Divine punishment, the pointlessness of the peace process, and the disgraceful Richard Goldstone

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s holidays:  Day 26 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Festival of Ridvan (Bahá’í Faith), Fourth Sunday of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. T (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Manes (Thelema), Apostle and Evangelist Mark (Greek Orthodox Christianity).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Reform Immigration For America | Racial profiling? Not in our America!”, “Tell Obama to Further Support Malaria Vaccine Research - Take Action Today @ The Hunger Site”, “Friends of the Earth U.S.:  Tell the Obama Administration to Reject a New Pipeline for the World's Dirtiest Oil”, “CARE:  Child Marriage:  A Promise of Poverty”, “Health Care for America NOW! | Demand Our $$ Spent on Health Care Not Profits”, “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  WITH WALL STREET OR WITH US?”, “Stop senseless wolf killing in our country! - The Petition Site”, “Take Action | Earth Day Network”, “Take Action: Speak out for Sudan | Save Darfur”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: We need a criminal investigation of Wall Street”, “Tell Big Banks: Party's Over - The Petition Site”, and “Close the Loophole: Help Close the Gun Show Loophole. Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals.”.  (My posting got put off due to working on a review of the Uplift Series, so there is a big backlog.)

Topic 1:  “Iranian cleric blames quakes on promiscuous women”:  Considering that Hojjat ol-eslam Kazem Sediqi is not a prophet, HOW DOES HE KNOW?  Also to be noted, but which he does not seem to realize, is that it takes two to tango.  Therefore the young men allegedly being tempted into adultery should be held accountable for their failure to resist temptation.

Topic 2:  The periodic anti-Semitism roundup:  “Anti-Israel Programmer Suspended by Montreal Campus Radio” (baseless accusations), “A taboo that harms Arabs too” and “The False Religion of Mideast Peace: And Why I'm No Longer a Believer” (forget the peace process; the way things are now it will not work).  On the bright side (submitted by Harold), “Palestinian Zionist Organization is Founded”.

Topic 3:  “South Africa: Religious Uproar Over Jewish Judge Who Criticized Israel”.  To make a long story short, the man from which the disgraceful Goldstone Report takes its name will not be attending the bar miṣwah ceremony of his grandson, as people really hate his guts and do not wish to be around him.  “This isn’t about Goldstone, it’s about Judaism” and “Condemn His Report, But Welcome Goldstone” argue that despite the fact that Richard Goldstone has committed has done something truly despicable, he should not be barred from attending the bar miṣwah ceremony because that is simply not the way Jews are supposed to behave.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor:  “You know your haircut’s bad”:



Peace.

Aaron

Your humble blogger insults those who throw the political equivalent of temper tantrums

Image of a Purim gragger (noise-maker) via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Teṣawweh).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the First Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Ayyam-i-ha (Bahá’í Faith), Mawlid an Nabi (Islam).

NOTE:  Yesterday your humble blogger did not post because it was Ta‘anith ’Esther (the Fast of ’Esther).  There is good chance there will be no post on Sunday, which will be Purim.  For more information on Purim, see the Orthodox Union’s articles on the holiday.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Save BioGems: Take Action: Whales in Danger”, “Take Action: Tell Royal Bank of Canada's CEO to Stop Financing the Tar Sands”, and “Take Action: Break Up Insurance Monopolies”.

