Item Notre Dame Burns

“It hurts to watch this,” said Pierre-Eric Trimovillas, 32. “The cathedral is the symbol, the heart of Paris.” The crowd gasped and cried in horror as the spire fell, Mr. Trimovillas said, adding, “Paris is beheaded.” The crowds that had gathered were eerily calm, with little shouting or commotion. Angelique de Almeida, 32, watched through tears. “We are going to lose her, everything is up in flames,” she said. “We lose this, we lose Paris. It is apocalyptic. And this is the Holy Week.”

If there was ever a metaphor—or an omen. France has been burning for quite a while. Does anybody have a count on how many minutes after the fire was first spotted before the media were assuring us it was an accident? (Or otherwise?)

Omen already confirmed: Architects And Historians Wonder: Maybe The New Notre Dame Should Be Less “Overburdened” With Christian Meaning. They even work in a bit of white supremacy in there.

But for some people in France, Notre Dame has also served as a deep-seated symbol of resentment, a monument to a deeply flawed institution and an idealized Christian European France that arguably never existed in the first place. “The building was so overburdened with meaning that its burning feels like an act of liberation,” says Patricio del Real, an architecture historian at Harvard University.

Erika Harlitz-Kern says “Give Notre Dame a Modern Roof the Alt-Right Will Hate: Medieval Europe was a crossroads of global influence, not a mythical all-white past. The new Notre Dame should reflect that.”

Jews are the real victims here. “Notre Dame and the Jews: The flames at Notre Dame Cathedral should remind Jews of the burning by that very same Catholic Church of tens of wagonloads of the Talmud in the Middle Ages.”

We have entered the final phase of the redemption of Israel and of all humanity and it is truly regrettable to see some of our Jewish brothers saddened by this fire when this building represents in all its strength the exile of Israel and the will to replace us.

Final phase? (All Godwin’s Law fans should stick around for his last sentence.) The Times of Israel says “Radical rabbi [Shlomo Aviner] says Notre Dame fire retribution for 13th-century Talmud burning”. Aviner said “Jews should not commit arson against churches, but also that there was no duty to be saddened by the fire”. Arson? “Christianity, he explained, ‘is our number one enemy throughout history…the Holocaust.'”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency said “The world mourned for Notre Dame. But France still struggles to accept French Jews and Muslims.” “But the price of hog jowls continues to increase in Burma”.

Ben Shaprio tweeted (after previous tweets) “If we wish to uphold the beauty and profundity of the Notre Dame cathedral, that means re-familiarizing ourselves with the philosophy and religious principles that built it.” Bill Kristol responded (thanks to Anon for sending these), in which he said “The terms ‘uphold’ and ‘re-familiarizing’ are doing a lot of ambiguous work here. The plain fact is that one can respect the beauty and profundity of Notre Dame while choosing not to accept its religious principles (the vanquished synagoga?) or any variant of its ‘philosophy.'”

Kristol is it right. This is a battle of different “philosophies”. The people who cheered as the Cathedral burned would agree (here and here).

Why stop at Notre Dame? “College professor bought 1-way ticket to Rome before St. Patrick’s Cathedral arson attempt, police say.…A part-time philosophy professor was charged with attempted arson on Thursday after he entered a historic cathedral with gasoline and lighter fluid, investigators said.”

Item

https://twitter.com/V8POW/status/1117189122932785153

The original CBS tweet was deleted after causing a furor. [Update: This one is too, alas.] Watch this copy and ask, May we now reason: TV producers incites violence. Therefore, it is okay to punch TV producers. Not convinced? More from the show: “Assassinate President Trump Bomb Device Explosive…Eliminate Mar-A-Lago” and many more.

Item There are now as many Americans who claim no religion as there are evangelicals and Catholics, a survey finds

For the first time “No Religion” has topped a survey of Americans’ religious identity, according to a new analysis by a political scientist. The non-religious edged out Catholics and evangelicals in the long-running General Social Survey. Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, found that 23.1% of Americans now claim no religion. “Religious nones,” as they are called by researchers, are a diverse group made up of atheists, agnostics, the spiritual, and those who are no specific organized religion in particular. A rejection of organized religion is the common thread they share.

