D.C. Snowstorm A "Sign from God"? How About A Howler Alert Here?

Tian -Tian the Giant Panda at the D.C. Zoo enjoys rolling around in the latest "sign from God" - according to some evangelicals.

The latest bunkum polluting the web is that the mammoth D.C. snowstorm was a "sign from God" basically with the deity inflicting this white pain because of the way the capitol has treated Israel and "glorified Iran". Reading some of these screeds it's hard not to erupt in howling laughter at the sheer gullibility of people. Especially those on the Right, and especially given that at the same time they are targeting the gov't (mainly the Dems and Obama, of course) their own pet boy Cruz is making friends with a turd (Mike Bickle) who evidently has it in for Jews. According to Right Wing Watch, e.g.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-cruz-welcomes-endorsement-mike-bickle-who-believes-oprah-forerunner-antichrist

Excerpt:

"Back in 2004, Bickle declared that as the End Times approach, all Jews will be given a chance to accept Jesus, warning that if they do not accept "the grace" of Christ, God will then "raise up a hunter" who will kill two-thirds of them "and the most famous hunter in recent history is a man named Adolf Hitler":

Jeebus Crisp, with a "friend"  like this piety 'puke who the hell needs enemies?  The Jews of Israel (or anyplace else) surely don't! This asshole is so stupid he actually believes that Oprah Winfrey is a forerunner of the Antichrist:. This turkey is best known for starting "IHOP" - the International House of Prayer, which is really more a clearing house and platform for loads of right wing Christian bollocks - such as spreading the rot about Hitler being a "hunter of Jews" sent by God to get them on the right path. (Seems that didn't work out too well!)

So given this mutt just conferred his endorsement on Ted Cruz - the new banner carrier for the evangelical Right - it's kind of funny that another segment of this bunch is actually asserting the D.C. snowstorm is a "sign" from the deity about the maltreatment of his people - the Jews of Israel. Anyone else not see something wrong with this picture?

I mean, give me a break! Leaving out any Jewish references or issues (given the disparity of the Right's twisted treatment of them -from "victims" to rightfully "hunted"), have these people never ever heard of nor'easters? Have they not heard or learned that they tend to strike in the part of the country just clobbered? (Mid-Atlantic to NE) In this case a mass of frigid air that left our region (of the Rockies) about four days ago then met up with warmer, moist air off the Atlantic and created the biggest fuckin;' storm since Sandy in 2012. The reason this son of a bitch was so fierce (30" in Washington, D.C. up to Saturday afternoon) is precisely because the air was more moisture laden. In case the howlers of the Right don't get it - warmer air (as from global warming) always holds more moisture. Thus, as warming ramps up (2015 was the hotted year on record - see my blog post from yesterday) such major storms will become even more common.

In other words, when you boil all the factors down, there is no supernatural sign at work here, simply a natural phenomenon (nor'easter) on "steroids" because of much more moisture laden air resulting from protracted warming. This is a condition of our atmosphere that won't change anytime soon - so look for even bigger storms next time - maybe dumping 40" instead of 30".

In general,  the problem with invoking "divine signs" is that they are all subjective (apart from being uniformly negative) and say more about the psyche of the invokee than those against whom the signs are invoked. Thus, when the horrific tsunami struck Japan back in 2011, and thousands were killed, we heard off the wall Xtians professing it was a "sign" of God's anger that they had embraced Shintoism and Buddhism and not Christianity.  We heard the same type of bullshit after Haiti was struck by an earthquake in 2010 - in that case it was a "sign" of God's anger that too many still practiced voodoo and other pagan rituals. Then, after 9/11, we heard and saw other self-righteous assholes (like Pat Robertson) asserting the attack was a "sign" of God's displeasure with the fact the nation still had too many "homos" and carried out abortions.

And it's  interesting to me these "signs" are always invoked after the fact. We never get a sign prediction in advance, say like "God will send thirty inches of snow upon Washington, DC as punishment for the Obama administration's treatment of Israel and Netanyahu"  . Nope, it's always ex post facto,  citing the ambiguous words in scripture about "signs" such as for the "last days". Which, of course, can be read so many ways and with such interpretative latitude that anyone could drive a metaphorical Mack truck through them.

So please, spare me the signs B.S. Here's a bigger sign for all my Right Wing friends and family: The sign that Ted Cruz is NO friend of Jews or Israel is his acceptance of the endorsement of the Jewish hater Mike Bickle, who could actually believe in his heart of hearts that a God of love would create a murderous beast like Adolf Hitler to "hunt" the Jews for their refusal to kowtow to salvation dictates. Oh, and that he would also prophesy that unless the Jews convert then this God will vouchsafe to send another "hunter" after them.

