Showing posts with label law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label law. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Thou Shalt Not Kill: missed the translation on that one!

I've been trying to read through the Bible about once a year, but it usually ends up taking me a little longer than a year, or has so far. I'm on my third reading right now...and behind schedule, I think. Its the journey, not the destination, so I'll be OK no matter how long it takes.

For some reason, I seem to be seeing references to the 10 Commandments quite a bit lately. I think they've been there anyway; its not something new where its all of a sudden in front of me more often. However, I am seeing more reference to it around me. I believe that God does that for me to get me thinking. I don't always know exactly why, but it shows up somewhere, every time.

So I'm reading the Old Testament now, and have just completed reading the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. They've been settled for a little while now; ballpark they've been there 150 years total. The whole history of the 40 years in the desert and the events of that time are all in there. Its not been a terribly long time that Moses brought the 10 Commandments off the mountain.

And here's what strikes me about them: the 6th Commandment can't possibly be translated correctly. In both of my Bibles, a New American Standard and a Revised Standard Edition, both use the word "kill": Exodus 2:13, "You shall not kill". But read the rest of the Old Testament and that word can't be right...unless its a word being used that has multiple definitions. If it was simply killing that was prohibited, then God would be going against his word, which does not happen. Killing can't be wrong in and of itself. A couple of examples: as Israel is being set up, God commands them to set up "safe cities", where a man who causes the death of his neighbor by accident can go until a trail can be held; sort of protective custody where he's sequestered away from the family of the deceased. This only applies in accidental deaths, which I think we call manslaughter now. Then there's the entire peoples that were "delivered into your [Israel's] hand." What's that mean? It means God not only sanctioned, but ordered Israel to kill off an entire people. That's what "put to the edge of the sword" means: quite literally putting the edge of the sword with force and extreme prejudice on a body and taking it's life. So "kill" can't be the right word.

Replace "kill" with "murder". Now it makes a lot more sense. Dictionary.com says "murder" is defined as "Law. the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder)  and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder)." It also says that the word's origins come from between 1300-1350, which means that "kill" would be the only word available at the time, and that's why its translated that way. 

It's clear to me, though, that there is such a thing as righteous killing, and that "some people just need killin'" is also true. I don't think I need to go into a big explanation of how murder and killing are different; both the readers of my blog should already get that, and it'd make this post a lot, lot longer. Suffice it to say, not all killing is murder, and while murder is against God's law, killing isn't. As distasteful as it is, sometimes it's the right thing to do, is righteous, and needs to be done.  

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

What would happen if Carrie Underwood really did

Carrie Underwood has this real catchy tune out called "before he cheats". I kinda like the song; the hook is strong and her performance on that track is very solid, and emotionally powerful. The thing is, and this is what drives the people that work with me a little nutty, is that I pay attention to lyrics. In "Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree", by KT Tunstall, I was the one who realized that the horse was the one who was doing the proposing, which freaked out my coworkers and caused them to dislike what we've come to call "the woo-hoo song". Besides how goofy the lyrics are, hearing it five times a day, 40 + hours a week is too much anyway.

So, when Officer Timmy came over to the shop today, I asked him what Carrie would be looking at for charges if she were to do what was claimed in the chorus. So you don't have to go look it up, being the kind and benevolent dictator of this blog that I am, I'm going to quote it for you:

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...


Turns out that in Kentucky, that's called Felony Criminal Mischief. OT said that's what's typically charged when stuff like vandalism of more than a thousand dollars is involved. What you're looking at is five years in Federal Pound You in the Ass Prison. Typically, what happens is the charge will get plead down, and would normally end up with a couple years probation, and she'd have to either pay the deductible and and difference in the coverage to get the truck repaired, or she'd have to go out of pocket for the whole thing. If she fought it and lost, she'd be looking at max penalties, because her response was so far out of proportion to what he did to her.

I'm not in any way advocating cheating on your significant other. Doing that makes you pretty much a dirtbag, and there's no two ways about it, whether you cheat on her, or she cheats on you. If you're gonna cheat on 'em, just man up and break up with the chick. Sure its difficult, but it beats having to deal with a bunny boiler. I know some dudes on the Intarweb-not to name Wild Mustang's name, though-that have been there. Its endlessly entertaining for us, but its unnecessarily...griefy for you, and her.

Still, we all know what really happened in the story that the song presents: she goes to jail overnight (at least; that's assuming somebody makes bail for her) he knows she's gone for at least the night, and he ends up doing the horizontal mambo with her best friend and her other best friend, while her other best friend mans the video camera. We all know Carrie's best friend in this scenario is a hose beast who couldn't be trusted to stay out of anybody's pants. I'm sure she's a bleached blonde, too. We know how they are.

Leave the truck alone and just leave. How hard is that?