Education

 

The topic of 'Education' has been popping up in conversation recently, and it got me to thinking — always a dangerous situation.  One of those conversations centered around my time at St. Augustine Diocesan High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., a Catholic school for boys.

My spouse is a Protestant, and so we have distinct differences as regards religion and The Bible.  For one thing, Protestants revere The Bible and study it methodically; Catholics, not so much.  With regard to the Old Testament, Catholics, as a general rule, learn about Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, The Exodus from Egypt, the Ten Commandments, and other 'high points', but largely ignore the pieces between.

...As a general rule...

At a Catholic High School for boys (or for girls, for that matter) 'Religion' is a required subject, and typically focuses on Catholic doctrine and dogma.  At St. Augustine, whether by accident or design, my freshman Religion instructor was Brother Robert FSC, and Br. Robert taught a very different sort of class.  He focused on "Biblical exegesis", the extraction of meaning from the text.  He taught, for instance, that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, but that 'swallowed by a whale' did not mean what the literal words signify.  Today, we would say that Jonah got himself into a jam, and those words don't mean what they seem to imply, either.  Another lesson was on "Belshazar's Feast".

In the Book of Daniel, there is a scene (at the feast) where a ghostly finger appears and begins writing Hebrew characters on the wall (from which we get the phrase 'the handwriting on the wall').  Belshazar calls in his wise men and wants to know what the finger wrote.  They are stumped because, even though they can read Hebrew, the words don't seem to make sense.  The words were "Mene, mene, tekkel, upharsin".  "Tekkel" (or shekel) is a coin and a weight, and only the context can tell you which one is meant.  "Mene" is also a coin, half a shekel, and is sometimes used as a token in counting games (unless there's another 'mene' that isn't a coin).  "Upharsin" has a rainbow of meanings, and interpretation is a bear because Hebrew doesn't have vowels, so depending on which vowel-ish things one chooses when pronouncing the words and where they get inserted among the consonants, "upharsin" can mean "divide", or "Persian", and a few other things.

Daniel, a Hebrew slave at Belshazar's court, is called in and given a shot at explaining the handwriting on the wall.  Daniel looks and shortly tells Belshazar "It says: (mene mene) your days are numbered, (tekkel) you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting, (upharsin) your kingdom will be divided and given to the Medes and the Persians."  Naturally, all this comes to pass and Belshazar gets what's coming to him.

Sometime back, wife invited me to a Bible Study because the topic was "The Book of Daniel", and I got to explain to a roomful of Biblically-well-read folk why Daniel said what he said.  They were suitably impressed that a Catholic knew all that.

People constantly hit me with "How do you know all this stuff?"  That's easy...  I got a really good education.

 

'Less' vs 'Fewer'

 

English is a marvelous language.  It's said to be a bear to learn for E2L students because it has so many little quirks, but those quirks also make it deliciously precise.  It's that built-in precision that — in most cases — allows a native speaker of English to understand a foreigner even when they make the sort of mistake that non-native speakers might make.

For native speakers, there's no excuse for not exercising the precision our native tongue grants us.

Lately, I've been noticing — especially in TV advertising — instances where 'less' and 'fewer' are being misused.  The classic example is seen at the supermarket check-out line: "10 items or less", which is wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong.

The easy-to-remember rule-of-thumb is that 'fewer' is always associated with a plural object: (e.g.) fewer dollars, fewer children; 'less' is always associated with a singular object: (e.g.) less wealth.  Alternatively, you can say that 'fewer' is digital (or discrete) and 'less' is analog (or continuous); if you can have 2 or 3 but not 2.5, 'fewer'.  Fewer dollars means less wealth; 10 items or fewer; less waiting time means fewer minutes spent on 'hold'.  Easy-peasy.

 

It's 10:15. Do you know where your debate opponent is?

 

I said from the start that this CNN 'Debate' was Trump's to lose.  I hate being right.

Trump should have been on offense, but played defense every chance he got.

Dear Donald, nobody gives a shit how right you were.  You evaded every question thrown at you because you couldn't resist the urge to snipe at your opponent.  Would you support a two-state solution to the current crisis in the Middle East?  My opponent has opened the border to millions of illegal immigrants... 

What can be done to reduce the horrendous cost of childcare for working mothers?  My opponent coddles illegal immigrants while our own veterans are sleeping on the streets...

Yes, Biden was obviously giving off senile vibes.  Put forward your own policy positions (if such actually exist) and make Biden respond to them.

Yes, this 'debate' was Trump's to lose, and he did not disappoint.

 

Meanwhile, back at the trial...

 

Meanwhile, back in lower Manhattan, Judge Juan Merchan has apparently instructed the jury in the Felonious Lying Check Stubs Trial that they can effectively make up any excuse they want for finding Trump guilty.  It's now a virtual certainty that Trump will be a 'convicted felon' by the end of the week.

What then?  Immediately, Merchan will order Trump jailed, likely at Rikers Island.  That same evening, Biden will be awakened and hopped up on enough drugs to keep him cogent, and he will announce that, because a jailed ex-President is such a disgrace to the nation, Trump's Secret Service protection is revoked.  Who ever heard of a jailed felon having resident bodyguards? The announcement may already be 'in the can' and just waiting for the right moment to be played.

