Legal Complications

Because of legal complications that have arisen in my life, this blog will be put on hiatus. It is already on author view only and should I reactivate it, I will allow universal viewing again.

For now, this is Mr. X, signing off.

Pharaoh Obama?

Want to see something interesting? Some Israeli bloggers couldn't help but notice some similarities in the facial structure of Mr. Obama and Pharaoh Akhenaten:

How interesting would it be if Mr. Obama's father's family had ties back to the 18th dynasty of Egypt? This isn't that far fetched as the 18th dynasty of Egypt controlled a good portion of the Sudan and some less important members of the royal family did flee south in the upheaval following the death of Tutankhamun and minor civil war that lead to the foundation of the 19th dynasty.

Of course some Israelis have their own, less flattering, comparisons of Mr. Obama to Pharaoh, but that's another issue.

Still Alive

Work has been insanly busy and Baby X2.0 will be 4 weeks tomorrow. These two things tend to not allow one to make too many blog posts.

Simpsons Trivia

Pop Quiz time. Below I will list the common names for several popular Simpson's characters. Try to remember what their actual names are? (Highlight for the answers)

1) Sea Captain Horatio McCallister
2) Krusty the Clown Herschel Krustofski
3) Sideshow Bob Robert Underdunk Terwilliger
4) Sideshow Mel Melvin Van Horne
5) Comic Book Guy Jeff Albertson

Pakistani Pancakes

How about a joke... what the difference between Pakistan and a pancake? I don't know of any pancakes that got nuked by India. What? Too soon?

-Krusty

A few months ago, the new government of Pakistan decided that it couldn't defeat the Taliban elements in the tribal regions. So they signed a treaty giving them autonomous control over the Swat Valley. Apparently, this put blood in the water and the Taliban commander has mobilized his troops and nearly taken full control over an adjoining region (Buner) and are moving into the district of Haripur. Most distressing about all this, is that the neighboring region of Haripur (Attock) contains two nuclear plants that churn out the material needed to maintain Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. This region also gives the Taliban strategic positioning should they decide they want to go for the throat and take the capital, Islamabad, which is only 60 miles away.

There are scenarios that have been planned out where we might go in and try to either seize or destroy the nuclear reactors, but there is essentially nothing that we can do if the Taliban try to take the capital. What this does is put a huge onus on India. Obviously India will not stand for a militant Islamic government in control of Pakistan. The question is, would they invade with massive ground forces, or would they send in nuclear armed bombers to irradiate the Taliban controlled regions. We don't know and given the bitterness of the feud between Hindi and Muslims on the subcontinent, I would not be shocked by India going nuclear somewhat early in the fighting, especially if they think they can neutralize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal with a first strike.

I don't think Lord Marbury or Gerald will be able to solve this one anytime soon.

New Arks

A bit of a strange phenomenon has been cropping up around the world. Two separate replicas of Noah's ark have been built around the world. The first is by a Dutch man, Johan Huibers, who built it to the exact proportions as specified in the Bible, only 1/2 the size:

What's more, the Dutch ark actually floats. Mr. Huibers has publicly stated that he hopes to have it fully seaworthy in time to sail it to London for the 2012 Olympics.

In a similar vein, a group of brothers in Hong Kong have just finished a full scale ark (300 cubits x 50 cubits x 30 cubits). It wasn't built to float but instead will have a restaurant and children's museum. This is a picture of it still under construction:

I don't have any other pictures but I have heard stories that other people have built replicas of the ark in other places. I find it fascinating that there is such an effort from around the world to prove that Noah's ark could be built and add one more notch in the argument that the Biblical flood did actually happen.

Three Men on a Dead Man's Chest

Major Kudos to the Navy Seals for taking out the Somali pirates yesterday. They should have been prepared when the captain jumped into the water the first time, but at least we got the correct result in the end.

Now we just have to deal with the remaining pirate who was arrested. He should thank his lucky stars that he was captured today and not a couple of hundred years ago. Today he'll be taken someplace and put in prison. If he was lucky a couple of hundred years ago, he simply would have been hung. If he was unlucky, he would have either been keelhauled or had one of his arteries cut and thrown overboard to see how fast it took for the sharks to get him.

Hopefully next time this happens, the pirates will be dealt with quickly and they will learn to be much more afraid of a vessel flying the stars and stripes.

Checking the Numbers

At the beginning of the tournament, I noted what the Mike & Mike backroom boys had cooked up regarding only North Carolina and Louisville satisfying all historic criteria of past winners. Now North Carolina has won the title by stomping Michigan St., validating these numbers once again. When the tourney comes around next year, I'm hoping they repeat this segment so I can figure out what teams to put on the short list.

Incidently, although I didn't enter a pool, I did fill out a bracket and did have North Carolina winning it all. I had them playing Louisville so I lost on that end, but I still think I might have won a little money if I had entered a pool. Such is life.

Hand of God

To go with God's eye, here is a picture of God's hand:

(note the wrist)

Kings, ref. Abraham

The Biblical allegory that is Kings took a little break from the Saul/David story last night. There was the obligatory reference in the form of a modification of 1 Samuel 18:7 – Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands. But for the most part, the story focused on some clichéd writing with a minor deviation into Genesis.

This deviation involved the king’s son by his mistress. Apparently the boy is sick and was dying. Silas, reeling from the spate of bad luck that has plagued him lately, meets the Reverend Samuels to ask him how to get back into God’s good graces. Samuels doesn’t know but knows that atonement must be made in the form of sacrifice. Silas storms off in his car but promptly hits a deer. Figuring this is the first part of the sacrifice, he kills the dying animal. He then returns to the hospital to keep vigil until morning when the boy awakes. Knowing that the treatment has worked, Silas then walks away, vowing to never see them again as the price of keeping the boy alive and hopefully resuming his good standing with God.

This story has two aspects of the story of Abraham in it, although Silas is far more resistant of God’s will. In the original story, Abraham is given a test to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham complies but an angel stops him before he can cut Isaac’s throat. Instead, Abraham is given a ram to sacrifice. Silas being given a deer to kill instead of his son dying echoes this.

The other aspect of Abraham is that Silas walks away and vows not to see his mistress and her son again. This is similar to Abraham sending away his son Ishmael and his mother Hagar. The main difference is that Abraham sent away Ishmael because he mocked Abraham’s chosen heir Isaac and because Hagar grew increasingly disrespectful of her mistress Sarah, probably feeding into Ishmael’s resentment of his younger brother. In Kings, the other family is sent away because Silas sees it as an aspect of atonement in trying to get back into God’s favor and retain the crown. This puts a very different spin on motivations while keeping the nominal details the same.

Overall, this was a boring and somewhat predictable episode. Next week looks like it might get a little better by accelerating the plot against the king. Yay for civil war.

How Food Kills You

I will say that while I find most entrys on this site a bit too much for me, there are a couple that make me drool a little bit.

There Can Be Only One

Yesterday on Mike & Mike, they mentioned something that was very interesting. Apparently, their back room guys had gone over the past 20 years of NCAA basketball winners looking for commonalities. They came up with a fairly impressive list of 9 or 10 things, all legitimate statistics to look for in a basketball team. I can't remember all of them, but the ones I do remember are noted below:

1. A team will have more assists than turnovers (low turnover total)
2. The coach must have been to at least the Sweet 16 (Michigan St.'s coach was an assistant on the team the year before they won when they went to the Sweet Sixteen and took over at the end of the regular season, the season they won)
3. The team had a winning record the previous season
4. During the regular season, the team had at least two wins vs. the Top 25
5. The team cannot be the only representative from their conference in the tournament

There are more, but these are the ones I could remember off the top of my head. So the backroom guys applied this criteria to all the teams in this year's tournament and it eliminated all but two teams: North Carolina and Louisville. Interestingly, I've seen a couple of brackets that have these two playing against each other for the title. But if I were a betting man, I would certainly lean on one of these two teams winning it all.

Kings

So Mrs. X and I watched the pilot episode of Kings last night. It actually aired on Sunday but we recorded it and watched it last night. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great either. It’s a bit slow, but I think that’s because of set up and character establishment and I have hopes that it will pick up in later episodes. It also is not subtle in the least. In addition to using all the standard TV clichés, the writers go over the top in trying to make sure the ordinary person gets their references.

For those of you who haven’t seen it or even the previews for it, Kings is a modern retelling of the second half of the book of 1 Samuel, telling the story of David’s rise from a humble shepherd to king of Israel. Of course, the show doesn’t go so far in calling it Israel, but they do everything but. Below is a list of the various references that I caught in my watching:

King Saul – The king in the show is called Silas Benjamin. Silas is not the same as Saul, but it looks similar. However, Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin, hence the use of the last name Benjamin.

Shiloh – At the beginning of the episode, Silas is shown dedicating the new capital of Shiloh, which had been built up from a ruined city during the previous wars. Shiloh was actually the town where the Ark of the Covenant was kept prior to David’s successful capture of Jerusalem. Saul actually kept court at his home in Gibeah with Mizpah and Gilgal being the sites of great assembly for the Israelites.

Gilboa – This is the name of the Israelite country in the show. In actuality, it was a mountain in northern Israel, overlooking the Jezreel Valley, where Israel was defeated in battle by the Philistines. During the battle, three of Saul’s sons were killed and Saul himself was severely wounded. Saul was overtaken by the Philistines and fell on his sword rather than be killed in battle.

Gath – In the show, Gath is the neighboring country that Gilboa is fighting. Gath was one of the five Philistine city-states that fought Israel in alliance. It was also the hometown of Goliath.

Goliath – Goliath was the giant whom David kills with a single stone from his slingshot. In the show, it is a class of tank that looks a lot like the Abrams variety in the US Army. This is actually one part of the show that disappointed me. First, it downgraded David’s triumph as Goliath was a singular champion for the Philistines in the Bible. Turning him into just one of many tanks takes away any specialness of the victory. Second, it seems rather absurd that a country as seemingly advanced as Gilboa is shown to be would not have any armor of their own and would be facing a tank battalion with only infantry. Any country that has an army of any consequence has some armor to put into the field, outclassed as it may be.

