Opus 2025-488: Enjoy Without Imbibing

I recently saw a meme and I found myself nodding my head . I liked the message that it was portraying because it agreed with my prejudices.  If I remember correctly, it was attributed to NBC news and it reported that 95% of all cases of measles occurred in children who had been vaccinated .

The inference was that this was the Covid vaccination and it fits perfectly with my preconceived notions about the whole Covid panic.  My problem is that I am a skeptic, even when I see things that I like . So I put on my thinking cap and looked at this.

First of all I’ve seen enough memes that are obviously false that attribute their source to a known entity, such as NBC, that I don’t automatically assume that it is an honest attribution.  Most of the time when you see something like this, the news that is attributed to them is so ridiculous that it is obvious that it is intended as humor.  I have no problem with that.  This was not presented as humor.  This was presented as a scientific breakthrough.  Did they really get it from NBC or is it Photoshop?  I have no way of knowing.  Strike one.

Secondly, the 95% is a meaningless statistic unless you know how big the sampling was.  If your sample was 100 children, it’s pretty meaningless.  If it was 10 children, it’s even less meaningful.  Not knowing that basic fact makes the 95% questionable.  That’s the way it is with statistics.  You have to be very careful about what they say and about what they don’t say.  Even if the 95% were accurate, you have no idea what it means.

Thirdly, I am guessing that most children who attend public school were forced to be vaccinated.  We all know, or we should know, that even the best vaccine is going to have some people that are still going to get sick.  I don’t know of any that give 100% guarantee except for the guarantees of politicians regarding the Covid vaccine.  For some people, the vaccines are just not going to take.  Since we’re talking about public school children, you need to understand that they are in incubation heaven.  Being in a public school classroom is like being bacteria in a petri dish.  You’re surrounded by disease and it’s gonna get you.

Fourthly, the main body of children that would not be vaccinated would probably be homeschoolers.  One thing about this is that they are not in the petri dish.  The chances of them catching measles would be much lower than their public school contemporary.  That would have a big influence on whether they catch measles or not.  Secondly, homeschoolers tend to be off the radar.  It’s possible that the children in the homeschool situation had measles and just didn’t report it.  We know how to treat measles.  I had measles when I was a kid and I don’t know that I was taken to a doctor.  They kept me in a dark room and whatever else, that’s all I remember, they knew how to deal with it.  I know that I’ve heard of homeschoolers having what they call “chickenpox parties” where if someone has chickenpox, you have a party and try to expose everybody else while they’re young and it’s not going to be a big deal.  I don’t know if they did that for measles.  I don’t actually know of any who did it for chickenpox, but it was one of the things they talked about.

So, is the meme accurate?  I want it to be.  That doesn’t meme anything.  I want to be skinny and good looking too, but I haven’t noticed any big changes overnight.  I’m more concerned with being honest and truthful that I am with being considered right.

Don’t be a cynic.  Be a practicing skeptic.  Seek truth no matter where the path takes you.  It will produce a better world.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-482: The Eyes Don’t Have It Any More

I have seen numerous pictures which are reported to be Hamas executing their political rivals.  The written portion talks about them hunting down rival gangs, and anyone who has tried to stand up to them.  I’m told that now that they are coming out of the tunnels they’re putting their uniforms back on . One reason all of this is very simple to believe is because it fits in with the pattern that these terrorist have demonstrated over the years.  There is nothing in it that is surprising.

The big question that we always have to ask ourselves though, would be, “Is it true?”

Just because I want something to be true, or should I say just because something fits my preconceived notions, does that excuse me for taking it at face value?  Keep in mind the things that we know that are readily available to even amateur provocateurs.  You have the tools of AI. Does anybody remember Photoshop?  With Internet search engines we have access to vast quantities of old photographs.  Has Hollywood ever produce something like this?  Since reporters can’t find out much of anything else how would they know what Hamas is doing against its rivals behind the barricade of censorship?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but so far I have seen one photograph.  This type of sensationalism I have seen in regard to earthquakes, fires and all kinds of disasters.  You have one spot and you take multiple photographs from different positions, different angles, different times of day, different lighting, different filters, and you presented as something much bigger than it actually is.

