Apart from the small contribution of my sixth generation ancestress Polly Red Bird of the Cherokee, my genes come from Northern Europe. Moreover, I have grey eyes and a pallid complexion. I do not tan; I burn. In short, I am pretty much white. I might even qualify as a WASP if it weren't for all the Scots-Irish in my background.
Because I am white, I don't really ever have to think about race. If I were an ignorant wanker, I might even be tempted to declare that I live in a post-racial America. I'm not an ignorant wanker; therefore, I know better than to make such an assertion. I enjoy a lot of privileges by virtue of my race, and I am lucky enough to be aware of it on some level.
Many of my fellow whities are deluded into thinking that discrimination and racism are long behind us. They don't see it every day, mainly because their contact with other races is sporadic at best, so it must not exist. They themselves do not overtly discriminate, or so they believe, so where is all this discrimination of which black folks complain? Theythinks black folks protest too much. Theythinks wrong, methinks.
I have had the good fortune, if I may call it that, of observing segregation and overt racism first hand as a Son o' the South. I grew up in a working class family and was not sheltered from the realities of race relations. I was trained to be a racist, one of the patronizing and condescending sort, but a racist nonetheless. I have had to acknowledge that indoctrination and to apply reason to it every day of my life in order to live my conscious moral stand against racism. It gets easier every year, but the indoctrination is still there in my brain waiting to make me say or do something stupid and irrational.
For black folks, race is an aspect of reality that they have to negotiate carefully. They can't afford to be "color blind" as the clueless and the deceitful would have them be. Being color blind might get them killed. Black folks' recognition of the significance of race is not racism; it's the survival instinct at work. They didn't make the rules of racism; they just have to know what they are.
I urge my fellow whities to get a clue or, if they are among the deceitful racist bastards, to search their souls and repent. If it bothers you that you can't say "nigger", then you are one of the folks I'm talking to. If you reckon you live in a post-racial America, I'm talking to you. Who am I kidding? I'm talking to almost every white person.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
More Genesis: Further Adventures of Supplanter
Supplanter works for his uncle for 20 years: 7 for Leah, 7 for Rachel, and 6 in his creative livestock breeding program. Supplanter's cousins/brothers-in-law start to get wise and to grumble, so Supplanter sneaks off with his wives, children, servants and stock. Ewe steals her old man's household idols and hides them in her camel pack.
Supplanter's uncle pursues him but is warned off in a dream by God. He searches Supplanter's stuff for his gods, but Ewe is sitting on them and claims to be menstruating, so nobody looks in her camel pack. In the end, Supplanter and his uncle set up a pillar and swear never to cross its spot to to do harm to one another.
Supplanter sens word to his brother He Finishes that he is coming home, and he is anxious when he learns that He Finishes is coming to meet him with 400 men. So he picks out some droves of livestock and sends them in stages to his brother as gifts in order to win favor with him. Then he sends on his family and entourage.
When Supplanter is alone, a man wrestles with him all night and dislocates the socket of his thigh. Still, Supplanter won't let the man go until he gets the man's blessing. The man, it turns out, is God Himself, and He renames Supplanter Strives With God. ( In honor of this event, the descendants of Strives With God eschew eating the sinew of the socket of the thigh.)
The meeting with He Finishes turns out well, as He Finishes welcomes and embraces Supplanter and his family. He Finishes returns home with his people, and Supplanter sojourns for a while in Shechem. The son of the prince of Shechem takes a fancy to one of Strives With God's daughters and rapes her. He begs for her to be given to him as his wife, but the sons of Strives With God, as deceitful as their old man, agree only on the condition that all the males of Shechem be circumcised, which they do. When they are all convalescing, two of Strives With Gods sons kill every male of Schechem, and the rest of the sons loot the city.
Now Strives With God is pissed at his sons for making him odious and subjecting the household to attacks from stronger neighbors. They've got to move.
Supplanter's uncle pursues him but is warned off in a dream by God. He searches Supplanter's stuff for his gods, but Ewe is sitting on them and claims to be menstruating, so nobody looks in her camel pack. In the end, Supplanter and his uncle set up a pillar and swear never to cross its spot to to do harm to one another.
Supplanter sens word to his brother He Finishes that he is coming home, and he is anxious when he learns that He Finishes is coming to meet him with 400 men. So he picks out some droves of livestock and sends them in stages to his brother as gifts in order to win favor with him. Then he sends on his family and entourage.
When Supplanter is alone, a man wrestles with him all night and dislocates the socket of his thigh. Still, Supplanter won't let the man go until he gets the man's blessing. The man, it turns out, is God Himself, and He renames Supplanter Strives With God. ( In honor of this event, the descendants of Strives With God eschew eating the sinew of the socket of the thigh.)
The meeting with He Finishes turns out well, as He Finishes welcomes and embraces Supplanter and his family. He Finishes returns home with his people, and Supplanter sojourns for a while in Shechem. The son of the prince of Shechem takes a fancy to one of Strives With God's daughters and rapes her. He begs for her to be given to him as his wife, but the sons of Strives With God, as deceitful as their old man, agree only on the condition that all the males of Shechem be circumcised, which they do. When they are all convalescing, two of Strives With Gods sons kill every male of Schechem, and the rest of the sons loot the city.
Now Strives With God is pissed at his sons for making him odious and subjecting the household to attacks from stronger neighbors. They've got to move.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Obvious Observations
Some right wing nutjobs are trying to scare old people about health care reform by claiming that the health care reform bill provides for killing old people. It doesn't provide for that at all. Last I checked old folks get Medicare, and it pays for life extending medicines and procedures, even when they don't necessarily make any sense.
