Why It Pays to Look Stuff Up

There’s been a bit of a stir a Right Wing bumpersticker and slogan making the rounds – “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8"

The verse in question is from one of the angrier psalms and reads:

“Let his days be few; and let another take his office.” It then goes on to say, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

An often ignored rule about quotes is, “LOOK THEM UP.” Famous quotes taken out of context are endemic online, especially if understanding them requires a grasp of nuance. The old Shakespeare quote, “let’s kill all the lawyers,” for instance, is often cited without the quoter showing any awareness that the great playwright put it in the mouth of a scoundrel.

Daily Kos diarist NewDealer did what the rest of us should have done – read the relevant psalm in its entirety.

Which begins with the great Biblical hero Kind David saying:

“For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, 
 speaking against me with lying tongues…”

What are these wicked and deceitful mouths saying? Well, among other things…

They say, Appoint a wicked man against him; 
 let an accuser stand on his right. 
When he is tried, let him be found guilty; 
 let his prayer be counted as sin. 
May his days be few; 
 may another seize his position…

An accuser on King David’s RIGHT?

Apparently, tea-partiers have been around longer than we thought.