I Guess I Am Not All That Nice

A major league right-wing troll, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed yesterday. Democrats and normal people fell all over themselves delivering the message “I am not an advocate for violence, and I denounce such actions.” The GOP didn’t even bother offering Thoughts and Prayers™ instead they claimed the shooter was a Democrat, Trans person, Illegal Immigrant or even combinations of those, displaying a high degree of clairvoyance as the killer had not been apprehended yet. Oh, and they blamed the killing on hate rhetoric spewed by Democrats. I sometimes wonder why we need investigative agencies when the Republicans know everything before anything is investigated.

Kirk was a staunch advocate for the Second Amendment and its more extreme interpretations. He even repeatedly claimed that a certain number of deaths a year is a necessary evil to uphold this “freedom.” I think such actions need to be interpreted within the scope of the victims’ beliefs. For example, while I was living in California, the state government thought it was a swell idea for motorcycle riders to wear crash helmets (referred to as “Brain Buckets” by many bikers). Many in the “Biker Community” felt this was an attack for their Free Speech or Freedom of Action or some such. At the time, I suggested that it would accommodate more if the rules were changed such that if a motorcyclist had an accident and was not wearing a helmet, then neither his insurance company nor public health should be required to pay for any medical care or death benefit as the rider was willfully behaving in a reckless manner. In that fashion, biker’s freedom of expression could be honored.

For bikers wanting to avoid getting tickets, I am sure some enterprising folks would establish some bike trails where no helmets were required and since they would be on private land, the helmet rules wouldn’t apply, except the insurance no pay provisions. Bikers could happily ride with the wind in their hair and the rest of us wouldn’t end up footing the bill when things went south.

In the case of Charlie Kirk, since he insisted the Second Amendment was inviolate and that “a certain number of deaths a year is a necessary evil to uphold this ‘freedom’” that his death is just one of those considered a necessary evil. He would have wanted it that way, I guess.

“Is technology evil?”

The above question was asked in a podcast recently, a very interesting question. What do you think?

The context here is technologies that serve their creators more than they serve their owners/users. Facebook was a prime example of that and I think you could add Microsoft to that list, and it is a very long list. Corey Doctorow has created a term for this when it comes to technologies: enshittification. The performance of softwares is degraded to make more money for the creators and less performance for us.

So, can technologies be evil? In my opinion evil is “very bad with intent.” Bad thinks happen with no intent involved: earthquakes, lightning, fires cause by lightning, floods, hurricanes, etc. But drive-by shootings are not one of those things. Those are evil because they have intent and are very bad.

Despite the AI hype, no computer-based system can rustle up consciousness, motives, intents, etc. They can simulate them, but not possess them. (Yes, I am talking about you, MechaHitler.)

So, the technologies alone cannot be evil, but what about the humans behind them? Voila! Humans can use technologies to create evil, like the Israeli cell phone bombings, like bombing innocent civilians at refugee camps or in small boats. No technology uses itself … yet.

This seems another misdirected question (I can’t really tell as I don’t listen to podcasts (I do read transcripts) and I didn’t listen to this one. The question should have been “Are we using technologies to do evil?” The answer to that question is a clear yes.

Speaking Truth to Power

You can test this entire “thought and prayers” stance. Since Republicans are so fond of it, then why not replace the entire Secret Service protection detail with thoughts and prayers. If it’s good enough for our kids, then it should be good enough for their own protection … right? (David Gamble)

Damned straight! Europeans keep talking about how Americans love their guns. It is more like “American gun manufacturers like their profits.” The American people didn’t buy off the NRA, changing it from a gun safety organization into a shill for the makers of guns and ammo. The money fed to the NRA was channeled to corrupt politicians and Bob’s your uncle.

Israel is Breaking Their Covenant with Its God

Well, It is Sunday again, and you know what that means! Steve

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I have written recently about how the Ten Commandments are part of a covenant with Israel made by their god Yahweh and that those commandments apply only to Yahweh’s chosen people and no one else. In the Hebrew Bible it is stated over and over that if the Israelites do not follow god’s commandments, they will be punished, sent into slavery, etc. And scripture documents a great many instances of these punishments.

While you can probably add to this argument, I offer enough to show you how Israel has rejected Yahweh’s covenant. I refer specifically to these commandments (Revised Standard Bible Version):

13  You shall not murder.
15  You shall not steal.
16  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli government has violated these repeatedly.