As for the radical Right's howling about the Obama administration releasing $100b in Iranian assets over the weekend, that is also misplaced. Let's first clarify those assets belong to Iran, not the U.S.. It was also fair to repay Iran 1.3 percent interest on what was essentially a loan kept for over 35 years. Try to get that kind of lender interest from a bank, now or in the past!

As nuclear compliance specialist Joe Cirincione ('Ploughshares Fund' President) put it:

"This is a way to stop Iran from getting the bomb. without going to war. It has its risks, but those pale compared to the alternatives."

Indeed. He then elaborated on the parameters, to which most critics are oblivious when they yelp that Iranians are too "wily" and have "every incentive to cheat". (Implying the IAEA isn't up to the job of inspection).

"This is not based on trust, this is not based on good intentions. It's not based on the technologies we've used in Iraq, for example. This is 21st century technology, state of the art, fiber optics seals, cameras, sensors, audits, inventories allowing 24/7 inspections in all the declared facilities and the right to inspect suspect facilities including the military sites so much in dispute. One might possibly evade one layer of these inspections but the chances of evading all are quite remote . We can track every aspect of Iran's  production and with those inspections there's no expiration date."

This is critical because it means the harshest critics - namely the Repukes, the Wall Street Journal op-ed bunch  and Netanyahu-  are not aware of the modern in situ sensor inspection capacity, i.e. that allows the Iranian facilities to be electronically "spy"  monitored 24/7. And let me make the further point Iran earned those assets back by its nuclear compliance.  Those still skeptical may wish to consult this report from the American Institute of Physics:

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/68/12/10.1063/PT.3.3014

See also:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-reich/65657/five-reasons-ted-cruz-is-even-more-dangerous-than-donald-trump

No, There'll Be No "Blood Moon Apocalypse " In September!

"Blood Moon" visible in Barbados last April.

During a lecture I gave on lunar eclipses in 1975, several attendees - on seeing a slide image of the Moon at the total phase- expressed concern. "Did this bloody Moon not portend the last days or an apocalypse? Was it not one of the signs and wonders written about in the good Book? Should we not begin to prepare ourselves for the end?"

To all of these questions, and to the astonishment of the questioners, I answered a firm 'No'. The phenomenon was a totally natural event that occurred at least twice a year- due to an alignment of Earth, Moon and Sun and had no supernatural overtones. Nor should one extrapolate such overtones.   To grasp more clearly what is going on I show a sketch below of the lunar eclipse situation:



Note the alignment (top) fixes the Sun at one end and the Moon at the other with Earth in between. The light  from the Sun - on intersecting the Earth -  produces a smaller, darker umbra and a lighter outer shadow cone called the penumbra.  If the lunar transit is such that the Moon (as seen from Earth ) only passes through the penumbra, we have a partial lunar eclipse.

If, on the other hand, the Moon passes through the darker umbra, we have a total lunar eclipse and what is called a "blood Moon" because the luanr surface appears reddish or ochre on account of being seen through the Earth's atmosphere. Thus, we observe the Moon as seen in the photo.  A special case for attention is the lunar tetrad. This marks a consecutive sequence of four lunar eclipses, spaced s ix months apart. (The most recent blood Moon occurred in April ).

As may be inferred from the diagrams, on account of the Earth casting a much larger shadow than the Moon (say when there are solar eclipses) the duration of lunar eclipses is longer, including the total phase. An entire lunar eclipse can last for hours as opposed to minutes for the solar eclipse.

Having now dispensed with the notion there is anything supernatural regarding blood Moons and lunar eclipses, it is somewhat astonishing to note that here in the year 2015, there is a United States congressman who actually believes that a so-called blood Moon prophecy determines the fate of the Middle East as well as the fate of the world, of all of us. .

Says Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia:

“Blood moons have preceded world-changing, shaking-type events,”

WHICH ones? He doesn't say but never mind,  This balderdash is gaining surprising traction in conservative media, and is being adopted as legitimate by prominent figures, including Hice in Congress and the Family Research Council, the powerful social conservative lobbying group in Washington.

