Opus 2026-364: Cut and Paste

One indication of the facade of modern academia is plagiarism.  We have frequent revelations of the educational elites who do little but copy the work of others.  I experienced it teaching middle school.  It was easy to discover at that level because illiterate eighth graders have a very limited vocabulary and copy and paste the silliest things, including the references at the bottom of the page and hyperlinks.  With modern technology it is childishly simple to find out if something is copied.

A famous line of Margaret Thatcher was “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”  I thought of that in regard to the plagiarism that goes on in the academic world.  You see where I am going with this, don’t you?  “Eventually your run out of other people’s ideas.”  

I find that many of the books I try to read may be honest in giving their sources but the end product is often just a chain of quotes with little original thinking.  I have heard it called “term paper style”.  You remember what those were like.  

Another face of the problem is a reliance on tradition.  I am examining that in my own life with the focus on theology.  It amazes me how people don’t listen to my ideas.  I accept they may be lacking in great wisdom but that is not why people don’t listen.  They just don’t want to hear and have a hard time grasping something outside their comfort zone.

One of the ideas that I am exploring is the proposition that the Jews of Jesus day did not teach the Torah.  They taught what would become the Talmud.  At that point it was the oral law which is a scholarly way of renaming the game of Telephone.  If you want an example of how the oral law is a joke read about the reforms of Josiah.  At that point the religious leaders had even forgot to celebrate the Passover.  How can you claim to have an unbroken oral law when you can’t remember one of the key points of Jewish history.

Keep thinking.  One way to know if you are being successful is that people won’t listen.  Of course that could also mean you are spouting nonsense.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-290: So There!

Recently I was subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.  I was in a situation where I was forced to sit and listen to someone read.  Have I ever told you I hate being read to?  I hate being read to.  My mind wants to gallup and readers tend to trot at best.  I endured.  I hope I had a good demeanor because my grandchildren were watching.

The torture came from the opening chapter of Tom Sawyer.  It was well written.  I was caught up in the attempt by Tom to pick a fight.  It was a long series of “I dare you” and “Well, of yeah” Time and time again the debate went on about who would whip the other.  Older brothers were referred to.  Eventually it resolved in a slugfest.  What emerged in my mind this morning was how similar this is to the disagreements we have about theology and what we believe.

We like to take verses, throw them down in the dust and say, “So there!”  We think our enthusiasm is impressive.  We know we are right because someone told us it was right.  We don’t remember whom.  It was probably many whom’s.  We are standing on solid ground.  The verse in front of me today is,

(Rom 9:15 KJV)  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

This is supposed to prove several of the points to the TULIP theory.  Total depravity, undeserved election and irresistible grace come to mind.  It provides a powerful bit of ammunition.  It occured to me that it might be more beneficial to look at its foundations before we build a house of theology on it.

The cross reference given is Exodus 33:19.  Keep in mind that the little letters directing you to other passages are editorial additions, not the original inspired text.  They are subject to the theological biases of the editor.  In this case it seems like a solid referral.

(Exo 33:19 KJV)  And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

This takes place in a context you will recognize.  Moses and God had been having a discussion.  The concept of grace was thrown around a lot.  Moses is asking for God’s assurance and God promises to be with him.  There is no reference to God making capricious choices of who will be saved.  In the verse before this you have the familiar words of Moses,

(Exo 33:18 KJV)  And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

Moses is asking for a special favor.  He wanted to see the face of God.  He was denied because to see God’s face would kill him.  But God, whom the TULIP people want to portray as never bending to human will says He will let Moses see His back as He passes by.  

Then Moses proceeds to cut tablets of stone to remake the Ten Commandments.  

This is a great passage, but it has nothing to do with how God interacts with us.  The context in Romans is Paul pointing out that being born a descendent of Jacob did not guarantee them a place at the table in eternity.  It is the opposite of how modern theologians like to apply it.

So there!

