Links for 2010-06-04

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slacktivist: The Indignant Household Budget "[T]he pitiable thing is that here in reality -- as opposed to the smug fantasy world of this stock speech -- overtime and second jobs are exactly what many of those poor cheering fools in the audience are actually doing to try to make ends meet. The…
slacktivist: Big shoes "But what I think people meant about [Manute] Bol's "killer instinct" was that he never seemed to take the game of basketball quite seriously enough. He hadn't chosen this game, it had chosen him. It discovered him in that Sudanese village and plucked him out of it,…
slacktivist: TF: Skip verse 10 "Be sure to use the King James Version when you bring up Luke 17:34 -- "In that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left" -- and then argue that a literal interpretation suggests that precisely 50 percent of…
All Of You Industrial Scientists: Out Of the Room. In the Pipeline: "It looks as if the accreditation groups decided that they were faced with a choice: commit themselves to judging what sorts of presentations should count for CE credit (which you might think was their job), or just toss out…

Very good point made a Slacktivist. Conservatives like to say, the Bible's entreaties are about private charity and not governments but the distinction is not clearly in the text. For example, regarding the Sheep and the Goats, "Nations" are judge (although it is ambiguous perhaps whether the nations are just gathered, or judged as such.) Link re can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheep_and_the_Goats. I pasted some below since I think it's relevant and not real real long.

Note also other hypocrisies we put up with, like calls for school prayer despite Jesus saying, not to pray in public "like the hypocrites" (!) and other issues. (Caveat: I don't accept these texts as revelatory, it's here regarding consistency and to show the relevant sentiments.)

31 "But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will tell those on his right hand, 'Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. 36 I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.'
...
44 "Then they will also answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn't help you?' 45 "Then he will answer them, saying, 'Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn't do it to one of the least of these, you didn't do it to me.' 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."