Topic 1:  Purim was founded in commemoration of the incidents recounted in the Book of Esther, specifically the attempt by Haman to destroy the Jewish people and how Mordekhay and ’Esther foiled his plans.  So if you thought I was going to avoid the much-discussed topic of anti-Semitism, forget it.  “ License Fee Revolt” deals with the refusal of a Jew in England to pay his television license fee in protest of the BBC’s severe anti-Semitic bias in reporting on Israel.  I wholeheartedly approve of such nonviolent protest.  Meanwhile, while the political right in Israel is cheering the government’s recent naming of the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Raḥel’s Tomb national heritage sites, in Ḥevron the Arabs reacted by attacking Israeli soldiers.  This sort of “protest” I do not approve of.  It is the political equivalent of throwing a temper tantrum.  Such a quick resort to violence when one does not get one’s own way, in fact when no one is going to die or be hurt in any way if no action were taken, suggests one has no real argument why the other side is wrong.  The correct response to such infantile behavior is the same as for any temper tantrum:  uncompromising refusal to give in, lest one reinforce the big baby’s misbehavior.  The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, also put in his proverbial two cents, essentially pooh-poohing the naming of national heritage sites in territory that Arabs want (but do not have any legitimate claim to), completely ignoring what will happen to these sites if they ever fall under Muslim control.  (Anyone remember what the Arabs did to Yosef’s Tomb?  Hint:  It is not there anymore.)  “Where is Goldstone now?” why accidental casualties in Afghanistan are no big deal when they are in Gaza.  “Israel's Fleet Street enemies” complains about reporters fabricating negative stories about Israel.  And to top it all off:  “Palestinian Authority: Still Stealing "Hundreds of Millions," Hamas Taking Over - Hudson New York”.

Topic 2: “American foreign policy's God gap”.  To make a long article short:  The United States government has long ignored religion as something important in foreign policy.  Only recently have they begun to realize this is a mistake.  Considering how widespread religion is in human culture and how tangled it is with politics, this was obvious to a lot of people decades ago.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  One of the practices of Purim is humor.  (Religion in general is a serious business, so this is a deviation from the norm.)  Since I may well not post on Purim, I present “UK Warrant for Queen Esther's Arrest”, “Rebranding and Renaming iSrael”, “Top 5 Israel Groups On Facebook”, a sizable list of spoofs by The Jewish Week News, and this video summarizing the Book of Esther, which is read on Purim:


If I post on Purim, expect more.  And, no, I have not seen any Purim-themed LOLcats.  Peace, Shabbath shalom, and happy Purim.

Aaron

Reality stubbornly refuses to conform to our expectations, and some people really do not understand this

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Terumah).

Today’s holiday:  Thursday after Ash Wednesday (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “DemocracyForAmerica.com » Become a Citizen Co-Sponsor” (on health reform).

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism:  “Double Standards? Nato's Afghan Errors:  Why are Afghan civilian casualties "accidents" but Palestinian civilian casualties are "war crimes"?”.  This is even worse than the title suggests.  Not only is an Orwellian abuse of language being perpetrated, but also noted is even outright denial of contradictory evidence.  Major rule to keep in mind:  our universe never changes itself to be as we want it to be.  Therefore denying photographic evidence showing that Ḥamas stores weaponry in mosques is just plain stupid.  (Yes, I know that is not the most polite terminology possible.  But it is the terminology which fits best.)  The theme of denial of reality also shows up in “How Christian Were the Founders?”, which deals with the efforts of conservative Christians to modify textbooks used in American public schools to fit their understanding of reality, regardless of whether or not the available evidence shows they are right.

Topic 2:  “Give up your iPod for Lent, bishops urge”:  I am impressed by this.  Self-denial is not seen as an end it self but as a means towards self-improvement.

Image via Wikipedia; the guy on the right is indirectly responsible

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Cthulhu in Love Perfume”.  This product makes absolutely no sense once you realize what sort of character the fictional pseudo-god Cthulhu is.

Peace.

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

Yes, there is such a thing as a gay Orthodox rabbi

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Yithro).

Today’s holidays:  Thursday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Imbolc (Wicca).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Take Action | Oceana North America:  Tell President Obama: No More Offshore Oil Drilling!”, “Save BioGems: Take Action: Protect Grizzly Bears”, “Include Children in HIV Vaccine Research - The Petition Site”, and “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  Fix the Budget, Fix America”.

Topic 1:  More updates on anti-Semitism:  “NPR's Self-Examination” and “Israel Releases Goldstone Response”.