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-239: Intended Consequences

I am listening to Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs) interview Will Swaim (?).  The term “unintended consequences” was used in regards to the unions and environmentalists.  I am reasonable sure the term is a smoke screen.  There may be a few people that believe the nonsense but the leadership has an agenda beyond lining their own pockets.  They intend the long term consequences.

Traditional Americans have been brought up to think the best of other people.  The commissars and thugs of the left have been brought up understanding that is the way we were brought up.  They know the rules we play by and giggle with glee when they are able to use our adherence to the rule of law to destroy us.  Picture two men in a duel.  The noble one points his pistol in the air and fires it off, signifying his honor is satisfied.  The scumbag uses the pause to take very careful aim.  One is praised, the other lives.

Get over assuming everyone plays by the rules or interprets them the way they were intended.  Think of the judges who found the right of privacy in the Constitution when it had been missed for 200 years.  Think of the crimnals who practice being insane so that they will be let off from paying for their crime.  Think of the lawyers who talks circles to end up lying.

It is not unintended consequences.  It is the ultimate goal.  

What can we do about it?  The first step is to recognize who they are and how they operate.  The second is to vote and speak up to enforce the laws that are already on the books.  Learn which judges rejoice in an opportunity to press their opinions as they sneer at the law.  We can get things straightened out but we have to start with honest introspection.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-233: Monday Pulpit: Honor System

Sunday in my regular reading schedule I came across this verse and wrote about it for a future post on my devotional blog,

Proverbs 10:9 (KJV) He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.

My point was that we need to live in such a way that people trust us.  Then I read this as Josiah is getting serious about getting the temple back in shape,

2 Kings 22:7 (KJV) Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.

Coincidence?  Sure, why not?  Strange though.

Here in the OT we have an example of what I was thinking about.  Was this originally a preaching point for NT Christians?  I doubt it.  It was an observation that there were people of honor in ancient Israel.  At the same time the Holy Spirit uses things we read to teach us lessons, encourage us, clarify things, in short, whatever we need.

We need to be reminded of what Christian culture should look like.  I can remember when your word was your bond.  I can remember when contracts were sealed with a handshake instead of multiple pages of legalese.  I can remember never locking the house.  That was a culture based on the Bible and having an expectation that people would walk uprightly.

Pray for those days to return.  Live in such a way that your corner of the world embraces that moral standard.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-549: BIG TRUTH, little truth

I’m sitting here thinking about how serious, honest people of good faith can differ on their understandings of things.  My reference of course is theological, but I see this in politics in economics and just about every area.  How do we know what is true as opposed to what we want to be true?  I know I’m quite capable of seeing how other people do not grasp the big picture.  What comes back to haunt me is the question of whether I actually see the big picture.

Is truth simple or complex?  That’s another one of those questions which you answer, “Yes”.  It’s almost pointless to try and break down the question itself without specific examples.  So let me give you an example.

If I would walk out beside the road and pick up an object from the ground and show it to you and ask you, “Is this a rock” you would be able to answer me in most cases yes or no.  If what I picked up was a leaf you would say obviously that’s a leaf not a rock.  It was a piece of well worn concrete you might not be sure.  But ultimately, it would be easy to determine if this was a rock or not.

Is that truth?  Is that simple?  Is there more to it?

And then I might ask you OK, what kind of rock is this?  If you’re not into geology, you might have no idea.  I know that there’s limestone and granite.  I know that there are geodes that have beautiful colors inside when you break them open.  I know there is volcanic rock.  I know just enough to be dangerous.  I know just enough to know that there are deeper truths to the question of what is a rock?

One of these will be TRUTH, and the other will be truth.  Life is like that.  There always seem to be deeper levels.  When we have disagreements, we have to decide how deep a level we’re going to go to.  In the discussion of rocks, we have to come to a basic understanding of what the generic term rock means.  After that, we can start breaking it down and look for deeper meanings.  We can get down to the chemical composition, what elements are in that rock.  We can ask ourselves does it contain gold?  But we have to agree on what the basics are before we can go deeper.

