Opus 2026-285: Running Out of Cheeks, Part 2 of 5, Go Figure

If we are to turn the other cheek at all times how do you explain Jesus cleansing the temple.  People try.  I have heard some great attempts.  When I was in seminary I wrote a paper about the time Jesus cleansed the temple and made the comment that Jesus got angry.  My professor went warp 9.  “Jesus did not get angry!”  I guess I was supposed to assume that He was quietly walking from table to table asking for permission to turn them over.  I have had people tell me that the whip He made was just to get the animals moving faster and HE used it gently.

How about Jesus telling the disciples to disciples to buy a sword.  People like to quote this verse from early in His ministry.

Luke 10:4 (KJV) Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

That is fine but they seem to stop reading there.  Do they leave out the rest because they only know what someone taught them?  Do they ignore the rest because their mind is made up?  Later Jesus reminds them of this,

Luke 22:35 (KJV) And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.

Then we get to the twitchy part that no one wants to see:

Luke 22:36 (KJV) Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

Notice that the instructions have changed.  Why?  Because the situation has changed.  What get me here is that the scholars all seem to say He did not mean a literal sword.  I find that one of those convenient proclamations that are designed to back a person’s theological position rather than reflect what they are reading.  How do you interpret that figuratively?  

To be continued...

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Opus 2026-263: An Opportunity

The recent conflict with Iran gives us an opportunity to grow as citizens in a republic that still allows many liberties.  The actions going on and the motives pushing things are one focus of our attention.  The problem we have is that the “news” we get is so often just a reflection of the writers wishes, not an account of facts.  This is true on both sides of the political spectrum.

This is what presents an opportunity.  We have a real chance to do some serious thinking and honing of our ability to think and process the information we have available.  The media and government have gotten so good at spinning the news that we can’t just sit down in the morning with a newspaper and feel we know what is going on.  I can remember my dad doing that.  I can remember a time when the nation would tune in the evening news and feel like we had a handle on the world.

We were naive.  If you are old enough to remember Walter Cronkite giving the gloomy analysis of the Tet Offensive of 78 and how that spelled a total defeat for America then you are old enough to be a victim of media shaping of history.  The Tet Offensive was really a tremendous victory for America and South Vietnam.  The Communist forces, attacking during a truce when they knew we would not expect it, were still decimated and had to back off.  That is not what Cronkite reported and the nation sank into despair.

We are still too naive.  The spin masters are getting ever better at camouflaging what their real positions are.  If we have a moment of simple acceptance we open ourselves to the fraud.  This demands more vigilance than we often apply.

So what do I recommend?  I thought you would never ask.  First, start with a grounding in principle.  Know your founding documents.  For Americans that involves the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  Christians will add the Bible.  You don’t need to have every jot and tittle at your fingertips but you need to know that when a talking head mentions the government granting us our rights they are giving a deception not a description.  God gives our rights.  The Government is supposed to protect them.  Defining marriage and other moral positions is also clear if you are grounded.

Once you have the basics then always go with the big picture and refuse to do a Chicken Little every time someone declares the end is near.  As an example I would bring up the constant litany of how Donald Trump is failing us.  I would be the first to admit that I do not support some of his big spending solutions.  I am worried that he might get dragged into sending ground troops into Iran.  I am also sure that I can’t believe anything I hear about him being either a saint or sinner.  The big picture is that he loves America with a passion.  He has done the things he promised to do, or at least tried to get congress to get them done.  Has he been married more often than he should?  That is obvious, but you also need to notice that all of his ex-wives speak highly of him and his children seem to be worthwhile human beings.

Go for the big picture.  America has made mistakes.  Why do we have to say that every time we talk about America?  Because we have been listening to the media and academic world that hate America.  The big picture says we are the most noble of civilizations.  We forgive.  We share.  We respond to the needs of the world.  It takes time and memory to embrace the big picture but we owe it to ourselves, not to mention our descendants.

