Opus 2014-249: Headlines: A Perfect Example of Media Bias

If I didn’t know better, I would think this was news.

“Eric Holder Jr., the nation's first black U.S. attorney general, is preparing to announce his resignation Thursday after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and 5 1/2 years of fights with Republicans in Congress.”

Having a memory that extends beyond my last tweet, I recognize it for baloney, not news.  Consider the source, NPR News.

This is a perfect example of media bias.  When one of the worst Attorney General’s of all time is about to move on to the gravy machine of being a lobbyist, he is hailed as a paragon of virtue and integrity.  This is how the partisan hack and race baiter is lauded for his response to the recent police action against a violent, drugged suspected robber.

“Five years later, violence erupted between police and protesters in Ferguson, Mo., after a white policeman killed an unarmed black 18-year-old. And this time, the White House dispatched Holder to speak his piece, in effect jump-starting that conversation and helping to settle nerves in the frayed community.”

And in regard to his “civil rights advances” we read,

“Holder most wants to be remembered for his record on civil rights: refusing to defend a law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman; suing North Carolina and Texas over voting restrictions that disproportionately affect minorities and the elderly; launching 20 investigations of abuses by local police departments; and using his bully pulpit to lobby Congress to reduce prison sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. Many of those sentences disproportionately hurt minority communities.”

We don’t read about the repeated coverups and uses of his office to advance the Obama vision.  We don’t have a long description of Fast and Furious.  We are told he is noble, principled and the victim of those nasty Republicans.

Unfortunately this is not a humor magazine.  This is NPR, paid for by your tax money.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-248: Mystery Religion?

Recently Alistair Begg was preaching about the incarnation and the two natures of Jesus that are not mixed or combined.  Jesus was both fully God and fully man.  Both are total.  This is mystery of the incarnation.  It is a mystery because it is true yet almost impossible for us human beings to understand.  How could Jesus be both fully God and fully man.  We can grab at it.  We can struggle with it and come to some understanding but in reality we will never understand it.  It is beyond us. 

There are other mysteries:  The trinity, free will and foreknowledge, and eternal God who cares about individual people, salvation itself.   That is okay.  We don’t need to understand everything now.  We will have eternity to work on it.

When Christians talk about mystery though, it does not mean the same as the pagan religions or elitist cults.  We are not talking about secret knowledge that is only revealed to a special few of the initiated.  We are not talking about nonsense that has nothing to do with anything but is still supposed to be of great importance to eternity.  This is not the wisdom and mystery of fantasy novels that is made up late at night after a bull session.  We are simply talking about things that are beyond us and may always be beyond us. 

Even when we are resurrected it may be that we will never be able to understand the trinity.  That’s okay because our view of God is that He is so far beyond us that we will never be able to totally comprehend Him.  That is part of being God.  That’s okay because it fits in with our understanding. 

Mystery does not let us off the hook.  It does not mean that we are not to seek knowledge or understanding, to grow in grace.  It does not allow us to turn off our minds and coast.  It tells us that while there are things beyond us, we can keep reaching and growing forever.  God is the total, not us.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-247: New Terms: LIV

They are everywhere.  The country is being run by Low Information Voters, LIV.

I have a young math teacher on my team.  I say young.  She was student at the school when I started teaching there.  I enjoy working with her.  She seems to have her head screwed on straight and has some standards.  She surprised me last year when she mentioned she had not read a book in years.  Any book.  Nada.

In a discussion this week she mentioned that she had been asked a question about the governor and had to confess that she did not even now who the governor of California was.  This is a college graduate who is teaching young people.  She is one of the better ones and she doesn’t read or know the governor of her state.

And she has one vote, just like me.

There are times when I wonder if our republic will survive.  There are times when I wonder if it should.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-246: Homework and salvation

I am constantly amazed at how I share things and people don’t hear.  A student asked what kind of books for a book report.  I waited and eventually another student piped up and answered correctly.  I turned around and asked, “How did you know that?”  She said, “I was listening.”  In all classes I have two types of students.  One type will keep asking how and what to do no matter how many times I explain it.  The other type will be halfway done by that time.  Within a few days I can tell which type of student most will be.  You could call it foreknowledge on my part but it is foreknowledge based on observing how they behave. 

