Stratovania

I've been busy for a while now, between going to my grandmother's memorial service and transferring a bunch of files from my computer, so I'm going to go back some time with this entry. On the Wednesday before last, Beth and I saw Robyn Hitchcock at Murmrr, which is a venue inside a synagogue, or at least that's what it looks like. The show was originally supposed to be him with Tanya Donnelly, and I was kind of looking forward to seeing her. I don't know that much about her, but I know she was in the Breeders and Throwing Muses, and I've enjoyed some of their stuff. Unfortunately, she had laryngitis, and had to cancel. That did mean a lot of Robyn, who did two full sets. Most of it was solo on acoustic guitar, with his giving increasingly complex and bizarre instructions to the sound guy before each song. He played the beginning of the second set on piano, and Emma Swift accompanied him on some other songs.

I can't remember all that was in the set, although I know he didn't do my recommendation, "The Bones in the Ground." That's okay, though. He played "Balloon Man," "1970 in Aspic" followed by "1974," "Madonna of the Wasps," "One Long Pair of Eyes," "The Lizard," "Cynthia Mask," "Queen Elvis," "Flavour of Light," "Glass Hotel," "Chant/Aether," "The Cheese Alarm," "Raymond Chandler Evening," "Virginia Woolf," and "Queen of Eyes." I know the ones he played on piano included "The Man Who Invented Himself" and "Ted, Woody and Junior."

He closed with "Visions of Johanna" and another Bob Dylan cover. He mentioned that he considered Dylan the Morrissey of the 1970s, which makes a certain amount of sense, although Morrissey seems like a total creep nowadays and I don't really know about Dylan. There were some albums for sale, but I think they were all ones I already owned. A few of his records seem hard to come by, or at least not cheap. Is there a reason why CDs of Queen Elvis and Globe of Frogs cost so much on Amazon? I might end up having to get used copies.

There's really not much to say about what happened between that and last Wednesday, when, after work, Beth and I visited a small Kmart on the bottom floor of a Sears in Flatbush. She's really nostalgic about Kmart, and I guess I am too, as I grew up with them and they're so rare these days. On Thursday, we drove down to Beth's mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner, and I don't have much to say about that other than that Uncle John made a dessert kugel with fruit in it, and the contrast of textures between the noodles and the rest of it was weird.

I wondered about the name because I knew "Kugel" was German for a bullet, but apparently the connection is that the word originally meant a ball or sphere, and early kugels tended to be round.

We drove the rest of the way to Virginia on Friday, and that's an annoyingly long drive. In the words of Bugs Bunny, "I wonder why they put the South so far south." Somehow, however, as tiring as driving is, in a way it's better than being a passenger, because I have more control. My subconscious mind apparently thinks this is a big deal, as I frequently have dreams about being frustrated at someone, usually a parent, who won't let me go home when I want to. We took I-95 much of the way, and I noticed they had a lot of RV dealerships along the highway. Beth likes to mess with the radio, and she noted that the religious stations down there seem more hardcore. There was one where some guy was insisting abortion was human sacrifice, which, regardless of your views on abortion, seems to misunderstand the concept of sacrifice. Religious radio stations are kind of fascinating, very insular and fearful, yet constantly advertising themselves with terms like "hope" and "inspiration." I guess that just proves I'm not part of their in-group. My grandmother was a believer in God and Heaven and all that, so I hope she made it to Paradise if it actually exists. What I couldn't listen to on the radio was someone complaining that the Democrats were taking over Virginia because the cities had all the power. If he's right, I'd say that's a good thing. But really, when cities do have more power (and they don't always), isn't that simply because they have more people? Is this dude arguing that voting should be based on area instead of people? I think it's largely Virginia's fault that we have the electoral college, so I guess they haven't changed much in the past 250 years. Anyway, the memorial service was held at my grandmother's church on Saturday, and afterwards we went back to her house to have ham on rolls. Beth and I later stopped for another meal at Ponderosa, which they don't have in our area anymore.

Beth and I have now been married for ten years, which seems unlikely, but the math checks out. We were married on Leap Day in 2008. I feel bad that I couldn't think of anything special to do to celebrate; I'm really bad at that kind of thing, and at romantic or even just friendly gestures in general. It's part of being a creature of habit, I suppose, but I think Beth deserves better for putting up with me for all these years. We do a lot of things together, but I don't know that they're couple things per se. Anyway, we DID do something together this Thursday, but it was something we were going to do anyway even if it hadn't happened to fall on that day. We went to the Bell House for a live performance of Everything Is Terrible!, a website that features edited versions of weird videos.

This particular show was called The Great Satan, so most of the clips were of conservative Christian stuff. We'd seen some of it when watching TV late at night. Part of our cable package is something called Smile of a Child, which is all religious kids' shows, often low-budget and cheesy as hell. Or should that be "cheesy as Heaven"? There were also a few short segments with actual performers that maintained a bit of a narrative, if a really convoluted one. A preacher sang a song distilling his religion into two main concepts: Give me all your money and don't touch your weenie. Then there was a He-Man parody called New Testa-Man, where the He-Man analog was racist. The Skeletor character later went to recruit the preacher as a minion for Satan, who was portrayed as sort of an anteater with horns.

The night ended with a ritual sacrifice of videos of Jerry Maguire, sort of an ongoing theme with EIT. The Bell House has limited seating and we didn't show up that early, which meant standing for the whole thing. Must have been Satan's idea.

On Monday, I went out without Beth to the fourth and final night of Kim Boekbinder's residency on the Lower East Side. There were two openers, but I can't remember the name of the first, who did two songs. The second was pretty memorable, Miss Eaves, who introduced herself as really socially awkward, then rapped about masturbation.

Awkwardness manifests itself in many different ways, I suppose. Other numbers of hers were about enjoying food and being single (although, as she explained, she actually isn't at this point). Kim's set included different guest performers, including a cellist, horns, and burlesque dancers Jezebel Express and Cat.

She ended up doing a few songs twice, which I guess is inevitable when you use backing tracks for each one. After the show, she recognized that I'd been to all four this month and gave me one of the stage decorations, which she signed.

I think there are other people who'd been to all of them, but maybe I was the only one she didn't know personally. It was fairly convenient for me, since I work in the Financial District now. Still, there was quite a bit of time to kill between the end of the workday and doors for the concert. This week, I wasn't hungry, so I went to Nintendo NYC at Rockefeller Center, where I bought a T-shirt for Beth and a stuffed Koopa Paratroopa for myself. It seems like the store is cutting back somewhat on stock. I got Beth a purse there a few months ago, and they didn't appear to be there anymore. I want them to do well, because they're a fun store.

It's the beginning of February, so I suppose it's time to wish everyone a happy Candlemas/Imbolc/St.Brigid's/Groundhog's Day. I've written about this odd set of holidays in earlier posts, but essentially we're looking at a pagan Irish festival co-opted by the Christians. In honor of the patron saint of Ireland, I was sick all day yesterday. Wait, that's not related to St. Brigid at all. Oh, well. Anyway, I think I feel better now, and I don't have work today, which is always good.

I thought the most recent Simpsons episode, which I finally got around to watching last night, had an interesting premise. Jeremy Irons (or is that Jeremy's Iron?) provided the voice for Moe's bar rag, which narrated its experiences over the past thousand years. There was a bit of fantasy episode to this one, since it put familiar characters in historical settings, sort of like "Margical History Tour" or some of the Halloween segments. Bizarre, but interesting enough simply for the novelty, and some good historical jokes along the way. I felt that the subplot with Bart and Milhouse, while enjoyable enough, didn't really fit into this one. Since it never really tied in with the bar rag's story, I think it might have been better used in a different episode where it could have been less awkwardly incorporated. Oh, well. As for Family Guy, they did another more serious episode this time, which they seem to be doing quite a bit as of late. Doesn't it seem like they could space these out a bit more? As for the actual issue addressed, it always irritates me when people refuse to get medical treatment for their kids because of some religious reason. It hasn't occurred to you yet that prayer is remarkably ineffective? I wish Lois' speech at the end would actually convince some Christian Scientists in real life, but I really doubt it would.