What does the Constitution mean when it requires the president to be a "natural born citizen" of the US? The first several presidents were born before the US even existed, so they weren't born citizens of the US. On the contrary, they were subjects of Great Britain. John McCain was born in Panama, and nobody gave that a second thought. George Romney was born in Mexico and was not disqualified to run for president. My opinion is that if you are entitled to US citizenship at birth you are a natural born citizen no matter where you are born. Who really cares anyway?
I reckon it's up to NFL teams whether to hire Michael Vick or not. I don't care one way or the other.
Pete Rose's banning from baseball has gone on long enough. He's a Hall of Famer in my book no matter what Bud Selig or the folks in Cooperstown say. My father looks almost exactly like Pete Rose. It's uncanny.
What does the Constitution mean when it requires the president to be a "natural born citizen" of the US? The first several presidents were born before the US even existed, so they weren't born citizens of the US. On the contrary, they were subjects of Great Britain. John McCain was born in Panama, and nobody gave that a second thought. George Romney was born in Mexico and was not disqualified to run for president. My opinion is that if you are entitled to US citizenship at birth you are a natural born citizen no matter where you are born. Who really cares anyway?
I reckon it's up to NFL teams whether to hire Michael Vick or not. I don't care one way or the other.
Pete Rose's banning from baseball has gone on long enough. He's a Hall of Famer in my book no matter what Bud Selig or the folks in Cooperstown say. My father looks almost exactly like Pete Rose. It's uncanny.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Just So Stories
The lads who were born to Supplanter, we discover later, bear the names of the tribes of the nation of Israel. The story of their births and their naming remind me of a Kipling "Just So" Story. You know, the ones that end with "and that's how the elephant got its trunk" and such like. And that's how the tribe of Exaltation got its name.
Whether these men were all sons of Supplanter or even existed at all is not particularly important. What signifies is that the story is later used to place the disparate tribes into a single superfamily. Just as patrilines are segments of clans and clans are segments of tribes, so the tribes are segments of a nation. All the groupings beyond the individual are predicated on the principle of patrilineal kinship. The tribes are probably related in some way, but the the accuracy of the genealogies is less important than the reliance on them as the predicate for a set of obligations and expectations associated with the kinship meme complex.
Now this concept of nation is quite different to what we nowadays think of as the modern nation-state. It is the family writ large. It is not necessarily a stable entity as loyalty to the progressively smaller segments and individual interests will tend to outweigh loyalty to the most distant and abstract of the groupings. Therefore, the concept of the nation must be reproduced continually and reinforced with myth. God is called upon to add the imprimatur of divine legitimacy to the idea.
Of course, some kindred groups are excluded from the nation, and the myths have to account for this. Otherwise, the progeny of the displaced first born sons would have to be included in the covenantal nation. I don't know why the mythmakers didn't just make their ancestors the first born. Perhaps it was deemed especially important for well being to leave the door open to exceptions to primogeniture or even to problematize the concept of primogeniture.
What we have in Genesis, I reckon, is propaganda to support the idea of a nation and conquest of a territory. Whether God promised anyone that the nation would rule the territory in question is beside the point. It came to pass that the territory was conquered and occupied by the putative descendants of Father of Multitudes. Hence, it was surely the will of God whether or not the nation knew what the will of God was in advance. The narrative, as it came to be written down, was for the purpose of reproducing the concept of the nation rather than offering what we would today consider history.
Whether these men were all sons of Supplanter or even existed at all is not particularly important. What signifies is that the story is later used to place the disparate tribes into a single superfamily. Just as patrilines are segments of clans and clans are segments of tribes, so the tribes are segments of a nation. All the groupings beyond the individual are predicated on the principle of patrilineal kinship. The tribes are probably related in some way, but the the accuracy of the genealogies is less important than the reliance on them as the predicate for a set of obligations and expectations associated with the kinship meme complex.
Now this concept of nation is quite different to what we nowadays think of as the modern nation-state. It is the family writ large. It is not necessarily a stable entity as loyalty to the progressively smaller segments and individual interests will tend to outweigh loyalty to the most distant and abstract of the groupings. Therefore, the concept of the nation must be reproduced continually and reinforced with myth. God is called upon to add the imprimatur of divine legitimacy to the idea.
Of course, some kindred groups are excluded from the nation, and the myths have to account for this. Otherwise, the progeny of the displaced first born sons would have to be included in the covenantal nation. I don't know why the mythmakers didn't just make their ancestors the first born. Perhaps it was deemed especially important for well being to leave the door open to exceptions to primogeniture or even to problematize the concept of primogeniture.
What we have in Genesis, I reckon, is propaganda to support the idea of a nation and conquest of a territory. Whether God promised anyone that the nation would rule the territory in question is beside the point. It came to pass that the territory was conquered and occupied by the putative descendants of Father of Multitudes. Hence, it was surely the will of God whether or not the nation knew what the will of God was in advance. The narrative, as it came to be written down, was for the purpose of reproducing the concept of the nation rather than offering what we would today consider history.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Genesis 29 and 30
In Genesis 29, Supplanter gets conned by his uncle. It runs in the family, and Supplanter really should have seen it coming. After all, Supplanter was a masterful deceiver and con artist himself, a skill set he uses in chapter 30 against his uncle.
To Bind's brother had two daughters, Weary and Ewe. Weary had "weak eyes", but Ewe was beautiful. Supplanter offered to work for his uncle 7 years in exchange for the hand of Ewe. On the wedding night, the uncle substitutes Weary, and Supplanter awakes to find that he is married to Weary intead of Ewe. In exchange for the promise of another 7 years of service, the uncle permits Supplanter to marry Ewe about a week after the marriage to Weary.
Although Weary is "unloved", she is not completely ignored for she bears Supplanter four sons: Behold a Son, God Has Heard, Attached, and Praised. These names were messages from Weary to Supplanter, hints that God favored Weary by letting her bear sons while Ewe was barren.
