Opus 2026-337: The Laws of God and the Lies of Man

As I’m driving home from church I noticed signs that I often ignore when I’m coming up to a certain curvy part of the road and it tells me to slow down to 45 miles an hour.  I’ve seen these signs on other road trips.  Generally I’ve found that it’s pretty safe to add 20 mph on that without even having to worry about it.
 
There is a difference between the laws of bureaucracy and the laws of physics.  Bureaucracy wants to slow you down to keep you safe, and to get personal satisfaction of exercising control over your life.  Physics deals in unchanging reality.  It’s based on what happens when certain conditions are met.  It doesn’t have much to do with your attitude or your focus or your health or anything else along those lines.  It’s a matter of what it is.

Too often our government runs on the basis of what will make them feel good and what they can get away with.  God on the other hand has certain moral standards that don’t vary.  He acquaints us with them.  He let us know that there will be consequences if we violate them.  Don’t fall into the trap that God is like any other authority figure.  He will not be mocked and cannot be gamed.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-292: Thanks for the Silent Majority

I am going to divide government employees into three categories today.  I imagine there are many more and various ways to break them down but this is what I am looking at right now.  I do not have any recent experiences to stimulate this train of thought.  It just kind of emerged.

I am thinking of dividing government employees into workers, drones and queens.  Honey bees have my apologies for the comparison.

I think the largest group of government employees are the workers.  These are those usually unnoticed men and women who show up for work on time and do their job.  We don’t notice them because when they do their job there is no reason to notice them.  I know they exist because much of what I expect to happen just happens.  When I renew my driver’s license, it arrives.  When the electricity goes out, it comes on again.  Just because we run into that clerk who has it in for us does not mean that others are not doing their best and if this was not the largest group much of what we take for granted would cease.

Then you have the drones.  When they are in a back office the work seems to find a way around them because they don’t earn their paycheck.  When they are in contact with the public they make us want to join the revolution.  You have all been there.  You can see the piece of paper they need to get you on your way but they won’t turn around and look for it.  They keep quoting a non-existent regulation or mis-interpreting the rules because they get more joy out of your frustration that a job well done.

The third group is small.  It is a blessing that they are rare.  These are the ones who are really motivated because they literally get joy out of making you miserable.  It gives their petty existence meaning to stop you cold.  In too many cases they will actually go out of their way to be violent or betray the trust placed in them.

If this last type were really common we would all be living in chaos.  As it is the disasters seem to be rare enough that most of us don’t need to worry.  If you can, report them.  If they are reachable, vote them out.  Make sure that you don’t join them because much of our safety is in numbers.

And be thankful for the ones faithfully doing their job.

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 2026-116: Sic ‘Em

One of the items announced at the State of the Union Address was that vice president Vance would be heading a task force to try and deal with the fraud that is rampant in government.  I wish him luck.  I would suggest that he increase his security details and make sure that everybody is on his team.  He will be in the crosshairs if he gets close to reaching the goal.

I would suggest that one of the first things he should do is sit down with Elon Musk and try to revive DOGE.  They showed remarkable results in the brief time they were allowed to operate.  The geeks that were brought in did an awesome job of revealing waste.  I’m afraid that much of it was swept under the rug.  I think that’s one of the reasons why Musk walked away.  I think he’s enough of a patriot that he would at least throw his influence behind bringing back some of those young people.

I think some people would tell us that it is still in operation.  It may be, but if it is, it is so handicapped with regulations and control that nothing is getting done.  We need a revival of DOGE.  I don’t know if you heard it, but one of the things that Trump said, which I have said so it must be wisdom, was if we could deal with the fraud we might be able to balance the budget.

I disagree with everybody who says we can’t pay off the national debt.  It could be done rapidly if we would stop wasting money and cut out the graft.  The benefits to the average working person would be mind-boggling.  The pain to the average congressman would be even more mind-boggling.

Go JD. Sic ‘em.

homo unius libri

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.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-042: Immortal quotes: Character Counts

I have mixed emotions about pulling Maduro out of Venezuela.  I have mixed emotions about getting involved in the revolution going on in Iran.  I have no idea what’s going on in Ukraine.  There are certain times, more frequent than we want to admit, where we simply have to put our trust in the character of a leader.

