Opus 2014-163: Editor or Author

My wife found an error in the Bible.

At least that was what she said.  It certainly got my attention.  I wasn’t worried, but I was interested in what she was talking about.  She was reading in Proverbs 11:22.

(Proverbs 11:22 KJV)  As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.

In her Bible it gave a cross reference to Genesis 27:47 but that presented a problem:  Genesis 27 only has 46 verses.  She interpreted this as a mistake in the Bible.

In one sense she was right.  It only took a little research in my copy to realize that the reference should have been Genesis 24:47.  To the eye we had the same book but the editors had found their mistake and fixed it before mine was printed.  So there was a mistake in hers but not in mine. 

Does that mean that my Bible was inspired and her’s wasn’t?  Of course not.  You need to understand what we mean by inspired.  We do not mean that every translator, editor, typesetter and spell-checker was inspired by God.  What we mean is that the original manuscript was exactly what God wanted.  Most of honest modern scholarship is aimed at getting back to the original.

Don’t get too excited about what might at first appear to be errors.  It could be the editors.  It could be the translators.  It might be an issue of reading the manuscripts.  I might even be that you were not paying attention when you read.  With a little prayerful thought you can find a solution.

None of these issues are new.  Remember that people have been able to read for centuries and there are answers.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-162: New Terms: UPWH

America has been dissolved, according to Democrat Nancy Pelosi. 

Here is a direct quote from Business Insider,

“This is a community with a border going through it.”

It would seem that we don’t have a One World Government but we do have a Half World Government, from Breitbart.

"We are all Americans -- north and south in this hemisphere,"

Does that make us the United Provinces of the Western Hemisphere (UPWH)?  Does the western hemisphere now only get one representative in the United Nations?  Does this make Obama an emperor instead of a king? 

With the Democrats in charge we not only have abandoned the rule of law but our national sovereignty.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-161: It Is Called “Impeachment”, Mr. Speaker

It seems strange for supposed supporters of the Constitution to try an end run around the Constitution in order to enforce the Constitution.

That is what House Speaker John Boehner is trying with his proposal to sue the Obama administration for the use of Executive Actions.  The president has acted illegally.  I have no question about that.  He has violated the Constitution and should be dealt with but the Constitution has an established procedure for that.  It is called impeachment.  There is nothing in there about publicity stunts because you don’t have the testosterone to follow the rules yourself.

I hesitate to link to a rag like the New York Times but it is one source of information.  The article quotes Boehner,

“The Constitution makes it clear that a president’s job is to faithfully execute the laws; in my view, the president has not faithfully executed the laws,”

I agree that this is a problem but the Constitution also gives the method for dealing with this.  It is called impeachment.  If he hasn’t done enough to be impeached then Boehner should sit down and shut up about lawsuits.  If you can’t see that he has done enough to be impeached then maybe you are not qualified to be in Congress.  Then again maybe that is the place to send people who cannot see the obvious.

I can tell I am reading an article in the Times.  It explained the problem this way,

“The president has used his executive authority to carry out key elements of his second-term agenda, like halting the deportation of young illegal immigrants brought to the country by their parents as children, raising the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors, and allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to curb carbon emissions from coal plants.”

Notice how positive that sounds.  There is no indication that he is breaking the law and going around due process or exceeding his authority.  That is the Times at work.

The Times did get it right in its last paragraph,

“Courts have also generally been reluctant to intervene in separation-of-powers disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government, preferring to let them work out such questions using constitutional tools, like lawmakers’ power of the purse.”

So don’t waste our time, Mr. Speaker.  The courts won’t listen, and rightly so.  If you don’t have the manhood to impeach then use the other “constitutional tool” that you have.  Take away his ability to pay his minions.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-161: From Gates to Gore, part 3 of 3

All rich people are not the same.

In a third category you have people like Al Gore.  Al Gore has adopted the mantra of Global Warming and has been using his bully pulpit to push that agenda.  When I first heard about Al Gore he was a somewhat conservative Democrat.  He talked and voted pro-life.  His wife took a public stand against vulgarity in music lyrics.  I saw some value in his life. 

