Stuff I Need To Say March 16, 2008

First, it’s outrageous that North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas and UCLA earned the top seeds in the NCAA tournament. What rubbish! Duke and Tennessee should be two of the top four seeds. Outrageous!!!!!!!!!

Second, when people on Big Brother discuss the Bible it makes me want to pull my ears off and gouge my eyes out with a sharpened cattle prod. They must find the most ill-informed people on the planet to be on that show.

Third, Easter isn’t about bunnies and egg hunts. If you attend Church and you still don’t know this, you should drop out immediately and go to the lake or the mall or something. You’re just in the way.

Fourth, I wish David Ker lived near me. I think he would be totally fascinating to hang out with.

Fifth, Holy Week is my favorite week of the entire year.

Sixth, I hope David Archuleta wins American Idol. He’s tremendously talented.

Seventh, if I could choose any century in which to live, and be magically transported there, I’d choose the 16th Century, C.E. Of all those recorded, it’s the finest.

And Eighth, the best new show on TV is Dexter.  Grand fun that one!

That’s just some stuff I needed to say. We now return to our regular programming.

When You’re Rich It’s Easy To Be Upbeat March 16, 2008

You needn’t trouble yourself by having to choose to fill your tank with gas so you can get to work or your table with food so your family can eat or your prescription so you can stay alive. It’s easy for the extraordinarily well off not to care if the economy is tanking (read: has tanked). That’s why Paulson and Bush and the rest of the folk in high public office can stay bright and cheerful in the face of economic disaster.

CNN reports

The U.S. economy is going through a “tough patch,” Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Sunday, insisting that the proper steps were being made to turn things around. An upbeat Paulson refused to say whether he believes the economy is in a recession. “I’m not focused right now on what you call it,” he told CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.” “We know the economy has slowed down, and the American people know it’s slowed down. So the important thing is, what do you do about it?” A number of economists have said they believe the U.S. economy is already in a recession, which many economists define as two successive quarters of negative economic growth. A top Senate Democrat, Charles Schumer of New York, Sunday accused President Bush of having failed to act on the nation’s critical economic troubles in a way “reminiscent of Herbert Hoover” around the time of the Great Depression.

Ah, so it’s just a ‘tough patch’. That’s grand comfort to the millions of Americans without health insurance, those struggling to pay their mortgages, and those losing everything they have because of that teeny little ‘tough patch’.

But Paulson said the $170 billion economic stimulus plan President Bush signed last month “is going to make a real difference” starting in May, when the first electronic payments are to be made.

Right. $600 will sure turn a person’s life around. Heck, I can’t wait to get mine so I can buy a couple of tanks of gas and take the wife out to McDonalds for a Big Mac.

Though the country lost 85,000 jobs during the first two months of 2008, Paulson said those figures did not tell the whole story.

No- not even close. The whole story is that the once fiscally responsible Republican party has abandoned its roots and adopted a monetary policy that would make Adam Smith proud as punch. And Darwin too, since it’s nothing less than economic ’survival of the fittest’. The wealthy don’t have to worry about surviving. They’re thriving. Just ask Shell or BP or Exxon.

So I can understand why Paulson is upbeat and the President is too. They have it all. And they just keeping getting more. While the poor get less.

If Jeremiah or Isaiah or Amos were alive, there would be hell to pay. But since most ‘Preachers’ think the Republican Party is God’s own it’s not likely they will speak out against their economic policy.

The Ferrini Collection March 16, 2008

Joseph Lauer draws our attention to the selling off of Bruce Ferrini’s antiquities collection.

The assets were seized in late summer of 2005. Despite the quality of the goods, the major, mainstream auction houses shied away, and the sale is being conducted by the Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, with the actual items on view at Arte Primitivo Gallery in New York City. Online bidding has begun and will continue until the close of business Wednesday.

And of interest to those reading here, auction items include

-A batch of biblical artifacts that includes fragments from the Book of Exodus and the Letter of Paul to the Colossians. It also includes part of the controversial Gnostic manuscript known as the Gospel of Judas.

-A large marble Assyrian relief believed to have belonged to Alexander the Great;

- Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose display at the John S. Knight Center in 2004 devolved into a contentious public squabble, with court injunctions and lawsuits over missing money, unpaid bills, and claims of fraud.

Fascinating. Read the whole report.

UPDATE: The report in the Ohio paper is erroneous in suggesting that some DSS fragments and the Judas papyri are available. No DSS or Coptic (Judas) or LXX Exodus etc can be auctioned because all of that is still contested by two parties engaged in a suit against Ferrini. The auction items are viewable here.

The Pomegranate Loving Bullae Maker March 16, 2008

Robert Deutsch has sent along a couple more bullae- which he suggests may have been made by the same person who made the Netanyahu, Son of Ya’ash Seal. I’m not sure how this could be proven, if at all. But here they are along with drawings which may be a bit clearer than the artifacts themselves (and may not be re-used or posted without his express written permission). Click to enlarge:

I wonder- did seal makers ’sign’ their work with a particular symbol or representation? Now that makes me go hmmmm….

Holy Week: Thematic Passage 1 March 16, 2008

τουτο φρονειτε εν υμιν ο και εν χριστω ιησου ος εν μορφη θεου υπαρχων ουχ αρπαγμον ηγησατο το ειναι ισα θεω αλλα εαυτον εκενωσεν μορφην δουλου λαβων εν ομοιωματι ανθρωπων γενομενος και σχηματι ευρεθεις ως ανθρωπος εταπεινωσεν εαυτον γενομενος υπηκοος μεχρι θανατου θανατου δε σταυρου διο και ο θεος αυτον υπερυψωσεν και εχαρισατο αυτω το ονομα το υπερ παν ονομα ινα εν τω ονοματι ιησου παν γονυ καμψη επουρανιων και επιγειων και καταχθονιων και πασα γλωσσα εξομολογησηται οτι κυριος ιησους χριστος εις δοξαν θεου πατρος

Paul- to the Philippians (2).