Showing posts with label Mormon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mormon. Show all posts

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Churches of the West: St. Luke Ukrainian Catholic Church, Cody Wyoming. So what's going on here?

These are posted on our companion blogs. 

St. Luke Ukrainian Catholic Church, Cody Wyoming.

Very interesting news.  A Ukrainian Catholic congregation has been established in Cody, Wyoming.

Under The Radar Of LDS Temple Flap, Another Church Is Planned For Cody

The Eparchy for this parish relates:

St. Luke Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a non-profit organization that was formed in 2022 with a goal to establish a Ukrainian-Greek Catholic parish in Cody, Wyoming, under the Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago. With many Ukrainian Catholics in the area, and additional interest in the broader community, we are united in our desire to worship God following these sacred traditions. 

In early 2023, we were declared an official mission parish of St. Nicholas Eparchy with the name of St. Luke. In September of 2023, St. Nicholas Eparchy announced that Very Reverend Roman Bobesiuk has been assigned as the pastor of St. Luke’s. 

We truly believe it is God’s will that a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church be established in Wyoming in order that all faithful Christians in the area may experience the beautiful traditions of the Eastern Catholic Church. St. Luke’s is open to all who wish to attend. 

Suit over LDS Temple in Cody.

Churches of the West: Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building...: We posted this yesterday.  Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building permit for LDS Temple. : Citing, amongst other things, a lack ...

A new lawsuit has been filed maintaining, apparently, that the P&Z Board in Cody was biased towards the applicants. 

Like the Cowboy State Daily relates, the establishment of a Ukrainian Orthodox Parish in Wyoming sort of happened "under the wire".    But is it really correct, as the church's website states, that there are "many Ukrainian Catholics in the area"?

I sort of doubt it, but I could be wrong.  This isn't North Dakota.

There's been a subtle move toward Protestant conversion toward Orthodoxy for some years now, accompanied by the same thing, less subtle, toward Catholicism. Now, however, Pope Francis' Synod on Synodality is raising fears that the "Roman Catholic" Church will take the road to oblivion that the Episcopal Church has.  Those fears are probably overstated, but with all due respect to the Holy Father, he frankly isn't inspiring confidence except in the camp of those who would like to lay down their crosses.

That in turn has been causing a subtle drift of the orthodox in the Latin Rite toward the Eastern Rite, which is heavy on tradition, like the Orthodox.  There's reason to believe that whatever the Synod on Synodality comes up with, and it won't, contrary to fears, change doctrine, will pass over the Eastern Rite.

This is something Pope Francis, quite frankly, should take note of.

Pope Francis, this past week, was condemning young Latin Rite Priests in Rome for buying cassocks and traditional clerical clothing. This demonstrates, in my view, that he continues to miss the point, but then his entire generation does.  It isn't that the post Boomer generation is calling out for reform. It's rather calling out for a reform of the reform, back to authenticity, of which tradition is part.  The cassocks, and the Eastern Rite drift, they're part of that.  For that matter the U.S. Army going back to pinks and greens, and the young going towards localism in farms, that's part of it as well.

Also of interest here is this all happening in Cody.

Wyoming's Big Horn Basin has always had a strong Latter Day Saints population, although it's always been centered more in Powell and Lovell rather than Cody.  It dates back to the early history of the state.  There's also always been a fair number of Catholics in the region as well.  But the recent fighting over things demonstrates a shift of demographics.

Wyoming has oddly always had a booster attitude that bringing in people was good for, well, something. What that is, isn't clear, as we have always hated the population of the state increasing, and we're extremely intolerant of any changes in the nature of the state.  Well, here is the fruit of that.  Cody has drawn in new populations from elsewhere, and also taken a turn toward the populist right.

In 1990 would the LDS temple have drawn opposition.  No, it would not have.  In 2023? Well it is.  People who move in, bring the attitudes and beliefs of where they are from, even if those seem very foreign to us.  And with that is the "don't spoil my view, I just got here" view that is common to new entrants.

