RUSSIA: Who initiated anti-Jehovah's Witness and anti-Nursi campaigns?”.

Image of state religions which really ought to include atheism via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  “UN rights council slams 'defamation of religion'”.  This article has me puzzled.  Islamic countries are infamous for promoting prohibiting “defamation of religion”, the intent being to protect Islam from criticism or condemnation, whether it be fair or not.  However, China, of all countries, supported the resolution.  China, you will recall, is an officially atheist country.  The only way I see around the discrepancy is that China wants atheism protected from defamation as a religion, though this may be pushing it.

For the record:  I am opposed to this resolution because it seeks to squelch legitimate debate.  If one cannot make decent replies to criticism but has to squelch it, then one should be questioning whether one is right in the first place.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, based on the next major Jewish holiday, Pesaḥ (Passover):  “Tough Love” and “All Together”.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron