Sen. Joseph Lieberman spoke at the Hagee "summit" yesterday, as Think Progress notes:

Lieberman again drew a parallel between Hagee and biblical figures, this time saying biblical heroes, unlike the demigods of Greek mythology, "are humans — great humans, but with human failings." Lieberman said that Moses had his shortcomings, too.

"Dear friends, I can only imagine what the bloggers of today would have had to say about Moses and Miriam."

Funny you should ask:

Markos Moulitsas: "He promised us snakes would lead to our liberation.  Well, Pharaoh's still in charge.  We need More and Better Hebrews!"

Atrios:  "Moses said we'd be out of Egypt after one plague.  We're already Nine Plague Units into this with no end in sight."

Mike Stark: "I am going to go to Pharaoh's house with a big roll of papyrus to confront him about his former slaves."

Chris Bowers: "The last three polls all say that Pharaoh's vulnerable, so I believe Moses can take a more aggressive stand.  Praise Joshua and let him know."

FDL: "Take a look at these stones Miriam just inscribed for us that detail her journey -- it's not getting enough attention.  She'll be here to answer questions in our Tablet Club after sunrise on Sunday."

Howie Klein: "I'm already running pro-Aaron hieroglyphs in Moses' camp."

Matt Stoller: "If Moses doesn't beseech Hashem to deliver us something other than manna to eat, he should be primaried."

Big Tent Democrat: "Jethro has too much influence over Moses' judicial appointments."

Jeffrey Feldman: "If I'm Aaron, I'd be using this Golden Calf symbol everywhere I could.  It's the icon that coalesces the needs of the Hebrews in the wilderness."

FiveThirtyEight.com:  "I've checked out the demographics; look for the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to make real gains in Moses' new census."

And from across the Red Sea:

NRO's Kathryn Jean Lopez: "A totally crazy Shabbas thought: Wouldn't Ramses make an awesome high-school government teacher?"

I begin by thanking your founder, Pastor John Hagee. I would describe Pastor Hagee with the words the Torah uses to describe Moses, he is an "Eesh Elo Kim," a man of God because those words fit him; and, like Moses he has become the leader of a mighty multitude in pursuit of and defense of Israel.

You know his story - almost sixty years ago, a young John Hagee sat at his family's kitchen table in Channelview, Texas, heard the news about Israel's Declaration of Independence, and saw how moved his family was by it. Since then, he has been devoted to the defense of Israel, and to its vitality. He has done so because Israel's fight is his fight. Israel's values are his values. And Israel's hopes and dreams are his hopes and dreams.

Constantly trying to shed a new light on things, let's try taking the Moses route for a minute. Let's look at ourselves as lost in the wildnerness because we have had a leader that has assured us that he will lead us to the promised land as sure as the sun rises in the west.
Now, as his reign expires, (appaarently lasting it's full term because nobody of any power to do something about it was willing to ask, "Where the hell are we ... and why?") we are about to elect our new "Moses".

"So let it be written... so let it be done."
"Where's your Moses now?"
"Bring this deliverer to me!"
"Egypt shall fall."

Like most Americans, I grew up watching Charleton Heston free the people of Israel from Pharaoh. Every Easter, like clockwork, buncha slaves freed.

Why is it we are all taught to love Moses when he curses the innocent first born children of Egypt to death, that his righteous vengeance is okie-dokie even if it means babies are going to bite it because his people are victims of slavery, but you don't hear so many admiring mentions, or see any De Mille extravaganza about Nat Turner? Didn't he say God was talking to him, too? Weren't his people in slavery, too?

Instead of a overblown film with Gentiles playing Jews, we can't even talk about that anger in our own churches. That's messed up.

Moses was stoned. That's what Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far as Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Ten commandments, burning bush: voice of disembodied deity or psychotropic drugs--you decide!

More after the jump (bring your own deity/drugs)

Over the centuries, millions and millions and millions of hapless human beings have been, and continue to this day to be, wholesale tortured and slaughtered because some group of Believers believed their god so ordained and sanctified the torture and slaughter. And few ask "What in God’s name is going on here?" And of those who do so inquire, many more others shout them down, or kill them for their apostasy.

because you watched the movie

instead of reading the book

Remember, in the movie, where Charlton Heston broke the tablets?

Well, in the book, that was Moses.  Not only that, but God made him come back up the mountain and do a rewrite.  When he came back down, he had NEW Commandments, and this time God meant it.  But a funny thing happened when God had a chance to think about it.  He changed them, to include a few things you might not know about.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. This diary is a reflection on the way that the march of history seems to keep bringing us back to the same infinitely tragic themes. I asked my son to preview it, and he said he hopes people will "read through to what is actually a punchy and poignant ending".

First, there were gardens
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors found their food in the natural world through which they roamed. All able bodied humans were engaged in this activity. Since a wandering lifestyle precludes the accumulation of much material wealth, the societies of hunter-gatherers tended to be pretty egalitarian. But then the Angel drove us out of Eden, and we've had hard luck and trouble ever since...

This will be a bit stream of consciousness, since I can only type so fast, so bear with me.  

is a term carefully defined and explained by Hannah Arendt (evil is banal)in her book On Revolution. Essentially it is this. And since my response to a former diary that is expiring was so long I thought it better to just make a new diary of it.

The first settlers arriving in the New World were seeking religious freedom and they really felt as if they were coming to the "Promised Land" identifying with the Israelites as Moses had led them out of Egypt. Even on the ships before landing many groups drew up covenants or constitutions if you will.

When they built their communities they had meetings,decided laws, punishments, rights,etc. Gradually as there were more communities each one selected an eager and knowledgeable person from their community to go to meetings with selected persons from other communities.  (Are you seeing now how it began?) Then out of these persons selections were made to go to larger bodies of representation to discuss common difficulties and solutions.