In the face of this, Ewe resorts to giving her maid to Supplanter as a surrogate mother who begets sons He Judged and Wrestler. Not to be outdone, Weary gives her maid to Supplanter as an additional wife. Weary's maid begets sons Luck and Happy.
At some point Ewe grants Weary the right to lie with Supplanter in exchange for some mandrakes. This leads to another son Hireling. Weary's not through, though, and gives Supplanter yet another son Exaltation.
At long last God "remembers" Ewe and opens her womb so that she bears a son He Will Add.
After 11 sons and at least one daughter have been born, Supplanter expresses a desire to his uncle to return home. The uncle is reluctant because Supplanter has made him rich in livestock with his superior management skills. At last, they come to an agreement whereby Supplanter would be entitled to certain variants of the livestock. Meanwhile, since Supplanter is in still in charge of the livestock, he has some control over their breeding patterns. It is perhaps unsurprising that he arranges things so that the variants to which he is entitled become even more numerous and that Supplanter's flocks would be stronger than his uncle's. Supplanter's rudimentary knowledge of population genetics coupled with his unscrupulousness serve him well.
To Bind's brother had two daughters, Weary and Ewe. Weary had "weak eyes", but Ewe was beautiful. Supplanter offered to work for his uncle 7 years in exchange for the hand of Ewe. On the wedding night, the uncle substitutes Weary, and Supplanter awakes to find that he is married to Weary intead of Ewe. In exchange for the promise of another 7 years of service, the uncle permits Supplanter to marry Ewe about a week after the marriage to Weary.
Although Weary is "unloved", she is not completely ignored for she bears Supplanter four sons: Behold a Son, God Has Heard, Attached, and Praised. These names were messages from Weary to Supplanter, hints that God favored Weary by letting her bear sons while Ewe was barren.
In the face of this, Ewe resorts to giving her maid to Supplanter as a surrogate mother who begets sons He Judged and Wrestler. Not to be outdone, Weary gives her maid to Supplanter as an additional wife. Weary's maid begets sons Luck and Happy.
At some point Ewe grants Weary the right to lie with Supplanter in exchange for some mandrakes. This leads to another son Hireling. Weary's not through, though, and gives Supplanter yet another son Exaltation.
At long last God "remembers" Ewe and opens her womb so that she bears a son He Will Add.
After 11 sons and at least one daughter have been born, Supplanter expresses a desire to his uncle to return home. The uncle is reluctant because Supplanter has made him rich in livestock with his superior management skills. At last, they come to an agreement whereby Supplanter would be entitled to certain variants of the livestock. Meanwhile, since Supplanter is in still in charge of the livestock, he has some control over their breeding patterns. It is perhaps unsurprising that he arranges things so that the variants to which he is entitled become even more numerous and that Supplanter's flocks would be stronger than his uncle's. Supplanter's rudimentary knowledge of population genetics coupled with his unscrupulousness serve him well.
Genesis 28
In Genesis 28, He Laughs sends Supplanter off to the house of To Bind's brother to (a) take a wife from among his kinswomen, and (b) get away from He Finishes who is pissed about the theft of his blessing.
He Finishes realizes that his having married women from Canaan had displeased his father, so he aso took a wife from among the daughters of God Will Hear (Ishmael), He Laughs older half brother. I infer from this episode that He Laughs had never before admonished He Finishes about his choice of wives. Perhaps it was He Finishes's Hittite wives and the way they vexed the family that led to the family policy of intermarriage with close kin. Perhaps, He Laughs had written off He Finishes from early on and intended all along to make Supplanter his heir, in which case the marriages of He Finishes would not have mattered. In any event, the takeaway is that even a dutiful and loving son can be wronged by a father whose affections are elsewhere.
On the road to his uncle's place, Supplanter camps out, using a rock for a pillow. He dreams that there is a ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending. In the dream, God appears at the top and extends to Supplanter the promises He had made to Father of Multitudes and He laughs: multitudes of descendants, this land will be yours, your seed will be a blessing, yadda yadda yadda. The text doesn't say that God appeared to Supplanter in a dream, only that Supplanter had a dream with God in it. Maybe it was God; maybe it was just a dream.
Supplanter wakes up and names the place House of God and makes a promise to God, to wit, If God will keep him on his journey and provide for all his material needs and bring him home safe, He will let God be is God, the stone that had been Supplanter's pillow would be God's House and Supplanter would give back a tenth of all that God would give him. No "thy will be done" tagline for Supplanter. It's do this for me God, and I'll do that. Supplanter seems to believe that he can influence God's choices with inducements. Who among us hasn't at some time or other prayed thusly as in "God, if you'll make it so I win the MegaMillions I'll give 10% of the winnings (after taxes) to the church and devote myself to good works for your glory".
Are we to infer from this story that this mode of prayer is the way to address God?
He Finishes realizes that his having married women from Canaan had displeased his father, so he aso took a wife from among the daughters of God Will Hear (Ishmael), He Laughs older half brother. I infer from this episode that He Laughs had never before admonished He Finishes about his choice of wives. Perhaps it was He Finishes's Hittite wives and the way they vexed the family that led to the family policy of intermarriage with close kin. Perhaps, He Laughs had written off He Finishes from early on and intended all along to make Supplanter his heir, in which case the marriages of He Finishes would not have mattered. In any event, the takeaway is that even a dutiful and loving son can be wronged by a father whose affections are elsewhere.
On the road to his uncle's place, Supplanter camps out, using a rock for a pillow. He dreams that there is a ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending. In the dream, God appears at the top and extends to Supplanter the promises He had made to Father of Multitudes and He laughs: multitudes of descendants, this land will be yours, your seed will be a blessing, yadda yadda yadda. The text doesn't say that God appeared to Supplanter in a dream, only that Supplanter had a dream with God in it. Maybe it was God; maybe it was just a dream.
Supplanter wakes up and names the place House of God and makes a promise to God, to wit, If God will keep him on his journey and provide for all his material needs and bring him home safe, He will let God be is God, the stone that had been Supplanter's pillow would be God's House and Supplanter would give back a tenth of all that God would give him. No "thy will be done" tagline for Supplanter. It's do this for me God, and I'll do that. Supplanter seems to believe that he can influence God's choices with inducements. Who among us hasn't at some time or other prayed thusly as in "God, if you'll make it so I win the MegaMillions I'll give 10% of the winnings (after taxes) to the church and devote myself to good works for your glory".
Are we to infer from this story that this mode of prayer is the way to address God?
Friday, July 24, 2009
Arresting Prof Gates Was Stupid Even If It Wasn't Racial
Here's my two cents on the Henry Louis Gates arrest. It was stupid. Maybe it wasn't racial, but it was stupid. The policeman had plenty of options other than arresting the man. Cops are too damned quick to arrest people, often for no good reason other than to be douches. There was an insufficient basis for believing that a crime was being committed, and nobody was in any danger.
If I'm in my own home where I have every right to be and I end up arrested for being uppity to a cop, you can bet I'd be pretty pissed. I'd be justified. And my neighbors would back me up. Everyone would agree that the cop was stupid. It's incompetent policing, and it should be denounced.
Police treat civilians like enemenis in occupied territory, and this should not be tolerated.
If I'm in my own home where I have every right to be and I end up arrested for being uppity to a cop, you can bet I'd be pretty pissed. I'd be justified. And my neighbors would back me up. Everyone would agree that the cop was stupid. It's incompetent policing, and it should be denounced.
Police treat civilians like enemenis in occupied territory, and this should not be tolerated.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Feminization is Good
I sometimes hear people lament that men are becoming "feminized". Would that it were so. The process of feminization is the process of civilization. As the sensibilities of the elite classes, who are in a sense more feminine "gentle" folk less prone to direct personal violence, become adopted by the lower orders, civilization progresses. It's a good thing in my book for men to be more pacific in outlook and temperament and less likely to resolve issues by fighting.
Then again, my attitude toward the feminine is informed by my experience of the women in my family. They were farmers who could plow behind a mule with the best to them and who endured adversity with courage and determination. They were working women who embodied the best of womanhood. They weren't dainty,mind you, but they were ladies. They were caregivers and peacemakers and churchgoers who kept their families civilized. Those unfortunate families who lacked a woman's touch tended to wildness and disorder. The men just didn't have that civilizing something that women provided.
Nowadays, I find more and more men who have learned to be caregivers to their children and their communities, who have learned to manage conflict peacably, who have learned to love their neighbors. They've been feminized, and it looks good on them.
I reckon the whole course of cultural evolution could be characterized as the efforts of women to domesticate men.
Then again, my attitude toward the feminine is informed by my experience of the women in my family. They were farmers who could plow behind a mule with the best to them and who endured adversity with courage and determination. They were working women who embodied the best of womanhood. They weren't dainty,mind you, but they were ladies. They were caregivers and peacemakers and churchgoers who kept their families civilized. Those unfortunate families who lacked a woman's touch tended to wildness and disorder. The men just didn't have that civilizing something that women provided.
Nowadays, I find more and more men who have learned to be caregivers to their children and their communities, who have learned to manage conflict peacably, who have learned to love their neighbors. They've been feminized, and it looks good on them.
I reckon the whole course of cultural evolution could be characterized as the efforts of women to domesticate men.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Genesis 1-27: Do These Stories Matter?
Looking back on the first twenty seven chapters of Genesis, it occurs to me that these stories don't add much to our understanding of God and His agenda as they might actually exist. The God who appears to the patriarchs is very different to the God we imagine nowadays or even the God that shows up later in the Bible. The most we can glean from these stories is some insight into how one ancient nomadic tribe thought about God and how they sought to situate themselves in the cosmic narrative.
I'm not sure that I believe in the historical truth of even the most mundane of these stories, but I would concede that the progenitors of the Israelites included prosperous and reasonably successful warlords who wandered in and around Canaan and Egypt. Whether they had the particular adventures set down in these stories just doesn't matter. Asking people to believe them seems to me to be setting up a gratuitous stumbling block.
I'm not sure that I believe in the historical truth of even the most mundane of these stories, but I would concede that the progenitors of the Israelites included prosperous and reasonably successful warlords who wandered in and around Canaan and Egypt. Whether they had the particular adventures set down in these stories just doesn't matter. Asking people to believe them seems to me to be setting up a gratuitous stumbling block.
Me and Walter
Walter Cronkite, peace be unto him, was a hero of mine when I was a kid. We always watched Walter's broadcast and news specials. He had a nifty series about science after he retired. I loved how he would sign off whith "And that's the way it was...", and you knew that it really had been the way he had presented it. Nobody has ever even come close to Walter as a news anchor. I reckon nobody ever will.
I grew up in Appalachia and had a pretty thick brogue, and I knew that I would have to learn standard English to have any hope of getting out of my crappy hometown. Walter Cronkite was my model. I stood in front of a mirror for hours practicing saying things the way Walter Cronkite did. Before long, I had a pretty good mastery of standard English, and I was even able to bring my own rhythm to it rather than simply mimicking Walter and sounding like a bad Rich Little impersonation.
To this day, I can speak standard English like a native, and people are often surprised to learn that I'm a Southron. The only difficulties I have are when I'm a little drunk or tired and when I am called upon to read aloud. I don't know why reading aloud is so much harder in Standard than in South Midland. Anyway, thanks be to Walter Cronkite for helping me get the hell out of Dalton, GA.
