Opus 2026-398: Lazy Eye

I am due for cataract surgery.  When I went in for the preparation work, one of the technicians called my condition “lazy eye”.  That is probably the most common name for it, but she then got apologetic for using the term.  The technical term is a combination of two Greek words which mean moving and eye, or if you want to sound cool, you could call it ambling eye.  She was worried that I would take offense by using the term.

Since I’m somebody who likes labels and likes to make up my own names for people it would seem a bit inconsistent to get offended by a common every day phrase.  It is amazing how easily people are offended.  Think of the way this is manipulated by the media and academic circles.  Take for instance Americans who have have ancestors from Africa.  At one point, they were called blacks.  Negro became the technical term.  Then the politically correct crowd got in and they came African-American.  Somewhere in there they were called colored, but when that was labeled racist, instead they became people of color.  And of course, you have the consistent word starting with an N.  Such nonsense.  I have a bit of a joke that I like to tell, I’m not sure if it’s mine or I’ve borrowed it, but I asked somebody what would I call a certain student and the target of my joke was afraid to answer.   After a dramatic pause I tell them I would call him, Steve.   Guess what his name was.

In the process of manipulating the vocabulary of a culture we are robbing it of clarity and the ability to communicate.  Do you want to call me a right winger?  I will wear the badge with pride.  You want to call me a racist?  At this point in my life, I would wear that badge with pride because I know that it simply means is that I disagree with a liberal.  I wish I could earn the tag of being toxically masculine, but I’m far from that.  On the other side, I am filled with horror when the woke crowd calls me tolerant.  Tolerant doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

Those of us with moral standards and an understanding that there are unchangeable truths are going to have to develop a much thicker skin and just keep moving forward.  Ignore the fools trying to manipulate.  Think of this reality that terrorism does not really depend on how many people you kill, it depends on how many people you get to change their way of living out of fear.  The same thing goes for all these try to control you.

Stand tall.  Put up a finger to detect which way the wind is flowing.  Lean in that direction become a leaning meaning machine.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-392: The IRS as God

In the past, I have speculated on how many people tend to think of God as the husband in I Love Lucy.  Ricky was easily fooled, temperamental, and forgiving.  Lucy could get away with anything.

It struck me this morning that many people look at God as they look at the IRS.  The IRS is a gigantic organization with powers that we can’t even understand.  They can freeze your bank accounts.  They can put a lien on your home.  They can even put you in jail.

The IRS has so many rules and regulations that nobody can totally understand them.  Many of those rules are either totally arbitrary or are designed to benefit a small group of special interests.  People walk in fear of them.  You don’t want to be on their radar.  The further way they are the better.

At the same time it’s amazing how many people think that they are smart enough to outfox the IRS.  They file deceptive paperwork or don’t file at all.  They come up with deductions that would not fool a two year-old.  They look deep into the inner workings to try and find gaps in the regulations.  When push comes to shop, they either hire a lawyer to negotiate them out or follow one of the Clickbait trails that claim to get your back taxes forgiven.

Somehow, I don’t think so.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-268: Reparations across the Board

I don’t understand the reasoning behind reparations.  How someone who never owned slaves could owe something to someone who was never a slave is a mystery to me.  But for today let’s go with that.  We have a principle that no matter how far back you go in history and whether you have ancestors involved or not, you have the right to pay people back or demand payment from them.

So let’s look back in history.  I just finished reading about how the Muslim victors would set terms for surrender, guarantee safe passage and as soon as the gates were open begin to slaughter everyone and steal everything.  They loved to ride their horses over infants and slice open pregnant women.  If we are going to accept the logic of reparations then we have the right to take a tank and a few 50 caliber machine guns into any Muslim neighborhood and start shooting.  It is only fair because centuries ago Muslims did it to Christians.  Point out the fallacy in my logic.

Perhaps we could look back to the Mongols sweeping over Eastern Europe, the Middle East, northern India and any other place in reach.  The Mongels at one time made up the ruling dynasty of China so it would only be fair if all the armies of the world would start rolling across the Gobi and not stop until they arrived at the Formosa Straight.  It is only reparations at work.