I'm not saying that's the case for the plaintiffs in this suit.  I know nothing about them.  What I am saying is that the bigger a community gets, the less of a community it is.

And I'm also saying, going back to the first part of this thread, there's a sense of what we've lost that's felt particularly keenly in those who were denied the experience of being in it.

Churches of the West: Suit over LDS Temple in Cody.

Suit over LDS Temple in Cody.

Churches of the West: Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building...: We posted this yesterday.  Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building permit for LDS Temple. : Citing, amongst other things, a lack ...

A new lawsuit has been filed maintaining, apparently, that the P&Z Board in Cody was biased towards the applicants. 

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

LDS reaffirms its position on gender and marriage.

This is only one of two stories on religions on this topic this week, the other being less clear and more significant, as it involves a much larger religion.

Be that as it may, the leadership of the Mormon church, which has quite distinct and unique views on marriage within that body, has reaffirmed its understanding of the same, and reemphasized the binary nature of gender in human beings.  That position, which is supported by science, has been under assault in Western culture in recent years.

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Churches of the West: Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building...

Churches of the West: Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building...: We posted this yesterday.  Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building permit for LDS Temple. : Citing, amongst other things, a lack ...

This certainly has been an extraordinary even.  Most new churches are simply built, with little major observation regarding that, and typically no controversy.  Here, the opposite has occured.

I'm not familiar enough with the internal politics of Cody to know what's really going on here.  At the 30,000 foot level, the steeple will dominate the Cody skyline, and that is at least the stated objection underlying this matter.

Of interest, an identical, to my understanding, structure is being built in Casper with no controversy at all.  But then, it sits down below the skyline.  

As an additional aside, the LDS church has been expanding regional temples a great deal.  This is a marked departure from its past practices, in which there were very few, and at one time, just one.  At the same time, in a story that's hardly been noted, the LDS have been hemorrhaging members at a massive rate, something that's also a major change from as recently as a decade or so ago.

Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building permit for LDS Temple.

Churches of the West: City of Cody issues building permit for LDS Temple.

City of Cody issues building permit for LDS Temple.

Citing, amongst other things, a lack of resources to fight a long legal battle, the City of Cody has issued a building permit for a new Latter Day Saints temple in Cody.

The structure, to be built on Skyline Drive, has been a major source of controversy due to its location.

Monday, April 17, 2023

Tuesday, April 17, 1923. Scouting in Casper.

I'm putting this edition of the Casper Daily Tribune up for one reason.


The article on the Boy Scouts.

It notes its explosive growth at the time, and that there was a troop in Mills. There's no troop there today.

Indeed, church troops, which this article notes, have really dwindled, although they still exist.  I know that in the 30s, St. Anthony's Catholic Church and St. Mark's Episcopal Church both had troops. They no longer do, although St. Mark's retains a cub scout troops.

According to the short search of it I did, today the local troops are:

6Units found near this ZIP Code

1
Troop 1035 American Legion George W Vroman Post 2
-1 miles
1868 S Poplar St
Casper WY 82601

Contact: Devin Hutchinson

Phone: (307) 337-1185

Email: devin930@hotmail.com

Boy Troop

Online Registration available for this unit.

Meets on Thursday nights at the church.

2
Troop 1167 Elks Casper Lodge
17.9 miles
3
Troop 1167 Elks Casper Lodge
17.9 miles
108 E 7th St
Casper WY 82601

Contact: Richard Summerton

Phone: (307) 259-8878

Email: rlsummerton@gmail.com

Boy Troop

Online Registration available for this unit.

Meets on Tuesday nights in the basement of the Elks Lodge.

4
Troop 1094 Casper Five Trails Rotary Club
18 miles
701 S Wolcott St
Casper WY 82601

Contact: Craig Dutcher

Phone: (307) 258-9379

Email: craigdutcher@hotmail.com

Boy Troop

Online Registration available for this unit.