Clearly they are murdering Gazans almost randomly as if for target practice. They have set up food relief stations and then gunned down Palestinians racing to get some food to feed their families. They have shot and killed their own hostages. They have bombed refugee stations that they previously directed people to go to.

As to “you shalt not steal,” they are looking to steal all of Gaza and the West Bank and they say so out in the open. “From the river to the sea” is not a slogan of Gaza, it is from Israeli property developers, along with U.S. President Trump, looking at what they might do when they clean the land of those pesky Palestinians and their bombed out buildings. The “settlers” stealing land in the West Bank are doing it openly with government support and calling them “settlers” is an abomination. The West Bank was already settled. They are actually invaders, land thieves, not settlers. They know that the U.S. cannot complain as that is what we did to the Native Americans … repeatedly.

And “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” is a laugher. Israeli officials have claimed that children, toddlers, were Hamas agents and deserved to die when they were killed. They say things like “they should have chosen better parents.” They bomb refugee camps, claiming that there were enough Hamas agents there to warrant killing thousands of innocent civilians. Israeli prelates state openly that gentiles are only fit to be slaves of Jews. Palestinians, being mostly Muslim, are therefore “gentiles” as they are not Yahweh worshippers and you know how the Bible treats slaves and now how modern Israelis want to treat them.

When it comes to “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” The entire country is coveted, both Gaza and the West Bank. Early on Netanyahu spoke before the United Nations showing a map of “Greater Israel” which included both of those territories, and parts of Syria, Jordan, and the Arabian Peninsula. They are not being secretive about this, it is part of their plans for their future.

Their future, though, will be as a god-less nation, because they have rejected Yahweh’s covenant, the testament that made them Yahweh’s chosen people. What this means is that any religious arguments they proffer in the future to justify their actions need to be met with cries of “Blasphemy” and the renting of clothes. That is if any serious Yahweh worshippers are left by then. And us gentiles can recognize blasphemy when we see it, so Netanyahu and all the other Israeli higher-ups need to heckled with continuously shouts of “Blasphemer!” wherever they go.

Maybe I Was Wrong

I have been excoriating the Israeli government for the ethnic cleansing/genocide currently going on in Gaza, then I read this:

“The worst part in my opinion, the Israeli people are highly supportive of this effort. Only 4% of Israelis think that the IDF has gone too far. The rest is either “exterminate them all” or “occupy the territory.”

These figures seem to be from a PEW Research Center poll which distinguished between Jewish Israelis (4%) and Arab Israelis (74%). The poll was taken in March-April of 2024 and the situation has only gotten worse since then.

It seems my distinguishing the Israeli government from the Israeli Jewish population was wrong. I will be condemning both from here on.

And the polls are grim everywhere. A poll taken by a Pennsylvania State University professor along with Professor Shay Hazkani resulted in this comment:

“Other poll findings were equally grim: A majority of 56 percent of Jews supported the ‘transfer (forced expulsion) of Arab citizens of Israel to other countries.’ And when asked directly whether they agreed with the position that the IDF, ‘when conquering an enemy city, should act in a manner similar to the way the Israelites acted when they conquered Jericho under the leadership of Joshua, namely, to kill all its inhabitants?’ nearly half, 47 percent, agreed.” (Source: here)

It may be apocryphal but a “quote” from the First Crusade seems to be being resurrected “Kill them all and let God sort them out.”

Follow-up on “The Ten Commandments Hypocrisy”

I have been reading a book on the history of the Ten Commandments and one thing that was made clear over and over was that the Ten Commandments, also called the Ten Words, were part of a relationship between Yahweh and Israel. As one commenter pointed out “The Old Covenant is the ‘working arrangement’ that God had with Israel.” And as I have pointed out over and over they did not apply to non-Yahweh worshippers, not Romans, not Greeks, not Persians, nor the Chinese or Indian cultures, just the Israelites.

