Wednesday Bible Study: Summarizing the weirdness

I still really want to get this Ezekiel nonsense over with. So we'll jump ahead to chapter 40 which is where the plot shifts from God threatening to murder and starve the people and trash the city, as well as everybody else in the neighborhood, to the future return from exile and rebuilding of Jerusalem. It starts with this:

 

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the Lord was on me and he took me there. ² In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. ³ He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. ⁴ The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”

 

For the next three interminable chapters the bronze man measures stuff. Here's a sample, it goes on and on just like this:

 

⁵ I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man’s hand was six long cubits,^[a] each of which was a cubit and a handbreadth. He measured the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high.

⁶ Then he went to the east gate. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. ⁷ The alcoves for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubits^[b] thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.

⁸ Then he measured the portico of the gateway; ⁹ it^[c] was eight cubits^[d] deep and its jambs were two cubits^[e] thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.

 

 And on and on and on and on . . . 

In Chapter 43, Zeke has a vision of God's glory returning to the Temple, still guided by the bronze dude. In Chapter 44, God promises to restore the priesthood but only the descendants of Zadok will be allowed to conduct the sacrifices. Chapter 45 prescribes setting aside land for God and the priests, measuring systems, and priestly conduct and privileges. (Yes, this seems to supersede the Torah.) Ch. 46 prescribes more rituals, again appearing to amend the Torah. In Chapter 47, the bronze dude lays out the borders of the restored kingdom of Israel, and yes, it's from the river (actually it specifies the Dead Sea) to the Mediterranean. However:

 

²¹ “You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. ²² You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. ²³ In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord.

 

Hmm. Chapter 48 divides the land among the 12 tribes, which is unfortunate because 10 of them have disappeared by now. Isaiah also thought they would return, but they didn't. And that's the end. We never actually get around to the restoration, just the prophecy. Now on to Daniel.

 

Rethinking democracy

Chucky notes that the Chinese government seems more capable of taking the long view than does ours. There is probably something to be said for that. Plato thought that the people were incapable of ruling themselves, so he proposed rule by "philosopher kings." Alas, he was never clear about how the philosophers were to be selected, and I'm not sure Xi qualifies. However, he is certainly looking farther ahead than American voters who elected a demented lunatic because he said he would immediately bring down the price of groceries -- or something, I'm not sure why they did that.

 

Because most voters are very short-sighted, most of the time, politicians respond accordingly, not only to voters but also to donors. And most rich people are no wiser or more far-sighted than the average voter, perhaps less so, although they do have different priorities. The people's short-sightedness makes them easy to fool, so politicians who depend on wealthy donors, or who are in fact part of the same club, can respond to non-wealthy voters with empty rhetoric and promises, and to wealthy donors with actual (short-sighted) policies. 

 

What surprises me somewhat is that the plutocrats who are behind this catastrophe don't seem to be seeing that the temple is going to fall down on their own heads, or rather I think they must but they feel trapped. If they repudiate the madman in chief, they will soon find themselves powerless to eliminate the taxes,  and the environmental, consumer protection, and worker protections they despise. But if they don't, much of their wealth will evaporate and some of them may even wind up bankrupt. Either way, they don't give a shit about anybody else. If they did, the way out would be clear.  Note that the British plutocrats basically screwed themselves in the same way, fooling the people to retain power and shooting themselves in the privates in the process.

 

I expect Xi is looking at all this with amusement and contempt. 

Sunday Sermonette: Puritan pornography

I keep saying I want to get Ezekiel over with, and I do, but some of it is just too rich not to share. Chapter 23 is presumably intended metaphorically -- I don't think we're literally supposed to believe that God married these two women and then they committed adultery. They represent the northern kingdom, AKA Israel or Samaria, and Judah, and the rant is about the supposed faithlessness of the kingdoms to Yahweh. Still, you've got to admit, the whole concept is pretty weird.

 

23 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. ³ They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed. ⁴ The older was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵ “Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was still mine; and she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors ⁶ clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, and mounted horsemen. ⁷ She gave herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians and defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after. ⁸ She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when during her youth men slept with her, caressed her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.

