Saturday, March 07, 2009

Theology—When Logic and Clarity Lose

There is, Dear Gentle Reader(s), in The New York Times today, a wonderful example of how, when need runs up against religious mythology, logic and clarity get lost in the conflict.

In an article about the success of a bank in Michigan to serve Moslem customers, appears this paragraph:

To distill and simplify some complicated theological and financial concepts, the basis of Islamic finance is Shariah’s forbidding of “riba,” which can be variously translated as usury or interest. Mortgage alternatives, which are the most popular financial product for Islamic consumers in the United States, essentially add what would have been the monthly interest into the purchase price of a home.

So, essentially, in order to “comply” with the stricture against usury/interest, the bank’s president needed

On the religious side…to appoint a board of Shariah scholars to certify the mortgage alternatives as “halal,” or religiously permissible. On the secular flank, he put months into persuading both state banking officials and his own board of the new products’ legitimacy.

The “interest” doesn’t appear, one must conclude, in the monthly statement, but it exists in the payment.  As long as it isn’t called interest, it isn’t interest—except it is—and it’s OK to make the payment. 

One looks askance.

If mere humans aren’t fooled by this word-legerdemain, how much doubt can there be that an all-knowing Being would be fooled?

Alas.  Logic?  Clarity?  Victims of theology.

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Friday, March 06, 2009

Un mot

Here, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is a little mental health break: 

Thus speaketh Upton Sinclair:

it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it

Just a little extrapolation and we have the rationale behind the past 28 years of middle class support for the Republican Party’s trickle up financial strategy.

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

A Tale of Ruth

No, Dear Gentle Reader(s), this is not a tale from the Bible.  Unless, of course, you might be an avid fan of the Los Angeles Times.

Test your credulity with this lead-in: 

Ruth Madoff, wife of accused Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff, is trying to persuade a judge that more than $62 million of her assets are "unrelated" to her husband's alleged $50-billion fraud.

How’d you do?

Yeah.  I, also.  Especially when one remembers that ruth means, compassion for the misery of someone else, and remorse.

Sure.

Lotsa ruth in this story.

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Sunday, March 01, 2009

Giving Credit

Remember the snarkiness, Dear Gentle Reader(s), of the recent election cycle?  If you want a reminder, simply zip over to the Townhall muckroom.  Snarky is de rigueur, but occasionally someone slips up and writes a pithy headline.

Today the headline for Paul Jacob’s column is worth contemplating.  Remember the Maginot -- or, don't shoot the dog is worth remembering and applying to just about every situation in life.  The Maginot Line was supposed to prevent a German invasion into France.  It stretched all along the French-German border.  It might’ve worked, but we’ll never know.  German troops invaded France through Belgium.  They went around the northern end of the Line.  (For an interesting step into the history of the Maginot Line, go here, DGR(s).)

The lesson of the Maginot Line is not to let a single factor act as a barrier against a perceived threat.  And the lesson of Jacob’s title is we all have to have some sort of barking dog to alert us to danger.  Constant vigilance is necessary.

Of course the Muckroom doesn’t stray too far from its chosen path of snark.  There’s always some bit of inanity to counter the wisdom.  Kevin McCullough’s column carries the title Obama as Hitler.

What a nice, thoughtful bunch.  On occasion.

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Friday, February 27, 2009

Ad Hominem? (Ad Nauseam!)

Today, Dear Gentle Reader(s), on KCRW’s “Left, Right & Center,” Tony Blankley held forth that arguing ad hominem meant “…using humans rather than ideas…”  (At 11:37)

Really? 

I thought it meant arguing against the person’s character rather than the person’s contention.  Since none of the other panelists corrected him, one wonders.  (Of course, there might be the possibility the other panelists didn’t want to embarrass Blankley.  After all, he did work for Gingrich, and does work for the Moonie newspaper, Washington Times.  Why embarrass him any further, eh?)

Have a nit or two?

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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Brachytherapy 2.15.09 Dreamscape

There are a couple of physical side effects, Dear Gentle Reader(s), of Brachytherapy, which are rather indelicate, and which will not be addressed here.

