Quote of the Day (6/29/22)

"Christianity became the religion of empires the moment emperors realized that they could sin all they wanted all their lives and still have their sins washed away on their deathbeds."

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Birth of a Dream Weaver (2016)

More Pessimistic Stuff

 

• With the single exception of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden's foreign policy sucks. The U.S. continues to bend the knee to Israel and Saudi Arabia. This is much worse than I expected, but utterly disappointing.

• The endless and relentless advertising for sports betting on almost every single televised sporting event is disgusting. The fact that the on-air commentators are also plugging the "sports books" while the games are in progress makes it all the more disgusting. They'll do anything for money.

• Originalism: another word for "cherry picking history".

• Stop the bullshit about Roberts being some sort of moderate. He was groomed for exactly this.

Doesn't Matter

In this good piece in the NY Times, it once again becomes clear that Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli bullet. The problem is that even when things are reported truthfully, it doesn't matter.

Many media watchdogs like Jay Rosen and Dan Froomkin have been rightfully calling out the media for years for the faulty way they often frames things, hiding behind both-sideism and faux objectivity. These things helped give us Trump and, in early days, gave quasi-legitimacy to the Big Lie.

But the pessismistic side of me believes that in the end it doesn't matter. It's easy to see that Trump side of it. But it's been clearly demonstrated that both Saudi Arabia and Israel are somewhere between ho-hum and downright complicit in the murder of journalists, but the Foreign Policy Blob under Biden is no different than under Trump. Nothing in our foreign policy will change vis-a-vis these two countries, no matter what they do. Indeed, if anything, any criticism of Israel will be called anti-Semitism even more than before.

So, I hope that Rosen, Froomkin, and others keep up the good fight. But I fear that it doesn't matter.

Since I Haven't Posted in a While

Since I haven't posted in a while:

• Why did I leave the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) in two words? Ron Johnson. He represents everything the WELS has become.

• Most of what I learned in school about American history was a lie. The lies were so extensive that it's taken me 74 years to find out most of them, and I am still discovering more almost every day. I am embarrassed for myself that I allowed these lies to remain in my head for so long,

• I think all of the bad customer service experiences I have had in my life--and there have been scores of them--have involved private companies. There have probably been some involving some sort of government entity but I really can't think of one right now.

• If you don't like seeing homeless people, maybe you ought to support more housing.