Maybe we should insist on the help of the US Army to support the Cherokee to reclaim their ancestral grounds.  I don’t mean in Georgia.  Before that.  Back when they were located up in New York and Pennsylvania.  Let’s kill everyone in those states or if we are really serious about reparations locate the descendants of the Indian tribes that drove them out and give them what they deserve.

I am sure we could find other examples.  If you go back in history you could come up with a reason to kill just about anyone and take their worldly goods.  What a world that would be.

Ultimately this just goes back to the Conan principle.  Conan the Barbarian was able to do anything he wanted to do if his muscles were bigger and his sword sharper.  In other contexts it is called the law of the jungle and if you are weak, you are dinner.

So sure.  Reparations sounds like a good idea if you have all the guns and no moral scruples.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-250: Watch the Bandwagon

The Rubio bandwagon continues to roll out the election psyop.  The recent post on Power Line went whole hog on Rubio.  It went so far as to say that J.D. Vance had no constituency and list all of the establishment elements of the Republican Party that like Rubio. It was blatant.

The Marco Rubio that we are seeing now gives me no problems.  As far as i can see he is doing a good job and expressing very pro-American attitudes.  I still have memories of him straying into the center lane of the establishment in the past.  Has he learned his lesson?  Has he genuinely changed?  Possibly.  Is it just a matter of sensing the winds?  Possibly.  He would certainly do better than anything the Democrats have to offer.

At present I still like J.D. Vance.  I also like what I see in Ron DeSantis.  In fact there are a strong group of new faces that deserve time in the sun.  If we can survive 2026 then 2028 will be an interesting year.

The problem we face is that even with a majority in all three positions of power the Republicans are playing uniparty instead of moving the country ahead.  We need even more primaried out. Make sure you let your voice be heard.
    
homo unius libri

Opus 2026-150: Temporary Necessity

A common claim of growing government control is that it is only temporary.  How many taxes have been pushed because there was a short term need?  Then they never go away.  The only government program that comes to mind that I feel has ceased is DOGE and it is the one I approved of.

This brings to mind Abraham Lincoln.  On some lists he appears as one of the great presidents.  On others he is the worst.  The reason for putting him last focuses on the exercise of presidential authority during the Civil War.  I am going to need to look it up but my memory tells me that the Constitution gives the president authority to suspend Habeas Corpus during time of war.  Done.  I was right:

Article 1, Section 9.  The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety require it. 

That seems clear.  How did the list prsented by a “conservative” lawyer tell me he was wrong?  Possibly because it is under the legislature not the president.

Did he cancel them before he was killed.  Would he have cancelled them if he had lived?  Does it make any difference?

Under what circumstances is it moral to act immorally?  Sometimes it is an easy choice.  It is not easy to do the right thing but knowing the right thing is clear.  The classic example is Dutch citizens hiding Jews from the Nazis and lying about it.  The only person who has a problem with that is the SS.  When we get down to paying your taxes because you disagree with how the government will spend it, things get a little more questionable.

Life is not simple.  We are entering a time when that is a simple statement.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-093: Not the First Test

I was reading in a book where the author talked about Israel being led out of Egypt toward the promised land.  There were certain key moments that were overlooked.  The author had a point to make, and those key moments did not follow the narrative, but my memory would not let it go.

The moment in question was when Israel came to the Red Sea and made camp on the shore and noticed one little detail:  Pharaoh was coming after them with his chariots.  He was not coming to offer a loan of his boats.  The children of Israel in typical fashion reacted, as if there was something threatening them.

Exodus 14:11 (KJV) And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?

Of course, you know the story.  God opened up the Red Sea and miraculously let them across.  Pharaoh tried to follow and was drowned.  This made me think of where we are today in our country.  I don’t know about you, but one of the common themes is that people feel everything is falling apart, everyone in power is greedy and stealing from the coffers of the country.  Anarchist are rioting in the streets and things seem to be going definitely south.

We find ourselves looking over our shoulders and noticing that the chariots are coming.  Am I the only one?  Are the people I meet the only ones?  I think there’s a lot of concern about the direction of the country is going.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually move into a position where we realize that we are under His wings.  I wonder, if the Hebrews had not panicked but simply gone to prayer and made a request that God would see them through, what would have happened.  Would the scenario have gone on pretty much the same or would God have come up with some other miracle?  Would Pharaoh’s horse have gone lame and done a cartwheel with him in his chariot?  We’ll never know.

