News of the Force: Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - Page 2

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News of the Force: Tuesday, October 10, 2017 - Page 2

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U.S. Coast Guard

    

    The Coast Guard has suspended its search efforts for a missing man north of Morro Bay in the vicinity of Cayucos, near Santa Barbara, Calif.

    The U.S. Coast Guard has responded to the Port of Providence, R.I., after a crane barge began taking on water yesterday evening.

    Hurricane Nate's force displaced and sunk about 30 vessels along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, causing worry of possible water contamination, the Coast Guard says. The U.S. Coast Guard says at least six vessels may be threats to leak fuel or other pollution - three in Pass Christian and three in Moss Point.

    And the Coast Guard says it has reopened the Port of Mobile, Ala., with some restrictions.

 

What we can learn from the Book of Kings
By David Isaac, freebeacon.com
    Review: The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel, by Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes.

    A more dramatic story than that of Israel's first kings as told in Samuel I and II is hard to imagine. But law professors Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes in The Beginning of Politics takes an unusual approach in viewing Samuel as "a profound work of political thought" in which the absorbing narrative is constructed in order to highlight the central structural themes about the nature of political power and its effects on those who wield it. In their reading the hero is neither Saul nor David but the anonymous author who has "produced what is still the best book ever written in the Hebrew language" embodying lessons as relevant today as they were then.

    Halbertal and Holmes point out the sharp contrast between the ambivalent, if not outrightly hostile, attitude of the Book of Samuel toward kingship compared with that of surrounding cultures. They note that "in the political theology typical of the great land powers surrounding ancient Israel, the king was either a God, an incarnation of a God, or a semi-mythic human king who was elected by the gods to serve as a necessary mediator between the divine order and the human world."

    Unlike these cultures, the Jews had relied on charismatic warrior-chieftains to lead them against foreign threats. But these leaders did not become dynastic rulers. As Gideon, one of these divinely appointed deliverers, says when the people ask him to rule over them: "I will not rule over you nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you."

    When the Jews, threatened by repeated invasions, asked the prophet Samuel for "a king to rule us, like all the nations," he practically mourns. The Lord says, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for it is not you they have cast aside but Me they have cast aside from reigning over them." In fact, God compares the request for a king to idolatry. "Like all the deeds they have done from the day I brought them up from Egypt to this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods…"

    The author of Samuel does not confine objections to kingship to religious grounds. In one of Samuel's most famous passages, the people are warned that a king will take their sons for himself to man his army and to harvest his fields, and will take their daughters "as confectioners and cooks and bakers." In other words, the king they see as a guardian against foreign attack will ultimately hurt them - "as for you, you will become his slaves." Halbertal and Holmes show how Samuel's author uses the stories of Saul and David to reveal the dangers. Chief among them is what Halbertal and Holmes call "the grip of power," as the aim of those who attain sovereignty "is often reduced to nothing more exalted or idealistic than staying in power." They see Saul as a prime example, for he is introduced in the story as an unassuming, un-ambitious, and considerate young man who hides when he is called to be anointed king. He turns into a madman bent on power, who repeatedly tries to kill David in order to preserve himself and his lineage on the throne.

    When power's main end becomes preserving power, it leads to what Halbertal and Holmes refer to as "instrumentalization," a bulky term that refers to turning what should be ends into means. Such ends as love, justice, duty, loyalty, and morality become useful tools. For example, Saul is delighted when his daughter, Michal, falls in love with David because he thinks he can use her love as a means to kill David. According to the writers, David instrumentalizes the sacred when, fleeing Saul, he persuades the priest Ahimelech to help him by pretending he is acting as an agent of Saul, thus making the priest complicit in his escape and leading to the massacre by Saul not just of Ahimelech but of all the priests of Nob.

    Halbertal and Holmes, moreover, argue the dynastic solution to the problem of succession is inherently unstable for it "leads to the next generation being entitled, competitive and impatient." David's problems with his sons pitted against each other and against him illustrate the difficulties.

    To Halbertal and Holmes, "what makes the [Samuel story] so alive to the touch even today" is "its analysis of political power, an analysis that we believe to apply not only here and now but whenever and wherever structures of power exist."

    But while this interpretation of Samuel will appeal to political scientists, to the believer, Jewish or Christian, or even a secular reader drawn by the rich humanity of the narrative, it will seem simplistic and reductive. For example, for Halbertal and Holmes, Saul's madness is fully explained by Samuel's warning to him that the kingship would be torn from his hands. They write: "So thoroughly does hereditary sovereignty captivate the one who wields it that the fearful anticipation of losing it, even for one who did not originally seek it, suffices to unhinge the mind." Maybe. The text makes it seem more likely that Saul was mentally ill - "an evil spirit from the Lord began to terrify him." If Saul was sick, it puts his behavior in a different light. There is a problem with mining the story of someone who suffers from mental illness for political lessons.

    As for "instrumentalizing" the sacred in misleading Ahimelech, David is a young man running for his life in desperate need of food and a weapon. You don't need to be a power-seeker to deceive a priest if the alternative is death. David will later take responsibility for the deaths of the priests of Nob, telling the sole survivor, "I am the one who caused the loss of all the lives of your father's house." This is because he had seen Doeg, a member of Saul's court, in Ahimelech's entourage and knew he would report back to the king. But what Halbertal and Holmes fail to note is that David had no way of knowing that Doeg would lie in his report, making it appear that Ahimelech had been a knowing co-conspirator against Saul. Had Doeg reported honestly, Saul would have known that Ahimelech had been deceived. David might well have assumed Saul would do no more than rebuke the innocent priest for his gullibility.

