Links for 10.2.25 should have gone live on 10.3.25, but they didn't, because I was having a nasty reaction to chemicals sprayed in the neighborhood, targeting the relatives planning a party this weekend; the reaction involved narcolepsy and nightmares along with the more predictable symptoms of measles plus mononucleosis plus conjunctivitis. Anyway looking at the computer screen hurt and resting my eyes caused unplanned naps. One of the remaining two-thirds of the Friday Market car pool rolled up and I stumbled out, wavering on my feet, and said, "Take me back to Blackwater with you! I might be able to do something useful there." So I spent the day trimming the most badly overgrown parts of their hedges, feeling my eyes recover the ability to focus and watching my waistline start to reappear.
Churches to Shun
No link, but I just sat, with fascinated revulsion, through a declaration of male irrationality from something called RightResponseMinistries.com, a start-up "church" based in Texas and led by one Joel Webbon. They think Pam Bondi is automatically not qualified for her job because she's female (and, they later add, blonde). They think Kash Patel is automatically not qualified for his job because they just felt that way when they looked at pictures of him, which is probably as close as people currently outside of hospitals are likely to get to saying they're racists. They think it's all right for Erika Kirk to have "forgiven" (she undoubtedly meant "released the anger I was feeling toward") her husband's murderer but it's still necessary that the state not forgive him, but execute him, live, on television, preferably by hanging. Their fantasy of restoring all the social ills of 1925 does stop short of saying that everyone should be required to watch the hanging to make sure those who were supposed to need the deterrent value of watching the murderer die are getting that...
They may be trying to follow Christ in some misguided way, but their focus is clearly on the politics of this world, in terms of which they are simply wingnuts. This is news. There are so few right-wingnuts outside of nursing homes, these days, that it's news that they've been found to exist. People whose politics deserve to be called "conservative" can support the death penalty on the grounds that some people belong in prison and other people don't want to feed those people, which always has been true and always will be true. They cannot support the death penalty on the grounds that it deters further criminal activity. That was a theory once, but it's been shown not to work. Some violent criminals are suicidal; others think they can escape detection or capture even when they don't think they can postpone their execution. Many are just illogical, irrational men who lash out in rage because they become addicted to the testosterone surge their belligerent behavior produces.
My guess is that these RightResponseMinistries guys are left-wing infiltrators. In any case, if you ever come to a church that sympathizes with the views of RightResponseMinistries.com, hold on to your wallet as you run.
Kirk, Charlie, Foreign Policy of
Some would say that if the goal is to talk about Christianity, you don't talk about foreign policy. The trouble is that that leads logically to saying that, if the goal is to talk about Christianity, you don't talk about domestic policy, or about personal decisions, or about ethics on any level; you become so heavenly-minded that you are no earthly good; you vapor on about the connotations of the ancient Hebrew words for "peace" and ignore the plain sense of the Scripture, which tells us that the main occupation of a prophet was to tell people what personal decisions God does and does not bless.
But if Charlie Kirk could see some of the speculations on the Internet today, he might wish he could go back and state the simple truth: "I am very young. I've only ever lived in one country. I don't know enough about other countries to have a foreign policy." He didn't know but, unfortunately, he had all kinds of uninformed ideas about foreign policy.
Male Irrationality, Vindictive
TV show participant Laura Owens accused the male bachelor identified as a prize on a TV dating show of sexual misconduct. She claimed his misconduct had produced twin fetuses. No fetuses were produced, dead or alive, so Owens was charged with perjury. This was appropriate. However, the reason for a dawn raid on her home is not clear; she wasn't a fugitive from justice.
Megan Fox is allowing her natural indignation to obscure a point. We as a society must not tolerate vindictive, irrational behavior even if a woman does abuse her credibility. Even if Owens shamelessly lied in the hope of getting money out of a rich man, for which she should pay, the irrational vindictiveness of men who identify with the accused must not be allowed to lead to further abuse or harassment. Civil penalties for perjury can and should be substantial--a person who's been falsely accused deserves ample compensation--but any other person's claims against a perjurer need to be tried separately, not allowed to become a dogpile of persecution.
Should we still "believe all women"? I would say that this unwarranted warrant for harassing Owens, even if every public statement she's ever made has been a lie, proves that we can't afford not to believe all women until they're proven guilty of perjury. So long as women have to worry about this kind of vengeful abuse, there will be far more cases of women not daring to tell the truth than of women fabricating lies.
It looks to me as if the men who took out the warrant to search Owens' home and who carried out that search need to be paying a good part of what Owens owed the young man she accused of being the father of the nonexistent twins.
Poetry
Some would say that what J.K. Rowling said was a poem.
I say it was excellent prose, and Warren Bonham turned it into a good poem.
Pop Culture Trivia
Lens says the graphic as composed comes from Cracked.com. They don't know whose baby pictures those are. I found it at TheViewFromLadyLake.Blogspot.com.
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