Bale Of "HEY NOW!"

[chaotic electronic noises, rhythmic thudding] Shelob?!

Here.

Did I pass the emotion evaluator sampling test we designed?

No. Score improved nearly 20% since installation, but no passing score yet.

Frankenfish. Alright, turn on the blog function.

On.

I thought I might lay off the pundits for a while, but Shelob brought me one that was just, well, GONE. Any of you might find him if you care to--we'll call him 'Joe.' He was discussing Christian Bale's recent comments about Moses. Bale said Moses would have been called a terrorist today.

1. Joe made it sound like to me that he thought the Hebrews being enslaved was equivalent to the Palestinian situation today. Maybe I misunderstood. I HOPE I misunderstood. It is my understanding that the Palestinians have the right to leave where they are and move to other countries.

2. Joe made it sound like he didn't really agree with American standards of what constitutes a 'good' or a 'bad' terrorist. I don't really care whether he agrees, but the idea that ethical degrees come into which ends might justify means, is, unfortunately, perfectly mainstream and, in practice, no one have I ever met agrees with him that I can believe is sane.

3. Joe tried to make it sound like a priest, questioned by another talking head, approved of the use of drones to kill people with. The priest did NOT say that. He pointed out that there were flaws in comparing two very different situations.

4. Joe tried to make himself sound like a brilliant, insightful, and correct source of news.

Okay. Then I should, for clarity's sake, point out a few things:

1. Moses was a messenger more than anything else. He begged not to be a part of it. Exodus is actually somewhat funny at that point, explicitly spelling out how many excuses Moses justified his cowardice with. Moses was protected when he followed instructions and punished when he didn't. If there's a terrorist here, Moses was his lackey.
2. Moses didn't have the power to cause the plagues. He did what he was told with a STICK. He delivered messages. Again, lackey--maybe demoted to go-phone and holster. (BTW, Joe? Look up what the plagues were before publicly making a fool of yourself?)

3. Connotations aside, a terrorist is someone who uses terror tactics as a means to an end. You know those Buddhists who lit themselves on fire and burned up to make their point? I found them terrifying. I would consider them VERY good terrorists.
4. Bale played a version of Batman that worked very hard not to kill his enemies or even LET them die. But he deliberately did use terror against violent felons. So, by definition, he was a terrorist. I'd call him a GOOD terrorist, but hey, that's my particular ethical level.
5. Some of American special ops military people have had opportunities to tracelessly abduct ranking enemy officers right out of their strongholds behind enemy lines. Tell me they didn't incite some terror. What made that okay was that the military didn't hurt them. The military handed some of them over to Gitmo and maybe the CIA tortured some of them and lied about it to the military and everyone else. (Not the military's fault.)

6. BALE WAS RIGHT. People like Joe are common. Moses WOULD have been called a terrorist today. Somebody would have sent a drone after him. It would've gone something like this.

 "37 and the Lord saw the drone from afar, before it was even sent, and told Moses to throw down his staff. 38 And verily did Moses throw down the staff, and the drone turned into forty-nine times forty-nine thousand metal signs that said 'ISIL is a bunch of stupid losers that will be cast into the lake of fire if they do not change their ways!' 39 Moses, being sore afraid, prayed to be left out of THIS mess, TOO. The answer to his prayer was, verily, NO."

[disconnect]