Still nothing in the news worthy of discussion. Let's talk about companionship. As my readers know, I am divorced. I dated for about two years and then decided I needed some quiet time, that I wasn't ready. I enjoyed dating, I enjoyed spending time with very nice and accomplished ladies. I wonder when I will be ready for a relationship again, intimacy (and no I mean true intimacy, openness).
There are a couple of younger ladies near where I live that seem to enjoy my company; but, I hide, I am not ready. Perhaps I shall never be ready, how do you know when you are? I cannot say that I am lonely or ever alone, I am always around friends and no longer face the horrible pressures that I once did, okay, that I did for decades. Life winds down in so many ways.
People say that in the Rat Race, it the rats that win; but, they do not. All of the stuff of this world is like trash waiting to happen. Love, companionship and relationship matter, defining ourselves matters, the toys and trinkets are just junk and never satisfy.
What does satisfy in this life? That is the question. What does winning look like? What is the best life we can have? We are here to define ourselves and learn; but, learn what? How do you know when you have passed the test? How do you know when you have failed?
How do you know when you are really ready?
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday
I had one of my daughters with me since Sunday. It was nice to spend some time with her. I don't get to spend enough time with my children. I didn't get to spend enough time with my parents, so many things I would like to tell them now.
Family is a funny thing, you are connected to them in a way that cannot be easily described. They are always a part of you, an emotional connection, quantum entanglement if you will.
Family is a funny thing, you are connected to them in a way that cannot be easily described. They are always a part of you, an emotional connection, quantum entanglement if you will.
Monday, August 29, 2011
For Someone Named Gary
A nice young man that I know asked me a question. It was about Jesus. I know more religious stuff, oh well. Hey, this is my second post for the day, read the one before this one it is about climate change lies. During the course of our conversation I mentioned something quite simple, the teachings of Jesus were unlike those of anyone before him, that certainly implies that he existed. In fact there was a Jewish scholar, it turns out, who said the same thing.
I generally take the attitude that one should not ask a question if they are not willing to honestly look at the evidence. While it was not asked by people alive at the time, hundreds of years later people began questioning whether or not Jesus was a real person. It is sort of a weak question.
I will start with the easy stuff. Nope, he didn't exist. A group of fishermen got together and made him up and then told people in Jerusalem that the Jewish leadership had him killed and many believed it and gave away most of their stuff to these fishermen who then went on to build mansions and buy fancy cars. Obviously the Jews of the time were okay with all of this and didn't bother pointing out that he didn't exist. Somehow that answer seems really stupid.
Then we have Paul. Paul was also a real person and he wrote to real churches in real places and his letters were received and cherished by them. Some people will say that the letters of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John were not written by them; but, they ignore the fact that Paul knew these people even though he had not been present when Jesus was alive. Paul's letters have been dated to as early as 12 years after the death of Jesus and Paul was educated. This is the problem, nobody questions that Paul and the apostles were real people. We are left with the possibility that they were all liars or deceived. Okay, but how did they deceive people in Jerusalem into believing that Jesus at least existed?
There are many scholars who have looked at these issues over the last 2,000 years and it wasn't until long after the letters of Paul and the writings of the apostles were hundreds of years old that anyone questioned Jesus' existence. Here is a link to a nice website which goes over this subject.
Yes, I know the next questions, none of this is new. Sincere question come from a sincere quest. There are people who question whether or not the holocaust existed, they are not sincere. There are people who question whether or not we went to the moon, they are ill informed.
I generally take the attitude that one should not ask a question if they are not willing to honestly look at the evidence. While it was not asked by people alive at the time, hundreds of years later people began questioning whether or not Jesus was a real person. It is sort of a weak question.
I will start with the easy stuff. Nope, he didn't exist. A group of fishermen got together and made him up and then told people in Jerusalem that the Jewish leadership had him killed and many believed it and gave away most of their stuff to these fishermen who then went on to build mansions and buy fancy cars. Obviously the Jews of the time were okay with all of this and didn't bother pointing out that he didn't exist. Somehow that answer seems really stupid.
Then we have Paul. Paul was also a real person and he wrote to real churches in real places and his letters were received and cherished by them. Some people will say that the letters of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John were not written by them; but, they ignore the fact that Paul knew these people even though he had not been present when Jesus was alive. Paul's letters have been dated to as early as 12 years after the death of Jesus and Paul was educated. This is the problem, nobody questions that Paul and the apostles were real people. We are left with the possibility that they were all liars or deceived. Okay, but how did they deceive people in Jerusalem into believing that Jesus at least existed?
There are many scholars who have looked at these issues over the last 2,000 years and it wasn't until long after the letters of Paul and the writings of the apostles were hundreds of years old that anyone questioned Jesus' existence. Here is a link to a nice website which goes over this subject.
Yes, I know the next questions, none of this is new. Sincere question come from a sincere quest. There are people who question whether or not the holocaust existed, they are not sincere. There are people who question whether or not we went to the moon, they are ill informed.
More Lies About What is Going On
The Sydney Morning Herald has published an article which says that "Mental Illness Rise Linked to Climate. The article and the document it referenced are just ludicrous. It talks about the increase in brush fires and ignores the fact that the increase is do to the fact that people were setting the fires.
The article claims that climate change causes uncertainty and that uncertainty causes mental problems. Kids, this world has never been safe and we used to be much more at the mercy of the weather. Mental problems are increasing because people have convinced themselves that the world is supposed to be static when in fact it is not, never has been.
Be careful when reading things these fools write. The argument, in the end, is that if we allow our lives to become "safe" and live with restrictive and limited lifestyles that we can save the planet from change. Change is equated with bad, it is not bad it is just nature and nature loves diversity and change. It is folly to believe that we can control the planet.
The article claims that climate change causes uncertainty and that uncertainty causes mental problems. Kids, this world has never been safe and we used to be much more at the mercy of the weather. Mental problems are increasing because people have convinced themselves that the world is supposed to be static when in fact it is not, never has been.
Be careful when reading things these fools write. The argument, in the end, is that if we allow our lives to become "safe" and live with restrictive and limited lifestyles that we can save the planet from change. Change is equated with bad, it is not bad it is just nature and nature loves diversity and change. It is folly to believe that we can control the planet.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
An Answer for Christians
I will tell a secret. It is not about agreement, it is about love. We will take a second and go over this. God created diversity, our job is to love all of it, even the worst that we perceive, all fulfills his plan, to grow love. Love is the key, the more we only love those that are the most like us, the less we love in total. This may be why forgiveness is the key.
A Surprise for Pimpernel
I have a couple of guests visiting today, sort of a last minute thing. So rather than write anything, I thought I would post a couple of video links and music links.
YouTube - Fleetwood Mac - Beautiful Child
YouTube - Monty Python - Argument Clinic
YouTube - Heart - Love Alive
YouTube - Dan Osman - You have to see this
Have a great week.
YouTube - Fleetwood Mac - Beautiful Child
YouTube - Monty Python - Argument Clinic
YouTube - Heart - Love Alive
YouTube - Dan Osman - You have to see this
Have a great week.
I Watched Television, sort of
I don't watch television, the one in my room is not even plugged in. Today I decided to watch a movie and I did, it was called Zombieland. It was amusing enough. Then I rented another movie, "The Adjustment Bureau". After, I watched an actual television show. I don't know the channel, it was a debated in Quatar over whether or not we would see democracy and change in the middle east. After that I watched "Live free or Die Hard", an action film.
Most nights I read and write, I took time for just going on a mental vacation tonight. Take a look at how many posts I have written since beginning this blog and understand how much time it has taken. When I am not sleeping or working, I am working on this blog in one way or another. That's a lot of work.
So, I have allowed the mass media into my thinking tonight. Be well.
Most nights I read and write, I took time for just going on a mental vacation tonight. Take a look at how many posts I have written since beginning this blog and understand how much time it has taken. When I am not sleeping or working, I am working on this blog in one way or another. That's a lot of work.
So, I have allowed the mass media into my thinking tonight. Be well.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Algorithms and You
You have probably heard about algorithms, have you ever wondered what they are? Well, it is a little fuzzy, you can read about it on Wikipedia if you wish; but, it says that there are no firm rules. It is math, if A occurs then B is the answer. Okay, that still may be a bit obscure.
Algorithms are nothing more than mathematical formulas and depending on what numbers you put in them you get a different answer. Now you might wonder why you should care, let me give you a few examples of how they are used. Amazon uses algorithms to determine what you like, your preferences. You bought seven things from Amazon this year, the computer will look for everyone else who bought the same seven things this year and then predict that whatever one of you likes, the rest of you might like. It sounds harmless enough.
What they also do is allow someone to profile you, to predict what you will do in the future. There are those who would like to use them to predict who will be a sexual predator or a criminal. Problem is that these assumptions are not perfect. People who don't fit in with the algorithms, those are outliers. The computers don't know how to predict them and therefore cannot predict true paradigm shifts. They don't know what the next big thing will be, they cannot only look at what is already known. They cannot be used to predict fundamental changes to the world or how to respond to them, they can only look to the past.
Algorithms are great for helping a market determine what to store for it's customers, that is why they have rewards cards. There are also times when they should not be used, for instance would you want a jury by algorithms? The worst problem is that we can rely on them rather than our own mental abilities, that is a recipe for disaster.
BBC News and Technology had a interesting article on it that I think is worth a read. It is "When Algorithms Control the World.
I am still working on my discussion points for the people who are starting a new church; but, I still think about the rest of my readers. Please understand that I may write some more things on religion, it helps me to prepare. I may use all or none of it, you can never tell with me. Once, I gave a two day seminar in Vegas, I wrote everything up a month or so in advance and as I was giving the seminar, I changed the whole thing on the spot while talking. It isn't so much about knowing what I am going to say as it is about knowing my subject and being able to pick an issue at a moment's notice.
I could have written this post from a spiritual point of view as it has many implications; but, I chose not to. For all I know this is what I may talk about.
Algorithms are nothing more than mathematical formulas and depending on what numbers you put in them you get a different answer. Now you might wonder why you should care, let me give you a few examples of how they are used. Amazon uses algorithms to determine what you like, your preferences. You bought seven things from Amazon this year, the computer will look for everyone else who bought the same seven things this year and then predict that whatever one of you likes, the rest of you might like. It sounds harmless enough.
What they also do is allow someone to profile you, to predict what you will do in the future. There are those who would like to use them to predict who will be a sexual predator or a criminal. Problem is that these assumptions are not perfect. People who don't fit in with the algorithms, those are outliers. The computers don't know how to predict them and therefore cannot predict true paradigm shifts. They don't know what the next big thing will be, they cannot only look at what is already known. They cannot be used to predict fundamental changes to the world or how to respond to them, they can only look to the past.
Algorithms are great for helping a market determine what to store for it's customers, that is why they have rewards cards. There are also times when they should not be used, for instance would you want a jury by algorithms? The worst problem is that we can rely on them rather than our own mental abilities, that is a recipe for disaster.
BBC News and Technology had a interesting article on it that I think is worth a read. It is "When Algorithms Control the World.
I am still working on my discussion points for the people who are starting a new church; but, I still think about the rest of my readers. Please understand that I may write some more things on religion, it helps me to prepare. I may use all or none of it, you can never tell with me. Once, I gave a two day seminar in Vegas, I wrote everything up a month or so in advance and as I was giving the seminar, I changed the whole thing on the spot while talking. It isn't so much about knowing what I am going to say as it is about knowing my subject and being able to pick an issue at a moment's notice.
I could have written this post from a spiritual point of view as it has many implications; but, I chose not to. For all I know this is what I may talk about.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
A Circumsision Post
An adult male truck driver asked a doctor for a circumcision, the doctor performed it, however, in the course of the operation the doctor discovered that more had to be taken or the man would die, the doctor removed more of the man's penis than a mere circumcision would have. The doctor saved the man's life, the man sued for $15 million dollars. The issue is one of informed consent. I don't care to discuss it, I provide a link because one of my readers is interested in these issues.
Another Religious Post
I am still trying to figure out what I will teach on when I go before the congregation. I will say that I have had some positive response and a couple of people even discussed coming to hear me speak. The thing is that most of these people are new to Christianity and I don't want to drive them away because I did a bad job.
The second thing is that because these people are new to the faith, there isn't a lot of basic knowledge about the faith. I have been trying to figure out where to begin, to just ensure that they know the basics. I grew up knowing the bible so as I got older and questioned it, I already knew what it did say.
I think one of the things I will want to talk about is why life? To put it another way, why can't we just start in heaven, why do we have to live this life on earth apart from God? It is a good question and one that I would expect new Christians to ask. It is also the perfect thing to explain in advance of people reading the bible because it helps to understand what people went through and the choices they made.
What follows is a possible sermon:
What would we be like if we never had to make tough choices? What would life be like if everything was easy? Well, I think we would be lazy, urge driven and without a sense of ourselves. The devil offers us the pleasures of the world, power, wealth, sex, toys, fame, whatever you will sell your free will in exchange for. If we have not determined for ourselves who we are, what we stand for and how much we can take then we are not ourselves, we are whatever we need to be in order to avoid pain and get rewards. We choose to be like trained seals. Personally, I am nobodies trained anything.
Everyone in the bible tells God no at sometime. Jonah is probably the best example. Sometimes God wants us to say no. When God said to Abraham, "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." That is pretty heavy, God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son and then burn him. We know that Abraham did as he was told and was preparing to kill his son when God stopped him.
There is only one way to understand the one part of the story. God did not want Abraham to kill his son. If he had wanted him to kill him then he would have let him; but, he stopped him. The generally held belief is that God was testing Abraham to have Abraham prove his faith; but, I don't believe that was the reason. Let's dig a little deeper.
Abraham takes his son to the mountain and tells his servants to stay behind. The quote is, "And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." He lied. He was not going to the mountain so that he and his son could worship, he was going to sacrifice his son. Issac and Abraham proceed up the mountain and they bring along everything needed for a sacrifice except the lamb. Now Issac knows this and says, "And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
Abraham's response to his son was, "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." This is again another lie, Abraham believed he was to kill Isaac. Once they got to the intended place Abraham bound Isaac and put him on top of the wood. At this point any suspicions that Issac had were pretty well confirmed, he was the sacrifice. However, God stops him. God says, "And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me."
The last part where God blesses Abraham because he acted faithfully leads most to conclude that God was testing Abraham to see if he would be faithful in all things; but, it does not say that God was in fact that God wanted Abraham to do what he was told. Instead God tells Abraham to not ever do anything to the boy.
What if God had wanted Abraham to say no. I cannot believe that God wanted Abraham to lie to his son or his servants. Why did he lie? He lied because he thought they might try and stop him. Abraham knew that what he was doing was wrong; but, he was going to go through with it anyways. What if God had really wanted Abraham to say no, to say that he would not kill his child. What if God had really hoped that Abraham had exercised his free will while still being faithful.
God did not talk to Abraham often. God probably spoke more to Moses than anyone else in the bible; but, Moses is honored more than Abraham and Moses disobeyed God. Let me explain, when Jesus meets with two prophets, he did not meet with Abraham, he met with Moses and Elijah. Elijah is interesting in that he was taken away in a whirlwind; however, just before that happened, Elijah parted the waters. Moses and Elijah both parted waters.
Moses unlike Abraham was not quick to agree with God. When God first told Moses to tell the Pharaoh to release the Jews from Egypt, Moses had nothing but excuses. In fact a common mistake is that Moses spoke to the Pharaoh, because Moses didn't want to talk, Moses had Aaron speak to Pharaoh. Now, we must give Moses his due, he did the heavy lifting. Moses spent 40 years in the desert with a bunch of people who continually did wrong and begged God to not kill them all. He even begged God to heal someone who had made fun of him and his wife.
What did Moses get or ask for, nothing, nothing earthly. Moses was not made rich or given cookies, heck, Moses got to spend 40 years in the desert; but, he got to spend them with God. It says that we are not to store up our treasures on earth; but, to store them up in heaven and Moses did.
