Who Was Kushim???

 

Sitting erect, writing, even with something that might turn into a smile, it's obvious that this scribe is enjoying what he is doing. Maybe he is the Egyptian who wrote a warning against laughing at a cat??? Or could he be the notorious Kushim, counting his - or his boss's (?) - sale of beer? Naahhh, he looks too Egyptian to be from the Uruk period of Sumer which now is known as the South-Central of Iraq, then the Southern Mesopothamia.

This guy is more like what Kushim may have looked like. However, this is only guessing as nobody really knows who or what Kushim was, except that the name may belong to the very first human being in history with a name. There has been some speculations that "Kushim" may be the name of the beer or the brewery, but I don't find that likely. IF, as I for one, believe, "Kushim" is the name of an ancient scribe - e.g. an actual man - then he worked as a scribe and immortalized his name by signing it on several clay tablets that presumably date back to between c. 3500 and c. 3000 BC. For instance there are 77 other tablets signed by "Kushim" from the goddess Inanna temple so he must have been a very diligent scribe. This particular tablet reads: "29,086 measures barley 37 months Kushim."

As this tablet most likely offers the very first signature in history it's strange to know that it has been up for sale several times as for instance at Bloomsbury Auctions on July 8, 2022. The estimate was measley £70,000-90,00 but it was sold at auction for £175,000 ($229,000).

https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/print-edition/2020/june/2447/news/tablet-with-the-earliest-known-record-of-any-personal-name-in-history-offered-at-bloomsbury-auctions/

https://beer-studies.com/en/explorer?geo=87&chrono=136&theme=312

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/whos-the-first-person-in-history-whose-name-we-know 

 

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/transcript-of-dont-laugh-cat 

 

Wikipedia

Not fair on the camel .....

 

Not a happy situation, and it should make it clear what life is about for RELIGIOUS PEOPLE. However, I bet most of them see their riches as the PROOF of their own merits as well as God's love for them as his "chosen people". That's NOT what Jesus teaches us: "[Mark 10:24-26]  24 The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”"

The urge to KNOW

 

Recently I read an interview with a Muslim man which made me rethink certain ideas that I've always held to be THE Truth. In my opinion Islam is much more logical than the Christian faith as it presumably was presented as one set of learnings brought to mankind by one so-called messenger from one deity, namely Allah. The Quoran is the story of the meeting of one human being (Muhammad) and one angelic messenger, the angel Gabriel, whereas The Bible is a conglomerate of scripts, legends, testimonials and something looking very much like fairy tales. 

As we know from readings of e.g. the so-called apocryphal scriptures The Bible has been subjected to a certain censorship by the Church and not everything was accepted as a true part of it: What we read as the Holy Scripture is in reality an "embroidery" of tales and testimonials, but The Bible as we know it is not all there is. That means that we may still be surprised by new revelations of what happened back then, several thousand years ago. Archeology may bring even more, also evidence that some of the legends don't hold water when set up against science and  scientific proofs. Would we for instance be surprised to find out that Jesus wasn't killed, but that he escaped the Romans and lived happily with his wife, Mary Magdalene, in France until he died of old age? That's one of the seemingly wilder theorizes about The Crucifixion, but it takes much more than that to prove it. As reported by Isaiah 53 Jesus claimed that he was Messiah and he said that he would be betrayed, condemned and killed, but come back to life. If that testimony was a lie by Isaiah and that the still alive Jesus maybe was left for dead in the grave chamber of the rich man, Joseph, then the Christian teachings are null and void.

There is evidence of crucifixions, namely the penetrated heel bone of a poor, nameless man who died on the cross, but that's no evidence that the same happened to Jesus - or that this specific bone came from his leg ....

Right now many people all over the world, but first and foremost in America, cling to the belief that what was said in the scriptures about Jesus is true, e.g. that it might be scientifically proven if only we found some more evidence. However, to find the remains of Jesus himself would put an end to the Christian faith because then there wasn't any Resurrection, no Ascendance and thus no Eternal Life.
 

Being an Agnostic I always felt that the answers to religious questions would be science. To me that meant that if the sayings of the "Holy Scriptures" didn't hold water to our scientific knowledge then they should be put in the same box as fairy tales, myths and ancient beliefs in non-Christian gods and heroes. However, I've come to understand that sometimes even science doesn't hold water to superstition, religion and the like. The Muslim man in the above mentioned interview said something about "science changing all the time" which in his opinion makes it untrustworthy. That means that what I always have seen as an ongoing, natural development of knowledge often are in fact as delusional as religious tales of supernatural events. Something like that was not what I wanted to hear, but I agree that it can't be denied altogether: Neither religion nor science is the one and only, e.g. undeniable TRUTH human beings always have wanted to find ....

