First Looks category archive

. . . They ain’t necessarily so, as scholars at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University are verifying:

Bible Project scholars have spent years combing through manuscripts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Greek translations on papyrus from Egypt, a printed Bible from 1525 Venice, parchment books in handwritten Hebrew, the Samaritan Torah, and scrolls in Aramaic and Latin. The last member of the original team died last year at age 90.

The scholars note where the text we have now differs from older versions.

For example, the Book of Jeremiah is now one-seventh longer than the one that appears in some of the 2,000-year-old manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some verses, including ones containing a prophecy about the seizure and return of Temple implements by Babylonian soldiers, appear to have been added after the events happened.

When I read the latest from Andy Borowitz, I needed a minute to remember that the opening line was parody:

News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch blasted the British rioters today, telling reporters, “These people are criminals. If you don’t believe me, listen to their voicemails.”

Off to drink liberally.

Drinking Liberally is a support group for liberals, where you can realize you are not alone.

When: 6 p., Wednesday, August 10.

Where:
The Boot
123 West 21st Street
Norfolk (map)

Details here.

Four teenagers are accused of stretching clear industrial-strength plastic wrap across a highway, where it was struck by a motorcyclist.

The motorcyclist was not harmed.

I think the most illegal thing I did when I was their age was climb the local fire lookout tower and enjoy the view.

The fun stuff came later.

More rap about wrap and other uses for that stuff that sticks to everything except what you want it to at the link.

The new theme is up. If you like it, credits are at the bottom the page.

Don’t know whether I’ll mess with this thing again today.

If you observe any whiftiness, please use the “Contact” link at the top of the sidebar or leave a comment to this post to let me know of it, including as much detail as possible (what you were looking at, what you clicked on, etc.). A screenshot may be attached to an email if you think it would help.

I’m going to stick this to the top of the page for a few days.

I do have a question: The font size looked just fine to me when I was testing this on my local computer–in fact, I scaled it down a bit–but it appears a little small now. Please let me know if I should make it larger.

Addendum:

I went ahead and increased the font by 3 points. Feedback welcome.

Note:

As I add the finishing touches, I may play peek-a-boo themes from time-to-time.

This post, from The Economist blog, is a must read for those who believe that there is anything coherent in Teabaggery.

I’m not even going to try to summarize or extract it. Just click and read.

Many thanks to Thoreau for finding it.

Hanlon, who I normally find muy sympatico, does not think that Congressman Lamborn’s characterizing President Obama as a “tar baby” was racist.

I must disagree.

Unfortunately, in a new bug-not-a-feature, Hanlon’s blog now requires me to create a user name and password with some service called “LiveFyre” (not with his blog, which I would quite happily do) and I’m not going to do that, so I cannot comment directly. It’s not worth the annoyance.

So I will disagree right here, because I have a website and I can do that thing.

Hanlon quotes Lamborn, then says

Honestly, this is like using “niggardly” in conversation. Yes, it sounds bad, but his intention was clearly non-racial and even made sense. Okay, bad choice of words and honestly who even says “tar baby” any more, but this guy ain’t a racist. Settle down.

It’s nothing at all like using “niggardly.” Niggardly is a word with a long history that has nothing to do with race or racial slurs. Those who attribute racism to its use display their own ignorance.

He identified the primary reason I disagree when he wrote this:

honestly who even says “tar baby” any more . . .

There is one group who says “tar baby” any more.

And it ain’t, to quote the immortal Bugs Bunny, Wendell Wilkie.

I’m a Southern boy.

I can decode the damned code.

Excerpt:

It’s not government that doesn’t work. It’s when Republicans run government that doesn’t work.

The sidebar disappears from the normal view in my regular theme, but reappears when select an individual post to view.

While I trouble-shoot it, there will be no only a few new posts. Posts already in the queue will continue to appear. I hope.

No idea when it will be fixed, but I’ll be happy if I’ve figured it out by Monday.

The problem appears to be local to my theme, so, for the duration, I’m reverting to a different theme.

I’m going to download everything to a local computer and trouble-shoot on my own server, rather than trouble-shoot across the innerwebs.

Updates will be added below the fold:

Read more »

OhMyGov! reports that, although Twitter does not require its users to register as male or female, that analyzing tweets can be revealing:

. . . there are certain “buzzwords” that can often be found by analyzing the output of female tweeters. Phrases such as “chocolate” and “shopping” are among the most repeated for women tweeters. The most popular phrases for men, you ask? “Http” and “Google”…hey we never said either gender was more interesting than the other.

In other news, they found a nest of twittering twits.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Via McClatchy.

Dental deflation:

Compared with a year ago, youngsters reaching under their pillows have found an average of 40 cents less per tooth, according to a recent Visa Inc. survey.

The going rate nationally per tooth is down to $2.60 from $3.

Three dollars!

Off to drink liberally.

New location: We are trying to find a place with a good mix of menu, location, and layout.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us.

When: Wednesday, July 27th, 6 p

Where:
Abbey Road Pub
203 22nd Street (Map)

More here.

Warning: Abbey Road Pub’s website rudely plays music without asking permission.

Via The Richmonder.