Yeah, and if someone thinks Leviticus, which was Jewish law more than 3000 years ago is still relevant for modern society, then I have a rather long list of inconsistencies and absurdities to show, aptly summarized by Martin Sheen in the west wing series.

Hi, Norwegian here, we have 5 weeks vacation per year, mandated by law. Oh, and the government takes 10% of your paycheck every month and pays it all out in July, so you have the money to go on vacation. Strong labor unions is the recipe.

Relevant?

The royals are quite decent and cool. I’m in principle for getting rid of the monarchy, but this gang is so chill I’m ok with not making a fuss. Except for this shitstain. And the crown prince’s sister. And her charlatan husband. In fact, only the hereditary bloodline is good. It’s almost like some divine magic, or that they got all the good attention and the others have useless sibling syndrome.

Cause stupid people buy games on pre release and there’s apparently a lot of them.

Norwegian here. I can still hear the gasping from the laughter of the nobel committee in Oslo. And I’m on vacation abroad.

I’ve wanted Kyle to be right about just about everything he says, but sadly it’s rarely so. There are plenty of countries that have no problem going from liking the US for its role in the world, to being sycophants who coddle up to power. Others will respond by playing nice to not have the administration turn their eyes towards them, and others still have leaders who have no objection to what’s currently going on. Just because you want something to be true, doesn’t make it so. There’s a definite shift happening, but I doubt it’s size and effect will result in any short term results. Just my opinion.

Compensating for relative lower income with low cost of consumer products is a bit like pissing your pants to get warm. The underlying issue is declining wages, caused by the loss of labor power. If people had decent wages a rise in prices would not be a problem. But while scraping by a rise in prices is a huge problem.

Half your age +7 is the formula. Anything within that is fine. Of course, that’s a guideline, not a law. Or let me put it like this, do you believe a woman of 30 to be capable of making her own choices? If so, go on the date and see if there’s anything there. If not, slap yourself and rethink your answer.

The Empire podcast goes quite deep into some of the issues and roots of partition. It was very clear that the English wanted out ASAP. One reason was the sectarian violence they could no longer contain.

Yeah, his name was Simeon bar Jonah, Simon, son of Jonah, or by modern style, Simon Johnson. Then Jesus pops up and starts calling him the Rock… Simon the Rock Johnson. (also fun gravy, Dwayne means fishhook)

Multiply by nr of persons and years…

I would just fucking love it if there was discovered a correlation between autism and microplastics, or between autism and stress during pregnancy, or between autism and some food coloring or whatever. Just to see RFK shut the fuck up cause he would never challenge the owners of the country.

Read a book. Some light fantasy usually.

Roman emperors didn’t flee from battle. is one way to read this.

Dude! This is the most prophetic thing in the whole Bible. Hear me out. Simon son of Jonah (not the whale guy), is a fisherman, and Jesus tells him to come along and fish people instead. Jesus gives him a nickname, Kephas, this nickname was then translated from Aramaic into Greek, Petros. Jesus later says that “On this rock I will build my church”, and that’s the meaning of the nickname Kephas/Petros, Stone, or Rock.

Now considering that Simon’s full name was Simon bar Yonah, in English: Simon son of John, or even Simon Johnson, then his full name with Jesus’ nickname is: Simon the Rock Johnson!

Funny coincidence? Skipping ahead a few thousand years, our current Rock is called Dwayne, and the meaning of that name happens to be Fishhook. And if you really wanna bring it home, Dwayne the Rock Johnson’s daughter is named… SIMONE! We’ve come full circle! The end times are near.

Am I mad as a hatter?

You seem well read and would probably agree that capitalism will climb or remove any barrier. The post war years that gave the boomers the biggest part of wealth creation in history was the result of policy that has since been dismantled bit by bit until we are once again back at the conditions for war, Fascism and social division.

-Look, the plebs are enjoying the spring weather on their free day. Let’s see if we can squeeze them a bit more.

Protest + boycott + general strike = power of the masses. Protest alone stopped the Iraq War, and genocide in Gaza and even the financial crisis. No, wait I read that wrong, protest does nothing unless its step 1.

I’ve been thinking about that particular event. Leonard Cohen has a song about it as well that put me on this track.

Now, as a historical fact, back in those days, sacrificing ones children was a not uncommon thing to do. The old testament god in several places tells the israelites NOT to put their children to the fire, as the term was. But if you read the texts you find that the israelites weren’t very good at following commands, and one could guess that god knew that.

So he puts his favorite follower through the worst nightmare imaginable, demanding that he sacrifice his beloved son. Put him through the ringer, of doubt, despair, fear, and sorrow, let it sink in what it actually means to sacrifice a child. Then stop him. It’s basically show don’t tell. Put the experience of the evil of that action into his heart, and vaccinate him against such ideas. And while Abraham took that lesson to heart, I’m reasonably certain that Isaac took the lesson even more, and taught it well to all his descendants.

Is it a shit thing to do? In one man’s perspective, yeah. But to set a people on a path away from human sacrifice, I’d say it wasn’t a very high price to pay.

And that’s if you take the story and all literally. If you take it figuratively, as a demonstration of what is the path to goodness, to people in a bronze age culture, I’d say the story carries the message across exceptionally well.

I’m a history teacher, and the first thing you learn is that history must be understood by its own time and standards, not by ours. The story of Isaac is a great example of what in our modern eyes is pure malice, but to its original culture it was a story that had the function of making a culture better.

The who? The Hu! Who? The HU!