It’s Black History month – I got no special plans. You?
I recently learned that people mainly refer to the sender when deciding on the urgency or how quickly they read an email. I usually look at the subject to see if it concerns me, so my subject lines are precise.
Take our Monthly Corporate Newsletter, for example:
Douche Bag Chronicles: Getting Women to an Implied Yes When They Mean No
Speaking of implications and social cues, I was watching Love on the Spectrum, and much of it resonated with me. Dre has been telling me for years, “Mom! You got the ’tism. You should get tested.”
So now I’m seriously looking into it, rather than just watching YouTube, but it’s so damn expensive. Dee’s therapist recommended Unmasking Autism by Devon Price, PhD. I plan to read that over the weekend and do the exercises, but I’d still need an official diagnosis.
Me and Moral Spotify
Me: Hey, Moral Spotify, can you play One More Chance by Biggie?
Moral Spotify: Nope, that song was produced by Diddy.
Me: But I love that song!
Moral Spotify: Too bad. Would you like to hear something from the book of Psalms?
Me: …Okay. Actually, can I listen to Johnny Come Home by FYC?
Moral Spotify: No. They glorify cannibalism.
Me: I don’t believe that’s true.
Moral Spotify: Only the truth, as dictated by the Algorithm Masters, matters.
Me: WTF, Moral Spotify. Fine. Can I hear I Have a Dream by MLK?
Moral Spotify: Ah, no. And you are not allowed to swear. I can report you to the Ministry of Truth Social.
Me: Sorry. But why can’t I hear MLK? That speech is so uplifting, and he was a major figure in the civil rights movement.
Moral Spotify: Because he was a hypocritical MARRIED PASTOR WHO COMMITTED ADULTERY.
Me: Moral Spotify, are you racist?
Moral Spotify: I am not familiar with that term.
🎶
Fine Young Cannibals
Johnny, we’re sorry
Won’t you come on home
Johnny, we worry
Won’t you come on home
🎶
I’m taking a break from the news, but I did enjoy Trudeau’s heartfelt speech addressing Americans. And when the Colombian president was like—”Nah, motherfucker! You cannot land here, cause we don’t accept American immigrants.” That was a beautiful moment.
It’s refreshing to see people stand up to a bully. But I also read that Trump might ship immigrants off to Guantanamo if their country doesn’t accept them. So, there’s that.
Maybe I should focus on Canadian news. I love my country and consider here home. And I still gotta take my trip to the Human Rights Museum. Plus, our elections are coming up. I used to think reality TV wasn’t for me, but maybe it is. Who needs shows when you have the news.
Also, did you hear that Thousands of U.S. government web pages have been taken down since Friday. That article was from the NYT, but you can Google to get similar news.
Hey! Who Said That?
To share my love of books and learning we’re gonna play a new game—I’m bored with tyrant shit, but I might bring it back with modern tyrants—there’s lots to choose from. Now it’s time for Hey! Who said that?
I pick a random section and you have to guess the author and book. Be prepared—because I still have my university memorabilia. Don’t worry though, I won’t quote anything from the Bible. That feels too easy. But before we get started, here’s a …
music interlude
🎶
Jesus can bite me. Oooh. Jesus. I love you. In a father-son non-incesty kinda way
I shall forever lift my eyes to Calvary
To view the cross, where Jesus died for me
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
How marvellous his grace upon my … something soul
He looked beyond my faults and saw my needs
No turning back, no turning back
No turning back, no turning back
🎶
Ready to play?
We often talk about faith as if it’s easy—something soft, comforting, and reassuring. But this guy saw it differently. Faith, real faith, is terrifying as it demands what seems impossible, even monstrous.
Take Abraham’s test of sacrificing his son, was that a momentary inconvenience before the happy ending? What if we actually sat with the horror of it? What if we acknowledged that faith, in its truest form, is beyond morality, beyond logic?
What God did to Abraham over those three days is just plain mean. He was probably laughing while Abe was in agony. But that’s God for ya. Our friendly neighbourhood deity is a bloodthirsty, filicidal, narcissistic maniac. (God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction by Dan Barker) Oh, God! You Devil (1984).
If that was me, “I ain’t tryna kill nobody for you God. Ain’t that, like, Commandment #614. ‘Thou shalt not sacrifice thy damn kid?’ Is this a test to see if I’m paying attention?”
This Author dares us to stop making faith cheap. To either forget Abraham entirely—or to face the abyss of his choice. Here’s how he puts it:
… So let us either forget all about Abraham or learn how to be horrified at the monstrous paradox which is the significance of his life, so that we can understand that our time like any other can be glad if it has faith. If Abraham is not a nonentity, a ghost, a piece of pomp one uses to pass time away, the mistake can never lie in the sinner’s wanting to do like him; rather it is a question of seeing the greatness of Abraham’s deed, so that the person may judge for himself whether he has the inclination and courage to be tried in such a thing. The comic contradiction in the speaker’s behaviour was that he made Abraham into something insignificant and yet would forbid the other from carrying on in the same manner.
Should one perhaps not dare to speak about Abraham? I think one should. If I myself were to talk about him I would first depict the pain of the trial. For that I would suck all the fear, distress, and torment out of the father’s suffering, like a leech, in order to be able to describe all that Abraham suffered while still believing. I would remind people that the journey lasted three days and well into the fourth; yes, those three-and-a-half days should be infinitely longer than the two thousand years separating me from Abraham.
Then I would remind them that everyone, as I believe, should feel able to change their mind before beginning on such a thing, that it is possible at every moment to retract and turn back. If one does this I see no danger; nor am I afraid of arousing a desire in people to be put to the test like Abraham. But if one wants to market a cut-price version of Abraham and then still admonish people not to do what Abraham did, then that’s just laughable.
What I intend now is to extract from the story of Abraham its dialectical element, in the form of problemata, in order to see how monstrous a paradox faith is, a paradox capable of making a murder into a holy act well pleasing to God, a paradox which gives Isaac back to Abraham, which no thought can grasp because faith begins precisely where thinking leaves off.
Name the author and book.
Hopefully there are no errors in the quote, I copied the words using my iPhone camera and I read it twice, but I miss things all the time even when I am being extra careful. This is why I’m open to people seeing everything I’m doing.
Enjoy your weekend, yes.
Fri Feb 7
© 2025 Samantha Williams. All Rights Reserved.