It always amazes me how I can talk to people who will look at Donald Trump, agree with everything he’s done, think that he has been a positive force on America, recognize that the world has responded positively towards what he’s done, and refused to vote for him no matter what because “Orange Man bad”.  And yes, these people exist.  You have massive numbers of young people who are excited about socialism and communism.  The evidence of what these systems produce is clearly demonstrated by history.  They don’t care.  They are literally saying, don’t confuse me with the facts.

I guess we just have to keep stating the truth loudly and strongly.  We need to keep checking our facts to make sure that they aren’t talking us into delusions.  We have to build relationships with people by being patient and kind and courteous.  We have to hope that somehow the latent intelligence that’s buried deep under the layers of indoctrination can breakthrough.

Keep talking. Keep listening. Keep praying.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-547: Whom Do You Blame?

I’ve been listening to a Matt Fradd interview with David Wood?  It is three hours long but it might be worth your time.

In the conversation they were talking about Muslims who converted to Christianity and the question was asked what percentage of the Muslims who leave Islam when they find out the deceptions and false teachings move to atheism instead of Christianity?  Wood said it was a good question and he did not really have any statistics on it, but he knew that it was a good portion that did not embrace Christianity, that went on to reject all religion.  What got me interested was that their reason is the conviction if one religion lies to me, then all religious lie to me.  That’s my paraphrase.

What would happen in our world if we took that same attitude toward everything?  Now being one who doubts what climate change scientist tell us, I would be one who would simply ask if we can prove that the climate scientist are lying to us does that mean that we discount everything that all scientist say?  Some cynics would say yes.  Some skeptic you say yes.  Some open minded people might even say yes, but most of us would realize that that’s not really a fair analysis of the situation.

Move on to politics.  If we’re convinced that one politician is corrupt, does that mean that all politicians are corrupt?  As you can see this comes from the other side because most of us would tend to say yes.  But that’s not a fair comparison; not a fair way to look at things.

So we need to be looking into each situation ourselves instead of just taking other people’s words for it.  One reason I think that many people move to atheism instead of embracing Christianity is that the truth of Islam, or the false Islam, was right there in front of them.  All they had to do was read the Quran.  If they were really concerned, they could go into the Hadith.  The evidence was there, it was documented, and if they simply believe what somebody told them in the face of other people claiming it was not true, then whom does the blame lie on.

If you tell me that my favorite apples are on sale at the local grocery store and I go and order a big box of those apples, when I get the invoice and find out the actual price is not a bargain, but it’s full price, whom am I going to blame.  Am I going to blame you because they were on sale yesterday when you were there?   Am I going to blame you because you made the whole thing up?  Or am I going to be honest about it and say, “I should have looked at the price myself.”

Ultimately, the choices we make, and the direction we may go in life are based on our own personal decisions.  Yes, there are other influences and sometimes we’re forced into things we don’t want to do, but most of the time we have more to say about things that we want to admit.

So man up. Or maybe we should say person up. Above all grow up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-453: So Few Gurus

There have been three people that I can think of that I used to be able to take at face value.  I could listen to what they said, fill out my deposit slip, and take it to the bank.  It was very helpful to know that other people had done their homework and thought issues through.

Today as I sit and contemplate life, two of those voices have been silenced.  Rush died several years ago.  I always believe that if he said something, then he had done his due diligence and what he said would be true.  It was always possible that I might disagree with his interpretation, but even that was a rare event.  Then they took Charlie.  I hadn’t listened to him as much as I listened to Rush, but I had the same feeling of incorruptibility.  He did his research.  He consulted the information on both sides.  He knew the biblical truth and he came to conclusions.  The third person is still alive and I’m still listening, but I’m noticing that age is taking its toll.  Memory isn’t what it used to be.  Discernment is being watered down.  He still is a fountain of information, and I listen.  It’s just that I can’t accept everything as being well thought out.