⁹ “Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians, for whom she lusted. ¹⁰ They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters and killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women, and punishment was inflicted on her.

¹¹ “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. ¹² She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors in full dress, mounted horsemen, all handsome young men. ¹³ I saw that she too defiled herself; both of them went the same way.

¹⁴ “But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall, figures of Chaldeans^[a] portrayed in red, ¹⁵ with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea.^{[b] 16} As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she carried on her prostitution openly and exposed her naked body, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. ²⁰ There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. ²¹ So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.^[c]

²² “Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will stir up your lovers against you, those you turned away from in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side— ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, all of them governors and commanders, chariot officers and men of high rank, all mounted on horses. ²⁴ They will come against you with weapons,^[d] chariots and wagons and with a throng of people; they will take up positions against you on every side with large and small shields and with helmets. I will turn you over to them for punishment, and they will punish you according to their standards. ²⁵ I will direct my jealous anger against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take away your sons and daughters, and those of you who are left will be consumed by fire. ²⁶ They will also strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry. ²⁷ So I will put a stop to the lewdness and prostitution you began in Egypt. You will not look on these things with longing or remember Egypt anymore.

²⁸ “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to deliver you into the hands of those you hate, to those you turned away from in disgust. ²⁹ They will deal with you in hatred and take away everything you have worked for. They will leave you stark naked, and the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your lewdness and promiscuity ³⁰ have brought this on you, because you lusted after the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. ³¹ You have gone the way of your sister; so I will put her cup into your hand.

³² “This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“You will drink your sister’s cup,
    a cup large and deep;
it will bring scorn and derision,
    for it holds so much.
³³ You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
    the cup of ruin and desolation,
    the cup of your sister Samaria.
³⁴ You will drink it and drain it dry
    and chew on its pieces—
    and you will tear your breasts.

I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.

³⁵ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you have forgotten me and turned your back on me, you must bear the consequences of your lewdness and prostitution.”

³⁶ The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices, ³⁷ for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them. ³⁸ They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary and desecrated my Sabbaths. ³⁹ On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in my house.

⁴⁰ “They even sent messengers for men who came from far away, and when they arrived you bathed yourself for them, applied eye makeup and put on your jewelry. ⁴¹ You sat on an elegant couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed the incense and olive oil that belonged to me.

⁴² “The noise of a carefree crowd was around her; drunkards were brought from the desert along with men from the rabble, and they put bracelets on the wrists of the woman and her sister and beautiful crowns on their heads. ⁴³ Then I said about the one worn out by adultery, ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she is.’ ⁴⁴ And they slept with her. As men sleep with a prostitute, so they slept with those lewd women, Oholah and Oholibah. ⁴⁵ But righteous judges will sentence them to the punishment of women who commit adultery and shed blood, because they are adulterous and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Bring a mob against them and give them over to terror and plunder. ⁴⁷ The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses.

⁴⁸ “So I will put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not imitate you. ⁴⁹ You will suffer the penalty for your lewdness and bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 23:14 Or Babylonians
2. Ezekiel 23:15 Or Babylonia; also in verse 16
3. Ezekiel 23:21 Syriac (see also verse 3); Hebrew caressed because of your young breasts
4. Ezekiel 23:24 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.

 

Reversal

It seems the lunatics at HHS have restored funding for the Women's Health Initiative. We don't know what actually happened but I'm guessing some 19 year old college dropout working for Muskmelon saw the title of the project and assumed it was some kind of feminist woke mind virus conspiracy. Anyway, we've seen a few examples now of successful pushback against these maniacs and I hope more people are learning the lesson that giving in to them just means they come back for more, but if you punch a bully in the nose he'll turn out to be a sniveling coward.

 

That said, I'll take this occasion to make a few remarks about these long-term prospective cohort studies. The most famous is probably the Framingham Heart Study, which has its own web site here, but it's not really all that friendly to the general public. The Wikipedia article is an easier way to learn the basics. The study began in 1948 and is now on its third generation of participants. This was one of the most important studies that demonstrated the toxic effects of smoking, and what is now common knowledge about risk factors for heart disease and stroke -- discoveries that are major contributors to the increased life span people enjoy today.

 

This kind of study is the most powerful form of epidemiological research.  It's generally very difficult to sort out what exposures cause specific outcomes for many reasons. Correlation is not causation, as they say, and many characteristics of people and their environments are correlated in complex ways. Also too, it can take a long time for effects to be seen. Environmental factors in early childhood may be associated with outcomes in middle age or later. While we could ask people in middle age about their childhoods, the information we get is not going to be very detailed or reliable. With a prospective cohort study, we can collect a lot of high quality, reliable information about children and then see what happens to those same children 30 or 40 or more years later. 

 

Of course, this costs a lot of money and while there may be some useful information in the short term, the main payoff won't be for a long time, and it's hard to convince politicians to make that kind of investment. At least it is now, although evidently it was not so difficult in 1948. That's something to think about. However, given that funding will have to be finite, the question of exactly what information to collect at baseline is going to be critical to the ultimate payoff. If we don't ask the right questions to begin with, we won't get the most important answers.

 

Which brings us to the tragic case of the proposed National Children's Study.  The study's archive page doesn't explain why it never happened, but I'll tell you. Originally, the plan was to focus on environmental factors associated with health throughout the life course. But a faction within NIH that was interested almost exclusively on genetics became powerful, and a feud ensued between those who wanted to focus on environment and those who wanted to focus on genes. They spent so much energy trying to sabotage each other that the project disintegrated in squabbling and congress eventually canceled it. 

I shouldn't have to tell you how absurd this was. Now that genetic testing is cheap, fast and easy there's no reason why we can't do both at once, which is what obviously is logically the right thing to do, so if we ever have a sane congress and president, I hope we can try again. I won't live long enough to see the results, but some people might who wouldn't otherwise.

Like I say, they want to kill you

 As far as I can tell, none of the major news outlets have picked this up yet. (Nothing on NYT, CNN, CBS or ABC.) The Dump administration is terminating the Women's Health Initiative, but you have to go to Science Magazine to find that out, at least as of today. 

President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be killing much, if not all, of a historic initiative that was the first, and is still the largest, National Institutes of Health (NIH) effort centered on the health needs of women. The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) has enrolled tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials of hormones and other medications and tracked the health of many thousands more over more than 3 decades. Its findings have had a major influence on health care. WHI leaders announced yesterday that contracts supporting its regional centers are being terminated in September and that the study’s clinical coordinating center, based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, “will continue operations until January 2026, after which time its funding remains uncertain.” They added that the contract terminations for its four main sites “will significantly impact ongoing research and data collection … severely limit[ing] WHI’s ability to generate new insights into the health of older women, one of the fastest-growing segments of our population.” (There are about 55 million postmenopausal women in the United States.)

 

The WHI, like the Framingham Heart Study, is a long-term, large-scale cohort study. These are obviously expensive compared to short-term studies, but on the other hand they are really innumerable studies embedded in a single project, and they are the best way, often the only way, to answer many important questions. A major limitation of much epidemiological and clinical research is short-term follow up, which often produces misleading results. Some of the important findings of the WHI are actually negative: that  estrogen and progestin do not prevent heart disease, and in fact are associated with increased risks;  and calcium and vitamin D supplementation does not prevent fractures, in postmenopausal women. But there is no way to establish this without long-term followup and sufficient sample size. But it has also produced an avalanche of findings in many areas. Here are the papers published from WHI data in March of this year alone:

Intentional Weight Loss, Waist Circumference Reduction, and Mortality Risk among Postmenopausal Women

Michael Hendryx et al., 2025/3 PubMed #40048162

Association Between Depression and Lung Cancer Risk Among Postmenopausal Women

Yuanyuan La et al., 2025/3 PubMed #40025644

The relationship between cardiometabolic abnormalities and mortality in the Women's Health Initiative: A comparison of associations among women with cancer to women without cancer

