Marius, on the Revolution and the Empire.
Les Miserables, Marius, Bk 3, ch 6.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Friday, September 2, 2016
Letter to the Romans
You cannot read 1:18-32 and much doubt Paul's creationism or his convictions that God's power and nature are evident in the world he has made and that polytheism - not even to speak of atheism - is "without excuse."
Nor that he regards homosexuality and lesbianism as horrible depravities worthy of death by God's own decree.
God hates fags, in other words.
In ch 2, it seems Paul writes rather like a works man.
He's not.
At 3:8 he states it as an evil maxim that one may do evil that good may come.
Is this the origin of what Christian ethicists call "the Pauline principle," "Thou shalt not do evil that good may come"?
It plays a role in Thomistic ethics that are really neither deontological nor teleological, connected to the Principle of Double Effect.
For Thomas, the natural law (the moral law) contains only one injunction: Do good; avoid evil.
So one must avoid causing pain, for example.
To cause pain would be to do evil rather than avoid it.
So can one administer a flu shot?
Enter the idea that the injunction concerns only what is intended, either as a means or an end, and not what is merely foreseen.
The pain of the injection is foreseen but not intended, as an end or as a means to something else.
So giving the injection is OK.
3:31 ff, Paul repeats Jesus' message that actual, personal sins are forgiven to those who have faith.
But we are also getting a bit of the idea of substitutionary atonement.
Jesus 4:25 who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification.
He's firm on this.
3:28 For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Later.
Later.
Jesus did not say these things in the gospels.
Again, note the apparent literalism regarding Genesis.
5:12,13. Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned -
13 for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
NRSV, NAB, NIV, or NLT.
Paul introduces so much that we did not see in the gospels.
Foreknowledge and predestination, for example, at 8:28-30.
Predestination for good or evil, predestination and desert, 9:14-24
How God chooses, says Paul.
10:9 for if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
That is not what Jesus asked of those whom he said were forgiven or saved.
Arguably, he asked no more than faith that he could really do miracles, raise the dead, cure ailments, and (or?) forgive sins.
Paul's theology is not quite Jesus's theology.
Krauthammer heard a different speech
The Only Immigration Solution
Or heard it a different way.
Turns out he's not the only one to hear it this way.
But eventually you have to let it go.
For all his incendiary language and clanging contradictions, Trump did exactly that in Phoenix on Wednesday.
His "deportation task force" will be hunting ... criminal aliens.
Isn't that the enforcement priority of President Obama, heretofore excoriated as the ultimate immigration patsy?
And what happens to the noncriminal illegal immigrants?
On that, Trump punted.
Their "appropriate disposition" will be considered "in several years when we have … ended illegal immigration for good."
Everyone knows what that means: One way or another, they will be allowed to stay.
Or heard it a different way.
Turns out he's not the only one to hear it this way.
But eventually you have to let it go.
For all his incendiary language and clanging contradictions, Trump did exactly that in Phoenix on Wednesday.
His "deportation task force" will be hunting ... criminal aliens.
Isn't that the enforcement priority of President Obama, heretofore excoriated as the ultimate immigration patsy?
And what happens to the noncriminal illegal immigrants?
On that, Trump punted.
Their "appropriate disposition" will be considered "in several years when we have … ended illegal immigration for good."
Everyone knows what that means: One way or another, they will be allowed to stay.
The beam in one's own eye
Josh Marshall rages against Donald Trump's hate speech, and defines the crime as he commits it.
Trump's Blood Libel & Press Failure
And rails against the press for not printing his hate speech, directed at Trump, in the news accounts of Trump's Mexico trip and his Arizona speech, yesterday.
Update, 9/4.
A regular feature at The Guardian is a story titled "The lies Trump told this week."
Acts
21:13, Paul refers to "the Lord Jesus."
V 30, in Jerusalem, because Paul is recognized and believed to preach heterodoxy, there are riots all over the city.
Another way of saying the Jews of that time were as fucked in the head as today's Muslims.
22:24-29. The commander questioning Paul says he is a Roman citizen and it "cost plenty" (v 28a).
Paul says he is a citizen "by birth" (28b).
Chapter 23, the Jews concoct an amazing plot to kill Paul.
Paul is held in custody by Felix, a Roman authority, for two years (24:27), who leaves him in jail when he is replaced by Festus.
25:11, Paul appeals from Festus to Caesar, the emperor.
By faith alone?
Yes and no.
26:20b Paul says he teaches "that all must repent of their sins and turn to God - and prove they have changed by the good things they do."
Forgiveness is for past sins.
If you sin no more, you are fine.
If you sin again you must ask forgiveness again.
You will have it.