I grew up in Appalachia and had a pretty thick brogue, and I knew that I would have to learn standard English to have any hope of getting out of my crappy hometown. Walter Cronkite was my model. I stood in front of a mirror for hours practicing saying things the way Walter Cronkite did. Before long, I had a pretty good mastery of standard English, and I was even able to bring my own rhythm to it rather than simply mimicking Walter and sounding like a bad Rich Little impersonation.
To this day, I can speak standard English like a native, and people are often surprised to learn that I'm a Southron. The only difficulties I have are when I'm a little drunk or tired and when I am called upon to read aloud. I don't know why reading aloud is so much harder in Standard than in South Midland. Anyway, thanks be to Walter Cronkite for helping me get the hell out of Dalton, GA.
Folle Family Stimulates Entertainment Industry
We went back to the city on Saturday and caught the other two plays in the Norman Conquests trilogy. It's even more hilarious when you see all the plays.
On Sunday we caught the new Harry Potter movie. It was two and a half hours long, and even then they tried to pack too much into it. It ended up making almost no sense. I feel as though I needed to have reread the book to get what was going on. Jim Broadbent played Professor Slughorn rather well. He plays everything well come to think of it.
Anyway, I kind of like getting out instead of spending all our free time puttering in the garden. Alas, the weeding and mucking have been neglected, so I'm sure the garden will make me pay for my inattentiveness.
On Sunday we caught the new Harry Potter movie. It was two and a half hours long, and even then they tried to pack too much into it. It ended up making almost no sense. I feel as though I needed to have reread the book to get what was going on. Jim Broadbent played Professor Slughorn rather well. He plays everything well come to think of it.
Anyway, I kind of like getting out instead of spending all our free time puttering in the garden. Alas, the weeding and mucking have been neglected, so I'm sure the garden will make me pay for my inattentiveness.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Genesis 26 and 27: Patriarchs as Grifters
When I read Genesis 26, it's deja vu all over again. This is a rehash of a story about Father of Multitudes, only ths time with He Laughs and To Bind in the lead roles. There's a famine, so He Laughs takes his entourage to Gerar, still ruled by the same king that Father of Multitudes made a pact with. God promises He Laughs that his descendants will be multitudes, that his seed will be a blessing, all on account of Father of Multitudes' obedience to God's law. Oh, and the land of the Philistines, including Gerar would belong to his successors.
Anyway, He Laughs pulls the old "She's my sister not my wife" trick just like his old man. The King of Gerar is on to him though and upbraids him for exposing people to sin because someone might have lain with To Bind. This is an interesting concept of sin, a kind of strict liablity in which intent plays no part. So far in these stories, screwing another man's wife is one of the few sins that have been enumerated. Don't kill people, unless God tells you to, and don't consume blood are the other two rules. I almost forgot genital mutilation. Following the law in those days wasn't too complicated.
He Laughs prospers and grows so strong that the King of Gerar asks him to leave, so he settles in the valley. He continued to have conflict with the locals over water rights, but he and the King of Gerar make a peace pact just as had been done with Father of Multitudes.
He Finishes marries a couple of Hittite women. Evidently, He Laughs and To Bind didn't like them.
Chapter 27 is a tale of unmitigated douchebaggery. He Laughs is old and blind and reckons the hand of death is nigh, so he sends He Finishes out to get him some game for stew after which he plans to give He Finishes his blessing. To Bind has Supplanter fetch kids so she can make a savory dish. She puts the kids' skins on Supplanter so that he can pass for the hirstute He Finishes when he goes in and steals the blessing. Supplanter holds himself out as He Finishes even when He Laughs expresses doubts (after all, the voice is Supplanter's). He even lies about how God provided the game when He Laughs questions him about he got it so quickly. Under false pretenses then, He Laughs bestows his blessing on Supplanter and allows as how he will be the master of his kin and that his brothers will serve him.
He Finishes then comes in with the game stew and asks for the blessing. Alas, it has already been bestowed on the deceiver and there's nothing for it. He Laughs gives He Finishes the crappiest blessing ever, to wit that he would live away for the fertility of the earth and the dew of heaven and would serve his brother. As a sop he gets some day to break his brother's yoke from his neck.
Understandably, He Finishes is in a fratricidal mood. To Bind tells Supplanter to go hide out in her brother's house in Haran until everything blows over.
I reckon He Laughs must have wanted to bless Supplanter all along, that he must have known that there was a subterfuge. Once again, the cadet screws over the first born, and it doesn't seem right to me at all. Either way, these patriarchs are not to be trusted. They're shameless liars and grifters, and I would not hold any of them out as a role model so far in the story.
I notice that God doesn't show up so much with He Laughs as he did with Father of Multitudes. He doesn't play an active role in the deceptions of Supplanter and there doesn't seem to be much of an effort to lend the imprimatur of divine approval to them.
The moral of the story is get the blessing up front before you go hunting for stew meat.
Anyway, He Laughs pulls the old "She's my sister not my wife" trick just like his old man. The King of Gerar is on to him though and upbraids him for exposing people to sin because someone might have lain with To Bind. This is an interesting concept of sin, a kind of strict liablity in which intent plays no part. So far in these stories, screwing another man's wife is one of the few sins that have been enumerated. Don't kill people, unless God tells you to, and don't consume blood are the other two rules. I almost forgot genital mutilation. Following the law in those days wasn't too complicated.
He Laughs prospers and grows so strong that the King of Gerar asks him to leave, so he settles in the valley. He continued to have conflict with the locals over water rights, but he and the King of Gerar make a peace pact just as had been done with Father of Multitudes.
He Finishes marries a couple of Hittite women. Evidently, He Laughs and To Bind didn't like them.