Somewhere under all the manipulation is the truth.  When it comes to things like this, I don’t know if we’ll find the truth.  When I think of how this relates to me in my daily life, I as usual, come back to my studies of the Bible and thoughts about the things of God.  The commentaries that I read, the study notes in my reference Bible, the teachers on the Internet, all of them give me their opinion.  Even allowing for them speaking in good faith, it still adds up to a bunch of AI, Photoshop, personal opinions.  Fortunately, when it comes to eternal truth, I am able to cut through all of the nonsense and go right to the original source.  I have a Bible.  I was taught to read as a child.  I have learned to reason as I moved into adulthood.

I may continue to live in the dark when it comes to current events and the news.  I don’t have to settle for that when it comes to eternal truth.

homo unius libri

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

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

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

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

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-455: Favorite Recess Activities

I find myself spending more time watching presentations from YouTube.  Part of that is because as I get older, I get more tired and at times find it hard to concentrate on my own research and reading.  I’m experimenting with the idea of filling these recess moments with someone else’s thinking.  Sometimes it works; sometimes not so much.

I find that most of the videos I end up finishing have to do with theological debates.  That’s a general category for a lot of different specialties.  I wondered about that.  Why am I willing to listen to two people discuss dispensationalism and not the economy?  I don’t know a whole lot about dispensationalism, but I don’t know a lot about the economy either.  I think the difference is that when it comes to a theological issue I at least have done the groundwork and know the basics of what is being talked about.  It’s easier for me to discern deception or just simply misinterpretation.  It doesn’t take long when two people are discussing things to find out which one is really seeking truth, and which one is advocating their particular position.

Also, when you have a background in dealing with truth and lies, with deflecting questions and answering questions, with evil and righteousness, you begin to be able to sense certain things.  Some people refuse to answer simple questions.  I realize often a simple yes/no is not deep enough.  But when somebody simply asked you a question to find out something simple and you go on and on talking around the barn because you don’t want to go in the door, it’s pretty obvious that you are dissimulating.

So I guess one reason I listened to them is because I am better equipped, especially when my mind is tired, to discern truth.  Most of our media presentations and discussions tend to be seeing who can pull the most wool over the listener’s eyes.  That gets old very quickly.  I prefer a platform in which I at least have some hope of discernment.  You don’t find that on just any bit of click bait.

And of course, there are those times when it’s so boring it might help me go to sleep.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-423: Article of Faith

I don’t know if you remember your junior high school English well enough to know the difference, but there is a major difference between the definite article and the indefinite article.  A definite article is the word “the”.  When you say “the” house you are specifically indicating one location.  When you say “a” house, you are talking about a genre of construction.

What brings this up was a sound bite.  I was walking through a room that had a bunch of Talking Heads discussing the speech by Erika Kirk.  Someone mentioned the obvious influence of a higher power in her demeanor and in the things she said.  I didn’t stay to follow it.  I don’t really like Talking Heads .  I listened to her speak because I wanted to hear what she said.  I don’t listen to the Talking Heads because I wanted to hear what she said, not how they interpreted it.  It is much better for my blood pressure.

And this phrase that I heard “a higher power” is a good example of the kind of nonsense that we hear from Talking Heads, who are awash in their mediocrity, political correctness, and editors.  It was not “a” higher power that was recognized and moving.  It was “the” higher power.  We’re not talking about the many spirits that the pagan world looked at as causing trees and animals to do what they do.  What Erika was talking about and responding to was the one and only God of the universe.  He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and you can just keep on down the list of attributes.  That is whom she was referring to, not some vague force that moves above the clouds.

She would use the definite article not the indefinite one.  Know the difference.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-282: Headlines: The Great Divide

All the rush today is about the split between Musk and Trump.  They have had a falling out.  Verbal attacks have been exchanged.  The end is near.

