Cyprus / Cyrene Massacres of 117 A.D. - Dio Cassius Reports; David Loots Ammon; 2009 Replay in Florida

We've studied Wall Street figures like Bernard Madoff, film directors like Lars von Trier, and actors like David Carradine. Each, in his own way, has engaged in tremendous perversion. So you might be wondering, Where do these people come from? How did they get started on the downward path of perversion?

In this lesson, we study an emerging leader in the mold of these men.

PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY

Mr. Tyler Weinman is a prominent member of the Florida Jewish community. He's been raised on stories from the illustrious past of his people. Stories from the life of the great King David.

GREAT KING LEADS HIS PEOPLE IN WAR

David took over as Jewish king in about the year 1004 B.C. (Erhard Gorys, Das Heilige Land, Dumont, 1989). David got all the Jews together (about 975 B.C.) and went off to the city of Rabbah (today Amman, Jordan). There was some fighting, and David took the city.

A QUESTION OF ETHICS

First, David helped himself to the material goods. "And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance." 2 Samuel 12:30, Holy Bible)

TREMENDOUS PERVERSION

Like Mr. Madoff did. "One has to see what this guy has done as a tremendous perversion of doing justice," said John R. Fishel, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, which lost $6.4 million of its endowment. "This is a question of ethics." (Duke Helfand, Madoff's alleged misdeeds spark feelings of betrayal, outrage in L.A.'s Jewish community, Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec 2008 )

Then it was time for this great Jewish king to deal with the people of Rabbah. He gathered the prisoners together, and sawed them up, ran harrows over the bodies, and chopped them up with axes. Then off to the ovens!

"And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon." (2 Samuel 12:31, Holy Bible)

Plunder, torture, slice, dice, and then burn.

Just in one city? Oh, no. "thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon." (2 Samuel 12:31 (Holy Bible))

But surely Jews reserve punishments like these for their enemies in Ammon, and would never do anything like that to dumb animals?

MASS DESTRUCTION

"In the past month, residents in the Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay neighborhoods have reported finding the bodies of more than two dozen cats, although police said some were likely killed by dogs. Some were missing fur — neighbors said some had been skinned — and appeared to have been cut with a sharp, straight instrument, police said.

MUTILATION

"What a horrible, horrific death for any animal," said Nancy Mayes, whose cat, Sheba, was found dead this May. "We can only hope, I can only hope, that he killed her fast and instantly so that she didn't endure the pain of the knife, the mutilation."

"Tyler Hayes Weinman, whose divorced parents live in the neighborhoods where many of the cats were killed, was charged Sunday with 19 counts each of animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body." (Sarah Larimer, Florida teen charged in string of cat killings, AP, 15 Jun 2009)

MAYBE A FUTURE PRESIDENT

Hm. Cruelty. Where did we hear about that last? "Former president George W. Bush defended harsh interrogation tactics used in the "war on terror"". (Bush defends harsh interrogation tactics: report, AFP, 29 May 2009) Harsh? That means "Severe, cruel, or exacting". (harsh, The Free Dictionary)

OR A GREAT FILM DIRECTOR

Jewish film director Lars von Trier thinks he's the greatest film director in the world. Here, we studied his latest big film Antichrist. That was the film that had "scenes ranging from a talking fox to graphically-portrayed sexual mutilation." Or, as Nancy Mayes put it "the pain of the knife, the mutilation". (Larimer, supra) That's the movie poster at right, replete with mutiliated body parts.

And what kind of mutilation was going on? "Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said" "When you kill cats, disembowel them and cut their heads off, that is not a good sign and you do not have to be Sigmund Freud to see that". (Larimer, supra)

So this young Jew disemboweled living creatures. Who would ever get an idea like that?

This sort of thing has happened before. And that in the year 117.

"Meanwhile the Jews in the region of Cyrene had put a certain Andreas at their head, and were destroying both the Romans and the Greeks. They would eat of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood and wear their skins for clothing; many they sawed in two, from the head downwards; others they gave to wild beasts, and still others they forced to fight as gladiators. In all two hundred and twenty thousand persons perished. In Egypt, too, they perpetrated many similar outrages, and in Cyprus, under the leadership of a certain Artemion. There, also, two hundred and forty thousand perished, and for this reason no Jew may set foot on that island, but even if one of them is driven upon its shores by a storm he is put to death. Among others who subdued the Jews was Lusius, who was sent by Trajan." (Dio Cassius, Epitome of Book LXVIII, Dio’s Roman History, Volume VIII, The Loeb Classical Library, 1925, pp 421, 423)

Let "the authorities" say what they want about Mr. Weinman. Obviously he's paid attention in Hebrew class, carefully watched the films from the top Jewish directors, and who knows? Maybe one day he will be president of the United States!!

And if he can't make it that far?

How about shift manager at "AgriProcessors—the world's largest kosher slaughterhouse, which is located in Postville, Iowa": "A new PETA undercover investigation has caught AgriProcessors—the world's largest kosher slaughterhouse, which is located in Postville, Iowa—cruelly hacking holes in cows' throats. Dr. Temple Grandin, the world's foremost expert on slaughter methods, has stated that these gouging, circular cuts cause the cows pain and suffering." http://www.youtube.com

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAU9DD24uUk]