Hijacking holy days – Dennis Prager

The primary reason is that leftism has become the value system of most American Jews outside of Orthodoxy (and a minority within orthodoxy), just as it has for mainstream denominations within Protestant Christianity and the very top of the Roman Catholic Church.

For people on the left, left-wing issues are not political issues; they are religious issues (anyone who does not perceive leftism as a religion does not understand leftism). Moreover, for Americans Jews, as for all others on the left, global warming is an existential issue. How, then, could saving life on planet Earth be considered merely a political issue? What could be more important to talk about on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur than human survival?

Source: Hijacking holy days – Dennis Prager

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“Self-Organized” | Cat Rotator’s Quarterly

According to Mr. Wallace-Wells, a staff writer for the New Yorker, this sort of self-organized response to events is problematic because it gives people the idea that government isn’t as important as (in his opinion) it really is. People are focusing too much attention on the Cajun Navy and similar efforts, including the various volunteer airlifts, and not facing the facts of global climate change and the need for more federal government assistance and intervention. If people don’t trust the government and instead put too much faith in their neighbors, then the government doesn’t have the power to take the necessary steps to protect people from things like man-made climate change, and the terrible cycle continues. Or so Mr. Wallace-Wells summarizes in his concluding paragraph.

Source: “Self-Organized” | Cat Rotator’s Quarterly

Paragraph does the best to give you an idea of the rest of the article, but go read it!

Are They All Yours?

I get the question a lot, but my parents did work to get basic manners into our heads– so I smiled as I turned to look at who was talking…taking a quick accounting to make sure none of the kids were being outrageous.

“Yep!”

The lady in the motorized shopping cart was trying to smile, but she looked like something was stuck in her throat.

“God bless you…..”

“Yes, ma’am, He has.”

She was obviously going to say something, so I waited.  The kids were checking out seeds for the science project, anyways, it wouldn’t hurt me any to have a little interaction with someone who obviously had something to say, and if it was the usual ripping for having too many, well, better me than someone who gets hurt by it.

“….I wanted five.”  The “something in her throat” had gone into choking back tears.  “We had three.”

“…my mom, too, ma’am.  My mom, too.  Was always saying that they couldn’t afford any more, but wished…so we can, and we do.  It works out.

“God bless you.”  This time, she sounded almost fierce.

Funny, how fiction has to make sense, while reality can just drop stuff like this in your lap.

Sixteen Years Ago . . . | Cat Rotator’s Quarterly

I fear, barbarian that I am, when someone says “I’m going to kill you and tear down your places of worship and make you follow my culture,” I take them seriously.

Source: Sixteen Years Ago . . . | Cat Rotator’s Quarterly

If not right off the bat, then when they proceed to go about doing so.

Seeds of Blood up on Amazon and Kindle | Crossover Queen’s Creative Chaos

Here’s where a search turns it up on Kindle: Seeds of Blood.

Here’s where a search turns it up as paperback: Seeds of Blood.

The two aren’t yet linked together on Amazon; that can take another day or so.

So, I… think they’re set to buy? I hope! 

And here’s a sample bit on Archive of Our Own: Seeds of Blood intro.

Source: Seeds of Blood up on Amazon and Kindle | Crossover Queen’s Creative Chaos

This is the sequel to A Net of Dawn and Bones, by C. Chancy (AKA Vathara) and it’s basically Urban Fantasy done right, like Jim Butcher does, rather than as not very thought out romance novels.

I bought my copy!

(She’s got another original modern fantasy, too– it’s much more anime themed, and funny, though at a much younger “adult” demographic than most novels.  That is, it writes like the 90s and on are normal, rather than like the 60s to mid-80s are.)

Japan is Running Out of Samurai, Ninja Due to Tourism Boom – Saigoneer

Yumenoya’s president, Tomohiro Tsunoda told the news source: “We are very happy about [increased demand], but we need at least five more samurai.” It’s possible this sentence has never been uttered aloud before in the history of language.

Samurai skills are not easy to come by in the 21^st century. Yumenoya is responding to surging demand by offering on-the-job sword-fighting and sword dancing training for people who wish to become samurai performers. Tsunoda continued: “There is a growing interest [among Japanese people] to learn Japanese cultural practices, which is good news for us.” The company intends to hire the trainees to work as paid samurai once their training is completed.

Source: Japan is Running Out of Samurai, Ninja Due to Tourism Boom – Saigoneer

Sofia Vergara, Embryos & ‘Pre-Embryos’ — Fraudulent Science | National Review

The term “pre-embryo” and the associated false period of human development were invented in the late 1960s to establish a reduced status for an already existing human embryo. They were devised and advanced without a mandate from human embryologists. Depending on usage, the term was intended to indicate either that no human “person” was present in the so-called pre-embryo or even that no human being was present, either before implantation (which occurs five to seven days post-fertilization) or up to seven days after it.

Source: Sofia Vergara, Embryos & ‘Pre-Embryos’ — Fraudulent Science | National Review

In support of this claim, we already have a term for that thing after the egg is fertilized by the sperm, forming a new organism: Zygote. (Incorrectly but descriptively known as a “fertilized egg.”)

Then the cell splits and it’s an embryo.

Note, in standard IVF you wait for the cell to split, which makes it an embryo.  There is a form where you put the IVF zygote into the Fallopian tube– and also one where you directly put the egg and sperm in.  More here.

I support embryo adoption, but not the “assisted fertility” methods– the former is rescuing people, the latter is trying to make people to order.  I know that most of the folks doing “assisted fertility” don’t think of it that way, thank goodness, but that doesn’t change matters.   The whole way of thinking about kids is deformed.

….for anyone about to go “what the hell do you know, you have five kids and really strong fertility,” I must point out I’ve got really screwed up fertility and for two years we thought I couldn’t even cycle, much less carry a child.  When the Princess was born I hadn’t had a cycle for years; since then I’ve had two, no matter the NFP care.  Go figure, I’m strange there, too.  Since 8 years from then we have 5 kids, you can figure out that my fertility is only a worry in the opposite way, yeah, that’s fixed– but it doesn’t change that yes, I DO know that gnawing desire to have something that is not mine to claim.  Kids are God’s, and their own; not mine.

We don’t have a right to kids.  We have a responsibility.