Jesus in the gospels teaches there is no limit to how many times you can be forgiven, if you just ask.
Agrippa says Paul "could have been set free if he hadn't appealed to Caesar." (26:32)
Ch 28. Paul, en route by sea to Rome, is shipwrecked on Malta.
The last words of the chapter and book have Paul reminding us the Jews rejected the message but the Gentiles accepted it.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
And tuition assistance? Nope.
Georgetown Will Offer An Edge In Admissions To Descendants Of Slaves
Apparently, not all the slaves owned at any time by the school, but only those sold by the Jesuits to others because they needed the money to pay off the failing school's debts.
These applicants will be handled in the same way as "legacy students," "applicants whose family members attended Georgetown."
No particular tuition assistance is contemplated.
I would guess Georgetown is not cheap.
Odd approach.
The Jesuits owned plantations and owned slaves to provide the labor for them, and used the plantation earnings to support the school.
Apparently, not all the slaves owned at any time by the school, but only those sold by the Jesuits to others because they needed the money to pay off the failing school's debts.
These applicants will be handled in the same way as "legacy students," "applicants whose family members attended Georgetown."
No particular tuition assistance is contemplated.
I would guess Georgetown is not cheap.
Odd approach.
The Jesuits owned plantations and owned slaves to provide the labor for them, and used the plantation earnings to support the school.
Trump's immigration speech
Trump Makes Nice In Mexico, Talks Tougher Than Ever Just Hours Later In Phoenix
The trip to Mexico and the moderation in tone of the joint statements after the meeting were Conway's doing.
But Phoenix was pure Bannon.
[A]s night fell in Phoenix, back in the U.S.A., Trump mounted the stage in prime time and quickly caught fire.
He poured forth an hourlong harangue against all things alien, highlighting the lurid crimes of a handful of illegal immigrants as if to define the character of millions.
He also promised to build "a beautiful wall" across the entire U.S.-Mexico border and create a "deportation task force" that would eventually guarantee that "the bad ones are gone."
On the subject of the wall, Trump departed from his script to assure his listeners that Mexico would indeed pay for it — adding, "They may not know it yet, but they will."
In so doing, he as much as acknowledged that Peña Nieto had told him something different earlier in the day.
. . . .
At some point, Trump allowed, "we will bring back the good ones."
Trump offered some key points to guide immigration reform.
From that hourlong harangue:
The time has come for a new immigration commission to develop a new set of reforms to our legal immigration system in order to achieve the following goals:
The trip to Mexico and the moderation in tone of the joint statements after the meeting were Conway's doing.
But Phoenix was pure Bannon.
[A]s night fell in Phoenix, back in the U.S.A., Trump mounted the stage in prime time and quickly caught fire.
He poured forth an hourlong harangue against all things alien, highlighting the lurid crimes of a handful of illegal immigrants as if to define the character of millions.
He also promised to build "a beautiful wall" across the entire U.S.-Mexico border and create a "deportation task force" that would eventually guarantee that "the bad ones are gone."
On the subject of the wall, Trump departed from his script to assure his listeners that Mexico would indeed pay for it — adding, "They may not know it yet, but they will."
In so doing, he as much as acknowledged that Peña Nieto had told him something different earlier in the day.
. . . .
At some point, Trump allowed, "we will bring back the good ones."
[Illegals whose only crime is that they are here illegally will have to leave and "get in line" according to normal rules - that he aims to tighten and alter - of immigration.
According to the editors of the account of the hourlong harangue,
According to the State Department, there are currently 1.3 million Mexicans who are waiting in line for a visa. Only a small fraction have any realistic hope of seeing a visa anytime soon.]
But moments after making this concession to what he has called "being humane about it," Trump was filling the stage with the grieving parents of people killed by immigrants in the country illegally.
Trump offered some key points to guide immigration reform.
From that hourlong harangue:
The time has come for a new immigration commission to develop a new set of reforms to our legal immigration system in order to achieve the following goals:
- To keep immigration levels, measured by population share, within historical norms
- To select immigrants based on their likelihood of success in U.S. society, and their ability to be financially self-sufficient. We take anybody, come on in, just anybody. Not anymore. You know, folks, it's called a two-way street. It's a two-way street.
- We need a system that serves our needs, not the needs of others — remember, under a Trump administration it's called "America First."
- To choose immigrants based on merit, merit, skill and proficiency. Doesn't that sound nice?
- And to establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first. And that, in particular, African-American and Latino workers who are being shut out in this process so unfairly.
Look at that first point.
Ethnic quotas?
Crickets
It's 1:44 am and it's cooler outside than in.
Windows are open.
And it's the sound of cool night, late summer crickets.
North America is so beautiful.
Temperate North America.
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