Troop 1094 is dedicated to provide an educational program for boys and young adults to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and to develop personal fitness. Our Troop camps during most months of the year, participates in several community service projects, and meets every Tuesday evening for regular meetings.

5
Troop 1113 First Christian Church Of Casper
18.1 miles
6
Troop 1013 First Christian Church Of Casper
18.1 miles
520 Cy Ave
Casper WY 82601

Boy Troop

Online Registration available for this unit.

Great Troop! Great fun! Meets on Monday nights at the church.


A few things to note.

Two of these are associated with a church, that being the First Christian Church.  Way back in antiquity when I was briefly a Boy Scout, even though I'm Catholic, that was the troop I was in.  I think this was solely because somebody we knew was in it, and I was invited.  In retrospect, I'm surprised that my parents didn't suggest I look at the St. Anthony's troops, which was still around at the time, although its members were no doubt mostly alumni of St. Anthony's school.

The George Vroman legion troop actually meets at College Heights Baptist Church, based on that address. So is it a church troop?  That's not clear, but probably not.  That Legion post meets at the National Guard armory, so it doesn't have its own meeting site, which might explain it partially.

Two of these troops are associated with service organizations, the Elks and Rotary.  Service organizations are on the decline as well, although both of those seem to be doing well in Casper.

Most of these troops have a girls troops associated with them.  The introduction of girls into what had been the Boys Scouts happened a few years back, and when it occurred it took all the LDS troops out of the organization.  They'd had a big presence in it.  The move also irritated the Girl Scouts, for obvious reasons.

I don't know if It's helped the Boy Scouts or not. They've certainly been in decline, but I suspect that the introduction of girls hasn't helped.  Mostly what it probably has served to do is to create one more way in which it's impossible for boys to be with men in a formal way. Scouting was reeling under homosexual rape/seduction scandals at the time, although I'm sure that some would object to that characterization, even though there really is no other way to accurately describe it given as it was obviously male on male.  I'm not claiming, of course, that male on underage female, and for that matter female on underage male, sexual abuse does not occur.  Indeed, in the last year there's been a host of female on underage male abuse reported nationwide from public schools, school teachers in general being the number one sexual abusers of the underage.  Something, suffice it to say, is really amiss in our society, as it is likely that all of this reflects a big increase in this conduct, not merely the discovery of it.  

At any rate, the introduction of girls into the organization wouldn't seem to be directly related, but in a way it was, designed to show that Scouting was cleaning up its act and becoming inclusive.  It could have addressed that in another way, as it really undercut the basic nature of the organization.

As noted, my connection with Scouting is thin.  I was only briefly a Boy Scout.  I shouldn't, therefore, really care too much about its decline, but still, it says something about the evolution of American society over the past century, and whatever it says, it isn't really a good thing that it's a shadow of its former self.

Scouting no doubt has a lot to compete with these days.  However, the irony of that is that when it was first formed, it did to, and in some ways was formed expressly for those reasons.

Bud Light, controversy, and why are you drinking that stuff anyway?

Real beer, made locally.

In one of the absurd American corporate efforts to get on the cutting edge of a social trend, irrespective of whether it's temporary, existentially justified, or related to the product, Budweiser released an advertisement with Dylan Mulvaney, a man claiming to be transgendered and who affects a very girlish persona, badly, in a cartoonish fashion.  Indeed, it's an example of how those who claim to be transgendered men sometime affect a much more girlish behavior than girls do, and it's accordingly more than a little cartoonish.  It's a pretty extreme example, which raises its own questions.