Think big.  Buckle up.  Grab hold.  Scream if you have to, but enjoy the ride. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-242: Get out of Your Bubble

One of the Pod-Casts that I will usually consider is Uncommon Knowledge.  Recently Peter Robinson was interviewing a wonk named Michael McFaul.  I had never heard of him.  He has written a lot of books with you can buy but the local libraries have none of his work.

The discussion went many directions regarding foreign policy.  They started with Russia since McFaul had been very involved in negotiations through several presidents.  They then went to China and so forth.  Interesting.  I did not get the feeling I could take everything he said to the bank.  When you serve at high levels of administration for both parties it says a lot about your “flexibility”.

What moved me toward writing him off was his comments about how we need to become more united as a country.  While I like the sentiment I am also aware that the issues that divide us are important and can’t just be glossed over.  I am aware that the far left in this country are not out to get along but to destroy what has made us unique in history.  They want to destroy all of the liberties in the Bill of Rights and increase the power of the Federal government.  They want the elites to make our decisions for us because they are wiser than we are.

There is no middle road on abortion.  There is no middle road on mutilating the bodies of children nor is there a middle road of honest elections.  There are some things that spell compromise as surrender.  McFaul seemed like a genuinely decent human being.  He is intelligent and well educated.  He is also incredibly naive and living in a Ph.D. Bubble.

He needs to get out more.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-204: Click Bait: Are There Still Bantus?

I found a new source of Click Bait. It is a site called BantuCityDiaries. The poster gives the impression that he is from Nigeria. He speaks with a British accent which would fit that scenario. Beyond that I have picked up little about his basic philosophy of life until the last bit I watched.

He spends him time explaining why Africa is so far behind the world and why he doesn’t think things will get better. One of the points he has made repeatedly is how happy black Africans seem to be even when they have nothing to be happy about. He said something I just had to write down because it was so catchy.

“Celebrating like they have invented the cure for foolishness.”

The last video gave me a better feel for where he is coming from and a reason to doubt how reliable he is. At the end of the video he made it clear that he is an agnostic at best and probably an atheist. He spent a bit of time mocking God. He lumped the Bible together with the Koran. He obviously had a bone to pick.

He portrayed black African churches as being full of opulent hypocrites. He showed pictures of them arriving at church in Bentleys and such. He talked about how rich the pastors were and so forth. I would accept the statements he made about the churches he filmed but I know enough about the various missionary efforts to know that is not the case everywhere. It would be like doing an expose on American Mega churches that have gone woke and are just social clubs for the affluent and successful. I have the feeling his dislike of Christianity clouded his vision.

When I find that someone is unreliable in one area I tend to think that bleeds over into whatever else they are saying. I will continue to consider his click bait but will be more selective in the future.

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Opus 2026-148: Click Bait: The Setup Continues

The headline read:  “‘This is a problem.’  Iran war puts JD Vance in a bind before 2028.”

The source was USA Today.  I did not bother reading the post because I could not believe any factual material it presented.  At the same time I did not need to read it to see the psyops going on.  There is an operation in place to demote JD Vance from the position of heir apparent and transfer the blessing to Marco Rubio.

I have been seeing this for weeks.  I don’t know if it is organized or if it is just a case of not-so-great minds running in the same gutters.

I have no major problem with Marco Rubio.  As I have said, he did some stupid things years ago but people can grow.  Donald Trump is an example.  I do have concerns that people who were once never-Trumpers favor him and keep building him up.  He has the feel of being an insider that is waiting to get his chance.

Currently I would go with Vance because he is an outsider.  I wait to see what he does with the assignment to investigate fraud that the president gave him.  It could make him or break him.  Another possibility is that the Rinos and talking heads will ignore any success he has and push Rubio.

Stay awake.  Chart the ways in which psyops are being played daily.  Pray like it makes a difference.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-091: Source of Heresy

I am currently in the middle of a discussion with a friend of mine who to be honest, has a lot of weird ideas.  He likes to take quotations out of context and throw them at me and then say, “Aha! Gotcha!”  When I take time to read the proof of my perfidity, I just scratch my head and wonder what he’s been smoking.  The reason he sees it the way he did is because he came with his mind made up and was sat on finding something to put me in my place.

