Book Review: Did Jesus Actually Exist? Who Cares?

Spoiler Alert! He probably did.

I recently finished two books, one after the other, about the historical (as opposed to theological) existence of the man we call Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is the historical man. Jesus Christ in the theological man. The two books, in chronological order (but in my reverse reading order), are Bart Ehrman’s “Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth“, and Reza Aslan’s more recent “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth“.  As you can surmise, both of these books explore the question of who the actual man named Jesus was, as opposed to the myths and religions we’ve created around him. In short, they attempt to analyze the latest historical scholarship about him, while regurgitating it for the layman. In the process they give their own considered opinion about exactly who Jesus was.

Societal Overhaul

“Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.”

Shakespeare ~ The Tempest

If it hasn’t become clear to most of you by now, it should have. We are in the middle of a blatant attempt by certain political elements  to completely and utterly overhaul society as it has existed for at least the last 100 years, if not longer. I call these elements by what they call themselves – Republicans. A little history is in order.

Repeal The 2nd Amendment

This one sentence has caused more trouble than it’s prevented.

I propose that it be repealed.

‘Twas the Day after Christmas…

I wrote this on the day after Christmas.

With apologies to Major Henry Livingston Jr. (1748-1828)
(previously believed to be Clement Clarke Moore).

‘Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the House
The leftovers were eaten, the fire was well doused.
The stockings had been stripped of their goodies and lost
While the pols at the Capitol dreamed of bribes of great cost.

I Get (Snail) Mail

Real mail. Snail mail. It was delivered by the Postal Service.

Recently I wrote a column and submitted it to my local paper. The paper actually printed it. I received a lot of responses, and some were actually written and delivered the old fashioned way.  I though I’d reproduce one of them here, along with my response to my fan ( a term I use loosely). I know, this is a cheap and easy way to get another post up on the blog, but I did write it, so why not?

God Approves of Abortion

Follow my logic here.

I drove by our local abortion clinic this morning, and the usual bevy of protestors with their graphic signs and posters of aborted fetuses were there, trying hard to shock the sensibilities of the drivers rushing to get to work. They’ve been doing this for years, and I’ve written about it before.

There was a new sign out front that said something to the effect that

Obama Supports the Killing of Babies

Obamacare,Taxes and Hatred

For my 500th post (yes, an auspicious post it is!) I’m going to reprint a piece of ignorance and vitriol I was involved with on Facebook, with the follow up comment I made. Some people seem to go out of their way to find fault with Obama, and his favored policies. They really have latched onto Obamacare with a certain amount of irrationality that bespeaks some un-articulated motivation. I can think of nothing that would cause such nonsense  other than pure and simple bigotry.

God and Government

This’ll be short (I think).

Paul Ryan has a complaint.

Paul Ryan wants the Obama administration to explain why the Democratic platform doesn’t include the word “God” in it.

Is he fucking serious?

“It’s not in keeping with our founding documents, our founding vision. I’d guess you’d have to ask the Obama administration why they purged all this language from their platform.”

The Authoritarians

If you’re like me, you have a hard time ingesting current news, especially on the political front. The polarization of America is, front and center, the most perplexing aspect of current political discourse. Take for instance this fixation on defeating Obama, making him a “one term President” as Mitch McConnell promised early in his administration, during a time of economic crisis when millions of people were losing their homes, their jobs, and their way of life, and Congress should have been working WITH the President, not against him.

Obamacare Upheld

Well, The Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act as constitutional, so we can all now proceed to the elections in November with a sigh of relief. Opinion here.

The Opinion was surprisingly written, for the most part, by Chief Justice Roberts, joined in various parts by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Breyer and Ginsburg (the latter of who wrote the concurring opinion. Roberts opinion said:

The Affordable Care Act is constitutional in part and unconstitutional in part. The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause. That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage in it. In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress’s power to tax.