LOUISIANA PASSES LAW TO REQUIRE 10 COMMANDMENTS IN SCHOOL CLASSROOMS
The headline really says it all, and if you haven’t seen the comments, let me sumup.
1 – Freedom of religion means no God
2 – How come christians want the 10 commandments instead of the Sermon on the Mount?
You will hear one of these two things constantly, depending on which side of the aisle your friend circle is.
My favorite parts have been the “reasons” the politicians have given. “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original law given, which was Moses.” Take it from an historian here, there were laws before Moses. Several, actually.
More seriously, I had someone ask if I thought it was pass the Supreme Court. I am not a lawyer, but I think there are a couple things here.
1 – There was already a case like this in 1980, and the Supreme Court ruled against the displays
2 – Whatever the Founders wanted, the courts over the centuries have interpreted the “separation of church and state” to be foundational to America.
3 – All that said, this Supreme Court seems aggressively states-rights orientated, and they might just decide to say “each state can decide for themselves.” To me, that is going to be tough to sustain in light of the national nature of the First Amendment, but what do I know.
IMMIGRATION AND THE ELECTION
This week, we saw two different approaches to immigrants from the two leading presidential candidates. President Trump spoke to a campaign crowd, telling them immigrants were coming in by the millions and taking their jobs.
Meanwhile, President Biden released a new executive action to allow a limited number of immigrants to apply for a green card. THey are limited to undocumented immigrants who, prior to Tuesday, were married to legal citizens of the United States, had been in the country for at least ten years, and do not have a criminal record. The White House estimates that roughly 500,000 people would meet those standards, and applications are expected to open later this summer.
Kev take: What is there to say in response to this. I guess I would just encourage you to listen (don’t just look at the news sumups. Take the time to go and actually listen to the speeches), and you can decide which one of these approaches sounds more like loving your neighbor. Which one sounds more like the America you want to live in.
(Sometimes people ask why I say “President” Trump, if he’s not president. The answer is because it’s traditional for ALL former presidents to be called President. I don’t always do this, obviously, sometimes i just say Trump or Obama or Biden. But is respect given to the office, even after one leaves.)
SOUTHERN BAPTISTS PASS RESOLUTION AGAINST A CHRISTIAN NATION
I think it’s important to note this, as the Southern Baptists are the largest protestant denomination in the US, and they get a lot of flack for the conservative pushes from some of their members.
But as a whole, they did pass a resolution saying “[W]e oppose any effort to establish a state religion of any nation, including the United States of America,” the resolution says. “… [W]e oppose any effort to use the people and the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to establish Christianity as the state religion of the United States of America.”
I think that’s not too shabby.
OVER 1000 PEOPLE DIE AT THE HAJJ
Every year, an estimated 2 million Muslims travel to Mecca for the Hajj, the pilgrimage instructed as one of the pillars of Islam. Unfortunately, every year people die here, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes people fall off of concrete walkways or are trampled by crowds; sometimes fires start due to crowded camping conditions.
This year was especially tragic because of the heat, with some readings as high as 125 degrees F. It is difficult to get official numbers, but right now, at least 1000 people died, mostly from heat stroke.
DRUG AND PRISON REFORM
The governor of Maryland pardoned 175,000 people who were convicted of marijuana possession or other “low-level” crimes.
I mention this because it’s representative of an overall trend towards decriminalizing drug behavior, particularly marijuana. It’s quite a change from the Just Say No and War on Drugs rhetoric of my youth.
Overall, I’m generally in favor of this, though I am torn. I don’t see a large difference between legalized marijuana and legalized alcohol. That said, I’m not in favor of either. So, take that as you will.
NORTH KOREA AND RUSSIA SIGN ALLIANCE
North Korea has pledged to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, deeping ties between two of the most prominent dictatorships in the world.
For myself, I’m having some disturbing flashes of authoritarian governments banding together, in an attempt to reshape the world. I do not think the US should be encouraging either of these regimes. (and yes, I think this plays directly into our election, as Trump has repeatedly voiced his admiration for authoritarian governments. It’s very worrying.
US SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH SWEDEN
The US signed an agreement with Sweden that allows the US access to 17 military installations in Sweden, including for training and weapons storage.
Essentially, this is the policy the US had for decades during the Cold War, of housing military weapons near the Soviet Union, in friendly countries. In some ways, this is a good thing as it shows a return to the friendlier relations with Europe.
But it is also worrying, in that one would hope this type of thing would not be necessary. My take is that the US military is treating Russia as an aggressive, expanding empire, the same as the Soviet Union. Which is probably because Putin has said he wants to reform the Soviet Union. Like, he’s said it multiple times and said letting all those countries go was a mistake.
In my opinion, it’d be nice if we didn’t restart the Cold War.
NVIDIA IS NOT THE MOST PROFITABLE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
Computer nerds have known about Nvidia for a long time, as they have led the market in graphics hardware for decades. It is now worth over 3 trillion dollars, surpassing Microsoft and Apple.
Nvidia shares have jumped because of their dominance of the AI market. Roughly 80% of the hardware used in AI processing chips.
The only note I’ll make is that I wish I would have invested in Nvidia back when i first played Arkham games. Dangit
VANDALISM OF STONEHENGE
Members of the Just Stop Oil environmentalist group sprayed the ancient monuments at Stonehenge with orange powder paint. They claim the paint will simply wash off with rain water, but officials say they may have permanently damaged some of the prehistoric etchings and markings.
Kev note: I’m an historian, so you know destroying historical relics like this is gonna get my dander up. Might I suggest that if you want to spraypaint something to get attention for your group, try an oil tanker or Jeff Bezos 3rd yacht. Destroying irreplaceable artifacts isn’t the way to win people to your side.
CELTICS WIN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP
I don’t really care about the NBA, but I think it’s important to note this because it means that they now have the most championships of any franchise. Which means they have more than the Lakers, which is what I think we all care about.