Great, I'm being beset by trolls over on my WordPress. Look at the comments on this post, for example. Then there's this one, which is even more bizarre. At least Xmas Boy's comments relate to the posts, even if they're totally ridiculous. This Lynn person used a post about Chick Tracts to rant about radical Islam. What, does this mean stupid little comics are our last line of defense against Al Qaeda? The problem is, I'm bad at dealing with trolls, because I kind of encourage them. Instead of just leaving their comments alone, I figure I might be able to get them to see a different point of view, and if not at least an argument with them would be funny. And it IS somewhat funny in retrospect, but at the time it's rather stressful. Part of the problem is that, when they start making personal attacks, I begin to wonder if that really IS how people see me. I'm just too sensitive to being disliked, I suppose. Of course, there's no way to win with such people, which is what makes them trolls. There seems to be a sort of link between trolling and fundamentalism, and I don't even necessarily mean religious fundamentalism. About eight or nine years ago, I spent way more time than I should have arguing with some guy on an Oz e-mail list. To his credit, he was really quite enthusiastic about the topic. Despite this guy's proudly announcing he was an atheist, however, he had the same approach to the Oz books that Christian fundamentalists do to the Bible. His interpretation was the only right one, and certain quotes that he pulled out had to be taken entirely literally. It's so frustrating, because I WANT people to feel free to disagree with my posts. If you're not even open to any other views, however, why even bother commenting? Just to be annoying?

Okay, let's get off that topic for a little while, and turn to one that's less controversial, Nintendo cartoons! You know, because everyone agrees they're not very good.


King Scoopa Koopa - Oh, holy cannoli, it's a message episode. I don't mind when there are lessons in a show, but it really helps when they don't hit you over the head with them, like they do in this one. Bowser opens Scoopa Koopa's Fast Food, a restaurant that serves chickadactyl egg sandwiches (a chickadactyl, in case you couldn't guess, is a sort of a combination between a chicken and a pterodactyl, which appears only in this cartoon), papaya fries, and coconut shakes. Several dinosaurs work in the kitchen, with Dino-Rhinos doing the cooking. Not only is the food fattening and addictive, however, but the sandwiches slowly turn those who eat them into chickadactyls themselves. Since Mario doesn't like eggs and the Princess refuses to touch any of the food, they're both unaffected, and try to shut down the restaurant. The customers and employees give chase, with Mario and Peach having to use the Star Road to get away. Eventually, after an encounter with a Rip Van Fish, they end up in the cavern where Scoopa Koopa's dumps their garbage. Mario finds a Cape Feather, and uses its power to drive out King Koopa and his cooks. He then tells the cave people to go home and eat some vegetables. So there's your lesson, kids: fast food is bad for you, because it can turn you into a chicken. Too bad this was quite likely followed by a McDonald's commercial when it aired on television.

Battle of the Baseball Know-It-Alls - Hey, remember how insane it was when Larry Bird showed up in "In Pursuit of the Magic Hoop"? Well, here's another gratuitous appearance by a sports star, Bo Jackson, who had a Nintendo game around this time. Actually, Bo and the "Bo knows" catch phrase were all over the place when this show first aired. If I remember correctly, the show following this one was a cartoon called Pro Stars. I never watched it, but I know Bo was a character on there as well. I doubt he did his own voice in either show, though. Anyway, Bo is stuck into Captain N continuity as the captain of the Videoland All-Stars and an inhabitant of Baseball World, which is quite possibly the place where Princess Lana visits a Videoland version of Yankee Stadium back in "Mega Trouble for Megaland." Bo is playing a game against the N Team, and I actually mean the entire N Team for once in this season, although Lana and Game Boy are on the sidelines. This is also the only episode this season with Mother Brain making an appearance, and she looks even more off-model than the other characters.

