Jesus and goats, or a caprine crime wave

I have long noticed that Jesus, or at least the author(s) of the Gospel of Matthew, didn't seem to like goats much. In chapter 25 of that gospel, it is said that the apocalyptic Son of Man will come and

he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

The guys on the left are gonna get it.

Since we got goats, I've had a few problems with that verse. I mean, goats can't help not being sheep, whereas people presumably have some type of choice about whether they will behave decently. Amongst my many heretical musings I also began to wonder whether the Second Person of the Holy Trinity harbored a prejudice against goats...or did he just have better information?

A caprine crime wave that hit Goat Rope Farm last night helped to answer that question. It seems that Cornelius Agrippa (above) decided to batter his way into the part of the barn where grain and hay are stored....



...busting up a door in the meantime. He was then joined by several accomplices and they had a good time knocking over storage cans, chowing down, relieving themselves on fresh hay and generally trashing the place.

I'm now willing to concede the point. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Jesus knew a thing or two about a thing or two.

TAXING QUESTIONS. A new poll suggests that Americans overwhelmingly favor increasing taxes on the wealthy.

AMERICAN NATIONALISM considered here.

COAL GOING UNDER? Some analysts predict a steep decline in the WV coal industry over the next few years.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

What he said, revisited

Hats off to billionaire investor Warren Buffett for his recent op-ed in the New York Times titled "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich." Here's a sample:

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

And here's the conclusion:

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

Does that make him a socialist?

MIRACLES, MATTER AND MORE. Here is the latest version of the Rev. Jim Lewis' Notes from Under the Fig Tree.

WORK SHARING makes sense as an alternative to mass unemployment.

MOTHER NATURE has her moments when it comes to engineering.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Pendulums

For most of the 20th century, disciplines like sociology and anthropology emphasized culture as the main shaper of human behavior and were skeptical of suggestions of biological or genetic influences on human social life.

They had some reason on their side. Anyone who thinks human nature is fixed by heredity has a lot explaining to do about our species' variability across time and space. Also, many previous attempts to bridge the gap between biology and society were suspect on many grounds.

So-called Social Darwinists misused Darwin's ideas to justify cut-throat unregulated capitalism in the Victorian era. Eugenics was the rage on both the right and left up until the mid 20th century. Racists and imperialists misused "science" to reinforce their bias and social positions. The Nazi movement imagined a struggle for existence between races. No wonder people wanted to focus on culture.

Lately, with growing knowledge in the fields of biology and genetics, things have begun to change. Biological determinism is still out as a catch-all explanation for social life, but there seems to be a greater willingness to consider the genetic bases of at least some behavior at the group and individual level.

More on this to come.

STATING THE OBVIOUS is a good thing these days. Here's another op-ed on the need for more action to create jobs. Krugman throws in his two cents here.

INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT. Massey executives went deep into the Upper Big Branch mine shortly after the disaster, which raises lots of questions.

FRAME THIS. Here's George Lakoff on politics, morality and messaging.

TAX THIS. Here are some reasons why raising taxes on the wealthiest makes sense.

PLATO, POP CULTURE AND VIDEO GAMES here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED