SugarFree has some family business to attend to, so I’ve stepped up with the recycling. And it’s timely.
After 8 days of breadlessness, Passover has finally passed over, and it’s time to move on to the next weekly reading of the Torah. This week’s sedra bears the euphonious appellation of Shemini, which translates to “Eighth.” This isn’t a reference to the date (today is the 25th of Nissan) but to the eight days after Aaron and his brood were made priests. When they were first appointed, they partied for seven days, then it’s get your (((asses))) back to work time on Day 8. Really, the sedra should have been named “Hangover.” And People Doing Stupid Shit After A Bender, as we will see.
Much of this sedra revolves around sacrifice- not the Lenten kind or tithing, but (in an ironic foreshadowing of 20th century Germany) burning up some animal or other. There are exceptions, but mostly, it’s bye-bye to some poor cow, goat, or sheep. The sacrifices were done at the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle), which today is apparently at some U Haul storage place in Syria. And Shemini hauls out a bunch of them:
- Sin Offering
- Burnt Offering
- Peace Offering
- Meal Offering
- Wave Offering
That’s a lot of offerings (note: we like to say “offering” instead of “sacrifice,” much in the manner that Progressives like to say “investment” rather than “flinging around other people’s money for their own moral satisfaction”). Most of them differ by exactly where you kill the animal (Tabernacle altar, doorway, plaza…), the animal species, scrupulous instructions on what special marks you have to make with the blood, how the organs are to be cut up, what parts are burnt and what parts are left uncooked, presumably for priestly delectation. Oh, and repeated bans on eating the fat or blood. “Yahweh owns that, keep your dirty little Jew-paws off of it!” But coincidentally, they all end up with goodies being left behind at the Priestly Tent.
It’s a complicated mess, but honest-to-Yahweh, the obscure Wave Offering is the very best priestly grift. See, you bring stuff to sacrifice to the Tabernacle- it doesn’t have to be animal, it can be crops, bread, olive oil, banknotes, real estate, whatever- and then you wave it at the Tabernacle. Yes. You wave it in that direction.
Then it’s handed over to the priests.
It’s not hard to guess how this all got written in, let’s not go there, but note that the rules here are insanely complex, incredibly specific, and are… enforced. There’s lots more sacrifices (my favorite being the, no shit, Heave Offering), but the ones in this sedra are enough for now.
So… this takes us to the best part of the sedra. A couple of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, were supposed to do a burnt offering. Now, of course, all the kindling and incense to make the fire had to be bought from the Tabernacle’s equivalent of the museum gift shop. That was the rules straight from Yahweh. Still a bit fuzzy from the week-long party, the Aaronsons decided that they were going to DIY, and made their own incense.
This was a career limiting move. Realizing that this was fake stuff and not purchased through the officially sanctioned priestly concession (an ancient example of regulatory capture), Yahweh flipped on his flamethrower and turned the boys into Krispy Critters. Fucking around with Yahweh’s crew is as bad as trying to steal from the Mafia. A couple of their cousins carry out what’s left of the former Aaronson Brothers.
And in the manner of the Middle East’s unique brutality that persists to this very day, Yahweh then comforts Aaron in his own special way: “Dry the fuck up. No funeral. No monuments. And no mourning. None. I catch you mourning, you’re next. Don’t fuck with Yahweh.”
“Oh, and let’s make sure this sort of bullshit doesn’t happen again. You’re cut off. No drinking for you and the descendants of the kids you still got. So far.”
The rest of the sedra is anticlimactic, though edgy- the remaining kids spend a ton of time working out the details of the correct way to do one of those sacrifices without getting zapped. Moses tries peer review, then in the finest Jewish tradition, an argument breaks out.
Moses loses. But he was a good sport about it, that’s the kind of guy he was.
Leviticus! That’s the one that says Jewesses can’t wear spandex.
And now I’m wondering if that prohibition extends to soft body armor.
The are limited to leather armor.
“The are limited to leather armor.”
Pics or GTFO.
Like this?
That is acceptable.
Prohibition of mixing fibers, right? Or is it mixing synthetic with natural fibers?
Mixing fibers. I don’t think that synthetic was a thing back then.
Reading on the internet, it tells me that ONLY the mixing of wool and linen is prohibited because that’s what’s explicitly there. And yet “not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk” bans all meat and dairy combinations? WTF rabbis? This is why antisemitism exists.
Now I want a bacon cheeseburger.
The “no homo” stuff is in there too I think?
Yup. It seems to be one of the smiteier books.
Yep. Leviticus is the list of laws, it’s got all sorts of good ones in there. Like the “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”.
