Transcript
Boss: I hired a bad analogy guy. Instead of giving reasons for his opinions, he asks ridiculous questions while acting arrogant.
Dilbert: That doesn’t seem useful.
Man: Would you say that about oxygen?
Comic for August 13, 2019
Archaeological dig in Jerusalem unearths evidence of biblical Babylonian conquest
One month after offering up archaeological evidence to back up a contested claim about the First Crusade, researchers say they’ve found traces of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in a deeper layer of their excavation on Mount Zion.
The newly reported find demonstrates how the site, just outside the walls of the Old City’s Tower of David citadel, serves as a “time machine” documenting the twists and turns of Jerusalem’s history.
The Babylonian conquest, which dates to the year 587 or 586 BCE, is one of the major moments of Jewish history. As detailed in the biblical Book of Kings, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem for months, eventually broke through the walls and burned “all the houses of Jerusalem,” including Solomon’s Temple.
After the fall of Jerusalem, the Jewish people were sent into exile – an event that Jews commemorate with mourning and fasting every year on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av. This year’s Tisha B’Av observance began at sundown tonight.
During this year’s Mount Zion excavation, which is managed by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, researchers came across a layer of material that included burnt wood and ash, potsherds, lamps and arrowheads dating from the time of the conquest. They also found a piece of period jewelry – a tassel or earring made of gold and silver.
An area around the dig yielded up signs of what appears to have been a substantial Iron Age structure, but that particular area has yet to be fully excavated.
Today, the focus of the Mount Zion Archaeological Project is a triangular wedge of ground that lies between a busy Jerusalem thoroughfare and the citadel’s walls. But at the time of the Babylonian siege, the area was a neighborhood within the fortifications of the Iron Age city, said Shimon Gibson, a co-director of the excavation and a professor of history at UNC Charlotte.
By itself, the ash wouldn’t serve as conclusive evidence of the city’s biblical destruction, Gibson said.
“For archaeologists, an ashen layer can mean a number of different things,” he explained in a news release. “It could be ashy deposits removed from ovens, or it could be localized burning of garbage.”
But the fact that the ash and debris were mixed with Scythian-type bronze and iron arrowheads that date to the sixth century BCE, plus the presence of a precious bauble from the same era, helps strengthen the case.
“Nobody abandons golden jewelry, and nobody has arrowheads in their domestic refuse,” Gibson said.
The clay artifacts, which include the high-based pinched lamps that were common at the time of the siege, help to date the deposit.
“It’s the kind of jumble that you would expect to find in a ruined household following a raid or battle,” Gibson said. “Household objects, lamps, broken bits from pottery which had been overturned and shattered … and arrowheads and a piece of jewelry which might have been lost and buried in the destruction.”
Gibson said he likes to think that the site represents one of the “great houses” mentioned in 2 Kings 25:9. “This spot would have been at an ideal location, situated as it is, close to the western summit of the city with a good view overlooking Solomon’s Temple and Mount Moriah to the northeast,” he said.
But he and the rest of the team are proceeding carefully.
“We are slowly taking the site down, level by level, period by period, and at the end of this last digging season, two meters of domestic structures from later Byzantine and Roman periods have still to be dug above the Iron Age level below,” Gibson said. “We plan to get down to it in the 2020 season.”
Excavation co-director Rafi Lewis, an archaeologist at Ashkelon Academic College and Haifa University, said the historical context that surrounds the discoveries at the Mount Zion site adds to the project’s appeal.
“It is very exciting to be able to excavate the material signature of any given historical event, and even more so regarding an important historical event such as the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem,” he said in the news release.
This season’s other notable discovery relates to another battle at Jerusalem’s walls – the siege by the Crusaders in 1099. The UNC Charlotte team excavated the outlines of a defensive ditch that, combined with artifacts including arrowheads, crucifixes and a piece of jewelry found amid a layer of burned debris, served to confirm a long-debated chapter in the saga of the First Crusade.
The team also uncovered vaulted basements dating from the time of Herod the Great, and a Byzantine street that was the continuation of a thoroughfare in Jerusalem known as the Cardo Maximus. Previous finds at the site include a rare gold coin bearing the visage of Nero as a young Roman emperor, and a first-century Jewish mansion that came complete with a bathtub.
The Mount Zion archaeological project is conducted by researchers, students and volunteers under the direction of Gibson, Lewis and James Tabor, a professor of religious studies at UNC Charlotte. The site is within an Israeli national park near the Old City’s Zion Gate. The project’s sponsors include Aron Levy, John Hoffmann, Cherylee and Ron Vanderham, Patty and David Tyler. Sheila Bishop of the Foundation for Biblical Archaeology is a facilitator for the project.