The focus of our current discussion is the heresy of Arianism.  This goes back to an early Christian teacher called Arias, who was involved with the controversy of the Nicean council.  His basic teaching was that Jesus was a created being.  At best he was a minor God.  Of course, this opened up the controversies about trying to understand the Trinity.  In fact, he was rejecting the orthodox position of the church.

One of the scriptures that gets thrown in is in Proverbs 8.  In that Proverb wisdom is personified and when you get down to verse 22 and the passage after that, you find that there are qualities laid upon wisdom which crossover enter the description of Jesus. A few verse down you read this,

Proverbs 8:25 (KJV) Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

The “brought forth” can have the idea of being born. Arias interpreted this to mean that wisdom, which he equates with Jesus, is a created being.

This is where heresy is born.  It is born in the mind of the perceiver.  When you come to something with your mind made up what it’s going to say, you can find just about anything you want.  When he came to this verse, Arias was allowing his arrogance and his confidence in his own intellectual ability to supersede what he knew the Bible taught.

If you come to these verses with an understanding of what the Bible teaches about, Jesus, then you read this and look for something inspiring about it.  You don’t look for a way to undermine the rest of the Bible.  It’s called studying with a spirit of humility instead of arrogance.

Attitude is so important when we come to scripture.  I think most of the heretics in the world and most of the pagans of the world come to their research with the idea that they are smarter than the average bear and will find that they deserve the picnic basket on the table in spite of the signs.

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Opus 2026-089: Scapegoat Phoenix

They’re at it again.  In this case “they” are the Jew haters who seem to always emerge from the rotten cellars whenever they’re running out of other conspiracy theories.  Right now I’m seeing it frequently in mentions of the Epstein files.  They’re dripping with nauseating accusations about the Jews.  True, they are quoting some things expressed in the emails but it’s just the old scapegoat emerging again.

Right now it seems to be coming from both sides of the aisle.  Historically it’s been around since almost the beginning of time.  I’ve been reading about medieval times and how the Jews struggled through those time and persecution was prevalent.  Some of the accusations that we’re hearing today are just repetitions of what they threw around 1,000 years ago.  They were accused of drinking babies blood.  They were accused of murdering Christians in their rituals.  They were accused of witchcraft and all sorts of nonsense.

Some things never change.  You may not like the Jews.  You may think Israel is an aberration.  You may think that Jewish bankers are at the center of all our economic problems.

As the medieval world would say, hold my beer.  These accusations are nothing new.  I would assume that being human beings the Jews have their share of nefarious individuals, but these accusations are nothing but liable and insults to our intelligence.

What does it say about our intelligence, let alone our moral fiber, that we believe them so readily.

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Opus 2026-072: Headlines: The Big Flip

One of the recent headlines has been about how the government agencies have redrawn the nutrition pyramid.  There’s a lot of talk about how it has been inverted.  I watched one “Doctor” on the Internet until he got to his commercial, and he was excited about the fact that grains and carbohydrates have been taken from the position of king and foundation to a fringe group.  He had a lot to say about how destructive carbohydrates are and so forth.

While I will accept the fact that we eat too many carbohydrates it is not a problem of the carbs themselves as much as it is our lack of discipline and moderation.  One reason people eat a lot of carbs is that they are less expensive than the other things on the chart such as red meat and fresh vegetables.  I sometimes wonder if the people telling us how wonderful this will be have ever actually gone to a grocery store or had to balance a budget.  Pasta is cheap.  Porterhouse is expensive.

Another reason that I am not jumping on this bandwagon is because of a point that was made years ago in a book called The Weigh Down Diet.  The author pointed out that God had designed our bodies and designed hunger and appetite as a way of the bodies knowing what they should take in.  Her point was to eat what you craved, but do it in moderation.  Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the kind of discipline necessary to do that, but the principle of God building in a craving for certain foods resounded with me.

