Sunday/Wealth

Sunday/Wealth

Good news: One person had his prayers answered about the lottery.

In today's gospel, a man in the crowd asks Christ to tell his brother to share their father's inheritance with him. Christ says, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” He then talks about the folly of earthly riches.

But Christ must have laughed because He is the judge and arbitrator. And the question was not simply about money, it was about justice, which we all think of as an abstract universal value.

Christ's answer implies a lot. Wealth is of this world, a small, transitory spot of time and place in eternity. 

And, maybe, so is justice.

The Next Step

The Next Step

Renewable energy, despite decades of green-policy investment across at least the Western world, has barely made a dent in fossil-fuel use worldwide.

Coal use remains very high and nuclear undeveloped. An attack on the use of oil might make life difficult in the West, where it is essential, but unlikely to influence those less developed countries. Turning the energy off in the West will starve the West but not save the planet.

So, if this is an existential threat, what should be done to suppress the coal and oil users who are not making sacrifices? Are they a threat to the world? And, if so, is any aggressive action against them justified? If so, in such a crisis, what is not justified?

History Majors

  

History Majors

An article at The Scholar's Stage on History and Humanities as college study had this interesting bit:

From Brian Schmitt, “The History BA since the Great Recession,” Perspectives on History (26 November 2018)

In the 1960s, when history and English majors were among the most popular on campus, America was a very different place. This was an America where most kids memorized reams of poetry in school, where one third of the country turned on their television to watch a live broadcast of Richard III, and where listening to speeches on American history was a standard Independence Day activity. The most prominent public intellectuals of this America were people like Lionel Trilling (literary critic), Reinhold Niebuhr (theologian), and Richard Hofstader (historian). This was a world where the humanities mattered. So did humanities professors. They mattered in part, as traditionalists like to point out, because these professors were seen as the custodians of a cultural tradition to which most American intellectuals believed they were the heirs to. But they mattered for a more important reason—the reason intellectuals would care about that birthright in the first place.

Americans once believed, earnestly believed, that by studying the words of Milton and Dante, or by examining the history of republican Rome or 16th century England, one could learn important, even eternal, truths about human nature and human polities. Art, literature, and history were a privileged source of insight into human affairs. In consequence, those well versed in history and the other humanistic disciplines had immense authority in the public eye. The man of vaulting ambition studied the humanities.

Question 70

Question 70

When puzzling over the self-inflicted wounds of environmentalism, apparently self-destruction can be invigorating.
The Skoptsy emerged in 1772 in a plague period in Russia and practiced voluntary religious castration. They were wiped out during the Stalin purges in 1930. They were renowned as one of the wealthiest subsets in Europe. A strange but interesting paper investigated them trying to find the reason for their success and concluded that the high cost of entry created great loyalty and cooperation among them.

One can only imagine what happens when such people get the reins of a society.

If you are a true conservative — and I use the term not as Ted Cruz might, but in its literal sense, as in conserving what is of value in the modern world — then you should be obsessed with three threats to the most vital parts of our civilizational heritage, all of which are coming to the fore: war, pandemic and environmental catastrophe. These three events have frequently caused or contributed to the collapse or decline of great civilizations of the past. After being seriously weakened by pandemics and environmental problems, the Roman Empire was taken over by barbarian tribes. The Aztecs were conquered by the Spanish, who had superior weapons and also brought disease. The decline of the Mayans likely was rooted in water and deforestation problems.--cowen

On March 16 2020, Imperial College published its “Report 9” paper suggesting that failing to take action could overwhelm the NHS within weeks and result in hundreds of thousands of deaths. But the minutes now show that SPI-M did not believe the data were complete.
Bob Seely, the MP for the Isle of Wight, who has been critical of modeling throughout the pandemic, said: “The arguments for and against lockdown are complex, but what is becoming clear is that the evidence that the Government saw was incomplete and potentially inaccurate.
Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the center for evidence-based medicine (CEBM) at the University of Oxford, said: “This has always concerned me about the modeling. Throughout the two years, there has been a systematic error, consistent overestimation, and a tendency to go directly to the media with conclusions, without validation or peer review.

Proving the intent behind a criminal act is crucial. And no principle should prohibit ever making punishment proportional to the motive for a criminal act. However, deciding that an actor’s heinous behavior is made more heinous because they had a bad attitude is dangerous. It is one thing for the law to hold individuals responsible for controlling their minds, which presumably control their bodies. It is quite another thing for government to inventory an individual’s mind for the purpose of declaring how admirable the government’s mind is, and perhaps by doing so to improve the public’s mind.
This impulse melds with what C.S. Lewis called the remedial theory of punishment, whereby government detains offenders until they are cured, as determined by government’s “official straighteners.” Another totalitarian temptation.--Will

 

 

Questions 69

Questions 69

Biden has brought pressure against Russia's ability to borrow. Those restrictions have already been placed on U.S. banks regarding American oil projects.