Balderdash.

Keep in mind a few things.  The first is Fake News and the technique of editing.  Have Musk and Trump had words?  Probably.  Is it as big a deal as the media wants it to be?  Probably not.  My wife made me sit and watch a bit of Fox on the topic.  What struck me was that most of the quotes were carefully edited and most of the interviews were with Democrats who hate Trump.  They also hate Musk almost as much.  Take the reporting with a grain of salt.  The goal is ratings and ad revenue, not truth.

Second, keep in mind that you are dealing with two men who are quite open about speaking their mind.  Neither one got where they are by being diplomatic.  I seriously doubt this is the first time they have knocked heads.  It is just the first time we have heard about it.  Both are used to getting back on the horse and having the end goal in mind.

Third, they are both right.  Musk seems to be upset because congress is doing nothing about all the cuts he has clearly earmarked.  He is right.  They are playing politics and trying to work with a congress controlled by Rinos.  Trump has things that are necessary to get done and the only way he can get them is to try to work with a congress controlled by Rinos.  If you are a praying person pray that they both get what they want.

Fourth, and probably most important, both men love American and really want to see it great again.  That is a quality that makes it possible to overlook a lot of faults.

In the end it will come down to MAGA.  Buckle up and don’t make any bets.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-265: Editors Needed

I’m reading an old history book written around 1905.  Some of it is dated, some insightful, some very interesting.  It’s actually a high school textbook.  You can tell this by the fact that at the end of each chapter it has a summary and what we would call today, discussion questions.  I’m thinking that our modern media needs to have this addition to what they do.

It would have to be staffed by people who came from the right wing lunatic fringe, you know, people who can think and have integrity.

In reality, it would not be hard to write this follow up section of the news.  All you would need to do was read the paragraphs before it and expressed the opposite opinion.  If they quoted a conservative as saying something evil, then you could just assume that this was what was being said behind closed doors on the left.  The best example of this was Hillary Clinton’s vast right wing conspiracy, which did not exist.  However, there was a vast left wing conspiracy.

It might be fun to write such a thing if it weren’t for the possible death threats.  It would be a lot like giving an intellectual explanation to that old magazine called Mad.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-150: Gather Bots

I forced myself to watch the speech that President Trump gave to Congress recently.  I forced myself to watch his inauguration speech . I am a Trump supporter.  I believe he is the man of the hour.  I believe God has sent him and preserved him.  At the same time I find his speaking style rather painful.  So why did I listen to the speeches?  Because I wanted to hear what he had to say.  I wanted the unprocessed food, so to speak, not the version with all the additives and artificial ingredients that we get from the Talking Heads.

Talking Heads, come in two flavors generally.  Both flavors tend to be artificial.  It is getting harder to know what is going on just by reading memes, click bait or posts.  I feel like I can get the general idea but I’m beginning to wonder.  My concern centers on two popular terms, AI and psyops.

Psyops is relatively easy to define.  It’s simply a form of advanced, sophisticated propaganda.  It’s a form of brainwashing that is all around us, but is now so well done that we often mistake it for real news or real opinion.  We are having our opinions molded by people that we don’t even know about.  That’s why it’s very hard to read things on the Internet and get to the truth.  Everybody seems to have an angle.

AI itself is not something I worry about.  It’s just faster and more sophisticated computers.  Computers can only do what they are programed to do.  So the real problem with the AI is the programming and the programmers.  How does this work in the news?  I’m beginning to think that popular amalgamators who bring together news sources and ideas are being manipulated by an algorithm involved in modern computer technology.  Some people call it AI.  I find it less threatening to talk about the algorithm.