I’m not ready to reject carbohydrates as being the major problem in diabetes, and, according to the good doctor, all major illness.  My reason is theological.  I can give you a reason from the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  For instance,

(Mat 6:11 KJV)  Give us this day our daily bread.

This is a clear statement about bread.  I’ve seen other click bait on YouTube about how the bread they ate in those days was different than the bread we eat today.  That’s probably true.  The answer is not to throw out bread, but possibly to stop putting pesticides on the grain.  I’m not ready to reject what is a staple across almost all cultures just because the FDA decided to revise the food pyramid.  I am not ready to reduce the population of the world in order to give everyone the amount of fresh vegetables and fruits needed to follow the fruits and nuts.

I have been tracking certain things in nutrition for years.  Bread, and starches like potatoes, contain fiber, protein, and a bit of fat as well as carbohydrates.  Government agencies have a tendency to take extreme stands.  They tend to throw the baby out with a bath water.  While their advice is something to be considered, each of us needs to be our own advocate and walk our own path.

Shamblin, Gwen.  The Weigh Down Diet.  New York:  Doubleday, 1997.

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Opus 2026-019: Read with Discernment

How are we to deal with authors who seem so set on advancing their left-wing agenda that they either ignore facts, twist them out of recognition, or make up imaginary factoids?  I come across this often.  Most of the time I simply decide not to finish the book.  At the same time, if you do that, there isn’t much you can read.  One of the things I try to do is go to older authors who might be a little more honest and objective.

I’m working through the 11 volume set by Will Durant, The Story of Civilization.  I’m currently in volume three, and I came across something which helps to understand how to read these kind of people.  What gives me the insight is reading how he presents things of which I have a good deal of knowledge, in this case biblical and Jewish history.  As an example, he says this,

Page 541, footnote, “The word Messiah (Hebrew mahsiah) occurs frequently in the Old Testament.  The Jews who made the Septuagint (c.a. 280 B.C.) translated it into the Greek Christos, the Anointed, he upon whom has been poured a chrism or holy oil.”

Having just done some research on the term Messiah for another reason, I’m a little bit up on it. When you look at the use of this Hebrew word in the Old Testament it is somewhat frequent, 39 times, but only twice is it translated “Messiah”, both of them and Daniel and only in the KJV and NASB.  Every other case that I could find refers to anointing a king, a priest, your shield or other types of things.  There might be some double meanings in Psalms but it was not the overwhelming mindset that he claims.  I don’t care what your Sunday School teacher told you.  Look it up yourself.  Do a search.  Much of what we teach as Old Testament truth is borrowed from the Rabbis and Talmud of New Testament times.

I assume he uses the same liberality in interpreting the other religions of the day.  He seems more concerned about finding Christian terminology and applying it to pagan rituals than he is and actually describing what is going on.

I will continue to read, but I will continue to read with discernment and I find myself skimming more and more as I go.  I hope my brain does not rot.

Durant, Will.  The Story of Civilization:  Part 3, Caesar and Christ.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1944,1972.

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Opus 2025-422: The Wall

I was sitting speculating on the place of additives and preservatives in our food and how the gurus of health are telling us that we need to avoid them or we will die.  OK, that may be a little too dramatic, but you know the things you’re hearing.  We’re used to science going back and forth on whether eggs are good for you, whether coffee will stunt your growth, whether vitamin D will cause Alzheimer’s and other exciting theories.  Most of them are pretty much groundless and are pushed for a commercial reward.

But I was wondering if when God created man and develop the immune system that we have if there isn’t a residual way of dealing with these additives that is hidden below the surface, waiting to come out.  Buried deep in the sections of DNA previously thought of as junk there might be an enzyme that will use an unpronounceable additive to cure cancer.

I think I’ve written about that before, but that took me to another thought.  When you look at the controversy between evolution and creation and consider the way in which scientist who are believers have been trying to hide behind the concept of design in the universe, I wonder if this is a wall that science is starting to run into that they will not be able to get beyond until they open their minds to reality.