Ironically, as these yahoos are getting all worked up over blood Moons, we are facing a genuine catastrophe as now the pace of global warming appears on track for a 4C rise in global mean temperatures and even a 6C.  People in TX may not think their 34 trillion tons of rain pouring down causing flooding the past week has  anything to do with climate change - but they'd do well to rethink that. Anyone who's taken basic basics knows that a hotter atmosphere  (because of greenhouse gases like CO2) absorbs more moisture - and this can be triggered to pour down when that warmer, moister air encounters much colder air - as has been spinning off the Rockies the past couple weeks (seeing our night temperatures sometimes diving to 32 F or less)

It's true that singleton events or even temporary phases of weather do not "prove" global warming, but we are talking about a trend of  climate that has appreciably warmed the atmosphere over years enabling it to hold more water. More water, means more rain - depending on when and how it is triggered, whether in the NE or SW.

Anyway, we also know that mega-pastor John Hagee, the leading purveyor of blood Moon prophecy talk, is powerful in Washington, and able to command the attendance of influential conservative politicians to his events. According to Hagee here’s how the prophecy is supposed to shake out:

It was “discovered” that blood Moon tetrads  that coincide with traditional Jewish feasts and holidays announce world-historical moments for Jews; and because the fate of the Jewish people determines the fate of humanity, according to fundamentalist Christians, each of these revelations signals the approach of the End Times.

Thus, a blood Moon tetrad coinciding with Jewish holidays in 1493 is said to have marked the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and the European discovery of America. Another in 1948-49 signaled God’s pleasure with the founding of the state of Israel; and the next, in 1967-68, coincided with the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, which allowed Israel to acquire Arab territory, much of which it still maintains. The occupied territory is considered prophetically necessary and in accord with Scripture by many conservative Christians.

But all of that was merely a prelude to the tetrad currently underway. The third blood Moon fell in April, and the final prophetic moon will occur in late September. This tetrad, according to the prophecy, signals the beginning of the end of the world. (Though strangely, we've yet to hear a peep from Hagee or anyone else in his camp of where the "AntiChrist" may be hanging out - and bear in mind there's supposed to be a 7-year reign before everything comes to perdition in the "Tribulation"

Ah - but WAIT! Earlier prophet and bloviator Hal Lindsey in his book 'The Late, Great Planet Earth', already forecast that was all to unfold in 1988 (using 'one generation' = 40 years, marked from the birth of the Jewish state in 1948.)  But a funny thing happened in 1988, nothing!

Never mind! The current crop of bumpkins is forecasting that the  apocalypse is coming this September. So it’s crunch time in the land of the apocalyptic crazies. All hands on deck! This is not a drill. As a heads up. on May 14, a large banner atop World Net Daily, the popular conservative Christian website, advertised its “exclusive” report on the four-month “countdown” to the “Biblical day of reckoning.”

In addition, in order to pump up the expectation and fear, a movie about the prophecy was released last month in theaters, and pastor John Hagee’s bestselling book about blood moons spent months on Amazon’s top 100 books list.  (I suspect it will meet the same eventual fate as Lindsey's effort.)

The impending doom even compelled Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of Rev. Billy Graham, to issue a call for a seven-day “mayday” prayer offensive, to appeal to God, with this warning to motivate:

“Institutions will collapse. Banks will close. The Stock Market will plunge. Planes will fall out of the sky. Cars will crash on the road. Government in America at every level will disintegrate. Families will be torn apart. In the unprecedented turmoil, our nation will be vulnerable for our enemies to seize the moment and attack us. There will be mass chaos, confusion, fear, grief, despair, anger, threats, danger… judgment.”

The Family Research Council urged its flock to heed Lotz’s call. And note: The FRC is not some ramshackle backwoods chapel filled with snake handlers; the well-heeled D.C. lobbying group’s “Values Voter Summit” in late summer will be a who’s who of conservatism, with Rush Limbaugh, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Sean Hannity and a host of others expected to speak at the conference.

Again, all this huff and puff is going on while the actual, impending threat to humanity, global warming, is considered a “hoax,” a whole cloth invention by pointy-headed liberals and scientists,  Meanwhile the color of the moon and the spotty wisdom of goat herders from 3,000 years ago is stitched together into some kind of astro-hermeneutics, used to determine whether or not October happens.

John Hagee again:

“When you take scientific fact and historical fact and line it up exactly with prophetic fact and they all are in perfect agreement, now is time to put doubt aside and to believe that God is trying to communicate to us in a very special way…and something is about to change.”

The problem for Hagee and his Hag-ee-ites is that you can't use scientific facts to cook up codswallop.You cannot use science, in other words, to carry grist to the fantasy and superstition mill. If Hagee and his lot had any sense at all they'd instead be doing all they can to make sure that the 6C increase mark for warming isn't reached. If it is, they will have a real apocalypse to fret over - and alas, no one coming to "save" them.