Sreejata Raychaudhuri et al., 2025/3 PubMed #40072913

The Association of Long COVID-19 Symptoms, Physical Function, and Activities of Daily Living Among Older Women

Xiaochen Zhang et al., 2025/3 PubMed #40062652

Association of Kidney Function With Incident Heart Failure: An Analysis of the Women's Health Initiative

Richard Cheng et al., 2025/3 PubMed #39996449

Population attributable risk of a competing-risk model for breast cancer and non-breast cancer death among women >65 years

Mara Schonberg et al., 2025/3 PubMed #40128438

Energy intake is associated with dietary macronutrient densities: inversely with protein and monounsaturated fat and positively with polyunsaturated fat and carbohydrate among postmenopausal females

Ross Prentice et al., 2025/3 PubMed #40088973

Pre-pandemic leukocyte count is associated with severity of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection among older women in the Women's Health Initiative

Ted Ng et al., 2025/3 PubMed #39874450

Informal caregiver quality of life: Psychosocial and behavioral correlates of quality of life among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual caregivers in the Women's Health Initiative

Jennifer Jabson Tree et al., 2025/3 PubMed #39923503

 And the list for February and every month before is just as long. Oh, and the actual cost? Less than $10 million a year. The Dump administration wants to cut NIH contract funding by $2.6 billion, or 35%. This won't even make a scratch. Brace yourselves for what's coming next.

Sunday Sermonette: Metaphors run wild

I said on Wednesday that I wanted to get Ezekiel over with, but I've decided not to skip everything. Most of it is indeed just more tiresome threats against Jerusalem, but some of it is weird enough that you ought to see it. Chapter 16 imagines the Jews as an abandoned girl baby, who God rescues and nurtures and then, when she is grown, makes his consort. (Yuck.) But she is unfaithful, indeed wantonly promiscuous, so now he's going to take his revenge. He particularly resents her having sex with the Egyptians, because of their large genitals. (Really.) Anyway this is sufficiently bizarre that you might enjoy reading it. BTW, there is no historical evidence that human sacrifice was every practiced anywhere in the Levant. This has come up before. However it may be, this guy is nuts.

 

16 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices ³ and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴ On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. ⁵ No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

⁶ “‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”^{[a] 7} I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and developed and entered puberty. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, yet you were stark naked.

⁸ “‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

⁹ “‘I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you. ¹⁰ I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put sandals of fine leather on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, ¹² and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. ¹⁴ And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁵ “‘But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. You went to him, and he possessed your beauty.^{[b] 17} You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. ¹⁸ And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them. ¹⁹ Also the food I provided for you—the flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat—you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign Lord.

²⁰ “‘And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? ²¹ You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ²² In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.

²³ “‘Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign Lord. In addition to all your other wickedness, ²⁴ you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square. ²⁵ At every street corner you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, spreading your legs with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by. ²⁶ You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your neighbors with large genitals, and aroused my anger with your increasing promiscuity. ²⁷ So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct. ²⁸ You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied. ²⁹ Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia,^[c] a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “‘I am filled with fury against you,^[d] declares the Sovereign Lord, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute! ³¹ When you built your mounds at every street corner and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

³² “‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! ³³ All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. ³⁴ So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.

³⁵ “‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! ³⁶ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood, ³⁷ therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked. ³⁸ I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. ³⁹ Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked. ⁴⁰ They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. ⁴² Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.

⁴³ “‘Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign Lord. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?

⁴⁴ “‘Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.” ⁴⁵ You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom. ⁴⁷ You not only followed their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they. ⁴⁸ As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.

⁴⁹ “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ⁵¹ Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous by all these things you have done. ⁵² Bear your disgrace, for you have furnished some justification for your sisters. Because your sins were more vile than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

⁵³ “‘However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them, ⁵⁴ so that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you have done in giving them comfort. ⁵⁵ And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to what they were before; and you and your daughters will return to what you were before. ⁵⁶ You would not even mention your sister Sodom in the day of your pride, ⁵⁷ before your wickedness was uncovered. Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom^[e] and all her neighbors and the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you. ⁵⁸ You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your detestable practices, declares the Lord.