What we do know is that God saw his people through.  Historically, even in the times when Israel was being decimated for their rebellion and evil living the faithful remnant came through.  I know we can trust God, but the question is, “Are we part of the faithful remnant?”  I like to think I am and I hope you are.  So as we approach the Red Sea and the mob is chasing us remember that God has a plan and we are part of it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-515: AI Virus

I wrote about an MIT study that showed using AI support causes damage to your ability to think.

I showed it to someone who worked in computer security and he said that he sees it in his managerial group and they are trying to push it amongst the ones who actually do the work.  It is spreading like wildfire and wildfire is malignant.  

The thought came to me that the AI programming may work very similar to a virus.  It may somehow move from person to person, causing brains to shut down, causing emotional and mental intellectual damage, and those people, because they don’t want anybody else to get by without the benefits that they’re getting, will force it on others, therefore spreading the destruction.  We need to develop a way to treat this illness.

As we move forward, society may divide into two groups.  One group will have their brains watered down by AI and will be tools of whomever controls the AI.  The other group will be like the Amish and will live a separate and parallel existence.  Whether they are allowed to live that separate existence is doubtful so they may have to find ways to fight the virus.  It may be to compete.  Some people will have to volunteer to be guinea pigs.

The guinea pig will be someone who understands what’s going on and who volunteers to use the AI tools, which we know will lower their IQ, and seek to find ways to block or counteract it.  It would be scientific research and these would be heroes of the human race.  If it can be done there is hope.

The parallel track would need to use AI to compete with the speed of contamination in order to counter attacks that they are using on the normal people.  Other than that, it wouldn’t be necessary.  Well, that and the fact that the AI group will not be satisfied to allow normal people to continue being normal.

If the machines take over it won’t necessarily be because they are smarter as much as the elites that control them have made sure that we are dumber.  Same difference if you are a cog.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-467: Deconstruction Strikes Again

Don’t think that philosophy has no relevance for our daily lives.  The philosophy of deconstruction which is rampant in our elites is working overtime to redefine the words of our language so that we cannot communicate.  The latest target of redemption is the word “fascist”.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have.  The word “fascist” appears quite frequently in the click bait that is offered on my YouTube algorithm.  People throw it around casually.  A definition of fascism has always been slippery, but in my mind it is a socioeconomic system in which the government and big business cooperate to establish a dictatorship over the masses.  It’s not communism.  It’s not pure socialism.  It’s a cooperation which we have sometimes called in our country, crony capitalism.

We see an example of this when one of the big media companies is accused of cooperating with the government to censor conservatives in order to control an election.  This has happened several times in different ways.  The social media company tries to act like it was coercion.  Possibly.  But it was coercion with a willing victim.  I would doubt that we will ever find out who approached whom first.

Another example would be the kinds of government regulations that we find in such things as the Americans with Disabilities Act.  In it, they require business to spend considerable amounts of money establishing access for people with limited mobility such as wheelchairs, crutches, and other difficulties.  It sounds so caring, so sensitive.  In reality, it is an expression of fascism.  You see, big business can make these changes with out-of-pocket change . Medium size businesses get stressed.  They can comply but it takes funds that might have been used to expand and does things like paint handicap parking places in front of the local gym.  In order to seem really compassionate the government makes allowances for small businesses and saying if they’re under a certain size they do not have to comply.  It sounds so caring.  It’s certainly not brutal.  No one is beaten up or carried to the Gulag.  It is still fascism.

Why is it fascism?  It passes laws which make it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for the little guy to ever make it into the ranks of the big guys.  You have someone in business.  They started the business with their family.  They worked hard and made sacrifices.  They did well.  They expanded.  They increased production, hired new workers, paid more taxes and got ready to expand again.  They run into this government regulation, which was made to be so sensitive.  You see in order to take that next step up towards becoming a big successful company they have to invest large amounts of money in order to be compliant with the government regulations for the handicapped.  That would be bad enough.  Some might be willing to give it a try.  It would require borrowing more money and going deeper in debt and making it harder to take that next step up.  What goes on behind the scenes in our fascist economy?  Government regulations make it very hard for them to qualify for a loan they can afford.  A little back scratching and winking convince the bank to deny the loan.  So even if they’re willing to take the risk they’re not allowed to.

Think of it as a soft form of dictatorship.  Again, no one is locked up for the rest of their life in a jail.  They’re simply locked up at their economic class.  It keeps the power in the hands of the elites.  It keeps the little people where they belong.

The modern definition of fascist is being changed to mean anyone who disagrees with a liberal.  It is deconstructionism in action.  It takes away truth and makes it impossible for people who believe in absolute values to function safely in society.

Keep correcting people and use the term correctly yourself.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-446: Headlines: Infiltration

Have you seen the report that ICE arrested a superintendent of schools in Iowa?  It seems that he was not only an illegal alien but had some previous brushes with the law.  How do you get to a position of influence like that with a criminal record?

We need to wake up and realize how deeply the America Haters have penetrated our culture.  It isn’t just the talking heads of cable news or the morons who repeat DNC talking points in the press.  It isn’t just college professors and gender affirming middle school teachers.  They are everywhere.

Keep your eyes open and your baloney meters on high.  Admit that there is evil in the world and we need to recognize it, call it out and resist it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-377: The Manipulation of Fear

Fear is a powerful force in our lives.

Most of us can deal with fear when there is something concrete to be afraid of.  If I know there is a bear roaming in my neighborhood I can still think clearly and make good choices.  Number one is don’t go walking my dog.  That is double since I don’t have a dog.  If you are a soldier in combat there is every reason to fear but millions of men have dealt with that.

The fear that gets us is the unknown.  I used to be afraid of the monster under my bed.  It didn’t do any good to look underneath with a flashlight.  He was good at hiding.  I eventually came to accept there was no such thing and the fear departed.  I can now walk in the dark both inside and outside the house and not worry about anything but tripping.

The big problem comes when forces beyond our control conspire to manipulate our fear.  What comes to mind is the recent panic over a virus that got a lot more publicity than it deserved.  At first there was the fear of the unknown.  The powers-that-be lied to us from the very beginning.  After two months I knew it was all a lie.  How?  I paid attention.  Remember the two cruise ships quarantined in Tokyo harbor?  They represented two perfect petri dishes for the incubation of danger of the disease.  On one ship no one died.  On the other seven.  Those are not the numbers of the biggest plague since the black death.  It is more on the level of the seasonal flu.

Facts were ignored and warnings were multiplied.  Of all the advice given the only one that had any value was to wash your hands and we should have already known that.  Masks were useless.  It said so right on the package.  Distance was a product of the imagination.  Did the virus die after traveling six feet?  The deceit grew as we were offered safe and effective treatments.  They were neither.  

The manipulation worked.  I still see people in the grocery store with masks and that look in their eye.  The game is being played again.  The warnings are starting up.  Lucy has her football out and all the Charlie Browns are ready to punt.  The list of fears is long and often unnoticed.  It includes climate change, warnings about things like salt and coffee, standing up against men in women’s sports and the nonsense of the TSA.

Christians are more resistant to this manipulation, or they should be.  When it comes to fear of a virus that can kill us we are aware of where we go when we die so it is not as big a threat.  We have a general trust in the hand of Providence and the work of the Holy Spirit.  We are aware of the amazing immune system that God designed for us.  

This reduced fear is why Christians were leaders in the Underground Railroad and Civil Rights movement.  It is why they volunteered to care for the sick in times of epidemic.  It is why we staffed the early hospitals.  Many died but the fear was kept in check by trust in a higher power.

That is another reason why the cultural Marxists are out to destroy the church.  We stand in the way of their goal of global domination.  They will keep trying.  We will keep resisting.  It means that every believer is a member of the resistance.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-372: Here They Come Again

It is time to get your short term memory dusted off.  The control freaks of our culture are at it again.  They are gearing up to cripple your liberty with another Covid scare.

It is starting out of sight.  We have a lady from our church who fell and broke her hip.  The surgery was successful but they are keeping her in rehab.  Her husband was told that she would not be allowed to have visitors because Covid was back.  Unless you have a loved-one in one of these institutions you would not notice.