Then he decided he wanted to be president.  As a Democrat the only way that will happen is if you drink the kool-aide and get on board the left wing agenda.  Fortunately for the country he did not make it to president but he has done all he can to make the world green.  He is worried that your car and air conditioning are going to ruin the planet.  He was been a driving force behind the hysteria of Global Warming and how the world is dying.  In the process he has become a wealthy man.  He has used his clout to get laws passed and by a strange coincidence he has started companies that stand to make millions because of the new laws.  Need to buy or sell carbon offsets in order to stay in business?  He is the man to see.  He isn’t in a financial class with Soros but he certainly has the same moral rudder.

It makes a difference how you make it and what you do with it.  Wealth by itself is not evil.  We would all like to be there.  Proverbs puts it well for most of us.

(Proverbs 16:8 NAS77)  Better is a little with righteousness Than great income with injustice.

Be careful about painting with a broad brush.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-160: From Gates to Gore, part 2 of 3

But, remember, All rich people are not the same.

Consider multi-billionaire George Soros.  He also is incredibly wealthy but as far as I can see he fits the stereotype of the rich parasite.  He gets his wealth by sucking up the milk intended for poor babies.  If there is anyone who gets rich by taking from the poor, this is the man.  The robber barons of American Capitalism became wealthy while making life better for others.  He may have started out differently but what is ballooning his wealth is currency manipulation and gaming the stock market.  In ways that common folks like us don’t understand, he can make a billion dollars in a day without leaving his office.  He produces nothing.  He contributes nothing.  It is all wealth on paper but it is still wealth.  He buys low and sells high.  It may be legal but it is the kind of thing that almost makes me want more government regulation, because he does it with manipulation and psychology rather than efficiency and production.  Almost, I said.  I think he buys and sells politicians, too, so I doubt if the government can touch him.  Like Bill Gates, I don’t like his politics.  His wealth goes to push every left wing agenda on the planet.  He seems to care about nothing but George Soros.  Unlike Bill Gates he has done nothing to benefit society.

This kind of rich is a negative force in our world.

To be concluded...

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-159: From Gates to Gore, part 1 of 3

We hear a lot about the greedy rich but all rich people are not the same.  Let’s compare Bill Gates, George Soros and Al Gore.

The one who has touched most of our lives is Bill Gates.  In case you live in a cave that does not have an internet connection, Gates is the driving force behind Microsoft.  Its products run most of the government and businesses in the world that use computers.  Anything that does not have a little bitten apple on it probably runs on a Microsoft product.  He may not be the richest man in the world this week, but he comes close.  He has not gotten rich by raising prices but by volume of sales.

I don’t like his politics.  I don’t like some of his business practices.  I avoid his products as much as possible.  He is a modern Robber Baron.  Understand, I mean that as a compliment.  He has become incredibly wealthy by improving a product, marketing a product and driving the price of that product down regularly.  My first computer, with no hard drive, no wifi, 64k memory and weighing in at about 30 pounds cost $2,700.  My latest laptop cost under $600.  People line up to work for him because he pays well for people who know what they are doing.  In spite of all the bad press in the liberal academic circles, that is what the 19th century robber barons did too.  Life was better because of them.  Bill Gates created wealth for himself, thousands of employees, millions of investors and a better life for billions of people.

Society is better off with this type of rich person.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-158: It Is No Longer Bush’s Fault

Has it been headlined?  I came across it in passing on the internet but evidently our economy has been shrinking for the last three months.  The Obama administration predicted a 4% gain.  The first number put out was .1% growth.  That is 1/10th of 1 percent not 1 percent.  Now they have revised it to be a negative 2.9%.  This means that the economy shrank.

I have to hand it to the Progressives (Democrats, elites, liberals, socialists).  They did not blame it on Bush.  They blamed it on the cold weather.  I guess that is progress, but then they are Progressives, aren’t they?

homo unius libri