So I am forced back to doing my own research.  I always did it to a degree anyway, but there’s a point where you can’t research everything.  There’s a point where you have to take people’s word for things that you don’t have time to track through the weeds.  Those trustworthy voices are getting scarce.  I’m already finding that in my understanding of the Bible more and more of what I thought I believed is tradition and the Bible is very clear that those traditions are not dead center.  So I am having a great time researching different things, seeing verses that had skipped my attention before, rejoicing in the fact that God is still leading me and that I am still growing.

When it comes to other areas, politics, economics, science, and such I have to take other people‘s words for it.  I recently reread a book by a guy named Kuhn who talked about the development of science and the keyword he had was “paradigm”.  It was my second reading.  It had a lot of great ideas in it.  Ultimately, though, he dealt into things that were beyond my current understanding, and I’m not willing to spend the time trying to research it.  I run into this more and more.

As my ignorance quotient ratchets higher I find that knowing the basics is always more important.  If I know the basics of biblical truth, and what God has already made clear it puts me in a position to have an effective baloney meter.  So I keep reading, contemplating, praying and trusting that God will make me an effective servant.  The same sense of seeking overflows into other disciplines and make growth almost a guarantee if we keep thinking.

May today bring something new into your world.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-200: The Mystery of Hope

A number of books that I’m reading have made reference to the sufferings of Job.  He really went through it.  I hope that I never even come close to what he experienced.  Perhaps you feel you’re close.

Keep in mind the Job was totally innocent of any attitude or action.  He could have been facing discipline from God.   That is not what we see.  We start off with God giving a glorious testimony about the faithfulness of Job.  So if you’re going through hard times, don’t assume that it’s because you did something wrong.

Another thing that comes through when you read the book, Job never caved in to the criticisms and wisdom of his friends.  He didn’t accept their analysis.  He did not accept their traditional theology.  Keep in mind that part of their traditional theology was that he was suffering because of sin in his life.  He rejected that and made what we would call an arrogant claim today.  He claimed that he was not guilty.  He claimed that he was innocent of any wrongdoing.  He claimed that he stood tall before God and defied them to show where he had failed.

We are surrounded by theological traditionalists.  Their beliefs are based more on what they were told that on what they’ve actually found in the scripture themselves.  There is a real danger of arrogance on our part, but we must be responsible to read for ourselves.

Also keep in mind that the suffering of Job came to an end.  It had a limit.  He hung in there.  He got through.  I’m not sure that the children who died when the building fell were too blessed by that, or the cattle that were stolen were rejoicing in their new masters.  I’m not sure I would want to start all over again at that age.  But the testimony is that he was again blessed and found to be a good and faithful servant.

Hang in there.  Keep trusting.  And rejoice in the Lord.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-397: Absolutes

We tend to think in terms of absolutes.  For instance consider being color blind.  We tend to think that people who are color blind only see in black-and-white.  In reality there are all kinds of variables in between.

Consider diabetes.  We tend to think that people are either ready to have their legs cut off and to go blind or else are totally healthy.  In reality there are many variables in between.

Then you have a condition like A-fib . I have a raging case of it.  They tell me that sometimes it’s 300 beats a minute.  I feel nothing.  I have no symptoms.  I wouldn’t know I have a problem if the doctor didn’t tell me.  I know of other people they can barely function because of it.  I assume there are many different levels in between.

How about integrity and ethics?  Most of us would admit that we are not perfect and that we have all sinned at sometime in our life.  Yet most of us consider ourselves basically moral people.  At the other end you have people like the Bidens who wouldn’t know an honest statement if it came up and bit him on the nose.

In between you have people like Donald Trump.  He has gone bankrupt several times.  I would guess it might’ve been planned.  I don’t know.  What I do know is he broke no laws in what he did.  The Democrats have been trying to find something to tie on him for eight years and all they could do was come up with an artificial law that they made up on the spur of the moment.  Even then they had to tell the jury that they could declare him guilty even if he didn’t do anything illegal.  Is this ethical or not?

Life is full of hard decisions.