Topic 2:  This ought to shock some people:  “Gay orthodox rabbi nudging Judaism”.  This article is a bit misleading.  First of all, rabbinical ordination can and has been revoked.  When I was an Yeshiva University, they taught that rabbis who took positions at “Conservative” congregations and did not turn them around or leave in a specific period of time would have their ordinations revoked.  Ordination is certification that the bearer knows what he/she is talking about and is competent; those who prove otherwise can be decertified.  Secondly, no one, including the man under discussion, Rav Steven Greenberg, is endorsing homosexual activity; such is quite unjustifiable within the boundaries of Orthodox Judaism.  Last I heard, no one really knows how anyone ends up with their sexual orientation and there is no reliable way to change it.  As such, Rav Greenberg, struggling with and exploring his situation, promotes tolerance and understanding.  This is entirely appropriate and justified; all of us are subject to temptations and desires not of our conscious choice, and it is senseless to condemn anyone simply because of what they feel.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “the battle of good and evil gose on...... by winrar333”:


Peace.

Aaron

Robot evolution and the Goldstone Report

Greetings.

Jewish date:  19 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Yithro).

Today’s holidays:  Feasts of Blase and Ansgar (Roman Catholicism).

Topic 1:  “Robots Display Predator-Prey Co-Evolution, Evolve Better Homing Techniques”:  A common technique of creationist apologetics is to claim that something could not have possibly have evolved.  (One would have thought the rise of multi-drug resistance would have killed the illusion that evolution is merely hypothetical.)  This article discusses evolution of robot behavior, specifically co-evolution of robot behaviors when robot behaviors are selected for different goals.

Topic 2:  “Goldstone Poison”.  This Dry Bones cartoon deals with the Goldstone Report in terms of an anti-Semitic blood libel.  The text commentary backs this up with an article by Alan Dershowitz which exposes the Report’s twisted morality.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “der iz a speshul ring of hell”:

Clearly Dante was an influence on this cat and the Easter Bunny on his/her owner.

Peace.

Aaron

Militant atheist clichés, redefinition, and Israel in 1595

Greetings.

Jewish date:  14 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Wayyera’).

Today’s holidays:  The Days of the Dead (Hispanic Roman Catholicism), All Saints’ Day (Western Christianity). Feast of All Saints of the True Church (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “ACT for America:    We Call for a Formal Investigation
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)”, “Release the Torture Memo Report”, “Help the Poor Deal with the Effects of Climate Change”, and “Take Action: Help permanently protect Americas Wildest Grassland”.

Topic 1:  Barry has noted that now, right after Halloween, would be a good time to go out and buy costumes for Purim.

Image via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  Chapters 5 through 9 of The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman.  A lot of this material is dedicated to progressing the plot (centered around a villain who has escaped from Lyra’s world) and the mechanics of inter-universe travel using a special knife (the “subtle knife” of the title of this book) which can cut holes between worlds.  Also showing up are:


A) Shamans among the Eskimos, more in mention that actually showing on-screen.  Their initiation requires going through a door into the “spirit world”.  Some never come back.


B) The Church in Lyra’s world keeping a close watch on scientific research, even censoring the results.  (Figures in a book written by a militant atheist.)


C) Horrible, barely visible monsters known as Specters which only attack adults.  They are viewed by some as Divine punishment for some sin.  (Also figures in a book written by a militant atheist; they like painting deities as mean and vengeful.)


D) Angels, otherwise known as bene elim (a genuine Hebrew term for angels) and Watchers.  They are seen in the form of winged, naked humans, largely due to the expectations of the witch who sees them, and they are working with Lord Asriel.  Lord Asriel, you will remember, is working towards killing God.  Reference is made to a rebellion of angels against God (think the fall of Satan) and angels breeding with humans.  The angels also have their own way to travel between worlds.  I am not clear what Pullman is planning with the angels, but intuition suggests a perverse version of Christian notions of angels.


E) The notion that Lyra/Pantalaimon and Will have destinies.


I am still not impressed with Pullman’s work, but after Pullman’s decision to have Lord Asriel working to kill God, there is little he can hope to do to redeem himself anyway.