For instance, I read criticism of the new attorney general, Pam Bondi.  I find myself wondering is this criticism accurate or is it subtly twisted in order to give me a bad impression of her and thus turn me against Donald Trump.  How could this work when you find it on a site that is supposedly supportive of Donald Trump?  I think it has to do with what we used to call bots.  These are programs that look for keywords and then put together the memes or pictures or articles presented by those keywords.  Thus you might have a search engine looking for articles on Pam Bondi.  Then you would take those and automatically put them into your list of memes and sources without actually reading them yourselves.  All of the work is done by the computer.  This is probably the only way these large number of links could be assembled without a crippling payroll. What channeled my thinking on this was a meme with the idea that Bondi was saying that the Epstein list would have to be redacted to remove things having to do with national security.  Did she really say that?  Is it an incomplete statement leaving out key issues that she addressed which would be reasonable?  Is it just a psyop to drag down the administration?  What seems strange is I can’t think of anything having to do with a list of child abusers that would affect national security.

Artificial psyops is a real possibility.  It’s possible that these sites are not even paying attention to what they’re saying.  Of course it’s also possible that what they are saying is accurate, and we are being slowly sold down the river.

Does this mean that I am certainly going to have to start actually watching all of these long and boring interviews?  Is that the only way I can find out the truth?  That will be a hard decision.  It might mean fewer naps.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-149: Is Paw Patrol Next?

I was never a big reader of comic books.  A large part of that was having no money.  I don’t know if I would have bought Batman if I did have the resources.  When it came out on TV I remember watching it because it was so tongue-in-cheek.  I loved the fight scenes with the comic balloons.  I don’t think I have seen any of the movies.  My general feeling was that the fun aspect was replaced by dark and dystopian themes.  I had no interest.

I wonder if Paw Patrol will someday go adult and dark like Batman.  My grandson loves Paw Patrol.  My wife keeps her eyes open at yard sales and has been able to make walking space rare in our livingroom because of all the cool stuff she brings home.  At this point it is mainly innocent nonsense although I understand one of the spin-off’s was trying to introduce homosexual characters.

It is hard to preserve the innocence of our children.  I know that when our kids were young we searched out the old additions of the Hardy Boys.  You may not have had it on your radar but in the originals they went to church and prayed over meals.  That has all been redacted.  The edited versions are not evil, they just lack the cultural aspects that made America great.

Sometimes progress isn’t.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-119: Reading Immune System

Sometimes I wonder why I finished reading certain books.  I wonder why I read some of the Clickbait that I get tricked into.  I wonder why I have a long conversations with people who won’t listen and who are rigid and seem to be unable to put facts together.  It occurred to me perhaps it is a case of building up my immunity to various mental and intellectual deficiencies.

Just as our immune system gathers strength as it is exposed to different attacks from viruses and bacteria, I think our intellectual ability also can be strengthened by the controversy that comes from dealing with irrational thinking.  I have a list of things that I call “timeless illustrations.”  You may hear me use them time and time again and that’s because they’re so effective.  One of them has to do with how bank tellers can tell counterfeit bills without a lot of complex chemical or visual examination.  The reason they can tell what counterfeit is like is because they know what the real thing feels like.  They touch a bill and they know there’s something wrong with it.

In the same way our contact with faulty logic, false facts and fake news is a catalyst because we know how to think and we know what truth is.  Think of the clickbait you see on a regular basis.  It doesn’t take much experience to realize touching the link is a waste of time.  I’ve learned that any time the title talks about how Charlie Kirk destroys a liberal student it’s a bit of an exaggeration.  Yes, he does correct their fallacies but he doesn’t come close to destroying them.  For one thing he is too polite for that to happen.  If you’re looking for something dramatic, keep looking.  Same thing with extremist types of words such as “hilarious”, “New discovery”, “you will be shocked” and “Best”.

I remember when I first started blogging I got excited because I had so many comments left on a post.  It didn’t take very long to realize that the vast majority were just bots laying some nonsense on me.  When I wrote about a Supreme Court decision and the comment has to do with Viagra, I can catch on pretty quick.  That’s what made me start to moderate my comments.  The current level of programming the bots, sometimes labeled AI, is getting more clever, and actually puts some sentences together that make sense.  The thing is, if you read what is there you find that it only touches briefly on what post says, and the rest is just nonsense.

