User:Jdavidb
Secession is the right of all sentient beings. — me.
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| JDB | This user is J. David Blackstone first and a Wikipedian second. He helps Wikipedia out of the goodness of his heart. It's his hobby, not his job. He thinks his individuality should not have to be left at the door to do that, and he happens to think he does a bang-up job writing NPOV and policing people of his own POV who do not know how to do that. He thinks the chance to have a little bit of individual space is something even his heartless corporation allows in his soulless cubicle. He thinks userboxes are overall pretty silly, including the Babel project, but recognizes that user categorization has been around for a long time, since before categories were invented, even categorizing such stupid things as user's pets and D&D alignments, and he knows that it gives users a good feeling to identify common interests, and he realizes that some people hate religion so much they can't imagine that it would be good for people to identify it as a common interest. He thinks that anyone who agrees with Tony Sidaway's deletion summary on {{user Christian}} that "proselytizing" was occurring is probably not capable of exercising NPOV. |
To see what I'm thinking or learning lately about Wikipedia, check out my wiki blog.
I am married to User:Carradee. We have one little boy, pictured, and not long ago we discovered that Carradee is expecting another baby! :) Carradee was a twelve-year homeschooled autodidact, and our children will be homeschooled as well.
I'm religious, a member of the Church of Christ. I enjoy the way Wikipedia's collaborative editing results in unbiased presentation of information. I enjoy editing articles, particularly about religious topics, to remove bias, either on the part of those who agree with me or on the part of those who do not. (As a member of the Church of Christ I'm in the unique position of often disagreeing with most of Christendom as well as other religions and atheists.)
I'm also quite political, being a conservative, laissez-faire anarcho-capitalist (I accept the label "anarchist"), pro-life, libertarian. I agree with the secession plank of the American Libertarian Party; indeed, I consider it the foundation of freedom. (However, I am not an LP member and will not display its logo because it is a goddess.) Incidentally you might be interested to read the arguments from libertarians for life which explain why I believe EVERYONE should believe in legal protections for the unborn without reference to religious belief.
At the intersection of my homeschooling beliefs and my political beliefs is the belief that government should not be involved in coercive education at all. Providing free education to all comers (or as many comers as possible) is a worthy goal, provided it is pursued with donated, rather than stolen (taxed) money. But compulsory schooling violates the liberty of students and their parents, and may often not be the best thing for them. If you disagree, perhaps you should give your edits to the compulsory education system instead of Wikipedia?
I started the Well of souls article.
My favorite new article I've created so far (and probably my favorite ever) is singing school. Being the son of a singing school teacher, I love singing schools and hope to teach them myself some day.
I keep track of new things I learn and do at Wikipedia in my wiki blog. Here I'll make note of new things I've learned how to do, thoughts about how things should be done, etc.
Current projects
[edit]- Right now I view myself as more of a Wikipedia user rather than a Wikipedia editor. I'm usually on Wikipedia at least once a day looking around, looking up something I want to know, etc. Sometimes I'll make minor changes. Sometimes I'll go after a vandal. Sometimes something will interest me enough to get me involved in editing again for a short while.
- Removing links to fanlistings. Since fanlistings are lists of non-notable people, they don't belong here. How does it help you understand more about a topic to have a list of all the Joe Blows of the world who like it?
Milestones
[edit]I have a relatively low edit count for someone of my position. I'm commonly mistaken for a newbie. Be warned; it is entirely possible I have been around Wikipedia longer than you. I've been here since 2004-02-20 [1] (counting from my earliest registered edit, which was not my first edit).
My user page was first vandalized at 2005-09-28 13:40 (CDT) and has been vandalized a total of four times: [2] [3] [4] [5].
An additional more subtle vandalism attempt occurred when somebody mad at me vandalized the picture of my baby (see history on that page for details).
On 2005-09-29 I passed a request for adminiship for which I nominated myself. I expect to use my administrator status and powers to further my efforts against link spam and vandalism.
On 2005-10-06 I added myself to my sixteenth Wikipedian user category. At some point, this has got to stop! :)
Link spam brigade
[edit]I would like to invite other Wikipedians to join me in an effort to police Wikipedia for link spam. I'll be outlining some plans and goals at /Linkspam and possibly eventually starting a new Wikipedia:WikiProject.
Multilicensing
[edit]I agree to multi-license all my contributions to Wikipedia, without exception, according to the following:
| Dual licensed with the Creative Commons ShareAlike 1.0 License | 
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| I agree to license, my contributions for which I hold the copyright, under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 1.0 license. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides. | |
| Multi-licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License versions 1.0 and 2.0 | ||
| I agree to multi-license my text contributions, unless otherwise stated, under Wikipedia's copyright terms and the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license version 1.0 and version 2.0. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides. | ||
Weekly Torah portion
[edit]Awhile back I became interested in Judaism's parsha Bible-reading (specifically Torah-reading) schedule. Now I've discovered this really cool related template:
Moses told the Israelites that he set before them blessing and curse: blessing if they obeyed God’s commandments and curse if they did not obey but turned away to follow other gods. Moses directed that when God brought them into the land, they were to pronounce the blessings at Mount Gerizim and the curses at Mount Ebal.