Chapter 27 is a tale of unmitigated douchebaggery. He Laughs is old and blind and reckons the hand of death is nigh, so he sends He Finishes out to get him some game for stew after which he plans to give He Finishes his blessing. To Bind has Supplanter fetch kids so she can make a savory dish. She puts the kids' skins on Supplanter so that he can pass for the hirstute He Finishes when he goes in and steals the blessing. Supplanter holds himself out as He Finishes even when He Laughs expresses doubts (after all, the voice is Supplanter's). He even lies about how God provided the game when He Laughs questions him about he got it so quickly. Under false pretenses then, He Laughs bestows his blessing on Supplanter and allows as how he will be the master of his kin and that his brothers will serve him.
He Finishes then comes in with the game stew and asks for the blessing. Alas, it has already been bestowed on the deceiver and there's nothing for it. He Laughs gives He Finishes the crappiest blessing ever, to wit that he would live away for the fertility of the earth and the dew of heaven and would serve his brother. As a sop he gets some day to break his brother's yoke from his neck.
Understandably, He Finishes is in a fratricidal mood. To Bind tells Supplanter to go hide out in her brother's house in Haran until everything blows over.
I reckon He Laughs must have wanted to bless Supplanter all along, that he must have known that there was a subterfuge. Once again, the cadet screws over the first born, and it doesn't seem right to me at all. Either way, these patriarchs are not to be trusted. They're shameless liars and grifters, and I would not hold any of them out as a role model so far in the story.
I notice that God doesn't show up so much with He Laughs as he did with Father of Multitudes. He doesn't play an active role in the deceptions of Supplanter and there doesn't seem to be much of an effort to lend the imprimatur of divine approval to them.
The moral of the story is get the blessing up front before you go hunting for stew meat.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Health Insurance
I'm in the market for health insurance. I'm self employed and Mrs Vache Folle is probably going to become self employed in the near future. COBRA from her job will cost more than a grand a month and will be short term only. What I'd like to get is something with low monthly premiums and a high deductible that would kick in if something catastrophic happens. We can handle routine office visits and prescriptions out of pocket and still come out ahead. It's the hospitalizations and scary diseases that we have to protect against, not the routine care.
But I'm finding it really hard to shop for individual insurance. Other insurance is easy to understand and compare and get quotes. Health insurance is a morass. Maybe the health care reform bill will help by making health insurance more transparent. It could happen.
I read the summary of the House bill, and it looks pretty good unless you're a health insurer. Apparently, one problem with the public option that many opponents have is that it is too good and will drive private insurers out of business. Seeing as how the public plan has to pay for itself with premiums just like the other plans and seeing as how private companies are said to be better than government agencies, I don't see what the private insurers have to worry about from the public option.
But I'm finding it really hard to shop for individual insurance. Other insurance is easy to understand and compare and get quotes. Health insurance is a morass. Maybe the health care reform bill will help by making health insurance more transparent. It could happen.
I read the summary of the House bill, and it looks pretty good unless you're a health insurer. Apparently, one problem with the public option that many opponents have is that it is too good and will drive private insurers out of business. Seeing as how the public plan has to pay for itself with premiums just like the other plans and seeing as how private companies are said to be better than government agencies, I don't see what the private insurers have to worry about from the public option.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Genesis 24 and 25
In Genesis 24, Father of Multitudes extracts an oath from his steward to find a wife for He laughs from among Father of Multitudes' kinfolk. The steward takes ten camels to the city of Nahor and asks God for a sign, to wit, that a woman who offers to water his camels would be the one who would be the wife of He Laughs. Such a woman, To Bind, appears and fulfills the sign. What's more she's the grandniece of father of Multitudes, a young maiden still a virgin and comely. To Bind's family grants hospitality to the steward who tells him of his oath and the sign that To Bind had fulflled. He asks for To Bind to return with him to be He Laugh's wife. And that's what happened.
This chapter is interesting mainly for the narrative form. The steward repeats the entire part about the oath, the sign and his earlier conversation with To Bind, and the author writes them all out instead of simply referring back to them. Perhaps this was how the bards who transmitted the stories orally had done it, and ths would have been a way to reinforce significant parts of the story. No Canaanite wife for He Laughs, thank you very much, and none from Ur of the Chaldees. This marriage was made in heaven.
In Chapter 25, the widowed Father of Multitudes takes a third wife and begat children, but He laughs was the only heir. Father of Multitudes dies and is buried by Princess. Then follows genealogical remarks about the descendants of Ishmael, including twelve princes.
To Bind becomes pregnant with twins about whom God tells her "the older shall serve the younger" and that they shall be two nations. He Finishes comes out first, all red and hairy, and Supplanter follows with his hand on his older brother's heel. He Finishes becomes a hunter and the favorite of He laughs, whereas Supplanter was the beloved of To Bind.
One day He Finishes comes in from the field hungry and begs Supplanter for some red stew that Supplanter has made. Supplanter makes He Finishes sell him his birthright for the stew. He Finishes gets the nickname Red Stuff from this episode. I doubt that He Finishes thought Supplanter was serious, and Supplanter comes off pretty douchy in the story. Then again, I'm a firstborn.
This chapter is interesting mainly for the narrative form. The steward repeats the entire part about the oath, the sign and his earlier conversation with To Bind, and the author writes them all out instead of simply referring back to them. Perhaps this was how the bards who transmitted the stories orally had done it, and ths would have been a way to reinforce significant parts of the story. No Canaanite wife for He Laughs, thank you very much, and none from Ur of the Chaldees. This marriage was made in heaven.
In Chapter 25, the widowed Father of Multitudes takes a third wife and begat children, but He laughs was the only heir. Father of Multitudes dies and is buried by Princess. Then follows genealogical remarks about the descendants of Ishmael, including twelve princes.