When doing research on the Big Bang theory for a sermon on Genesis 1:1, it became clear that this theory was resisted by scientist mainly because it seemed to indicate a designer, a prime mover, the existence of God.  Several are on record as saying that’s why they resisted it.  There are other instances where the theoretically objective field of science has been held back because the scientist didn’t want to embrace ideas that might point toward a supreme being.

So I wonder if an areas in biology and physics the scholars are going to have to run into reality before they can move beyond the wall.  Are there concepts that they cannot approach unless they are open to all possibilities?

My memory goes back to a science fiction story I read years ago in which someone was in a jail cell demanding to be let out.  He kept throwing himself against the door.  It would not give.  He literally rattled his cage.  No matter how hard he pushed the door wouldn’t open.  The story went on, but the climax was when someone came and told him he could leave anytime he wanted to and they simply pushed the gate open and walked in because it wasn’t really locked.  The problem was it just opened one way and the story ends with the prisoner again, throwing himself against the door and refusing to pull.

What kind of doors that are standing ready to be opened is science ignoring because of the potential, not the proof, but the potential, that it might indicate there is design in the universe?

The science is settled.  So is the Titanic and its not going anywhere. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-296: Michael and Zuby

I just finished listening to a podcast from about a year ago, where a man named Zuby interviewed Michael Shellenberger.  It was interesting and full of surprises.  It also contains some clarification.

I’ve never listened to one of the Zuby’s podcasts before.  I was very impressed with him.  He asked intelligent questions, questions that were not easy to answer, and had the potential of embarrassing his guest.  He still asked them.

With Shellenberger I have very mixed emotions.  I have listened to him before.  I think I read one of his books.  At times he seems to be just a left wing clone.  At other times he seemed to actually have his brain turned on.  It was interesting that Zuby noticed this, and at one point when Shellenberger had listed a bunch of positions that had drawn him to the left, Zuby pointed out they were actually positions of the right.  Shallenberger gave a somewhat embarrassed laughed and acknowledged the point.  All I could do a scratch my head.  Knowing he was being deceptive did not keep him from being deceptive.  For instance, he said that one of the things that drew him up to the left was their encouragement of free speech and rejection of censorship.  I know, I hear you screaming.  When it was pointed out that that is a position of the conservatives today he gave some mumbo-jumbo about how that used to be different.  Now I am older than he is and I don’t remember a time when it was different.  Since I was not raised in a liberal family maybe I was not paying attention.

It became clear that he lived in a mysterious La La Land that time had forgotten.  I came to the conclusion that Shellenberger was a liberal at heart but a conservative in the thinking part of his brain.  It left me, wondering whether reading his books would be worthwhile.  If he is so confused, how can I accept his logic or his principles.

It’s a good thing the world doesn’t depend on me and my ideas of right and wrong.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-185: Click Bait: California Miracle

I was checking the headlines at Citizen Free Press and clicked on one titled, “'Fear and anger': California town halls are not going well for Democrats, either”.  Now if you read a headline like that you might, like me, think that finally California was waking up and getting after their Democrat overlords.  You would have thought wrong.  The article came from something called SFGate.  I imagine they are getting extatic over CFP giving them national exposure.  I wonder if the people at CFP even looked at what they wrote.

When you clicked the link it took you to an article that immediately started south.  Here is the first sentence,

“Americans are increasingly concerned about President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s gutting of the federal government, with polls showing a majority of people want Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts to be stopped or slowed down.”

I am willing to admit that I don’t know all Americans but I do read something besides the leftist propaganda machines.  To claim that Americans are concerned about DOGE means one of three things:  They are concerned things are not moving fast enough and there are no arrests yet, you are lying through your teeth to a captive and gillible audience, you are locked up in a padded room and sharing your delusions with the world.

I could be wrong but not as wrong as the author of this article.

If you can stomach further reading the hole they are digging just gets deeper.  If you have a lot of leisure time jump to the bottom of the article and look at the bio of the author.  It says that he is the “cannabis editor” for SFGATE.  What kind of a “news” source would need a cannabis editor?

