Opus 2026-271: Click Bait: Tick Bait

Logic can be a dangerous thing.  At first I just scrolled by this bit of click bait:

“Farmers notice spike in ticks while Lyme disease vaccine is entering market by Pfizer.”

I think the idea that was being planted was that Pfizer has been sending teams into the fields of America releasing millions of ticks to create a need for their vaccine.  I guess it is possible.  It is certainly one explanation for the correlation.  I would suggest a bit more investigation is in order.  I will not do it because life is too short but if you are inclined, go ahead.

You might investigate if this is similar to winter coats being introduced in fall.  Or maybe if you are into bugs, mosquito repellent is ordered as winter is coming to a close.  What better time to market something that when people are concerned about an issue.

You might investigate to see if there is a spike in ticks every year at the same time.

You might investigate to see if this vaccine has been marketed this time of year for the past 50 years.

You might even look into whether the claim is true.

Keep in mind one of the principles of the scientific method:  Correlation does not mean causation.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-224: Click Bait: Really?

The headline read, “The Great Tribulation: What Matthew 24 really says.”  If I were living in Communist China and all the Bibles had been confiscated or was illiterate, this might be a good question.  In reality it is a bit of a silly question.  If I want to know that Matthew 24 says I don’t need to listen to a podcast that explains it to me.  I can open a Bible, the library has them and most churches would be glad to give you one, and read it for myself.

I am seeing a growing number of these kinds of themes.  One that always cracks me up is someone I have never heard of sharing his favorite Bible translations.  Why would I care what his favorite is?  I would be more curious about his position on the Five Solas or TULIP theory. 

We seem to have lost the ability to think for ourselves.  Let me encourage you to read the book yourself instead of building your thoughts on the conclusions of others.  If you really don’t know enough Hebrew to come to a conclusion, join the club.  Compare translations and explore the context.  You may find that your opinion is as reliable as any “influencer” on the internet.

I have confidence in you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-219: Click Bait: Learning to Count

You would think I would learn but it isn’t happening.  I keep falling into the trap of people lying about things that are minor.  I got sucked in again.

The caption claimed the delicious results of only one cup oatmeal and one egg.  I am looking for simple recipes that I can make with little fuss.  I have experimented with journeycake, oat flour and water, which came out edible but nothing worth lying about.  I tried it with honey and cinnamon and it was a little better but I have not gone back to it.  I never tried it with egg so I was a victim waiting for a trap.

When someone says “only” I assume that means only.  Adding salt and pepper does not violate the contract.  Those are season-to-taste items.  I began to have doubts when they added cinnamon.  Then came baking powder.  Then honey.  It also required a blender which technically is not an ingredient so I let it go.  I can’t remember is there were more.

What came out, surprise, were pancakes.  They poured like pancakes, cooked like pancake and looked like pancakes.  I do not hate pancakes but they are far down my list of choices when I go out for breakfast.  If I come to your house and you are serving pancakes I will eat them with gusto and compliment you on your culinary skills.  I would be sincere, but I still would never choose them on my own.

Since I still want to develop some simple meal preps I will continue to seek ideas but I think I can put the “only two ingredient” mantras in with the posts that claim to be the most hilarious or shocking.  When Trump talks that way I can tune it out and still get some information.  When it comes to You Tube, life is too short.

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.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-196: Click Bait: Name the Country

I got drawn in by one of those click baits that was designed to show how ignorant people are about what would be considered basic knowledge 50 years ago. The plan was to show people a map with one country outlined in red. Then they were asked what country it was. There was some kind of reward but none were awarded.

The country was Bangladesh. It was not surprising that no one knew the name of the country but when he asked them what was the country to the left the real ignorance was announced. For those who went to public school in the last 20 years it was India, one of the most recognizable shapes in geography. A couple got that but some had such brilliant suggestions as “Africa”. One proposed two cities.

I doubt if it was stupidity as much as ignorance. What troubles me is that these people had so little curiosity about the world that they had never picked up any of this information. Have they never looked at a globe? Do they ever read anything not posted on Facebook? Have they never leafed through an atlas? They have the ability. They can recite nonsense about their favorite celebrities. They can list the drinks available at their favorite hot spot. They can do awesome things with their phone but their awareness seems to stop six inches from their nose.

Help us.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-173: Click Bait: Three to One

The title of the unwatched video had to do with the fact that Arminius disagreed with Augustine, Calvin and Luther.  In further ground breaking news we learn that the Pacific Ocean is west of the United States.  A better response might be, “Well, duh.”

I am going to guess that the sponsor of the video was going to claim that anyone who disagreed with those three theological giants was obviously at best misinformed.  At worse such a person would be a servant of Satan.

What I would want people to take away from this announcement is that the principal Reformation theologians were in agreement with one of the founding saints of the Roman Catholic Church.  In my reading this year I have had that pointed out several times, usually by people with an Arminian slant.  It was not offered as a recommendation for their ideas.

If you are a five point Calvinist then it might surprise you that much of your theology comes from a Catholic theologian.  If you are any type of Christian it might be interesting to realize that Augustine was out of step with much of the teaching of the earlier church fathers.  One synopsis of Augustine and the Reformers was that the difference was not so much theological as political.

My journey is a voyage down the road of comparing all that I have been taught over the years with what the Bible actually says.  I have some solid foundations.  I also have some strong bastions of nonsense that need to be overcome.  We need to be careful of theological jargon that is not straight out of scripture.  Some is necessary, like the concept of the trinity.  Others are questionable such as the five Solas.

Keep in mind that when you stand before God your pastor or favorite author will not be there as your advocate. Jesus has that role.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-151: Click Bait: It Should Be Obvious

I did not bother to click on this one because I wasn’t really interested but I saw it several times and the image kept coming back.  The scenario had Lucy, Ethel, Fred and Ricky watching a game show on TV and the bait was that Ricky knew all the answers.

As it kept coming back to me I wondered why.

The one big difference between Ricky and the others is that he did not attend public school in the United States.  That is my assumption for this post anyway.  I really don’t know the I Love Lucy lore enough to be sure, but it makes sense.  I would assume he went to school in Cuba and actually got an education.

I had an experience like this when I was teaching.  I had a young lady who had just left the boat from Sierra Leone.  For those who went to public school, that is a nation on the west coast of Africa.  I remember her coming to me after a few weeks, almost in tears, because of the empty classes she was taking.  She said, “In Africa I was studying Shakespeare, here we are learning the definition of a noun.”  I believe she was in 7th grade at the time.

So it should be no surprise that Ricky knew the answers.  He had an education.  It is amazing what a difference that makes.

homo unius libri

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 2026-140: Click Bait: Questionable Benefits

I have enjoyed some of the click bait I have encountered.  I don’t know if it is under the heading of social media but some of the memes showing male humor really strike home.  The things that these guys joke about are hilarious because they are so true to life.  I have also watched some podcasts by women who are trying to help husbands understand the thinking and actions of their wives.

After watching all this I feel better about myself.  It is good to know that I am not the only man in the world who sees no point in folding his underwear.  At the same time it points out things that will never go away in this life unless I do things I am not able to do.  That lays on the guilt trips that I was able to ignore.

I wonder if there are times in life when it is better to not be aware that there are cures available.  Sometimes the cures cause problems worse than the original.  We all know about side effects of medications.  I remember when I was concerned about toe nail fungus.  I was told there was a pill I could take that would clear up the problem.  Fortunately for my health I had done a little research and knew that one side effect of the pill was problems with you liver, or should I say potential side effects.  The possibilty of damaging my liver was enough to make ugly toenails endurable.

I am getting to the age where things start falling apart.  It is part of life. I accept it.  How often are elderly people faced with the choice of a potential procedure or medicine that is billed as a miracle but it comes with a price tag that will bankrupt your family?  I am not there yet but I keep hearing about it.

Hopefully we have people in our lives that will help us work through these types of issues. May your health be wonderful and your choices be clear.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-127: Click Bait: Label Me

I recently was drawn in by Clickbait promising to define and clarify the differences between the five major branches of theology, and since it was only about eight minutes long, I figured I would risk the time.  They tried.  They came very far short of making it as clear as they claimed it was.

I find that I don’t know how to label myself when it comes to whether I am a covenant theologian or a replacement theologian or some other category that was not included.  Recently, I’ve been studying dispensationalism because of a friend who is a rabid dispensationlist and I find it totally inadequate.  But what label would I use?

I tend to be one of those people that will argue about just about anything.  Sometimes it’s a recreation and I get carried away, but there are other times when I am dead serious.  There are a lot of questions to every system because no system that I am aware of fits all of the scripture.  When a dispensationlist tells me that I have to interpret everything literally, I scratch my head and with an innocent expression on my face, ask, “Do you really believe that rivers clap their hands?  Do you really believe that God has feathers?  Do you really believe that the picture of the Lamb in Revelation has a whole bunch of eyes?”  Now to me these rhetorical questions.  They don’t deserve an answer.  All they do is point out the silly nature of some claims.

Take for instance the thing that we hear constantly. I  heard it again in the video I watched about how all of the different schools of theology agree on certain things.  In the explaining of the agreement they use the term, “faith alone”.  I’m sorry.  I don’t care if Augustine, Calvin, Luther, John, MacArthur, RC Sproll, and a room full of other theologians love the phrase.  The only place in the Bible the phrase is used is to say it is not by faith alone.

I hope you can see my problem.  If you can’t see my problem, then I guess you will have a label for me, “heretic”.  There is nothing wrong with a good label.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-085: Click Bait: Astronomy Quiz

Okay, so I got pulled in.  Jay Leno was doing one of his Man on the Street things.  You know the idea.  He stops a random stranger and asks, “How many toes do you have on your right foot?”  You can see them thinking and they come up with a number like “25”.

I usually finish one of those feeling really smart but I have a question:  How many correct answers were screened out in order to get the entertainment?  Could people really be that ignorant?

My favorite on this series was “What galaxy do we live in?”  When the man only looked puzzled, Leno gave a hint, “It a candy bar.”  To which the man answered, “Mars”.

We will never know the real level of ignorance unless they put out a press release.  Even that could be fake news.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-071: Interview: Matt Fradd and Daniel Suazo

I just finished watching an interview between Matt Fradd and Daniel Suazo.  Fradd is a devout Roman Catholic who hosts a podcast called Pints with Aquinas.  Suazo is a Catholic convert out of Judaism.  At times it was very frustrating and at other times enlightening.

Suazo has both great insight and frustrating blindness.  At times he shares the big problem with Judaism.  It is no longer the religion expressed by the OT but an aberration based on the creative imagination of the Rabbis.  He admits this but does not seem to understand what he is saying.  He speaks of the Talmud with great respect . He shares a few of its ridiculous moments and ignores what they demonstrate.

One example is when he says that the Law of Moses says nothing about mixing dairy and meat.  That is true.  He points out that the Rabbis have explained this conclusion from a statement about boiling a baby goat in its mother’s milk.  (That is my paraphrase).  To him this seems a noble and honorable thing.  In reality it is the extreme arrogance of legalistic scholars.  If something doesn’t make any sense he explains it as allegory.

He then explains the attraction of the Catholic Church in the similar application of scholarly rationalization by the priests.  He somehow finds a parallel between Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the movement of the tabernacle by David.  I am still scratching my head over that one.

Can I expect to see Suazo in heaven?  I think so.  He is clear about the trinity, incarnation, resurrection and other basic doctrines.  I think God will be more lenient on some of the nonsense we advocate than we will be.  As I have said, Jesus did not die on the cross to see how many He could send to hell.

As long as we know what we believe and why we believe it we can gain by listening to people that we don’t understand, or if we do, don’t agree with.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-590: Click bait: Tell Me Something That’s New

I came across another bit of click bait on my YouTube feed which didn’t require any investigation.  The blurb underneath the picture said,

“This is why Christianity feels unappealing to most today.”

Statements like this make me wonder if people have ever studied their history.  Christianity has always been unappealing to most people.  Now when I say Christianity, I’m talking about the real thing not the social clubs that people seem to like to attend nor the entertainment centers that draw crowds.  I’m talking about the actual call of Jesus to live in obedience to His commands.

We keep talking about the low percentage of people attending church.  In real numbers that may be true, but when you stop to think about how many people have been going to church out of habit or from cultural pressure over the years, it is no surprise.  One of the church experiences that always gives me a smile or laugh was when one of the royal pains in our church told the pastor that he didn’t like his sermons.  His reason was that the sermons made him feel like a sinner.  I think he would say that the Christianity in our church was unappealing.