    While they caution that "attempts to unmask David as nothing but a cynical opportunist fail to do justice to the many ambiguities woven artfully into his story," Halbertal and Holmes do not begin to do justice to what David Wolpe in his David: The Divided Heart calls "the most complex character" in the Bible. David sins repeatedly - having his loyal soldier Uriah killed to cover up David's adultery with his wife is the most blatant of those sins. But Wolpe is right that the evidence in Samuel is that David’s central character trait is faith. God repeatedly forgives him, says Wolpe, because "one of David's most distinguishing features was the sin he avoided: idolatry." And so, when Nathan tells David of God's displeasure at what he had done to Uriah the Hittite, Wolpe writes, "Here is what David did not do: He did not have Nathan put to death." His reaction is acknowledgment and penance: "I stand guilty before the Lord!"

    David's behavior in other critical matters suggests he acts out of genuine religious conviction. Once king, he wants to build a temple to the Lord, which would certainly have expanded his prestige and power, but when Nathan tells him his hands are too bloody for the task. David relents without question. And there are, of course, David's writings, his Psalms, which are full of praise for God, to whom he gives all the credit for his successes. The message King David seems to be sending throughout his reign is that not he, but God is king.

    Halbertal and Holmes bring a valuable added dimension to the reading of the Book of Samuel. But it will be a distorted one if the reader does not take care to explore other studies that focus on the human understanding and subtlety of this great narrative.

    Saul and David were both believing kings. This was true of only a handful of Israel's rulers. Most did "what was displeasing to the Lord." Even King Solomon turned away from God in the end, incredibly building altars to a variety of gods to please his foreign wives. To minimize the faith of Saul and David, to distill down their reigns chiefly to cold political calculation does a disservice to their legacy.

 

Today in history

    On this date in 1845, the U.S. Naval School (later renamed the U.S. Naval Academy) opened in Annapolis, Md. In 1846, Neptune's moon, Triton, was discovered by William Lassell. In 1874, Fiji ceased being a British possession. In 1923, the World Series was played at Yankee Stadium for the first time. In 1935, the League of Nations denounced Italy's invasion of Abyssinia. In 1954, Ho Chi Minh entered Hanoi after French troops withdrew. In 1959, Pan Am began regular flights around the world. In 1963, a treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests was signed by the U.S., U.K. and the USSR. In 1971, sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, the London Bridge reopened in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. In 1973, after being charged with federal income tax evasion, U.S. Vice President of the Spiro Agnew resigned. In 1975, actress Elizabeth Taylor re-married actor Richard Burton. In 1979, "The Rose", a Janis Joplin-type bio starring Bette Midler, premiered in Hollywood, Calif.; and the band "Fleetwood Mac" got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1985, U.S. fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Laro hijackers to land in Italy, where the hijackers were arrested. In 1995, Israeli forces began withdrawing from the West Bank, freeing hundreds of prisoners of war. And in 1999, the London Eye (aka the Millennium Ferris Wheel) opened and became one of London's most notable tourist attractions.

 

The parting shots

    New Zealand private investigators are using GPS tracking devices to follow suspected cheating partners.

    India's Supreme Court has banned fireworks in the capital city of Delhi, in the run-up to the Hindu festival of Diwali. The court said it wanted to test if banning fireworks would make a difference to Delhi's air quality, ranked among the worst in the world.

    Microsoft has confirmed that federal, congressional and private investigators are all looking into the extent of Russian efforts to influence U.S. media prior to the elections.

    A hamburger is not the sort of thing you would expect to spark an inter-national disagreement, but the apparent creation of a special birthday burger for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has dragged a New York restaurant into an argument over what's in it.

    The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in Florida says they've arrested a Pinellas Park man who Googled "how to rob a bank," and then robbed a bank.

    German authorities say they have identified a man who sexually abused a young girl just a few hours after they had taken the unusual step of publishing a photograph of the girl and calling on the public for help.

    Car companies in Australia have already resorted to hiring private investigators to track down vehicles because customers have ignored air bag recall notices in the mail.

    For a couple of weeks, Etowah County, Ala., had the nation's highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases by a country mile. It was the first time in more than a decade that St. Louis wasn't ranked at the top for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Turns out they screwed up. The Alabama health department released an updated report with much lower numbers that knock Etowah County out of the top slot, giving St. Louis, Mo., back the top ranking.

    Jemele Hill has been suspended after telling fans to boycott the NFL. The host of Sports Center with Michael Smith has been suspended for two weeks for violating ESPN's social media policy.

    And in today's notable birthdays: British pop singer Gabrielle Aplin is 25 years old today. Voice actress Jodi Benson is 56; British-Nigerian model and TV show host Zainab Bologun is 28; Actress Kassandra Clementi is 26; Actor Blake Cooper is 16; Welsh Indie and pop singer Maria Diamandis is 32; Race car driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., is 43; Actress Lali Esposito is 26; Football player Brett Favre is 48; Game show host October Gonzalez is 37; Hard rock singer Lzzy Hale ("Halestorm") is 33; Irish pop singer Una Healy is 36; Jamaican pop singer Samantha J is 21; Actor Larry Lamb is 70; Actress Kyal Legend is 20; Actress Bai Ling is 51; TV show host Mario Lopez is 44; Actress Wendi McLendon-Covey is 48; Baseball player Andrew McCutchen is 31; Actress Rose McIver is 29; Comedian Matthew Meese is 29; Pop and R&B singer Mya is 38; Actress Andrea Navedo is 40; Rock singer David Lee Roth ("Van Halen") is 62; Kosovo soccer player Xsherdan Shaqiri is 26; Football player Geno Smith is 27; Actor Dan Stevens is 35; South Korean TV actress and pop singer Bae Suzy is 23; Actress Aimee Teegarden is 28; and baseball player Troy Tulowitzki is 33.

 

 

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