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Found via Tony Pierce.

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In case you’re wondering who the white-haired fellow in the suit holding the Bible is, that’s Jeff Sessions, Attorney General of the United States. He’s the one who defended the unconscionable practice of separating parents and children of families detained at the U.S. border by citing Romans 13 from the Bible:

“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government, because God has ordained them for the purpose of order. Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.”

This isn’t the first time Romans 13 has been used to justify terrible things. As an article in The Atlantic about how the chief modeas of the Trump administration are cruelty and denial puts it:

Just as Sessions reached for Romans 13 to justify the policy of family separation, so did the South’s theologians, such as Thornton Stringfellow, insist that scripture bestowed “the authority, from God himself, to hold men and women, and their increase, in slavery, and to transmit them as property forever.”

Here are verses 1 through 5 of Romans 13 from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, and they’re what Sessions is referring to:

1. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

2. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

3. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.

4. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

5. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

Sessions is a Trump-style American conservative, and might rather that you forget about verses 6 and 7 of Romans 13, which tell you that taxes are a good thing:

6. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

7. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

And finally, there are verses 8 through 10, which basically say that “love your neighbor” is the law — everything else is a corollary:

8. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

9. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

10. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Stephen Colbert did a nice job summarizing:

Click the image to see it at full size.

This spot-on editorial cartoon by Ward Sutton appeared in yesterday’s Boston Globe.

Don’t forget that it’s Juneteenth — the day that marks the freeing of people who were enslaved in the U.S.. We still have a way to go before those scales are balanced.

An excellent specimen of the pervasive species known as Barricadus Robertus.

One of the best deals you’ll find at Costco is their food court’s quarter-pound hot dog and refillable 20-ounce drink, which sells for a mere $1.50. The price has remained unchanged since 1984, when they first sold them as a trial run for their food service, and counter to what you’d expect for something that sells at the same price for decades, both the hot dog and the drink are larger than the original.

One of the reasons why they’ve never increased the price of the dog is a directive from Costco co-founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal. When discussing the subject with current CEO Craig Jelinek, who said they were losing money on each sale of the dog-and-drink combo, he replied:

“If you raise [the price of] the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.”

Compared to the money that Costco makes, the money they lose on the hot dog combo is a rounding error, and with the goodwill that buys, they might as well consider it a marketing expense with a nice rate of return. Even so, they’ve still taken some measures to reduce their costs without reducing quality by switching away from their original hot dog supplier, Hebrew National, and making their own, and by cutting a deal with Pepsi for the drinks.

People are (rightfully) suspicious of free stuff.

You might wonder why Costco simply doesn’t make the hot dog and drink combo free instead of charging a ridiculously low fee for it, especially since it’s a members-only store. My feeling is that if the combo was free, it would quickly become an abused privilege. The $1.50 barrier, low as it is, prevents Costco shoppers from going overboard, and may even give the combo an air of legitimacy that it might not have if it was free.

Although the hot dog deal’s been around for almost 35 years, there’s been a recent spate of interest in it, as evidenced by these articles:

• The Enduring Enigma of Costco’s $1.50 Hot Dog and Soda Combo (MentalFloss.com, June 8, 2018)
• Costco loses money every time it sells a $1.50 hot dog and doesn’t care (The Takeout, April 11, 2018)
• Why Costco food courts have charged $1.50 for hot dogs since 1985, according to employees (Business Insider, April 10, 2018)
• The real reason a Costco hot dog costs only $1.50 (Business Insider, April 4, 2018)
• The Story Behind Costco’s $1.50 Hot Dog Deal (Kitchn.com, February 27, 2018)

Here’s the money quote from the interview in the video above, with emphasis added by me:

“We have thousands of people that have asked for that. Thousands and thousands of people. So many people asked when I was on the campaign; I’d say ‘Wait a minute, I don’t have any relationship’, but they said, ‘When you can, President, we’d love our son to be brought back home.’”

Time for some history and math!

The Korean War ran from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. Readers who grew up in the 1970s may think it ran longer, but that’s because of the TV series M*A*S*H, which was set during that war, ran from 1972 to 1983, nearly four times as long.

Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor feeds a 2-week-old kitten named Miss Hap after her mother had been killed during a mortar attack in Korea. Click the photo to see the source.

Suppose the youngest of soldiers was recruited and sent to Korea in the last days of the war, when he was killed. At the age of 18, that puts his birth year at 1935.

Dean Martin — possibly sober — in 1918. Click the photo to see the source.

Suppose his parents were also 18 when he was born, which wouldn’t have been too out of the ordinary back then. That puts their birth year at 1917, which would make them 101 years old today, or 100 if their birthdays take place later this year.

Now remember, Trump said that thousands of these parents have asked for their sons’ remains to be sent home. Thousands of people who at least 100 years old.

Now, let’s consider Trump’s rather casual relationship with the truth, but at the same time, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Suppose what he’s saying is true, and that these parents exist, but he exaggerated their number. If we take those thousands and reduce their number by 90%, that would mean there are still hundreds of these 100-year-old parents of Korean MIAs.

Even if we took that number of parents and reduced that number by 90%, there’d still be dozens of these centenarians looking to bring their sons home.

Even if there were a single dozen of these 100+ year old parents, never mind thousands, they’d be in the news. In fact, given Trump’s ego, he’d trot them out in front the cameras.