Mulvaney is apparently an actor, and came to prominence in the play The Book Of Mormon.  I haven't seen the play and don't care to.  I'm obviously not a Mormon, but I don't like people poking fun of, or making a satire out of, religious beliefs in that fashion.  Eye of the Tiber or The Babylon Bee are one thing, but they aren't actually hostile to religion, and indeed the Bee has come to be controversial as it has started being satirical about society in general, from a general Christian prospective.  The three person team who are responsible for The Book Of Mormon, however, are out of South Park, which is an aggressively nasty cartoon, and one of them is a stated atheist and the other, a theist who declares religion itself to be silly, something that shows a massive intellectual deficit on his part.  It's sort of like saying that you believe in cars but find transportation silly. They aren't coming out of a prospective of love, suffice it to say, and while I haven't seen The Book Of Mormon, South Park is of the National Lampoon brand of humor which is juvenile, self focused, and mean.  I don't know if Book takes a mean spirited approach to Mormons, but what I tend to find is that for people who live outside the Rocky Mountain West, the LDS faith isn't understood in any context at all, and people tend to think of them as 1) some sort of Protestant evangelistic faith, maybe like the Baptists, or 2) something that Warren Jeffs defines, or 3) a tiny silly group.  None of that would be correct, and in the Rocky Mountain West the LDS church is a major institution, not some sort of odd joke.  From a Christian prospective, particularly in from a Catholic one, there are a lot of things that could be taken on, discussed and critiqued about the LDS, but making fun of them in a sophomoric fashion is disrespectful and reflects very poorly on the people doing it and a society that finds it amusing.

My overall view of mine is that if you wouldn't feel comfortable making analogous jokes about Islam, you probably flat out avoid doing it about any other faith.  In other words, if you are going to do a Book of Mormon, you ought to follow it up with The Koran in the same fashion.

That's not going to happen, nor should it either, as The Book Of Mormon shouldn't have.

But I digress.

Mulvaney decided he would affect the appearance of a woman, sort of, at some point and has affected an Audrey Hepburn like style, which nobody in this current age does. Hepburn's style was unique to herself, but she was a genuine, lithe, woman, who genuinely defined grace in her own era, and to a large extent still does.  She wasn't girlish, but rather very mature while young at the same time, and frankly rising up in popularity as a reaction to the Playboy influenced huge boob actresses of the time, something that would actually see further influence in the 60s while really being limited, however, to movies and television.  Mulvaney on the other hand, if truth be told, looks like a really anemic guy trying to look like a girl, and failing at an attempt to affect an appearance of an actress of a prior era, something he's tried to do in a TikTok series apparently called Days of Girlhood.  It's really creepy.

For some weird reason, Budweiser thought he'd make a good spokesman for Bud Light.

Bud Light is awful, as are most of the mass-produced light beers.  I don't know why anyone drinks it, which brings me to this, something that has nothing really to do with transgenderism.

Light beer, or American Light Lager as beer aficionados like to call it, is so popular in the US that even small local breweries brew it.  Small local breweries have gotten really good, and they tend to put out a better product than huge industrial alcohol concerns like  AB InBev, which owns Budweiser.

I really don't think average companies have any place in social movements of any kind. I'll make an exception for companies particularly associated with some sort of institution. So, for example, a company that makes backpacking equipment being involved in conservation, etc., makes sense to me. But beer is just beer.  If there was a cause associated with beer, it would be combating alcoholism, but a cause like that wouldn't exactly sell more beer.

Here the decision was blisteringly odd.  Is AB InBev trying to show its hip cool and down with the times, in a Justice Kennedy type fashion?  The beer market is saturated (no pun), and therefore the only real option left is to try to grab somebody else's market share, but do people who claim to be transgendered constitute a self-conscious body when they buy beer, or are they just people buying beer?

I'm guessing they're just people buying beer.

Obviously AB InBev thought there was some market share to grab there, while not losing some, but as market decisions go, it seems like a rather odd one.

Oh well, it's worth noting that this is the same beer brand that once sent out paintings of Custer's Last Stand, although they probably had their actual market right at that time.

Anyhow, just buy local.  If a microbrewery is boosting a cause, it's probably a local one, or one that's more focused, and it probably doesn't involve a cynical marketing effort like this does.

And indeed, just this past week I went to a local microbrewery and bought two small growlers of their beer.  It actually did have a beer that it had brewed boosting a cause.  I didn't buy it, but I did buy two of their other beers, to go with the first grilling attempt of the season.  The brots I bought were from a local butcher.