Here is the thing. Abraham pleads with God to save Sodom, the town in which his relative lives; but, he did not plead with God for his son's life. Abraham was not that great a guy. Abraham is the one who told the Pharaoh that his wife was his sister because he was afraid that Pharaoh wanted to sleep with her and he didn't want to be killed.
Boy that is a lot to talk about and remember. The bible is filled with stories about human beings, the book is mostly about how humans interact poorly with God and each other. God could have made us without free will, he could have made us with our only intent to be to worship him; but, he didn't do that. We are born with free will and only a handful ever know him personally or interact with him directly.
I have to interrupt this post. I have told a few people that I am going to speak at this service and you know what, a bunch of them want to come. I am talking about people who know me personally, some of whom read this blog. I cannot tell you how honored I am to know that people who know me and already know my beliefs would want to come and listed to me talk about the bible, very humbling. It makes my heart happy. I am also very grateful that many have said that I don't have to worry and that I can talk to anyone. I am still nervous that I will mess it up.
Back to what I was discussing. God lets some people tell him no; but, they have to do it for the right reasons. The final test is when you say no, not when you say yes. Jonah told God no; but, Jonah had already made a promise to God and he did have to keep it. After keeping it Jonah was so mad that he wanted to die. He stomped off, sat on a hill and pouted. God sent a covering for Jonah so that the sun would not bother him too much and then talked to him about why it was right to save these people. It is a great story and most people only remember that Jonah was in the belly of a whale.
One would think that telling God no would get them a one-way ticket to hell or at least severely injured; but, he doesn't seem to do that if you tell him no from a true heart. The bible is a book about people who mess up, it is not about perfect people. Heck, Paul said he was the greatest sinner of all.
I will get to my point now, had to start with some background information. You cannot understand the points if you do not know the stories, the two are one. People's lives are demonstrations of God's lessons, he chooses people because their lives tell us something about ourselves and our choices. A preacher would now ask you, "What does your life tell about you". I am not going to do that because we don't know until the game is over what our lives really meant. Paul tormented Christians and then was converted, his story was his complete life and not just his early mistakes.
My question was why don't we just get born in heaven and get to avoid all of this life. Well, because we can grow here, we can learn to make better choices, we can be of service to one another. I will go back to the story of Jonah. I cannot prove this; but, I think it is a good question. Why did God tell the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh and why did it upset Jonah?
Couple of simple things, Jonah had asked to be preach in such a way to save people and God sent him to save the people that he hated. I will tell you why I believe this, Jonah pouted because he knew he would save them. Jonah says, "But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD." He says that he will pay what he promised and he promised to tell people of the Lord's salvation. He got his chance so why did he complain, I think it is because Jonah had wanted to pray of the Lord's salvation to his own people, not to non-Jews. Oh, Jonah also says, "And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil."
Jonah had made a vow to God at the temple, he made a promise BEFORE he was swallowed by the whale. Jonah knew that these people would repent and he knew that his own people would not and I believe that is why Jonah was angry. Jonah was angry that the blessing was not for his own people. Guess where Nineveh is, it is in Iraq. It's ruins sit next to Mosul. Can you imagine that an Israeli today promises God to preach and save people and God telling him to go to Iraq and preach and that they will be saved? If you can the maybe you can understand how Jonah felt.
I need to get back to my question, so why life? Why can't we just be in heaven and never endure this life. Because we have to define ourselves and we will make mistakes; but, we learn that we can grow and make better choices. The more loving our hearts become, the closer we are to knowing God. Eventually, we get to know him in person.
I should point out something else, life does not get easier just because you become a believer, nope, it gets harder. The more loving you become, the more you give and the more people attempt to take advantage of your giving. I want to say something to people who decide to return to hear me speak again (I am writing alternate sermons, this is what I will say to the congregation). If you think that you wish to be a believer, if what I say rings true with you then we are going to set out a format that will help you to learn. It is important to have a firm foundation in faith and it doesn't just happen.
I am not a preacher, I am not a pastor, I am not going to baptize babies, I won't conduct weddings under the law, I will not be ordained in any sect. I don't have all the answers and I am not going to and if I did, I wouldn't give them all. I will never ask for a dime from anyone, I have a job. I was asked to speak to some people by a very well trained Pastor because we agree on a lot of things and he knows that I love the Lord.
Nothing we ever do will be what you have seen. This will always be like how the church began, a bunch of people talking about what they know and learning from one another. You can tell me anything; but, I am not confessor and I can be called into court to testify. If you tell me that you are going to kill someone, I am going to call the cops and have you arrested. If you tell me you stole candy last week, I am probably not going to call the cops; but, I will tell you to go back and pay for the candy.
I know a lot about the bible; but, church is for grown ups, it is not about me teaching, it is about you learning. It is about you reading the bible and asking questions. I am here to answer questions and give my insights, I will make mistakes; but, they will be honest ones. I do not know how I got here, I never wished to preach to anyone. My friend, the pastor, told me that there were people who wanted to know and asked me if I would talk to them, how could I say no, I could not. If I have a hope for what this leads to, it is that you would learn and be empowered to tell others of why you have a hope inside you that will take you through any challenge. By the way, we still get scared even if we know the Lord, we are still human.
We do not have to follow any "church rules", we can meet for an hour or for as long as people want, we can discuss anything. I want to understand what you need as you begin your journey. My advice is that each time we meet, you have already read two chapters of the bible, it will take about 15 minutes a night. If you have difficulty reading then I recommend that we read a chapter or two a week out loud. I will still talk about issues; but, you really have to have heard all the stories for us to get deep into it.
Whatever I choose to involve myself in is by choice. I choose to be hear because I heard that there were people who wanted to hear about God. For whatever reason they choose not to be in a organized church and there is nothing organized about me. I believe in personal revelation, I believe in learning overtime, I believe that God loves everyone of us and I believe that he loves you. I am just a guy and no different then anyone else. If there are never more people here than here tonight then it doesn't matter, heck, I would probably feel less insecure; but, I will talk to anyone who wants to know about the hope that is in me, about my Lord.
The second thing is that because these people are new to the faith, there isn't a lot of basic knowledge about the faith. I have been trying to figure out where to begin, to just ensure that they know the basics. I grew up knowing the bible so as I got older and questioned it, I already knew what it did say.
I think one of the things I will want to talk about is why life? To put it another way, why can't we just start in heaven, why do we have to live this life on earth apart from God? It is a good question and one that I would expect new Christians to ask. It is also the perfect thing to explain in advance of people reading the bible because it helps to understand what people went through and the choices they made.
What follows is a possible sermon:
What would we be like if we never had to make tough choices? What would life be like if everything was easy? Well, I think we would be lazy, urge driven and without a sense of ourselves. The devil offers us the pleasures of the world, power, wealth, sex, toys, fame, whatever you will sell your free will in exchange for. If we have not determined for ourselves who we are, what we stand for and how much we can take then we are not ourselves, we are whatever we need to be in order to avoid pain and get rewards. We choose to be like trained seals. Personally, I am nobodies trained anything.
Everyone in the bible tells God no at sometime. Jonah is probably the best example. Sometimes God wants us to say no. When God said to Abraham, "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." That is pretty heavy, God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son and then burn him. We know that Abraham did as he was told and was preparing to kill his son when God stopped him.
There is only one way to understand the one part of the story. God did not want Abraham to kill his son. If he had wanted him to kill him then he would have let him; but, he stopped him. The generally held belief is that God was testing Abraham to have Abraham prove his faith; but, I don't believe that was the reason. Let's dig a little deeper.
Abraham takes his son to the mountain and tells his servants to stay behind. The quote is, "And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." He lied. He was not going to the mountain so that he and his son could worship, he was going to sacrifice his son. Issac and Abraham proceed up the mountain and they bring along everything needed for a sacrifice except the lamb. Now Issac knows this and says, "And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
Abraham's response to his son was, "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." This is again another lie, Abraham believed he was to kill Isaac. Once they got to the intended place Abraham bound Isaac and put him on top of the wood. At this point any suspicions that Issac had were pretty well confirmed, he was the sacrifice. However, God stops him. God says, "And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me."
The last part where God blesses Abraham because he acted faithfully leads most to conclude that God was testing Abraham to see if he would be faithful in all things; but, it does not say that God was in fact that God wanted Abraham to do what he was told. Instead God tells Abraham to not ever do anything to the boy.
What if God had wanted Abraham to say no. I cannot believe that God wanted Abraham to lie to his son or his servants. Why did he lie? He lied because he thought they might try and stop him. Abraham knew that what he was doing was wrong; but, he was going to go through with it anyways. What if God had really wanted Abraham to say no, to say that he would not kill his child. What if God had really hoped that Abraham had exercised his free will while still being faithful.
God did not talk to Abraham often. God probably spoke more to Moses than anyone else in the bible; but, Moses is honored more than Abraham and Moses disobeyed God. Let me explain, when Jesus meets with two prophets, he did not meet with Abraham, he met with Moses and Elijah. Elijah is interesting in that he was taken away in a whirlwind; however, just before that happened, Elijah parted the waters. Moses and Elijah both parted waters.
Moses unlike Abraham was not quick to agree with God. When God first told Moses to tell the Pharaoh to release the Jews from Egypt, Moses had nothing but excuses. In fact a common mistake is that Moses spoke to the Pharaoh, because Moses didn't want to talk, Moses had Aaron speak to Pharaoh. Now, we must give Moses his due, he did the heavy lifting. Moses spent 40 years in the desert with a bunch of people who continually did wrong and begged God to not kill them all. He even begged God to heal someone who had made fun of him and his wife.
What did Moses get or ask for, nothing, nothing earthly. Moses was not made rich or given cookies, heck, Moses got to spend 40 years in the desert; but, he got to spend them with God. It says that we are not to store up our treasures on earth; but, to store them up in heaven and Moses did.
Here is the thing. Abraham pleads with God to save Sodom, the town in which his relative lives; but, he did not plead with God for his son's life. Abraham was not that great a guy. Abraham is the one who told the Pharaoh that his wife was his sister because he was afraid that Pharaoh wanted to sleep with her and he didn't want to be killed.
Boy that is a lot to talk about and remember. The bible is filled with stories about human beings, the book is mostly about how humans interact poorly with God and each other. God could have made us without free will, he could have made us with our only intent to be to worship him; but, he didn't do that. We are born with free will and only a handful ever know him personally or interact with him directly.
I have to interrupt this post. I have told a few people that I am going to speak at this service and you know what, a bunch of them want to come. I am talking about people who know me personally, some of whom read this blog. I cannot tell you how honored I am to know that people who know me and already know my beliefs would want to come and listed to me talk about the bible, very humbling. It makes my heart happy. I am also very grateful that many have said that I don't have to worry and that I can talk to anyone. I am still nervous that I will mess it up.
Back to what I was discussing. God lets some people tell him no; but, they have to do it for the right reasons. The final test is when you say no, not when you say yes. Jonah told God no; but, Jonah had already made a promise to God and he did have to keep it. After keeping it Jonah was so mad that he wanted to die. He stomped off, sat on a hill and pouted. God sent a covering for Jonah so that the sun would not bother him too much and then talked to him about why it was right to save these people. It is a great story and most people only remember that Jonah was in the belly of a whale.
One would think that telling God no would get them a one-way ticket to hell or at least severely injured; but, he doesn't seem to do that if you tell him no from a true heart. The bible is a book about people who mess up, it is not about perfect people. Heck, Paul said he was the greatest sinner of all.
I will get to my point now, had to start with some background information. You cannot understand the points if you do not know the stories, the two are one. People's lives are demonstrations of God's lessons, he chooses people because their lives tell us something about ourselves and our choices. A preacher would now ask you, "What does your life tell about you". I am not going to do that because we don't know until the game is over what our lives really meant. Paul tormented Christians and then was converted, his story was his complete life and not just his early mistakes.
My question was why don't we just get born in heaven and get to avoid all of this life. Well, because we can grow here, we can learn to make better choices, we can be of service to one another. I will go back to the story of Jonah. I cannot prove this; but, I think it is a good question. Why did God tell the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh and why did it upset Jonah?
Couple of simple things, Jonah had asked to be preach in such a way to save people and God sent him to save the people that he hated. I will tell you why I believe this, Jonah pouted because he knew he would save them. Jonah says, "But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD." He says that he will pay what he promised and he promised to tell people of the Lord's salvation. He got his chance so why did he complain, I think it is because Jonah had wanted to pray of the Lord's salvation to his own people, not to non-Jews. Oh, Jonah also says, "And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil."
Jonah had made a vow to God at the temple, he made a promise BEFORE he was swallowed by the whale. Jonah knew that these people would repent and he knew that his own people would not and I believe that is why Jonah was angry. Jonah was angry that the blessing was not for his own people. Guess where Nineveh is, it is in Iraq. It's ruins sit next to Mosul. Can you imagine that an Israeli today promises God to preach and save people and God telling him to go to Iraq and preach and that they will be saved? If you can the maybe you can understand how Jonah felt.
I need to get back to my question, so why life? Why can't we just be in heaven and never endure this life. Because we have to define ourselves and we will make mistakes; but, we learn that we can grow and make better choices. The more loving our hearts become, the closer we are to knowing God. Eventually, we get to know him in person.
I should point out something else, life does not get easier just because you become a believer, nope, it gets harder. The more loving you become, the more you give and the more people attempt to take advantage of your giving. I want to say something to people who decide to return to hear me speak again (I am writing alternate sermons, this is what I will say to the congregation). If you think that you wish to be a believer, if what I say rings true with you then we are going to set out a format that will help you to learn. It is important to have a firm foundation in faith and it doesn't just happen.
I am not a preacher, I am not a pastor, I am not going to baptize babies, I won't conduct weddings under the law, I will not be ordained in any sect. I don't have all the answers and I am not going to and if I did, I wouldn't give them all. I will never ask for a dime from anyone, I have a job. I was asked to speak to some people by a very well trained Pastor because we agree on a lot of things and he knows that I love the Lord.
Nothing we ever do will be what you have seen. This will always be like how the church began, a bunch of people talking about what they know and learning from one another. You can tell me anything; but, I am not confessor and I can be called into court to testify. If you tell me that you are going to kill someone, I am going to call the cops and have you arrested. If you tell me you stole candy last week, I am probably not going to call the cops; but, I will tell you to go back and pay for the candy.
I know a lot about the bible; but, church is for grown ups, it is not about me teaching, it is about you learning. It is about you reading the bible and asking questions. I am here to answer questions and give my insights, I will make mistakes; but, they will be honest ones. I do not know how I got here, I never wished to preach to anyone. My friend, the pastor, told me that there were people who wanted to know and asked me if I would talk to them, how could I say no, I could not. If I have a hope for what this leads to, it is that you would learn and be empowered to tell others of why you have a hope inside you that will take you through any challenge. By the way, we still get scared even if we know the Lord, we are still human.
We do not have to follow any "church rules", we can meet for an hour or for as long as people want, we can discuss anything. I want to understand what you need as you begin your journey. My advice is that each time we meet, you have already read two chapters of the bible, it will take about 15 minutes a night. If you have difficulty reading then I recommend that we read a chapter or two a week out loud. I will still talk about issues; but, you really have to have heard all the stories for us to get deep into it.
Whatever I choose to involve myself in is by choice. I choose to be hear because I heard that there were people who wanted to hear about God. For whatever reason they choose not to be in a organized church and there is nothing organized about me. I believe in personal revelation, I believe in learning overtime, I believe that God loves everyone of us and I believe that he loves you. I am just a guy and no different then anyone else. If there are never more people here than here tonight then it doesn't matter, heck, I would probably feel less insecure; but, I will talk to anyone who wants to know about the hope that is in me, about my Lord.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
How Would You Explain Jesus?
For those who don't enjoy my discussion on religion, I try and put something in the title so you know that you can just skip it. I have been asked to speak before a small group about Christianity by a Pastor, friend. Now, I have no problem with public speaking, in fact been doing it a very long time and rarely bother preparing in advance other than to think about what the message is. This is different so I thought I might kick some ideas around.
Why? Why believe and what does it matter? What does it matter if there is a God or not, we are here and now and that is all that matters, we will know soon enough if there is a God, lets just try and get through today. That is sort of how most people feel about God. So I want to try and take a crack at the answers.
Forgiveness. Forgiving ourselves and others for past wrongs and understanding that none of us is perfect. That one thing changes your whole life. Probably not the answer most Christians would tell you, they would say salvation, nah, not me, forgiveness. For most of us it is the hardest lesson in the bible, salvation we don't find hard to accept; but, then we often want to pick and choose who is saved and why.
If we accept Jesus because we want salvation, have we really accepted him or salvation, which is it we are really responding to? If we accept his salvation and we forgive ONLY so that we will be forgiven, have we really forgiven. If we accept Jesus only to be saved, can it truly be said that we have the heart of Jesus?
What are we to believe we are saved from? Most would say from going to hell; but, what is hell? Separation from God. We are separated from God because we do not forgive. It says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".
I will get to this Jesus person, I know what the title of the post it, give me a second to put the context down. Jeez. So who is this Jesus person, who is the holy spirit and who is God. All we have to go on is what is in the bible. To tell you the truth the God fellow, he seems pretty scary. The Jesus fellow seems like a nice fellow and the holy spirit makes no sense. We are told that they are all the same being, how do we understand this?
Lets try and look at each one individually and keep forgiveness in mind. In the old testament God was dealing with barbarians that sacrificed their children to the gods, raped others, did not understand basic hygiene, were lawless and consumed by their passions. That was just the jews, the rest of the world was even worse. How bad were they, well they interbred with demons and created Nephilim.
After man crossbred with the fallen angels, God killed everyone, sounds harsh; but, they had given up their free will and humanity so that they could indulge in their urges. The nephilim means those who have fallen, also referred to as the sons of god. They are generally understood to be fallen angels. The Israelites knew that the nephilim were not nice people and to be feared, that is why when they first entered Israel, the scared scouts reported that the nephilim were there. Noah and his family were saved, they apparently had not crossbred.
So, Noah and his family is saved and humanity gives it another go. Between the time of Noah and Abraham, there is not a lot of God and human interaction. Actually, if you read the bible, God doesn't interact with humans all that much as a rule. People think about the few times he did and assume that it happened all the time. It just didn't happen that way. When God spoke to Abraham, it only mentioned a couple of times at best. Most of Abraham's life was spent without contact from God, if we accept what is written.
By the time the Jews get to Israel, God doesn't talk to them much. What happened to the pillar of smoke during the day and the pillar of fire at night once they had entered Israel? For 40 years God is amongst the Jews in the desert and then they get the ark of the covenant; but, not his pillar. Every wonder why?
After arriving in Israel, God limits who he talks to. He talks to a few prophets and a few leaders. That is about it, yet, he is blamed for everything that they did. Not what the prophets did, what the leaders did and they did not always obey the Lord. In fact, they flat out disobeyed him and led the people to do wrong. The spiritual leaders were the worst.
When Israel would be bad, God would send a prophet to them to tell them to stop being bad and to be good to all. Did any prophet ever tell the people to kill anyone? Nope, only the leaders did that and said they were told to do so by God; but, they were not prophets, that means they could be wrong.
Lets get back to the point. When God spoke to prophets, he told them to be better people. Other than prophets and leaders, I have only read of him talking to Adam, Eve, Enoch, and Job. He does not seem to be a very chatty person; but, then most choose not to talk to him. Remember this point, most people chose not to talk to God directly when given the chance, they chose to be afraid of him even after he took them out of captivity.
Now, finally, we get to this Jesus fellow. Being a devout Christian, I accept that he was God, I have no problem with the trinity. God comes to us, not as a pillar of fire; but, as a man. Many more could relate to God in human form than in his more powerful form. They still killed him; but, more listened. His message was simple, we are imperfect and need to love one another, forgiveness was his message. He said it was the way to salvation.
Now we get to the holy spirit, I don't think we have much on this guy. He comes inside you and relates with you. Because of that, many learn to love and give. We are told that the holy spirit convicts us. What does he convict us of, perhaps it is not being truly forgiving. I don't think it is that he convicts us of lusting, we already know we do that.
So basically, we have three expression or one being telling us to be nice to one another. We have numerous people ignoring their statements or trying to use their words in order to take advantage of others and a few that actually bother trying to do what they are told.
The bible says that in the end times the old men will dream dreams, that means that they will feel the holy spirit. The holy spirit falls upon your heart answering questions that you didn't even know to ask. Inspiration, not decision. You will know the truth and it will set you free, it says that in the bible somewhere, I don't quote chapter and verse unless asked to. I prefer to talk about the spirit of the book.
So how would I explain Jesus, he is the guy (a self aware being) that created everything, trying to find a way that is easiest for us to interact with him. We can only reach so high and then he must reach down if we are to communicate. Not a different being from God, just one that we feel more comfortable communicating with. Your best friend, someone who was there with you and understands your trials because he faced him too.
There are those who will say that what I have said is not Barry Biblical, I don't know that man, I know love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. I know that one, it is how Jesus summed up the ten commandments. That is very biblical. If I do not forgive then how have I loved my neighbor with as myself?
The reader may think that I am trying to trick them into being forgiving, nope, I stated my beliefs, no trick, just truth. The first thing to teach new believers is about forgiveness because that it the greatest commandment, Jesus said so.
So why should you ask why it matters if there is a God. The answer is simple, because if there is then you can understand our need to be forgiven, we already know that we are imperfect. Heck, just look around you at the world, show me perfection, show me how evolution has perfected us. Yeah, I will wait for that answer.
I have talked for as much as eight hours straight for three days in a row, with no outline or script. I can talk for a long time, heck, I can write all day. I do not know what I will talk about when I speak before a congregation; but, what I have written will probably be involved. Be well.
Why? Why believe and what does it matter? What does it matter if there is a God or not, we are here and now and that is all that matters, we will know soon enough if there is a God, lets just try and get through today. That is sort of how most people feel about God. So I want to try and take a crack at the answers.
Forgiveness. Forgiving ourselves and others for past wrongs and understanding that none of us is perfect. That one thing changes your whole life. Probably not the answer most Christians would tell you, they would say salvation, nah, not me, forgiveness. For most of us it is the hardest lesson in the bible, salvation we don't find hard to accept; but, then we often want to pick and choose who is saved and why.
If we accept Jesus because we want salvation, have we really accepted him or salvation, which is it we are really responding to? If we accept his salvation and we forgive ONLY so that we will be forgiven, have we really forgiven. If we accept Jesus only to be saved, can it truly be said that we have the heart of Jesus?
What are we to believe we are saved from? Most would say from going to hell; but, what is hell? Separation from God. We are separated from God because we do not forgive. It says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".
I will get to this Jesus person, I know what the title of the post it, give me a second to put the context down. Jeez. So who is this Jesus person, who is the holy spirit and who is God. All we have to go on is what is in the bible. To tell you the truth the God fellow, he seems pretty scary. The Jesus fellow seems like a nice fellow and the holy spirit makes no sense. We are told that they are all the same being, how do we understand this?
Lets try and look at each one individually and keep forgiveness in mind. In the old testament God was dealing with barbarians that sacrificed their children to the gods, raped others, did not understand basic hygiene, were lawless and consumed by their passions. That was just the jews, the rest of the world was even worse. How bad were they, well they interbred with demons and created Nephilim.
After man crossbred with the fallen angels, God killed everyone, sounds harsh; but, they had given up their free will and humanity so that they could indulge in their urges. The nephilim means those who have fallen, also referred to as the sons of god. They are generally understood to be fallen angels. The Israelites knew that the nephilim were not nice people and to be feared, that is why when they first entered Israel, the scared scouts reported that the nephilim were there. Noah and his family were saved, they apparently had not crossbred.
So, Noah and his family is saved and humanity gives it another go. Between the time of Noah and Abraham, there is not a lot of God and human interaction. Actually, if you read the bible, God doesn't interact with humans all that much as a rule. People think about the few times he did and assume that it happened all the time. It just didn't happen that way. When God spoke to Abraham, it only mentioned a couple of times at best. Most of Abraham's life was spent without contact from God, if we accept what is written.
By the time the Jews get to Israel, God doesn't talk to them much. What happened to the pillar of smoke during the day and the pillar of fire at night once they had entered Israel? For 40 years God is amongst the Jews in the desert and then they get the ark of the covenant; but, not his pillar. Every wonder why?
After arriving in Israel, God limits who he talks to. He talks to a few prophets and a few leaders. That is about it, yet, he is blamed for everything that they did. Not what the prophets did, what the leaders did and they did not always obey the Lord. In fact, they flat out disobeyed him and led the people to do wrong. The spiritual leaders were the worst.
When Israel would be bad, God would send a prophet to them to tell them to stop being bad and to be good to all. Did any prophet ever tell the people to kill anyone? Nope, only the leaders did that and said they were told to do so by God; but, they were not prophets, that means they could be wrong.
Lets get back to the point. When God spoke to prophets, he told them to be better people. Other than prophets and leaders, I have only read of him talking to Adam, Eve, Enoch, and Job. He does not seem to be a very chatty person; but, then most choose not to talk to him. Remember this point, most people chose not to talk to God directly when given the chance, they chose to be afraid of him even after he took them out of captivity.
Now, finally, we get to this Jesus fellow. Being a devout Christian, I accept that he was God, I have no problem with the trinity. God comes to us, not as a pillar of fire; but, as a man. Many more could relate to God in human form than in his more powerful form. They still killed him; but, more listened. His message was simple, we are imperfect and need to love one another, forgiveness was his message. He said it was the way to salvation.
Now we get to the holy spirit, I don't think we have much on this guy. He comes inside you and relates with you. Because of that, many learn to love and give. We are told that the holy spirit convicts us. What does he convict us of, perhaps it is not being truly forgiving. I don't think it is that he convicts us of lusting, we already know we do that.
So basically, we have three expression or one being telling us to be nice to one another. We have numerous people ignoring their statements or trying to use their words in order to take advantage of others and a few that actually bother trying to do what they are told.
The bible says that in the end times the old men will dream dreams, that means that they will feel the holy spirit. The holy spirit falls upon your heart answering questions that you didn't even know to ask. Inspiration, not decision. You will know the truth and it will set you free, it says that in the bible somewhere, I don't quote chapter and verse unless asked to. I prefer to talk about the spirit of the book.
So how would I explain Jesus, he is the guy (a self aware being) that created everything, trying to find a way that is easiest for us to interact with him. We can only reach so high and then he must reach down if we are to communicate. Not a different being from God, just one that we feel more comfortable communicating with. Your best friend, someone who was there with you and understands your trials because he faced him too.
There are those who will say that what I have said is not Barry Biblical, I don't know that man, I know love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. I know that one, it is how Jesus summed up the ten commandments. That is very biblical. If I do not forgive then how have I loved my neighbor with as myself?
The reader may think that I am trying to trick them into being forgiving, nope, I stated my beliefs, no trick, just truth. The first thing to teach new believers is about forgiveness because that it the greatest commandment, Jesus said so.
So why should you ask why it matters if there is a God. The answer is simple, because if there is then you can understand our need to be forgiven, we already know that we are imperfect. Heck, just look around you at the world, show me perfection, show me how evolution has perfected us. Yeah, I will wait for that answer.
I have talked for as much as eight hours straight for three days in a row, with no outline or script. I can talk for a long time, heck, I can write all day. I do not know what I will talk about when I speak before a congregation; but, what I have written will probably be involved. Be well.
Monday, August 22, 2011
What was the question?
Was really exhausted today. I did see this news article. Infrastructure: A Jobs Program for the Next Decade. Sounds kind of like what I have been talking about for the past three years. On a side note, you know how I have warned people to watch what they say in their blogs and on the internet. Spitzer sued for libel over his Slate column, the article is from Reuters.
The Spitzer article is important because that law suit is pretty big. Too many people call other people liars or aliens or whatever and don't think about the fact that they may be slandering someone. We need to be clear on something too, if you make any money from your site or blog then you are treated differently under the law. I, of course, don't make a single penny from mine, never have and never will. I try to talk about things and look at things in a different way and I want people to be able to read things without a financial incentive behind it for the writer.
After saying all that, not much on my mind. Where is my mind at? I guess I am just wondering what is next. My divorce is as final as it can be, my attorney is paid off, I am whacking my debt down and am free of home ownership. The kids are grown and there isn't really anything holding me here except the need to pay alimony for the next three years. If it wasn't for the alimony I would probably just quit my job and leave for awhile.
I forgot, what is the question I am supposed to be addressing? What am I supposed to be working towards and why? What is the dream I am supposed to be chasing? What happens when you don't care about cookies at all? Is it okay to just fade away? I think I might like that.
I don't really want to repeat what I have already done in my life. Don't intend to get another degree, don't intend to raise a new family, don't intend to buy a house. I don't intend to start a new career. I have a lot of don't but don't seem to have a do, I have no bucket list.
John Lennon - YouTube - Watching the Wheels
So I sit here writing to people for no reason. Read the news, listen to music and write. I can barely remember my old life, it seems like an eternity ago. Sometimes it seems as if it never happened, none of it. Maybe it is Monday and I am just bored. I can pretty much guess what tomorrow will be like and it sounds fairly boring. More of the same.
It is funny how many people think they know what I should be doing, it is amazing that people have an opinion on the matter when I do not. The only valid purpose in life is to be of service to others, to contribute. That is how the United States became so great. People went to work because they believed this country could be the greatest that ever was and it was for a moment. People don't go to work to make this country great anymore, they go to get as much money as they can.
Over the last 20 years I have seen many people wearing shirts of flying banners that say USA #1; but, how many of them went to work saying that they would give as much as they could to make this country number one? We could turn this country around, we still have assets that others do not; but, we want to live off of what was done in the past rather than put in the work ourselves. We want shortcuts.
Wall Street doesn't care about having good corporations that are profitable, it only cares about how much it can make on trading stock, not owning responsible companies. Workers don't care about their organizations, only about what they are paid. I will make it simple, a test if you will, if you knew the country would be number one again but it meant increasing taxes ten percent, would you accept that, I would. I would like to think that our children will not be left with our debt.
If you don't like taxes, how bout this, would you willing to work an extra three years if it meant that your country would be number one again and that your children would not have to work until they are 72, would you do it? I would. What are you willing to do to make this the greatest nation again?
The Spitzer article is important because that law suit is pretty big. Too many people call other people liars or aliens or whatever and don't think about the fact that they may be slandering someone. We need to be clear on something too, if you make any money from your site or blog then you are treated differently under the law. I, of course, don't make a single penny from mine, never have and never will. I try to talk about things and look at things in a different way and I want people to be able to read things without a financial incentive behind it for the writer.
After saying all that, not much on my mind. Where is my mind at? I guess I am just wondering what is next. My divorce is as final as it can be, my attorney is paid off, I am whacking my debt down and am free of home ownership. The kids are grown and there isn't really anything holding me here except the need to pay alimony for the next three years. If it wasn't for the alimony I would probably just quit my job and leave for awhile.
I forgot, what is the question I am supposed to be addressing? What am I supposed to be working towards and why? What is the dream I am supposed to be chasing? What happens when you don't care about cookies at all? Is it okay to just fade away? I think I might like that.
I don't really want to repeat what I have already done in my life. Don't intend to get another degree, don't intend to raise a new family, don't intend to buy a house. I don't intend to start a new career. I have a lot of don't but don't seem to have a do, I have no bucket list.