Character has many different definitions and ways of looking at it.  Donald Trump does not have a good record in successful marriages.  At the same time he seems to have been able to raise well balance children.  Those ex-wives all get along with him.  I scratch my head over that one.  Other areas of character that we tend to ignore are probably more important in his current role.

He is a man who follows the rules.  He does that in the most legalistic manner.  If he didn’t, the Democrats would have put him in jail and impeached him long ago.  Keep in mind, not only have all the Democrats in Congress and many of the Republicans tried to destroy him, but they have weaponized the DOJ, FBI, administrative state, CIA and any other alphabet that you want to use.   In spite of nine years at least of searching, they’ve been able to find nothing that was truly illegal.

He is a man who does his homework.  As a real estate developer in New York he was very much involved in what he was working on.  I read his autobiography.  Much of it had to do with his business dealings.  He knew his market, he knew his contractors, he knew what could be done and what could not be done.  That didn’t come from reading the LA Times.  It came from doing real research.

He is a man who is willing to take risks.  Again, looking at the real estate market in New York, there are points where you have to take risks.  If you read his autobiography, you’ll find out that many of his risks were taken with other peoples money, but again that comes to doing his homework and knowing what the rules were.  He still took risks, but they were measured and thoughtful risks.

He got results.

When I look at Venezuela and Iran, my concern about getting involved is not that there is no American interest, but because I also believe that in the long run when you bail people out and they don’t have to fight it themselves, they end up not developing the character they need to be successful.  We removed the dictator from Venezuela.  OK.  That may have needed to be done.  The issue is that at some point the people of Venezuela need to stand up and step forward.  I understand that to do that before would have gotten you a bullet in the head.  Maybe now they can be free to do that and take the risk necessary for liberty and prosperity.  The same is true in Iran.  There may be small ways that the United States can help advance freedom, but the answer is not to send in the Marines and then hand everything over to someone who has not earned the position of leadership.

So far it seems that Trump is walking the thin line.  I pray that his wisdom will continue to get results.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-530: You Pick, part 2 of 2

Now, how do we go about change?  There’s a lot of unhappy people out there today and many of them are advocating violence.  We saw this in the murder of Charlie Kirk.  We see it in the riots and destruction caused by Antifa.  It’s considered quite acceptable by certain people to kill and destroy in order to achieve political power.  I personally think that they know they can never really win, at least in the United States, but they can achieve victory by provoking people on the other side to respond in the same manner.  That leads to Civil War, which is a form of revolution that overthrows the power structure by force.  The historic results of this type of approach are dismal.  The solution is usually worse than the cause.  The American revolution was the exception to the rule.  The French revolution was much more typical.

Then you have reform.  This is the gradual process of bringing about change.  Sometimes we see big steps forward.  I think of the battle of William Wilberforce and his allies to end slavery in the English empire.  He fought for 30 years before he saw the first movement.  It is possible to change things.  The problem is that most of the time the change ends up being for the worse.  Think of how we did away with senators being appointed by the state legislature and made it a popular vote.  That has not gone well.  We think of the income tax.  It was going to be a very small amount of money.  How is that treating you now?

And then we have revival.  This of course, has that religious aspect, which is familiar to Bible believing Christians.  I think if we went back in history, you would find that there were times when Israel went through revivals.  I think of King Josiah as he found the book of the law and tried to turn the country back towards God.  I think of the Wesley revival which saved England from a similar fate that France went through from its revolution.  I’m sure there are other examples.  This would be my choice as the direction we should go.  I, as a Christian ,would feel that this would require God’s people to get serious about being God’s people.

Which way will our country go?  The frightening thing to me is that I don’t see what used to be the Christian church standing up and confessing their sins.  I don’t see them being willing to repent.  But then revival often starts under the radar and takes time to develop.