So sometimes I will finish a book or an article, because it might give me a little bit of edge to recognize nonsense more effectively in the future.  It is also a good way to drift into a nap.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-037: MADD, Media Attention Desire Disorder

I was watching a YouTube conversation between Chris Williamson and Konstantin Kisin.  There were intersting insights into what is going on in the UK but nothing shocking.  During the discussion they touched on the main goal of media, both social and legacy.  I thought this was an interesting summation:

“Do whatever it takes to get you the most attention.”

Truth, facts, informing, all take a back seat to making a splash.  I think that is true of what we consider news and even the weather.  As I have been picking up coverage of the fires in Southern California I get the same coverage.  In talking to people who live close to the fire I get both how the destruction does not seem to get the coverage it should and the panic is overdone.  One guy on our Zoom call is living within the no-go zone.  He has no electricity and there is dust everywhere.  Other than that he is getting along.  They are not forcing him to leave but if he tries to go out for supplies they will not let him back in.

These are good lessons for being prepared for various levels of emergency.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-027: Influence

I am highly amused at the title given to people who record videos on the Internet.  I keep hearing people called “influencers”.  That is their job title it seems.  I’m not sure whom they influence.  I’m not sure that their influence is good.  But that’s what they’re called.

I realize that I have influencers in my own life.  They don’t sit down in front of a camera and make a motion picture selfie, which they keep redoing until they get exactly the effect they want.  These are people who just live life in front of me.  These are people who make comments without stopping to think about how they’re going to influence.  They are friends and neighbors.

What brings this to mind was last night at the end of dinner.  I was out with an elderly group from our church, and as we got up to leave one of the younger ones in the group shared with me exactly what I was feeling.  He said after sitting a long time it is really hard to get up and move again.  I thought it was just me.  If I listen to the doctors and the people in the videos, influencers, I would think that I needed to get their advice on how to avoid this.  My analysis was, “I’m getting older”.  My fellow diner agreed.  We are getting older.  It affects our bodies.  It slows down our minds or speeds up the rest of the world.  Either way, it is real.

Welcome to life.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-003: Click Bait: Reading Between the Lines

My wife called me in to share with me the latest Clickbait on a video she was watching on YouTube.  Yes, I sat down and looked at the headline for the Clickbait.  Several things became obvious, at least to me.  And I think probably they will be obvious to you.

The first thing was that another car had driven itself into a crowd of people killing 10.  Tesla should be ashamed of itself.  All of these self driving vehicles that are running people down in the headlines.  Now I would not have originally noticed this but I’ve seen others pointing this out time and again.  The headlines ignore who was driving the car.  Small point, I know.  They simply say that the car kill people.  The logical conclusion is that Elon Musk is guilty.  When I say this, I don’t mean the Elon Musk who is an African-American, but the Elon musk who seems to be suffering from white privilege.

The second thing that I can gain from the headline is that the driver of this vehicle, if you will excuse the assumption that it had a driver, was either a native born minority ethnic group, or a foreign-born terrorist.  You know this because if the driver was the pastor of a local, all white, Baptist Church, all of those details would’ve been part of the headline.

I don’t really need to watch the video.  If it were in print, I wouldn’t need to read the article.  I know everything that there is that I will find to be true.  Some America hater once again tries to disrupt our society by making people afraid to go out in large groups.

Unfortunately, it seems to be working at times.

Hang in there. Do your shopping. Enjoy your family. Watch your back.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-449: Full Strength

I enjoyed watching Star Wars, at least the first three to come out.  I remember a phrase that I might have heard there or I could have heard it somewhere else, “The force is strong in this one.”

I think perhaps that we as Christians have a similar thought.  We believe that there are some people where the Spirit is strong within them.  One big difference is that we believe everyone has access to the reality of the Holy Spirit being strong in them.