There are other options out there, and given that there are, why would a person, causes aside, go with a bad massed produced beer, ever?

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist XL. Panem et circenses.

Yes, the "Big 4-0".

Roman numeral wise, that is.

Because we're not stoned enough already.

Poppies.  Poppy seeds were added to Italian bread in the middle ages by the poor, specifically to keep themsleves stoned most of the time.  This was because their lives were bad.  The German army passed out booze, and sometimes drugs, late in World War Two to "motivate" troops, or in other words stone them before they went into horrors.  Somehow, we're headed back into the Italian situation.

Headline from The Denver Post:

Gov. Polis tells Bill Maher he’s “excited” about medical ‘shrooms after voters pass psilocybin legalization

And also:

Colorado voters decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms

Colorado becomes the second state after Oregon to establish a regulated system for substances like psilocybin and psilocin.

Because Americans aren't stupid enough already, and Denver isn't enough of a giant doped up smelly dump.

Seriously, the march of intoxicants in this society ought to be an alarm bell going off. Something is really screwed up and the only thing a lot of people, and governments, can think to do is to keep people stoned.

A walk thought Denver's capitol city should show anyone, including Governor Polis, how messed up Colorado is as an example of this.  Truly, and I'm not a teetotaler, if there's one thing that could have been done to help keep the country from getting where it now is, that we could go back and do, not repealing prohibition would be it.

Panem et circenses?

It seems so.

Bias?

Colorado Springs shooting suspect Anderson Aldrich is a registered member of the Mormon church, spokesman confirms

So what?

I note this as this does seem to be the sort of headline that imports next to no useful information but which reporters, because of a bias, believe it does. It's impossible not to read this and think that the suggestion is that Anderson Aldrich shot up a gay club because he's a Mormon.

I'm rather obviously not a Mormon, but I'm confident that the LDS church does not advocate this sort of thing in any sense.

This is, I'd note, just a stone's throw from suggesting that all members of any conservative religion that generally holds conservative social views is a menace to society, a suggestion I've seen in news articles more than once.

Bias confirmation

Most folks here no doubt don't follow it, but there's a thing called "Catholic Twitter", which is made up of Catholics, on Twitter.

The main thing about Twitter is the gross exaggeration of any one topic until it's at the screaming level.  Most of the people on Twitter don't take Twitter all that seriously to start with, and they shouldn't, and any one topic that's on it is not likely to be all that important or reflective of what is going on in the real world.

Anyhow, below is a part of a conservation that got rolling and rapidly morphed into "blind my eyes to the evidence".  How it got started I'm not sure, as it involves the now actually relatively old story of Catholic cleric's abusing some sexually.

It's worth noting that this story is horrific in general. But at the same time it was a minority of clerics, and most of this story is now really old. To the extent that it remains a real present story it is is because the Church has a lot of older leaders, much like American society in general, who haven't done a good job of confronting this, in part because they seem to have ignored it and don't quite get the story.

Anyhow, one Priest noted.

Fr Matthew P. Schneider, LC
@FrMatthewLC
The majority of victims of clerical sex abuse were post-pubescent males who were still minors. Allowing men who were sexually attracted to post-pubescent male teens become priests likely had a part to do with the abuse (whatever name you give that).
Quote Tweet
Joshua McElwee
@joshjmac
Asked about prior comments that gay clergy were responsible for the Catholic clergy abuse crisis, new US Catholic bishop president Archbishop Broglio claims: "It's certainly an aspect of the sexual crisis that can't be denied." Academic studies have found no such relationship.
Twitter for Android

Fr. Schneider is correct.  Most of the abuse that occurred was male on male, and most of that was on post pubescent males who were legally minors.

Let's take a diversion here for a moment.

Just recently a French Cardinal publically confessed and condemned himself for what was translated as "an affair" with a 14-year-old female back many years ago when he was a priest, not a bishop.

That's horrific.