A psychological side effect, among which there might be many, but hard to recognize in the general give and take of daily living in the human psyche, manifested itself last night in a dream.

The side effect manifested itself thus:  The dreamer is reading a letter to an advice column which included the fact that the letter writer was having trouble “sustaining genitalia.”

Now the libido of the brachytherapy patient is adversely affected by 1) radiation seeds killing off the bad, as well, presumably, some good, cells; 2) Flowmax and Finasteride contribute to this libidinous deterioration because of a particular major physical side effect.

What a surprise to discover that the sub consciousness is affected to the degree that diction—choice of word—is also thrown into some disarray. 

After all, how can one not sustain genitalia?  Even if you lop it off or plug it up, it’s there.  Isn’t it?  At least in the genetic make-up?

Such ponderous thoughts which visit in the wee hours of the morning.  

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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Um…since we’re brainstorming…

Way back when, Dear Gentle Reader(s), U.S. taxpayers were allowed to deduct some of the interest on our credit card debt from our Federal taxes.

Once many of us discovered that deduction had been repealed, we began to pay off the charges monthly.  Some of us haven’t paid more than five or ten dollars in interest on those debts since. 

Perhaps we might be able to see our way to running up a credit card bill a couple of times a year if we were once again able to deduct at least part of the interest charges.  That might assist in stopping the downward spiral of sales in the U.S.

Or not.

Just sayin’.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Brachytherapy 2.11.09

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One year anniversary of the procedure.  Cooking on simmer and fading.  Changed from flomax to finasteride.  Libido 99% gone.

So far so good.  Still breathing.

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Monday, February 09, 2009

Preaching to the choir

Doubtless, Dear Gentle Reader(s), we are of a similar political bent.  That being established, you might wonder why there is so much of a political nature here.  Perhaps it’s because there’s a hope that a comment or a phrase will enlighten or might be useful in a discussion with someone who holds a differing view.

Ergo:

It’s a wonder that some people who are opposed to the current stimulus/spending bills currently under discussion in Washington, D.C., keep repeating phrases like, “This program doesn’t stimulate,” especially when discussing educational stimuli.

Spending stimulates.  Of course it does.  When education funding is increased the money flows into the economy in many ways—teachers’ salaries, aides’ salaries, increased supplies, which gives us more--much more spending.

For instance, just consider the number of workers it takes to get a single Ticonderoga pencil into the hands of a 3rd grader:  The miner who retrieved the mineral (not to mention the prospector who found the lode), the truck driver who drive the graphite to the factory, the woodsman who harvested the tree; the electrician who strung the power wire to the factory, the factory worker who ran the machine which crimped the metal which holds the rubber eraser, the box manufacturer who produced the container in which the pencils were shipped (more truckers) to the warehouse (forklift operator), and you get the drift.

If money is put into a tangible product, there is spending.

Tax cuts may or may not end up “spent.”  Much of it goes into savings, which eventually will go into the production economy, but not as quickly as will money spent on tangibles.

Sometimes the opponents of the President’s plan just don’t exhibit an encompassing view. 

You, DGR(s), on the other hand, are enlightened.  Go forth.  Spread the good word.

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Saturday, February 07, 2009

Salty Dog Courage

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Dear Gentle Reader(s), this posting probably wouldn’t be happening without the courage supplied by a salty dog.

The Phelps bong picture brouhaha is silly.

Smoking marijuana is a rite of passage observed by many and disregarded by many. 

One thing for sure, it is a font for hypocrisy.  The marijuana laws are silly and totally ineffective except for an excuse to jail some troublemakers.

Smoking marijuana is not a “gateway” to harsher drugs except for, possibly, people who are predisposed to harsher drugs anyway.

My experience with marijuana was that it made me far more cautious, and it slowed my reflexes down.  If driving, I’d stop for a stop sign a half block before I reached the corner.  I drove at 1/2 the speed limit.  I giggled a lot.  I had severe happenings of Attention Deficit Disorder—in the middle of passionate “making out,” I’d turn aside and snooze for a few minutes.  I ate cookies as if there were no tomorrow.

I grew out of the phase.

Peace.

Wow.

Yea, NOML!

(See what alcohol does to your logic?)