⁵⁹ “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. ⁶⁰ Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹ Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you. ⁶² So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. ⁶³ Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 16:6 A few Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts repeat and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live!”
2. Ezekiel 16:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.
3. Ezekiel 16:29 Or Chaldea
4. Ezekiel 16:30 Or How feverish is your heart,
5. Ezekiel 16:57 Many Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Vulgate Aram

 

My senator . . .

 Chris Murphy. Here Tom Sullivan has curated a Bluesky thread by Senator Murphy in which he tells it like it is. The systematic plot to destroy democracy in the U.S. and install a fascist plutocratic regime is all of a piece. Destroy all of the institutions of civil society that can oppose the regime, or make them ineffectual, picking them off one at a time: universities, non-profit civil society organizations, law firms, opposition political organizations, journalists. Use the police power to intimidate and terrorize. Fill the public discourse with lies, now that you have neutralized every person or institution that can call them out. 

That is what is happening. We can decry one outrage at a time, or we can face up to the unitary reality. It's 1933. Which side are you on?

Meta Post

I'm afraid I've been a bit sparse with the blog posts lately. Honestly, I'm just gobsmacked by events, and I often feel I just don't have anything to contribute. You don't need me to tell you what's going on, while on the other hand, I'm having a very hard time understanding and explaining it. For the Republicans in congress, I just have this to say. Is it really worth selling your soul just to keep a job which, by your own choice, leaves you powerless? The price you are gladly paying is unquestioned, servile obedience to a sadistic, psychopathic lunatic. Why is that worth it to you?

 

I'm going to skip the Bible study today. You get the idea with Ezekiel, it's just the ravings of a mad man, it goes on and on. I'll try to wrap it up on Sunday, then go on to Daniel, which is more important if only because of its influence on Christianity.  Meanwhile, I'll try to think of something worthwhile to say about public health that you might not already know.

Sunday Sermonette: What's the diagnosis

If Zeke related Chapter 10 to a psychiatrist in 2025, he'd get a prescription for an antipsychotic. This guy was clearly schizophrenic. We don't take these sorts of visions as provided by a deity any more, in part because we know that we can make them go away by having people swallow chemicals that block dopamine receptors.  Anyway, if you can deduce some spiritual meaning from this gibberish let me know.

 

10 I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of lapis lazuli above the vault that was over the heads of the cherubim. ² The Lord said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in.

³ Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. ⁴ Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. ⁵ The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty^[a] when he speaks.

⁶ When the Lord commanded the man in linen, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel. ⁷ Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took up some of it and put it into the hands of the man in linen, who took it and went out. ⁸ (Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like human hands.)

⁹ I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim; the wheels sparkled like topaz. ¹⁰ As for their appearance, the four of them looked alike; each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel. ¹¹ As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the cherubim faced; the wheels did not turn about^[b] as the cherubim went. The cherubim went in whatever direction the head faced, without turning as they went. ¹² Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels. ¹³ I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.” ¹⁴ Each of the cherubim had four faces: One face was that of a cherub, the second the face of a human being, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵ Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the living creatures I had seen by the Kebar River. ¹⁶ When the cherubim moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the cherubim spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not leave their side. ¹⁷ When the cherubim stood still, they also stood still; and when the cherubim rose, they rose with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

¹⁸ Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. ¹⁹ While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²⁰ These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim. ²¹ Each had four faces and four wings, and under their wings was what looked like human hands. ²² Their faces had the same appearance as those I had seen by the Kebar River. Each one went straight ahead.

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 10:5 Hebrew El-Shaddai
2. Ezekiel 10:11 Or aside

 

Mad (not a) scientist

Donald Trump is insane, as it appears some of the plutocrats who gloated over his election win are now realizing. I particularly commend the first few comments on the linked post, which are obviously correct. But I want to turn our attention to the equally insane person he has installed, with the Republican co-conspirators in the senate, as secretary of HHS. 