It will take a while to bring oil production up to speed. Will we allow it? The logic is undeniable, the objections are a matter of Climate Faith. Oil has been the bad guy in politics and the press for a long time. It would take a real moment of humility for these people to allow oil to rescue us. And these people are not big on humility.

Al Gore is back, calling attention to himself. Is the fact he is starting a Green fund just a coincidence?

Seattle announced a $2 million plan Wednesday to address what Mayor Bruce Harrell described as a critical shortage of police officers in the city.
It includes recruitment bonuses, reimbursement for moving costs and possible tuition assistance.
The city has lost more than 400 police officers over the past 2 ½ years, which Harrell's office said has led to the point "where essential services cannot be delivered promptly and effectively."
The plan notes that, as of May, the number of trained and deployable officers in Seattle is at its lowest in more than three decades — just 954 — and that the department has been unable to meet annual recruiting goals in recent years.

Celebrities and climate ministers continue to enjoy their fabulous lifestyles in plain view, confident in the cardinal rule of all environmentalism: one’s own activities are always important enough to be exempt from any environmental limits. Only the other person should have to sacrifice.--MacDonald. 

Does this two-tier legal system sound familiar?

The Left and the Enemy:
During the winter of 2021, journalist Virginia Heffernan sheltered from COVID in her upstate New York getaway. After a heavy snow, she was astonished when her Trump-supporting neighbor plowed her driveway. One could conclude that her neighbor saw an unprepared individual in need and acted with decency and kindness.
In her opinion essay for the Los Angeles Times, Heffernan revealed her tribal thinking as she weighed whether to offer thanks to her neighbor. After alluding to the Nazi occupation of France and Hezbollah’s policy of giving out free things in Lebanon, Heffernan concluded she could not give her neighbor “absolution.” She wrote, “Free driveway work, as nice as it is, is just not the same currency as justice and truth.” --Brownstein

Monkeypox

 Monkeypox

The World Health Organization has activated its highest alert level for the growing monkeypox outbreak, declaring the virus a public health emergency of international concern.

More than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported across more than 70 countries so far this year, and the number of confirmed infections rose 77% from late June through early July, according to WHO data. Men who have sex with men are currently at highest risk of infection.

Europe is currently the global epicenter of the outbreak, reporting more than 80% of confirmed infections worldwide in 2022. The U.S. has reported more than 2,500 monkeypox cases so far across 44 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

In contrast to Covid-19, monkeypox is not a new virus. Scientists first discovered monkeypox in 1958 in captive monkeys used for research in Denmark, and confirmed the first case of a human infected with the virus in 1970 in the nation of Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Monkeypox is primarily spreading through skin-to-skin contact during sex. Men who have sex with men are at the highest risk right now, as the majority of transmission has occurred in the gay community. However, the WHO and the CDC have emphasized that anyone can catch monkeypox regardless of sexual orientation. Does this sound familiar?

Lewis, the WHO’s monkeypox expert, said 99% of cases reported outside Africa are among men and 98% of infections are among men who have sex with men, primarily those who have had multiple, recent anonymous or new sexual partners. The virus has been detected outside the gay community, but transmission has been low so far. The CDC confirmed monkeypox in two children on Friday.

The WHO and CDC have repeatedly warned against stigmatizing gay and bisexual men, while at the same time stressing the importance of communicating the reality of how the virus is currently spreading so people in communities at highest risk can take action to protect their health. Does this sound familiar?

Although monkeypox can spread through respiratory droplets, that method requires prolonged face-to-face interaction, according to the CDC. Health officials do not believe monkeypox is spreading through small aerosol particles like Covid. 

Monkeypox is in the same virus family as smallpox, though it causes milder disease.

Five deaths from the virus have been reported in Africa this year. No deaths have been reported outside Africa so far. Wait. What?

Sunday/The Seduction of Angels

Sunday/The Seduction of Angels

In those days, the LORD said: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out."

God as explorer? As learner? And the crime is extraordinary, the attempted seduction of angels.

In today's Old Testament reading, God goes on an expedition to learn about Sodom. Abraham negotiates with God over the future of Sodom. It is a wild story, funny and grim. God seems to be egging Abraham on, conceding moral points, finally settling on not destroying the city if ten good men could be found.

But only Lot is virtuous, his wife and two daughters. So God destroys Sodom.