Choosing Bits from the Bible

This post from the U.S. Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth is just distracting fluff, but it's such a curious collection that I want to give it a second look (video of him here). 

If we take "BIBLICAL" to mean "in the Bible," and "Bible" to mean specifically the Old and New Testaments, then those first three claims are accurate in that they appear in the Bible, but there's still some wiggle room around what they mean AND whether or not they're moral or reasonable. There are many, many passages of the Bible we ignore for better or worse. More on that later. And, of course, anything in the Bible is almost necessarily political. It's chock full of rules and laws that people had to follow or face the consequences, not unlike our current legislation. It's part of a long line of versions of legislation from the Code of Hammurabi to all those American Amendments. 

Abortion: There are passages on how much "the fruit of the womb is a reward" (Psalm 127:3), but Exodus 21:22-25, which provides rules for when a fight breaks out and a pregnant woman gets accidentally hit and miscarries (they thought of everything!), is sometimes used as proof that the mother's life supersedes the life of the fetus. Also in that passage are rules about what to do if you poke out your slave's eye and how to sell your daughter appropriately. And in Numbers 5:11-31 it tells us how priests should treat any woman suspected of adultery by putting a curse on them with "bitter water" that causes a miscarriage (aka gives them an abortion). 

Protecting our borders: There's lots on marking out territories, the right to stop invaders, and God "destroying the nation whose land he is giving you" (Deuteronomy 19), but also the corollary: respecting other nations' borders. "Do not move an ancient boundary stone" (Proverbs 23:10), so invading Iran to stop them from accessing uranium for medical isotopes, which they're using to make cancer treatments, is an abomination. God can grant territory by causing floods or pestilence or what-have-you, and then we can take it, but not before. And you only get that land if you follow all the holy laws. Deuteronomy also lays out that a man who accidentally kills someone should be allowed to flee to another place in order to save his life from avengers, and should only be rejected by that new city if he intentionally killed someone with malice. That's it. That's the only reason to reject a refugee. Furthermore, one witness to the murder isn't enough, the city needs the testimony of at least two or three witnesses in order to kick him out. AND if any witness proves to be a liar (coughBondiNoemToomanytonamecough) then "do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to that other party." They can be first in line in the horrific detention centres they're building all over their country. 

Trafficking women and children is all over the Bible in the worst way. Selling women and children is fine as long as you don't sell them to enemy foreigners. Giving your daughter and maid to satiate an angry mob is the righteous thing to do when they're after your friend. Taking the "spoils of war" is also expected behaviour: "Kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man" (Numbers 31:17-18). So, sometimes it's better to look to our current legislation now that we have almost come to terms with women being equal human beings. Widows and fatherless children of your own nation get some extra protection, though, or else "My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless" (Exodus 22:22-24). He was vindictive and jealous in the OT. Having a son softened him. 

But then comes that fourth one about sexual perversions. Who can forget that parable of boys and girls sharing a locker room at the gym and suddenly they're all speaking different languages, amiright?! The Bible speaks glowingly of Lot's daughters getting him hammered and having it off with him (Genesis 19:30-38). It's portrays as good because they're preserving the family line, but it's all sorts of fucked up. There are many rules around sexual propriety around adultery that he's ignoring: "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-78). And, yup, Deuteronomy 22 says, "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment," but it also says, "Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled." If we're following these precepts, written almost 4,000 years ago, then I don't want any of these assholes allowed to eat food that came from seeds that have been "defiled" by cross-pollination or, God forbid, GMOs. So, basically, nothing in our current grocery stores. Other passages around sexual impropriety involve women being slaughtered or sold, like if your new bride can't prove her virginity on your wedding night: "Bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die." I'm very afraid that those are the bits these wingnuts like.  

Protecting the culture from pagan religions is a joke, right? Because the early Christians absorbed pagan rituals in order to make their new religion more popular. We don't know JC's date of birth, but we peg it to December 25th because it fit with the Feast of Saturnalia already happening to celebrate the end of the shortest day, and the birth of the sun. And we don't know when he died, but pagan spring festivals felt like a good fit for a resurrection, and that still moves around the calendar depending on the moon (the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox - first day of spring). 

What's being ignored in Hegseth's rant? "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils" (1 Timothy 6:10). 