CNN  —  The US Department of Health and Human Services has launched a “massive testing and research effort” involving hundreds of scientists worldwide that will determine “what has caused the autism epidemic” by September, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday. But experts expressed doubt that the research would be done in good faith, given Kennedy’s history of linking autism and vaccines despite strong evidence that the two are not connected.

“We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” he told President Donald Trump in a Cabinet meeting. “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

Obviously, NIH already funds research into autism, including epidemiological studies to try to identify risk factors. CDC is also already, right now, conducting the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED) , a large-scale epidemiological study to identify risk factors. What we know so far is that there appears to have a strong genetic component -- it tends to occur in siblings -- and that having older parents, and complications of birth, are also risk factors. 

 

Also, there probably is no epidemic of autism at all. While the diagnosed prevalence has increased over the years, that's probably because the definition of autism spectrum disorder has become more inclusive, and because of greatly increased efforts to diagnose it. Since a diagnosis qualifies people for (quite expensive) special education services, parents have an incentive to get one. 

 

Either way, regardless of whether the true prevalence has increased, one thing we do know with absolute certainty is that it has nothing to do with vaccination. However, Kennedy does not want to find the cause(s) of autism, he wants to prove that it is caused by vaccines. Philosophers struggle with what is called the "demarcation problem." How do we distinguish between science and pseudo-science? It can be difficult in some cases but one way you can definitely distinguish is if the purported scientist has already decided what the answer is and is just determined to prove it. 

 

I guess we could call it Columbo science. Lieutenant Columbo, for those of you too young to know, would always instantly intuit who the murder was (the audience was already in on it), so his challenge was not to solve the whodunit, but to prove it. In the TV show, he was always right, but that's not how the real world works. One of the best-known pitfalls of scientific research, a frequent cause of faulty conclusions, is observer bias -- if the investigator wants to get a certain answer, there are myriad ways, not necessarily involving conscious fraud, to mis-measure, mis-record, and mis-interpret your data. I expect Kennedy will get the answer he wants, if he pays enough for it, and cherry picks results. But it will be a kind of lie.

Wednesday Bible Study: Yeah, this guy is nuts

The next couple of chapters are just more of the same dire threats and "You'll know that I'm the Lord" after I've made you eat each other. So I'll skip ahead to chapters 8 and 9. It isn't clear who Zeke's spiritual guide is, but apparently it isn't Yaweh himself but some sort of assistant. FYI Tammuz is the Acadian god of plant life, so what's going on in verse 14 is an annual ritual after the summer solstice to mourn the oncoming winter. So the point of this is that the people are worshiping other gods. So in Chapter 9, God sends his hit men to murder everybody in Jerusalem who has tolerated this. This isn't very nice of him, but it is also inconsistent with previous prophecies in which people were going to die of plague and at the hands of foreign conquerors. After this, there's nobody left to suffer those fates. Just sayin'.

 

8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day, while I was sitting in my house and the elders of Judah were sitting before me, the hand of the Sovereign Lord came on me there. ² I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man.^[a] From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal. ³ He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. ⁴ And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, look toward the north.” So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of jealousy.

⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable.”

⁷ Then he brought me to the entrance to the court. I looked, and I saw a hole in the wall. ⁸ He said to me, “Son of man, now dig into the wall.” So I dug into the wall and saw a doorway there.

⁹ And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” ¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and unclean animals and all the idols of Israel. ¹¹ In front of them stood seventy elders of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

¹² He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” ¹³ Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. ¹⁵ He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”

¹⁶ He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.

¹⁷ He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! ¹⁸ Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 8:2 Or saw a fiery figure

 

9 Then I heard him call out in a loud voice, “Bring near those who are appointed to execute judgment on the city, each with a weapon in his hand.” ² And I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. With them was a man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. They came in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side ⁴ and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”

⁵ As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. ⁶ Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, the mothers and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple.