Topic 3:  “The Goldstone Report - Using Terminology in Service of Deception”.  This article slams the misuse of the term “Palestinian”, noting how the term has actually been used historically.  Essentially the modern use of the term is a fabrication used to help fight the Israeli-Arab War.  Previously the term was geographical and when referring to humans only referred to Jews.  It was not applied to Muslims/Arabs until 1967.  Related to this is the article “Jews dominated the Holy Land in 1695”, which discusses a travelogue by Adriaan Reland, who visited Israel in 1695 and found a lot of Jews and extremely few Muslims/Arabs.


Peace, and start planning for Purim.

Aaron

Dust, double standards, and good deeds

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Lekh-Lekha).

Today’s holiday:  Friday of the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Topic 1:  Chapters 3 and 4 of The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman.  The nature of Dust is explored by having the alethiometer lead Lyra to a physicist.  It is revealed that Dust is dark matter.  Dust/dark matter is conscious, and it is attracted to consciousness and the products of conscious thought, e.g., tools and other artifacts.  Dust/dark matter is not only responsible for the working of the alethiometer, but the Yì Jīng (I Ching) as well.  These claims suffer from two obvious problems:  1) Humans are conscious well before puberty.  Therefore one should expect that children well before puberty ought to be attracting Dust.  2) The world this conversation takes place in is supposed to be ours.  However, the Yì Jīng does not work in our world.  I am not impressed.

Topic 2:  Another crop of articles on the Israeli-Arab War:  “Dare to dream of a rebuilt Temple”, “CNN Waters Down the Israeli Response” and “Goldstone Report in the Clouds”.  Note the use of double standards to attack Jews and Israel and defend Muslims and the so-called “Palestinians”.

Topic 3:  “Clean Smell Promotes Good Deeds”.  I cannot make this up.

Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

The Goldstone Report, appeal to force, and The Golden Compass

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Noaḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Bhai Duj (Diwali, Day 5; Hinduism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Enforce Lower CO2 Emissions to Stop Ocean Acidification”.

Topic 1:  “Exposed: Goldstone & the UN Farce”.  This article on the continuing scandal of the Goldstone Report.  Even Goldstone himself admits that the quality of information in the report leaves much to be desired, e.g., uncritical acceptance of the claims of terrorists, and this information would not be accepted in court.  As such acting upon the Goldstone Report is not justified.

Topic 2:  “Forced Islamization of Christian Conscripts in the Egyptian Army”.  Major rule:  One cannot force people to believe anything, no matter how much one threatens them (appeal to force).  Beating up and killing those who refuse to believe does nothing to prove one’s beliefs are correct.  Lying about what happened afterwards does not help either.

Topic 3:  I have completed chapter 11 of The Golden Compass (Book 1 of His Dark Materials).  Seriously emphasized is this trilogy’s depiction of souls.  I have mentioned before that every human in this world is accompanied by a “dæmon” in animal form, which is some sort of manifestation of the human’s soul.  The form of the dæmon reflects the nature of the human.  Children’s dæmons regularly change shape at will.  Adults, who are more set in their ways, have dæmons limited to a single form.  Usually dæmons are of the sex opposite that of their humans.  (Intuition suggests this may be a veiled reference to sexual preference.)  Dæmons can never get more than a few yards away from their humans, though there is an exception to this rule:  the dæmons of witches can get arbitrarily far away from them.  This may reflect the mystical/occult notion of astral projection, in which the soul is said to separate from the body.  Another species is also depicted as having souls:  polar bears.  For these the soul manifests as thick metallic armor.  Why Philp Pullman chose to have humans and polar bears have physically manifested souls, I have no idea; I am not aware of any religion which holds by such dramatic conceptions of the soul.  Increasingly this book seems less and less to be discussing any real religion and more and more diving into fantastic conceptions.

Peace, and have a happy new month.

Aaron

Jimmy Carter, anti-Semitism, and Eastwick

Greetings.

Jewish date:  13 Tishri 5770.

Today’s holiday:  Holy Protection of the Theotokos (Greek Orthodox Christianity).