That should be all that you need to know.  Maybe he was editing when he wrote this.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-180: Double Standard

I noticed in a meme that they were making a claim that the CIA had turned over some type of nuclear technology to Israel without the knowledge of the US government.  I didn’t read it.  I assumed it was slanted.  But the concern was that Israel was guilty of some terrible deed, because they took technology that was offered by the Americans.  It was also implied that the Israelis knew this was illegal technology.

OK.  That’s what they did, maybe.  What is the bigger crime here is that the CIA went over the heads of the president and Congress and did something that was for bidden by law.  They knew they were breaking the law.  They deliberately broke the law.  Overlooking whether it was necessary or good for world, peace, or any other contingency, they broke the law.

But it is Israel that seems to be condemned for accepting the offering.

Fast forward to the DOGE activities.  Musk and his crew have uncovered repeated cases of people taking money that they knew they didn’t deserve.  In this case the media seems to imply that it is Musk’s problem for uncovering this and that the people who took money they knew they didn’t deserve we’re just doing what anyone would do.

Does anybody but me see the hypocrisy here?

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Opus 2025-141: Everyone Is a Minority

I am a minority.  So are you.  I am unique.  There is no one else that is in my exclusive category.  Does that mean that I deserve special treatment for more than just being an individual created in the image of God?  Since I am locked in my introspective shell I could accept such advantages but in my heart of hearts I know I should not have preference any more than anyone else.

In fact I am a multiple minority.  There are slightly more women born than men.  That makes me a minority.  I have never been divorced.  That makes me a minority.  I have never been drunk.  That makes me a minority.  You can see where this is going.

There is a website that has this as its theme, The Smallest Minority.  As far as I know it gets no government subsidies, although with current DOGE revelations you can never be sure.

Already minority status is meaningless unless there is clear discrimination being leveled at you as an individual because of some thing about you that you cannot change.  Other than that it used to be called using common sense to make good selections.

I would ask you to join me but that might endanger my minority status.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-133: Click Bait: Read Carefully

The Gateway Pundit had some clickbait about Trump responding to the childish behavior of the Democrats.

What I found interesting was some poll results that showed 69% of CNN viewers approved of the speech.  At first I wondered why the number was so low, then I noticed the qualifier of “CNN viewers”.  With that awareness I wondered how the number was so high.

Of course the results are rather meaningless because 69% of CNN viewers would not be enough people to fill up a fast food restaurant.

Read between the lines.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-075: Three Guesses

And the first two don’t count.  I kind of feel that way as I continue reading Will Durant in his history.  He’s so full of speculation and clever writing that you might miss the fact that he often doesn’t have a clue on what he’s talking about.  He gets away with inconsistencies because his book is so long.

I’m currently on the section that deals with ancient Israel and he’s dealing with where Israel came from and it’s rather fascinating.  He seems to embrace any theory that goes against what the Bible actually says.

A thought that came to my mind this morning was all of the different theories he gave about where Yahweh came from.  It seems like every page has a different theory.  At one point he had Yahweh as a local fire God living in a cave.  In had another place he speculated that the Israelites had worship a bull in Egypt, thus you have the golden calf.  At another place he had some other “scholar” saying that one of the early gods of the Hebrews was a pig which explains their ban on pork products.  Another place she talks about Yahweh being a local God, who was battling the other gods, and eventually emerged triumphant.  At no place does he accept the clear statement of the Bible that Yahweh is the only God and the creator of the universe.  He’s having fun.  I find it a bit tedious.

I can’t wait to get past the chapter on Israel when he starts dealing with Persia.  I don’t know as much about the history of Persia as I do about Israel.  I wonder if I will be able to trust what he says there anymore than I find I can’t here.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-332: Kamala Miranda

As I was reflecting on the recent “Ho, Hum, just another day of Democrat news” that dealt with the accusations of plagarism I began to wonder if editors should be required to read authors their Miranda Rights.