Needs an update — “Thou shall not suffer a witch to livestream”…..
You have a whole month dedicated to instant noodles?
/Deliberately wrong.
I thought old Datsuns myself, vintage
It originally was 25th of Datsun.
That’s why on Christmas, (((they))) all go out for Chinese food.
+1 oil and gasoline flavored soup.
(Although I always conflate the two.)
Nissin, Nissan, what’s one vowel?
If you put gasoline on your toast you could wind up with flaming lips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvfxKbpoxRE
Don’t forget the trampolines.
No; it’s the month formerly known as Datsun.
Followed by Toyota and Honda to round out the spring season.
I think it’s something to do with Datsun.
Svengali says “I see Datsun on the Skyline.”
Hope their roof holds, wouldn’t want tire tracks in the meat sauce.
Fucking around with Yahweh’s crew is as bad as trying to steal from the Mafia.
It’s for your own good.
So, I want an explaination for Vespasian then.
Vespasian wasn’t the one who finished the job (got distracted by events to the West). So Yahweh punished son Titus (who did finish the job) instead.
Not the 25th of Jewbaru?
And why in the world would this group have an outsized presence in the legal profession?
Or comedy?
Well, that’s because Yiddish is inherently silly.
It is silly. I find it delightful.
OT for you Mojeaux.
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/831-stories-claire-mazur-erica-cerulo-romance-2eab8e8e?st=DVAtDe&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Gi-gid-dy!
https://archive.is/pOPdp
What about all the other members? They’re all criminals.
They haven’t shown weakness — that’s what drives the pack to devour.
“Schwab forfeited his pension of 5 million Swiss francs as a sign of good faith to the Forum, ”
Damn, you know he’s pocketed a huge pile if he’s willing to wave off 5MM.
FOOL! He could have had that sent to me!
Anything he touched will be cursed worse than Aztec gold. Be glad he didn’t.
“Bravo! The wolves devour themselves.”
Dick Durbin is going to retire. I’m sure it means nothing.
The Illinois Democrats have any number of low intelligence hacks ready to assume his spot. He was a fairly dumb, but very loyal to the Party guy. His office was very good at retail politics for a number of years – Granny’s Social Security got messed up – they had someone punching out a GS-13 in no time flat.
OT, but a couple thoughts springing from the AM lynx.
Hegseth’s wife being a presence. I don’t like it, but, for all the left-wing whiners, this is nothing more than what HRC was doing. So, sit and spin.
Birth rates and housing costs. People don’t usually want to have kids until they are settled down, and the best way is to make good housing cheap. So, get to work on from that angle folx.
They made the distinction that for Hegseth, the position is a nominated one (as opposed to an elected one). A distinction without a difference as far as I’m concerned, but I’m sure they said it that way to make it seem different.
As I recall Rosalind Carter sat in on cabinet meetings too. There were complains then.
And don’t get me started on Jill Biden . . .
Well . . . she was the acting President at the time.
this is nothing more than what HRC was doing
Totally different. Hillary is a genius superwomyn.
Yes, as shown through HillaryCare.
I think we ended up calling that Obamacare, because we’re all misogynists.
She was the wind beneath Bill’s wings.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
Resist
For many of these young candidates, their campaigns are centered around a shared dissatisfaction with how sitting lawmakers have fought back against Trump’s second term agenda. They hope to bring a new generation of leadership to Washington — even if they face long odds.
Democratic leaders are divided on whether to support this effort, as some worry it could strain resources for competitive races and lead to infighting within the party. However, others argue supporting primary challengers may be necessary if the party wants to move forward and learn from its 2024 election loss.
We failed to push the lunatic fringe narrative properly. We’ll hit it harder, this time.
It’s amazing to me how the Dems can so often be simultaneously right AND wrong. Yes, they need to get rid of the old bags that have been in office for 100 years, but replacing them all with AOC clones fresh out of college? Oof.
The writer of that article is probably the same age as the younger generation of pols who want the Party to commie harder.
When your Vice Chair is David Hogg… it says a lot for the youth vote you’re catering to.
“For many of these young candidates, their campaigns are centered around a shared dissatisfaction with how sitting lawmakers have fought back against Trump’s second term agenda.”
At first, I thought they were talking about Republicans.
One top Democrat, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, has already said he plans to stand by incumbents in his caucus.
“I’m gonna really focus on trying to defeat Republican incumbents so we can take back control of the House of Representatives and begin the process of ending this national nightmare that’s being visited upon us by far-right extremism,” he told told ABC News when asked about Hogg’s effort.
One man’s nightmare is another man’s entertainment.
but replacing them all with AOC clones fresh out of college? Oof.
