Routine Revelations

First blossom on a flowering tree of the season.

First daffy to appear this spring 🌱 🌼

How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?

The paradox of freedom, Florida style, is that it’s really an assertion of control. People like us should be free to do what we want, and free to stop other people from doing what they want when we don’t approve

That’s it right there in a nutshell. Freedom for me does not mean freedom for you.

Happy Easter

Easter has become so individualized that it has lost it’s transformative message for the world. What really happened on Friday? The powers of the world employed the only thing they know, which is violence (the sin of the world), in an attempt to stop the movement, the Way of Jesus. On Sunday we see that the powers and their violence do not have the last word. The reason why the powers still have hold today is that we continue to believe in them.

What I think is most troubling in this article about Clarence Thomas is that he appears to not care how others think about him. It seems to me that a fundamental requirement of ethical behavior is actually caring about what others think. While Thomas' continued participation in extravagant trips that he does not pay to attend is not illegal, it creates the appears of quid pro quo. Ethics isn’t about laws, it’s about appearance and trust. Americans are right to not trust the Supreme Court when justices don’t care about ethics, and given that the Supreme Court is the most authoritarian branch of the U.S. government, the lack of ethics is frightening.

Seems like some are forgetting that a grand jury is who is indicting Trump, not the DA. A DA brings an accusation to a grand jury decides whether there is enough evidence to warrant charges. The point of a grand jury is to take politics out of charges.

Finished reading: Resurrecting Easter by John Dominic Crossan 📚

Today marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians, and every year it seems the focus is on believing the stories happened rather than pondering upon and growing from the question, how are these stories relevant today?

In the Crucifixion story, what we have is a parable against civilization. The kingdom of Rome is a typical kingdom within the normal protocols of this world and, as such, it is based on violent force and imperial coercion. It is simply the normalcy of civilization in Mediterranean place and first-century time. But the kingdom of God is an antitypical kingdom in that it does not even allow violent “fighting” to free Jesus from execution—recall John 18:26. So the Crucifixion and Resurrection story is not simply about Jesus clashing with or triumphing over Pilate, but about a hopeful option for humanity to find a way out of the violence-based civilization it has created for itself.

The true question of faith is not whether resurrection happened or has begun, but rather whether the world is being and will be transformed through our collaboration with Yahweh in Christ! Our lack of faith in the story of Jesus and in the work of Christ has us stuck in the normalcy of civilization.

One of my best friends who lives in the town we grew up in sent a picture of the foot of snow that fell on his patio over night. Meanwhile, we have this…

#NotAFool

I think we are getting near to testing the question of whether or not a U.S. President, former U.S. President, or a candidate for U.S. President is above the law. I don’t think this question has ever really been answered/tested. Ford pardoned Nixon, so there never was an attempt at putting him on trial.

At the root of the question is whether our laws should be used for political gain. I think nobody would argue that laws should not be used for political gain, but doubt they never have been. On the other hand, the idea that anyone running for U.S. President is shielded from being put on trial does not seem right either as that means when one feels they are at risk they will simply declare their candidacy. I strongly suspect this is the reason why Trump declared he is running for President.

All of this reinforces how broken is the United States.

There is something oddly satisfying about opening a mail app and finding no email. I think it is related to some form of PTSD of seeing spam.

The regional round of the 2023 NCAA men’s ice hockey tournament was too predictable. Except for Cornell upsetting Denver, all higher seeds won each game. The games on Friday, including Michigan Tech versus Penn State, were blowouts, suggesting a huge difference between the top eight and bottom eight seeds in the tournament and over all in college hockey. The Frozen Four will be on April 6, Minnesota plays Boston University at 5 PM, Quinnipiac plays Michigan at 8:30 PM, the winners play each other for the national championship at 8 PM on April 8. I don’t know what it means, but Michigan Tech beat Boston University in early January.

Populations are shrinking, but what does it mean over time?

Each month, Russia’s population diminishes by around 86,000 people (not including casualties from the war in Ukraine), Japan’s by around 50,000, and Italy’s by at least 20,000.

Source

The 2023 NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey tournament starts today at 2 PM with Boston University Playing Western Michigan, Michigan Tech played both these teams, beat Boston University and lost to Western Michigan. In the games I am interested in, Minnesota State plays St. Cloud State at 5 PM and Minnesota plays Canisius at 9 PM. Michigan Tech plays Friday at 5 PM. Go Huskies!

I watched the final of the World Baseball Classic last night, and the semi-finals the days before. All the games we really exciting and bring good energy to the start of the baseball season. I know this will never happen due to obvious reasons, but I wonder whether the games would be better if they were played later in the season or at the end when presumably all the players are at the top of their game. Japan’s pitching really dominated. Happy that Kyle Schwarber had that big hit in the eighth inning to give us a chance, but up to that point it looked like the USA was completely out of the game.

My social network for two is called text messaging. Lots of prior art here, I think. Others might use Signal, Slack or even MS Teams. Heck, email works.

Just this past Wednesday I found myself in a conversation about what is woke and what is anti-woke, as the person who I was talking to didn’t understand. I think anti-woke as it is being used is easier to define. Basically, whenever someone is claiming they are anti-woke they mean they oppose the enforcement of beliefs upon themselves or others. For some it’s simply the label for ideas they don’t agree with or norms/rules they don’t want to abide by. I think at the root of this issue is a decrease in tolerance for each other. As an example, one side may say one must use proper pronouns in reference to a person, the other side says that one must not be forced to use certain words or have to listen to one other’s beliefs because listening is the same as indoctrination. There is no effort made to meet in the middle because each side wants their way, one side says they are just being polite, the other side says they are just using common sense.

I expect the Silicon Valley Bank collapse is going to be quickly politicized. Before we get to who is doing what wrong, there should be an attempt to explain to the average American why it matters to them. These situations keep coming across as simply bail outs for rich people making mistakes, at the expense of the average person, and while that is true some times, it is not true all the times.