Hind sight tells us how it went last time.  Foresight is an illusion.  All we have is hope.  If you are a believing Christian pray and live in obedience.  If you are not a believer then you better hope that the ones who are have the ear of God.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-529: You Pick, part 1 of 2

I don’t know if you’ve ever been driving through apple country and seen the signs that declare that you can pick your own apples.  It’s rather ingenious because they still charge you as much as the store, maybe more, but they don’t have to do the harvesting.  I guess it’s fun for some people.

But I’m more concerned about picking our future.  If you are paying attention, and I assume you are, you noticed that things tend to be going downhill in our culture and our society.  More and more we see what we could call a peasant class rising to the surface. It’s not a matter of cream rising; it’s a matter of the dregs being stirred up until that’s all we can see.  I am not talking about social or economic classes but a group with atrophied mentalities.  

We are constantly at a crossroads.  That’s part of the human predicament.  At the present I think we are going to have to pick one of three courses we follow.  I would suggest that the three are revolution, reform and revival.  There’s a bit of overlap and all insist that there must be change.  That’s nothing new.  Again it’s the human predicament.

If you look at history, there is no one political system that has survived the test of time.  There is no one economic system that continues to deliver.  What has survived is the basic human character of self-centeredness and shortsightedness.  There is a certain hubris built into the human mind and personality.  We see it in those claiming that real socialism has never been tried and at this time it will be different.  I’m not sure how many of them actually believe that or how many of them are simply convinced that they are more clever than their ancestors and will find a way to put themselves on the top of the heap this time.

There are three general approaches to government.  You have the general category of monarchy.  This is the rule by one strong man.  They embrace different titles.  You can have a king, a dictator, a tyrant, a president for life.  A second type is the rule by the elite or upper class.  I think oligarchy fits into that and the idea of having an aristocracy.  Then the third type is a general form that is often mislabeled democracy.  The word itself is good because it’s a compound word of “people” and “power”.  This has taken two general forms.  The first is a pure democracy.  We have never actually seen this, although some people think we have.  They point to ancient Athens as being a pure democracy.  Not so.  Only a limited number of people were allowed to participate in the process of voting and assuming power.  Still it was an attempt.  Then we have the concept of republic.  This was demonstrated in Rome.  Again, it was not perfect because it did not include everyone.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-427: The Wisdom of Democracy

If you have not studied history much it seemed like just a clever meme:

“Democrats have reached the ‘murder your political opponents’ stage of democracy.”

The sad reality is that the slogan is an accurate summary of democracy.  It is one of the reasons why the Founding Fathers clearly stated that they did not want to establish a democracy.

Greece is loudly touted as the source of democracy and that is generally true.  What is not added is the fact that those democracies eventually deteriorated into tyranny.  Several times in the history of Athens the democracy voted to execute successful military leaders because they made some people mad.  Eventually things tended to get so chaotic that there was either a revolt by the oligarchy or a takeover by a strong man.  

Goodby democracy.

You may have noticed all the calls for democracy by the left wing.  That is because they know that the mob is easy to manipulate with fake news.  I don’t know if you have seen the meme that shows Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Lion gathered around a fire made of the Scarecrow.  They took a vote.  The majority spoke.

Do not pray for democracy.  Pray for the representative republic with checks and balances that the Founding Fathers set up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-403: New Laws: Tripping Hazard

I’ve noticed during our prayer request time at church that there are a lot of people who are tripping and falling and breaking things.  It can be a simple in and out check up with a few bandages and x-rays down to long range plans for healing.  It’s a serious problem.

I think it may be time for the federal government to step in and start regulating tripping hazards.  The one that brings this to mind in my case is our cat.  My wife is out of town and I am having to deal with the little beast.  As long as he leaves me alone we get along fine.  The problem. if you have a cat you know, is that he will come up and act like he wants affection, and when you start petting him, the claws come out and you end up with bloody trails down your arm. So I feed him, let him outside, and basically ignore him.

The problem under discussion is that he seems to have a genuine desire to bring me down.  When I let him come in the house, he follows me around, winding around my feet and getting in the way.  Even when he wants me to let him outside and I start toward the door, he keeps stopping right in front of me and turning around to see if I’m following.  He is a disaster waiting to happen.