Overnight, some lifer at Rikers will slip a sharp piece of cutlery into Trump's kidneys, and the Democrats' distress over their lousy poll numbers will magically evaporate.  Before a higher court can overturn the guilty verdict (on any of the several dozen reversible errors Merchan has gleefully made), the issue will have become moot.

MSNBC and CNN anchors will put on their surprised faces.  Who could possibly have seen that coming?

Problem solved.

 

Sunk By Their Own Torpedo

 

Today is the last day a governor might replace a House Representative who resigns.  Coincidentally, one Republican Congressman has announced that he will resign on April 19th, tomorrow.  As of that point, the makeup of the House will be 217 Republicans and 213 Democrats.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has already threatened to introduce a motion to vacate the chair, and Thomas Massie has indicated that he will support a move to bump Mike Johnson out of the Speakership.  Let's assume the Republicans have a death-wish and will carry that plan through.

If Johnson is removed as Speaker, the Democrats will nominate Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker.  Only three never-Trump Republicans are needed to hand the gavel to Jeffries on a 216-214 split; all the Democrats will support Jeffries, and all three branches will then be controlled by a single party.

The first order of business for the new Speaker will be to pass a very short bill declaring that Donald Trump committed insurrection on January 6th, 2021.  The Democrat-controlled Senate will pass that bill the same day, and it will be rushed over to 1600 Pennsylvania where a Presidential aide will shake Biden awake and say "Joe, wake up; sign this."

Suddenly, as with the stroke of a pen, it will become a non-starter for the Republicans to nominate Trump as their Presidential candidate since he will be unable to assume that office even if elected.  By 2028, Trump will be too old to be a viable candidate.  His political career will be over.  Nikki Haley will be the Republican nominee, and it won't matter who wins because the end product is the same.

Yes, of course, such a move by the Democrats will be overturned by SCOTUS since it denied Trump the due process the Constitution demands, but by then it will be 'all over but the shouting'.

Are the Republicans stupid enough to score an own-goal?  Alas, it appears the answer is 'yes'.

 

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

 

Mike Vanderboegh, may his soul be at rest, often remarked that the Roman Empire fell, among other reasons, because they could not satisfactorily answer one critical question: (in Latin) Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?;  (in English) Who will guard the guards?  If the American Empire falls, it will be for the same reason.  It may, in fact, be true that every empire falls in the same way.

We are watching the installation of an undeniable two-tier justice system eerily reminiscent of countries we justifiably sneer at as "banana republics":  if you are allied with the right people, you will be punished lightly or not at all for any transgressions;  if you are allied with the wrong people, no sin is too slight to warrant draconian punishment even, or especially, if there was no identifiable 'sin' at all.  The latest example, only one of dozens or hundreds, is the imposition of a monumental fine for engaging in typical, normal business practices.  I refer, of course, to the $454 million fine (including interest) levied against Donald Trump for fraudulent business dealings — for which the State was unable to identify a single person who claimed to have been defrauded.

That fine is the largest fine imposed on an individual in all of recorded history.  Yes, corporations have been fined greater amounts, but they are corporations, often with assets that dwarf even the Trump organization, and certainly larger by orders of magnitude than anything Donald Trump ever claimed.  As a result, Trump is unable to find a bonding company that will issue a bond for it, and New York State law is that one may not appeal a verdict without posting a bond for the full amount of the judgement.  Trump will be forced to pay the judgement in cash and hope to have the fine reduced on appeal.

Anyone who hasn't already said to themselves "Wow, that sure doesn't sound like 'justice' is probably named Letitia James or Arthur Engoron.  NYS Governor Kathy Hochul has already made a public service announcement in which she assured all the movers-and-shakers doing business in New York that they have nothing to worry about unless they're named 'Trump'.

In fact, it appears Trump has acquired the proper amount of cash and is preparing to pay the fine preparatory to an appeal.  The outcome of that appeal is in doubt because it's the New York State Court of Appeals, after which the next stop is the New York State Supreme Court before a final appeal can be made to the United States Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Kevin O'Leary and several other investment brokers have all halted — full stop — all investment into anything in the state.  Unless a more rational court puts a stop to this embarrassment, Judge Arthur Engoron and NYS AG Letitia James have just strangled their employer.

 

What is an American?

 

On MSNBC recently, a Politico reporter named Heidi Przybyla, talking about "Christian Nationalists" said:

The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists... not Christians because Christian nationalists are very different... is that they believe that our rights as Americans and as all human beings do not come from any Earthly authority.  They don’t come from Congress, from the Supreme Court, they come from God.  The problem with that is that they are determining... men... are determining what God is telling them.

Now, of course, Heidi is entitled to her own opinions, but as Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan(D-NY) correctly pointed out, she is not entitled to her own facts, and the plain fact of the matter is that the Declaration of Independence is the cornerstone document of our polity.  Without it, we Americans would not have a "founding philosophy", and America's founding philosophy is this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,  that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,  that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men...

That is: our rights are ours from birth not by a grant from any earthly government, and that, in fact, government's sole purpose in life is to make sure those rights are 'secure'.  "But... from God?" you ask.  "What if I don't believe in God?"  Then your rights come to you from Nature or whichever metaphysical entity least offends your tender sensibilities... but they don't come from government.  Government is, by its language, presumed to come into existence after you have those rights.  It cannot, therefore, be the source of those rights.

I continue to hold the unshakeable belief that anyone who takes serious objection to the Declaration of Independence should not... in fact, cannot... call themselves "an American".