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Wednesday, February 04, 2009

TWCable Lost Money?

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The New York Times reports this afternoon that Time Warner Cable announced it “lost $8.2 billion in the fourth quarter and would lay off 1,200 people.”

Maybe.

But, Dear Gentle Reader(s), TWC charges a lot of money for its services.  I have the stripped down digital card version (NO HBO, etc.), and my bill is $66.06. 

Remember those stories of creative accounting used in movie studios?

Just musin’.

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Sunday, February 01, 2009

Achtung!

Here’s another bit of evidence in the B-16 (the Prada Pope) file for you, Dear Gentle Reader(s).  It comes from today’s print edition of the Los Angeles Times.

VATICAN CITY
New bishop tied Katrina to sin
An Austrian pastor who has been quoted as saying Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for sin in New Orleans is being promoted to the rank of bishop.
The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had tapped the Rev. Gerhard Wagner, 54, to be auxiliary bishop in Linz, Austria. It did not mention the reported remarks about Katrina.

And it was just last week that Benny re-instated an excommunicated bishop who is a Holocaust denier.  What a guy.

John XXIII is twirling in his grave; Andrew Sullivan has one more obstacle to hurdle (he refuses to join the ranks of recovering Catholics).

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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Republicans call for tax cuts. Surprised?

Ah, Dear Gentle Reader(s), the joy of politics lies in the small print.

Today the Los Angeles Times gives us a little more insight into the “class warfare” which the Republican Party so often bewails. 

It’s a classic case of misdirection.  The class war is over, and you and I, DGR(s) have lost.

This last week the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted, each and every one of them, for more tax cuts.

That insight in the LAT is this:

The average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2% through the first six years of the Bush administration, and their average income doubled to $263.3 million, new data show.

Was your tax rate reduced by 1/3 and did your income double during the first six years of the Bush administration?

Thought not.

Welcome to awareness, fellow losers in the class war.

The Republican Party is not so interested in preventing a redistribution of wealth as long as that redistribution is trickle up.

Alas.

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Agnostics All

Here’s a quote from a recent posting by Andrew Sullivan:

What the defenders of the Flying Spaghetti Monster thesis' commensurability with actual theism fail to recognize is that belief in God generally doesn't have anything so "concrete" as its substance. It's not the particulars of God -- the "invisible man in the sky" imagery and such -- that matter.  In some sense these particulars aren't the content of theist belief at all; it's the "consequences" of God -- moral compunction, cultural taboo, social phenomena that amount to a de facto eschatology, etc. -- that actually constitute theism. And when measured by adherence to behaviors consistent with this belief, atheism suddenly appears much rarer. 

And that, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is what I’ve been trying to formulate into words both respectful and logical.  The “particulars” of the monotheist religions of the desert are truly irrelevant.  What is important is the social contract, the “consequences.”  “Do unto others” is far more important than a virgin birth or a resurrection or a single anthropomorphic deity.

When that basic reality becomes dominant in religious thought and seminaries, the world will be better off.

Unfortunately, researching the answer to a religious cui bono indicates that the power/money behind the current religious thinking will not cede anything to logic or the betterment of the planet’s occupants.

There’s one current theological dictum with which all can agree:  Man cannot grasp the reality of the godhead.  And since that reality extends far beyond an anthropomorphic supreme being, we’re all agnostics.  We simply don’t know because we can’t know.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Rottweiler Snarls; The Rottweiler Whimpers

Poor Pope Benedict—he simply can’t win for losing.

Benedict XVI, (B-16), welcomes back into the fold of the Roman Catholic bishoparchy an outspoken Holocaust denier then says he doesn’t agree with the guy’s anti-Semitism.  Sounds like a version of “hate the sin, love the sinner.”

Pope John XXIII convened Vatican II which was designed to “modernize” the Catholic Church; B-16 seems determined to roll back VatII as much as possible. 

B-16’s actions speak louder than his words.

One wonders if the Prada Pope will be welcomed by John in the Conclave in the Sky.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Editor? We don’ need no stinkin’ editor!

With apologies to John Huston, Dear Gentle Reader(s), one moans the use of spell check in the absence of editors who are a bit more sentient than an application.

