Alan Turing and Biblical Literalism: A Prayer for the New Year

I happened to stumble across this article on CNN last night. The gist of it is that the previous day the Queen of England pardoned Alan Turing - who broke the Nazi Enigma code in WWII, saving thousands of British lives, and who also invented the prototype for the modern computer, the eponymous Turing Machine - for indecent homosexual acts he committed in the 1950s, shortly after which he killed himself. Wanting to know more, I looked up his story on Wikipedia.  

It is a story that is both fascinating and depressing. Turing was a brilliant scientist who at the age of 15 was already solving complex mathematical problems without any formal training. By age 16, he understood Einstein's theory of relativity implicitly debunked Newtonian physics although Einstein never stated this explicitly in his work. After studying at Cambridge and Princeton, he joined Britain's elite code-breaking unit and single-handedly cracked the German's Enigma code, saving countless lives during WWII. 

After the war he invented the prototype for the modern computer, the Turing Machine, which gave formalization to the concepts of algorithm and computation. He is considered the father of computer science and artificial intelligence.  

In his personal life, Turing had known he was gay since he was a teenager and while not open about it, he never denied it either. Following an incident in 1952 where Turing's house was robbed by an acquaintance of a lover of his, in which it came out that Turing had slept with another man during the police investigation, Turing was offered a choice between prison or receiving weekly female hormone shots for an entire year to 'control' his deviant libido. Not surprisingly, Turing ended up killing himself just a year after he received chemical castration treatments.

What really shocks me about this entire incident is the level to which blind hatred for homosexuals (or any group as was the case of Jewish scientists living in Germany in the 30s) caused England to essentially kill off one of its most dedicated and remarkable citizens. Turing dedicated his life to helping the State and was a hero and patriot in every sense of the word. 

I recently finished reading 'God is not Great' by Christopher Hitchens. The way a man like Turing was treated - despite his great brilliance and heroism - clearly has its roots in statements that appear in Leviticus calling for men that sleep with other men to be put to death by stoning, as well as statements in the new Testament recently made famous by the scandal surrounding the Duck Dynasty show (a show I ave no interest in watching). Literal interpretations of these sorts of edicts lead directly to the kind of self-defeating persecution of great minds and great individuals simply because they were born a certain way (created by God in that way if you will) and that the sin of their birth doesn't correspond with a statement made by a nomadic tribe 4,000 years prior, in an entirely different place, time and cultural setting.  Similarly, Naziism obsessive Jew-hatred had clear roots in 1800 years of Church dogma, initially begun in the new Testament.

My prayer for the new year is that we learn to have true respect for all of God's creations - the ones that are living and breathing and creating on a daily basis in the here and now. And that those of us that are inclined towards religion in one way or another use it only as a force for good.

P.S. Apparently there's a movie about Turing's life and death staring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Kneightly coming out in 2014. I'll definitely be seeing it.

Update: The movie is called The Imitation Game and it's awesome! I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Turing specifically or in understanding the concept of genius in general.

No, Muslim Hate Speech Is Not Acceptable

Maybe it's time to start shutting down certain select mosques. Like this one the 'brothers' prayed at:

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, attended the Cambridge mosque for services and are accused of setting two bombs that killed three people and injured at least 264 others at the April 15 Boston Marathon.

The FBI has not indicated that either mosque was involved in any criminal activity, but mosque attendees and officials have been implicated in terrorist activity:

• Alamoudi, who signed the articles of incorporation as the Cambridge mosque's president, was sentenced to 23 years in federal court in Alexandria, Va., in 2004 for his role as a facilitator in what federal prosecutors called a Libyan assassination plot against then-crown prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Abdullah is now the Saudi king.

• Aafia Siddiqui, who occasionally prayed at the Cambridge mosque, was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008 while in possession of cyanide canisters and plans for a chemical attack in New York City. She tried to grab a rifle while in detention and shot at military officers and FBI agents, for which she was convicted in New York in 2010 and is serving an 86-year sentence.

• Tarek Mehanna, who worshiped at the Cambridge mosque, was sentenced in 2012 to 17 years in prison for conspiring to aid al-Qaeda. Mehanna had traveled to Yemen to seek terrorist training and plotted to use automatic weapons to shoot up a mall in the Boston suburbs, federal investigators in Boston alleged.
• Ahmad Abousamra, the son of a former vice president of the Muslim American Society Boston Abdul-Badi Abousamra, was identified by the FBI as Mehanna's co-conspirator. He fled to Syria and is wanted by the FBI on charges of providing support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill Americans in a foreign country.
• Jamal Badawi of Canada, a former trustee of the Islamic Society of Boston Trust, which owns both mosques, was named as a non-indicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial in Texas over the funneling of money to Hamas, which is the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Funded by the Saudis, affiliated with the muslim brotherhood, What does America have against stopping hate speech that leads to action (repeatedly)? This is no different than the KKK - and more dangerous.