Does God know ahead of time who will be saved?  If I can figure out how students will do with a fair degree of accuracy, God, with perfect knowledge, would obviously be able to do even better.  Is this predestination?  Maybe.  Is it free will?  Maybe. 

I don’t plan to take a chance on it.  Remember Pascal’s gamble.  If you bet on God being who the Bible claims He is and you are wrong you lose nothing.  If you bet on no God and you are wrong you gain nothing. 

Place your bets.  And don’t forget to hand in your homework.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-245: Ode to Old: Time Management

Where does the time go?

People think that when you get older you should have more time.  The kids are gone.  You are not working the second and third job like you did when you were at the bottom of the salary scale.  You have learned how to cut corners and take short cuts.

Where does the time go?

I am not yet retired but you would think that things should be getting easier.  The list of things I need to do keeps growing.  The ideas I have for posts keep piling up and I can’t even seem to put something out daily.  I have a gardener to mow the lawn.  I don’t wash or wax my car.  I wear permanent press clothes.  I use the microwave more than the stove.

Where does the time go?

Part of the problem is that the time vortexes change.  As you get older your health becomes an issue.  Doctors don’t run like a 7/11, they run like a government agency.  You are required to be on time but they can overbook all they want.  It takes time to keep track of your medications and do all the maintenance required for an aging machine.  The plumbing becomes unpredictable.  It takes longer to read the nutrition labels to find the fiber content. 

Then of course there is the joy of naps.  And think of all the conversations that need to be repeated because you can’t remember or couldn’t hear it in the first place.  How many times do you have to walk back across the house to remember what you were in the back room for?  You need to change clothes more often to get the latest food stain off your shirt.

Where does the time go?

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-244: Rigor or mortis?

Our school district talks a lot about rigor.  We are told to have high expectations and hold the students accountable. 

You need to understand educational jargon.  At an assembly this week our eighth graders were told that the official policy of the school board was that they could fail two classes in their last semester and still walk in the promotion ceremonies.  That means that they can fail math and
English and still have the honor of walking across a stage as having met the requirements set forth for promotion to the ninth grade.

It is called rigor.  It is destroying an entire generation.

Don’t think this is an isolated incident.  Don’t think it is just on our district.  This disease of dumbing down is all across the country.

Ask questions.  Demand answers.  I know of at least one school board that needs to be voted out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-243: Ben Carson for President?

I think the jury is still out.

At this point in time I would welcome Ben Carson to the fold for seeking the nomination.  I would like to hear more of what he has to say and where he stands on key issues.  He is the neurosurgeon that made remarks at the Prayer Breakfast attended by President Obama.  Some interpreted his comments as critical of the President.  If so, it was more the president’s thin skin than the doctor’s sharp tongue.

Dr. Carson wrote an article that I read in the Washington Time National Weekly.  You can find it on line at their website.

Most of what he had to say was good, in my opinion.  He spoke about the poor reporting done on the Ferguson situation.  He talked about the tension between liberty and law.  He gave the statistics of black on black crime.  He addressed the lack of fathers in the home and the breakdown of society.  Good stuff that puts him on my short list for president, if he decides to run.

What makes me pause is a later paragraph where he is writing about solutions to one of the problems:  unwed mothers and single parent homes. 

“Once we get the most powerful economic engine the world has ever seen back on track with sensible economic policies, we should devote some of the tax revenues generated to child care facilities, which will allow many of those unwed mothers to get their General Education Development or higher degree and become self-supporting. There are also a number of programs across the nation that offer free classes...”

I am troubled by his suggestion that the answer involves better government programs.  Since I have heard enough of his story to know he comes out of poverty and learned about hard work and personal responsibility, I am willing to keep listening. 

We need to listen carefully to different candidates or potential candidates.  We need to hear what they have to say and not assume.  We have important elections coming up and we can’t sit them out.

So check out Dr. Ben Carson.  Put him on your radar.  See what you think.

homo unius libri