Ultimately we have to evaluate people as individuals.  What makes it even harder is that some individuals who are on the wrong path reform, and those who are saints in the making go off the deep end.  It calls for constant vigilance.  It does not mean we don’t “judge”.  It means that we judge with honor and an awareness of what is true and what is right.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-352: Slippery Slopes

At what point does exaggeration, spin, or even humor cross the line from being a means of communication to a blatant lie?  We all know that hyperbole is a means of emphasizing a point.  A good joke can get truth across to someone.  We are aware of this kind of thing.  But what about when the whole point is to manipulate and control for your own personal purposes?

I just experienced that.  I was told something.  It did not jive with my memory.  I confronted the person on it, and was told again the same thing.  I was told with the inference that I was wrong and was not living up to my responsibilities.  OK.  My memory is far from perfect.  Maybe I had the wrong things filed away in my mind.  I went on with life.

But the issue kept bugging me.  It was right in front of me.  I thought about what I knew to be true and as I put together events that were irrefutable to me it became very clear that the exaggeration that I was being confronted with was wrong.  It was a lie.  It was offered up in order to manipulate, control, shame, denigrate me as a person, so that I would be more compliant in the future.  It crossed the line.

Did the person know that they were lying?  I don’t know.  There would be no point in going through the details that I knew to be true that pointed out that their statement could not be right.  They would not listen.  I’ve been down that road enough to know how it would play out.  Did they care that they were lying?  Another question that I can’t answer.  I find it hard to believe that being in control is so important that you violate one of the basic 10 commandments that God has given us.

It’s a slippery slope.  I can’t keep other people from starting down it.  I can’t save them once they start to slide.  All I can really do is keep an eye on my own behavior, my own attitudes, my own motives, and try to keep them up there with the angels.  That will be hard enough for me and enough for today.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-331: Headlines: Just Look

One of the “Look at me” themes I am seeing lately on the Internet expounds about Kamala Harris and plagiarism.  Today I saw a Clickbait headline about information she had in her books being lifted straight from Wikipedia.  This would not be hard to verify.  All you have to do is look.

A regular tool when I was teaching middle school was Google search.  I required a serious project:  Write a term paper.  I didn’t just dump them in, sink or swim.  We went through note taking, outlining, bibliographies, and everything else necessary to write a good paper.  When it was time to evaluate the results if I saw something suspicious all I had to do was type short selection into the search engine, hit return and see what came up.  I would have been embaraced but they didn’t blink.  Often they didn’t even delete the hypertext, and sometimes even printed the addresses at the bottom of the page.  Another clue would be two paragraphs that had nothing to do with each other, kind of an early “word salad.”

It was easy to do.  All you had to do was look.  Of course, the hard part was in the head of the reader.  You had to be bright enough to realize that what you were reading could not have been written by an eighth grader.  You had to recognize hypertext as hypertext.  You had to recognize the fact that internet addresses at the bottom and the top actually came from sources not located in the head of the eighth grader.

I had kids come up for my inquisition.  I would show them the actual page on my computer screen and they would look at it and still claimed that they wrote the material.  I wasn’t training future Democrats, I was dealing with eighth grade Democrats.

Don’t blame Kamala too much.  Somewhere there is an eigth grade public school teacher who let her slide.  Somewhere there is an editor that continued the tradition.  We are getting close to the time when the American people, assuming they actually count the votes, are going to decide what kind of government they deserve.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-235: Lie for Success

If you get uneasy around theology, then just relax because that’s not the point of this post.  I was at a discussion of systematic theology and we were looking at various topics having to do with the Holy Spirit.  The following verse came up,

Acts 5:3 (KJV) But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

The issue was, “Could you lie to the Holy Spirit?”  The obvious answer is yes, since it clearly states that these people lied to the Holy Spirit.  At this point some wag, it could’ve been me, observed, “You can try.”