John Lennon - YouTube - Watching the Wheels
So I sit here writing to people for no reason. Read the news, listen to music and write. I can barely remember my old life, it seems like an eternity ago. Sometimes it seems as if it never happened, none of it. Maybe it is Monday and I am just bored. I can pretty much guess what tomorrow will be like and it sounds fairly boring. More of the same.
It is funny how many people think they know what I should be doing, it is amazing that people have an opinion on the matter when I do not. The only valid purpose in life is to be of service to others, to contribute. That is how the United States became so great. People went to work because they believed this country could be the greatest that ever was and it was for a moment. People don't go to work to make this country great anymore, they go to get as much money as they can.
Over the last 20 years I have seen many people wearing shirts of flying banners that say USA #1; but, how many of them went to work saying that they would give as much as they could to make this country number one? We could turn this country around, we still have assets that others do not; but, we want to live off of what was done in the past rather than put in the work ourselves. We want shortcuts.
Wall Street doesn't care about having good corporations that are profitable, it only cares about how much it can make on trading stock, not owning responsible companies. Workers don't care about their organizations, only about what they are paid. I will make it simple, a test if you will, if you knew the country would be number one again but it meant increasing taxes ten percent, would you accept that, I would. I would like to think that our children will not be left with our debt.
If you don't like taxes, how bout this, would you willing to work an extra three years if it meant that your country would be number one again and that your children would not have to work until they are 72, would you do it? I would. What are you willing to do to make this the greatest nation again?
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Bad Blogger
Sorry, enjoyed the weekend with a younger cousin and haven't really kept on the news. I did notice that Libya is about done. Now, how will it end for Gadhafi? Will they catch him and execute him or will he leave?
What will Libya become, will it become a democracy or perhaps a religious state? Nobody knows. Libya has the tenth largest supply of oil in the world so it does matter. Gadhafi has been it's dictator for 42 years, that means that most of the people in Libya have never known any other leader (it has a very young population).
The funny thing is, Gadhafi could have remained in power if he had loosened up. He couldn't let go of any, that is arrogance. So does Syria get toppled next? There appears to be civil unrest in just about every country, those who are in power seem completely confused by it. The sheep are acting up, it is far from over.
Those in charge offer nothing except for people to have less. There is not less in the world. We are told that there is; but, nothing has changed. Why must people do with less? We make stuff, that is what we do, are we less capable of making stuff, it doesn't appear so, we are able to make more stuff now than in anytime in our history. Is there a reason that we cannot make a house for everyone or feed everyone, we have enough materials.
So why don't we help each other, why don't we produce for each other that which is at our hands? Do you understand my confusion. Let me make it simple, is there a reason that we cannot build houses and apartments, is there not enough wood and nails? Is there a reason that we cannot feed everyone, there is enough food. So why don't we take care of each other, it is simple, we want to have the advantage.
What is the answer, what is the question, it is bedtime, be well.
What will Libya become, will it become a democracy or perhaps a religious state? Nobody knows. Libya has the tenth largest supply of oil in the world so it does matter. Gadhafi has been it's dictator for 42 years, that means that most of the people in Libya have never known any other leader (it has a very young population).
The funny thing is, Gadhafi could have remained in power if he had loosened up. He couldn't let go of any, that is arrogance. So does Syria get toppled next? There appears to be civil unrest in just about every country, those who are in power seem completely confused by it. The sheep are acting up, it is far from over.
Those in charge offer nothing except for people to have less. There is not less in the world. We are told that there is; but, nothing has changed. Why must people do with less? We make stuff, that is what we do, are we less capable of making stuff, it doesn't appear so, we are able to make more stuff now than in anytime in our history. Is there a reason that we cannot make a house for everyone or feed everyone, we have enough materials.
So why don't we help each other, why don't we produce for each other that which is at our hands? Do you understand my confusion. Let me make it simple, is there a reason that we cannot build houses and apartments, is there not enough wood and nails? Is there a reason that we cannot feed everyone, there is enough food. So why don't we take care of each other, it is simple, we want to have the advantage.
What is the answer, what is the question, it is bedtime, be well.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Is it really Saturday
Cooked my mustard crusted rack of lamb and feta stuffed tomatoes. Yep, nothing to say, just enjoying the flavor of the moment and thinking of her.
A Guest Writer
What follows is from a relative who will be guest blogging for the night. Jeez I hope he does well. Here you go.
GUEST BLOGGER
Starting with the basic meaning of the word, philosophy means love of wisdom. To be a philosopher you must be a lover of wisdom. This is a very broad way to look at philosophy. Once a philosophy professor said that a subject leaves the realm of philosophy when it starts to produce consistent answers. Meaning that once consistent empirical evidence has been established it stops being philosophy. People become less focused on broad ideas and start to specialize.
Aristotle writes on a large range of subjects ranging from the nature of friendship, how to organize societies, to the laws and relationships of matter which we call now physics. Eventually people started to find patterns that they later established as laws and this is when philosophy, according to the professor, wipes her hands clean of the subject. not completely obviously because all wisdom and knowledge ties into themselves. For example,
OKAY, KEEPING UP A BLOG IS NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKS. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.
GUEST BLOGGER
Starting with the basic meaning of the word, philosophy means love of wisdom. To be a philosopher you must be a lover of wisdom. This is a very broad way to look at philosophy. Once a philosophy professor said that a subject leaves the realm of philosophy when it starts to produce consistent answers. Meaning that once consistent empirical evidence has been established it stops being philosophy. People become less focused on broad ideas and start to specialize.
Aristotle writes on a large range of subjects ranging from the nature of friendship, how to organize societies, to the laws and relationships of matter which we call now physics. Eventually people started to find patterns that they later established as laws and this is when philosophy, according to the professor, wipes her hands clean of the subject. not completely obviously because all wisdom and knowledge ties into themselves. For example,
OKAY, KEEPING UP A BLOG IS NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKS. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Vernon and it's surprises
Remember awhile back I wrote about the City of Vernon. It is a industrial city with about 100 residents most of whom work for the City and live in City provided housing. It's corruption is legendary. Well, the Speaker of the Assembly of California, John Perez, has been attempting to de-certify it as a city. It is claimed that the intent was to make it part of unincorporated Los Angeles county. Apparently that cannot be done because of the utility company that the City of Vernon owns. Hmmmm.
Now the L.A. Weekly raises the question of whether or not the City of Los Angeles might take it over. This is an amazing idea, wait a second, didn't I mention that about two years ago? I think I did. Left out of the L.A. Weekly article was any discussion of the fact that Vernon has other ties to the City of Los Angeles. The City of LA wanted to buy some land in Kern for a wind or solar farm, a friend of the Mayor's worked with CIM Group to buy the land and then sell it to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, CIM was being partly funded by the City's retirement fund and I believe CalPers also. Anyways, that deal made the papers so the property was hastily sold to, you guessed it, the City of Vernon (except for the water rights).
Let us also not forget that Mr. Perez is the cousin of the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa. CIM Group, pensions, Redevelopment Agencies, politicians and unions are always a bad mix. CIM Group made it into the news again, you may want to read about it if you like Venice. That is it for the night. Be well.
Now the L.A. Weekly raises the question of whether or not the City of Los Angeles might take it over. This is an amazing idea, wait a second, didn't I mention that about two years ago? I think I did. Left out of the L.A. Weekly article was any discussion of the fact that Vernon has other ties to the City of Los Angeles. The City of LA wanted to buy some land in Kern for a wind or solar farm, a friend of the Mayor's worked with CIM Group to buy the land and then sell it to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, CIM was being partly funded by the City's retirement fund and I believe CalPers also. Anyways, that deal made the papers so the property was hastily sold to, you guessed it, the City of Vernon (except for the water rights).
Let us also not forget that Mr. Perez is the cousin of the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa. CIM Group, pensions, Redevelopment Agencies, politicians and unions are always a bad mix. CIM Group made it into the news again, you may want to read about it if you like Venice. That is it for the night. Be well.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Another Thought on Pastor Carol Daniels
I was thinking about how many people found my blog because of my post about Pastor Carol Daniels and I decided to search for her on Yahoo to see if there were any updates. No updates; but, now my blog was on page one for searches or whatever their algorythmn is. Anyways, it got me thinking about something.
The little store that was right next to the church had to be closed on Sunday. There is no report of anyone being in the vicinity except for the old couple that came by. If someone had been at the store than they would have had a lot of questions asked of them and that would have been reported. Something saying that the clerk next door didn't hear or see anything.
Whoever killed the dear pastor must have known that the store was closed on Sundays. I imagine most people in that town knew that. Small town. In a town where you only have one or two small stores, you know when they are open. The killer was someone who knew that town and it's businesses and that people rarely went to the church; but, he would have also known that sometimes people did, just like the old couple.
The killing was not planned for that day, the day wasn't important. The person would have come by each Sunday, prepared; but, waiting to see if anyone else might attend. If the only people that ever came by was the elderly couple and they were consistent in their time as to when they came by, that would indicate something to watch for. Who could watch and would they watch for weeks. Two choices, you would watch the elderly couple waiting for the day when they did not leave at their regular time or watch the church at the expected time of their arrival. I guess then the question would be for the elderly couple.
I would want to know if they elderly couple had planned on leaving their money to the church. I didn't like the fact that the church was destroyed a year later. Not a criticism, just seemed quick to me. Yet, it doesn't appear anyone other than the elderly couple went. I guess now they would have to drive 50 miles to attend church. They would probably just stop going.
So here is my thinking. We know the person came prepared, he brought liquids to destroy dna evidence it said at the time. He knew that the elderly couple were not coming that day (but, he was wrong about that in the end), they just arrived late, maybe they woke up late or maybe they told him that they weren't going. At least they should be asked questions along this line.
There had to more people than just the two elderly ones, otherwise why wouldn't she just minister to them at their house. Sorry, no answers, just trying to see if there are any questions that could still be asked, seems like nothing new has happened in the case.
Something else occurred to me. There was no reports of blood stains outside of the church. It said there was a lot of blood in the church and the person exited via the back door, there should have been bloody steps unless the shoes had been changed. It also didn't report any bloody footsteps inside the church. Did the killer wear the kind of things that surgeons do over their shoes, it is so that they don't slip in blood or get blood on their shoes.
It is possible that the police have a shoe print and just haven't said so. The church is gone so the only physical is in the hands of the police. The only other possible physical evidence is in the possession of the killer.
I am betting that the police do have a suspect. They never caught the person who had set the fires just prior to the killing and the two may be connected. The problem would be evidence. If you have no DNA, no witnesses and no prints, what evidence could you use to convict someone? You would either need the person to confess to someone, anyone or find evidence on the person or in their possession. If the killer remove any evidence and destroyed all his clothes, there isn't much hope of proving anything short of a confession.
I guess the only thing left to do would be to check on everyone that could have been a witness, people that would have usually seen or heard something, neighbors, whatever. Are there any private security firms in the area that should have been by there checking on businesses or any people that regularly made deliveries in that area on Sundays. Not much, not much to go on.
It said in the autopsy that Pastor Daniels had defensive wounds, she fought back; but, they would have checked under her nails for skin from the attacker. Either there wasn't any or they think it is a secret. Nope, the attacker would have known if she had scratched him, no secret there.
This killer was absolutely convinced that nobody was coming by, he wasn't afraid of the screams and he wasn't afraid that burning hair would be noticed on the street. It smells bad. How could anybody take such a big risk unless they were 100% sure that they she would not be heard and that it was safe to stay and stage and even start her hair on fire.
I guess if you had a suspect you could check and see if their cell phone records showed any calls not being picked up while the murder was going on; but, that is really circumstantial. I know they have tried swabbing random people for DNA as in the BTK case. What if you had everyone that lived within one block of the church take a lie detector test, would they be willing to do it in order to catch the killer and eliminate the possibility that it was someone who was within one block? Lets face it, it isn't that many people. Oh and everyone that worked at the store and car wash that was across the street.
I guess what I may be saying is don't be too hard on the Oklahoma police, as I was initially. If what we know is true, they may have a suspect and nothing to prove that he did it. I know, I keep saying him; but, it is the most likely. I know a woman could have done it; but, lets be truthful, Pastor Daniels was a big woman and a woman using a knife to attack a woman that was large would be very risky and Pastor Daniels did defend herself so a smaller woman is unlikely.
There are what, 6,000 people in Anandarko, I mean eliminate all women, all children under 15 and all people that were attending church or otherwise accounted for. How many people are left in a town of 6,000 in the bible belt that includes Oklahoma. Now how many of the ones remaining even knew who the Pastor was, come on, she showed up on Sundays to a church that nobody attended, how many people in that town even knew of her? These numbers are not big.
So you narrow it down to a few suspects and then what, what do you do when you don't have any evidence other than circumstantial? How do you even get a warrant to search someone's house? I will bet money that the killer is low paid or unemployed, I will bet that it is a younger man, maybe in his 20s or very early 30s. I will bet they live in Anandarko and do not attend church unless their parents force them; but that is unlikely as his parents would have noticed that he did not attend on that day.
I am just free style thinking. No knowledge, just writing. You take a town of 6,000 and if you have no suspects then you begin by eliminating suspects in a ring that goes outward. That is hard work and the only choice you have. Even after that you only get suspects, still no evidence. Don't be too hard on them.
The little store that was right next to the church had to be closed on Sunday. There is no report of anyone being in the vicinity except for the old couple that came by. If someone had been at the store than they would have had a lot of questions asked of them and that would have been reported. Something saying that the clerk next door didn't hear or see anything.
Whoever killed the dear pastor must have known that the store was closed on Sundays. I imagine most people in that town knew that. Small town. In a town where you only have one or two small stores, you know when they are open. The killer was someone who knew that town and it's businesses and that people rarely went to the church; but, he would have also known that sometimes people did, just like the old couple.
The killing was not planned for that day, the day wasn't important. The person would have come by each Sunday, prepared; but, waiting to see if anyone else might attend. If the only people that ever came by was the elderly couple and they were consistent in their time as to when they came by, that would indicate something to watch for. Who could watch and would they watch for weeks. Two choices, you would watch the elderly couple waiting for the day when they did not leave at their regular time or watch the church at the expected time of their arrival. I guess then the question would be for the elderly couple.
I would want to know if they elderly couple had planned on leaving their money to the church. I didn't like the fact that the church was destroyed a year later. Not a criticism, just seemed quick to me. Yet, it doesn't appear anyone other than the elderly couple went. I guess now they would have to drive 50 miles to attend church. They would probably just stop going.
So here is my thinking. We know the person came prepared, he brought liquids to destroy dna evidence it said at the time. He knew that the elderly couple were not coming that day (but, he was wrong about that in the end), they just arrived late, maybe they woke up late or maybe they told him that they weren't going. At least they should be asked questions along this line.
There had to more people than just the two elderly ones, otherwise why wouldn't she just minister to them at their house. Sorry, no answers, just trying to see if there are any questions that could still be asked, seems like nothing new has happened in the case.
Something else occurred to me. There was no reports of blood stains outside of the church. It said there was a lot of blood in the church and the person exited via the back door, there should have been bloody steps unless the shoes had been changed. It also didn't report any bloody footsteps inside the church. Did the killer wear the kind of things that surgeons do over their shoes, it is so that they don't slip in blood or get blood on their shoes.
It is possible that the police have a shoe print and just haven't said so. The church is gone so the only physical is in the hands of the police. The only other possible physical evidence is in the possession of the killer.
I am betting that the police do have a suspect. They never caught the person who had set the fires just prior to the killing and the two may be connected. The problem would be evidence. If you have no DNA, no witnesses and no prints, what evidence could you use to convict someone? You would either need the person to confess to someone, anyone or find evidence on the person or in their possession. If the killer remove any evidence and destroyed all his clothes, there isn't much hope of proving anything short of a confession.
