The Week in Review (11-30-24)

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Always nice for a little reprieve from the normal grind, although family fellowship tends to bring its own extras too. 

I had an idea last weekend with a book I wrote a couple years ago -- Explanatory Notes on Jesus' Birth. I reformatted into the thirty-one days of December and published it as Thirty Days of Jesus' Birth. Unfortunately, I went a little Philo crazy on John 1, so I regret not editing some of that out. But it has color images and covers John 1, Matthew 1-2, and Luke 1-2.

I thought this might actually might be a good way for me to remotivate myself to finish my Explanatory Notes on the New Testament. However, it really didn't garner many sales anyway. Most of the sales were people who know me. The two or three days of Facebook ads I did went nowhere.

But the thought was to work toward March for something like "Fifty Days of Jesus' Passion and Resurrection." I've already done Explanatory Notes on Mark 12-16, Matthew 28, Luke 24, and John 20-21. I would need to complete Matthew 21-27, Luke 19-23, and John 11-19 by March. Next year, I would fill in the blanks and have all the Gospels done.

Eventually, it would be a "Through the New Testament in a Year." It would start in December with the birth stories. Then January-February would go through Matthew 3-20, Mark 1-11, Luke 3-18, and John 2-10. Then Lent and the beginning of Easter would finish the Gospels. Then fifty days in Acts covering Pentecost. Then about a chapter a day to finish up the New Testament by the end of November.

The Week in Review (11-23-24)

It's been a pretty solid week. Mostly fixed a leak under the kitchen sink (I hate plumbing). Had to call in help for our downstairs heat (simple fix I somehow wasn't pulling off). First snow of the season. We've been enjoying "very unusual" warm weather in late November.

I continue to waver between annoyance and despair that people are so suspicious of expertise, including scientific expertise. It works so extremely well. We love our gadgets. AI is dumbfounding. But we've been trained to mock the consensuses of experts in general. We think ourselves possessed of secret knowledge as we've been fed smart-sounding talking points against the most likely reality. I've even heard conspiracies that we never landed on the moon resurfacing.

I don't know what will happen to us. The young are so easily manipulated. I sense that YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, Tik Tok, maybe Twitter are the tools of indoctrination. Whatever you think of his theology, Dan McClellan is the path for those who want to influence in this moment. I've started philosophy shorts on Thursdays, although I just don't have the punch that others do. A generation can easily be lost, and the winners write the history books.

Subjectivity can explain so much away. It often takes a splat to shake us to reality, but it's a final thought.

The Week in Review (11-16-24)

I haven't posted for a couple weeks. The biggest event of course in the interim was the re-election of Donald Trump as president. He promised a lot of things on the campaign trail. I suspect a lot of people either weren't listening or don't believe he'll actually do them. We're about to find out.

We are in an experiment, so to speak. There seem to be three broad possible outcomes: 1) America will experience great benefit as a result ("make America great again"), 2) it will be much as the last presidency, or 3) we're in for a major crisis/crises. I've heard a lot of #2 from what I might call ordinary American people. They're not entirely thrilled about Trump but figure it will be like the last time.

Then there are the MAGA supporters who sound almost messianic in their love of the president. One meme comparing him to King David circulated the week of the election. Then there are those who think that the Constitution is about to be unraveled along with our representational democracy. Will there ever be a fair election again? 

The data collection is about to begin on the experiment. This week we have heard names for cabinet picks: Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, Elon Musk, and Marco Rubio. Of these, Rubio is the only "normal" pick. Gaetz is under House investigation on the possibility of activities with a minor. The idea of him as Attorney General has raised a number of eyebrows. Gabbard has been accused of being too chummy with Russia, and she is nominated for director of National Intelligence.

Musk wants to cut trillions from the budget, possibly cutting the Department of Education. I've heard the CIA mentioned too. RFK Jr. is not only pro-abortion (over Health and Human Services) but is also anti-vaccine.

It remains to be seen what will happen. Let the experiment begin.