Seriously, she doesn't even have her tentacles anymore. She and her goons rewire a warp to send Bo and the N Team inside Baseball World, where there's a cellar full of sentient and nasty baseball equipment that they have to fight. One point of interest in this rather stupid set-up is that Mega Man uses a buzzsaw to defeat some bats. I've always wondered if that was supposed to be the Metal Blade from Mega Man 2. Granted, it doesn't fly off in different directions, but it's probably close enough for this show. Meanwhile, Mother Brain takes control of the palace, and we get a somewhat amusing scene where King Hippo brushes his teeth with a toothbrush that he and Eggplant Wizard had been using to clean the floor. Lana manages to open a warp zone out of the Baseball World cellar, but since it leads from the bottom of a gulf to the ceiling of the palace, she tricks the Brain's henchmen into making a giant cake for the N Team to land on. Mother Brain, King Hippo, and Eggplant Wizard end up inside Baseball World, and that's the last we see of them. No, seriously. I have to suspect they escaped eventually, because it would have been pretty lame for that to be the ultimate fate of the show's main villains, but we never see this. I'm not sure why the makers of these cartoons were so adverse to season finalés, but there you go. Anyway, while the last thing this season needed was ANOTHER episode based on a sports game, I think the writers made more of an effort with this one than with the basketball one. Also, the presence of Mother Brain was a plus.

It's been another uneventful week. bethje is back at work, but I still haven't managed to find another job. I've also been sleeping a whole lot. Does updating my list of characters from apocryphal Oz stories count for anything? Probably not, but maybe someone would be interested in seeing it. I'd have to fix it up before sharing it, though; it's currently in a very messy state due to uncertainty about exactly how to present it. I also finished reading The Pilgrim's Progress in the Project Gutenberg edition. I'm not going to do a full review of it, but I will mention that it came off as somewhat mean. Whenever Christian comes across somebody with a character flaw (which we can always spot because the flaws are usually their names; this apparently predates the invention of subtlety), his reaction is basically to tell them to shut up and go away. Is that appropriate Christian behavior? Oh, well. It's still worth a read, if only for its historical significance.


Now for my TV comments:
Penn & Teller's Bullshit!: Old People - A more light-hearted episode than some, focused on debunking myths about senior citizens. Since I don't know that there are too many people who actually think someone becomes a bad driver once they hit the age of seventy, it kind of seemed like they could have come up with a better concept, but whatever. I think my favorite part was the guy with the zonked-out expression who kept bad-mouthing old people. I mean, he COULDN'T have been serious, right?


Futurama: That Darn Katz! - I think it suffered a bit from lack of originality. Sure, it was funny, but haven't we seen the "cats are intelligent but evil" idea enough already? I mean, as a cat lover, I can say that there's certainly some truth to the idea (although in our household in particular, the dogs seem to be more bloodthirsty than the cats), but still, not much new this time. It's odd that they picked this episode to feature what could be significant developments for two characters: Amy getting her doctorate and Nibbler tiring of his undercover cuteness. I really don't know whether anything will come of either one, but I'm glad they're not keeping the characters TOTALLY static, especially after ten years are supposed to have passed since the first season.

Well, today (although I guess it was technically yesterday at this point), I took bethje and her mom and uncle down to Maryland to attend Beth's cousin Patti's baby's christening. (That sounds kind of convoluted, doesn't it?) Aside from Patti's parents and one of her sisters, we were the only ones from her side of the family who showed up, and Beth's mom and uncle wouldn't have even gone if I hadn't driven. Apparently my in-laws think driving to Cecil County is comparable to driving to Sicily. Anyway, there isn't much to say about the christening itself. We ended up attending the entire church service, and being a spawn of Satan, I feel uncomfortable at such places. No, seriously, I never really minded church that much, except when you're supposed to talk to other people in the congregation. It helped that two pews ahead were two little girls, one of whom was coloring and eating Cheerios with a hair comb, while the other was writing her Christmas list. She's giving Santa an entire half year to prepare, I suppose. Anyway, they had a reception after the service. They had food and stuff, but all I had was lemonade. I took a few pictures, but not very many, and I'll probably just put them up when I have more stuff to upload. Here's a picture of Beth's mom and baby Gabrielle that I didn't take.


After leaving, we ate at the Elmer Diner back in New Jersey, which I thought was pretty good. We were going to go to a place called Richman's where we'd been about ten years previously, but it had apparently closed since then. Man, does nothing last anymore? Mind you, that WAS the only time we went there. About all I remember is that they had a really long dessert menu. And tonight, after a nap, Beth and I watched the rest of the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. That's about it, really.

Today is the first Thursday in May, which makes it the National Day of Prayer. I can't say I've ever really been into the prayer thing, but hey, to each his or her own. I've seen it suggested that prayer is really a way for people to work through things and build themselves up to face challenges. It's sort of like what I suggested in this post about how belief in God can sometimes inspire people to take matters into their own hands. That only applies in certain situations, though. Praying for success in battle is one thing, and praying for the enemy to turn into little black ants quite another. An all-powerful deity SHOULD be able to turn the enemy into ants, but I'd say the chances of it happening are basically nil, unless you have access to an Infinite Improbability Drive. And when people say, "I'll pray for you" in response to a disagreement, that's really just a smug way to get in the last word without having any actual argument. It's like, "You may THINK you've won this argument, but GOD is on my side!" Yeah, what makes you so sure?

( Our Father, who art behind this cut, hallowed by Thy name. )

If you believe in prayer, go ahead and do it. Hey, you're not hurting anybody, and maybe the joke will be on the skeptics when it actually comes true. But remember that prayer isn't a substitution for thought and action, and that you can't force others to share your religious convictions.

When I posted about the mother of Jesus a few months ago, I mentioned how the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are determined to view Mary as a perpetual virgin, despite the fact that Jesus is mentioned as having siblings. Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 list Jesus' brothers as being named James, Joses, Simon, and Judas. Mark also mentions an unspecified number of sisters, but the use of the plural suggests at least two. Not much is known about most of these siblings, but James was a very important figure in the development of Christianity. This page, which I stumbled upon when searching for information on Pascal's Wager a few years ago, gives some background on "the brother of the Lord" and the manner in which the Church minimized his role. Why would they do that? Well, it seems to be the case that James was at odds with Paul on how to run the Church, with the former favoring Christianity (not that it was called that at the time) remaining a distinctly Jewish sect. For various reasons, Paul's teachings became the basis of orthodox belief. So while the theologians couldn't ignore James entirely, they could use various means to make him seem less important. The evidence we have suggests, however, that the cult of Jesus was originally a family affair. The Church historian Eusebius quoted the chronicler Hegesippus as mentioning that Symeon, first cousin of Jesus and James, became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem after James's death.


The interesting thing is that there are a few references in the Gospels to Jesus' immediate family thinking he's crazy when he starts with his preaching and healing, and Jesus responding to that by insisting that his followers are his REAL family. It's never explained how James, at least, came around to believing that his big brother was the Messiah. This tradition does cast even more doubt on the nativity story than there already is, however. I mean, don't you think Mary would have remembered all the fanfare with which Jesus was born? I can just imagine how that would have played out:

James: Mom, why does our brother think he's the Messiah?
Mary: Well, I was still a virgin when he was born, an angel came to me to announce his conception, more angels showed up to celebrate after he was born, some astrologers followed a star to visit him and give him expensive gifts, and King Herod tried to have him killed when he was still a baby.
James: Oh.