I guess the only thing left to do would be to check on everyone that could have been a witness, people that would have usually seen or heard something, neighbors, whatever. Are there any private security firms in the area that should have been by there checking on businesses or any people that regularly made deliveries in that area on Sundays. Not much, not much to go on.
It said in the autopsy that Pastor Daniels had defensive wounds, she fought back; but, they would have checked under her nails for skin from the attacker. Either there wasn't any or they think it is a secret. Nope, the attacker would have known if she had scratched him, no secret there.
This killer was absolutely convinced that nobody was coming by, he wasn't afraid of the screams and he wasn't afraid that burning hair would be noticed on the street. It smells bad. How could anybody take such a big risk unless they were 100% sure that they she would not be heard and that it was safe to stay and stage and even start her hair on fire.
I guess if you had a suspect you could check and see if their cell phone records showed any calls not being picked up while the murder was going on; but, that is really circumstantial. I know they have tried swabbing random people for DNA as in the BTK case. What if you had everyone that lived within one block of the church take a lie detector test, would they be willing to do it in order to catch the killer and eliminate the possibility that it was someone who was within one block? Lets face it, it isn't that many people. Oh and everyone that worked at the store and car wash that was across the street.
I guess what I may be saying is don't be too hard on the Oklahoma police, as I was initially. If what we know is true, they may have a suspect and nothing to prove that he did it. I know, I keep saying him; but, it is the most likely. I know a woman could have done it; but, lets be truthful, Pastor Daniels was a big woman and a woman using a knife to attack a woman that was large would be very risky and Pastor Daniels did defend herself so a smaller woman is unlikely.
There are what, 6,000 people in Anandarko, I mean eliminate all women, all children under 15 and all people that were attending church or otherwise accounted for. How many people are left in a town of 6,000 in the bible belt that includes Oklahoma. Now how many of the ones remaining even knew who the Pastor was, come on, she showed up on Sundays to a church that nobody attended, how many people in that town even knew of her? These numbers are not big.
So you narrow it down to a few suspects and then what, what do you do when you don't have any evidence other than circumstantial? How do you even get a warrant to search someone's house? I will bet money that the killer is low paid or unemployed, I will bet that it is a younger man, maybe in his 20s or very early 30s. I will bet they live in Anandarko and do not attend church unless their parents force them; but that is unlikely as his parents would have noticed that he did not attend on that day.
I am just free style thinking. No knowledge, just writing. You take a town of 6,000 and if you have no suspects then you begin by eliminating suspects in a ring that goes outward. That is hard work and the only choice you have. Even after that you only get suspects, still no evidence. Don't be too hard on them.
Monday, August 15, 2011
One Less Thing
Today I did something special, I sent the final payment to my attorney. The divorce ended a while ago; but, there was still some little business to be taken care of. Two things really, one was some paperwork on the house and the other was writing up the paperwork that gives my ex-wife half of my retirement. Both those things are completed so my case is over.
It felt good to pay off my attorney, I had wanted to do it in person; but, I think she is too busy. When I put the check in the mail, I felt as if it was finally over, that last little thing. Sure, I still have the debt to pay off; but, that will happen. This was the last payment for the marriage or for the divorce. In 2013 we will return to court and they will cut her payment. In 2014 I will retire, she will get just about half and I will be done with it completely. As it is I don't think about the payments, my wages are garnished so I never see it.
I don't have any feelings about what happened anymore, I just don't care. I regret that she did what she did; but, I just don't care anymore. I knew that when I put the check in the mail, it was all over finally. I don't really wish to see her again; however, in 2013 I will and that is far enough away that I probably won't even really notice.
It is funny how the passage of time has soothed what was a very open and painful sore. The sadness, the anger, the confusion are all gone, almost as if they never were. Hard to explain. Funny how the mind heals itself, how it protects itself. My mind has certainly been tested, tore down only to rebuild itself as it had intended, to return to self and then heal and strengthen. I never gave up on being me, the person I intended rather than one built around this world and it's cookies.
YouTube - Al Stewart - Time Passages
Pulling yourself together is a question of rediscovering what matters to you. It is asking yourself about your priorities and knowing that those things are what you would really choose. I like being me, I like knowing that I choose who I am and don't care if I get rewarded with cookies or beat with a stick, won't and hasn't changed who I am.
My train of thought was interrupted, my sister called me and we had a lovely conversation. I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking.
Oh, yeah. I payed off my attorney, one less thing, one less scar, be well.
It felt good to pay off my attorney, I had wanted to do it in person; but, I think she is too busy. When I put the check in the mail, I felt as if it was finally over, that last little thing. Sure, I still have the debt to pay off; but, that will happen. This was the last payment for the marriage or for the divorce. In 2013 we will return to court and they will cut her payment. In 2014 I will retire, she will get just about half and I will be done with it completely. As it is I don't think about the payments, my wages are garnished so I never see it.
I don't have any feelings about what happened anymore, I just don't care. I regret that she did what she did; but, I just don't care anymore. I knew that when I put the check in the mail, it was all over finally. I don't really wish to see her again; however, in 2013 I will and that is far enough away that I probably won't even really notice.
It is funny how the passage of time has soothed what was a very open and painful sore. The sadness, the anger, the confusion are all gone, almost as if they never were. Hard to explain. Funny how the mind heals itself, how it protects itself. My mind has certainly been tested, tore down only to rebuild itself as it had intended, to return to self and then heal and strengthen. I never gave up on being me, the person I intended rather than one built around this world and it's cookies.
YouTube - Al Stewart - Time Passages
Pulling yourself together is a question of rediscovering what matters to you. It is asking yourself about your priorities and knowing that those things are what you would really choose. I like being me, I like knowing that I choose who I am and don't care if I get rewarded with cookies or beat with a stick, won't and hasn't changed who I am.
My train of thought was interrupted, my sister called me and we had a lovely conversation. I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking.
Oh, yeah. I payed off my attorney, one less thing, one less scar, be well.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
But Not Much of a Post
Attempting to enjoy the last of my weekend. I finally have a working oven and made a throw together pork tenderloin. It came out pretty good. I love to cook (notice to the ladies) and am pretty good at it. I look forward to cooking again, I look forward to making my specialties again, I feel alive when I am cooking, isn't that odd, it is not a job, it is a joy.
Be well and have a fantastic week.
Be well and have a fantastic week.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Here is a Blatent Lie from England
A couple of weeks ago there was an article about how England was considering hiring William Bratton, the ex-chief of Police for New York and Los Angeles for the job at Scotland Yard. Since then England has seen a series of riots. Now Mr. Bratton is giving advice to Prime Minister Cameron, for free, on dealing with gangs because of the riots. Do you not see how lying this is. It also says that he hopes to get a contract to continue consulting, he will and it will be really big.
Now you have a couple of ways to look at this. Firstly, they wanted to hire Bratton and found this a convenient lie for paying him as much as they will or secondly, they knew they were going to need an expert on gangs, that they knew that these riots were coming. Perhaps they were not spontaneous and the police had already read texts and knew they were coming. Which answer do you like, I don't like any of them.
Now you have a couple of ways to look at this. Firstly, they wanted to hire Bratton and found this a convenient lie for paying him as much as they will or secondly, they knew they were going to need an expert on gangs, that they knew that these riots were coming. Perhaps they were not spontaneous and the police had already read texts and knew they were coming. Which answer do you like, I don't like any of them.
Friday, August 12, 2011
And Now the Media Goes Down
Not an anomaly, not a coincidence so it must be a pattern. Most people are aware of the Rupert Murdoch scandal and how his newspaper was hacking people's phone messages and how the police were paid for their assistance. Now we have a nice story proving the dishonesty and fixed message of mainstream media.
Here is the thing, one by one we are destroying all large industries that can exert any influence over government. That is what is going on. Mainstream Media is on it's last legs, it is dead. There are many bloggers and much news on the internet; but, it is intentionally left confusing, it is difficult to know if facts have been checked. How does one know who to trust?
No expert will be trusted in the future as all areas of expertise have allowed themselves to be prostituted for money and fame. Cookies. Problem is, we need experts, we just need honest ones. We need an honest society, do you wish to help in achieving that? There is too little honesty and that starts with everyone of us. What happens when we cannot trust each other, which way does society go.
Here is the thing, one by one we are destroying all large industries that can exert any influence over government. That is what is going on. Mainstream Media is on it's last legs, it is dead. There are many bloggers and much news on the internet; but, it is intentionally left confusing, it is difficult to know if facts have been checked. How does one know who to trust?
No expert will be trusted in the future as all areas of expertise have allowed themselves to be prostituted for money and fame. Cookies. Problem is, we need experts, we just need honest ones. We need an honest society, do you wish to help in achieving that? There is too little honesty and that starts with everyone of us. What happens when we cannot trust each other, which way does society go.
Can You See it Coming Yet? Want to bet me?
Firstly, the Post Office is about to lay off 120,000 when unemployment is the biggest national problem. Secondly, companies that are hiring are often telling the unemployed that they are only hiring people who already have jobs. Thirdly, Congress is about to create a super committee to come up with a jobs program. Got all that.
So, with a short time frame and businesses refusing to hire the unemployed, what is the logical next step, come on now, if you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I have said what they are going to do on a couple of occasions, class, class, put on your thinking caps and lets get to work on this. Don't forget that we just increased the debt ceiling by trillions.
The first thing to look at is what work needs to be done. Well, the cities, counties and states are all laying off. Work needs to be done on the nations infrastructure (roads, bridges and rail). Giving money to private industry doesn't seem to create jobs, just raises for the CEOs. Hmmm, what has been the most successful job creation program in the history of the United States? That might be something to consider. Oh, year it was the Works Progress Administration.
That is what I have said is coming since before the stimulus was enacted. Now, if this super committee comes back with such a proposal then I want a cookie for having accurately predicted it, chocolate chip and soft, not hard.
So, with a short time frame and businesses refusing to hire the unemployed, what is the logical next step, come on now, if you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I have said what they are going to do on a couple of occasions, class, class, put on your thinking caps and lets get to work on this. Don't forget that we just increased the debt ceiling by trillions.
The first thing to look at is what work needs to be done. Well, the cities, counties and states are all laying off. Work needs to be done on the nations infrastructure (roads, bridges and rail). Giving money to private industry doesn't seem to create jobs, just raises for the CEOs. Hmmm, what has been the most successful job creation program in the history of the United States? That might be something to consider. Oh, year it was the Works Progress Administration.
That is what I have said is coming since before the stimulus was enacted. Now, if this super committee comes back with such a proposal then I want a cookie for having accurately predicted it, chocolate chip and soft, not hard.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Who said the mark was permanent
Two articles discussing technological breakthroughs.
The Independent - How computers will soon get under our skin
Breitbart - Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses
Who said that the mark had to be permanent, it only said that you had to have the mark in order to buy and sell.
The Independent - How computers will soon get under our skin
Breitbart - Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses
Who said that the mark had to be permanent, it only said that you had to have the mark in order to buy and sell.
US Postal Service
Someone caused me to read this article, I do not know about the site or author; but, if what he says is true it is pretty much in touch with what I have previously posted about what will happen to the post office.
Here comes going postal the sequel
The post office is about to lay off 120,000 people. How many of the remaining 600,000 will feel safe in their jobs? How much will service be cut. The post office will face the death of a million cuts as it is slowly decimated into practically nothing. We are dismantling the infrastructure of the past. Private mail, libraries, easy mobility, writing. All communication will be in unprotected electronic form, easily stopped and easily limited.
In England they are talking about having control over the social medias because of the riots. How surprising. Here is a nifty little post from another site:
Above Top Secret - Your phone numbers on Facebook
And now some humor
Spinal Tap reviews
Spinal Tap - Drummers deaths
The Rutles - Piggy in the Middle
Here comes going postal the sequel
The post office is about to lay off 120,000 people. How many of the remaining 600,000 will feel safe in their jobs? How much will service be cut. The post office will face the death of a million cuts as it is slowly decimated into practically nothing. We are dismantling the infrastructure of the past. Private mail, libraries, easy mobility, writing. All communication will be in unprotected electronic form, easily stopped and easily limited.
In England they are talking about having control over the social medias because of the riots. How surprising. Here is a nifty little post from another site:
Above Top Secret - Your phone numbers on Facebook
And now some humor
Spinal Tap reviews
Spinal Tap - Drummers deaths
The Rutles - Piggy in the Middle
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Hello
This post has little value to anyone other than regular readers. Over the past few days the number of daily readers has doubled, in addition I find myself led to speak on another site, I apologize sort of, I never promised you anything other than to say what I believe. Be well.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Watch the Lies and Celebrities
So the youth of England will not listen to their elders nor their authorities, nor the threats, I know bring out their heroes. Here it is. Annie Lennox says she is appalled by the riots and then a litany of "stars", heroes to the young say the same. What garbage, they will not buy it. These kids know that they mean nothing to those who have, they are looked down upon as worth less than those who know better, even those who care about them view them as losers with an excuse.
Pimpernel is pretty harsh; but, he is a scarlet pimpernel that asks that we all understand that the privileged are given garbage also. I am not even going to waste my time posting the article. It doesn't matter. No, I will not hide information. Here is the link. BigPondNews - Order Needs to be Restored - Lennox.
Who told them that their lives are going to get better, who told them that they matter, who told them that they deserve to be treated with dignity if they treat others with dignity, who told them that they would have a fair shot, nobody. The urban poor are told, "It is okay to be upset that you are treated like garbage; but, don't justify it by reacting." Once that doesn't work, what is the next step, what lie to tell next?
I know, I know, the average citizen is going to demand that the youth be given hope, that they be appeased, whatever it takes to restore calm and boring. Whatever it takes to make them believe that anyone cares about them, when they do not.
Pimpernel is pretty harsh; but, he is a scarlet pimpernel that asks that we all understand that the privileged are given garbage also. I am not even going to waste my time posting the article. It doesn't matter. No, I will not hide information. Here is the link. BigPondNews - Order Needs to be Restored - Lennox.
Who told them that their lives are going to get better, who told them that they matter, who told them that they deserve to be treated with dignity if they treat others with dignity, who told them that they would have a fair shot, nobody. The urban poor are told, "It is okay to be upset that you are treated like garbage; but, don't justify it by reacting." Once that doesn't work, what is the next step, what lie to tell next?
I know, I know, the average citizen is going to demand that the youth be given hope, that they be appeased, whatever it takes to restore calm and boring. Whatever it takes to make them believe that anyone cares about them, when they do not.
England's Riots and Media's Moronic Questions
I do hope you have read my previous post on what is happening in England, it will help in understanding this one.
The "media" is now asking what turns people into looters, they still don't get it. They make an assumption that people would just naturally be loving, that we are basically good. We are neither born good or bad, we have our propensities and learn that it is wrong to harm others. But, we stopped believing in good and stopped teaching it. The question should be what stops people from being looters, that is the real question. What stops you from stealing, what stops you from lying, what stops you from cheating on your spouse, what stops you from raping, what stops you from killing, what stops you from doing whatever you want?
I want to give you an image for your head. Think about the pictures of the cities of tomorrow that you have in your mind, what you have seen in books, on television, in movies and on the internet. That image of the City of the future that we are tying to build, that green City where people ride bikes and recycle and everything is pretty, you know the one. Now if you live in a ghetto and see that picture, you know what you know, they didn't provide a place for you. When you look at that picture, it doesn't have a place for you, there are no poor people and guess what, these are the same people that we are now telling are going to be having even less.
Basically we are telling poor people that we are going to take the money we do have to provide eco-friendly living spaces for the young urban professionals and we don't see the poor in our future. Kids that can barely read and have little food understand that they don't matter to society, they live it and putting one or two of them into Oxford or Harvard doesn't impress them, they understand the quota system and they also know that they don't have a chance.
There is an agenda and it is not new. The agenda is to have international law and have all currencies pegged to the same thing. The intent is to stop wars and promote business. To bring prosperity. Wars will merely be replaced by civil disturbances. It is about learning to respect each others boundaries, not about making everyone the same.