My proposal is a federal regulation requiring all cats to be tagged with a warning label stating that they are a tripping hazard.  If we could develop the technology, it might be a good idea to mount a loudspeaker on their back and when anyone gets close enough to face disaster, it lets off an alarm or an announcement, “Back off, buster!”

My proposal is not trying to butt into your life.  It’s just that I want you to be safe.  I care about your health.  If I can find a sponsor in the federal government, I will then be able to say, “ I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”  If I do it right I am sure I can generate a nice, hefty salary for myself.  And I especially will be on the lookout for those of you who resist the sensitivity and loving care that your government wants to offer you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-335: What Fun

It would be very easy for those of us who are not involved in rescue operations and who don’t have a big Lookie-Lou problem to conclude that the flooding did not affect us where we live.  I have been one of those.  I have driven across a road near us that has a lot of dips with warnings about flooding and posts that measure how deep the water is and I’ve seen no evidence on my first couple of trips of any flooding.

There was no dirt or rocks scattered across the road which is typical of flooding.  Everything was clean and pristine, I thought

But I noticed something different today that I hadn’t seen before.  Some of the low places have guardrails along the side and I started noticing that there was a lot of debris piled up against these rails.  That debris could not have gotten there unless there was significant amount of water moving across the road.  In fact it seemed to have been cleaned up and the debris pushed aside by workers.  They must have been out early.

The rescue work continues.  I hear there are other floods in other states.  Pray for those who are in the thick of it and or some miracles along the way.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-322: Fix It

One of the important discussions that I had with my son when he was growing up involved the difference between “I need” and “I want”.  At times it’s hard to know the difference, but there are some basic characteristics that are just not the same.

A need is something which, if not met, could lead to serious consequences, such as death or massive destruction of property.  I want is something that you have an emotional desire for, and the emotion tends to overcome your rational processes.  That you may need breakfast or you won’t be able to work is probable.  You don’t need Sugar Frosted Flakes.  A need is something you make sacrifices of other important things to achieve.  For instance if it’s winter your children may need shoes.  If you lived in Hawaii, that might not be a real need.  It might just be a want.  If you live in Illinois, it’s definitely a need.  However the latest cool fashion in winter boots is not a need.  It is a want.  You might go without a new coat for yourself in order to get shoes for your children, but you wouldn’t do so just to get them the latest fashion.  Or maybe you would.  Your choice.  Your money.

I’ll take that idea and extend it into the world of government payments.  Let me really meddle and talk about Medicare.  I am on Medicare, so I am qualified to be critical.  I’m basically healthy so some might consider me insensitive.  That may be true but it doesn’t overrule the logic.

Think about the things that Medicare pays for that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.  I know one lady who went in and had her eyelids lifted.  Granted, it did not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but when are droopy eyelids life-threatening?  The question is should Medicare have paid for it?  Or let’s get to something a little more serious such as a new joint of some kind.  If you’re 85 years old, well, let’s change that to 77 since that’s what I am, is it life-threatening to have to hobble around, use a cane, and lean on a walker?  If you were young father, trying to support a family it would be one thing but to be retired and just getting around the house it’s another.  One is life-threatening; one is certainly comfortable, but it doesn’t ruin your future.  Should Medicare pay for it?

Quality of life is a consideration but it is a slippery slope.  An example of that is the issue of abortion.  Most reasonable people are willing to allow abortion to save the life of the mother.  The problem for people advocating abortion is that with modern medicine the mother’s physical life is almost never threatened because of a healthy preganancy. The reason liberals like the argument is that they redefine the term to include “quality of life” not life or death.  Thus if a woman feels she will be depressed if she has the child, that is a quality of life issue and she should be free to kill the baby.  The problem with exceptions is that we tend to think we deserve them but the other guy doesn’t.

There will come a time when we will face that fact that we can’t afford every joint replacement and eye lift.  You might want to schedule your procedure before we reach that point.


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 2025-300: The Pacemaker Plot

In recent discussion about the invasive nature of technology into our lives, we talked about how the government is able to invade our computers, phones, TVs and other technology and listen to us when we don’t think they have a right to butt in.