I almost think that the click bait that shows up on YouTube could be compiled as a comedy routine.  While it’s true that occasionally there is something worth listening to, between AI and the nonsense peddlers the percentage of worthwhile material decreases daily. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-556: Click Bait: Amazing Isn’t

The Clickbait promised to show me all the amazing things that the Notes app on my iPhone would do for me.  Needless to say, I did not bother clicking on it.  There are a lot of things I don’t need my Notes app to do.  I’m already using the one on my iPad and iPhone and in a general sense it works just fine .

Hover over conversations I’ve had and hear what so many people keep saying about upgrades to their software.  One of the universal complaints that I keep hearing is that they don’t want updates.  Every time a new operating system comes out, a new word processor or who knows what else those of us who have a bit of experience and maturity, keep wondering who they’re trying to fool.  Every time I buy a new laptop, I buy the current version of Word Perfect.  I keep wishing I could go back to the old version I used several laptops again ago.  The so-called improvements actually make things worse.  In addition to just moving things around in order to feel needed, they take away the things that I use the most and add things to take three times as much time to implement.

I find myself looking for the old discontinued items when I shop.  If I need a new Bible I look for the old 1977 edition of the NASB.  I could understand why the 1611 KJV needed to be upgraded but the language has not changed that much since 1977.  I drive an old car and hope I never need to buy a new one because I don’t want a computer telling me how to drive.  I use GPS but I always check the route it has laid out to see if it is really where I want to go.  I even prefer Old Fashioned Oatmeal.

I accept the fact that there are young people out there who have time on their hands and still think that socialism is going to work.  These are the ones who probably think that the latest app or upgrade is going to revolutionize their life.  I disagree.  It will take up more time.  They will have less leisure.  Along with that they will do less thinking, reading and contemplating what’s actually going on around them.  They will be more susceptible to being controlled.

So no, I don’t need to know all the glorious things that my Notes app can do.  It does what it was designed to do and does it well.  That’s all I need . But then I’m just a dinosaur living in the world of mammals.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-544: Click Bait: Those Nasty Republicans

The click bait presented by my browser said something to the effect that the Republican plan for redistricting could backfire.  The picture called for no more gerrymandering.  As I kept looking I noticed that the story came from the New York Times.  Well, duh.  I think I can assume that the gerrymandering going on in California would not be mentioned or, if it is, it will be on page 20 in small type.

I keep wondering if anyone reads these DNC mouthpieces.  Then I realize how all the polls show almost half of the country are still unhappy with Trump.  On Thanksgiving we shared with our son-in-law the recording of the woman who called in because she wondered why they were putting all the deer crossings in heavy traffic areas.  Why not put those signs somewhere that it would be safer for the deer to cross?  

The recording went viral on the internet and somehow in the process people got her telephone number and e-mail.  I don’t know how long it took for her to figure it out.  There is a follow up recording where she called back in.  She was a good sport about it.  I guess she felt pretty dumb.  What was interesting was in the discussion it came out she was some kind of medical professional.  She was either a doctor or a  nurse.

What do you do when even the highly educated medical people can’t think?

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-457: Click Bait: A Moment of Weakness

I usually just ignore click-bait unless it’s from a source I know on a topic I am really concerned about.  I got suckered in recently.  The click bait said that Erika’s gesture had cost Trump $12 million.  It showed a picture of her giving the devil horns.  That’s where you have your pinky and your pointer finger standing up and the middle two folded it under.  It’s kind of like a ward-off-evil type of thing.  The problem is that when you watched the actual video clips it became clear that the picture they had was just a Photoshop.  There was nothing in it about her making a gesture.  What they were talking about was how Trump had insisted on a large memorial service and it ended up costing him a lot of money.  They spent a lot of time on the fact that during the service he gave Eric several fatherly hugs, which is not his usual pattern.

The point is that the click-bait was a total lie.  There was nothing mentioned about $12 million in the video.  And the gesture was made by Trump not by Erika.