To Bind becomes pregnant with twins about whom God tells her "the older shall serve the younger" and that they shall be two nations. He Finishes comes out first, all red and hairy, and Supplanter follows with his hand on his older brother's heel. He Finishes becomes a hunter and the favorite of He laughs, whereas Supplanter was the beloved of To Bind.
One day He Finishes comes in from the field hungry and begs Supplanter for some red stew that Supplanter has made. Supplanter makes He Finishes sell him his birthright for the stew. He Finishes gets the nickname Red Stuff from this episode. I doubt that He Finishes thought Supplanter was serious, and Supplanter comes off pretty douchy in the story. Then again, I'm a firstborn.
Genesis 22 and 23: God Tests Father of Multitudes, and Princess Dies
Chapter 22 looks to me to be a completely different story about the Covenant or a sign that God was playing Father of Multitudes. Here God "tests" His chosen man by ordering him to take He Laughs to a mountain and kill him as a human sacrifice and then burn his body on an altar. Father of Multitudes takes his young son He Laughs to the mountain as God has instructed. He laughs asks his old man where the sacrificial animal is, and Father of Multitudes answers that God will provide the lamb. Then Father of Multitudes puts He laughs in a stack of wood and, with a faggot in one hand and a knife in the other, gets set to murder his son.
At the last second, the angel of the Lord calls out and stops Father of Multitudes. God, via the angel, says "for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." God tells Father of Multitudes that "because you have done this thing", He is going to multiply Father of Multitude's descendants and make his seed a blessing to all nations. A ram is found conveniently nearby and slaughtered for the entertainment of God. The chapter finishes with some genealogical remarks about Father of Multitude's brother's family. (I would be surprised if anyone ever gave a sermon centered on verses 20-24. It could be funny what with names like Uz and Buz and Kemuel and Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph.)
Hadn't God already made the promise to Father of Multitudes? Was He about to renege on it, or is this just a case of a series of related stories having been jumbled together? Why wouldn't God know that Father of Multitudes feared Him? The God of Father of Multitudes does not appear to have developed omniscience yet. Also, He Laughs is referred to as Father of Multitudes' "only" son when we know that He Laughs has an older brother Ishmael.
I get the impression that human sacrifice was not unheard of in those days since Father of Multitudes doesn't seem shocked about it. How did he explain these actions to He Laughs, and how much therapy did He Laughs require after his father set out to kill him?
Chapter 23 is taken up with the death of Princess and arrangements for her burial.
At the last second, the angel of the Lord calls out and stops Father of Multitudes. God, via the angel, says "for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." God tells Father of Multitudes that "because you have done this thing", He is going to multiply Father of Multitude's descendants and make his seed a blessing to all nations. A ram is found conveniently nearby and slaughtered for the entertainment of God. The chapter finishes with some genealogical remarks about Father of Multitude's brother's family. (I would be surprised if anyone ever gave a sermon centered on verses 20-24. It could be funny what with names like Uz and Buz and Kemuel and Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph.)
Hadn't God already made the promise to Father of Multitudes? Was He about to renege on it, or is this just a case of a series of related stories having been jumbled together? Why wouldn't God know that Father of Multitudes feared Him? The God of Father of Multitudes does not appear to have developed omniscience yet. Also, He Laughs is referred to as Father of Multitudes' "only" son when we know that He Laughs has an older brother Ishmael.
I get the impression that human sacrifice was not unheard of in those days since Father of Multitudes doesn't seem shocked about it. How did he explain these actions to He Laughs, and how much therapy did He Laughs require after his father set out to kill him?
Chapter 23 is taken up with the death of Princess and arrangements for her burial.
Democrats Right to Appear to Seek Bipartisanship
I get the feeling that some folks in the liberal blogosphere are frustrated with President Obama and the democratic Congress. Why aren't they using their power to enact a sweeping progressive agenda? Why are they bothering with bipartisanship instead of ignoring the irrelevant GOP?
I reckon it's because the politicians know that despite everything the GOP is doing to render itself irrelevant and to become a regional coalition of various nutjob constituencies, it still got almost as many votes for the frightening McCain-Palin ticket as the Obama-Biden ticket got. Seriously, tens of millions of people voted for the GOP. Not just the nutjobs. Other dupes by the trainload went to the polls and pulled the lever for the party of evil and incompetence.
Obama was elected by some 20% of Americans. McCain got a few percentage points fewer. About 60% of Americans didn't vote either because they weren't allowed to or they didn't care to. That 60% contains a few principled non-voters, but it's mostly comprised of the indifferent, apathetic and misinformed, and the GOP might hit on some dumbass talking point that resonates with enough of them to get them off their asses and to the polls. It doesn't matter how odious the GOP really is, because these folks won't know about it.
I reckon it's because the politicians know that despite everything the GOP is doing to render itself irrelevant and to become a regional coalition of various nutjob constituencies, it still got almost as many votes for the frightening McCain-Palin ticket as the Obama-Biden ticket got. Seriously, tens of millions of people voted for the GOP. Not just the nutjobs. Other dupes by the trainload went to the polls and pulled the lever for the party of evil and incompetence.
Obama was elected by some 20% of Americans. McCain got a few percentage points fewer. About 60% of Americans didn't vote either because they weren't allowed to or they didn't care to. That 60% contains a few principled non-voters, but it's mostly comprised of the indifferent, apathetic and misinformed, and the GOP might hit on some dumbass talking point that resonates with enough of them to get them off their asses and to the polls. It doesn't matter how odious the GOP really is, because these folks won't know about it.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Spam
I've had it up to here with spams about Acai berry, penis enlargement, replica watches, Viagra, and diplomas on-line. Seriously, does anyone ever respond to this stuff? If they do, let's kill them.