There was discussion about what we can do about it.  How can we keep this from happening?  How can we turn off my phone?  Is it enough to turn it off or must we remove the battery?  And ultimately we came down to the special sleeves that theoretically block the radio waves and such.  All of the discussion is lost on me.

I’m afraid I have to laugh and point to my chest and simply say, “Pacemaker”.  My pacemaker radiates a connection to a unit in my home so that it is constantly being monitored when I am in range.  Anyone with a brain would realize that means no matter where I go the government can trace me.  I am a walking GPS for them.  I don’t know if it has a microphone but I would not be surprised.

Now do conspiracy theories.  It seems like just about everybody you run into now has a pacemaker or some kind of built-in technology.  It could be an obvious broadcasting unit or it could be something else like an artificial knee.  Do people really need all these things or are they being pushed in such away that more people fall under the observation that the government.

It’s too late for me to do anything about it.  You might want to think about you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-290: Remember Fort Sumter

We’ve had a lot of talk over the past couple years about the potential for another Civil War.  The left has been pushing with all their might trying to get people on the right to their flash point.  They believed their own propaganda about red necks and Bible believers.

I wonder if the left is tired of waiting and we are beginning to see them move towards the violence they have tried to generate.  I wonder if they are collectively ready to cross the line of  defiance that triggers the federal government.  Is Los Angeles the new Fort Sumter?  These riots could be the first step.  President Trump has mobilized the National Guard.  He’s brought out the Marines.  Instead of calming down it seems like the left is doubling down.  They are threatening to go on tour.  I was told they were advertising for paid positions as protestors in a city my friends live in.  Reports are that San Francisco is on the verge.  They have plans to start riots all over the country.

What do you do if someone starts a war and nobody comes?  That is one of the silly questions of the 60's.  Actually, we’re kind of seeing that kind of thing in England where people are not even allowed to defend themselves.  What happens when the forces of tyranny and chaos come into your neighborhood to your front door?  What happens when the large numbers of young men who were brought into the country to start an insurrection actually start the insurrection?

We may see the federal government pushing back against the forces of destruction.  They were expecting to get conservative citizens to rise up.  Instead the liberals have exploded and are asking to be slapped down.  How far will this go?  As long as I live in the hill country of Texas and don’t go into the blue cities I think I will be untouched.  If they decide to bring it to us then I hope there are enough American citizens ready to protect their families.  

Pray for peace but not at any price.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-272: On the Road: More Government Help

If you have driven on the interstate outside of major cities, you have seen the signs telling you what is available at the next off-ramp.  The foundation is gas, lodging and food.  Sometimes they add attractions.  It’s actually very helpful because often the off-ramp comes up before you can see what is there.

We are so used to this at this point that we forget the way in which local business used to show us what they had to offer.  It was called billboards or outdoor advertising.  There are still a few that do this.  If you are into the Buc-ee’s road side stops then you will know that they start telling you 50, 60, 70 miles ahead of time that they are coming up.  On my recent trip there was one sign telling us that the next Buc-ee’s was over 500 miles ahead.

With typical federal arrogance these were frequently removed by Lady Bird Johnson as she tried to beautify America.  Every first lady has a cause, her’s was removing advertising.  She probably improve the vision at certain places, but she certainly made it harder to drive across country.  Into the vacuum created by federal bureaucracy stepped another federal bureaucracy.  Keep in mind that these signs telling you what is available at the next offramp have to be paid for some how and put up by someone and maintained by someone else. What used to be up to local entrepreneurs has become a federal program.

As in most federal programs, they tend to be the most advantageous to the big companies.  I don’t know what it cost to have your name or logo put on the signs but it’s probably the same amount for McDonald’s at is it is for Uncle Joe’s Beanery.  Who gets the biggest advantage?

The nose of the federal camel knows no boundaries. It intrudes in places that you would never think about, including your lunch stop.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-194: Not a Theocracy

This thought pattern started by listening to a short excerpt of a presentation by Steven Greg as he talked about the biblical command not to be unequally yoked.  He started with the Old Testament law about not yoking an ox and a donkey together and carried that forward to the New Testament explaining that it meant believers are not to be joined together with unbelievers.