I would like to talk about Social Darwinism for a moment. I am not a proponent; but, it is a way of thinking that is taught. It is the idea that you can put people through endless tests to rank and score them as deserving of living. That is social Darwinism. Western society is built around it, the school system being tier two, we correct tier one now with abortions. The filters are health, intelligence, respect for authority, ability to mimic and that you agree with the filters and their usage.
The mistake it makes is that those on the bottom know they have been selected to be on the bottom and they resent it. The media and authorities blindly babble on about what causes people to loot, how bout because they know that they are always going to go without, that the game is rigged and that the people on top don't really care about them? I like those answers. Do I agree with what is going on, absolutely not; but, I am educated and have a decent job and am a Christian. If I was like them, I might think differently and that would be a bad thing, the only thing that keeps me good is my Christianity, if I did not have that belief, that belief in peace and love, well even my closest friends will tell you that no good would come of that.
So how did I come to believe in forgiveness. First I learned to fight back, then I learned to understand people better and fight back even better. When they stopped attacking me I began to see how weak and scared they were and that in hating them I only hurt myself. I began to develop sympathy for them, then I became a Christian and understood why I should have sympathy for them. If I had not developed sympathy for them then I would be very rich and they would be very unhappy.
In order to develop sympathy, you have to believe that other people's feelings are the same as yours, not the reason why they feel the way they do; but, the pain is the same. Do we teach that, I don't think so. We teach that everyone is the same, not feels the same. We teach that everyone is equally deserving, not feels the same feelings. So why try, why bother doing anything nice, take care of yourself, that is the message that they teach.
We have taught people to do as they wish, that required that we teach them to avoid sympathy. Recently a study came out saying that the rich had less sympathy and more manners than the poor. What a shock. Problem is, if you push the poor enough they will have as little sympathy as the rich, except they have not been taught restraint.
Now I will tell you how the game is rigged. Under true social Darwinism, you would help each other without any biases. See true social Darwinism does not predetermine the outcome, it just waits to see it. Those who had power used it to preselect the winners without evening the playing field, they never gave them a chance. They assumed that if you were in power now then you had already proven yourself and the bar was then set a moment in time; before others had the chance to prove themselves. I am sorry that is a tortured way of explaining myself.
Okay, you are born poor and don't eat properly, that will make it harder for you in school. You can overcome it; but, others may not. A social Darwinist would say that the fittest had won out and I might agree; but, there is a problem. The one that wins out from the poor is facing those who have won out from the rich, they were born wealthy, they had good nutrition and they had time and assistance in learning. The groups did not start from the same place, so the real competition may have never gotten to the table.
I am not off point by the way. Look at the title again and remember my original statement. The idiots on television ask what turns someone into a looter, they never ask what makes any of us better than that because they believe they earned their place. Most people that are successful take credit for it and recite all the things they did to get there. They forget that they were not their own parents and did not select their genes, they were lucky in that.
I am pretty smart and have been very successful in business; but, I never forget that I was born healthy and with a decent IQ. I did not birth me, just the way I am and was born. I can take some credit for what I have done with it; but, it is 50/50 at best and I know that.
They don't get it in England, the kids won't listen because they know how they are living and who has all the goodies and how hopeless their lives are. Tell them how they have a future, show them the cities of the future where the lives of the poor are better, not where there are no poor. Didn't Jesus say that we would always have the poor with us? Tell the disabled how you are going to help them and make sure that nobody else is ever born like them. Talk about how in the future everybody will live in Utopia and nobody will be poor. Tell them how they will be able to do whatever they want; but, virtually. See if they buy that.
The "media" is now asking what turns people into looters, they still don't get it. They make an assumption that people would just naturally be loving, that we are basically good. We are neither born good or bad, we have our propensities and learn that it is wrong to harm others. But, we stopped believing in good and stopped teaching it. The question should be what stops people from being looters, that is the real question. What stops you from stealing, what stops you from lying, what stops you from cheating on your spouse, what stops you from raping, what stops you from killing, what stops you from doing whatever you want?
I want to give you an image for your head. Think about the pictures of the cities of tomorrow that you have in your mind, what you have seen in books, on television, in movies and on the internet. That image of the City of the future that we are tying to build, that green City where people ride bikes and recycle and everything is pretty, you know the one. Now if you live in a ghetto and see that picture, you know what you know, they didn't provide a place for you. When you look at that picture, it doesn't have a place for you, there are no poor people and guess what, these are the same people that we are now telling are going to be having even less.
Basically we are telling poor people that we are going to take the money we do have to provide eco-friendly living spaces for the young urban professionals and we don't see the poor in our future. Kids that can barely read and have little food understand that they don't matter to society, they live it and putting one or two of them into Oxford or Harvard doesn't impress them, they understand the quota system and they also know that they don't have a chance.
There is an agenda and it is not new. The agenda is to have international law and have all currencies pegged to the same thing. The intent is to stop wars and promote business. To bring prosperity. Wars will merely be replaced by civil disturbances. It is about learning to respect each others boundaries, not about making everyone the same.
I would like to talk about Social Darwinism for a moment. I am not a proponent; but, it is a way of thinking that is taught. It is the idea that you can put people through endless tests to rank and score them as deserving of living. That is social Darwinism. Western society is built around it, the school system being tier two, we correct tier one now with abortions. The filters are health, intelligence, respect for authority, ability to mimic and that you agree with the filters and their usage.
The mistake it makes is that those on the bottom know they have been selected to be on the bottom and they resent it. The media and authorities blindly babble on about what causes people to loot, how bout because they know that they are always going to go without, that the game is rigged and that the people on top don't really care about them? I like those answers. Do I agree with what is going on, absolutely not; but, I am educated and have a decent job and am a Christian. If I was like them, I might think differently and that would be a bad thing, the only thing that keeps me good is my Christianity, if I did not have that belief, that belief in peace and love, well even my closest friends will tell you that no good would come of that.
So how did I come to believe in forgiveness. First I learned to fight back, then I learned to understand people better and fight back even better. When they stopped attacking me I began to see how weak and scared they were and that in hating them I only hurt myself. I began to develop sympathy for them, then I became a Christian and understood why I should have sympathy for them. If I had not developed sympathy for them then I would be very rich and they would be very unhappy.
In order to develop sympathy, you have to believe that other people's feelings are the same as yours, not the reason why they feel the way they do; but, the pain is the same. Do we teach that, I don't think so. We teach that everyone is the same, not feels the same. We teach that everyone is equally deserving, not feels the same feelings. So why try, why bother doing anything nice, take care of yourself, that is the message that they teach.
We have taught people to do as they wish, that required that we teach them to avoid sympathy. Recently a study came out saying that the rich had less sympathy and more manners than the poor. What a shock. Problem is, if you push the poor enough they will have as little sympathy as the rich, except they have not been taught restraint.
Now I will tell you how the game is rigged. Under true social Darwinism, you would help each other without any biases. See true social Darwinism does not predetermine the outcome, it just waits to see it. Those who had power used it to preselect the winners without evening the playing field, they never gave them a chance. They assumed that if you were in power now then you had already proven yourself and the bar was then set a moment in time; before others had the chance to prove themselves. I am sorry that is a tortured way of explaining myself.
Okay, you are born poor and don't eat properly, that will make it harder for you in school. You can overcome it; but, others may not. A social Darwinist would say that the fittest had won out and I might agree; but, there is a problem. The one that wins out from the poor is facing those who have won out from the rich, they were born wealthy, they had good nutrition and they had time and assistance in learning. The groups did not start from the same place, so the real competition may have never gotten to the table.
I am not off point by the way. Look at the title again and remember my original statement. The idiots on television ask what turns someone into a looter, they never ask what makes any of us better than that because they believe they earned their place. Most people that are successful take credit for it and recite all the things they did to get there. They forget that they were not their own parents and did not select their genes, they were lucky in that.
I am pretty smart and have been very successful in business; but, I never forget that I was born healthy and with a decent IQ. I did not birth me, just the way I am and was born. I can take some credit for what I have done with it; but, it is 50/50 at best and I know that.
They don't get it in England, the kids won't listen because they know how they are living and who has all the goodies and how hopeless their lives are. Tell them how they have a future, show them the cities of the future where the lives of the poor are better, not where there are no poor. Didn't Jesus say that we would always have the poor with us? Tell the disabled how you are going to help them and make sure that nobody else is ever born like them. Talk about how in the future everybody will live in Utopia and nobody will be poor. Tell them how they will be able to do whatever they want; but, virtually. See if they buy that.
Much better, lets talk about sheep and the riots in England
Just in case anyone was wondering, yes, I had a terrible night. I couldn't eat anything or hold anything down and because of it, I couldn't sleep. I am feeling much better today and drinking lots of water. In other words, nothing to worry about.
I was going to try and make it to work; but, decided to just let my body rest and recover. It gave me some time to look at the continuing story in England. I have seen it before in the United States. It begins as a protest and ends up being a party. The Los Angeles riots turned into a party for many, that is how they felt it was; but, a very expensive and costly party.
The protests in the middle east are not a party, people are being executed for just protesting, not for looting, for protesting. There is a big difference between the two and the causes. In the middle east people are fed up with their repressive governments because they have no freedom and their lives mean nothing to their leaders. Certainly Khadafi made this clear when he said he would kill everyone rather than step down.
The protests in England are different. In London everything you do is monitored. In England the government is basically telling a large part of it's population that they are going to do without, same is happening in America. Our countries are telling our young people that they will have to live in lives of poverty, without job and without hope. At the same time our two countries are rewarding bad behaviour by bankers and celebrities.
I am a Christian and understand the biblical reference to people being sheep. Most people are pretty lazy and just want to go about their own business and live their lives, there is nothing wrong with that. Every now and then it is necessary to move the sheep or to shear them. As long as you don't do it too often or too severely it all works well enough.
What we are seeing by our leaders is abuse of the people. The leaders have forgotten something and rather than being shepherds have become predators. Economies have shrunk but there is no shared sacrifice if the leaders continue to be compensated as they were before. The leaders try and blame the unions or the civil servants or foreigners; but, in the end we all know that the leadership has failed. What happens when the sheep will no longer follow the shepherd, anarchy. The complete disregard for authority.
There were a couple of young girls in England who were interviewed about the riots. They said that the purpose was to prove that they didn't have to listen to the police or the wealthy. All the cameras in the world could not stop what is happening in London because they just don't care what the authorities do. If you feel like you are in prison already then a day or two out of the cell is good enough for many.
The riots will end as they must, you cannot get food or go to work if you are rioting everyday. That wont change anything, it wont solve the problems and it wont stop it from happening again.
It is interesting to watch the politicians attempt to put a spin on what is happening in England. The Home Secretary said that these riots were not because of the austerity measures, that is laughable when the youths are saying that it is. There are others discussing the use of water cannons and plastic bullets and one of the government representatives said that they would never use such things in England although they were more than happy to use them in Northern Ireland on simple protesters.
We see the privileged ignoring the laws and doing as they please. We see the wealthy and the powerful do whatever they want and even say that the rules don't apply to them. That is the message that we send to kids and they figure that the rules don't apply to them either. There is no middle ground because nobody seeks it, everyone seeks to do what is right in their eyes.
The hacker group, "Anonymous" says that they do not forgive and do not forget and many like the sound of that. Wikileaks, Anonymous and lulzsec all hack into the government and powerful and release their information. When they do the rich and powerful cry foul, yet, they track our every more. I do not condone any of this; but, this is how it is transpiring.
The politicians and leaders in England say that these are just thugs, well guys, there sure are a lot of them and they don't appear to have any respect for you. By the way, these youths are your tomorrow and you raised them to be this way. For the past 50 years western Europe has been destroying religion, destroying values and morals, obsessing on materialism and subjectivism. Western Europe told these kids that they mattered and their opinions mattered and that they should do whatever feels good and they listened and now they are doing it. The United States is not far behind, in fact 10 years should do it.
The great socialist thinkers and the great globalist thinkers are all wrong. The bible says people are sheep and need good leaders, the socialists and globalists think that the sheep should be taught that nothing matters except materialism and this is in fact what you get.
One of the reasons that the English monarchy exists is because when they were last challenged, they agreed to ensure rights to the English people, the Magna Carta. The French were less willing to compromise and when the masses finally took over, they chopped their heads off. History should be a warning to those in power today.
The difference between today and the great depression is that the people have changed, they will not be as peaceful as they were in the past. Now is the time for the leaders of the west to really change their ways and be leaders rather than takers and sell outs. Those who control our leaders through money and prestige should also be careful as they have now been identified. The lies will no longer hide what the powerful attempt to do in secret.
Those in charge look to the police and military to protect them while at the same time promising veterans less help when they return and going after the police pensions and promising that their children will live like those in third world nations.
The western governments tell their youths that they will have to work until they are in their 60s or early 70s just to pay off the debt that they did not benefit from. I would prefer to see today's youths just refuse to participate in anything rather than create violence in the streets. I would prefer to see them engage in sit downs in the streets and put commerce at a stand still until there is some modicum of fairness; but, nobody in power will listen to them. That is not quite true, they listen a lot; but, then explain why they are still going to take advantage of them.
There are three valleys, one is lush and green, one is sort of drier and less lush and the third is dry with almost no vegetation. The hired shepherd is supposed to take the sheep to the lush green valley; but, he plans on buying that land from his boss, the owner so he takes the sheep to the sort of dry and less lush valley. The sheep quickly dispose of what is usable there so the hired shepherd then takes them to the dry valley. They can only stay there so long before they wander off on their own because they know the hired hand is of no use. What will the owner do when he discovers what has occurred, the will dispose of the hired hand, recover his sheep and manage them himself. This is a biblical reference.
We are seeing the youth go feral because the leaders have nothing for them. Because they have nothing for the youth, they will not follow them and will just ignore them. In Atlanta we have witnessed around a 150 teachers getting caught teaching their students to cheat, you have to wonder where that comes from.
The European states methodically undermined the churches while teaching kids that nothing mattered including them objectively and that they were all that mattered subjectively. The west used to teach morals, now it teaches people to do a cost benefit analysis. Well, the kids have and guess what, they see no benefits coming to them and all the costs.
The wealthy and powerful think this will all blow over; but, it won't. The young people in England see how impotent the police are to stop them. Smart leaders would not deny why the kids are rioting, they would say that they need to sit down and make sure that there is a future for these kids.
The leaders do not live the lives that they promote so they have no authority. Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger, he promoted himself as a family man and was busy cheating on his wife. How could anyone take marriage advice from him now is beyond me. What the rich and powerful do in private is no longer private and they don't know what to do. Tiger Woods and the ex-head of the IMF are good examples of this.
There is an answer; but, it is unlikely to occur. The wealthy that control 90% of this world need to put moral people in the leadership roles of government. Lets face it, money and spin gets people elected. That money comes from the wealthy and the politicians that they seek out are those that will bring them more wealth. That isn't going to work anymore. If they wish to restore morality we must have decent and moral leaders, examples not talkers who lie.
The riots will stop, the kids will get older and continue to be cheated and then when they outnumber the rest they will just take over. The youths rioting today will not feel more associated with their government as they continue to be taken advantage of, they will lose any and all respect for the government.
In the United States we have ignored our constitution. Ex President Bush was quoted as saying that it was just a piece of paper. If our leadership has no respect for the constitution and will not follow it then all laws are lost, there is no law when the highest law of the land is ignored. What is the rallying cry of the secularists, "do whatever feels good" and they are. Humanists would add, "as long as you don't hurt anyone"; but, if life is meaningless then the majority won't care. The only thing the youth of the west agree upon is doing what they want and this is what you get.
Update
After writing this, I came across the following article in the Daily Beast. "Stop Politicizing the Riots". The author believes there is nothing to be learned from the riots and that it is just a bunch of young men with free time on their hands behaving badly. How insincere and stupid that? He says there is no reason this is happening and that nobody needs to listen to the youths involved. He acts as though these revolts worldwide are just kids acting up on summer break, it doesn't happen every year, what made this one special?
