Agenda Archeology

I mentioned - briefly - the James Cameron directed attempt to debunk the bible. He participated in a film project that claimed to have discovered the remains of Jesus, his wife and their son. Many scholars and scientists have eviscerated Cameron and company for their shoddy, theatrical attempt at "scholarship. But the "controversy" continues to be pumped (or pimped, as the case may be) by the media. But there is a very revealing quote right at the end of the article that exposes rather more about the real agenda than the person quoted appears to realize.

The filmmakers also suggest that Mary Magdalene was buried in the tomb, that she and Jesus were married, and that an ossuary labeled "Judah son of Jesus" belonged to their son.

The scholars who analyzed the Greek inscription on one of the ossuaries after its discovery read it as "Mariamene e Mara," meaning "Mary the teacher" or "Mary the master."

Before the movie was screened, Jacobovici said that particular inscription provided crucial support for his claim. The name Mariamene is rare, and in some early Christian texts it is believed to refer to Mary Magdalene.

But having analyzed the inscription, Pfann published a detailed article on his university's Web site asserting that it doesn't read "Mariamene" at all.

The inscription, Pfann said, is made up of two names inscribed by two different hands: the first, "Mariame," was inscribed in a formal Greek script, and later, when the bones of another woman were added to the box, another scribe using a different cursive script added the words "kai Mara," meaning "and Mara." Mara is a different form of the name Martha.

According to Pfann's reading, the ossuary did not house the bones of "Mary the teacher," but rather of two women, "Mary and Martha."

"In view of the above, there is no longer any reason to be tempted to link this ossuary … to Mary Magdalene or any other person in biblical, non-biblical or church tradition," Pfann wrote.

Money quote:

Jacobovici has faced criticism much tougher than Pfann's academic critique. The film has been termed "archaeo-porn," and Jacobovici has been accused of "pimping the Bible."

Jacobovici attributes most of the criticism to scholars' discomfort with journalists "casting light into their ossuary monopoly."

"What we're doing is democratizing this knowledge, and this is driving some people crazy," he said.

Interesting choice of words. So the goal is what? To take matters that actually do require a bit of knowledge and scholarship and toss them to the folks who have no education on the subject? Mold and shape the uniformed opinions? What exactly? Presenting a slanted, agenda-driven viewpoint and presenting it as pure-D-super-whamadyne TRUTH® is the new "democracy"? Bah. Hopefully, enough people have enough knowledge and wisdom to recognize a snake oil salesman when they see one.

Snakes On A Reporter!

When the reptile legions are not busy planning the takeover of the Earth, sometimes they just like to take in a baseball game. This, of course, is a manifestation of the well-known fascination that snakes have with shoes. Cleats really get to them. But the snake who attended the spring training game between the Mets and the Indians had a little extra fun.

He cleared the press box.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - A 3-foot black snake sent reporters scurrying in the press box as the the New York Mets defeated the Cleveland Indians 6-5 in a spring training game on Tuesday.

As the snake slithered across notebooks and laptop computers in the bottom of the fourth inning, fans stood up and laughed as they gazed into the press area.

The snake was last seen rolling around on the ground laughing. Which is particularly painful for snakes because they are unable to hold their bellies when that happens. A collection will be taken up to provide emergency underwear for reporters who cover games held at the Chain of Lakes ballpark.

UPDATE: Thusly:

Wacky German Hobbies

Those wacky Germans. It started with running around scaring ostriches into impotency with firecrackers. Poor Gustav. (That one is still in court, by the way. The court case is lasting longer than Gustav these days.) But they had to think up some other way to pass the time when the firecrackers ran low. So they came up with a whole new hobby.

Gluing grandpa to the roof.

Passers-by were so shocked to see the elderly handyman working on the roof they first thought he was planning to commit suicide, according to police in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

"In fact he was just re-coating the roofing with bitumen. But then he slipped," said a spokesman for police.

"When we got there, he was like a beetle on its back, with his arms and legs sprawled out and completely glued to the roof," he added. "Due to his age, he couldn't free himself from his unfortunate situation."

Oh, sure. They say he slipped. We think he was pushed. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard want to go on the record as strongly disapproving of gluing the elderly to inanimate objects. We're doing that preemptively in case the kids get any ideas later.

Hagelian Dialectic

The media anointed Chucky "Janus" Hagel a "maverick". They elevated him into the next hero after losing interest in John McCain. And now they have turned on their own creation because Chucky let them down. There are a number of mainstream media outlets calling Chucky's decisive decision not to decide anything "bizarre". Geeze, and after all that hyperventilation over his shoe sales….

The Republican senator from Nebraska, flirting with a 2008 presidential run, scheduled "an announcement on my political future" for yesterday morning in Omaha. Media types flew in from across the country. The state's governor and attorney general, along with 15 television cameras, crowded the room. Cable networks carried the event live while pundits went wild: Would Hagel jump into the race? Run for reelection? Become an independent? Quit politics entirely?

"I'm here today to announce that my family and I will make a decision on my political future later this year," Hagel declared in front of a presidential-blue curtain.

That was the announcement? The cable networks quickly broke away. The reporters in Omaha were feeling had.

"Senator, at least one Republican political analyst called your announcement today bizarre just now," NBC's Michelle Kosinski pointed out in the question-and-answer session that followed. "Tell us why you felt this was important to announce right now."

Nebraska newspapers (Omaha and Lincoln both) are being linked by Real Clear Politics today. Neither appears real happy with Chuckles. And they didn't have to fly in for the non-announcement. My guess is that Chucky just lost the media completely and will be hard put to get anyone to attend his next non-announcement. Unless he brings donuts.

Stark Warning

The Washington Post has a rather stark warning to the Democrats: They are rapidly running out of media cover for their anti-war agenda. With both the LA Times and the Post sending clear signals that the Pelosi-Murtha plotting is a bad idea, someone in the Democratic party might really want to start paying attention.

In short, the Democratic proposal to be taken up this week is an attempt to impose detailed management on a war without regard for the war itself. Will Iraq collapse into unrestrained civil conflict with "massive civilian casualties," as the U.S. intelligence community predicts in the event of a rapid withdrawal? Will al-Qaeda establish a powerful new base for launching attacks on the United States and its allies? Will there be a regional war that sucks in Iraqi neighbors such as Saudi Arabia or Turkey? The House legislation is indifferent: Whether or not any of those events happened, U.S. forces would be gone.

The House bill lists benchmarks for Iraqi political progress and requires that President Bush certify by July 1 that progress is being made toward them. By October, Bush would have to certify that the benchmarks all had been reached. This is something of a trick, akin to the inflexible troop readiness requirements that Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) wanted to impose to "stop the surge." Everyone knows that the long list of requirements — including constitutional changes, local elections and the completion of complex legislation — couldn't be finished in six months. In that case a troop withdrawal would have to begin immediately. If there was no "progress" by July, it would have to begin then and be completed by the end of the year.

The editors point out that Pelosi's action do not lead to a solution, only to a constitutional struggle. I'd also point out that they are setting a precedent that will lead to the exact same treatment happening to one of their own somewhere down the line. The Congressional Democrats who are running for President might want to really think hard about this. Do they honestly want to try to hamstring the office of the President/ Will they be happy with winning the office after they cooperate in placing it as subservient and secondary to the likes of Pelosi and Murtha?