The press is starting to plant stories.  Will RFK, Jr. be able to head it off?  I don’t know.  He is one man in an organization out to sabotage his efforts.  Recently we got word that he had removed the vaccine from the regime for infants.  A wise and timely move since they were not in any danger from the virus and do have serious side effects from the vaccine.  

Get ready.  Start practicing.  Repeat after me, “No.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-369: European Gluten

We are in a wave of gluten intolerance.  I am forced to accept that there is something to it.  The queston is, “Where did this come from?”  I don’t remember anything about it when I was a child.

I remember reading somewhere a comment by RFK, Jr.  He said that he was gluten intolerant until he started eating bread from Europe.  I think the inference was that American farmers spray something on the wheat that causes this problem.  If so it should be easy to research and find out.  Go to it Bobby.

I have a different question that is generated by the weird wires of my brain.  Whatever the American farmers are using it has a purpose.  Europe also grows wheat.  Europe has similar problems to the Americans.  What are they using to control the problem? 

My assumption is that what they use also has side effects.  We just are not hearing about them.  I asked myself what the side effects could be and came up with a suggestion:  It makes people stupid.  Consider how Europeans seem to be on board with socialism and governments that use term “democrat” while being authoritarian.  What would cause an entire continent to have their thinking processes dulled to the point that they would put up with the nonsense.  

Enter European gluten.  I suggest that whatever they are using is causing the masses of Europe to be naive and incapable of logical thought.  I wonder if the same substance is being sprayed in the blue cities of American causes them to continue to vote for Democrats in spite of the obvious results.

Something to think about.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-337: Headlines: Nothing to See Here

When Dan Bongino looked into the camera and said the tapes had been reviewed and their was no evidence of foul play in the death of Epstein I was willing to listen.  Since I know that enthusiasm and being sure that Hillary did it are very powerful emotions and that Fake News knows no political party, I listened and said, “Okay.”  I had never seen any hard evidence.  I could swallow that...when I first heard it.

Now we have Pam Bondi looking into the camera and with great sincerity saying there was no list in the folder that was on her desk.  She seemed so sincere.  The problem is that we have seen the list with its redactions before.  Why wasn’t it in the folder.  Maybe she was telling the truth because she had an aid take it out and put it in a drawer.  Of course that brings up the question of why it takes three months to discover that there is nothing in the folder. That could have been revealed after a 15 minute examination.

This also brings up the difficulty of understanding why Epstein would kill himself if there was no evidence of wrong doing.  Why does it take three months for an agency of thousands of employees to review a few hours of tape?  Keep in mind that they only had to start at the last time he was seen alive and go to the body being removed from the cell.  All they needed was a couple of hours.  And why did what’s her name go to jail if there was no trafficking?  It isn’t adding up.  I am hoping that Trump will wake up and smell the swamp.  I am hoping that the forces of darkness have not found a way to neuter Donald Trump. We were promised a lot of transparency and so far the cataracts are growing.  We were promised arrests and justice and so far the only ones that stand out to me are the people who vandalized Teslas.  

I was willing to move past Trump pushing the vacine.  I bit my lip at the pork in the Big Beautiful Bill.  This is an issue that cuts to the core of the ruling classes and shakes out hopes that Trump represents.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-306: No Thank You

Long before we learned to feel our modern sense of inadequacy, communities were gathering together for mutual protection.  People relied on each other.  It was us against them.  With specialization some eventually excelled in the use of rocks and clubs.  In the age of muscles they became the chiefs and tried to tell everyone else what to do.

As society developed you had city states and eventually feudalism.  In feudalism the local baron was resonsible to keep you safe.  In return you became a serf and worked the land.  Things progressed and eventually we got to relying on the government for protection with standing armies and police forces.  They were there to keep us safe.

Now we’re down to the point where we want the government to protect us from feeling any kind of discomfort in our daily walk.  We have trigger warnings, safe zones and micro-aggressions.  We feel that big brother must keep all snowflakes from melting.

It is all to keep us safe.  Our food comes with nutrition labels and our cars with air-bags.  When you go to the doctor you fill out enough paper to denude a forest.  Think about all the things the government does to keep us safe.  