He completely ignores that while it may not be a political movement it is most definitely a social movement and it has a cause. He is afraid to discuss the real cause because he doesn't like the answer. The great institutions of the west created these children and they do not know how to lead them because they won't listen anymore. You cannot teach a whole generation that all morality is subjective and then try and teach them objective morality which you don't follow yourself.
The author takes the position that guarantees failure, ignore them, don't listen to them and their reasons don't matter. That didn't work too well for King Louis, it is the opposite of what will work. The people who thought they were in power are completely dumbfounded by what is occurring, things have not gone the way they expected. Basically, the author is taking the same position as Kadahfi.
Update 2
The media jumps to marginalize what is happening. As I read the news I begin to see more happy, stupid stories like this one from afp - Londoners strike back with "Operation Riot Clean-Up. This is really going to change things, not. 200 well to do Londoners took brooms and shovels to clean up their town. When the Mayor arrived, who had been gone for two days on a holiday, even the well to do began asking why he wasn't helping clean up.
While this article also tries to sell people on the idea that there is no cause behind what is happening, one person asked exactly what I have.
"But Basma Hassan, a 29-year-old doctor who was also at the Clapham Junction clean-up, disagreed.
"We have to ask why this is happening," she said.
"These may not be the most politically articulate kids, and I agree they are expressing it in a mindlessly criminal way, but we need to step back and looks at why a section of society does this."
If you read enough articles you will find young people saying it is us against the police, it is us against the rich and it is us against the system. The response by the "leadership" and the "media" is, no it isn't it is just criminality. It is only criminality if you have a nation of laws and they don't and neither does the United States anymore. How can such complete indifference and refusal to even listen to these young people make anything better? It doesn't.
The leaders in England will quell the riots; but, that is when things will get even worse because they have done nothing to improve the lives of these people. After the anarchy that we have seen it should be understood that they are quite good at communicating and organizing each other. What happens when the do it peacefully and using the technologies available, shut down these companies. What do technologically savvy young people do when they have no jobs and no hope?
Update 3
This is just too funny. I wanted to get the latest on the riots so I searched under "England" and "riots" using Yahoo and the first three pages of news responses were that they had to call off a soccer game. Honestly, three pages of headlines about how they had to call off a soccer game.
One article quoted a high ranking police official saying that he wanted to make it clear to the rioters that they had no reason for rioting. How dumb is that? The media got a couple of nights of pictures and now they are attempting to spin the story and put it to rest by talking about how there won't be a soccer game on television. It is absolute and utterly stupid denial.
The English media is about as dumb as they come. Rupert Murdoch's vast media in England has recently been shown to have hacked people's phones and payed off police officers. Neither is trusted right now. The media and powers in England are stumped and don't know what to do. Each passing day they attempt to minimize what is happening and now they are beating the drums to use more extreme methods (that is nothing but publicizing the threat and it isn't working).
Lets say that the English start using the water cannons and plastic bullets on it's own citizens, what is the consequence? You will stop the riots; but, at what a cost. They used those things in Northern Ireland and that didn't make anything end.
Now it is being reported that a group of ultraconservatives called the EDL is going to go in there and put an end to this. Well, if you don't want people to see the police as the enemy, what if you just let your semi-official gangs of thugs go in there; but, then that would show police complicity in letting the two factions get together.
I was going to try and make it to work; but, decided to just let my body rest and recover. It gave me some time to look at the continuing story in England. I have seen it before in the United States. It begins as a protest and ends up being a party. The Los Angeles riots turned into a party for many, that is how they felt it was; but, a very expensive and costly party.
The protests in the middle east are not a party, people are being executed for just protesting, not for looting, for protesting. There is a big difference between the two and the causes. In the middle east people are fed up with their repressive governments because they have no freedom and their lives mean nothing to their leaders. Certainly Khadafi made this clear when he said he would kill everyone rather than step down.
The protests in England are different. In London everything you do is monitored. In England the government is basically telling a large part of it's population that they are going to do without, same is happening in America. Our countries are telling our young people that they will have to live in lives of poverty, without job and without hope. At the same time our two countries are rewarding bad behaviour by bankers and celebrities.
I am a Christian and understand the biblical reference to people being sheep. Most people are pretty lazy and just want to go about their own business and live their lives, there is nothing wrong with that. Every now and then it is necessary to move the sheep or to shear them. As long as you don't do it too often or too severely it all works well enough.
What we are seeing by our leaders is abuse of the people. The leaders have forgotten something and rather than being shepherds have become predators. Economies have shrunk but there is no shared sacrifice if the leaders continue to be compensated as they were before. The leaders try and blame the unions or the civil servants or foreigners; but, in the end we all know that the leadership has failed. What happens when the sheep will no longer follow the shepherd, anarchy. The complete disregard for authority.
There were a couple of young girls in England who were interviewed about the riots. They said that the purpose was to prove that they didn't have to listen to the police or the wealthy. All the cameras in the world could not stop what is happening in London because they just don't care what the authorities do. If you feel like you are in prison already then a day or two out of the cell is good enough for many.
The riots will end as they must, you cannot get food or go to work if you are rioting everyday. That wont change anything, it wont solve the problems and it wont stop it from happening again.
It is interesting to watch the politicians attempt to put a spin on what is happening in England. The Home Secretary said that these riots were not because of the austerity measures, that is laughable when the youths are saying that it is. There are others discussing the use of water cannons and plastic bullets and one of the government representatives said that they would never use such things in England although they were more than happy to use them in Northern Ireland on simple protesters.
We see the privileged ignoring the laws and doing as they please. We see the wealthy and the powerful do whatever they want and even say that the rules don't apply to them. That is the message that we send to kids and they figure that the rules don't apply to them either. There is no middle ground because nobody seeks it, everyone seeks to do what is right in their eyes.
The hacker group, "Anonymous" says that they do not forgive and do not forget and many like the sound of that. Wikileaks, Anonymous and lulzsec all hack into the government and powerful and release their information. When they do the rich and powerful cry foul, yet, they track our every more. I do not condone any of this; but, this is how it is transpiring.
The politicians and leaders in England say that these are just thugs, well guys, there sure are a lot of them and they don't appear to have any respect for you. By the way, these youths are your tomorrow and you raised them to be this way. For the past 50 years western Europe has been destroying religion, destroying values and morals, obsessing on materialism and subjectivism. Western Europe told these kids that they mattered and their opinions mattered and that they should do whatever feels good and they listened and now they are doing it. The United States is not far behind, in fact 10 years should do it.
The great socialist thinkers and the great globalist thinkers are all wrong. The bible says people are sheep and need good leaders, the socialists and globalists think that the sheep should be taught that nothing matters except materialism and this is in fact what you get.
One of the reasons that the English monarchy exists is because when they were last challenged, they agreed to ensure rights to the English people, the Magna Carta. The French were less willing to compromise and when the masses finally took over, they chopped their heads off. History should be a warning to those in power today.
The difference between today and the great depression is that the people have changed, they will not be as peaceful as they were in the past. Now is the time for the leaders of the west to really change their ways and be leaders rather than takers and sell outs. Those who control our leaders through money and prestige should also be careful as they have now been identified. The lies will no longer hide what the powerful attempt to do in secret.
Those in charge look to the police and military to protect them while at the same time promising veterans less help when they return and going after the police pensions and promising that their children will live like those in third world nations.
The western governments tell their youths that they will have to work until they are in their 60s or early 70s just to pay off the debt that they did not benefit from. I would prefer to see today's youths just refuse to participate in anything rather than create violence in the streets. I would prefer to see them engage in sit downs in the streets and put commerce at a stand still until there is some modicum of fairness; but, nobody in power will listen to them. That is not quite true, they listen a lot; but, then explain why they are still going to take advantage of them.
There are three valleys, one is lush and green, one is sort of drier and less lush and the third is dry with almost no vegetation. The hired shepherd is supposed to take the sheep to the lush green valley; but, he plans on buying that land from his boss, the owner so he takes the sheep to the sort of dry and less lush valley. The sheep quickly dispose of what is usable there so the hired shepherd then takes them to the dry valley. They can only stay there so long before they wander off on their own because they know the hired hand is of no use. What will the owner do when he discovers what has occurred, the will dispose of the hired hand, recover his sheep and manage them himself. This is a biblical reference.
We are seeing the youth go feral because the leaders have nothing for them. Because they have nothing for the youth, they will not follow them and will just ignore them. In Atlanta we have witnessed around a 150 teachers getting caught teaching their students to cheat, you have to wonder where that comes from.
The European states methodically undermined the churches while teaching kids that nothing mattered including them objectively and that they were all that mattered subjectively. The west used to teach morals, now it teaches people to do a cost benefit analysis. Well, the kids have and guess what, they see no benefits coming to them and all the costs.
The wealthy and powerful think this will all blow over; but, it won't. The young people in England see how impotent the police are to stop them. Smart leaders would not deny why the kids are rioting, they would say that they need to sit down and make sure that there is a future for these kids.
The leaders do not live the lives that they promote so they have no authority. Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger, he promoted himself as a family man and was busy cheating on his wife. How could anyone take marriage advice from him now is beyond me. What the rich and powerful do in private is no longer private and they don't know what to do. Tiger Woods and the ex-head of the IMF are good examples of this.
There is an answer; but, it is unlikely to occur. The wealthy that control 90% of this world need to put moral people in the leadership roles of government. Lets face it, money and spin gets people elected. That money comes from the wealthy and the politicians that they seek out are those that will bring them more wealth. That isn't going to work anymore. If they wish to restore morality we must have decent and moral leaders, examples not talkers who lie.
The riots will stop, the kids will get older and continue to be cheated and then when they outnumber the rest they will just take over. The youths rioting today will not feel more associated with their government as they continue to be taken advantage of, they will lose any and all respect for the government.
In the United States we have ignored our constitution. Ex President Bush was quoted as saying that it was just a piece of paper. If our leadership has no respect for the constitution and will not follow it then all laws are lost, there is no law when the highest law of the land is ignored. What is the rallying cry of the secularists, "do whatever feels good" and they are. Humanists would add, "as long as you don't hurt anyone"; but, if life is meaningless then the majority won't care. The only thing the youth of the west agree upon is doing what they want and this is what you get.
Update
After writing this, I came across the following article in the Daily Beast. "Stop Politicizing the Riots". The author believes there is nothing to be learned from the riots and that it is just a bunch of young men with free time on their hands behaving badly. How insincere and stupid that? He says there is no reason this is happening and that nobody needs to listen to the youths involved. He acts as though these revolts worldwide are just kids acting up on summer break, it doesn't happen every year, what made this one special?
He completely ignores that while it may not be a political movement it is most definitely a social movement and it has a cause. He is afraid to discuss the real cause because he doesn't like the answer. The great institutions of the west created these children and they do not know how to lead them because they won't listen anymore. You cannot teach a whole generation that all morality is subjective and then try and teach them objective morality which you don't follow yourself.
The author takes the position that guarantees failure, ignore them, don't listen to them and their reasons don't matter. That didn't work too well for King Louis, it is the opposite of what will work. The people who thought they were in power are completely dumbfounded by what is occurring, things have not gone the way they expected. Basically, the author is taking the same position as Kadahfi.
Update 2
The media jumps to marginalize what is happening. As I read the news I begin to see more happy, stupid stories like this one from afp - Londoners strike back with "Operation Riot Clean-Up. This is really going to change things, not. 200 well to do Londoners took brooms and shovels to clean up their town. When the Mayor arrived, who had been gone for two days on a holiday, even the well to do began asking why he wasn't helping clean up.
While this article also tries to sell people on the idea that there is no cause behind what is happening, one person asked exactly what I have.
"But Basma Hassan, a 29-year-old doctor who was also at the Clapham Junction clean-up, disagreed.
"We have to ask why this is happening," she said.
"These may not be the most politically articulate kids, and I agree they are expressing it in a mindlessly criminal way, but we need to step back and looks at why a section of society does this."
If you read enough articles you will find young people saying it is us against the police, it is us against the rich and it is us against the system. The response by the "leadership" and the "media" is, no it isn't it is just criminality. It is only criminality if you have a nation of laws and they don't and neither does the United States anymore. How can such complete indifference and refusal to even listen to these young people make anything better? It doesn't.
The leaders in England will quell the riots; but, that is when things will get even worse because they have done nothing to improve the lives of these people. After the anarchy that we have seen it should be understood that they are quite good at communicating and organizing each other. What happens when the do it peacefully and using the technologies available, shut down these companies. What do technologically savvy young people do when they have no jobs and no hope?
Update 3
This is just too funny. I wanted to get the latest on the riots so I searched under "England" and "riots" using Yahoo and the first three pages of news responses were that they had to call off a soccer game. Honestly, three pages of headlines about how they had to call off a soccer game.
One article quoted a high ranking police official saying that he wanted to make it clear to the rioters that they had no reason for rioting. How dumb is that? The media got a couple of nights of pictures and now they are attempting to spin the story and put it to rest by talking about how there won't be a soccer game on television. It is absolute and utterly stupid denial.
The English media is about as dumb as they come. Rupert Murdoch's vast media in England has recently been shown to have hacked people's phones and payed off police officers. Neither is trusted right now. The media and powers in England are stumped and don't know what to do. Each passing day they attempt to minimize what is happening and now they are beating the drums to use more extreme methods (that is nothing but publicizing the threat and it isn't working).
Lets say that the English start using the water cannons and plastic bullets on it's own citizens, what is the consequence? You will stop the riots; but, at what a cost. They used those things in Northern Ireland and that didn't make anything end.
Now it is being reported that a group of ultraconservatives called the EDL is going to go in there and put an end to this. Well, if you don't want people to see the police as the enemy, what if you just let your semi-official gangs of thugs go in there; but, then that would show police complicity in letting the two factions get together.
I Heard a Lie - L.A. Animal Reg
Sometimes you hear something and you just know it is a lie. A few days ago the LAPD raided six City of Los Angeles animal shelters and removed all of their guns and ammo. That in and of itself was highly unusual; but, there was something else, they said that it was part of an audit. It wasn't though, not originally. Somebody, and I am assuming it was the General Manager of Animal Regulations must have notified the Controller's Office that the LAPD was going to confiscate the guns.
I cannot say how I know this; but, I do. By the way I don't work for any of them. I know for instance that additional auditors were called in just before the guns were removed. In case you are wondering, yes it is late and my stomach is acting up and I cannot sleep. It is claimed that this audit is because some animal regulations employees were taking animals and selling them; but, I don't really buy that, the animals are given away for free at the shelters (or just about free).
People are bringing up the question of whether or not people working in that department should have guns at all; but, that should have happened before the guns were confiscated not after. Something is very wrong here, there is more going on. Let's see if we can figure out what it is.
There are a couple of possibilities. Firstly, the auditors found out there was a deeper problem in animal regulations, maybe they discovered where those missing animals went and maybe they discovered that many were being used id dog fights. It is mere speculation I assure you. If dogs are shot and killed and left in an alley after a dog fight, nobody does an analysis of the bullets. What if you did and discovered that it was from a gun owned by animal regulation, what would that tell you. Hmmmm.
Or, what if you found out that some of the dogs that were picked up from alleys after they were used in dog fights had been in the pound and had been set for being put to death. I mean they do use vicious dogs for dog fights and they were going to be put to death anyways, that is a justification that some could find for selling them to be used in dog fights. People do love to justify their actions.
That is a possibility, there is another. The LAPD may have had an ongoing investigation into animal reg and discovered something. Protocol would be to tell the Mayor and then the General Manager of what they discovered. In this scenario the LAPD would have discovered that ballistics to some crime matched that of guns owned and controlled by animal reg. Hmmmm.
We do know that there were no check out sheets. That is to say that on any given day you could not tell who was carrying which gun, pretty convenient.
