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[ by Charles Cameron — responding properly to Tim Furnish ]
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Political candidates and religion is not quite the same as church and state — an issue on which, as a Brit living in the States, I am profoundly impressed both ways. However, religion in politics very much interests me, and in my news scan early this morning I noted this tweet:

Cruz and wife "donated less than 1 percent of their income to charity and nothing to churches." From @AP story. https://t.co/NvYoCr5jkE

— Julie Bykowicz (@bykowicz) January 31, 2016

To which I responded:

Quoted in same article, Cruz suggested politicians should "avoid ostentatiously wrapping yourself in your faith" https://t.co/NOl7iqpibA

— hipbonegamer (@hipbonegamer) January 31, 2016

Tim Furnish picked up on this, and tweeted:

@hipbonegamer OK. But Hillary just said she is Christian and a devotee of the Sermon on the Mount. Where's AP story on how much she gives?

— Timothy Furnish, PhD (@Occidentaljihad) January 31, 2016

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From my point of view, I think that’s both a fair question and a great DoubleQuotes opportunity, so I followed Tim’s lead to the NYT piece he was refering to, and the result, phrased in headlines, is as follows:

Sources:

AP, Now deeply Christian, Cruz’s religion once wasn’t so obvious

NYT, Hillary Clinton Gets Personal on Christ and Her Faith

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For myself, I’m glad that Hillary Clinton “rarely talks about faith on the campaign trail” and that Ted Cruz‘s religion “once wasn’t so obvious”. Tithing as an obligation isn’t anything I worry about — the widow’s mite story gets to the heart of things, I think — and I’m a fan of reticence in matters of faith in any case:

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee

pretty much puts the kybosh on publicity, methinks, as does:

when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret..

Similary, the second of Maimonides‘ Eight levels of charity is this:

to give to the poor without knowing to whom one gives, and without the recipient knowing from who he received. For this is performing a mitzvah solely for the sake of Heaven.

And the Qur’an, Sura 76. 8-9, suggests:

They give food, for the love of Him, to the needy, the orphan, the captive: “’We feed you only for the Face of God; we desire no recompense from you, no thankfulness..”

I’m not dogmatically tied to these views, Tim, but I admire them greatly — IMO, there’s simply so much beauty in such advice!

[ by Charles Cameron — hopefully, we live and learn — plus a quiet, personal announcement ]
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Here’s Marco Rubio, from earlier in the month:

Apparently he said much the same last night, though I haven’t found the video.

I’m grateful to Will McCants for this clarification, too:

A persnickety note: Dabiq is pronounced DAH-biq, not dah-BEEQ.

— Will McCants (@will_mccants) January 29, 2016

I’ve been guilty of the same mistake. And I still don’t know how often or egregiously I offend in mixing diffrerent methods of Romanizing Arabic in a single post.

**

Okay, that’s the tiny but hopefully helpful point I wanted to make, and what follows is by way of a grace note.

Rubio’s comments last night seem to be good for book sales, too. For McCants:

Rubio is hellbent on boosting my book sales

— Will McCants (@will_mccants) January 29, 2016

and for Tim Furnish:

#Rubio mentions #apocalyptic group #ISIS! Good show! #republicandebate Get a copy of my book @marcorubio ! pic.twitter.com/kjAmU3kUSx

— Timothy Furnish, PhD (@Occidentaljihad) January 29, 2016

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Oh, and an announcement:

I now have a proposal making the rounds for a book exploring the nature of religious and specifically apocalyptic violence — across continents and centuries, in great religions and small sects — drawing on comparative religious, anthropological and depth psychological angles to provide context for a richer understanding of contemporary jihadism and the passion that drives it.

[ by Charles Cameron — silly fun.. ]
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I’d say that here Kim Jong-Un —

Escaped rhinoceros from Pyongyang Zoological Park wrestled into submission by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, saving over thirty schoolchildren.

— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) January 27, 2016

would easily Trump, ahem, Vladimir Putin —

Me killing it on @60Minutes tonight! #USSR #Badass pic.twitter.com/AsPwPtbDPP

— KGBPutin (@KgbPutin) September 28, 2015

if he’d had access toi a camera and Photoshop.

[ by Charles Cameron — not to mention Alasdair MacIntyre ]
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First, Calvinball:

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If you’ve been following my stuff for a while, you’ll know I’m interested in situations where two teams or individuals are playing two different games. As the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre put it:

Not one game is being played, but several, and, if the game metaphor may be stretched further, the problem about real life is that moving one’s knight to QB3 may always be replied to by a lob over the net.

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Roland Barthes, the French philosopher, made a related observation:

This public knows very well the distinction between wrestling and boxing; it knows that boxing is a Jansenist sport, based on a demonstration of excellence. One can bet on the outcome of a boxing-match: with wrestling, it would make no sense. A boxing-match is a story which is constructed before the eyes of the spectator; in wrestling, on the contrary, it is each moment which is intelligible, not the passage of time… The logical conclusion of the contest does not interest the wrestling-fan, while on the contrary a boxing-match always implies a science of the future. In other words, wrestling is a sum of spectacles, of which no single one is a function: each moment imposes the total knowledge of a passion which rises erect and alone, without ever extending to the crowning moment of a result.

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So what does this have to do with Donald Trump?

Just that one of the more interesting things I’ve read about Trump’s campaign is Judd Legum‘s This French Philosopher Is The Only One Who Can Explain Why Trump Is Skipping The Republican Debate — and his key graph essentially applies Barthes’ distinction to MacIntyre’s observation:

In the current campaign, Trump is behaving like a professional wrestler while Trump’s opponents are conducting the race like a boxing match. As the rest of the field measures up their next jab, Trump decks them over the head with a metal chair.

If, like me, you find that idea illuminating, by all means read the whole thing.

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Bingo!

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Ah, but..

.. now that Go, like Chess, has fallen to the wiles of the computer, I suppose we can chuck our games of strategy books and cast our pleading glances towards the new overlords.

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Throw away books? Never!!

And just for the record, here’s Calvinball, the full version:

[ by Charles Cameron — further Donald Trumpery ]
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No. It’s like, Lenny Bruce.

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My thanks and appreciation to Mike Sellers, who noticed the corresponsence between Trump‘s recent statement and the Lenny Bruce routine, posting a slightly longer version on his FB page.

Life imitates art, perhaps even deliberately?