Marriage is obvious but he also mentioned political action or trying to influence our society on moral issues.  He called them social issues, but they’re really moral.  Things like abortion, homosexuality, genders and marriage.  He said that we should not be joining together with pagans and non-believers and trying to achieve changes in society because in that case the glory went to the cooperative organization and not to God.

He had a good point.  The cultures of the Old Testament law, and the New Testament church are totally different.  The OT law was not given for personal redemption.  It was given for national establishment.  It made Israel stand out from the surrounding nations.  It told them how to live.  It gave them experience in things like etiquette and manners and simple every day behaviors that we take for granted.

Under the old covenant Israel was to be a nation.  They were to keep themselves pure and separate from everyone around them and function as not only a religious organization, but a civil one.  There are certain similarities to what we see in Islam today where the religious aspect and the civil government aspects are not separate.  It could be that it is an old idea for old times.

The new covenant has the church being salt and light, but not being a government.  We are to remain pure within the pagan culture, but there is no command that we purify the culture.  We have a different role.  That’s under the new covenant.  We don’t have any demands for stoning adulterers, or executing children who talk back to their parents.  The change that we experience is an inner change, not a cultural change.  The cultural change comes, but it is a reflection of what’s going on inside of us.

We are not called to set up a theocracy.  The Christian life can be lived in many historic types of government.  The big exceptions would be theocracies like Islam and political-socialist cults like Marxism.  That is part of the reason why those two religions are targeting Christians.

Be salt.  Be light.  Get involved as a citizen in a free country while you still have the opportunity.  Leave the results up to God.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-057: Balancing Act

We need to keep in mind the principles that have been espoused about responsible government and overspending.  My concern here is two of the announcements given in Trump’s great inauguration speech.  He announced that he was creating two new government bureaucracies.  He announced DOGE, and a department involving external revenue.  In the past I heard that DOGE was going to be sunset in a couple years and was going to be mainly a volunteer organization.  I was very on board for that, but it sounds like now it’s going to become just another typical government organization, throwing its weight around.  I’m all for the concept of cutting back government waste.  I don’t think we can do that by starting more government waste.

And about this department having to do with external revenue, I think that we already have the capacity to do that through the IRS.  The I in IRS stands for internal of course.  Any money which is made in this country is included.  That also includes money made by international corporations.  We don’t have the right to go into other countries and demand a tax from what happens there.  We already have the capacity.  We don’t need to expand the government to do it.

If we think that these are such wonderful ideas then I would suggest an idea that I have heard from somewhere, I don’t know where.  I think I’ve heard of several places.  The original statement had to do with a demand that for every new regulation a government imposes it is required to cancel three or four.  If we apply that to government agencies, then for each new government agency that Trump establishes he needs to dismantle another.  He has already suggested the Department of Education.  I am definitely on board with that.  There are other departments that could also could be done away with.  Maybe our goal should be to cut back to the level authorized in the Constitution.  What a novel idea.  At least in part the staffing on these new agencies can come from the ones that are being dissolved, but the total employees should go down dramatically.

Then you have the announcement currently for $500 billion for AI development.  I wasn’t aware private enterprise needed this kind of stimulus in an area where they are already doing so well.  Where are we going to get $500 billion when we’re already in the tank so far.  I didn’t read the article, just the Clickbait.

Overall I’m excited at what I see.  My memory tells me that one of the big problems that Trump has is that he likes to spend money.  As he spends it, he needs to find a way to cut spending in other areas so that the economy can recover quicker.

I have hope for the future politically. I have confidence for the future spiritually. Hopefully the two will go together.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-029: Where Is Robespierre When You Need Him?

I would say it’s time to dial the government back but I think it’s more accurate to say we are past the time when the government needs to be dialed back.