GeekWire’s Alan Boyle traveled to the Mount Zion site last month as part of a field trip associated with the World Conference of Science Journalists and organized by CERN with support from the Open SESAME consortium.
via GeekWire
Archaeological dig in Jerusalem unearths evidence of biblical Babylonian conquest
Aire: the form builder for PHP artisans
Aire is the form builder for PHP artisans. Tailwind-based templates, client-side validation, and smart defaults out of the box. Customize what you need, but don’t write code you don’t need to.
via Laravel News Links
Aire: the form builder for PHP artisans
Napolitano: The 2nd Amendment Isn’t A Gift From The Government
AP Photo/Richard Drew
Judge Andrew Napolitano is bringing the heat in a stinging column for the Washington Times, rebutting and refuting the arguments by gun control activists that they can simply ignore the text of the 2nd Amendment and Supreme Court decisions and enact whatever anti-gun laws they want.
The U.S. Supreme Court has twice ruled in the past 11 years that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual pre-political liberty. That is the highest category of liberty recognized in the law. It is akin to the freedoms of thought, speech and personality. That means that the court has recognized that the framers did not bestow this right upon us. Rather, they recognized its pre-existence as an extension of our natural human right to self-defense and they forbade government — state and federal — from infringing upon it.
It would be exquisitely unfair, profoundly unconstitutional and historically un-American for the rights of law-abiding folks — “surrender that rifle you own legally and use safely because some other folks have used that same type of weapon criminally” — to be impaired in the name of public safety.
It would also be irrational. A person willing to kill innocents and be killed by the police while doing so surely would have no qualms about violating a state or federal law that prohibited the general ownership of the weapon he was about to use.
The judge is absolutely right. And frankly, we know that even if an “assault weapons ban” managed to get millions of legally owned guns out of the hands of Americans (which it wouldn’t), the monsters in our midst would just adapt. We just saw a twisted individual take more than 30 lives by setting fire to a studio in Japan. We’ve seen a wanna-be jihadi mow down 86 people and injure more than 400 with a truck in France. We don’t think we’d see new tactics used by the twisted individuals here at home intent on destroying as many innocent lives as possible?
The judge also had a strong rebuke to those proposing or supporting red flag laws.
The president also offered his support for “red flag” laws. These horrific statutes permit police or courts to seize guns from those deemed dangerous. Red flag laws are unconstitutional. The presumption of innocence and the due process requirement of demonstrable fault as a precondition to any punishment or sanction together prohibit the loss of liberty on the basis of what might happen in the future.
In America, we do not punish a person or deprive anyone of liberty on the basis of a fear of what the person might do. When the Soviets used psychiatric testimony to predict criminal behavior, President Ronald Reagan condemned it. Now, the president wants it here.
We have civil commitment laws on the books in states across the nation. If we believe that someone is truly a danger to themselves or others, isn’t that a more appropriate place to seek help rather than a court hearing where a judge only hears one side of the case before making a determination about whether or not someone poses a threat to themselves or others?
As Napolitano points out, if one of our rights is gutted by ignoring the Constitution, you set a precedent to the same to any or all of the rest. If you think the 2nd Amendment is old or outdated, don’t ignore the Constitution. Abide by it. Try to repeal the 2nd Amendment. Of course that’s hard, which is one reason we haven’t seen a serious effort. We’re also dealing with some folks who really don’t care much about the Constitution. It’s an old and outdated document in their opinion, which should be ignored whenever possible and completely changed at the first given opportunity. Unfortunately that means that Napolitano’s column, as good as it is, will likely fall on deaf ears.
The post Napolitano: The 2nd Amendment Isn’t A Gift From The Government appeared first on Bearing Arms.
via Bearing Arms
Napolitano: The 2nd Amendment Isn’t A Gift From The Government
4 Pro-2A Websites You Should Subscribe To, Join or Visit Everyday
Opinion
USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- These pro-gun websites need the support of gun owners to exist. Without us, they would not be able to survive. Each one does an immeasurable amount of good in preserving our rights. Please visit each one and subscribe to their email lists as it is the only way they can keep in touch with you and not have big-tech shadowban them out of view.
Crime Prevention Research Center: www.crimeresearch.org
Anti-gunners hate this group with a passion that alone is a reason to support them. The only tool we have is facts, and I’ll be honest. I use his data for a lot of my articles.
When you hear that the U.S. has the most mass shooting and that we are a crazed gun culture, the proof that this is a lie comes from Dr. John Lott. (The U.S. ranks 11th in mass shooting among industrialized nations and 64th overall, here is the link.)