Keep in mind the differences between the Christian view of the Holy Spirit and the pagan Star Wars view of the Force.  The Force represents the Ying and Yang.  It says that the Force is the same but you have the dark side and non-dark side.  You will notice in drawings representing this duality that there is a small circle of black in the white and a small circle of white in the black.  I don’t know what adjective they use for it.  It is not moral or personal.  It is neutral.  It depends on you to direct it.  Both evil and good are the same power but are channeled differently.

The Holy Spirit is a personal, moral “being” that wants to work through us.  He, and the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as He, wants to empower us to be able to live the righteous life that God wants.  

They are two different views of humanity and the nature of reality.  Feel free to enjoy the fantasy of Star Wars but be aware that it presents a world view that Satan would love you to embrace.

May the Spirit be with you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-325: Sound Bites

As I was cruising through the click bait I saw a number of interesting topics being brought up.  The first thing I do after I see an interesting topic is to look down and see how long the video is.  If it’s 15 minutes long and it’s a topic that can be offered in a minute or less then I just bypass it.  So much of what is said has nothing to do with the click bait.

Which brings me to sound bites.  Sound bites can be very valuable or totally useless.  When you have a video claiming to tell you the five most important books you could ever read and it’s 15 minutes long then you know that there are about 14 minutes and 30 seconds of nonsense that has nothing to do with the title.  Abridge. Put it in 100 words or less.  Then it is valuable.

On the other hand, much of what we consider, click bait and sound bites are statements that are taken totally out of context and are offered in order to deceive and confuse.  It’s hard to know which category these things fit into but with a little bit of thinking we can make progress.  Consider the source.  If it comes from CNN, BBC, the New York Times., or any other such source than you know it is propaganda.  You know that it is most likely out of context.  You know it’s a waste of your time.  You might even know the exact opposite is really true.

If it comes from a trusted source, read it.  Of course you still need to think about it and consider what really means.

Never turn your mind off.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-317: A New Kind of Rodeo?

You have all heard people point out that they don’t need your advice because this is not their first rodeo.  I’m sure you can substitute other words for rodeo, but you get the idea.

Relocate to Asheville North Carolina a few weeks ago.  The news media was telling you to make preparations.  They were telling you that a big hurricane was coming.  It was everywhere.  It’s all people talked about.

I would venture to guess that most of those people living in the low areas of Asheville just kind of shook their head and said, “This ain’t my first rodeo”.  How many times have they been warned in the past by the same news media that this was the big one.  How many times have they been warned to prepare?  How many times have they opened another beer, put another log on the fire, and switched to another channel?  In the past that has been enough.  This time, not so much.

I wonder how much of the blame for the disasters should be placed upon the head of hyped up, fake news people, fake weather people, fake FEMA people.  You may have your own personal source of worry.  I think of all the times my wife has been frantic that we were going to die because a hurricane was headed our way.  We live a couple of hours from the coast.  I think we are closer to the coast than Asheville is.  I have almost sprained my wrist patting her on the head and saying, “Now, now”.  Keep in mind this is the news media telling you this.  I’ve been in places where people have called us asking if we were still alive and we just wondered what they were talking about.  It’s kind of like the story of the little boy who cried wolf.  How many times have the news media use their search for ratings as an excuse to get us excited?

I don’t want to place the blame for the destruction on them.  I’m not one of those conspiracy people that thinks that the contrails in the atmosphere are changing our weather, and that the mean and evil Nazi scientists are trying to take over the world from their bases in Antarctica.  The hurricane was real.  The flooding was real.  The crushed houses and fallen trees are real.  I’m not sure anybody could have anticipated it being this bad.  I am sure we will hear someone on the screen saying, “I told you so.”  So I’m not blaming the fake news people for the destruction.  What I would be blaming them for, would be making people callus to their warnings.