He left out the very Biblical concepts of usury and jubilee. "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him" (Exodus 22:25). "If people are too poor to support themselves, help them and don't take any interest from them" (Leviticus 25:35-37). "You shall not change interest to your brother" (Deuteronomy 23:19), and aren't we all brothers and sisters?? Ezekiel 18:13 says, "Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him."

An interesting shift happened with the word "usury." It used to mean any interest on a loan, and was considered really bad to do. According to this History of Usury, in the Gettysburg Economic Review, in ancient Greece, lending money for profit was seen as unnatural and dishonourable, and the negative association lasted through the spread of Christianity and Islam into the Middle Ages, making usury a crime. It was the expansion of trade and rise of capitalism that shifted the definition of usury to mean excessive interest, like with current credit card companies. According to this History of Finance, usury was put into law in the English Usury Act of 1545, which ended the prohibition of usury, and set the maximum rate at 12% for commercial loans, which gradually fell over the next 150 years down to 5% in 1714. During the Enlightenment, Adam Smith wanted strict regulations on interest, and Jeremy Bentham was opposed on the grounds of restrictions being a violation of liberties. Bentham's view held out, and restrictions were scrapped in 1854. 

Adam Smith also advocated for LIMITED profit, and famously said, "All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind." And here we are, with a handful of people stealing literally billions from their citizens, and somehow they can't be arrested for it. That's the truly anti-Christian part of it all. 

It's All a Charade

File this under, "Things we already know or ought to know."  

The BMJ just published a feature called, "Why Covid-19 is 'A Vascular Disease Masquerading as a Respiratory One.'" The quotation inside the title comes from Andy Benest, vascular biologist at the University of Nottingham. He further explains, "The virus enters through the airways but exerts its systemic effects through the vasculature. The common denominator in the lungs, heart, kidneys, and brain." (h/t Chantzy)

This personification of a virus, a non-living entity, removes our responsibility as if there's no way we could have known because it's so stealthy. Except we did know. 

Back in August 2020, five and a half years ago, the Journal of Neuroimaging published a study titled, "Covid-19 as a Blood Clotting Disorder Masquerading as a Respiratory Illness: A Cerebrovascular Perspective and Therapeutic Implications for Stroke Thrombectomy." They said, 

"Several reports have been published of patients with ischemic strokes in the setting of coronavirus disease 2019. The mechanisms of how SARS-CoV-2 results in blood clots and large vessel strokes need to be defined as it has therapeutic implications. ... Once SARS-CoV-2 enters the blood stream, a cascade of events unfolds including ... formation of cross-linked fibrin blood clots, leading to pulmonary emboli (PE) and large vessel strokes seen on angiographic imaging studies. There is emerging evidence for Covid-19 being a blood clotting disorder and SARS-CoV-2 using the respiratory route to enter the blood stream. As the blood-air barrier is breached, varying degrees of collateral damage occur. Although antivira and immune therapies are studied, the role of blood thinners in the prevention and management of blood clots in Covid-19 needs evaluation. ... Understanding the mechanisms of blood clotting can potentially help prevent or mitigate end organ damage beyond the respiratory illness in Covid-19."

It took ten years, from 1971 to 1981, for enough people to understand how latently deadly HIV is, and then another five years more to get public health on board on massive education campaigns to prevent the spread. Every bit of educating before the mid-80s was from ad hoc communities of people who were on the front lines, watching friends and family die of the disease, and distributing pamphlets of information by hand. Covid affects all the major organs, including brain functioning. Even mild Covid. I'm curious and a bit terrified at what we'll see in 2030 if we still can't remember that we've known it's a vascular disease since the first year! 

The Perfidious Lust for Unbridled Power

Saving this here. It's the beautifully penned order, in full, from Fred Biery, U.S. District Judge, a federal judge who ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Arias and his father. This photo of Liam was attached to the order, with Matthew 19:14 and John 11:35 written below it. Respectively, "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." and "Jesus wept."

Opinion and Order of the Court

Before the Court is the petition of asylum seeker Adrian Conego Arias and his five-year-old son for protection of the Great Writ of habeas corpus. They seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law. The government has responded.

The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children. This Court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures. 

Apparent also is this government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence. Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were:

    1. "He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People."       
    2. "He has excited domestic Insurrection among us."
    3. "For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us."    
    4. "He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures."