David – In the show, David is given the name of David Shepherd and is shown to live on a farm with an aptitude for fixing things. David’s father was Jesse, but in the show, they switched this around a bit by having David’s father be killed in a previous war and making his mother’s name Jessie. He is shown being an adept piano player rather than a harp player as in the Bible. At the beginning of the show, David is shown fixing the car of the Reverend Samuels, who then anoints David in a very subtle way.

Samuel – Samuel was the priest who led Israel prior to Saul becoming king. He anointed Saul and later David as kings of Israel. Saul’s great undoing was to summon Samuel’s spirit from the dead by using the power of the witch of Endor. Samuel then proclaimed that Saul would die in the upcoming battle. In the show, Samuel is shown as a late-forties black man, growing increasingly opposed to the king’s choices. He eventually rejects Silas as king, though he has yet shown that David will succeed Silas as king.

Michal – Michal was the second daughter of Saul. She was given to David in marriage as a reward for slaying Goliath and later helps him escape Saul’s plan to kill David. In the show, her name is given as Michelle and she is shown as the only daughter of Silas. She is not given as a reward per say, though David is rewarded by being allowed to dance with her during the banquet held in his honor. David and Michelle are shown to develop something of a romance later in the episode.

Abner – Abner is shown as the head military commander and (it seems) head of the secret service (including assassinations). In the Bible, Abner was Saul’s principle commander and supported his one surviving son (Ish-Bosheth) against David for king until Ish-Bosheth insulted Abner. Abner defected to David but was murdered by David’s commander Joab.

Probably the two biggest deviations in the show from the Bible are Silas’ son Jack and the elevation of the Queen and her family. Saul had four sons and his eldest, Jonathan, was David’s closest friend, even thwarting his father to protect David’s life. In the show, Silas is only given one (legitimate) son and he is shown to be a drunken playboy, despised by his father because of his homosexual tendencies.

The use of the Queen and her brother are the other interesting twist. In the Bible, Saul is anointed by God and that is enough. In the show, Silas divorced his wife and married the sister of the wealthiest man in the country. This family of bankers provides the gold necessary to keep economic stability which allows Silas to sieze the monarchy. Essentially, they give a twist on the conspiracy theory of the cabal of global bankers who manipulate the global economy to ensure that modern leaders do as they please. The pilot episode ended with the brother-in-law withdrawing gold from the treasury and then offering the kingdom to Silas’ son Jack (his nephew).

I look forward to seeing how they do things in the remaining episodes. NBC went out on a limb and seems to have committed to a full 13-episode season. Initial ratings were low enough that I expect that the show will not be renewed for a second season. I suspect that they will burn through the rest of Silas’ kingship and the show will end with David being proclaimed king while Jack is proclaimed king-in-exile and civil war looming between the two sides. If a second season were to ever emerge, it would probably cover the civil war and David’s conquests to stabilize the region. I would be curious to see how they would treat the conquest of Jerusalem or if that would be a part left on the cutting room floor. Given that there probably won’t be a second season, that’s a moot point anyway.

The Game of Kings

Chess is not a noble sport. When you play chess, your object is to crush the opponent's mind. In today's world, a man's mind is his most precious commodity. Proving to your opponent that his most precious commodity is useless can be devastating for him.

-Unknown

The Legal Implications of Marriage

California Attorney General Jerry Brown is submitting a referendum to eliminate the state government's recognition of marriage and reclassify unions as "domestic-partner contracts."

Essentially, this is a way to try and get around the nastiness that has been brought up by Prop 8. From a Libertarian stand point (and to a degree from a small government standpoint) I can appreciate the merits of this idea. I wonder however what this will mean in terms of other laws usually tied to marriage (domestic violence, child support, alimony, community property, etc.)? Will all these laws have to be re-written and will the state of California still have to issue licences codifying the domestic partner contract (giving the anti-homosexual marriage side another point of attack)?

One of the main reasons the DOMA was opposed a little heavier in Ohio rather than other places was because it opened loopholes for domestic violence perpetrators to avoid being charged with the more severe options if they committed their abuse on a partner outside the traditional marriage construct. I am curious as to what kind of loopholes and other problems would be created by California actually enacting this referendum.

Of course it may not pass, but it does give one a forum to conduct a legal analysis of the various pros and cons of the possibility. I look forward to Mrs. X's take on the potential ramifications (at least if this were attempted in Ohio).

Irony

One of the largest rallies against Global Warming (yes Warming and not Climate Change) was planned for today in Washington DC. At the moment, the city is under heavy snowfall and could see upwards of 6 inches of snow.

You can't tell me that God doesn't have a sense of humor.

God is Watching

The Helix Nebula (nicknamed "The Eye of God") located in the constellation Aquarius.

Important Information

Red meat is not bad for you.

Fuzzy green meat is bad for you.

Mmmmm... Pork

Sooey, Sooey, Soooooey... Here pig, pig, pig.

(Come to Uncle Bucky)

The Coming Refund Adjustment

Ahhh, nice to know why prices of consumable goods and gas will be jacked through the roof in 2011.