The headlines, however, rapidly went from "an affair" to "rape", or at least the Twitter ones did.

Here's the thing.  Under the applicable French law, she was over the age of consent and could do just that.  So the act was icky, gross, immoral, inexcusable, but not illegal.  It wasn't rape as the law of that land, at the time, defined it.

FWIW, as that surprised me, I looked it up. The age of consent in France is now 15.

I always think of the age of consent being 18, but by and large in most of Europe, Ireland I think aside, the age of consent is lower than 18, with ages in the mid-teens not uncommon.  I'm not going to post them all, but that's interesting in part because Europeans like to criticize the US for having legal pathways to "child marriage" while they have legal pathways to what we'd regard here as rape.

Anyhow, this is an example of following the evidence.

And the evidence generally is that most priest abusers were engaging in homosexual abuse, as legal line or not, "post pubescent" is a legal, not a physical, line.

Occam's Razor holds that the simplest answer is generally the best, because it's generally correct.  The simplest explanation here is that most of the abusers were homosexuals.

Indeed, they pretty clearly were.

No, that doesn't make all homosexual men abusers, but if you put anyone in a situation in which they have no legitimate means for an outlet, problems arise. The real question, therefore, is how did enough homosexual men end up in the priesthood (and in Boy Scout leadership positions) for this to be statistically observable.

I've posted on it before, but my view is, on the priesthood, that this occurred as it gave homosexual Catholic men a place to professionally hide.  That seems to be where the evidence leads. They weren't there because they were homosexuals per se, but because it gave them a socially acceptable excuse for not being married and, even more than that, not exhibiting any interest in women.

Well, of course, the Twitterverse couldn't accept that. The competing explanation, violating the principal of pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, was that the abuse was male on male only males were around, and therefore they were the only targets of opportunity.

That explanation leaves a lot lacking.  For one thing, males aren't the only humans around. The French example, which has become two examples, demonstrates that, and an example in our own diocese of many years ago demonstrates that as well.

And while all male environments do give rise to this, it's not quite in the same fashion.  Those examples tend to be instances in which not only are only males around, but their virtually cloistered for long periods of time.  Groups of straight conscripts, for example, don't start engaging in male on male sexual contact as there aren't women around.  Indeed, studies have shown that in areas where there are only males for long periods of time, what tends to happen is that their testosterone levels plummet on their own, and they're simply less interested.

But because we must maintain this fiction socially now, we can't entertain the possibility that the abusers were homosexuals.  We can't even really engage in the possibility that a small number of homosexuals are abusers.

The Zeitgeist.

What about the Boy Scouts?

I haven't researched it, but I'd guess that those abusers were attracted to those leadership roles specifically for the target of opportunity situation.  So that situation was different yet.  The difference, therefore, is that in the priest example I suspect homosexual men put themselves into that situation to avoid suspicion as to their inclinations, and then yielded in crossing a line which they should not have, and which in the US is illegal, but in the same country, at a time when pornification of child models was common, isn't surprising.  In the Boy Scout example, that was probably a group of men who were abusers in the first instance, but with homosexual inclinations.

And no, that doesn't mean all homosexuals are abusers.

Less government?

The State gave out $6,600,000 in rent relief, funded by the Federal Government, last month.

This program has stopped now, but its interesting in that there's been so much howling in the state about Federal money.  As other examples have shown, people can howl about the dangers of Federal money and take it at the same time.

Credit Cart Sales and Firearms

A recent headline read:

Guns bought through credit cards in the US will now be trackable

So what?

In the United States, you have a right to keep and bear arms. We all know this. But that really doesn't mean that private companies can't track it.

They're already tracking everything else.

If we really don't like this, what we ought to do is simply ban credit cars, which are inherently inflationary to start with.

Misplaced Complaints

A lot of people are complaining about Elon Musk buying Twitter and treating it like a toy.

Well, he's super rich and for him, it probably is a toy.  He's probably loving seeing people complain as they dance to his tune.  And that probably explains why he let Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene back on Twitters.