Be grateful that someone is watching out for you.  Where would you be if you did not have a coffee cup that warns you the contents are hot.  It is frightening beyond the imagination but not as frightening as it is becoming for people who want to live their lives without government regulations.  They become enemies of society because they don’t want to be as safe as the government does.

Sad.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-308: Replacements

It is unsettling when you see history repeating itself.  That is double true when the history you are looking at involves tyranny and despotism.  

Turn you clock back to ancient Israel.  Look at the time when the Northern Kingdom was defeated and the first deportation occurred.

(2Ki 17:6 KJV)  In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, Israel.  Assyria had a pattern for breaking and subduing conquered people.  This is the first part where they haul large parts of the population to locations far away.

The second step in the plan is what brings to mind our modern situation.

(2Ki 17:24 KJV)  And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

Assyria imported large numbers of foreigners and settled them in the conquered territory.  The object was to water down the people that remained and destroy their culture so they would not be a problem.

Sound familiar?  The parallels to what the Biden/Harris administration is doing is frightening.  However you want to connect the dots the pattern always comes out “Destroy the Republic”.

It is possible that if enough people will vote in November they may not be able to steal the election again.  I also wish we could find out where these people live and stand in front of their houses wearing our MAGA hats and just stare at their front door.

Elections matter when there is an honest count.  Pray hard.  Stand up and speak.  Since our integrity does not allow us to vote often at least vote early.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-299: Rabbinical Latin

Sunday the sermon was from Nehemiah 8.  In the chapter it had reference to the Levites and a group of specifically named individuals, who help the people understand the law that was being read to them.  It does not explain that clearly in the text, you could pass over it easily.  What is going on is they are reading the law in Hebrew and the multitude no longer understood Hebrew.  So they had people translating for them to explain what it meant.

Hebrew at this point, and also at the time of Jesus, had a similar position to Latin in the Middle Ages.  It was the language of scholars.  It was the language of law.  It was what the educated communicated with.  The common people did not generally understand it.  Up until the 20th century the Catholic Church held services mainly in Latin.  Part of your training as a new Catholic was to learn what those Latin chants meant.

In the days of Nehemiah, and also in the days of Jesus, there was no physical translation of the word of God into the every day language of the people.  It remained available in the language of the scholars, but they kept it that way.  When they would read from the Hebrew, they would have a translator there to say, “This is what it means”.  This made it very easy to censor what people knew about what God was saying.

They had interpretations, which I believe were called the Targums.  Originally these were not written down.  A traveling Rabbi would bring an interpreter with him.  Why not write them down?  I go back to my suspicion of the desire for power in the leadership.  You keep people ignorant, and you keep them in your control.  You can always tell them, “Because God said so”.  That is easy when they can’t read what God actually said.

I find myself wondering if this isn’t also part of the strategy of the modern translations.  The goal is to confuse not communicate.  Instead of a word for word translation they offer what they call “dynamic equivalence” or some other catchy phrase.  What it comes down to is a paraphrase.  I think you can call some of these translations with the philosophy of dynamic equivalence as a type of Targum.

I wonder and speculate if people who push the King James only version are in the same camp.  I’m sure that some feel that it is a good translation.  I would agree with him.  And 1611 it was an outstanding version.  It met the need to communicate God’s word accurately.  I don’t feel that’s true today.  I’m fairly well educated and I have a hard time understanding the KJV, not because the ideas are difficult, but because the language is archaic.  I sometimes wonder if the people who endorse and push the KJV aren’t a bit happy with the fact that people don’t understand it.  That puts them in a position to explain it.  That puts them in the driver seat.

I am willing to submit that this is done unconsciously.  Our pastor is a good man and wants to communicate truth.  He has great confidence in the King James.  I’m pretty sure that’s because he was raised with it.  When I was following along in my NASB I missed a lot of the little things that were happening.  I assumed that he was reading what it said.  In the pursuit of understanding his sermons, I got myself a good KJV with study helps and continued to follow along.  I began to notice something; he would often paraphrase and re-translate certain passages.  When he came to words that were archaic, as he read he would substitute a modern world.  He was providing a Targum as he went along.  Every once in a while, he would point out that he was changing it, but generally he did it on the fly without thinking.  If you’re going to update the translation, as you read, it would seem to me entirely logical that you simply go to modern translation.

I wonder if this is another area where the idea of “the fullness of time” comes into play.  We are looking at a time between when the Romans used Latin and the Muslims used Arabic.  This was the time when anything translated that wanted to communicate would’ve been written in Greek. Was that part of God’s plan and timing?

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-286: Plow and Crown: American Uniqueness

I was thinking of how in the current political atmosphere what most of us want is primarily for the elites to leave us alone.  We want the government to stop trying to tell us how to live our lives.  Don’t you want the corporations to stop trying to control us?  We went the liberty to make our own mistakes based on our own decisions.

It then occurred to me that, at least, in American terms, wanting to be left alone was the basis of the American revolution.  The British government had their representatives here, but their main power source was across the ocean.  They were simply trying to rule us and run us.  We rejected that, and we basically said “Leave us alone.”  They refused, that led to war.

That took my thinking to the Civil War.  In our Civil War, it was again a case of “leave us alone.”  The South wanted to do things their way.  They did not want a faraway government of the North to tell them what to do.  Therefore, they tried to separate.  They did not try to rule the North, control of the North, or tell the North what to do.  It was simply a matter of “leave me alone.”

When I look at revolutions and civil wars in other countries, I don’t see the same pattern.  In both situations, I see a group reaching to be in control, trying to be the ones telling the others what to do.  What usually happens is the other side would want that too if they had the power.  So in our American Revolution and Civil War, it was a matter of Americans saying leave me alone.  Typical pattern for the world is a group saying, do what I say.

The worrisome aspect of that is the same sentiments are on the loose today.  We have the elites.  They have manipulated the economy to squeeze out the middle class.  They have learned all the ways to cheat in elections and, at least in this area, their creativity knows no bounds.  They have perverted the courts by bribery, threats or just appointing mind washed sycophants.  

Pray for a peaceful resolution that does not make us into the effigy of 1984.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-030: Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina...

I probably should say this while I still can.  I am not sure I will survive the next incarnation of Blogger.  I mentioned that they had posted a more modern look.  It is possible that they will have figured out at way to force me to conform to some of the things I have been working around.  This is part of their quest for knowledge about everyone in the world.  I may find that I am not willing to give it to them and thus my posting will end.

Although I find the entire song rather boring I love the clip that was used to publicize the Perons.  Remember the phrase, “Don’t cry for me Argentina...”  I once listened to the whole song and found it hard to stay awake.  My point is that if Blogger makes it impossible to continue with them I will consider other venues.  I don’t know if I will actually use them, but I will consider.

So if I end up fading into the history of vanity it will be because I decided that Google didn’t need me to give them the middle name of my firstborn even if it is just to make my account more secure.

What Progressives forget is that progress is supposed to imply moving forward and making things better.  It does not mean more control for the elites and less liberty for the peasants.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-005: New Terms: Crony-Justice

Just as crony-capitalism has perverted the residue of capitalism and the free market, so crony-justice is perverting the rule of law and the Constitution.

In the brainwashing that has been going on for at least a generation certain concepts have been reworked and redefined.  Capitalism is one of those.  Dragged under the bus is the idea of a free market.  Capitalism was a system developed to allow groups of people to combine their resources, their capital, and share not only the risks but also the profits of a major enterprise.  At first is was probably the wealthy that got involved, but in time the concept of stocks made it possible for even common people to get on board.

One of the early examples of this that most can understand involved the spice trade to the Indies.  Pepper, cinnamon and other spices were available from the mysterious East.  What was available came through the caravans crossing the world of Islam and the profits were reserved for Muslim traders.  When the European explorers found a way around Africa and across the Indian Ocean to India it made these commodities available to European traders.  It was a long voyage and full of risk but the payoff was incredible.  

Let me give you an example from my lecture notes of bygone years.  In 1497 Vasco de Gama sailed with four ships and found a way around Africa to India.  He returned two years later.  In the process he lost two ships and two thirds of his crews.  In spite of those loses he sold his cargo and made 60 times the cost of the voyage.  My notes say this came from Bernstein, Paul.  History of Civilization, Volume I:  to 1648, 1960.

Groups of investors would pool their money to send out multiple ships and the odds were that they would get rich.  In our lifetime, you could have invested in Microsoft at its beginning and be living in the lap of luxury.  

Then the government gets involved and the whole equation changes.  We see this in American history on the issue of tariffs.  The northern states that had an industrial base wanted high tariffs to protect their factories and workers.  The South wanted no tariffs because they imported everything and did not want the high prices that protectionism brought.  This issue almost started a civil war long before slavery became the catalyst.  

We now have seen this blossom into full blown crony capitalism.  This is a situation where big business and government get together to line their own nests at the expense of the general population.  A good example would be in the laws passed with the noble concern of making life accessible for the handicapped.  In these laws there were a lot of requirements for businesses that reached a certain size.  If you were already big you were grandfathered in or at least given a long period of time to put in handicap access in restrooms, elevators and doorways.  If you were a small business on the verge of moving up the cost was prohibitive and thus you were destined to stay small and not provide competition to the big guys.

Another name for crony capitalism is fascism.

We are seeing the same process in our justice system.  I am sure there has always been corruption.  I will accept the fact that there are conservatives who are effected by partisanship.  I also know that left wing, ideologue judges are in the process of ignoring justice and advancing a left wing agenda.  All you need to do is see the way in which Marxist prosecutors and judges have excused violent criminals with mild reprimands and for lesser “crimes” thrown conservatives in jail for years.  The only way you can be sure of having justice is to avoid the justice system.  Instead of the rule of law we have crony-justice in place.

Both gilded capitalism and gilded justice make use of the old terms.  This is part of the method of the progressives based on the philosophy of deconstructionism.  It is deliberate and has been in motion for a long time.  They use time honored words and phrases but they mean exactly the opposite of what they actual say.  They will not be happy until they bring about the violence they claim we are starting.  Their happiness will be short lived when they find out how their Marxist overlords treat the traitors that put them in place.

It will be no consolation for the rest of us.

So pray first, then act.  Stand up.  Speak out.  Vote.  Choose which businesses you support and stay off the radar.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-303: On the Road: Thoughts Generated by Headlights

Sunday night we returned from a multi-generational family outing.  We went to a small town about two hours north to see a re-creation of the Biblical nativity.  It was called “Main Street Bethlehem”.  The local Baptist church had been doing this for about 30 years and had a small section of Bethlehem recreated with genuine stone buildings.  It was a real labor of love.  They had church members playing the parts of residents and Roman occupiers.  Watching my grandchildren brought back memories of taking our children to a similar event.

The globalists want to destroy all this type of thing.  

It isn’t just a war against religion.  It is a war against liberty.  As we were driving up and back it occurred to me that all those people pushing the green agenda and bug-burgers have a target on every automobile in America.  The idea behind the 15 minute city is to keep you throttled and unable to move.  They want to cut down your options so you are easier to control.  As I watched the multitude of private vehicles on the road and the number of people who had gathered to this event, I realized what is at stake.  

What that means is making serfs out of the population.  Historically the difference between a peasant and a serf was that the serf could not go more that a short distance from home without the permission of his lord.  Peasants were also at the bottom of the social ladder but had more freedom.  Groups like the WEF and Sierra Club don’t just want to keep you poor.  They want to control you.  It isn’t about money.  It is about power.

Older people remember the feeling of emancipation that came from getting a drivers license.  Eventually you got a job so you could afford your own car.  It represented freedom, responsibility and was a big step toward being independent.  The elites hate that idea.  They want you to be bound by the schedule of public transportation.  They want to be able to deny that transportation either by a digital pass that can be cancelled or a master switch which turns the whole thing off.  The idea of having your own car, run by gas you purchased from a local businessman and guided by you is anathema to them.  

I don’t know it they are clever enough to have plotted it, but the current generation seems to be more concerned with the latest phone than the independence of a driver’s license.  They would rather walk around looking at an electronic device than move in the real world.  They live in a world of virtual reality that is much easier to manipulate than the streets of the city.

All this thinking just from going on an outing with the family.  I have too much time to think.

homo unius libri