Or do muslims get to say and do whatever the fuck they want until after they plot to kill or actually kill innocents?

And where are all the people on the left that go nuts every time a christian or Jewish politician/Rabbi/priest says something remotely offensive about gays or other minorities (something which of course should be condemned)? Why do they not seem to care about speech like this, speech that apparently has very real world consequences again and again:

A former trustee appears in a series of videos in which he advocates treating gays as criminals, says husbands should sometimes beat their wives and calls on Allah (God) to kill Zionists and Jews, according to Americans for Peace and Tolerance, an interfaith group that has investigated the mosques.

No, my blog has not been hacked by Republicans... but when you actually think about that 8 year old boy who was killed, it makes you wonder why their life is more valuable than his?

Naftali Bennett IS Andre from The League

Most people that know me know what a huge fan of the FX TV series 'The League' I am, especially the comedic stylings of Paul Scheer, better know as Andre, the nebbie character who is way more successful than his peers but who is nonetheless the butt of pretty much every joke due to his absurd fashion style and ridiculous mannerisms.

You also probably know me as a centrist to the core politically - someone who eschews ideology across the board (heck, it's the reason I called this here blog the Common Sensorium). I am far from a supporter of ideological causes, both in Israel where I live and in the U.S. where I still vote and spend about 6 weeks of the year.I definitely have ZERO interest in supporting an ideologue like Naftali Bennett, head of the right wing Bayit Yehudi party in the upcoming Israeli election.

Which is why I was so shocked to discover that Naftali Bennett and our beloved Andre (aka Paul Scheer) are in fact one and the same person!

As Exhibit A, I provide irrefutable photographic evidence. I bet you can't even guess which of this is Bennett and which is Andre:

In my utter state of shock I fired off an email to Andre's Bayit Yehudi campaign manager, Andre Bennett (no relation I'm told). Andre Bennett neither confirmed nor denied what is now clearly the undeniable truth, that Naftali Bennett and League star Andre are one and the same person. However, when asked how he could be running as such a cleancut, religious nut type while helping write and starring in what is possibly the most depraved TV show of all time, he did give me one of his patented 'Child Please!'s (actual patent the property of Chad Ochocinco).



What more proof do you need?

So for all you potential Bayit Yehudi voters out there, I just hope you realize that you're supporting a candidate that shoots porn in his upscale downtown loft and then screens it at a Succa Party for Baby Geoffrey's Jewish preschool teacher. Sick, just sick!

Snow in the Desert

Well, not really. Jerusalem has been getting snow since recorded history. The word 'sheleg' already dates back to Isiah  (and maybe older - feel free to chime in if there's older biblical references to snow). [Actually, I looked back and it dates back as far as the book of Exodus, referring to Moses' hand being white like snow at the scene of the Burning Bush]

Here's our snow day in pictures.

 Early morning view from our kitchen

 Our parking lot

Our car

 Buildup on our balcony

 View from Zohara's window, looking east

 My favorite shot - the view from our balcony at roughly 8 a.m.

 Getting ready to rock out with our snowsuits out!

 Snow day!

 Winter wonderland

 Car driving wrong way in traffic circle near our house!

 A serious storm!

 Yours truly

Singing in the Rain

So here we are in day 3 of our 5 days superstorm. We've passed the high wind phase and are in the steady, non-stop rain phase. Tomorrow we enter the dropping temperatures with a chance (I'll believe it when I see it) snow phase. It's weeks like this I am extra grateful I work from home.

Here's the view from right behind my building - we had 2 fairly large downed trees that resulted from the 100 km/hour (60 mph) winds we had yesterday. There were downed trees all over the neighborhood.

We have been very impressed with the city's response to the storm. Yesterday I saw city workers out with chainsaws in the peak of the wind gusts taking down dangerous trees and branches before they got blown onto people and cars. Then on the way back from dropping the kids I noticed a downed telephone pole with lots of electric wires across from our bedroom window. I called the police who then came to check it out. They called the telephone company who called me for directions to the downed pole. Again, in the midst of 100 kph wind gusts they removed the pole and neutralized the wires. Then today I got another call from the police asking me to rate their response time, courteousness and whether the problem was resolved. What is happening to Israel?! Seriously amazing.


This is the mall in Modiin, where a bunch of my coworkers live. Pretty crazy.

All in all, the Kineret is at its highest level in years and maybe it's just me but I find extreme weather events (or at least tracking them from the comfort and safety of your own home) entertaining. Up to a point of course. I'm not about to go singing in the rain.