Our Weekend in Manhattan
Mrs Vache Folle and I spent the weekend in Manhattan. We stayed at the Hilton on 54th and 6th (I got a good rate because I agreed to sit through a time share pitch). We ate at Sinegual in midtown on Friday. It was great high end Mexican cuisine. I had a lobster enchilada and a couple of killer margaritas. And a chile relleno. Then we went to Campbell's apartment( some guy named Campbell used to have this kick ass apartment in Grand Central Station and now it's a bar). I had the gayest drink ever made.
On Saturday, we ate at a deli (pastrami hash and eggs for me) and visited the Folk Art Museum. This featured a visiting collection of wood carvings by Savannah barber Ulysses Davis. Also, there was a remarkable display of "kaleidoscope quilts" comprised of thousands of tiny slivers of fabric in intricate symmetrical patterns.
We also visited the Central Park zoo where my occasional contempt for parents of small children was validated. Note to said parents: If you have a stroller the size of a Buick, don't bring it inside the freaking penguin house or other small spaces full of people. Your kid can't see anything from the stroller anyway and you're going to have to take her/him/them out. Meanwhile, you are inconveniencing everyone else and creating a hazard. And if your child's intellectual capacity is not as well developed as the penguins', why are you bringing them to the penguin house in the first place? The zoo was exhausting, so we rode a pedal cab back to Central Park South.
After a nap, we ate at Maison, a so so Frenchie kind of place on 7th. Then we went to see Round and Round the Garden, one of the plays in The Norman Conquests trilogy. It was hilarious with great perfomances by Jessica Hynes, Amanda Root and the rest of the cast whom I had not heard of before. Celebrities Tyne Daily and the guy who plays Ben Lyons on Lost were in the audience. I stood behind "Ben" as he ordered a bourbon and ginger ale during intermission. I tried this drink later at the hotel so I could be more like my hero, guy who plays Ben.
The NAACP convention was starting at our hotel, so it was a hopping place. It's the 100th anniversary, and President Obama is slated to appear on Thursday.
The time share pitch was masterful and almost a joy to sit through. That's how good these guys were. I could tell they knew Mrs Vache Folle was the decisionmaker because everything was not too subtly pitched to her. We managed to get out without a time share.
On Saturday, we ate at a deli (pastrami hash and eggs for me) and visited the Folk Art Museum. This featured a visiting collection of wood carvings by Savannah barber Ulysses Davis. Also, there was a remarkable display of "kaleidoscope quilts" comprised of thousands of tiny slivers of fabric in intricate symmetrical patterns.
We also visited the Central Park zoo where my occasional contempt for parents of small children was validated. Note to said parents: If you have a stroller the size of a Buick, don't bring it inside the freaking penguin house or other small spaces full of people. Your kid can't see anything from the stroller anyway and you're going to have to take her/him/them out. Meanwhile, you are inconveniencing everyone else and creating a hazard. And if your child's intellectual capacity is not as well developed as the penguins', why are you bringing them to the penguin house in the first place? The zoo was exhausting, so we rode a pedal cab back to Central Park South.
After a nap, we ate at Maison, a so so Frenchie kind of place on 7th. Then we went to see Round and Round the Garden, one of the plays in The Norman Conquests trilogy. It was hilarious with great perfomances by Jessica Hynes, Amanda Root and the rest of the cast whom I had not heard of before. Celebrities Tyne Daily and the guy who plays Ben Lyons on Lost were in the audience. I stood behind "Ben" as he ordered a bourbon and ginger ale during intermission. I tried this drink later at the hotel so I could be more like my hero, guy who plays Ben.
The NAACP convention was starting at our hotel, so it was a hopping place. It's the 100th anniversary, and President Obama is slated to appear on Thursday.
The time share pitch was masterful and almost a joy to sit through. That's how good these guys were. I could tell they knew Mrs Vache Folle was the decisionmaker because everything was not too subtly pitched to her. We managed to get out without a time share.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
I'm not Threatened by Artificial Sperm
Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon links to an article about artificial sperm and discusses the comments at Salon of some men who reckon that this presages the end of men: http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/were_not_all_out_to_get_you/
The reasoning goes that women don't really like men and sex and would, if they could, dispense with men altogether if they didn't need sperm. I suppose that artifical sperm or parthenogenesis would provide women with more options, but I don't see that these technologies would lead to the wholesale abandonment of men. I like to think of myself as more than a life support system for a penis. And I know that Mrs Vache Folle doesn't love me for my sperm. Hell, on the rare occasions when I deliver sperm, she can't wait to get rid of it.
Men have lots of other uses besides sperm production, storage and delivery. We do yardwork, for example. And some women genuinely like us. They would keep us around even if they didn't need our sperm, perhaps as pets.
The reasoning goes that women don't really like men and sex and would, if they could, dispense with men altogether if they didn't need sperm. I suppose that artifical sperm or parthenogenesis would provide women with more options, but I don't see that these technologies would lead to the wholesale abandonment of men. I like to think of myself as more than a life support system for a penis. And I know that Mrs Vache Folle doesn't love me for my sperm. Hell, on the rare occasions when I deliver sperm, she can't wait to get rid of it.
Men have lots of other uses besides sperm production, storage and delivery. We do yardwork, for example. And some women genuinely like us. They would keep us around even if they didn't need our sperm, perhaps as pets.
The Bible is not a History Book or a Science Text
Are the stories in chapters 1-21 true? It depends on what you mean by "true". They are not true in the sense of history. History hadn't been invented yet when these stories were written down. They may be true in a mythological sense in that they seek to deal symbolically with the meaning of things. For the storytellers, everything came from God, was ordained by God, and their people were marked by God to be a blessing to the whole world. It's not important for any of these stories to have actually been lived out by real people. The significance of the stories lies in what they tell us about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or at least what the storytellers thought about Him.
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