⁷ Then he said to them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” So they went out and began killing throughout the city. ⁸ While they were killing and I was left alone, I fell facedown, crying out, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel in this outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

⁹ He answered me, “The sin of the people of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice. They say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see.’ ¹⁰ So I will not look on them with pity or spare them, but I will bring down on their own heads what they have done.”

¹¹ Then the man in linen with the writing kit at his side brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded.”

 

Sunday Sermonette: How to know the Lord

Ezekiel 6 is just the same old ranting we find in much of Isaiah, God spewing about all the horrific shit he's going to do to the Israelites. I'll give you this so you get the idea, but we'll skip some of the chapters because they're basically repetitive. Note the phrase "you will know that I am the Lord," or "they will know that I am the Lord." It occurs more than 60 times in Ezekiel, and always after God threatens mass murder, torture, and destruction. So if you want to know the Lord, that's what he wants you to know about him. Just so that's crystal clear.

6 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel; prophesy against them ³ and say: ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Sovereign Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will slay your people in front of your idols. ⁵ I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you live, the towns will be laid waste and the high places demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and devastated, your idols smashed and ruined, your incense altars broken down, and what you have made wiped out. ⁷ Your people will fall slain among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

⁸ “‘But I will spare some, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the lands and nations. ⁹ Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will remember me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices. ¹⁰ And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten in vain to bring this calamity on them.

¹¹ “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the people of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague. ¹² One who is far away will die of the plague, and one who is near will fall by the sword, and anyone who survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I pour out my wrath on them. ¹³ And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. ¹⁴ And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land a desolate waste from the desert to Diblah^[a]—wherever they live. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 6:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; a few Hebrew manuscripts Riblah

Economics is mostly bullshit, but . . .

There are some basic ideas that you don't actually need a Ph.D. to understand. (I have one, actually, but maybe that doesn't help.*) What the New York Times and CNN need to understand is that they do not need to and in fact cannot understand or explain the rationale behind the actions of Donald J. Trump because he is simply a deranged idiot and there is no rationale.

 

So. The reason some goods are imported into the United States, in general, is that the people (mostly corporations actually) who buy them find that what they want to buy is available at the most desirable combination of quality and price from foreign producers. It may not be available at any price from domestic sources, at least not in the quantities demanded in the U.S., but we'll put that complication aside for now. Note that since the last purely Communist regime on earth is North Korea, and we don't import anything from them, we are not buying from governments but from private, for-profit corporations. Canada, and Europe, are not "ripping us off" because their business corporations are selling stuff to our business corporations, which freely and  voluntarily choose to buy it because that's where they are getting the best deal.

 

This does mean, obviously, that U.S. workers are not being paid to make that stuff, but it also means that U.S. consumers are getting the best possible deal. That's the whole business model of Walmart -- use their buying power to squeeze the lowest possible price out of suppliers, mostly foreign. Because foreign suppliers are competing with each other, and perhaps also to some extent with U.S. corporations, they are forced to sell at fair prices. Note that in competitive markets, prices are inexorably driven down to the marginal cost of production. Companies try to make a bonus by advertising and branding, to persuade people to pay a little more than the product is really worth, and there are other peculiarities of  consumer behavior that make that statement a little too sweeping, but it's usually close to being true.

 

So, a tariff is not a tax paid by the exporting company or its government. It is a tax paid by the buyer, e.g. Walmart, on the imported good. Since Walmart is competing with Target and Dollar General and so on, they are already making a very thing margin, so if the product costs them more, they have to raise the price to the consumer, and that is who pays the tax. It is true that in the long run, if imported goods are more expensive, that can give U.S. producers an incentive to start making the thing here, or to make more of it, because they can now get a higher price. However, that will take a long time -- factories don't get built overnight -- and it may even be impossible. You need to have workers and managers with the right kinds of skills, you may be far from sources of needed raw materials which may still need to be imported, but now they're more expensive, you may need technological capacity that has to be imported and ditto about that . . . .