 

https://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/ 

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14746700.2020.1786221 

https://undsci.berkeley.edu/understanding-science-101/a-scientific-approach-to-life-a-science-toolkit/convince-me-how-strong-is-the-evidence/

 

https://undsci.berkeley.edu/understanding-science-101/the-core-of-science-relating-evidence-and-ideas/ 

 

https://undsci.berkeley.edu/understanding-science-101/what-is-science/science-has-limits-a-few-things-that-science-does-not-do/ 

 

Wikipedia

The Richest Man On This Planet Was A Muslim Emperor

Mammon by George Frederick Watts, 1885

The world being what it is the chosen value signifyer of our society, namely the chemical element gold, is awesome: We, the humans, have given this otherwise worthless metal power over us. Some have been engulfed by this power and does everything to make it known that they are "golden boys" or "golden girls". One of these people is the former president of USA, Donald Trump, who has a toilet in gold, gold plates, a "gold room" and the image of having been born a "golden boy", i. e. someone who is not only rich, but also super charming and always lucky in whatever he does. Now we know that's not the truth, he never was as "golden" as he set himself up to be ....

Are we surprised that this well-known coxcomb does everything in his power to attain the image of a "golden boy"? No, not really, because now we know more about him and see what he stands for, but what about this man, Winston Churchill:
  

I, for one, was surprised to learn that there was a theft of a 18-karat-gold-toilet from the family home of Blenheim Palace in 2019. Well, it was part of an exhibition of the works by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, but still, it was set up to work the way toilets do so those who got to use it were "enthroned" on an artwork worth $6 million solid gold.  

However, no matter what, neither the Trump nor the Churchill families may compete with the 14th-century African emperor Mansa Musa. His wealth has been described as "unimaginable" as well as "incalculable". Something that he himself explained by telling people that in his country gold was growing like plants. If that really was the case, it would lose value, as it's the rarity of gold that makes it valuable .... 

Gold is normally protected in any way possible, but when it comes to Mansa Musa he gave a lot of his belongings out to ferment his power as well as his status. Well, he could afford it as his riches have been estimated to have been $400 BILLION. Neither Trump or the sheiks of SaudiArabia are able to compete with that.

Mansa Musa, The Muslim Emperor of Mali 

Wikipedia

https://toilet-guru.com/trump.html 

https://www.history.com/news/winston-churchill-blenheim-palace-toilet 

 

Women and Body Size

Well, this situation might involve a woman, but she wouldn't be able to do what this woman does. Actually, nobody, neither man nor woman, could fight an entire army, but that's not really the point to me: What I see is a woman of another type than the girlish, flirty and deeply childish art that has been favored by our society for many years. Women are pretending to be younger and weaker, more helpless than they are because it pays off in a patriarchy that salutes these traits in the female gender. Is that why so many men are found to be pedophiles these days? I don't know, but I shouldn't wonder as women have been taught to pretend childishness and helplesness bordering on stupidity for ages. The reason for this is that kind of women may cater up to certain kinds of men whereof many are powerful"pillars of society". It pays off for women to turn oneself into someone weaker than they really are, namely "child-women". The body to go with this type of woman is super-slim, sometimes almost looking frail enough to break.

I once read that the American Wallis Simpson, who enticed Edward VIII and became his wife as the Duchess of Windsor, said that a woman could never be too thin. She felt that to be feminine women should be slender and that was what she herself was all her life. 

Even though many women work out they are still supposed to be smaller and less muscular than men. They themselves tend to see the ideal man as a tall and strong individual who dotes on their feminine smallness just like they love their masculine tallness. Woman will do much to attain the "body of today", but recently I've read some of them give vent to a new and unforeseen problem. One of them said: "I hate that I could write a paper on all the ways weighing less makes me feel like I'm in danger at all times." What kind of danger is that? Well, it seems that it's all kinds of dangers, but first and foremost it's the danger of being overrun, attacked, raped and maybe even killed because being thin the way society tells her is the feminine ideal makes her vulnareble. Actually, fatness or just chubbiness also makes her vulnerable because she may not be able to defend herself if she isn't fit. However, no matter what, attaining the so-called bodily ideal of slimness or thinness seems to pose a totally new and unexpected problem for some women ....

 

"The American Dream"

 

I used to like Americans, but now I'm not so sure anymore: Somehow the jolly worker who definitely is obtaining the cosy house with the white fence for himself and his family has turned into a bitter and overworked slave. As I see it Americans are down the wrong lane when it comes to non-exploitative social settings as people may have several jobs, but still not the income that keeps things going. If diligent workers have to live paycheck to paycheck the system isn't working the way it should.