The Second Amendment Foundation: www.saf.org
The Heller and McDonald rulings from the SCOTUS were initiated and driven by the 2nd Amendment Foundation. On a national level, these guys are the top dog. They don’t really lobby or do community activism, but they do smack the anti-gunners in court, and they’re the best there are.
The list of legal cases they’re involved in their list of wins dwarfs almost every other pro-gun group.
The Friends of the NRA: www.friendsofnra.org
A true grassroots organization, and insulated from the much of the politics of the NRA itself the FNRA is the charity arm of the NRA.
I chair the Los Padres chapter in Ventura County. So from personal experience, here is what the FNRA funds. The Boy Scouts, JROTC, and Women on Target.. etc.
The FNRA’s goal is to grow the shooting sports and bring new people into the sport of shooting.
In other words, the FRNA invests in our future.
Most important, the allocation of monies for the grants is done on a local basis; and the FNRA ranks as having one of the lowest ratios of operating cost to grant allocation. (more money is spent on grants than most any other charity.)
So pick an event and attend (4 million other people have) or join the 13,000 volunteers that make these events possible.
AmmoLand News: www.ammoland.com
Very quietly over the past few years, AmmoLand News has become a leading voice in the shooting community. AmmoLand News has almost 4 million unique monthly visitors and is steadily growing. Covering all the important topics that the mainstream media refuses to touch, they are one of the only true news outlets that have not been corrupted. Even the biased MediaBiasFactCheck.com reports that AmmoLand News’ Factual Reporting as: HIGH
So if you’re not subscribed to AmmoLand News you should, you’ll find news and opinion here that is untainted by bias and open to all viewpoints. Share this and other articles you like here, and encourage others to sign up as well. They are one of these organizations that is most at risk of censorship by google, facebook, and social media overlords.
Share this article on your social media.
There are a lot of groups you can belong to; some are little more than websites, others nothing but scams that drain funds from the groups that actually do the work. These four, however, will make a difference. Get involved with any of these groups, and you too will help make a difference.
Every one of the leading Democrat presidential candidates has called for gun bans and confiscation. The time to get involved is now. A small effort today equals the preservation of our rights tomorrow.
About Don McDougall
Don McDougall is an NRA instructor and member of the Los Padres “Friends of the NRA” committee. If he’s not at the range, you will find him setting the record straight with on gun issues and gun safety on AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.
The post 4 Pro-2A Websites You Should Subscribe To, Join or Visit Everyday appeared first on AmmoLand.com.
via AmmoLand.com
4 Pro-2A Websites You Should Subscribe To, Join or Visit Everyday
Laravel Two-Step Registration: Optional Fields for Country and Bio
Nowadays, we have a lot of Laravel tutorial about some syntax or package, but I think there’s not enough written with real-life mini-projects, close to real demands of the clients. So will try to write more of these, and this is one of them: imagine a project where you need to have two-step registration process, with some optional fields in the second step. Let’s build it in Laravel.
via Laravel News Links
Laravel Two-Step Registration: Optional Fields for Country and Bio
Analysis of City’s Supreme Court Brief in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn v City of New York
By LKB
After two unsuccessful efforts to have the Supreme Court delay its briefing deadline, last night New York City filed its brief in the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association case. It’s pretty much what we expected, yet still manages to reach new levels of chutzpa. I’m not going to discuss everything that’s in the brief, but as I see it, here are the highlights.
NYC’s main argument, of course, is that because both it and the New York State Assembly have now “changed” the law that’s being challenged, the case is moot and therefore the Court is powerless to decide it.
Not surprisingly, however, the brief simply ignores the arguments made in NYSR&PA’s tour de force response to this claim; primarily, that changes to a law made after a writ of certiorari is granted (especially where the intent of the change in the law was unambiguously to evade the Supreme Court’s review of it) must be viewed very critically. Of course nothing prevents those parties from simply changing their mind and restoring the law in question if the Court did, in fact, dismiss the case as moot.
While NYC had previously indicated that it would refuse to brief the merits of this case because of its mootness assertions (a threat that was, in my view as a federal appellate attorney, insanely unwise), it nevertheless did address the merits of the case (albeit with the constant refrain that the case is moot and the Court should therefore not reach the merits).
First, the City argues that its rules prohibiting transport of firearms do not actually interfere with any Second Amendment right at all. This argument seeks to cabin the Second Amendment right as being solely to possess a weapon in one’s home – but nowhere else – and that this narrow right to possess weapons in the home does not require recognition of a right to train as any part of that right.