What generates this line of thought was a meme post on a site called “The Daily Time Waster.”  The event being examined in the meme involved fire trucks being sent from the state of Oregon down to help with the emergency in Southern California.  If you’ve been paying attention, you understand that Los Angeles county had just donated a large number of fire trucks and other equipment to Ukraine, and is now paying the price and not having enough to go around.  They called for other states to send help.  Oregon responded.

So far so good.  This is how America is supposed to work.

Enter government control.  According to the meme the fire truck from Oregon was being held up for inspection by the California Department of Transportation.

I could not get it to show up on this blog but it is theoretically from the Oregon Public broadcasting website.  I went there and couldn’t find it.  I don’t know if I’m just looking in the wrong place or if it’s more fake news.

It’s believable because this is the way government works especially in a blue state like California.

This reminds me of what I went through about 30 years ago.  I was making a career change and going into teaching.  I had finished my class work at one university.  I had a job already under an emergency credential program.  I needed the University staff to come and supervise my student teaching.  The school I was attending said they could not come because I was outside their area.  So I went to the university who had jurisdiction in my area.  They refused to supervise me because they could not certify the quality of education that I’ve gotten in the other state university.

Keep in mind these are both state universities.  There was no competition with a private school.  In theory, they both march to the same drummer.  But because of bureaucracy, they said they could not help me.

I ended up dropping out of their programs and entering a private university to finish up my classes and my student teaching.  This is the kind of nonsense that the government does.  It should not surprise us.

You find this in just about every area of government.  You get petty bureaucrats who are very impressed with their own importance and who know what the law states, and what the regulations are, and refuse to work with you.  It could be because they are afraid.  They could be incompetent.  Often I think it is just the lethargy and malaise that comes from being a government employee and knowing that you have power over other people.

We are being ruled by an unelected administrative bureaucracy.  Try to get a building permit.  Try to get an inspection at work you’re having done.  Try to get almost anything done and you run into government bureaucracy’s telling you to stop and jump through the hoops.  It is strangling the country.  It needs to come to a stop.

Was the meme poster accurate?  Was it just a troll to generate hits?  I don’t know, but it is certainly believable because I know how the government of California works.  The problem is I think that this type of mentality is spreading everywhere, even in Texas.

One of the things that Donald Trump talks about is being over regulated.  This is a good example.  Hopefully he will be able to do something about it.

January 20 can’t come soon enough.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-007: Tax Dollars at Work: Dim Your Lights

One of the first things I do every morning is to check the weather.  Actually, I check the temperature.  The rest of the weather is something I’m not too worried about.  This morning I was warned, or told, that there was a “Special Weather Statement” that I needed to read.  OK.  I was open to a little entertainment so I touch the screen.

I was taken then to a “Special Weather Statement” from the National Weather Service.  They informed me, I could just hear the drum roll in the background and I imagine the deep voice, that there will be fog today.  They went on to share with me how that meant that I should drive with low beams, at a slower speed, and leave more space between me in the car in front of me.

Thank you, weather app.  Thank you National Weather Service.  I’m sure that when I went outside, I would have assumed that my glasses were just fogging up because of the temperature change.  When I took them off to clean them, I would’ve wondered why I still couldn’t see.  It’s good that I have the federal government here to tell me that it’s foggy.  I’m sure I would never notice.

Thank you weather app and thank you. National Weather Service for assuming that my father did not teach me how to drive in fog.  Actually I’ve known since before I could drive that you turn your low beams on in the fog.  I also am quite aware that driving 80 miles an hour in a heavy fog on a curvy road with lots of traffic is not a way to live to see your great-grandchildren.

I would suggest that perhaps Elon and Vivek might look at the National Weather Service as one of the things that does not need to be broadcast into every home every day.  I understand if I am flying a jet across the country I might need some kind of heads-up but not for knowing if it is raining outside my front door.  Of course, that could be just me.

We might also need a National Restaurant Service to warn us about putting white powder in our coffee out of those little shakers on the table.  Some wise guru might also tell us that it’s not a good idea to eat your peas with a knife and be careful with that fork because you could make holes in your eyeballs . Also, they might want to remind us that knives can be sharp and that glasses when they were knocked off the table might break.

You are welcome for this heartfelt recommendation.

homo unius libri