While we pray for the victims, look for honest charities to donate to in order to help, and in some cases, load up our cars and drive in to be of aid, we should take to the heart the lesson that can be applied to our lives.  Do you have any groceries in the pantry?  Are they the kind of things that might survive this type of catastrophe?  A month supply of hostess dingdongs is not what I have in mind.  I’m talking about cans of vegetables, tuna, anything that would survive rough handling.  It’s possible that you could have a pantry full of food, and a flood could smash your house and wash it all away.  That is true.  But it’s kind of like having a firearm.  It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.  It’s also better to have it so that it can be confiscated by the government, than just stand there like a deer in the headlights waiting to be run over.

Pray hard.  Put feet to your prayers.  And prepare as much as you can.

Blessings.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-260: Headlines: The Horn of Africa

One of the sites I check to hear what is happening in the world is called The Wire.  I subscribed on You Tube.  It gives a daily update that lasts from 2 to 8 minutes.  It often covers things that are downplayed by the other news sources.

This morning he touched on the rising tension between Ethiopia and Somalia.  It seems Egypt has sent troops to Somalia for “war games” and Ethiopia is reinforcing their border.  I’m hearing all kinds of reasons and rationales.  What I’m not hearing is the possible religious difference.

Somalia is Muslim.  Ethiopia, at least historically, has been Christian.  I realize that religion is not the only source of conflict in Africa but it seems like it might be one of the elements.

I did a quick scan of other news clickbait sites and could find no mention of the conflict.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-239: Averages

I recently watched some Clickbait of an interview with RFK Junior.  One point stood out of my mind.   He commented that the average cost of a home in America has gone from $200,000 to $400,000.  I can’t remember how long ago he put the $200,000 figure so let’s focus on his comments about this.

He said that this average price of $400,000 makes it impossible for our children to own homes.  That sounds really scary.  It is meant to sound scary.  We were supposed to internalize it.  We were supposed to think of the greedy banks and the greedy builders and the greedy, sellers, etc.  We are supposed to run to the government for solutions.  Keep in mind he is still a Democrat.   But let’s think about this moment.

When you talk about averages, in case you weren’t listening in statistics, there are three basic types, the mean, the mode, and the median.  Each one has a different meaning, and each one may come out totally different using the same database.  Most people think of average as adding all of the dollar prices of homes, dividing by the number of homes, and you come out with an average.  OK.  That’s what most people think of as average.  If you’re thinking of an average looking guy or gal, then it’s someone that doesn’t stand out either way.

So we have an average of $400,000 for a new home.  Actually, he didn’t even say new home, I don’t think.  What that means is that half of the homes in the country are over $400,000 and half the homes in the country are under $400,000.  The thing that determines the cost of the house is quality, size and location.  If the average price of a home is $400,000, that means that there are plenty of people out there that are willing to pay $400,000 per house.  It also means that half the population buying houses is willing and able to pay more than $400,000.  It doesn’t mean that there are no affordable homes on the market.

What will keep our children from owning homes?  The willingness to live in what they can afford is the biggest factor.  There are homes that are available at low price but they are not located where our children want to live.  They may not have the amenities that our children think are requirements to live with.  They not may not be cute and modern.  They may need work.  That’s a long way from saying our children can’t afford homes.

You need to keep in mind that when someone like RFK says this, they are speaking from a socialist or communist perspective.  One of their goals is the redistribution of wealth.  Of course, they mean your wealth, not theirs.  One of their solutions to this cost problem is to put a cap on the cost of homes and introduce rent control.  Or if you watched Dr. Zhivago you’ll find that it means moving poor people into all the bedrooms in your mansion.  If you are single or have no children at home then that means the solution is move two more families into your house for those extra two bedrooms.  This is not free enterprise.  This is not liberty.  This is not American.

Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.  I didn’t make that up. I heard it somewhere.  RFK has endorsed Donald Trump.  Politically for Donald Trump that may be a good thing.  If Donald Trump keeps him under control and doesn’t listen to him outside of the areas where he seems to understand what’s going on, then well and good.  He can be a good influence.  But we need to remember that he offered his services to the Democrats shortly before he came to the Republicans.  His intentions are not pure.