Indeed, NYC argues that because there are a grand total seven ranges at which NYC residents can go to train, its restrictions “did not meaningfully impair petitioner’s ability to train.”
Imagine if NYC were to similarly assert that because it had seven designated free speech zones in the City, it could therefore prohibit assemblies anywhere else. Or that because there were seven abortion clinics in the City, it could forbid any more.
In support of its argument, the City makes an extended review of various historical laws that provided where and how militia training would be conducted, and thus asserts that regulations on where training can occur are in fact historically recognized. That argument ignores, of course, that such laws merely regulated where weapons could be discharged within their jurisdiction, and said nothing about prohibiting the transportation of weapons to areas outside of it.
Second, the City argues that its regulations satisfy “means-ends” scrutiny, and do not involve treating the Second Amendment as a less-favored constitutional right. The City’s argument here is that intermediate scrutiny is appropriate for Second Amendment cases, and because of NYC’s “unique” position as the most densely populated place in the country, it has a good reason to regulate firearms more strictly and should therefore be allowed to do so.
This is the nub of the case: whether a right recognized as “fundamental” by the Supreme Court can nevertheless be disregarded if a state or locality claims to have a good reason to do so. If intermediate scrutiny is the test, the right is indeed second class, as Justice Thomas has repeatedly pointed out. If the test is strict scrutiny – as I believe a majority of Supreme Court justices are now leaning – then this whole argument collapses.
Besides the Second Amendment issues, the Supreme Court also granted review on whether the City’s restrictions violated the “dormant commerce clause” (which holds, essentially that the states and localities cannot regulate interstate commerce, because that power is given only to Congress) or the right to travel.
On the commerce clause issue, NYC first argues that because the “safe passage” provision of the Firearms Owners Protection Act (“FOPA”) conditioned the right to transport firearms across state lines on it being legal to do so in the states where the trip begins and ends, that somehow indicates that Congress authorized local regulation such as NYC’s. I find this argument to be exceedingly weak.
It is one thing for a state to regulate activities that occur solely within its own borders. It is quite another for a local government to explicitly forbid the interstate transportation of firearms — which was the whole point of FOPA in the first place.
More importantly, it is particularly galling for NYC to cite FOPA as a purported justification for its regulations, when NYC has flagrantly and openly refused to recognize or obey FOPA’s “safe passage” provisions in the first place. I hope that at oral argument, one of the Justices questions NYC’s counsel about its well-documented refusal to obey this law.
Next, NYC argues that the dormant commerce clause challenges apply only to activities that favor local commerce and disadvantage out-of-state actors, and the appellate record lacks any evidence of any actual disadvantage to any out-of-state actor or favoring of in-state ones. Here, I think NYC probably has a point, and this is why I’ve never been fond of the dormant commerce clause challenge to the NYC law.
Finally, NYC argues that its regulations did not implicate the right to travel, because nothing in them actually prohibited an individual from entering or leaving the state – only what its residents can have in their possession when they do.
Again, as I read current law on the right to travel, I think NYC probably has the better of this argument – the right to travel has been interpreted pretty narrowly, and I do not see the current Court stretching to expand that implicit constitutional right.
In conclusion, I think NYC is giving it the old college try, but on the heart of this case – the appropriate level of scrutiny for Second Amendment cases – it knows it is going to lose.
Let’s hope so….
via The Truth About Guns
Analysis of City’s Supreme Court Brief in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn v City of New York
Why You Need a Password Manager. Yes, You.
You probably know that it’s not a good idea to use “password” as a password, or your pet’s name, or your birthday. But the worst thing you can do with your passwords—and something that more than 50 percent of people are doing, according to a recent Virginia Tech study—is to reuse the same ones across multiple sites. If even one of those accounts is compromised in a data breach, it doesn’t matter how strong your password is—hackers can easily use it to get into your other accounts.
via Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World
Why You Need a Password Manager. Yes, You.
Create an Admin middleware for Laravel with spatie/laravel-permission
Although there are many articles about this topic, I decided to document this in a post for my future self and to share with all of you the aproach I usually use to separate an application depending on specific roles.
via Laravel News Links
Create an Admin middleware for Laravel with spatie/laravel-permission
Laravel Firewall
This package intends to protect your Laravel app from different type of attacks such as XSS, SQLi, RFI, LFI, User Agent, and a lot more. It will also block repeated attacks and send notification via email and/or slack when attack is detected. Furthermore, it will log failed logins and block the IP after a number of attempts.
via Laravel News Links
Laravel Firewall