Even ignoring the sheer offensiveness of it, I'm puzzling over the logic. So, if Israel hangs on to everything, that's the same as it being God's? And if it doesn't, then it's not? The government of Israel is God? That's... well... yeah. If so, then it can't really do wrong, can it? Q.E.D. (or, per Nilly, M.Sh.L.) I'm off to prove black is white, then.

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Most hard-line Christians seem more into the Old Testament than the New. The Old Testament God bore a lot more in common with Zeus and other petulant pagan gods than Jesus.

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I've always thought that, too. Not that God thinks that, but that Robertson people do. I believe that God, if God exists, takes the long view...it's one of the perks of being infinite.

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Fay thinks we do. She sees America as primarily a religious country, not unlike Egypt in that way, and distinct from England or France.

nods.

Yes. Yes, this is what I think. Definitely.

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it's one of the perks of being infinite.

If this were the Boxed Set thread, oh the funny predicaments we could get into. (There was recently a discussion of what happens if you're immortal and in a shipwreck, and have to walk your way out of the Marianas Trench.) Somehow, I think the godly among us would find that line of speculation kind of obnox, however.

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Pat Robertson. Ugh. He needs a big time come-to-Jesus meeting. A bunch of people took him to task personally and in the press during one of his more recent spews. It appears it didn't make a dent.

The thing that pisses me off is that newer Bible translations are often more true to the original language, while being more inclusive. The original texts weren't nearly as patricarchical as the KJV in a lot of cases.

Right. I don't know any Hebrew, or Greek, so I don't know how/where this applies specifically to biblical translation, but some languages use the male words as a default, when they mean a mixed group. I know you would translate the English word "parents" into "padres" in Spanish. Padre singular, is the word for father, and parents defaults to the plural of fathers. If I were talking about my mum and dad in Spanish, I would say padres, even though I didn't mean my fathers, and was very much including my mother. Similarly, if I were talking about my siblings in Spanish, I would say hermanos, which is both the plural of hermano (brother), even if I meant a group consisting of my brothers and sisters. A lot of times, a more inclusive translation is also a more accurate translation.

But if you can make either exist just like that (or they could both be existing at the very same time) I don't feel the same sort of loss as the desecration of something that can never be restored to its full glory. Or at least not quickly.

I understand what you mean, and agree, in all the big, important senses. I meant it only in very specific and immediate sense. It certainly doesn't have the long range consequences. I meant to draw a comparison only in the sense of changing an artist's work (and in tainting the experience of the people who are using the art as the artist created it, in their act of worship).

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have to walk your way out of the Marianas Trench

Or as the guy I heard interviewed on the radio the other day would say "the Marinara Trench".

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Similarly, if I were talking about my siblings in Spanish, I would say hermanos, which is both the plural of hermano (brother), even if I meant a group consisting of my brothers and sisters.

Of course, then I would not be able to fight the urge to add "The Devil has built a robot!"

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Jean Schmidt:

...we're at war...suspending the Constitution is sometimes necessary...if someone is going to attack us, we shoud know that and go after them...

[link]

Um... can we have a vote on the whole "suspeding the Constitution" thing?

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Timelies all!

There is not enough Shut The Fuck Up in the world for Pat Robertson.

Anyhow...tomorrow after work we head to the airport to fly to Atlanta for a filk convention. Yay!

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