No, most likely it was something else that resulted in the conversion of James, and possibly other relatives as well. For all we know, James could have just thought, "Hey, if my big brother wants to be the Messiah, let him! It's not like our family is going to achieve fame any other way." Maybe they were angry at him in the first place because he'd abandoned the family carpentry business and chosen a career path that made him a poor wanderer, only to change their minds when he began to achieve success. Who knows?

While I'm on the subject of Jesus' family, I just recently learned of an odd tradition from the early Church that Jesus had a twin brother. He's referred to in documents discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt as "Judas Thomas." He presumably would be the same Judas mentioned in Matthew and Mark, and I believe there are even traditions linking him to the apostle "Doubting" Thomas. From what I've read, Thomas wasn't actually a name at this point, but simply the Aramaic for "twin" (the Greek equivalent is "Didymos," which is also used to refer to Thomas in the Bible), so we don't really know the doubting apostle's name, just that he had a twin brother. The thing I don't get is that, if the people who wrote about Judas Thomas believed the nativity story as it's presented in the Gospels, what did they think happened? Jesus was born and placed in the manger, the angels started singing, and then the midwife said, "Hey, there's another one!"? Seems like a quite significant detail to leave out. But then, I think the stories of Jesus' twin brother were Gnostic, and I don't know if the Gnostics placed much importance on the virgin birth. Since the apostle Thomas is credited with spreading the Gospel in India, the identical twin is also said to have preached there.

If you read through the Bible, you'll notice a constant theme of people predicting the end of the world as we know it, or at least a huge supernatural event. In the parts of Isaiah that probably weren't actually written by Isaiah, the author predicts the total destruction of Babylon and Edom, and the exaltation of the Jews. While the Jews were allowed to return to Judea and reinstate the full practice of their religion after the Persians conquered Babylon, the city wasn't destroyed. It was maintained by the Persians as a regional capital, and it remained a significant cultural center until the battles between Alexander the Great's successors resulted in its decline. As for Edom, it remained until the time of the Jewish Wars in the early AD years, and the area is still inhabited. I believe most of it is now part of the Kingdom of Jordan. And while the Jews were restored and granted considerably more freedom than they had been by the Assyrians or Babylonians, they remained part of a larger empire, and I haven't heard of Judaism really spreading much in those days.


While purported to take place in the time of the Babylonian captivity, scholars now regard the Book of Daniel as having been written in the time of the Greek occupation, and to deal with that time period. In several dreams involving beasts and angels, Daniel learns that the Archangel Michael will eventually overthrow the Greeks, and that "one like a son of man" will rule over the entire world. Also, the resurrection of the dead will happen around the same time. Parts of the once-popular apocryphal Book of Enoch were also believed to have been written around this time, and they deal more directly with the "one like a son of man," identifying this figure as Enoch himself having returned to Earth. Once again, the Jews did eventually achieve victory over the Greeks, and I'm sure the common belief among the faithful was that God had helped them in their struggle. While I personally find it unnecessary to credit anything that can be explained in a natural manner to a supernatural power, others might well see this as the very point of religion. Even if God doesn't directly intervene in human affairs, the stories told about Him can inspire people to do great things on their own. I'm meeting you halfway, theists! {g}


The New Testament has its own apocalyptic book in Revelation, and we see the same themes at work again. This time the foreign power to be overthrown is Rome, although John of Patmos refers to it in code as "Babylon." Indeed, there's a lot of material there borrowed from Old Testament apocalyptic prophecies. The beasts of Daniel are back in slightly modified forms, Michael is fighting for the faithful again, and the Son of Man shows up. Only this time, since the work is Christian (albeit dating to a time when Christians still considered themselves to be Jews), he's specifically said to be Jesus on his triumphal return to Earth. And in this case, the book was pretty far off from what actually happened. A Jewish revolt was put down by the Romans, and the Jews scattered throughout the world. Christianity continued to develop, but in a form with less direct Jewish influence. The Roman Empire thrived for some time, and eventually Christianity became its official religion. I don't think John would have seen that twist coming. Some took this as a sign that the millennial kingdom had already arrived (despite the fact that things still weren't all that great, and indeed European civilization entered a period of gradual decline), while many centuries later the Protestants would regard the Catholic Church as the new Roman Empire to be overthrown by Jesus.


