- History, rhyming
- Forget “conversion.” How about coping?
- Euphemism of the Decade?
- Slovenia’s lookin’ good!
- Begats
Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.” Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement[a] to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.
(Daniel 6:4-7) History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.
I know too little of JONAH to know how just this result of a New Jersey lawsuit against gay conversion therapy might be. I’m skeptical of claims that a therapy can “change an individual from gay to straight” (though I suspect that “homosexuality” should ordinarily be “homosexualities,” and that some of the pluriform afflictions might be “curable”) and recognize the potential for crass commercial scams based on such claims.
But I know too much to praise the Plaintiffs’ lawyers’ endzone dance and will never believe anything the Southern Poverty Law Center claims without independent verification.
And I know that our overlords are almost as furious at therapies oriented toward helping willing gay patients live chastely — “coping strategies,” if you will — without expectation of becoming straight.
It sounds to me, by the way, as if JONAH lawyered up with generically Evangelical Protestant lawyers, based on their concession trope about “Biblical principles.” Curious. Are there no seasoned Jewish religious liberty lawyers?
I got my consciousness raised on the way home Monday in a nice, subtle way, as no doubt was intended. I don’t think this one ever would have slipped under my radar, though, unless I was paying no attention at all.
Wikipedia describes Lili Elbe as “one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery,” which is several clicks nicer and more euphemistic than “body mutilation” to bring Soma into superficial alignment with the importunings of Psyche.
All Things Considered referred to it as her as one of the first beneficiaries of “gender confirmation surgery,” which pretty blatantly begs the question of the nexus between sex and (if there be any distinction) gender.
Add Slovenia to your list of Potentially Sane Nations should emigration become necessary.
On a brighter note, a coin dropped for me personally Sunday, as I finally enjoyed a geneaology and understood its purpose, both in the Matins Synaxarion (commemoration of Saints) and in the Gospel reading at the Liturgy.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to make some snarky connection to the preceding items. If they’re commensurable at all, it would be complicated to explain.
* * * * *
“In learning as in traveling and, of course, in lovemaking, all the charm lies in not coming too quickly to the point, but in meandering around for a while.” (Eva Brann)
Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 