Yearly Archives: 2025

The Bible on immigrants 2

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged ethics immigration religion on by

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21)

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)

“You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 24:22)

“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.” (Deuteronomy 23:7)

Exhortations like these occur repeatedly in the Pentateuch. The idea was clearly important: People from other countries who have come to Israel and Judah should be treated by the same standards as natives. They shouldn’t be oppressed. Christian nationalists think otherwise, though I’ve never heard them explain why.
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My library tour

This entry was posted in Personal and tagged libraries New Hampshire on by

Somehow I thought I’d posted about this earlier, but I hadn’t on this blog. As a little summer project, I’m visiting every public library in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Rockingham is in the southeastern part of the state and includes all of New Hampshire’s 18-mile seacoast. There are no big cities. Portsmouth, which I think is the only city in the county, has about 22,000 people. Three towns are bigger. The difference between a town and a city in this state is the form of government, not the population. Derry, the biggest town in the state at about 34,000, has two libraries, and the people at the smaller one in East Derry firmly say it’s not a branch library.
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This entry was posted in Writing on by | Open »

After sticking to its claim that my video of A Trip to the Moon with original music violates their copyright, MK2 backed down when YouTube asked them to support the assertion. The video is safely back for the foreseeable future.

Dean Cain, a dangerous convention guest 4

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged fandom ICE on by

Dean Cain, who had once played Superman on the TV show Lois & Clark, has taken a job as an ICE officer. He is listed as a guest at Cincinnati Comic Expo. He may be a guest at other upcoming conventions I don’t know about. Now that he is working for ICE, he is a dangerous person to have at any gathering of fans. By taking the job, he has shown that he has no regard for human rights. He may well pick attendees for ICE to grab.
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“A Trip to the Moon” is now available on YouTube

This entry was posted in Movies and tagged music silent movies YouTube on by

This morning I saw that my video of Georges Méliès’ Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) is no longer blocked on YouTube. Its status now says “Visibility restrictions are lifted until the dispute is resolved.” That means it could disappear again.

Again, the is the complete version, with a celebration at the end, and the accompaniment is my original, improvised music. I did a better job this time than in my earlier public performances.
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A silent film copyright troll strikes 4

This entry was posted in Movies and tagged copyright silent movies on by

Yesterday I uploaded a video of the famous 1902 silent film, A Trip to the Moon or La Voyage dans la Lune by Georges Méliès, with my original accompaniment, to YouTube. Today I got a notice that it’s blocked because somebody called “CPR Agency for MK2” claims to own the movie. This is obvious nonsense. I’ve disputed the claim and hope the video will be available before long.
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The false equivalence fallacy 3

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged logic SanityProject on by

Getting back to the inappropriate use of the term “Alligator Auschwitz,” I’ve noticed several cases on Bluesky where people have argued, in effect: The facility called “Alligator Alcatraz” is a concentration camp. Auschwitz was a concentration camp. Therefore the two are morally equivalent.

This is an example of the false equivalence fallacy. It claims two things are equivalent on the basis of some similarities while ignoring significant differences. Often, as in the present case, they’re differences of degree. Wikipedia gives the example: “They are both Felidae, mammals in the order Carnivora, therefore there’s little difference between having a pet cat and a pet jaguar.” It’s most likely to turn up in emotionally loaded comparisons. “Overstaying one’s visa and armed invasion are both illegal, so overstayed immigrants are an invasion force.” “Kissing someone without prior verbal permission and rape are both impositions on a person, therefore an unrequested kiss amounts to rape.” “A 5G phone and a nuclear reactor in meltdown both emit radiation, therefore 5G phones are a severe danger to anyone in the area.”
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August 2, a day of rage? 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty news on by

The theme for the August 2 protests coordinated by the 50501 group shows a disturbing shift from the earlier ones. “Hands Off” and “No Kings” were excellent themes, addressing governmental overreach and the centralization of power. The theme for tomorrow, though, is “Rage Against the Regime.” The name is an obvious reference to the group “Rage Against the Machine,” whose songs are characterized by protest and mind-numbing repetition.
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Tom Lehrer as composer 3

This entry was posted in Music and tagged music on by

A couple of days ago I was saddened but not surprised to learn that Tom Lehrer had died. He was 97 years old, after all. He remarked many years ago that “It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year,” but he went on to surpass the lifespans of nearly every well-known writer of music. Irving Berlin and Elliott Carter broke the century mark, but that’s about it. His songwriting career was only a short interlude in a long academic career, but his fans know nearly all of his thirty or so songs.

The lyrics of those songs are widely quoted and discussed, but not as much is said about his music. He set his satirical lyrics to tunes that are inventive, catchy, and full of solid musicianship. I’d like to say a few things about that music, to restore a bit of balance.
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