As we can see, pretty much every major struggle in the Bible is thought to be a sign of the coming of the Messianic Age, and every time the prophets have been wrong. As usual, though, this doesn't bother the faithful, who just insist that the prophecies are actually dealing with something else that hasn't happened yet. The predictions about the Greeks were reinterpreted during the Roman era, and I hear plenty of people today holding to an end times scenario that's made up of components of Revelation, Daniel, and several other sources. Most of it, however, isn't really in the Bible at all. Someone came up with the Rapture and the Antichrist as possible interpretations of certain passages, and now it's hard to find a Christian apocalyptic scenario that doesn't include them, despite there being no specific references to them in the scriptures. And these prophecies always relate to things that are happening today. I can't help but think that John of Patmos would have been pissed off if he'd known that the stuff he was writing about wouldn't actually come true for another 2000 years. But anyway, apparently the people of all these earlier eras were wrong about WHEN the great Day of the Lord would occur, but they were correct in thinking it would happen. I can't predict the future, but I can't help finding a pattern here, and thinking that today's apocalypse-mongers aren't bothering to take into account that people have been predicting the end of the world for ages now, and it's never happened. And if it ever does, it will probably be due to an explainable phenomenon (if nothing else, then the Sun becoming a red giant in another few billion years, although I doubt humanity will still be around then), not to the Messiah and the angels arriving to do some supernatural damage.

Today, I once again heard someone complaining that we shouldn't be treating terrorists like "common criminals," this time with regards to trying them in civilian courts. Putting in the word "common" seems like a trick to make it sound silly, like, "You can't prosecute terrorists the same way you do some bozo who holds up a liquor store!" Aren't there plenty of UNcommon criminals who go through the same justice system, though? Really, I'm not sure that way of thinking has to do with justice so much as it does vengeance. It's like how some of the same people insist that torture works, despite all the evidence that what you usually get when you waterboard someone is whatever you want to hear. I don't know that it's even about torture working, but about thinking terror suspects need to suffer. And while I can understand this desire, it's not really supposed to be how our justice system works, is it? Sure, there's often a punitive component, but isn't it primarily about protecting the innocent? And what if some of these suspects turn out not to be guilty? I'm not sure that even matters so much to the vengeance-obsessed, just so long as someone who could possibly be guilty gets hurt. Hey, go to war with a country that has nothing to do with what you're trying to avenge, and Congress will be hunky-dory with it (but NOT with minor changes to the health care system; THAT'S a huge deal). But even in a just war, there's a lot of fighting that doesn't actually involve anyone with any power to do anything, but simply people who happen to live in the same country. Just because the war itself is for a good cause doesn't mean everything done within that war furthers the cause.

You know, as much as I hate warmongers blathering on about Jesus as if he would be on THEIR side, there's a certain connection to Christianity in there. Not to anything Jesus himself taught, mind you, but to the idea of Jesus dying for the sins of humanity. HE didn't commit those sins (in fact, many Christians insist he was sinless), but his dying somehow still satisfied God. I'm not even going to get into the Trinity issue here, as that isn't what this post is about. Rather, how can it be considered just for someone who DIDN'T do anything to be killed, and how does this atone for what anyone else did? It just seems like kind of a similar idea. As long as people's bloodlust is satisfied, it isn't that important to know what actually happened and who really did it.