Obviously, you can try to lie to the Holy Spirit, but you don’t succeed because He knows the truth.  That brings up a question in my mind of, “Is it a lie if both sides know that what you’re saying is not true?”  In trying to explain to our grandchildren what humor is and how it is different from lies, we came up with the idea that in humor both sides know what you were saying is not really true.  A lie is when you were genuinely trying to deceive someone.  So that brings up the question, “Can you really lie to a being that knows you’re lying and can’t help knowing you’re lying?”  Couldn’t these two people have just said, “Joke.”

The actual commandment in the Bible is not “don’t lie”.  It is “don’t bear false witness.”  That actually covers a lot more ground than just verbal deception.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-218: The Taboo Phrase

There’s something that I need to face up to and if I need to face up to it, I figured you might also be in that class of people.  It is perfectly acceptable to say, “I don’t know.”

It is not only okay to say this, but it might be the moral thing to do.  It might be a mark of integrity.

For those of us who love to argue, saying we don’t know is a game killer.  It can often bring the conversation to a close, and it’s much more fun nitpicking at whatever it is the other person says.   That’s satisfying when the argument is for recreational purposes, but if you are looking for truth, then there are many times where saying, “ I don’t know”, will open up doors to finding deeper meaning.  When both people concede that they don’t know, you might really make some progress towards working things out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-208: Election 2024: Gas!

It is time for us to put on our campaign filters.

Filter what we hear.  Most speeches will be bombastic verbosity.  They don’t mean a whole lot.  Extreme statements will be made.  Get a salt shaker because there are a lot of grains you are going to need to take.

Filter what we say.  This is advice mainly to those doing the speaking.  It might be a good idea to have your mother proof-read your speech to see if it meets the sniff test.  Of course if your mother is a never-Trumper that won’t do any good.  Find someone who is easily offended and have them review what you are going to say.  Use the time to build a vision instead of tearing down the opposition.  Think ahead a bit because you may need those people to support or defend you at some future time.

Filter what you read.  How do I get this across?  The media lies.  The government lies.  Scientists lie.  Even conservative sites, who should know better, lie.  We call it exaggeration or click bait but that is because we feel a need to defend our allies.  The basic fact is, they lie.   I have jokingly commented that if someone tells me at noon that the sun is up, I will go outside and check for myself.  Yes, it is that bad.  It reminds me of basic training when they forced us to walk through a room filled with tear gas.  When we smelled it we were supposed to yell, “Gas!”  We were then to put on our gas mask and try to breathe normally.  It took awhile but could be done.

Can we find our way through the labyrinth of lies?  To some degree.  Start with a foundation of truth.  For me that is the basic principles of the Bible.  Everything must mesh with that truth.  Then I look at the click bait and automatically rule out anything making claims that are scintillating.  I will then do some reading.  Over time we find people that seem to be more reliable than others.  I think of Dr. Malone on the covid brainwashing.  As a general rule he seems to be sharing truth.  I listen to people like that more than the CDC or, now days, the Salvation Army.  

Over time I think you can get a feel for what is true and what is not.  Does that tell us what is going to happen next?  No, simply no.  It simply helps us to make wise and moral decisions.  So, is murder wrong?  Yes.  Simple.  Is vigilante justice wrong?  Not so simple but still a question we may need to answer soon.

For the next year and a half keep in mind that campaigns are not a proclamation of truth.  What a candidate says on the hot seat is not like Moses coming down from Mount Sinai.  Wait it out.  Listen for the principles behind the proclamations.  Remember how each person has performed in the past and get ready to vote.

Gas!

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-166: When the Skinny Lady Sings

If you don’t believe that the 2020 election was stolen by illegal actions then I am wondering if there is any hope for you.  Perhaps it could be a litmus test in deciding who has the right to vote.  Maybe a constitutional amendment requiring belief in the fraud would be in order.  To be fair we need to realize how ignorant the general public really is.  Ask a middle school student what they would do about the problems in the economy and they say, “Print more money.”  I know this because I used to ask them questions like that.  