Here is a quote from today’s The Desert Sun obituary page.  It seems a man who recently died also recently, in 2007, “marred” the woman who became his widow.

One doubts she would agree.

A spell check program is less expensive than a live editor or at least a proof reader, but the trade off is of dubious value. 

 

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Oh, really?

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One has to be amused, Dear Gentle Reader(s), at the inadvertent humor contained in some email subject lines which grace the Junk box.

“grtou, keep your youthful look”

Um…Keep it?

Please.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

January quickies

1) It’s 86 degrees here in Palm Springs right now.  Top’s down.

2) Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is on the way out.  It’s about time.

3) No on 8 court case is going forward with substantial additional help from major unions.

4) To prosecute or not to prosecute the torture clique is ahead of its time.  Investigate first then, if warranted, prosecute.

5) Obama’s dinner w/conservative pundits was a good move on his part.

6)  Big Bang Theory is the absolute funniest program on the tube this season.

7) Two and a Half Men can hardly get any raunchier without full frontal nudity. 

8) CCH Pounder is underappreciated.

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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Tits Up in a Ditch

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That, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is the title of the final story in Allie Proulx’s recently released collection of short stories.  They all deal, natch, with Wyoming.

It’s a tough read. 

One wonders how citizens of that “Great State of” feel about Ms Proulx and her writing.

Recently Proulx made some minor headlines by announcing that she intended to leave Wyoming.

Read these stories, DGR(s), and let me know whether they are an homage to the people of the state or a…um…middle finger salute.  (You might also read the linked story for further insight.)

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Nature and the Bible

Amongst all of the brouhaha, Dear Gentle Reader(s), surrounding the passage of Proposition 8 here in California, is an oft-repeated conflation of some scientific and Biblical concepts.

The most often used is, of course, the female-male element of procreation.  It is a scientific fact, with some few androgynous exceptions, as well as the old “male female He created them.”

Biblical fundamentalists, especially those who claim to believe in biblical inerrancy, use this biblical reference as their principal argument against allowing committed same-gender couples to call their union “marriage.”  “God made it that way.”

While it is true that “God made it that way,” is it not strange that fundies ignore the studies of nature/God which indicate that procreation is not a rampant element of life on earth; rather it is, in most cases, rigidly controlled.

Why is it that carnivores have limited birth rates?  Why is it that small herbivores and insectivores have larger litters?  Why do insects and smaller fishes have such large numbers of offspring?

Generally speaking, the large populations of smaller life forms feed the larger life forms.  Without the small rodent food supply of the Arctic, many wolves and certain birds of that region would perish.  Population control is a form of natural birth control.  Nature has put in place a very stern limit on wildlife carnivores—should they exceed that limit, starvation to the point of possible extinction is a certainty.

If one might “jump to the chase,” DGR(s), it is strange that fundies opposed to same-gender “marriage” don’t see there is a logical thread between the natural order of population control amongst wildlife species and the population control of same-gender coupling.  And that coupling could very well be part of the larger plan to help control the human population of the earth—which is certainly better than war, disease, famine, and female infanticide.

Just because the desert tribes of 4,000 years ago were concerned with ethnic cleansing, if not genocide, does not mean that we ought to take their dicta as literal law of our own.  We have the ability of 4,000 years of observation and learning.  That should give us perspective which those desert tribes would not have been capable of achieving.  Same-gender unions are generally non-reproductive, although they are certainly a stabilizing force in the society; and, as such they are a God given element of population control—and a much better one than war, famine, disease, and female infanticide.

To assert, as does a writer to the local Palm Springs newspaper:

Mistletoe, can only grow in/on trees.

It cannot grow in the earth.

Only in/on trees, Oak Trees.

Hearts of oak are our ships, and our hearts.

If mistletoe did not attach to oak trees it would cease to exist.

Oak trees, (men) mistletoe (women).

Mistletoe attaches to oak trees to survive, it cannot attach it self to other mistletoe, that is the order of things, nature's order.

Simple isn't it.

is erroneous.  Nothing in nature is simple.

Here’s loving response to fundies’ outrage, Dear Gentle Reader(s), “Same-gender marriage is a blessing from God.”

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