User:Jdavidb

Secession is the right of all sentient beings. — me.

File:Jdavidb.jpg

This is me and my little boy. I think it's also the first image I ever uploaded. My son loves watching while I edit Wikipedia, but he also loves hitting the keyboard. He got his good looks from his mother. This picture was taken back when he was tiny, and not the huge 20-pound hulking behemoth he is now.

Wikipedia:Babel

enThis user is a native speaker of the English language.

Perl-4This user is an expert Perl programmer.

This user contributes using Firefox.

...This user would like to know oodles more languages.

Search user languages

JDBThis 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

• 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

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

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

I agree to multi-license all my contributions to Wikipedia, without exception, according to the following:

Weekly Torah portion

Awhile back I became interested in Judaism's parsha Bible-reading (specifically Torah-reading) schedule. Now I've discovered this really cool related template:

Weekly Torah Portion

Acharei-Kedoshim (אחרי-קדושים‎)

Levticus 16:1–20:27

The Weekly Torah portion in synagogues on Shabbat, Saturday, 5 Iyar, 5785—May 3, 2025

“Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18.)

The text tells the ritual of Yom Kippur. After the death of Aaron’s sons, God told Moses to tell Aaron not to come at will into the Most Holy Place, lest he die, for God appeared in the cloud there. Aaron was to enter only after bathing in water, dressing in his sacral linen tunic, breeches, sash, and turban, and bringing a bull for a sin offering, two rams for burnt offerings, and two he-goats for sin offerings. Aaron was to take the two goats to the entrance of the Tabernacle and place lots upon them, one marked for the Lord and the other for Azazel. Aaron was to offer the goat designated for the Lord as a sin offering, and to send off to the wilderness the goat designated for Azazel. Aaron was then to offer the bull of sin offering. Aaron was then to take a pan of glowing coals from the altar and two handfuls of incense and put the incense on the fire before the Most Holy Place, so that the cloud from the incense would screen the Ark of the Covenant. He was to sprinkle some of the bull’s blood and then some of the goat’s blood over and in front of the Ark, to purge the Shrine of the uncleanness and transgression of the Israelites. He was then to apply some of the bull’s blood and goat’s blood to the altar, to cleanse and consecrate it. Aaron was then to lay his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it the Israelites’ sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and then through a designated man send it off to the wilderness to carry their sins to an inaccessible region. Then Aaron was to go into the Tabernacle, take off his linen vestments, bathe in water, put on his vestments, and then offer the burnt offerings. The one who set the Azazel-goat free was to wash his clothes and bathe in water. The bull and goat of sin offering were to be taken outside the camp and burned, and he who burned them was to wash his clothes and bathe in water. The text then commands this law for all time: On the tenth day of the seventh month, Jews and aliens who reside with them were to practice self-denial and do no work. On that day, the High Priest was to put on the linen vestments, purge the Tabernacle, and make atonement for the Israelites once a year.

The text next begins what scholars call the Holiness Code. God prohibited Israelites from slaughtering oxen, sheep, or goats without bringing them to the Tabernacle as an offering, on pain of exile. God prohibited consuming blood. If one hunted an animal for food, he was to pour out its blood and cover it with earth. Anyone who ate what had died or had been torn by beasts was to wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening.

God prohibited any Israelite from uncovering the nakedness of his father, mother, father’s wife, sister, grandchild, half-sister, aunt, daughter-in-law, or sister-in-law. A man could not marry a woman and her daughter, a woman and her granddaughter, or a woman and her sister during the other’s lifetime. A man could not cohabit with a woman during her period or with his neighbor’s wife. Israelites were not to allow their children to be offered up to Molech. A man could not lie with a man as with a woman. God prohibited bestiality. God explained that the Canaanites defiled themselves by adopting these practices, and any who did any of these things would be cut off from their people.

“You shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field.”

God told Moses to tell the Israelites to be holy, for God is holy. God instructed the Israelites: To revere their mothers and fathers; to keep the Sabbath; not to turn to idols; to eat the sacrifice of well-being in the first two days; not to reap all the way to the edges of a field, but to leave some for the poor and the stranger; not to steal, deceive, swear falsely, or defraud; to pay laborers their wages promptly; not to insult the deaf or impede the blind; to judge fairly; not to deal basely with their countrymen, profit by their blood, or hate them in their hearts; to reprove kinsmen but incur no guilt because of them; not to take vengeance or bear a grudge; to love others as oneself; to observe God’s laws; not to interbreed different species or sow fields with two kinds of seed; not to wear cloth from a mixture of two kinds of material; a man who has carnal relations with a slave woman designated for another man must offer a ram of guilt offering; to regard the fruit of a newly-planted tree as forbidden for three years, set aside for God in the fourth year, and available to use in the fifth year; not to eat anything with its blood; not to practice divination or soothsaying; not to round off the side-growth on their heads or destroy the side-growth of their beards; not to make gashes in their flesh for the dead; not to degrade their daughters or make them harlots; to venerate God’s sanctuary; not to turn to ghosts or inquire of spirits; to rise before the aged and show deference to the old; not to wrong strangers who reside in the land, but to love them as oneself; and not to falsify weights or measures. God then told Moses to instruct the Israelites of the following penalties for transgressions. The following were to be put to death: one who gave a child to Molech; one who insulted his father or mother; a man who committed adultery with a married woman, and the married woman with whom he committed it; a man who lay with his father’s wife, and his father wife with whom he lay; a man who lay with his daughter-in-law, and his daughter-in-law with whom he lay; a man who lay with a male as one lies with a woman, and the male with whom he lay; a man who married a woman and her mother, and the woman and mother whom he married; a man who had carnal relations with a beast, and the beast with whom he had relations; a woman who approached any beast to mate with it, and the beast that she approached; and one who had a ghost or a familiar spirit. The following were to be cut off from their people: one who turned to ghosts or familiar spirits; a man who married his sister, and the sister whom he married; and a man who lay with a woman in her infirmity, and the woman with whom he lay. The following were to die childless: a man who uncovered the nakedness of his aunt, and the aunt whose nakedness he uncovered; and a man who married his brother’s wife, and the brother’s wife whom he married. God then enjoined the Israelites faithfully to observe all God’s laws, lest the Promised Land spew them out. For it was because the land’s former inhabitants did all these things that God dispossessed them. God designated the Israelites as holy to God, for God is holy, and God had set the Israelites apart from other peoples to be God’s.

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

Home

I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.