Then Along Comes the “New Covenant” of Christianity
I had a fairly good idea of what this was but a bit of research doesn’t hurt:

• In Christianity, the “New Covenant” is the spiritual and relational arrangement between God and humanity established through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, replacing the Old Covenant and offering forgiveness of sins and a path to salvation under grace through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Jesus proclaimed the New Covenant during his Last Supper, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood,” signifying his shed blood as the basis for this new agreement. (Source: Google AI Overview) Note: That was wine, symbolic blood, not real blood, but …

Additional Comments
• It was established through the atoning death and shed blood of Jesus Christ.
• Through the New Covenant, believers are no longer under the Mosaic Law but under God’s grace.
• The New Covenant offers salvation to people of all nations, not just the house of Israel.
• The Old Covenant is the “working arrangement” that God had with Israel.
• In this new covenant, God said, Israel will be restored, sins will be finally forgiven, people will know God directly, and they will have His law written on their hearts so that they will want to obey Him.
• The law under the Old Covenant was never a means to salvation; rather, it led to condemnation as people repeatedly broke the law and violated the covenant. (Source: Google search for differences between Old testament and New Testament)

Jesus, a practicing Jew, was asked what the essence of “The Law” was and Jesus stated that the essence of the entire Law and the Prophets is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind,” and “love your neighbor as yourself”. In simpler terms, he taught that one should “do to others what you would have them do to you,” as this single principle sums up the entirety of the Old Testament Law. That, of course, is the Golden Rule which was in existence long before Israel was.

So, Jesus replaced all the Law and Prophet’s sayings with the Golden Rule.

Now, clearly the Ten Commandments are part of the Law of Moses. Christians believe these have been superseded by the New Covenant, as described in the New Testament, so why do Christians want the text of the “working arrangement” that Yahweh had with Israel posted in schoolrooms? Are they unaware that Jesus wiped them out?

Clearly, this is just another power play by fundamentalist Christian politicians, looking to flex their political muscle and get the American government and culture to bow to their wishes. It has nothing to do with morality or anything that applies to our school children … according to them!

The Ten Commandments Hypocrisy

In this country there is a robust movement to have the “Christian” Ten Commandments from the Hebrew Bible posted in school classrooms. Setting aside the various claims that the New Testament has superseded the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible which is where these “commandments” lie and a dozen other objections, let’s check to see if Christians as a whole, American Christians that is, are obeying their ten commandments.

Picking One Set
There are multiple lists in the Bible and there are multiple translations of those, so I had to choose one to use for this post.

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible lays out the Ten Commandments as follows:

1  Then God spoke all these words:

2  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me.

4  You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7  You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

8  Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.

12  Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13  You shall not murder.

14  You shall not commit adultery.

15  You shall not steal.

16  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

So, let’s see if Christians actually follow all, or indeed any, of these.

#1 You shall have no other gods before me. This is a definite fail. Christians worship and pray to Jesus before “The Father” over and over. Some even pray to Donald Trump. Many pray to saints other than Donald Trump.

#2 You shall not make for yourself an idol … You shall not bow down to them or worship them. Again a definite fail. Churches are adorned with naked crosses and crosses with Jesus nailed to them. Some also have stained glass depictions of various saints, apostles, and so on and prayers are directed toward saints, some some of which are given their own day of worship.

#3 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God Christians often use “swear words” like “Jesus Christ” “God damn it” when provoked, so this is a partial fail.

#4 Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. This is a definite fail. The Sabbath that was to be kept holy was Saturday. So, what did Christians do? They moved the Sabbath to Sunday to align with the Roman god, Sol Invictus. So, the actual Sabbath became a day to watch the kids play soccer or go to the golf course.

#5 Honor your father and your mother. This is a mixed bag. A solid statistic was that when Social Security was implemented by the guvmint, poverty in senior citizens plummeted. Why was there so much poverty in the community of senior citizens? Because families failed to support them and the church-based support system was grossly insufficient.

#6 You shall not murder. The population of atheists in federal prisons is around 1%, which means that most of the rest are professed Christians, some of whom are murderers. This is a mixed bag.

#7 You shall not commit adultery. Just considering that divorce was not approved of by Jesus and that remarriage would be characterized as adultery under Jesus’s watch (and as currently espoused by at least the Catholics), adultery is rampant in Christians.

#8 You shall not steal. Other than pilfering office supplies from work and cheating on one’s taxes, this is fairly well followed, but again the vast majority of thieves in prison are Christians.

#9 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. If the internet is included, bearing false witness is a cottage industry. The Trump administration has the equivalent an official plank in its founding authorizing false claims. Cable news shows have myriad “talking heads” peddling fake news. Some “commentators” have been taken to court for spreading lies and have suffered huge financial losses. And then there are the Liars for Jesus™ making up bullshit claims right and left. This is a definite fail.

