Isaac Laquedem

Exodus 32 finds a modern analogue

And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.  Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.  And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.  Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. 

And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/politics/trump-gold-statue-cpac-2021/index.html

Thomas Jefferson: the bogeyman of the Boston brahmin?

Wendell Phillips, the underappreciated author of the fine phrase that graces our federal courthouse, "The first duty of society is justice," was not necessarily a proper Bostonian - the other Boston brahmins thought him a rabble-rouser, which he was -- but he was among the most elegant and entertaining orators of his day.  He would insert dry zingers among his serious points in support of the abolitionist movement and his lampoons of William H. Seward.  He let off one of his best five minutes after he spoke his famous line, when he criticized Massachusetts for having been "hide-bound in the aristocracy of classes for years after" the Revolution, describing his home state's bygone beliefs in these words:

The five points of Massachusetts decency were, to trace your lineage to the Mayflower, graduate at Harvard College, be a good lawyer or a member of an orthodox church, -- either would answer, -- pay your debts, and frighten your child to sleep by saying "Thomas Jefferson."

The Fourth Circuit still knows what the Constitution stands for

A challenge to President Trump's executive order to bar citizens of certain Muslim-dominant nations from visiting the United States came before the Fourth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, which issued its opinion today blocking the president's travel ban.  The opinion goes on at some length, but all that a constitutionalist need pay attention to is the opening, written by Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory:

The question for this Court, distilled to its essential form, is whether the Constitution, as the Supreme Court declared in Ex Parte Milligan (1866), remains "a law for rulers and people, equally in war and peace."  And if so, whether it protects Plaintiffs' right to challenge an Executive Order that in text speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.  Surely the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment yet stands as an untiring sentinel for the protection of one of our most cherished founding principles - that government shall not establish any religious orthodoxy, or favor or disfavor one religion over another.  Congress granted the President broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute.  It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the President wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation.

What did the court rely on for its 10-3 decision?  Largely, and ironically, the campaign speeches of Mr. Trump himself. 

Republicans remember Daniel Berrigan in their own special way

Daniel Berrigan came to prominence in 1968 when he and eight others invaded the office of a draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, gathered up the registration records, took them outside, and burned the papers.  On many other occasions during the Vietnam War, protesters burned their draft cards.  The stories and images of Father Berrigan's anti-war protests came back to the public mind when he died last week at 94.

Conservative Republicans are remembering Father Berrigan in their own way, burning not their draft cards but their voter registration cards, to protest Donald Trump's securing their party's nomination.  If Father Berrigan's views on immortality have turned out to be correct, he's doubtless looking down, pleased that the means of protest that he helped to start has become bipartisan.

Safeway offers rye bread for the unorthodox

At least, that's what I make of Safeway marketing an Oroweat product described as "Jewish rye bread" with a sticker that suggests using it to make sandwiches of ham and cheese.  Gastronomically it's a fine idea, but theologically it leaves something to be desired.

The first western pope takes the name "Francis," in 1979

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is the first of the 266 men elected pope to choose the name "Francesco," and is also the first pope from the Western Hemisphere.  In an interesting coincidence, he and the church are 34 years behind the world of fiction.

In "The Vicar of Christ," a 1979 novel by the late Walter F. Murphy (1929-2010), a professor of political science and jurisprudence, the cardinals elect an American as pope, who in Professor Murphy's fictional world is the first pope from the western hemisphere, and who is the first pope to take the name "Francesco," in his case after St. Francis of Assisi.

Coincidence?  Prescience?  Either way, Professor Murphy would have loved to see this day.

It's not eternal happiness, but it's pretty close

I haven't noticed anything special happening today so far, but I did go into rapture a few months ago, when my home mortgage adjusted down to 3%.

China tanstaafls its Uighur Muslims: eat the free lunch or lose your job

During the month of Ramadan, which this year began on August 22, observant Muslims refrain from eating during daylight hours.  The Chinese government in Xinjiang wants the Uighur ethnic group, who are Muslims, to give up religious observance during Ramadan, and is threatening the Uighurs who do fast during Ramadan with being fired from their jobs.

As the Epoch Times reports, during Ramadan government offices in Xinjiang are offering free lunches to their workers.  That's the carrot.  The stick is that anyone found not eating lunch may lose his or her job and income, giving a new meaning to the phrase "eat or starve."

Captain Sullenberger was a hero. LaGuardia's ATC was pretty special too.

This is what it sounds like in an airport control tower when a pilot radios that his plane has lost power and is going to land in a river.

It's also why we don't subcontract air traffic control to the lowest bidder.

Jerry Falwell (1933-2007)

Tmz.com said it without words: