Patterico's Pontifications

9/29/2018

Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 73

Filed under: Bach Cantatas,General,Music — Patterico @ 11:01 pm



It is the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The title of today’s Bach cantata is “Herr, wie du willt, so schicks mit mir” (Lord, as you will, so let it be done with me).

Today’s Gospel reading is Mark 9:38-50 and sounds like an inversion of the famous George W. Bush line about the terrorists:

Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

Causing to Stumble

“If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where

“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’

Everyone will be salted with fire.

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

Ah, our will remains perverted,
quickly contrary, quickly dashed,
never considering death;
but a Christian, educated in God’s spirit,
teaches itself to sink into God’s will
and says:

Lord, as You will,
then squeeze, you pangs of death,
the sobs out of my heart,
if my prayer is only acceptable before You.

Lord, as You will,
then lay my limbs
down in dust and ashes,
this most corrupted image of sin.

Happy listening!

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

Christine Blasey Ford GoFundMe Tops Half a Million Dollars in #ResistanceBucks

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:04 pm



Her lawyers are pro bono. Where is all this money going?

Ford GoFundMe

Very shortly after Laura Ingraham raised questions about the amount, the campaign announced it was no longer accepting donations. Who knows how many more #ResistanceBucks Ford could have raked in otherwise?

This raises genuine concerns about the incentives that such crowdfunding creates for people to make new claims against Kavanaugh, no matter how incredible. Why would someone come forward with a ridiculous claim like Avenatti’s “rape train” client? Here are 500,000 possible reasons.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

Open Thread for College Football

Filed under: General — JVW @ 4:47 pm



[guest post by JVW]

In case anyone else needs a break from all things Kavanaugh/Ford, here’s a chance to discuss my favorite thing about fall.

Northwestern is giving Michigan all they can handle in Evanston. Are Jim Harbaugh’s days in Ann Arbor numbered if they don’t beat Ohio State this year?

Speaking of the Buckeyes, they are about to kick off against Penn State in Happy Valley. A great battle between two Top 10 programs. Is the winner on their way to the BCS playoff?

Speaking of two Top 10 programs matching up, Sanford and Notre Dame has just gotten underway in South Bend. After reaching the BCS championship in 2012, is this the year the Irish make another run?

Speaking of past BCS championship participants, is Oregon turning around their luck from last season and back on track to be a Pac-12 North contender? They are at Berkeley going up against undefeated Cal, so we will find out which one of these two squads is the real deal?

Speaking of disappointments in the Pac-12, USC faces Arizona in Tucson tonight. Can the Trojans get back to their winning ways from the end of last season? Will Wildcat quarterback Khalil Tate start showing those flashes of amazing athleticism that we saw last year?

Feel free to discuss games that have already been completed, especially if you want to discuss the 4-0 Colorado Buffaloes.

– JVW

This Is CNN

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:40 am



Enjoy this headline:

CNN Blasey Ford

The actual content? Nothing has changed and she doesn’t remember anything:

Leland Ingham Keyser, a friend of the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were at a party in high school, does not refute the veracity of the allegation, although she does not remember the alleged incident, her lawyer said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, claims that during a party in the early 1980s at which Keyser and several others were present, Kavanaugh drunkenly pushed her into a bedroom, pinned her down and attempted to remove her clothes before she was able to escape. Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegation.

“Ms. Keyser does not refute Dr. Ford’s account, and she has already told the press that she believes Dr. Ford’s account,” Keyser’s attorney, Howard Walsh, wrote in the letter, which was sent to the committee overnight Friday. “However, the simple and unchangeable truth is that she is unable to corroborate it because she has no recollection of the incident in question.”

Walsh also said in the letter that Keyser will “cooperate fully” with an FBI investigation into the allegation.

But it doesn’t really matter that a friend doesn’t remember an unspecified incident from 36 years ago, right? I actually thought that, before the testimony. Now? I’m not so sure:

Regardless of how it’s phrased by the Feinstein-referred lawyers who apparently didn’t even tell Ford about the offer to interview her privately in California…the real takeaway here, CNN, is not that the friend doesn’t refute Ford. It’s that the friend does not corroborate Ford.

That’s your headline. Or, it would be if you weren’t partisan hacks.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]


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