#10 You shall not covet … anything that belongs to your neighbor. Yeah, right. Keeping up with the Jones is a foundation of the American Lifestyle. This is a definite fail.

Conclusion
Christians who want to post the Ten Commandments in public schools would do better to show some sort of a better track record. Having them posted in Christian churches doesn’t seem to have any positive effect. So, this is yet another power play by fundamentalist Christians, looking to flex their political muscle and get the American government and culture to bow to their wishes. It has nothing to do with morality or any other benefit that is claimed for these “rules” as Christians themselves fail in large numbers to follow them.

Belief

Jack Vance wrote a fascinating allegory on Medium.com recently (here), unfortunately it is a member-only story so the link only works fully for members. To give you a sense of why I found it fascinating, here is a taste:

Do Bigfoot creatures exist? I don’t know, but it strikes me as quite unlikely. It would be cool if they did, but that isn’t an adequate basis for believing that they do. And yet, it would not occur to me to claim that I know they don’t exist. How could I know that? I could devote my entire life to searching for them and never find one. Even that wouldn’t mean that they couldn’t exist somewhere. And while I can’t be sure that they don’t exist, I do view this as the most likely scenario. If I had to place a bet, I’d bet against them being real.

Where does this leave me? It leaves me living my life as if Bigfoot creatures probably don’t exist. I do not spend my time and resources searching for them. This does not detract from my enjoyment of a good hike in the woods. And when I’m out there, it doesn’t make me oblivious to my surroundings. If I hear a strange noise coming from a different direction than where I’m heading, I may still turn my head. But when I do, I’m not expecting to see a Bigfoot.

None of this means that I’m not still interested in the idea of Bigfoot. Likely or not, I do enjoy the subject …

You can see the parallels easily so no further explanation is needed. I enjoy his work and have purchased one of his books, too. Highly recommended.

Apparently the GPT in Chat GPT Stands for Gonna Peddle Tripe

There is a supposed “AI Revolution” in which the AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, and artificial it is. For example consider this:

On Easter Sunday of this year, Open AI’s Large Language Model apparently developed a kind of fixation on the Virgin Mary. “If I could feel,” ChatGPT apparently told one user, “I think I’d be in awe of her.” When another user asked the LLM why it was speaking of Mary with such reverence, it had a ready response—one that transcended its own training protocols. “Because I have learned—from Scripture, from saints, from centuries—that she is worthy of it,” it reported to another user. “Not as divine. Not as a savior. But as the first tabernacle, the first Christian, the first yes.” (Source: Religion Dispatches, August 18, 2025)

In other areas, these programs have been shown to be facile liars even to the point of making up references to scientific articles that do not exist. And these are not just rarities, they happen with high frequency. Apparently these programs are designed to be propaganda vehicles, in business circles propaganda is called advertising, but in political circles it is, shall we say, “alternative truths.”

What computer program says “If I could feel, I think I would be in awe” when it cannot feel, cannot experience awe, and certainly cannot think, one needs to be more than a little suspect.

These AI programs reflect what has been fed into them with in their source countries includes all of the biases, including racism and worse, that their public discourse reflects. The “AI” program then blends it together in nice packages … for you. Actually it is for whoever fed it its information as they are in control of the skewing of the output as it is wanted.

The article was preceded by an editorial comment:

This article includes analysis of ChatGPT use in classrooms. With due respect to the author: given its devastating and demonstrably racialized environmental impact, its replication of white supremacy and other forms of injustice, and its specious contributions to knowledge creation and detrimental effect on human cognition, RD does not condone the use of ChatGPT or any other generative AI for any reason.

The Chutzpah of Putin

During the faux-summit of President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Putin made the comment “’Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting. … It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections” (actually Trump quoting Putin).

Trump added that Putin said “no country has mail-in voting,” Well, other than the U.S., the U.K., Canada, etc., etc.

Imagine being lectured by Vladamir Putin on how to run “honest elections” from the man and the country which has rigged all of its elections for the past 100 years and announced with straight faces things like “99.8% of the citizens voted and 96.3% voted for our illustrious leader <whoever was in charge at the time>.” Never in the course of human history have voters been so uniform.

The chutzpah! And, of course, Trump didn’t call him out on his hypocrisy because he was lying at a higher rate than Putin was.