o o o o o
Happy new year!
We know who boxing day is really for.
Sometimes it's worth the trip.
Welcome in the new year with a bang.
He kept his promise.
Bad pun-ishment here.
Cats offer new year's resolutions.
He attacks his enemies wherever he finds them.
When will she be released from this dreadful captivity?
Precision is required.
Slow down when it's icy, you idiots.
This is not mature behavior.
"I love the sound policy makes when I break it."
You probably can't do this.
Elon Musk just keeps beclowning himself.
This is Ireland in the 1930s.
This is Switzerland.
Some nice stained-glass windows here.
Check out Miss Ukraine's "Warrior of Light" costume.
The new Avatar movie has issues.
When is a the not a the?
Vagabond Scholar has posted the Jon Swift round-up for 2022 -- the best posts of the year from 30 blogs, as chosen by the bloggers.
This is probably the second most widely distributed animal species, after humans.
A new treatment shows promise against all variants of the covid virus.
We're learning more about how early life evolved to become more complex.
The James Webb telescope was one of 2022's major scientific achievements.
After four years of activity, the InSight Mars lander has finally ceased to function.
Facebook used fake data to trick users and advertisers into switching from text to video.
We've tried almost everything to recruit workers.
When a woman stops attracting male attention, it can come as a relief (found via Miss Cellania).
At Green Eagle's blog, He Who Zings Rats goes unmourned.
Finish out 2022 with a feel-good story.
I'm sure this is exactly what Jesus had in mind.
Images here from the recent North American snowstorm. More snow and ice here.
Yesterday's nightmare, today's reality.
You can't trust the Bible.
Stanford's Orwellian language policy provokes pushback.
If you didn't delete your Twitter account before December 24, you're probably screwed (but it's still worth deleting it now since further security breaches are inevitable).
Ignorance about religions other than one's own can stop you from realizing how silly the whole concept is (I posted about a related point here).
We once knew how to do affordable housing.
Worthy goal, terrible plan.
Don't believe every cute story you read on the internet.
Tip on credit scores here. January through April is the best time to act.
Self-defense tips here from a career police trainer.
The Bible provides no basis for condemning pedophilia.
Musk has canceled janitorial services at Twitter HQ, with predictable -- and smelly -- results.
It's extremely unlikely that Jesus existed.
This kind of "job" is just a scam.
Any university that doesn't defend free expression against religious taboo is a failure as a university.
Southwest Airlines handled the storm far worse than other airlines, largely due to under-investment in technology. Its response was to abuse its employees.
Cranks try to fake credibility by using scientific terms without having a clue about their actual meanings. Don't be fooled.
Google has a real problem with anti-Semitism.
Even some liberal Christians seem determined to misunderstand atheism.
Denver's transit system gave a male employee access to all women's showers, restrooms, etc and has threatened to fire any woman who objects or goes to the media.
It's not only railway workers -- thirty-three million US workers don't get paid sick time.
Technically we're in another covid wave, but hospitalizations and deaths remain much lower than in any previous wave, and are still concentrated among the unvaccinated.
There was a strong Christian nationalist element in the January 6 insurrection.
Even Kaiser Permanente performs Frankensteinian "gender" surgery on minors.
Airlines are lobbying for regulatory change that would make air travel far less safe.
Listen to those who know Islam best.
71% of US voters, including 58% of Republicans, feel confident in the integrity of the 2022 election -- far more than in 2020.
Cybercriminals are attacking hospitals, resulting in patient deaths. I can't think of a more deserving case for the death penalty.
Britain's National Health Service has its priorities.
In the UK, 2022 was a year of wins for the heroes of the gender wars. In the US, the tide will turn in 2023.
In France as elsewhere, life is getting back to normal.
Despite horrific destruction, the course of the Ukraine war so far gives reason for optimism about 2023.
A Russian volunteer in Ukraine gives a disgusted assessment of his country's war effort (this piece is surprisingly entertaining).
The story of Russia's sole aircraft carrier illustrates the gulf between the façade of Russian military power and the reality of technological incompetence.