 

So, in general, the reason international trade happens is because it enables people all over the world to get the best deals on the stuff they want to buy. From the consumers' point of view, that's pretty much straight ahead. From the workers' point of view, not necessarily. One reason imported goods can be cheaper is because workers in China and Mexico and Vietnam are paid less than American workers, and to the extent U.S. producers need to compete, that can push down wages in certain industries. This in fact has happened in the U.S., as everybody knows. The kinds of low-skilled factory jobs that used to give high school grads a shot at a two car garage and a white picket fence are now scarce. This does not really pertain to trade with Canada and Europe, however. That's not why we buy buy Parmesan Cheese and Swiss watches and Quebec maple syrup, and it's not why there are auto parts manufacturers in Canada.

 

On the other hand, it means that people in China and Mexico and Vietnam now have money to buy stuff from us, and Europeans and Canadians have dollars to spend in the U.S. as well. And they do. Foreigners buy a lot of services -- business consulting, technical expertise, patent licenses -- and whiskey and grain and pharmaceuticals and yes, cars. Also high tech medical and scientific equipment. Even petroleum, of which the U.S. is a net exporter. Of course, it's mostly more highly educated and skilled workers and professionals who benefit from this. So yeah, some people are, rightly enough, feeling left out.

 

So what happens with these massive, indiscriminate tariffs on products from all over the world? First of all, they are paid, 100%, by U.S. consumers. This is the most massive, regressive tax increase in history, and it's mostly going to hurt people with less money, because a higher percentage of their income goes to buying basic goods. After a few years, it might mean that there are a few more manufacturing jobs in the U.S., but they might not pay very well because the employers will be paying more for steel and aluminum and copper. Because other countries will (and already) retaliate, it means farmers won't be able to sell their grain and distillers won't be able to sell their whiskey. Because people will have to spend more on everything they buy, they'll buy less, which could very well mean that the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. will decline, not increase. Meanwhile people's retirement savings are wiped out and they can't afford to send their kids to college.

 

So why is Trump doing this? Simple. It's because he is an insane idiot. That's the whole reason.

 * More specifically, I have a Ph.D. in Social Policy, for which I had to pass qualifying exams in economics, political science, and sociology. Of course what that actually means is that I have been indoctrinated by the International Globalist Conspiracy, led by George Soros and the Elders of Zion, into the Satanic conspiracy of science. Oh, and I got the degree from Brandeis University. Aha!

Wednesday Bible Study: Again, the theodicy problem is solved

It is puzzling indeed why people are puzzled by the so-called theodicy problem, AKA the problem of evil. There is no contradiction between the nature of God as portrayed in the Bible, and the bad things that happen in the world, because God is neither good, nor merciful, nor just. He is one evil sonofabitch, a sadistic psychopath and a malignant narcissist. Bad things happen because God makes them happen. Not in the least difficult to explain.

Ezekiel 5 continues with the pattern of God making Ezekiel act out weird metaphors for his vengeance. In this case he has to shave off his hair and do stuff to it that symbolizes the ways in which God is going to torture and murder the Jews because he thinks they've done the wrong ceremonies, or failed to give him his proper worship, although he isn't specific about it. He's going to starve the people so they eat each other, kill them with diseases, and have them massacred by enemies. All because they didn't kiss his ass to his satisfaction. How about we don't worship this asshole? Oh, BTW, does he remind you of anybody?

5 “Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. ² When the days of your siege come to an end, burn a third of the hair inside the city. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. And scatter a third to the wind. For I will pursue them with drawn sword. ³ But take a few hairs and tuck them away in the folds of your garment. ⁴ Again, take a few of these and throw them into the fire and burn them up. A fire will spread from there to all Israel.

⁵ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.

⁷ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even^[a] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.

⁸ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. ⁹ Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore in your midst parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. ¹¹ Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will shave you; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. ¹² A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.

¹³ “Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I the Lord have spoken in my zeal.

¹⁴ “I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the Lord have spoken. ¹⁶ When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food. ¹⁷ I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the Lord have spoken.”

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 5:7 Most Hebrew manuscripts; some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac You have