Worthy causes of the day:  Give blood, please.  I just got called asking for a donation of platelets, and I scheduled an appointment for the day after Simḥath Torah.  If you can give blood, please do so and save a life.  Also:  “I SUPPORT A PUBLIC OPTION”, “Call them out: Tell Harry Reid to expose the Democrats who want to filibuster a public option”, “Send a message to your Senators (Support Senate clean energy legislation)”, and “Responsible Teen Sex-Education Programs”.

Progress on my sukkah:  Furniture and an electric light have been installed.  The decorations are going up today (YHWH willing).  Also:  see the Dry Bones cartoon “Sukkot (1994)”.

Topic 1:  “Jimmy Carter’s Price Tag”.  This article by Rav Shmuely Boteach argues that Jimmy Carter is not an anti-Semite.  This may sound surprising, considering Carter’s one-sided criticism of Israel (e.g., Palestine Peace Not Apartheid).  Rav Boteach argues that Carter is actually a “useful idiot” who takes the moral shortcut of assuming that in any conflict, the weaker of the two parties is always right (“underdogma”).  Unless one’s moral system explicitly claims the weak are always right and the strong are always wrong—and I am not aware of any formally declared moral system which does—this is a fallacy.  Morality is usually conceived of dealing with how one behaves, and there is nothing impossible or even unlikely about the strong doing good and the weak doing evil.  Power simply makes it easier to do evil on a larger scale.  However, the ability to do great evil does not always translate into doing great evil.  In the Israeli-Arab War (in progress since the 1920s), if Israel has really been committing genocide as its detractors have claimed, it has been doing an unbelievably incompetent job of it.  Israel has a larger population, a stronger military, a higher level of education, and more resources than the so-called “Palestinians”.  Israel has repeatedly beaten off invading armies.  If they really wanted to wipe out the “Palestinians”, who are more of a nuisance to Israeli society than an actual danger, they could have done so easily long ago.  Instead, only a few thousand “Palestinians” (at most) have died at Israeli hands—out of a population of a few million.  This puts the chances of a “Palestinian” being killed by Israelis in the neighborhood of 0.1%.  This is completely inconsistent with genocide; it is completely consistent with Israel fighting a defensive war against the “Palestinians”.

Topic 2:  “Israel: As Fanatical as Iran?”:  This Honest Reporting report documents a variation on tu quoque (“Hey, Israel’s just as bad as Iran.  Why aren’t you picking on them instead?”), a bizarre accusation involving chewing gun, and one-sidedness in the Goldstone Report.

Topic 3:  They had another episode of Eastwick on television last night, “Reaping and Sewing”, and you must all now suffer along with me.  I am kicking myself (figuratively) over not realizing before my last Eastwick post that the concept of working magic via wishes is very similar to the concept behind the monstrously stupid film and book The Secret, in which one is supposed to get whatever one thinks about (“the law of attraction”, which apparently does not work for me).  In the world of Eastwick, however, Darryl claims that it really does work for Joanna.  In this episode, Joanna continues her investigation of Darryl van Horne and strongly suspects that he has stolen the identity of a dead child; Darryl has certainly done something magical to cover up his true past, and it is not like Satan would have his own birth certificate or Social Security number.  The rest of the theology and magic is pretty much the same as in the previous episode:  premonitions, the ethics of controlling other people through magic, and unintended conjuring.

Time for me to move on to other things I have to do...

Aaron

Yom Kippur, Goldstone, the Temple Mount, and a panacea

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Tishri 5769.

Today’s holidays:  ‘Erev Yom Kippur (Judaism), Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast of Cosmus & Damianus (Thelema), Greater Eleusinian Mysteries (Thelema).

Worthy cause of the day:  Give blood.  I cannot say this enough.  Just do not do on a day when you are fasting or the day before, which is just asking for trouble.  Also:  “Sierra Club:  Help Us Reach Our Goal of 100,000 Champions for National Parks by October 4th!”

My apologies to those who have received an earlier version of this post.  Blogger did something really stupid and published prematurely.

