Random thoughts:
I really like salt bagels. No one would rationally expect that this required me to be a Zionist. But someone once implied I was a hypocrite because I like and eat Mexican food, but want all the illegals to go back to old Aztlan-beyond-the-Rio. Hey, I love French toast, too.
Dogs favor looking toward the left when they face us, reading the side of the face (our right) which registers emotion slightly faster than the other side. They don't do this with other dogs. We do the same thing.
I wish life were such that I could have a dog. I've always liked them. Cats, too. I'm bi-specieal that way.
Follow up to my recent post on African priests. The one in question was looking for ways to blame the Rwandan genocide on the Europeans. "Flawed evangelization". Flawed tribalist culture more likely, as well as our common fallen human nature. How about taking responsibility? Whom shall we Whiteys blame WWI and WWII on: flawed evangelization by the Romans? Communism: flawed evangelization by the Byzantines? Another article I came across --yet another African Dominican, a great proponent of what's called inculturation-- proposed incorporating memorials of the tribal ancestors in the liturgy. Rome was willing, but only if they were included after the patriarchs, etc. Abraham, Isaac, Moses. Friar Africanus was miffed: "As if our ancestors required foreign validation." You can smell the small-cultured post-colonial resentment. A George Stallings waitin' to happen. (PS. Actually, he did kinda happen: left and married, teaches Black and Afrocentric something or other and worships with independent Catholics somewhere in Washington DC. And His Holiness Stallings now includes the Koran and Reverend Moon in his ethnoreligious biz.)
PS. As part of this inculturation thing, they wrote a very glowing self-description of "African spirituality". They decided that their primary religious impulse was "respect for all of life." Can you believe it? That continent is a festival of bloodletting and ravaging. Probably not their fault. Flawed evangelization. Colonialism. Or it's Tuesday.
Conservatives --the traditional kind, what are now called paleos-- can be an unpredictable lot. Russell Kirk, arguably the intellectual father of modern American conservatism, condemned the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And in 1976 voted for McGovern.A regular blogger on a big liberal crowdsourcing site recently got kicked off because he criticized Muhammad's body count...using only canonical Islamic sources.
Whether you like Israel or not, I don't understand American conservatives (paleos and libertarians, usually) or traditionalists (who think conservatives are sellouts) wanting to let Israel fend for itself and, if history decrees, be swallowed up by the surrounding Muslim sea*. If only for this reason: where the hell do you think all those millions of Israeli refugees are going to wind up? Right on your doorstep. Just play that scenario out in your head.
Have a nice day. Sun's out again. Off to the gym.
*Iran is the Muslim state-power in the region and the issue of nuclear weapons a biggie. One side issue I never see addressed: would Iran risk nuclear attack on Israel if it meant risking the Dome of the Rock? But I guess you could focus your missiles on Israeli populations outside of and away from Jerusalem and still deal a lethal blow. I guess they figure if Nagasaki and Hiroshima have been rebuilt and are liveable, why not? I wonder if the message has been communicated that if Israel is attacked by nuclear missiles from Iran, that Mecca will be dust in 20 minutes? I wonder if the Israelis are too ethical for that?
1 comment:
Try poppy seed bagels.
They will rock your world.
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