I have not done a detail study on RFK, and what I have heard I don’t remember my sources, so take what I say with a grain of salt.  What I remember hearing is that on anything that does not have to do with covid, vaccines, and the collusion between the government and the pharmaceutical industry he is a raging liberal.  As a raging liberal, he will use the camels nose under the tent to come in and get in the sleeping bag and try to dictate who starts the fire and what we have for breakfast.

If you’re looking for a house under $400,000, come to Texas.  Moved to West Virginia. There are many other areas where there are decent neighborhoods that have more affordable housing.  Don’t decide that you want to live in Manhattan or downtown San Francisco and complained about the cost of housing.  Also don’t fall for $400,000 politicians and their promises.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-233: Living Confident

As I think about the lack of real honest news, I keep asking myself what can I believe.  Where can I find the information that I need in order to make decisions?  It presents a genuine quandary.  When we look at the media that supplies our information, the news, we find that it is totally corrupted and totally unreliable.  I often joke about how I used to decide how to vote.  I would take the recommendations of the California Teachers’ Association and vote just the opposite.  That worked well on ballot initiatives, but didn’t help much with the primaries or judges.  I can’t do that with the news because you can’t believe either side.

As I read different things I find at one of the goals of the cultural Marxist is to destroy confidence in the process of our culture.  To destroy our trust in the government, to make us not believe anything we read, to be willing to throw our neighbors under the bus because of our doubt.  The idea is to create chaos because we cannot trust anything.

We seem to be making progress on that or, I guess I should say, they are making progress on that.  There is very little I trust that I read or see.  Photo shopping has gotten so sophisticated and the art projects of the AI world are so well defined that we don’t know what to believe.  We can’t believe our ears.  We can’t believe our eyes.  Where do we turn?

If you’ve been reading what I write long enough, you probably know where I’m going with this, I’m going towards the word of God.  The Bible does not give us headlines to decide who to vote for.  He does not clarify whether Islam is a religion of peace, or whether the pope is a communist or a catholic.  What it does do is give us principles based on unchanging truth, which can help us come to decisions on which way to turn.  That is vital.  If we don’t have a solid foundation based on truth, then we will never be able to make good decisions.

So you may not be a believer, you may reject the idea of Almighty God.  You may think Jesus is a joke.  I would still suggest that if you’re looking for principles to live by, you can find them in the Bible.  That would be a good place to start.  It would be better than reading books on philosophy or science.  It will be better than consulting the platforms of the two political parties that seem to be running things.

Give it a try.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-211: Click bait: Sifting

I’m coming to the conclusion that there are several categories of Clickbait and that I have totally no interest in.

Clickbait telling me about all the problems with JD Vance.  He is the vice presidential nominee and the choice of Donald Trump.  There’s nothing to discuss at this point.  There is no point in more speculation and expressing preferences.  The elites will keep coming up with half truths and lies so it is a waste of time listening to them.  Whoever is picked by the other side will not even be in competition, so get used to it.

Mocking of Kamala Harris.  I really don’t want to see everybody’s impressions and impersonations of Kamala Harris.  My opinion of her is so low that nothing could drag it any further and as for improving it, forget it.  The reality is bad enough I don’t need to watch people making it look even worse.

Unknown information on some kind of Biblical topic.  Just swishing down the You Tube offerings I come across “Is church membership Biblical?”, “Five Things the Bible Does Not Say”, “Where Did Cain Get His Wife?”  There are a lot of these that promise to tell me five things I never knew about a topic.  Usually I am familiar with the topic and realize that they don’t “know” anything either because I have read what the Bible has to say.

Questions that don’t match the length of the video.  An example of this would be one I keep seeing in different wrappings that want to tell me the five words I will start mispronouncing two years before dementia sets in.  The video is 15 minutes long.  Now I ask you, how long does it take to tell me the five words?

There are some great videos out there.  The problem is separating the wheat from the chaff.

homo unius libri