Topic 1:  “Israel TV Laughs at Goldstone”.  This is a comic look at the perverse morality of the anti-Semitic Goldstone Report.  Anything I can say pales in comparison with what comedians can get away with.

Topic 2:  Tonight starts Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement).  Two articles on practical questions about Yom Kippur:  A) “'Doctor, should I fast?'”, which deals with the medical issue of when someone ill should fast, which is not a trivial question.  B) “Halachic arbiter: No Crocs on Yom Kippur”, which deals with the less-famous issue of what footwear is appropriate for Yom Kippur.  Wearing leather shoes, which are traditionally associated with comfort, is prohibited on Yom Kippur.  Currently, people tend to wear relatively casual shoes on Yom Kippur, such as sneakers, and thus Crocs are a question.  It sounds a bit odd, but in any living religion strange practical questions are bound to be asked.

Image via Wikipedia

Topic 3:  A case of religious discrimination in Israel:  “Intolerance on the Temple Mount”.  The discrimination is against Jews, who are prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount.  The point of this is an attempt at appeasing Muslims, who can do pretty much whatever they want up there.  This appeasement, it is correctly noted, has done nothing to curb Islamic intolerance, destruction of Jewish archaeological remains, and terrorism.  (See “Two policemen injured in riots on the Temple Mount”.)  And this has been going on for decades.  Behavioral psychologists should see this as rewarding bad behavior, an extremely bad idea since it only makes further bad behavior more likely.  This is why I believe, if only for the sake of peace, that Israel should take the politically counterintuitive step of knocking down the Muslim structures on the Temple Mount, banning Muslims from setting foot in the 500 × 500 cubit area which has the status of the Temple Mount in Jewish law, and rebuilding the Temple.  If the Muslims actually can see that they have something to lose by failing to behave properly, that there are negative consequences to intolerance and terrorism, they will actually have a reason to learn to get along with other people.

Topic 4:  “Where Tutu (and Gandhi) went wrong”:  More dissection of poorly though-out anti-Semetic thinking on the part of Desmond Tutu and Mohandas Gandhi.  (Actually, is there such a thing as well thought-out anti-Semitic thinking?)  Notable is the idea that nonviolence is always better than violence.  While nonviolence indeed is probably likely to have better results that violence when one’s enemies have no interest in violence, nonviolence is likely to result in pointless slaughter against murderous enemies.

Topic 5:  “Yom Kippur 2009”:  The latest Dry Bones cartoon.

May all of you who are fasting have an easy and meaningful fast, and may you all be sealed in the book of life for a good year.

Aaron

Adoption of Muslim practices and terminology by non-Muslims and the Goldstone Report

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holidays:  ’Erev Ro’sh hashShanah.

Worthy cause of the day:  “AmericaCantWait.com” and “Take Action: Colorado's pristine forests need your help today!”

Topic 1:  “Non-Muslims Join the Ramadan Fast”:  This article details adoption of Islamic practices and terminology by Christians in the United States and the United Kingdom.  Considering that Paul tended to make himself appear like the people he was preaching to, there is some sense in this.  However, no mention is made of trying to preach the Gospel to Muslims.  The reasons given are in terms of understanding Islam and Muslims.  I can appreciate trying to understand one’s neighbors, though there is the risk of going over the line and practicing a religion one does not believe in.  Using Muslim terminology also invites redefining one’s religion in Islamic terms.  (This is a very real worry.  That is why I try to avoid using “God” and instead use “YHWH” and “HashShem”:  my god is not the Christian Trinity, and “God” is a term with a lot of Christian baggage.)  Very inappropriate is for government officials to promote adoption of Islamic practices; this is a blatant violation of separation of church and state.

Topic 2:  “The Goldstone Report: Rewarding Palestinian Terror”:  The Goldstone Report, along with anti-Semitic rhetoric in general, seems to be gross insensitivity to facts.  Please note that physical reality is highly insensitive to what people want it to be and stubbornly remains what it is.

Shabbath shalom, and may you be written and sealed for a good year.

Aaron