I hope I learned my lesson.  I can’t guarantee it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-426: Click Bait: We Are All Going to Die

I was only able to read the first part of the headline, but it was truly frightening.  I think we have now reached the point where we know there’s no chance of living to a healthy old age.  The target today was baking soda.  As I said, I could only read the first part of the click bait, but it was clear that they were going to do an expose on the benefits and the dangers of baking soda .

You realize if they take away your baking soda, you lose your chocolate chip cookies?  I’m not enough of a chef to know what else is involved, but it would really drastically change our lives.  Add that the fact that baking soda has been used, I would guess, for centuries if not millennia and the human race seems to have survived.  Not so anymore.  Now some agency or government entity or Talking Heads Internet Guru has decided that they need to look into the dangers of baking soda.

I would say the next target may be water, but there are enough people who are already paranoid and driven to bottled water that I think we’ve already arrived.

Stay tuned.  Your water will kill you.  The air you breathe will kill you.  Too much salt will kill you.  Eggs will kill you.  Coffee will kill you.  Now you can add baking soda to the list.

When will they claim that reading blog posts is deadly?

In memoriam. 

homo unius libri 

Opus 2025-234: Click Bait: Missing Link

A bit of Clickbait caught me.  It had to do with the factors which increase intelligence or, can increase intelligence.  After a long, drawn out introduction, and an advertisement, the guy finally got to the point.  What is it that consistently increases your intelligence, your success, your income, and so forth?  Reading.

He then went into the reasons why people don’t read.  The number one reason was they were so involved in social media.  That is no surprise.  I kept waiting for him to bring up one of the key reasons why people aren’t reading anymore.  It wasn’t mentioned.

To me the big reasons why many people who used to read don’t read anymore is because that reading has become woke.  There is a playbook put out by editors and publishers that requires authors to include certain elements in everything they write.  I know that this is true because authors tell me so.  I know the results because I have stopped reading books many times, simply because the authors are forcing the politically correct nonsense of our PC culture into the story and destroying storyline in the process.  

Another reason is that the writing has become boring.  It bores people because it is so unrealistic.  I don’t mean unrealistic in that the author gets carried away with his imagination.  I mean unrealistic in the sense that it seems the writer has never met another human being outside of his I Hate America Studies program.  It also bores young boys because they are more into cavalry charges than the feelings of the handicapped kid next door.  It bores because women are taking over genres that used to be male dominated and they try to transform it to their gender studies ideal.

You all have seen this. You may not recognize it for what it is.  If you read any kind of a novel recently, you will find that there is a requirement to balance out the characters with all kinds of under-represented categories.  You’ll find that the main character will be a woman who is a great martial arts champion, has incredible physical strength and skills, is incredibly beautiful, and often times is very loose morally.  Is such a combination possible?  Maybe.  Probably not.  It is possible that Tarzan taught himself to read and write too.  Are there women who could take down the chosen man?  Of course.  Most young adult women that I know could certainly take me out of action, especially if I’m not looking.  Does that mean it’s normal?  No way.  Does it mean that healthy young man will enjoy reading such a book?  Not unless there’s a lot of very explicit sexual material.

In addition there is the nonsense that is presented as scientific, logical, and right.  Most people in their heart of hearts know this stuff is nonsense, and will start turning it off.  I know that when I’m reading theology, if the author is so steeped in their own personal prejudices and traditions I come to a point where I don’t bother going on.  The same is true history.  In fact, almost any area of life that you’re reading you will stop reading not because the author has an agenda, but because they are pushing ham-handedly.

So the fact that reading influences intelligence was interesting, but the Podcaster overlooked one of the most obvious reasons why people are reading less.

Now you know even if he didn’t.

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 2025-154: Clickbait: Weather to Forecast

The link on Citizen Free Press said that Al Gore would not be happy with this headline.  I found the headline itself almost as amusing.  Evidently a group of scientists are claiming that the next Ice Age will come in 10,000 years. The caveat is that it will only come with all the warming doesn’t prevent it.  If I had known that this would be a link to Yahoo I would not have bothered.

This might be a logical point to ask the big question, “If they can’t tell us what the weather will be tomorrow, how can they tell us what the weather will be in 10,000 years?”

I didn’t bother reading the rest of the article because I know speculation when I read it.  It may be fun.  It may get their paper published.  It’s certainly got them a headline.  Other than that it’s just click bait and I am getting too old to indulge them.

homo unius libri