Catholic hypocrisy in Fort Worth

 Almost immediately after the death of Pope Francis, Bishop Michael Olson, bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth, issued an official statement of mourning on the diocese's email mass-blast list.

I don't know if Olson was hoping for the proverbial skinny pope to follow a fat one or what, but whatever, there's nothing on the diocesan website beyond "Habemus Papam."

Elsewhere in his work, Olson has shown himself to be a control-freak jackass. I'm not sure exactly where he falls on "traditionalist-modernizer" gradients, but probably tilts traditionalist. I am in part going off the Padre Pio enshrinement.

Nathan J. Robinson channels his inner Peter Singer — for SHRIMP!

Yes, you read that right.

Nathan J. Robinson, via Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla, channels his inner Peter Singer, as in the Australian utilitarian philosopher known for his sometimes strident, occasionally off-putting, takes on animal rights — for the intelligence, and the suffering potential, of shrimp.  The intelligence of squid and octopus is generally overrated and also largely anecdotal. Therefore, extrapolating from them to shrimp is a fail.

Robinson's an interesting person. A Brit expat who launched A Current Affair here in the US (his home base is New Orleans), he's best seen as a DSA Rosey, even if he's not an official member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

In other words, a squishy pseudo-leftist who will chide Democratic Party leaders every 2 or 4 years, but then, presumably, vote for them in the voting booth. He certainly has never talked up third parties, and for that I've called him out at my primary blog and at Shitter. 

Anyway, per the second link, even if Nicholas Humphrey is not all right, I certainly don't think he's close to being all wet. Warm-bloodedness is where to start with animal intelligence.

Linked inside that piece, but getting separately posted now, is the piece on how octopus intelligence is both overrated and often anecdotally assessed. 

Per Daniel Engber's piece, first, there's been cases of fraud on octopus escape abilities. Second, that doesn't mean conscience-type intelligence anyway, as shown by exactly how they, squid, and presumably other cephalopods control their tentacles.

Beyond that, shrimp aren't cephalopods, which are a class within the phylum of molluscs. They're crustaceans, a subphylum within the phylum of arthropods. And, yes, you'll get people talking up spider intelligence.

They're wrong, too. 

One can still protest what does look like animal cruelty, cutting off one eye of female shrimp to get them to breed better. And? I'd protest cutting out one compound eye of a drone honeybee to get them to pollinate better. Bees aren't intelligent, either, and surely have even less of a sensation of pain than shrimp.  

So, shrimp alfredo? Dine away, unless you're vegetarian, period. Or worried about the environmental issues of farmed shrimp.

Oh, speaking of that? You'll find NOTHING about it in Robinson's article, nor on Zorrilla's website, the Shrimp Welfare Project.

Oops. 

United Methodist Church crack-up gets more serious

I wrote in detail about the basics about 18 months ago. The crackup itself was ultimately not so totally much about theology — ie, gay marriage and clergy — as it was about other issues. One was financial independence, and, related to that, property issues. The other? Methodists require congregation clergy to rotate every three years; conservatives didn't want that. The reasons are largely the same reasons Catholics have similar — to prevent a local clergy power based.

Now? Things have hit a new level of seriousness.

The Texas Supreme Court said recently that the United Methodist Church can officially fight Southern Methodist's plans to set itself apart from the body on governance. SMU is the site of Perkins School of Theology, an official UMC seminary, among other things.

The sayings of Jesus: Pearls before swine

Matthew 6:6:

Doesn't make much sense to me for one BIG reason.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

Jesus is a Jew. One who's there to fulfill the law.

Setting aside the surely allegorical synoptic miracle story of the demon called Legion going into swine (set in the Decapolis and hold on to that)

He theoretically wouldn't have been around swine at all in the first place. 

So, what is he getting at?

Is this an affirmation of a gentiles-only mission? 

(2 Peter does talk about a sow returning to wallowing in the mud, but there's a good chance that book was written in the second century CE, after proto-Christianity and proto-Judaism had started separating.)

Luke doesn't have it, after all.