"We the people" are hearing echos of that history.

And then there is that pesky inconvenience called the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized. ~ U.S. Const. amend. IV.

Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster. That is called the fox guarding the henhouse. The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer. 

Accordingly, the Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration's detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son, L.C.R. The Great Writ and release from detention are GRANTED pursuant to the attached Judgment.

Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned. 

Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly and humane policy than currently in place.

Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: "Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?" "A republic, if you can keep it." 

With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike.

Honouring Our Capacity

I've had several conversations this week about how to be in a time like this when the U.S. government is so overtly corrupted. I'm just the upstairs neighbour in Canada, but we're high on the list of countries to be overthrown. Even without being in that position, it's hard to be aware of the world today and not be in a constant state of rage. I mean even more than before. I want to fast forward to the end when all the bad guys go to prison, but that will only happen with ongoing action from as many people as possible. However, that type of action doesn't necessarily have to be heroic or extraordinary. This is just my two cents from a distance that's looming closer.

INACTION AS COMPLICITY: What's Enough? 

Viewing newly accepted levels of violence in the U.S. is overwhelming and frightening. A few people have posted lists of things we can do to help, but I wonder if, for many people, it's asking too much. This might be a controversial view at a time when it feels like we all need to get on board to shift the world back to a less selfish and violent place, but the perspective that we all are complicit if we don't act might do more harm than good.

Covid Study References

I sometimes write without linking to studies because I've posted all the studies so many times already, but here's a bunch of useful ones when evidence is necessary.

THE PROBLEM:

Covid isn't a cold at all; it's a vascular disease (affecting the circulatory system) that produces microclots, which can lead to blood vessel damage, strokes, and loss of brain tissue (Frontiers in Microbiology, 2021, Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 2022, Cardiovascular Diabetology, 2022). Heart disease risk soars after even a mild case (Nature 2022), as well as the risk for heart attacks (Journal of Medical Virology, 2022). Dr. Funmi Okunola explained how Covid causes hypercoagulability, which damages the endothelium, increases strokes, pulmonary embolisms, and deep vein thrombosis, and Professor Danny Altmann explained how clearly mild Covid can be seen to affect the brain in a 2024 video. After an acute case, it hibernates in the body (like chicken pox and HIV), then can cause worse effects years later: the "SARS-CoV-2 spike protein accumulates and persists in the body for years, especially in the skull-meniges-brain axis" (Cell Host & Microbe, 2024). We still know relatively little about Covid, how long it can last, and all the things it can do to the body. HIV started out looking like a bad flu lasting a few weeks, then ten years later, people started dying of AIDS. Nobody knows for sure what the 2030s will look like. It currently still kills more people than car accidents, even as it adds to the number of collisions (Neurology, 2024). It might be wise to continue to take precautions. 

59% of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is from people who don't have any symptoms: 35% from people who are presymptomatic and 24% from people who are carrying it without developing symptoms, like Typhoid Mary (JAMA, 2021), so only masking when around people who are visibly sick, like my doctor does, avoids less than half of the potential transmission in the room, especially in primary health care. 

The Brave and Stalwart

As a quick reminder, well-fitting N95s/FFP3s work amazingly to avoid measles, the flu, and covid. I haven't been sick in years, and I love it!! The only inconvenience is not eating food with people who aren't cautious. I throw on a mask before going inside a public building. It's second-nature now, like putting on a seatbelt when I get in a car. Pretty simple and effective. Really, it's a no brainer.

But Jon Stewart (with Jon Favreau and Tim Miller) saw fit to make fun of people like me: crazy people who continue to avoid getting sick. In case you've forgotten, or if this is news to you, unlike the flu, which is brutal this year, Covid stays in the system, hibernating and attacking internal organs, the brain (sticking glial cells into clumps), and the immune system. The only other virus that attacks the immune system like this, causing lymphopenia, is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). So, call me crazy for avoiding getting a virus with similar effects as AIDS. 

One-Liner (or so) Film Reviews for 2025

I embraced retirement fully this year by watching a ridiculous number of movies and shows (despite actually continuing to work). These are in the order I watched them, and I highlighted my top favourites (13 of them) and runners up (21 of them). I watched a lot so you don't have to!