Moses instructed the Israelites in the laws that they were to observe in the land: They were to destroy all the sites at which the residents worshiped their gods, tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods. They were not to worship God as the land's residents had worshiped their gods, but to look only to the site that God would choose as God’s habitation to establish God’s name. There they were to bring their burnt offerings and other sacrifices, tithes and contributions, offerings, and the firstlings of their herds and flocks. There, together with their households, they were to feast before God, happy in all God's blessings. Moses warned them not to sacrifice burnt offerings in any place, but only in the place that God would choose. But whenever they desired, they could slaughter and eat meat in any of their settlements, so long as they did not partake of the blood, which they were to pour on the ground. They were not, however, to consume in their settlements their tithes, firstlings, votive offerings, freewill offerings, or contributions; these they were to consume along with their children, slaves, and their local Levites before God in the place that God would choose.
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Moses warned them against being lured into the ways of the residents of the land, and against inquiring about their gods, for the residents performed for their gods every abhorrent act that God detested, even offering up their sons and daughters in fire to their gods.
Moses warned the Israelites carefully to observe only that which he enjoined upon them, neither adding to it nor taking away from it. If a prophet appeared before them and gave them a sign or a portent and urged them to worship another god, even if the sign or portent came true, they were not to heed the words of that prophet, but put the offender to death. If a brother, son, daughter, wife, or closest friend enticed one in secret to worship other gods, the Israelites were to show no pity, but stone the offender to death. And if they heard that some scoundrels had subverted the inhabitants of a town to worship other gods, the Israelites were to investigate thoroughly, and if they found it true, they were to destroy the inhabitants and the cattle of that town, burning the town and all its spoil as a holocaust to God. Moses prohibited the Israelites from gashing themselves or shaving the front of their heads because of the dead.
Moses prohibited the Israelites from eating anything abhorrent. Among land animals, they could eat ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep, and any other animal that has true hoofs that are cleft in two and chews cud. But the Israelites were not to eat or touch the carcasses of camel, hare, daman, or swine. Of animals that live in water, they could eat anything that has fins and scales, but nothing else. They could eat any clean bird, but could not eat eagle, vulture, black vulture, kite, falcon, buzzard, raven, ostrich, nighthawk, sea gull, hawk, owl, pelican, bustard, cormorant, stork, heron, hoopoe, or bat. They could not east any winged swarming things. They could not eat anything that had died a natural death, but they could give it to the stranger or you sell it to a foreigner. They could not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
They were to set aside every year a tenth part of all the yield of their harvest. They were to consume the tithes of their new grain, wine, and oil, and the firstlings of their herds and flocks, in the presence of God in the place where God would choose to establish God’s name. If the distance was too great to transport, they could convert the tithes or firstlings into money, take the proceeds to the place that God had chosen, and spend the money and feast there. But they were not to neglect the Levite in their community, for the Levites had no hereditary portion of land. Every third year, they were to bring out the full tithe, but leave it within their settlements, and the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in their settlements could come and eat their fill.
Every seventh year, the Israelites were to remit debts from fellow Israelites, although they could continue to dun foreigners. There would be no needy among them if only they heeded God and kept all God’s laws, for God would bless them. But if one of their kinsmen fell into need, they were not to harden their hearts, but were to open their hands and lend what the kinsman needed. The Israelites were not to harbor the base thought that the year of remission was approaching and not lend, but they were to lend readily to their kinsman, for in return God would bless them in all their efforts.
If a fellow Hebrew was sold into servitude, the Hebrew slave would serve six years, and in the seventh year go free. When the master set the slave free, the master was to give the former slave parting gifts. Should the slave tell the master that the slave did not want to leave, the master was to take an awl and put it through the slave’s ear into the door, and the slave was to become the master's slave in perpetuity.
The Israelites were to consecrate to God all male firstlings that were born in their herds and flocks eat it with their household before God in the place that God would choose. If it had a defect, they were not to sacrifice it, but eat it in their settlements, as long as they poured out its blood on the ground.
Moses instructed the Israelites to observe Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Three times a year, on those three festivals, all Israelite men were to appear before God in the place that God would choose, each with his own gift, according to the blessing that God had bestowed upon him.
Hebrew and English text
Hear the parshah chanted
Commentary from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University (Conservative)
Commentary from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Conservative)
Commentary by the Union for Reform Judaism (Reform)
Commentaries from Project Genesis (Orthodox)
Commentaries from Chabad.org (Orthodox)
Commentaries from Aish HaTorah (Orthodox)
Commentaries from the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (Reconstructionist)
Commentaries from My Jewish Learning (trans-denominational)
Commentaries from Aleph Beta Academy
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[edit]I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.