Just ignore it.

Twitter really doesn't matter.  I noted this all the other day here:

Much ado about Twitter.

Elon Musk has bought Twitter and is busy making changes to it internally. This, in turn, has resulted in a lots of righteous anger about his behavior.

Here's the real question.

Who cares?

We have a Twitter Feed.  You can see it on the bottom right-hand corner of this page. That doesn't stop the fact that Twitter is basically stupid.

A person can't say anything worth saying in as few of words as Twitter restricts you to.  All Twitter really is for us is redirection to this blog. Does it work? Who knows.  But as far as weighty conversation, not happening.

Indeed, the fact that people seem to think its weighty shows how dim the American intellect has become, as if there wasn't plenty of proof for that otherwise.

Now, I have some feeds that I follow I really like. Some do nothing other than what this one does, direct you to other things Some are basically photo feeds, much like Instagram.

But as far as news or anything worth reading, not going to happen.

Some people seem to think that Musk shouldn't be allowed to own Twitter or, if he does, he shouldn't be allowed to wreck it. Well, why not?  He owns it.  If you are uncomfortable with that, as many are, the real argument is that a person shouldn't be allowed to amass the size of fortune that Musk has.  Musk was born into a wealthy South African family, and he's made more money, showing I suppose that being born to a wealthy family is a good way to get richer. 

It also shows how screwed up American immigration laws are, as Musk apparently lives in Texas. Why was he allowed to immigrate here?  No good reason at all, and in a society whose immigration laws made sense he'd be back in South Africa, or perhaps someplace in what's left of the British Commonwealth.

His personal life also shows how Western morality has declined.  Musk has ten children by three women, the first six by his former wife Justine Musk, then two by Claire Elise Boucher, the Canadian singer who goes by the absurd stage name Grimes, and finally twins via Shivon Zilis.  If nothing else, this proves that vast amounts of money will get the male holder of the same money and sex, but it's not admirable and that this sort of conduct is no longer the type that is regarded as scandalous, although it should be.

None of which is a reason to get all in a twitter about Twitter.  If he wrecks it, well, he bought it.  

Who cares?

A bigger topic regarding Must, really, is should a just society allow one person to have so much of the planet's resources.

I risk sounding like Huey Long on this, but I really don't think so.  There shouldn't be billionaires at all.  Before you reach a billion in assets, indeed, before you reach $500,000,000, you simply ought to be taxed down to size.  And no, I don't believe that disincentivises a person from "developing the economy".  And if it does, well, I don't care.

We're now past the election, but speaking of that and I guess twitter, it's really time for John Barasso to stop coming on Twitter and complaining about the price of gasoline.

Here's how the price of gasoline works.

It's made from petroleum oil.

Petroleum oil is produced in certain spots of the globe and sold all over the planet before it's refined.

Most of the world, the United States included, uses more oil than it produces. This is true of the US even though its a major petroleum producer.

US petroleum is expensive to produce.  Normally, Mexican, Venezuelan, Arabian and Russian oil, are not.

If the price per gallon is low (West Texas is $79.19/bbl as I write this. . . low), a lot of North American oil becomes uneconomic to produce.  Just about $60.00/bbl is that point for the US.

If the price per gallon is high, it means that a lot of North American oil is economic to produce.

Wyoming only makes money on petroleum when the price is relatively high.

An unstable price doesn't benefit anyone.

Russia invaded Ukraine, and for a variety of reasons this has driven up the price of oil.  OPEC+, which includes Russia, has operated to try to keep the price high.

Want lower prices?

Lower demand or increase cheap supplies.

We have no cheap supplies in North America.

Joe Biden doesn't set the price of gasoline.

Scary

North Korean is rapidly becoming a frightening menace.

The question is what, if anything, can be done about this short of military action, and will we reach a point where this seems necessary to any administration other than a Trump administration, which probably wouldn't.

Last Prior Edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist XXXIX. Pretending


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