Or take something that is hard to miss if you have ever been on a beach with a clear view of the horizon or in an airplane on a cloudless day, the earth is round.  And yet Forbes tells us,

“Millennials in America sometimes get a bad reputation, this time for good reason. A recent survey found that just 66 percent of young adults aged 18 to 24 years old have ‘always believed the world is round.’"

I didn’t read the whole article.  Maybe there is some mitigating data.  I doubt it.  I could go on but I digress from my concern about our culture in the wake of the 2020 election.

I have been a part of conversations where people are beginning to believe that the only way we can defeat the cheaters is to start cheating ourselves.  I have heard it said we will never win another election unless we learn to ballot harvest, pay off poll workers and generally get involved in the perfection of the party machine that has taken place.

Personally I reject that tactic.  I understand the point.  When I have played games with people who cheat I have made sure I don’t join their games again.  When I shop in a store or buy a product that is dishonest I find other places to shop and products to buy.  I may say something but I generally walk away.  I can’t do that with my country.  

We cannot adopt their way of doing things.  If we do then we deserve to lose.  We might win a battle but we would lose the war.  We need to win the war.  If we are simply going to become Proregressive* Lite, then why bother fighting.  Join.

We need to move forward the way real Americans have always done it.  We need to stand tall.  We need to speak up.  We need to use the courts and the legal system.  Lawsuits and suing for damages goes both ways.  We need to move forward as Christians.  If you are not a Christian then at least admit you need to take the moral high road.  

We are on the side of justice, real justice, and truth.  Don’t give up until the skinny lady sings.  It may be that the fat lady will be almost starving before we get to the point of victory.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-144: Election 2022: Share the Vision

I am wondering if I could find anyone in Texas who would admit to voting for Joe Biden.  Where did that question come from?  It seems to me that everyone I talk to agrees with the basic positions that Trump took.  They may be a bit turned off by the “mean tweets”, whatever that means, but they always say he did what he promised.

So where are these people?  I know Texas went for Trump but according to the reports there were millions of us that checked the Biden Box.  Or did they?  If they did they have done a good job of making themselves invisible.

We are now moving toward our runoffs.  In November we have the mid-term elections.  We need to swamp the mindless and parasites with such a strong turn out that they can’t even cheat and win.

Pray that the God who drowned Pharaoh and his army will bring out the righteous.  Talk about what you believe in restaurants, church, doctor’s offices, grocery stores and any other place you might run into someone who is briefly out from under their rock.  Share your vision for America.

Elections matter.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-106: Basic Beliefs II: The Foundation, part 2 of 4

Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.  As I said, the word “inspired” means literally “God breathed”.  The idea is that the Holy Spirit breathed truth into the words.  We don’t know how this was done but we believe God was the guiding hand.  Those who say this are usually referring to the original writings, called autographs.  To be honest, we do not have any of the autographs today.  What we have are copies of copies of copies....  One of the reasons we have different translations of the Bible today is because scholars disagree on how to get to the most accurate understanding of what the originals said.  More on that in the next post.

As you would expect of a document being copied by hand over centuries, the manuscripts we have today have thousands of differences.  Most of them are minor things like misspelling or using the wrong word.  (As an example I just saw that I had “our” instead of “or” and this is possibly the fourth time I have gone over this.)  Misspellings are easy to see if you know how to spell.  I find that even with built-in spell check they get past me after several edits.  As for the wrong word, think in terms of their, there and they’re.  In context this kind of error is easy to spot.  As I understand it there are no differences that call into question any historic doctrine.  Honest scholarship presents no problems but when you have someone who rejects the idea that the Bible is inspired, then the field is wide open for nonsense.  It is like arguing with a cat about how wonderful dogs are.

The problem with the differences is not the differences.  It isn’t the existence of people of other religions writing about the Bible.  If a Hindu is trying to explain what the Bible means then I will listen and keep in mind where he is coming from.  He is probably being honest.  I am not afraid of that because I am not afraid of truth and seeking it.  When the scholar rejects all the major teachings of the Bible yet is trying to act like he is seeking truth as a Christian, we have a problem.

Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God.  If you don’t believe that then where would you get any idea of what a Christian is?

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-040: Modern Anne Franks

What would it be like to be an honest person trapped in the heart of the FBI?  I still have this illusion that there are some good people, serving their country as best they can, and finding it harder to do that each day.  

What are your options in a situation like that?  You watch what happens to people who become whistle blowers.  They know about the strange, mysterious deaths associated with certain political crime families.  They may have processed the paperwork that put innocent people in jail.

What do you do?

I don’t know because I am not there.  What can we do?  We might begin to prepare to hide some of them when they try to come out.  Think of people fleeing the midnight police of 1939 Germany.  Jews were hidden in attics, basement and sheds.  Think of downed airmen being moved across Europe so they can get home and fly again.  The people hiding them took their lives into their own hands in the process.  We may be coming to that time again.  Maybe we should begin considering where we could put up a false wall to conceal a fugitive.

We live in interesting times, Chinese style.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-227: New Improved GMO

The vaccines being pedaled as your salvation are just another example of GMO.  What is interesting is that the same people who are horrified at GMO corn in the flakes are quite alright with a GMO vaccine in their cells.

The concern over GMO is legitimate.  Scientists take genetic material from one form of life and introduce it into another and see what comes out.  I understand that they cross over the kingdom divides and will even put animal genes into vegetables.  You can see the attraction.  What if you could develop a tomato plant that the insects would not eat?  What if you could get fish that produced bacon?  How about mashed potatoes that don’t make you fat?

The problem is ethics.  The age old question is, “Just because you can, should you?”  Scientists have proven that they are no better than the politicians or business tycoons who are only out for fame and fortune.  The distorted research and outright lies of the scientists in the field of climate research is notorious.  The deception involved in the panic over a virus is criminal.  I am coming to believe that the testimonies of scientists are on the same level as the experts who sell cures on late night TV.

Now we have the vaccines.  There are many reports of the dangerous side effects and deaths related to the vaccines.  The censors of the government, news media and social media are doing everything they can to silence any dissenting voices to the accepted mantra.  My guess is that the side effects are like the virus, some people will have a terrible response but for most people neither presents any big threat.  It is like Russian roulette.  The deaths from the virus are exaggerated for political reasons.  The dangers are downplayed for the same reasons.  It is a sad statement about the rich and powerful.  

Read between the lines.  Do some simple math about the numbers.  Remember that neither side on the issue is to be taken as gospel.  Be responsible, if they will let you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-200: Where Is Diogenes When You Need Him

My wife was watching one of the talking head gurus on the boob tube.  He was telling us what we would need to do to stop the run away inflation that is forecast.  He was using impressive demons like the Federal Reserve and relating all the things the government needs to do to solve the problem.  It is sad that he does not have a clue.

The problem is not the Federal Reserve.  It is not really the government.  The problem is the millions of citizens who are willing to accept the freebies that those agencies are handing out.  I believe it was the old cartoon figure Pogo who said, “We have met the enemy and it is us.”

I am on social security.  I will take it.  I claim I paid for it so I deserve it.  I am on Medicare.  The same reasoning is applied.  I can accept the idea that Social Security would be solvent if Congress didn’t keep playing games, borrowing from the fund, adding people who never contributed and participate in a furious bait and switch Ponzi scheme.  Medicare is a different story.  We paid in peanuts and have incredibly low premiums and want Cadillac insurance.  We figure we deserve it and someone else will pay for it.

I hear from people who are getting still another stimulus check from the government.  I hear about all kinds of loans for businesses.  President Biden promised to forgive student loans.  The list of bribes is endless.  It only works if we keep thinking that we are going to get something that someone else will be forced to pay for.

Have you ever heard that you can’t cheat an honest man?  The reason for that is that the honest man will know that the deal is unacceptable because he has a moral code that says someone is going to get cheated.  He will not participate if it is not on the up and up.  So you don’t get to drain his bank account for seed money.

What we need are more honest men.  Any volunteers?

homo unius libri