Hosea

If you click on this post because you know who Hosea was, you are better student of religion than my sorry non-believing self.  But as with all great books, there is a certain amount of wisdom in The Bible.

What caused me to google Hosea was a columnist quoting him: "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."  The columnist was referring to the GOP's failure to shut down Donald Trump and the Birther's when they were and are being so dishonestly disrespectful of President Obama.  Now this dishonesty is dominating the GOP Presidential campaign and the serious policy wonks cannot escape this morass to campaign on a set of ideas that might attract independent voters.

Anyone who thinks Ted Cruz can unite the ultra-conservatives and win a general election doesn't remember Barry Goldwater (I could be wrong about that which is why, as in sports you play the game, in politics you hold the election.)

Anyway, I googled Hosea and found out who he was.   He lived in about 800 B.C. and in the Old Testament as a Prophet.  What was striking to me was every historic painting portrayal of him showed him to be very dark in skin color.  Which got me thinking, were the original Jews way back when African American as evolution would still have taken some time and perhaps some interbreeding with lighter skin people of more northern climates.  In which case, the Jews and Palestinians are genetically related and the current tribal mess in the Middle East the equivalent of a family dust-up that is completely out of control.

Anyway, I thought the President gave a sound speech last night. We cannot alienate 1.6 billion people, we must co-opt them into our battle against their extremist religious brethren.  Not that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz would do that and that is why I hope they go down into a terrible election defeat in 11 months.