Game changer or nothingburger?

 

Trump has decided that former federal employees and contractors are allowed to share information on UAPs (UFOs) without violating non-disclosure agreements. The catch is that they can´t speak directly to the public, but only to the Pentagon-related AARO and the UAP Task Force, which will decide whether or not the information will be unclassified.

Critical ufologists believe that this won´t change anything. Why would a whistle-blower talk to the Pentagon in the first place? Many of the relevant people are bound by more than just non-disclosure agreements and so may not legally talk anyway. Besides, much of the evidence probably no longer exists. For instance, pilots would destroy videos showing potential UFOs for fear of otherwise losing their jobs.

Personally, I will follow the peregrinations (and perhaps contretemps) of Avi Loeb with great interest, but *of course* they´re not going to disclose actual evidence for aliens (if they even have it). Still, it might be worth some popcorn to see what they´ll do instead...  

Peace, bro

 

I just realized that I posted a lot of negative stuff today. OK, so here is a peaceful pic of Amitabha and Bala. End of transmission! 

Muhammed, Muhammeeeed

 

Någon på Aftonbladet tycker att det här är roligt. Jag antar att de syftar på Blondies gamla låt "Maria". Vilken tur att det inte finns polska katolska terroristgrupper. Än så länge.

Den bisarra rubriken är från startsidan. Själva artikeln har en mer lämplig rubrik...

Polsk miljardär bakom gigantisk Mariastaty

The fire next time

 

162 people have been arrested in France on suspicion of - wait for it - having started wildfires. Had I been a climate activist, I suppose I would have added "none of them is an oil executive". But I won´t.

Let´s just say that the fires seem rather overdetermined at this point. A toxic brew of bad forest management (cuz no money or whatever), pyromaniacs, Godzilla El Nino, and - yes - long-term anthropogenic climate change. I wouldn´t be surprised if both Islamists and France´s geopolitical adversaries will start fires in their forests during the years ahead as a form of bio-warfare (or eco-terrorism). 

Thanks for your attention to this matter.  

Cosmopolitan

 

Imagine an Indian kshatriya with a Vaishnava name offering an idol of the Buddha to Isis in a Hellenistic temple in Egypt also used by Bhagavata Hindus. It happened when Egypt was Roman and the Empire had an Arab Caesar. Evidence? Well, we have the idol and the dedication. The latter is in both Greek and Sanskrit. 

OK, interesting. I can hear the purists screaming: "Noooo, you´re not allowed to blend different traditions". Try stop me, Karen. 

Stiff upper lip

 

Why is everyone so upset after the Islamist terrorist attack, I mean the car mysteriously driving into a crowd, in Berlin recently? Why aren´t the pundits telling the Euro-homosexuals that obviously the suspect wasn´t a Muslim, that we should do nothing, that terrorism is part and parcel of living in a big city, and that we should all have a "stiff upper lip"? After all, that´s what they told us after the ISIS-related attacks in the UK about ten years ago. 

Perhaps Euro-prides simply can´t be expected to have a stiff upper lip. Or maybe "They" know that nobody would buy it, so instead they are pretending to complain about *their own* broken justice system, which failed to stop the terrorist blah blah? 

Let´s see if that works out better for them. Probably not. I´m not a big fan of the pro-Russian AfD, but something tells me having a lezbo co-chair might prove to be a master stroke for the would-be Fourth Reich...

Die dummen Deutschen

 

Fjärde Riket verkar ha kommit av sig, jag menar, de verkar lika korkade som de svenska drontarna...

Efter terrorattacken i Berlin - kritik mot domstolen

Compassion fatigue?

 

Credit: punjabkesari

Overheard on the internet: "Protecting a victim from an unrepentant transgressor is the highest form of compassion you can offer to the victim."

Crown Ornament of Victory

 

I never heard of Ushnishavijaya before. Or "The Crown Ornament of Victory"...of all the Buddhas of all time. No less! The two short clips above deal with her Tibetan iconography. Apparently, Ushnishavijaya is associated with Amitayus and Amitabha. There seems to be an obvious family likeness with Tara. 

The maverick gospel

 

Well-known atheist Bible scholar Bart Ehrman argues that "Luke" didn´t believe in the atonement. That is, the New Testament writer known as Luke, who wrote both the Gospel of Luke and Acts. Paul, Mark and Matthew *did* believe that the death of Jesus was an atonement for sin, but Luke had a different perspective. (Ehrman doesn´t discuss John.)

Yes, people should repent of their sins (including the sin of killing Jesus). If they do, God will forgive them. However, "foregiveness" and "atonement" are two different concepts, usually blurred in later theology. In the Lukan scenario, God doesn´t demand a sin sacrifice as payment. Turning towards God with a repentant heart is enough to receive foregiveness.  

Ehrman believes that Luke´s perspective was the original message of Jesus himself. The notion that the crucifixion was an atonement was a response to the failure of Jesus to inaugurate the apocalypse during his lifetime.

Ehrman also points out that Luke had a stronger social message than Matthew. In Luke, Jesus says that the poor are blessed, in Matthew it´s "the poor in spirit". But note that both believe in work-based salvation!

Frankly a bit boring, but still interesting.