The country should be run by people who have never made an honest dollar in their lives. They have the Big Ideas.
Best we can offer is Big Tits
What a birdbrained idea!
Worked out really well during the French Revolution.
The country should be run by people who have never made an honest dollar in their lives.
So just like it is now?
You probably just want to date them.
Not date, exactly. . . .
You mean exactly like it’s always been?
So just like it is now?
Precisely. They are the heirs of Joe Biden.
The old testament has a clearly defined pattern:
1. Yahweh gives something with rules attached.
2. Humans immediately break the rules.
3. Yahweh smites
4. Wailing and begging forgiveness
5>1. Yahweh forgives with rules attached
Yahweh is the United States government?
Nah, he is better about imposing the rules on the people getting the stuff rather than giving the stuff, and also about smiting the people who break the rules rather than the people complaining about the rules being broken.
The Golden Calf right after Egypt never ceases to amaze me, honestly. Multiple (literal) honest-to-God miracles witnessed by the refugees just freed from slavery…. and they just flip right to idolatry instead. Amazed there wasn’t immediate smiting and finding a new Chosen People at that point.
Patience has not been one of (((our))) virtues.
Miracles were a dime a dozen in those days. Remember the Egyptian magicians doing the stick to snake trick?
Oh, and referencing the Dead Thread — UCS, I believe I started whatever mandatory dungeon there was right after character creation, yes… and just wasn’t feeling it. Stopped and just never came back to it. According to Steam this was in 2013, so forgive my fuzziness on details.
You mean the Tutorial?
Probably. Do you seriously expect me to remember after 12 years? Whatever it was, I just didn’t feel like playing and have never gone back. There’s something about Elder Scrolls as a setting that puts me off, I think… or Bethesda-isms in general (I find it hard to want to go back to Fallout 3 as well… and only play 4 mainly because New Vegas is so drattedly unstable after all these years…. and gave up on Starfield when it bored me to tears on the first planetoid…)
SDF-7:
Huh. I’ve encountered some bugs in FO:NV, but I don’t recall it crashing that frequently last time I played it, nor even much in the way of bugs (other than wonky environmental things due to the engine).
It has been crashing on door loading transitions like crazy in my current playthrough. And just randomly in Old World Blues… Part of me wishes they’d port it to a 64 bit engine (since I’m sure memory leaks are part of it… and yeah, I’ve got the 4GB patch applied as the only non-stock change), but I know they’d almost certainly mess with it if they did.
SDF-7:
Steam, or stand alone installation?
For Steam, I’ve had some issues with games get resolved by having it verify the cache. Not sure if you’re hitting that, but if it’s random it doesn’t sound like it.
Steam. And yes, I’ve tried verifying local files and going through Fallout_default.ini settings. I may just have too many save files or something (I think that’s also tied to the annoyingly insane long load times I get on Fallout 4… I’m a bit of a data hoarder at heart and never delete things…)
This just in….
Sex and gender is a label that has been forced onto us by capitalism.
Just thought you’d want to hear from pseudo-salons of far left thought.
“If we just rewrite the basic fundamentals of humans and all of their societies — we can do better!” — Not the winning message they think it is.
But I wonder why nobody has tried it before. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Enigma
Mati works with farmers in India, Zambia and Tanzania to spread locally sourced minerals on their fields. The crushed rocks soak up carbon and reduce runoff for the rain-dependent farms. The company also sells carbon removal credits and shares the revenue with the farmers, who are vulnerable to drought, extreme weather and other climate perils.
——-
But the potential good Mati can do for farmers and the climate pales in comparison to the work previously done by the federal government via agencies like USAID, which spent a combined $11 billion on humanitarian and agricultural assistance in fiscal 2024.
Musk in February called USAID “a criminal organization” and said it was time for the agency “to die.” The Trump administration’s 2026 budget request is expected to complete the dismantling of the six-decade-old agency and roll its remaining programs into the State Department.
Mati is the winner of Musk’s Xprize. Some sort of carbon capturing voodoo. Musk does good.
But then Musk killed USAID. Musk bad.
The whole article is a mess.
Mati and other carbon removal companies have also benefited from collaborations with researchers in academia and the federal government. The Trump administration has canceled thousands of university research grants and purged the U.S. bureaucracy of much of its carbon removal know-how.
Science cannot survive without government funding and guidance.
This is kind of interesting:
https://youtu.be/LWNaA1wTYOU?si=KVCIDvYqOg87Q8cT
A guy tried to game the Amazon system to make himself a “best-selling fantasy author.”
It’s tulpas all the way down