To claim a World Cup win, a country doesn't need to participate -- or even to exist.
Saudi Arabia still has de facto slaves, millions of them.
This is religious justice.
India is proactively preparing for the spread of China's covid outbreak. Other countries would be wise to do the same.
India's religio-nationalist ruling party is pushing Hindi as a universal language for the whole country, provoking conflict with speakers of India's numerous other languages.
In Senegal, yet another cryptocurrency-based scam ignominiously comes to nothing.
More links at Fair and Unbalanced and WAHF.
My own posts this week: a defining failure of the Biden administration and the left, an image round-up, a video on jobs, and another on covid in China.
o o o o o
Some bloggers keep track of all the books they read in a year, and for 2022 I decided to do the same. I read 46 books total including 15 novels, 4 short-story collections, 14 history books, 6 science books, 2 books on religion, and 5 difficult to classify. I'm a little surprised it wasn't more, but that probably reflects the amount of time I spend on the internet these days.
Today marks thirty-one days since railway workers were robbed of their right to strike for paid sick leave. Issue the executive order, Biden!
[Image at top found via Reaganite Independent]
Happy New Year! Here’s to a fabulous 2023!
ReplyDeleteHappy new year!
ReplyDeleteGreat round-up to start the year with. Happy 2023 to you! Wishing you a great year ahead.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and happy 2023!
ReplyDeleteFrom your link to the religion is a mental illness site (It's extremely unlikely that Jesus existed.) I was somewhat amused by the comparison of Jesus with Neil Patrick Harris. I think comparing the real NPH with his character in "Harold and Kumar" misses a trick. A much better one would be real NPH with his character, Dougie Howser, MD. The real NPH is an actor and not some mid-teen kid who somehow qualified as a medical doctor. Dougie Howser was forever saving livees of the critically sick or injured via his medical skills. Perhaps the real NPH has saved lives in such circumstances but that would be by calling 911 (and maybe a bit of basic first aid).
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, by the same token I bet the acclaimed classically trained actor Sir Patrick Stewart knows a lot more about the plays of Shakespeare than he does about dilithium crystals (whatever they are meant to be) and I say that as more of a Trekkie than a fan of the Swan of Avon. (Don't let my mother know - she used to teach Eng Lit)!
It's the mark of a good actor to be able to play characters very different from him- or herself.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's possible that the Biblical figure of Jesus was partly based on one or more people who actually existed, but I see no reason to think so -- the Gospels have a lot of elements in common with typical mythology of the time. Even if there did exist a real person that Jesus was partly based on, we'll never know, and certainly won't ever be able to find out anything about that person -- who wouldn't have borne much resemblance to the figure of New Testament mythology anyway.
Seeing as Judaism at the time was undergoing crisis (Roman occupation etc) a lot of street corner ranters etc is only to be expected... "Life of Brian" is probably quite accurate in that sense. I'm actually prepared to believe one of them was called "Jesus" and sufficiently rocked the boat with the Jewish Rabbinical establishment that Pilate had him crucified to keep the Pax Romana. There is a ring of truth about that because it is just so political and in so many ways politics never really changes with utterly amoral compromises made for quite grubby reasons. T'was so in the case of Socrates (well before Christ) and it is to this day and at most points between. So, I do tend to believe in a "Jesus" of sorts I do take RiaMI's points that "Real Jesus" almost certainly in no significant sense resembled anything like the assorted (and varied) Gospel "Jesus". So, in that sense Jesus didn't exist.
ReplyDeleteMight I mention a theological/labour relations issue here. JC's best buds were fishermen, right? Jesus pulls off the feeding of the 5,000. Well, that's their trade fucked ain't? I mean if they have to toil all day in small skanky boat for a modest haul and this guy is magic-ing fish out of nothing? Demarcation! You stick to the eternal verities mate and leave the fish course to us, right?
PS. My wife has just told me Pete and Dud did a skit along those lines many years back. Ah, bugger!
I hope Jesus at least magicked up a few denarii out of thin air to compensate the fishermen.....
ReplyDelete