"As income inequality has increased substantially since the 1970s, the American Dream has begun to seem less attainable for those who aren't already affluent or born into affluence. According to U.S. Census family income data, real family income began to grow much more among the top income group than among other segments of American society.3 For example, the Federal Reserve's 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances shows that the top 10% of the income distribution earned roughly a quarter of all income and held more than three-quarters of all wealth."

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/american-dream.asp

That is not a healthy situation for a society, but still, that doesn't kill off that silly "American Dream": Americans don't unite to break the power system of their exploiters, no, instead of breaking it they dream of how they themselves may become rich. Sadly enough that damned TrickleDown scam that started out as a joke has gotten into them ....

USA is spending more on the military than any other country in the world. Health Care like in other Western countries is non-existent. Also it seems that Americans can't study without getting deep in debt and that too is different from other countries. Ask aquestion that takes a scientific answer and you may get a quote from The Bible. It's weird, also because most Americans seem to have a very strange opinion of the Biblical sayings. I always said that Americans confuse Jesus with Santa and they have a way of seeing all their deeds - good or bad alike - as sanctioned by their god. THAT's not religion, but more like "kidnapping" of the god they are purporting to believe in ....

Science is not popular, and more Americans believe in Genesis than in scientific findings. Why? Are they dumb? No, but this kind of (primarily verbal) "siding with God" gives the ultimate authorization of their own life, beliefs and habits where science puts a question mark with everything they are or believe in. Most likely, everyone all over the world likes to be RIGHT, but the Americans took that preference a bit longer, thus turning themselves into (unconscious or naive) hypocrites ....

America is the only country in the world which fought a war about the ultimate exploitation of their fellow men, namely the Civil War about slavery. However, the point is that when that happened, most other Western countries already had given up the ugly habit of exploting dark-skinned people in a gruesome slavery system ....

Yup, and that's very sad, because then we have come to a very costly standstill ....

 

Periods, Male Chauvenism and the Pope .....

Somebody said that if men had periods bleeding would be an Olympic sport and there would be free or tax-deductible menstrual cups, pads or tampons. Everyone would sport jewelry celebrating the happy event of a period instead of feeling ashamed or worried about what's happening.

Those women who hate the idea of this natural, feminine process may have found this part of The Bible troublesome. Actually it may be part of their feelings on the subject:

Leviticus 15: 19-33: "¹⁹ ‘If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be ^[a]set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Everything that she lies on during her impurity shall be unclean; also everything that she sits on shall be unclean. ²¹ Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. ²² And whoever touches anything that she sat on shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. ²³ If anything is on her bed or on anything on which she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. ²⁴ And if any man lies with her at all, so that her impurity is on him, he shall be ^[b]unclean seven days; and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean. 

²⁵ ‘If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days of her customary impurity. She shall be unclean. ²⁶ Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her impurity; and whatever she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her impurity. ²⁷ Whoever touches those things shall be unclean; he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.

²⁸ ‘But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. ²⁹ And on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. ³⁰ Then the priest shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for the discharge of her uncleanness.

³¹ ‘Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them. ³² This is the law for one who has a discharge, and for him who emits semen and is unclean thereby, ³³ and for her who is indisposed because of her customary impurity, and for one who has a discharge, either man or woman, and for him who lies with her who is unclean.’ ”

While Leviticus obviously was an idiot or, to say the least, very, very unknowable in the female anatomy this guy with the box of Tampax looks like one who knows enough about what's going on to deal with it in a rational manner. And, of course, that's how it should be in our modern society of science and knowledge. 

Women should not be made to feel "unclean" by the bodily process, and they are the only ones who should be allowed make jokes about periods if there are situations where that's what's called for.

However, I feel pretty sure that most - but not all - women would prefer never to have periods. Actually, that's possible and has been so for the last 40 years or so, but the pope was against this "unnatural" development in the lives of women: The hormonal birth control pills were designed in a manner so that those who used it had something that looked like, but wasn't a natural period. Women had to bleed to appease the pope. That's quite interesting: 1) Leviticus is very clear about what makes women "unclean" and thus socially unacceptable, and 2) the pope wants to keep it that way ....

https://www.simplehealth.com/blog/the-pope-and-your-birth-control

https://www.brmc.com.au/portfolio-posts/was-the-pills-21-7-regime-really-invented-to-please-the-pope/ 

 https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-due-masculine-dominance-gynecological-science.html