Ok so it’s been a while since I posted some new reads but here are a few that caught my eye today. The first one is from Juan Cole and discusses the writing of the Bible based on Archeological studies. I think it shows that while maybe inspired by God, the Bible was written by people who wrote it based on THEIR frames of reference!!
Camel Bones and Jerusalem: Archeology Shows Bible Written Late, Full of Errors
from Truthdig,com and Informed Comment
A new paper by Israeli archeologists Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef, [pdf] posted at the University of Tel Aviv web site, is bad news for biblical literalists and far right wing Israeli nationalists who use the Bible for support.
The Hebrew Bible’s oldest chapters– Genesis, Exodus, and even Judges purport to discuss events thousands of years ago. The custom in Western biblical scholarship is to date Abraham to e.g. 2000 B.C. This dating is based on nothing more than counting generations (“begats”) backward and assigning an arbitrary number of years to each generation. In fact, Genesis is replete with myths and assertions of people living hundreds of years, and was only historicized in this way by 19th century positivists.
But here is proof that the Bible was written late and projects later developments into the distant past: it alleges that people had domesticated camels four millennia ago in what is now Israel. And that assertion, folks, is simply not true. That is the finding of Sapir-Hen and Ben-Yosef.
E.g. Genesis 24: 64 says, “Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from the camel.” If this encounter happened circa 2026 BC, it was happening a thousand years before anyone was riding camels
Continue Reading at Truthdig.com or at Juan’s website Informed Comment
The next two are from two of my favorite people. The first Robert Reich and then Elizabeth Warren. Both discuss the current war on the poor and the middle class and unlike the war on Christmas and Christians, this one is real and we the middle class are losing and if we don’t do something quick America will fall further behind the rest of the world. I am still making my way through Hedrick Smith’s book Who Stole the American dream and folks more and more it looks like the overall change from considering Americas worker’s as a prize possession who should be treaty fairly to the view that workers are expendable and all the matters is making money for the stockholders plays a big part in the loss the Dream!!
THE WAR ON THE POOR AND MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES
from Truthdig and Robert Reich’s website…..
Most Americans are on a downward escalator. Median household pay is dropping, adjusted for inflation. A smaller share of working-age Americans are in jobs than at any time in the last three decades
Continue at Truthdig.com or Robert Reich’s website
Watch Elizabeth Warren Slam the GOP for Blocking Unemployment Benefits
On Monday evening, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) denounced GOP lawmakers for blocking an extension of federal unemployment insurance, which expired at the end of last year, and called on Congress to act immediately on behalf of the roughly 1.6 million Americans who depend on the benefits.
“Unemployment insurance is a critical lifeline for people who are trying their hardest and need a little help—a recognition that Wall Street and Washington caused the financial crisis, but Main Street is still paying the price,” Warren said in a speech on the Senate floor.