Thursday, June 22, 2006
End Game
LA Times:
And here we are, somewhere in the next millenium, with another bunch of crackpots in serious need of behavioral health services.
Let us pray.
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For thousands of years, prophets have predicted the end of the world. Today, various religious groups, using the latest technology, are trying to hasten it.Can't help but think of James Watt, Secretary of the Interior during the reign of Saint Ronnie. Watt figured we didn't really need to save the environment much. After all, Jesus was comin' back pretty soon and the show would be over.
Their endgame is to speed the promised arrival of a messiah.
For some Christians this means laying the groundwork for Armageddon.
[. . .]
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a far different vision. As mayor of Tehran in 2004, he spent millions on improvements to make the city more welcoming for the return of a Muslim messiah known as the Mahdi, according to a recent report by the American Foreign Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
To the majority of Shiites, the Mahdi was the last of the prophet Muhammad's true heirs, his 12 righteous descendants chosen by God to lead the faithful.
Ahmadinejad hopes to welcome the Mahdi to Tehran within two years.
Conversely, some Jewish groups in Jerusalem hope to clear the path for their own messiah by rebuilding a temple on a site now occupied by one of Islam's holiest shrines.
Artisans have re-created priestly robes of white linen, gem-studded breastplates, silver trumpets and solid-gold menorahs to be used in the Holy Temple — along with two 6½-ton marble cornerstones for the building's foundation.
Then there is Clyde Lott, a Mississippi revivalist preacher and cattle rancher. He is trying to raise a unique herd of red heifers to satisfy an obscure injunction in the Book of Numbers: the sacrifice of a blemish-free red heifer for purification rituals needed to pave the way for the messiah.
And here we are, somewhere in the next millenium, with another bunch of crackpots in serious need of behavioral health services.
Let us pray.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Yes, I've been out
and a few of you may have even noticed.
I took a little vacation with the kids, then it was crunch time for petition signatures for a campaign I've been working on, then there was all the stuff that piled up at work while I was out of the country, and blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, I'm still alive. A little more focussed on local stuff at the moment. But just like Ahnold said in the Terminator or whatever it was, "I'll be back."
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I took a little vacation with the kids, then it was crunch time for petition signatures for a campaign I've been working on, then there was all the stuff that piled up at work while I was out of the country, and blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, I'm still alive. A little more focussed on local stuff at the moment. But just like Ahnold said in the Terminator or whatever it was, "I'll be back."
