Ten Commandments cannot be posted in public schools in Louisiana

There are many axioms that people adopt as desirable guidelines to live by, such as the Golden Rule or Kant’s Categorical Imperative, all designed to help us treat people well There is also the one that I prefer which is less elegant, which is ‘Don’t Be A Jerk‘. The guidelines that I consider the most useless are the biblical Ten Commandments. But in the US, the Ten Commandments have been used to make extraordinary claims, such that if it were only posted in public spaces such as school rooms and city halls and grounds, then many of society’s problem would disappear. They claim that it is the removal of the Bible and religious teaching in schools that is the source of all the problems in US society and that posting the Ten Commandments in every schoolroom would make our children become upstanding moral adults.

The commandments take different forms depending on the source religious text but usually the first four consist of telling people how to grovel before God, which is not particularly useful when it comes to dealing with other people. One of the next six tells us to honor our parents, which is fine but pretty limited and vague (what form does this honor take?). Another four tell us not to murder, lie, steal, or engage in adultery which are clear and specific but do we really need to be reminded of them? And the last one is the one I get the biggest laugh out of which is ““Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s”, weirdly including the neighbor’s wives in the list of possessions. And forbidding coveting the neighbor’s ass is something that will bring a smile to any school children in the US today. Also, what exactly is the problem with coveting things if one does not resort to murder, lying, or stealing in order to obtain them?
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The Mormons really want me

Like pretty much everyone who has even the smallest presence online, I receive spam email offering me all kinds of goods and services. This is so even though I do not use social media much. I believe that marketing companies purchase lists of names and email addresses from organizations that one is affiliated with so I am not surprised when I get offers from publications and organizations which have similar goals to the ones that I subscribe or donate to.

But sometimes I get offers that make me wonder what list that they got that I am on since there is zero chance that I would be interested in what they have to offer. Recently I have been getting many that say that they have seen my resume online and think that I would be a perfect recruit for their business and offering me enticing opportunities to make a lot of money without doing much work, all from the comfort of my home. They never specifically say what it is they saw about me in my resume that they think would be valuable. Given that I am long since retired and have never posted my resume online, it seems like there has been a failure to be more discerning by whoever buys these lists
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How the new pope will be elected

I have not yet seen the new thriller film Conclave (the word comes from the Latin cum clave, meaning “with key”) about the election of a pope but it looks like the filmmakers hit the jackpot in terms of timing since the death today of pope Francis means that we will have the process unfolding before us within the next few weeks when the cardinals gather in Rome to elect a new pope and the storm of publicity will make people even more curious about the film

Only 135 of the cardinals are eligible to vote, with the remaining 117 excluded from voting because they are over the age of 80. 108 of the voting cardinals were appointed by Francis so this election will very much bear his imprint. Although he was from Argentina, most of the voting cardinals are still from Europe, though now a quarter of the cardinals are from Asia. They meet in a locked room after excluding all but the voting cardinals and a handful of people such as doctors, confessors, masters of ceremonies, cooks, and cleaning staff, all of whom are also sworn to secrecy.
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Jesus, not patriotism, has become the last refuge of the scoundrel

Russell Brand is a British media personality who started out as a standup comedian before branching out into other fields. In 2023, an investigation by various British media outlets revealed a pattern of abusive behavior dating back to 2006. The reports resulted in more women coming forward with new allegations of a disgusting nature.

Brand has denied all of the allegations and promoted conspiracy theories regarding them. He has since been charged with multiple counts of rape, oral rape, indecent assault, and sexual assault, and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 2 May 2025 for his first hearing. In addition, on 7 April 2025, news outlets reported Brand to be the subject of a civil action case filed in New York state, accusing him of sexual assault whilst intoxicated, during filming of Arthur in 2010.

While he once used to espouse progressive causes, around 2021 or so his views shifted and he became more involved with American rightwing causes. Since the allegations of abuse have become public, he now claims to have found Jesus and was publicly baptized in the river Thames, and now claims that he is a victim of a conspiracy. He has become MAGA-adjacent and of course they have embraced him.
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Every sperm is sacred

A legislator in Mississippi has filed a bill in the state legislature titled “Contraception Begins at Erection Act”.

As written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it “unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.”

There are also fines involved, the third strike resulting in the loss of $10,000 from the perpetrator.

In a statement to WLBT News, Blackmon wrote, “All across the country, especially here in Mississippi, the vast majority of bills relating to contraception and/or abortion focus on the woman’s role when men are fifty percent of the equation.

This bill highlights that fact and brings the man’s role into the conversation. People can get up in arms and call it absurd but I can’t say that bothers me.”

I am not sure if he is being genuine or this is a parody meant to highlight the extreme measures that anti-abortion extremists will go to to control the bodies of women.

Either way, it reminded me of this scene from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life (1983).

Kurt Gödel’s belief in the afterlife

Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) was a powerful logician whose contributions to logic, mathematics, and philosophy were immense. He was deeply interested in those aspects of philosophy that touched on religion and one of those was his ontological proof for God’s existence.

The argument is in a line of development that goes back to Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109). St. Anselm’s ontological argument, in its most succinct form, is as follows: “God, by definition, is that for which no greater can be conceived. God exists in the understanding. If God exists in the understanding, we could imagine Him to be greater by existing in reality. Therefore, God must exist.” A more elaborate version was given by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716); this is the version that Gödel studied and attempted to clarify with his ontological argument.
…

Gödel is not known to have told anyone about his work on the proof until 1970, when he thought he was dying. In February, he allowed Dana Scott to copy out a version of the proof, which circulated privately. In August 1970, Gödel told Oskar Morgenstern that he was “satisfied” with the proof, but Morgenstern recorded in his diary entry for 29 August 1970, that Gödel would not publish because he was afraid that others might think “that he actually believes in God, whereas he is only engaged in a logical investigation (that is, in showing that such a proof with classical assumptions (completeness, etc.) correspondingly axiomatized, is possible).”[2] Gödel died January 14, 1978. Another version, slightly different from Scott’s, was found in his papers. It was finally published, together with Scott’s version, in 1987.

(For more see Oppy, Graham. 2017. “Ontological Arguments.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Summer 2017 Edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta.)
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Film review: The Name of the Rose (1986)

I saw this film a long time ago, soon after it came out. I did not remember much of the details except that it was dark and moody and set in a remote abbey in the Middle Ages and involved the murder of several monks that a visiting monk William of Baskerville (played by Sean Connery) and his assistant Adso of Melk (a very young Christian Slater) try to solve.

I read the book of the same name by Umberto Eco last month, and disliked it for its tedious and lengthy discussions of esoterica involving theology and heresy and religious and political intrigue of that period. The main redeeming feature of the second edition of the book was that it had a postscript by the author explaining how and why he wrote it the way he did, including his choice of the title. While it did not improve the book’s standing in my opinion, it did shed light on the writing process and what an author seeks to achieve.
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Book review: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (1980)

The setting is November 1327 in an abbey in the mountains of northern Italy. A highly learned English Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (formerly an Inquisitor) arrives with his aide, an Italian Benedictine novice named Adso of Melk to mediate a dispute between religious factions and investigate rumored claims of heresy. But just before their arrival, there is a mysterious death of a monk who falls from a high tower in the library. It is not clear if it was suicide or he was pushed but soon there occur a series of gruesome deaths so that it becomes clear that there is a serial killer at work and William sets about trying to unravel the mystery. He becomes convinced that the answer lies with a book that has been hidden away in a labyrinth in the fortress-like library which is zealously guarded by the librarian and the abbot to prevent anyone gaining access to some of the books.

William is described early in the book as having powers of observation and analysis that enables his to reach conclusions that amaze others (including Adso) by their perspicacity. He is an admirer of Francis Roger Bacon and William of Occam and the scientific methods they demonstrated. He is clearly modeled on Sherlock Holmes (his name being a hint) and Adso, as the narrator of the book, is his Watson chronicling his actions. So far, so good. One is prepared for a murder mystery set in a remote abbey in the Middle Ages.
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Even demons hate Tucker Carlson

Tucker Carlson is a very strange man, espousing all manner of hateful ideas and conspiracies. But his latest admission really takes his absurdity to a whole new level. He said that about a year and a half ago, while asleep one night he was attacked by a demon that left claw marks on his body.

No, really.

When I first read this news item yesterday, I thought that this was some kind of childish prank because the previous day was Halloween and that he would later admit that it was his idea of a joke. But no, this is something he said in a documentary about to be released.

Watch the clip where he talks about this.


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