The fruits of ecumenicism have ripened.

If you are unwilling to say This is right, and that is wrong you must fall away to those who will.

Item Am I a Satanist? Are you? How Satanism is empowering the trans community

Am I a Satanist? I can see how someone might assume that. I do have that tattoo of the Baphomet pentacle. I’m wearing this upside-down serpent cross pretty much all the time. I’ve gone by the name Satana on a few other websites. I named myself after Satan and I’m positively draped in demonic iconography. So far, it’s not looking so good. I am an atheist… Many trans people have found meaning and resonance with Satan… When I asked my followers about the appeal of Satanic themes and aesthetics for them as trans people, my mentions erupted. There are so many more trans people who are into this than I expected, and their reasons for embracing the symbolism of Satan reflected some consistent motivations. Many of them were inspired toward Satanism by the hostility of mainstream and conservative Christianity against queer and trans people.

That’ll show ’em.

Item Jewish Forward Why American Jews Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Put Israel First

The poll sought to determine, among other things, which country American Jews would side with in case of a serious confrontation between Israel and the United States. As such, it was rightly criticized for conjuring up the specter of “dual loyalty” that Jews in America and elsewhere have been accused of by their enemies. There’s certainly no need to provide extra grist for the anti-Semitic mill. Yet it’s also time to stop pretending that the loyalties of some American Jews aren’t divided between Israel and America. Of course they are. There’s just nothing wrong with it — nor is there anything uniquely Jewish about this. You’ll find plenty of similar cases in other places. The truth is that any American Jew who doesn’t care as much about a Jewish state as he or she does about the United States can’t be very identified with the Jewish people. Suppose vital American and Israeli interests were to clash. What would it mean for a Jew to say: “I don’t give a damn what’s best for Israel. All that matters to me is what’s best for America”? What kind of Jew would that be? How deep could his or her Jewishness be said to go?

It’s not “dual loyalty” to have higher loyalty to another country than your own, and it’s anti-Jewish to suppose it is. This is a couple of years back, but it’s been re-bouncing around, and it pertinent to posts from two weeks ago.

Speaking of dual loyalty, no person ought to be allowed to serve in any Federal elected or otherwise high position if he hold dual citizenship. We should follow Israel, which does not allow this sort of thing. It must be obvious the person cannot be wholly trusted to do with is right for the country in which he lives, if there is any conflict, which there always is, with the other country. Imagine, say, a Somalia-USA dual-citizen Congressman.

Right?

Loyalty to a religion, or to God, is of course another matter. But it does not apply to national politics, since Heaven doesn’t issue passports.

Item Malls are closing

Foot traffic at some of the best shopping centers across the country peaked around August 2018 and has since started to fall, after rebounding for much of last year, according to a new report from data analytics firm Thasos, which uses more than 100 million mobile phones to track when consumers enter and leave certain trade areas.

Don’t worry. They’d never use that information against you.

Item Students, alumni outraged, ‘shaking’ after Vice President Pence invited to give commencement (ellipses after first original)

Vice President Mike Pence is getting pushback from Taylor University students and alumni after the small evangelical Christian school tapped the former Indiana governor to be this year’s commencement speaker… One Taylor grad said the school, “should be ashamed…I am physically shaking…I feel personally attacked,” but not all alumni agree and Taylor officials said they are standing by their decision.

This is a Christian university inviting a Christian speaker. Sodomy is now a sacrament, and those who deny it are heretics.

Item Two Confederate statues are being replaced in the Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol, with civil-rights activist Daisy Gatson Bates and musician Johnny Cash.

The Civil War never happened, and even if it did, everyone in the south was a racist.

Item Time Magazine Endorses Transgender Claim of ‘Female Penis’

No one should give Time any time.

Item MSNBC Guest: Barr Presser is Nothing But ‘Performative Coonery’

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a winner in the Best New Compound Noun Contest! Congratulations to MSNBC Guest Elie Mystal.

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