Shouldn’t hopeful authors be made aware that their spelling, grammar and coherency were going to be checked?  Don’t they have a right to know that someone might look at their sources and documentation?  Would the editor be held to different standards depending whether she were Indian or black?

You think I am joking?  That shows you at least know to wait until your shoes are on before you tie them.  I am only half joking.  Who would have thought we would live in a country where judges would refuse to allow you to enter evidence and then reject your next case because there is no evidence?  It is called democracy or Demoidiocy.

Stay tuned.  Novemeber is coming.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-310: Lucy Lives

All I can do is shake my head and wonder when the Republican Party will wake up.

I refer a course to the now standard performance of the media moderators in political debates. The allusion is to the Charles Schulz comic strip, “Peanuts.  In at least an annual event, Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown to kick.  The first year as he came full speed to kick the ball she simply jerked it out of the way.  The second year she promised not to do it again.  She jerked it out of the way.  Then we have a steady progression of every year Charlie Brown acting like he has learned his lesson and refusing to kick the ball while Lucy cons him into it.

If you are over 25 you’ve probably seen this cartoon somewhere.  You would think that the Republicans had seen it.  Is it just hubris where they think they are so smart, they can overcome a stacked deck?  Debate after debate, we have “moderators who have promised to be fair and unbiased”.  Debate after debate, we have moderators jerk the football out of the way.  Debate after debate the Republicans fall for the same nonsense.

You saw it again a few nights ago.  Softball set ups to the Democrat candidate with no answer given to the question and lies layered upon lies.  No fact check for Tim Of the Bathroom Dispenser fame.  Then they turn to the Republican candidate, gave a long speech full of lies themselves, such as the overwhelming number of scientists saying that global warming is real, and then proceed to ask a question, which is totally different from what they ask the other side.  I thought the point was that one candidate would receive the question and have two minutes to answer, and then the other candidate would answer the same question for two minutes, and then you would go back to one minute responses.  Maybe I misunderstood the rules.  Maybe the rules were ignored.  Maybe the rules were just a football jerked out of the way.

It makes you believe that wisdom which says, “Republicans are the stupid party.”  Unfortunately, it is still the only alternative we have to the evil party.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-297: Narcissistic Eschatology

I understand that there is a whole body of research and theory called eschatology.  In the Christian world, it is a study of the end times, and what God was revealed to us through prophecy about those final days.  I intellectually accept that it is a legitimate area of study.  And I use the term intellectually loosely there.  Please don’t associate that with the latest Eschatology Guru that you have been been listening to.

The biggest problem that I have with the study of the end times is that it is based on prophecy that is deliberately given to us to be cloudy and confusing.  To be honest, I don’t really think that God wants us to know what’s going to happen at the end.  Double down on that difficulty with the problem of sin.  Because people are so self-centered they do in eschatology what they doing in so many other areas of life, they make it about them.

Whatever scheme or chart you come up with in eschatology generally tends to be focused on you and how clever you are.  It’s about how the world is going to end around you.  As a general rule Gurus of Eschatology tend to ignore other Gurus who have their own system.  They act like they are the only show in town.

It isn’t about you.  It certainly isn’t about me.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-242: Headlines: Hidden Indicators

One of the most encouraging articles I have read recently was on the Daily Wire.  The presented topic was Zuckerberg saying that the Biden administration had pressured him to censor content on his plateforms.  The nonsense factor was his claim that he did not cave in.  All that is interesting but at least partially Fake News.  What I found interesting was this quote from the letter he wrote,

“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” he continued. “I also think we made some choices that. with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today. Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction — and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.”

Why did I find this worthy of note?  Notice the bit, “we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction.”   This is the kind of statement that he would make to justify telling the Trump Administration to go jump in a lake.  He would not be saying this if he felt like the Democrats were going to be able to steal the election again.  It would be business as usual.

It did not really bother him when he “compromised” content to oppose Trump.  He wants to sound like he is on the side of the angels when he refuses to go the other way.

Maybe I am looking for a silver lining.  Maybe I am in Fantasyland.  Maybe not.

homo unius libri