I cannot say how I know this; but, I do. By the way I don't work for any of them. I know for instance that additional auditors were called in just before the guns were removed. In case you are wondering, yes it is late and my stomach is acting up and I cannot sleep. It is claimed that this audit is because some animal regulations employees were taking animals and selling them; but, I don't really buy that, the animals are given away for free at the shelters (or just about free).
People are bringing up the question of whether or not people working in that department should have guns at all; but, that should have happened before the guns were confiscated not after. Something is very wrong here, there is more going on. Let's see if we can figure out what it is.
There are a couple of possibilities. Firstly, the auditors found out there was a deeper problem in animal regulations, maybe they discovered where those missing animals went and maybe they discovered that many were being used id dog fights. It is mere speculation I assure you. If dogs are shot and killed and left in an alley after a dog fight, nobody does an analysis of the bullets. What if you did and discovered that it was from a gun owned by animal regulation, what would that tell you. Hmmmm.
Or, what if you found out that some of the dogs that were picked up from alleys after they were used in dog fights had been in the pound and had been set for being put to death. I mean they do use vicious dogs for dog fights and they were going to be put to death anyways, that is a justification that some could find for selling them to be used in dog fights. People do love to justify their actions.
That is a possibility, there is another. The LAPD may have had an ongoing investigation into animal reg and discovered something. Protocol would be to tell the Mayor and then the General Manager of what they discovered. In this scenario the LAPD would have discovered that ballistics to some crime matched that of guns owned and controlled by animal reg. Hmmmm.
We do know that there were no check out sheets. That is to say that on any given day you could not tell who was carrying which gun, pretty convenient.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Water Lies
I wrote about this when it first happened; but, it is in the news again so I want to remind people of how you are flat out lied to and told that you have been given a cookie when you were really a cow pie.
The article that I am going to link to talks about how people will now, for $50, be allowed to kayak down the Los Angeles River. For those who are not familiar with Los Angeles, it is not a river, it is a storm channel. Now in the video included within the article we see a Councilman saying that a "handful" of people will be allowed to kayak on the river on a daily basis.
Within the article it states that, "The announcement comes a year after U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson declared the entire concrete-lined river “traditional navigable waters,” a designation that allows the application of Clean Water Act protections."
Basically the LA River is meant to catch storm runoff and send it to the sea. It doesn't rain often in Los Angeles and most of the "river" is bone dry. If you saw the movie "Grease", the car race at the end takes part in the LA River, looks pretty navigable doesn't it? However, once the Clean Water Act is applied the federal government can regulate a whole bunch of what goes on in the City. So why did the council sell out the City. Because now they can get money from the fed for pet projects around it.
My whole life we have been told by authorities NOT to go into the river (we did anyways) and that it was dangerous. And now we are going to let people in kayaks use it; but, there will not be many and it is not very good water. This whole nonsense is just to establish it's navigability for court because there will be law suits once the Clean Water Act is applied to businesses and homeowners.
The article that I am going to link to talks about how people will now, for $50, be allowed to kayak down the Los Angeles River. For those who are not familiar with Los Angeles, it is not a river, it is a storm channel. Now in the video included within the article we see a Councilman saying that a "handful" of people will be allowed to kayak on the river on a daily basis.
Within the article it states that, "The announcement comes a year after U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson declared the entire concrete-lined river “traditional navigable waters,” a designation that allows the application of Clean Water Act protections."
Basically the LA River is meant to catch storm runoff and send it to the sea. It doesn't rain often in Los Angeles and most of the "river" is bone dry. If you saw the movie "Grease", the car race at the end takes part in the LA River, looks pretty navigable doesn't it? However, once the Clean Water Act is applied the federal government can regulate a whole bunch of what goes on in the City. So why did the council sell out the City. Because now they can get money from the fed for pet projects around it.
My whole life we have been told by authorities NOT to go into the river (we did anyways) and that it was dangerous. And now we are going to let people in kayaks use it; but, there will not be many and it is not very good water. This whole nonsense is just to establish it's navigability for court because there will be law suits once the Clean Water Act is applied to businesses and homeowners.
Engilsh Riots and Your Blackberry
I have a Blackberry phone, in fact I have two of them, one is for work and one is personal. Personally I would be happy using my personal phone for work; but, I wouldn't be able to access my e-mail using my personal phone because we have a secure network.
I don't use my phone to really surf the net, maybe look at the news articles. Blackberries are not real good for the internet in my opinion. The thing about Blackberries is that they are more secure than most other phones utilizing their own servers than just the internet. I don't know all the specifics and it really doesn't matter, the fact is that they are more secure and that is why the President uses one and why they are preferred in business.
I don't know any young people who use Blackberries they tend to prefer Androids or I-Phones. So I have a question, it is about this article.
British Riots Spread on Third Night of Violence - Reuters
Now towards the bottom of the article we find the following:
"Youths appeared to have used a free message service on Blackberry mobile phones to coordinate attacks on shops and police.
Research In Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry smartphones, said it would work with British authorities, but gave no details on what information, if any, it would give the police."
So am I to believe that the youths of England prefer Blackberries over I-Phones? Somehow I doubt that very much. Now on August 3rd of the month the BBC reported that 37% of English youths preferred Blackberries. I find that very odd. The BBC also reported that young people preferred to use the phones for Social Networking, Listening to Music and Playing Games.
Now the company that makes Blackberries has said that they were going to work with the police, in what way? The most likely thing is that RIM (Research in Motion) is going to let the police read the messages that were sent and follow them back to the users that sent them. Many Arabian countries have sought to prohibit the use of Blackberries because they couldn't read the texts as easily as they could from other phones.
Personally I think what is going on in England is horrible, the senseless violence and rioting does not benefit anyone and I am a pacifist as I have said before. I also happen to be a big believer in privacy rights and the concept of innocent until proven guilty and due process. I do understand that no cell phone is protected and that it has been decided that we have no expectation of privacy when using them; but, the idea has always been that we should allow the greatest degree of privacy where we can.
Now once the police begin going after the young users in England, the young will stop buying them. Honest businessmen will continue using them as will I, I like my Blackberry and don't use my phone to search the net as I said above. I also don't use apps on my phone to figure out how to find a pizza parlor or anything else. I prefer not to have my phone think for me.
That's all for now, hope you have a great week.
I don't use my phone to really surf the net, maybe look at the news articles. Blackberries are not real good for the internet in my opinion. The thing about Blackberries is that they are more secure than most other phones utilizing their own servers than just the internet. I don't know all the specifics and it really doesn't matter, the fact is that they are more secure and that is why the President uses one and why they are preferred in business.
I don't know any young people who use Blackberries they tend to prefer Androids or I-Phones. So I have a question, it is about this article.
British Riots Spread on Third Night of Violence - Reuters
Now towards the bottom of the article we find the following:
"Youths appeared to have used a free message service on Blackberry mobile phones to coordinate attacks on shops and police.
Research In Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of Blackberry smartphones, said it would work with British authorities, but gave no details on what information, if any, it would give the police."
So am I to believe that the youths of England prefer Blackberries over I-Phones? Somehow I doubt that very much. Now on August 3rd of the month the BBC reported that 37% of English youths preferred Blackberries. I find that very odd. The BBC also reported that young people preferred to use the phones for Social Networking, Listening to Music and Playing Games.
Now the company that makes Blackberries has said that they were going to work with the police, in what way? The most likely thing is that RIM (Research in Motion) is going to let the police read the messages that were sent and follow them back to the users that sent them. Many Arabian countries have sought to prohibit the use of Blackberries because they couldn't read the texts as easily as they could from other phones.
Personally I think what is going on in England is horrible, the senseless violence and rioting does not benefit anyone and I am a pacifist as I have said before. I also happen to be a big believer in privacy rights and the concept of innocent until proven guilty and due process. I do understand that no cell phone is protected and that it has been decided that we have no expectation of privacy when using them; but, the idea has always been that we should allow the greatest degree of privacy where we can.
Now once the police begin going after the young users in England, the young will stop buying them. Honest businessmen will continue using them as will I, I like my Blackberry and don't use my phone to search the net as I said above. I also don't use apps on my phone to figure out how to find a pizza parlor or anything else. I prefer not to have my phone think for me.
That's all for now, hope you have a great week.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Money
A couple of interesting articles about money in the news.
CNBC - Dollar to Be 'Discarded' by World: China Rating Agency
What is really amusing is Greenspans response.
CNBC - No Chance of Default, US Can Print Money: Greenspan
Basically the Chinese said that if we don't get out house in order we will not be able to buy from them using dollars. Greenspan said that we could always print more dollars to get rid of our debt (that is hyperinflation talk). Mr. Greenspan is correct, we can print dollars and pay off our debts, heck, we could print billion dollar bills and give them to the Chinese and poof no more debt and nobody will ever sell to us again unless we use a new currency. Ahhh, that is the real trick.
I know I have written about this, I said that our debt would be forgiven and we would have to have a new currency or one pegged to something identifiable such as a countries mineral worth and labor worth.
Lets look at what happened. Congress increases the debt limit. The United States credit rating was downgraded. That is the same as your credit score, it determines how much people will lend you and at what rate. China and Russia complain about our failing to fix our economy because they know that we will have to inflate our currency and pay them off with dollars that have less value, basically cheating them on our promises. Rather than issue a formal answer, the government has ex Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan basically say that we can pay them with useless paper and they cannot do a thing about it.
Gosh, if you were a foreign country and were just told that your trillions of dollars of U.S. debt was going to be made completely worthless what would you do and don't you think they know that Greenspan was speaking for our country? So how does it work, well if the Chinese won't by our debt then we will buy it using the Federal Reserve. You have the Federal Reserve buy all our debt and then nationalize the Federal Reserve or cancel the debt (which is what Ron Paul recommends). This is an old wall street trick.
There is a company with some good assets; but, many divisions are not profitable. You buy the company cheap (because it is losing money) and then you transfer the debt to one part of the company and split the company leaving the part that is not performing with all the debt. The new company fails and the old company is left without the debt. Cute huh?
It is a good thing that I am not selfish, is it not. I know how to make money I just don't care. Be well.
CNBC - Dollar to Be 'Discarded' by World: China Rating Agency
What is really amusing is Greenspans response.
CNBC - No Chance of Default, US Can Print Money: Greenspan
Basically the Chinese said that if we don't get out house in order we will not be able to buy from them using dollars. Greenspan said that we could always print more dollars to get rid of our debt (that is hyperinflation talk). Mr. Greenspan is correct, we can print dollars and pay off our debts, heck, we could print billion dollar bills and give them to the Chinese and poof no more debt and nobody will ever sell to us again unless we use a new currency. Ahhh, that is the real trick.
I know I have written about this, I said that our debt would be forgiven and we would have to have a new currency or one pegged to something identifiable such as a countries mineral worth and labor worth.
Lets look at what happened. Congress increases the debt limit. The United States credit rating was downgraded. That is the same as your credit score, it determines how much people will lend you and at what rate. China and Russia complain about our failing to fix our economy because they know that we will have to inflate our currency and pay them off with dollars that have less value, basically cheating them on our promises. Rather than issue a formal answer, the government has ex Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan basically say that we can pay them with useless paper and they cannot do a thing about it.
Gosh, if you were a foreign country and were just told that your trillions of dollars of U.S. debt was going to be made completely worthless what would you do and don't you think they know that Greenspan was speaking for our country? So how does it work, well if the Chinese won't by our debt then we will buy it using the Federal Reserve. You have the Federal Reserve buy all our debt and then nationalize the Federal Reserve or cancel the debt (which is what Ron Paul recommends). This is an old wall street trick.
There is a company with some good assets; but, many divisions are not profitable. You buy the company cheap (because it is losing money) and then you transfer the debt to one part of the company and split the company leaving the part that is not performing with all the debt. The new company fails and the old company is left without the debt. Cute huh?
It is a good thing that I am not selfish, is it not. I know how to make money I just don't care. Be well.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
I Lost a Follower
Hello all. One of the "followers" of this blog has left or at least is no longer a "follower". Readership is actually up; but, it seems to be coming from searches more now. I find that odd. Let me explain, the blog is pretty much my take on things; but, the things are usually in the news.
A Musical Interlude
Eric Clapton - Youtube - Wonderful Tonight
The Association - Youtube - Never My Love
No, I am not cheating the post, I have something else in mind. A friend of mine mentioned a preacher who I did not know of. The preachers name was E.V. Hill and Time magazine once listed him among the seven most influential preachers of his day. He told me that Mr. Hill's wife had passes away and that Mr. Hill's eulogy was pretty famous. I listened to it today and it is pretty impressive.
Dr. E.V. Hill Preaching His Wife's Funeral part 1
Dr. E.V. Hill Preaching His Wife's Funeral part 2
If you only listen to a bit of it, listen to Part II, he tells a few stories about his wife, you really need to hear the one about when he woke up very early in the morning to find that his wife was gone along with the car. 3 minutes and 8 seconds into Part II is the story you really need to hear; but, I recommend that you take the few minutes needed to hear the whole thing.
Oh, I guess I should figure out what my point is. It is about partners, specifically female partners and how they can strengthen a man or be a hindrance to success. Dr. Hill did a particularly good job of explaining it about his deceased love. She loved him as much as she loved her own flesh. That is one heck of a partner, we don't see that too much anymore and I fear that we have stopped looking for it.
By the way men, we don't see too many real men anymore either. A real man gives up all he has to care for his family. Dr. Hill's wife believed in what he was doing as much as he did and she was down for the ride. She was so committed to what he was doing that she would rather die than see his work end. She must have really trusted him, you don't do that if you think your husband is a louse unless unless to.
To truly be in union a couple must truly believe in the goal, their goal for life. Do you look for that in another or merely happiness? Do you look for a single purpose rather than two purposes that compliment one another? Union or agreement in a partner.
Bobby Darin - YouTube - If I Were a Carpenter
When the Bobby Darin song, If I were a Carpenter, came out I was in elementary school, he died not long after that song came out. I really liked the song and he was the first person whose death I really understood, I mean that it was the end here on earth of hearing or seeing again, it was when I understood what gone meant.
Well, when I got to Junior High I had a class in Music Appreciation, the teacher was a feminist and played us the song and explained how line by line the song was Chauvinistic and evil. She explained how the woman was basically a slave to the man, she didn't see working together for a common goal with each providing a different skill and ability.
Obviously, Dr. Hill's eulogy for his wife brought this up. Let me put up a question, lets say that you were married to someone who had the same goal, same purpose in life, how could you ever be separate? How could you be at odds with someone who wants the same thing as you, the same purpose, the work?
What do you ask when you are on a date? Do you ask what the other persons purpose in life is? I do. Well, I did, I am not dating currently. Still looking for what how I want to now fulfill my purpose in life, it hasn't changed but my situation has. Now I have to figure out how to get there on my own.
Perhaps another will join me on this journey that seeks the same outcome, the same purpose and the same goal. We shall see, I have my own opinion on the matter.
A Musical Interlude
Eric Clapton - Youtube - Wonderful Tonight
The Association - Youtube - Never My Love
No, I am not cheating the post, I have something else in mind. A friend of mine mentioned a preacher who I did not know of. The preachers name was E.V. Hill and Time magazine once listed him among the seven most influential preachers of his day. He told me that Mr. Hill's wife had passes away and that Mr. Hill's eulogy was pretty famous. I listened to it today and it is pretty impressive.
Dr. E.V. Hill Preaching His Wife's Funeral part 1
Dr. E.V. Hill Preaching His Wife's Funeral part 2
If you only listen to a bit of it, listen to Part II, he tells a few stories about his wife, you really need to hear the one about when he woke up very early in the morning to find that his wife was gone along with the car. 3 minutes and 8 seconds into Part II is the story you really need to hear; but, I recommend that you take the few minutes needed to hear the whole thing.
Oh, I guess I should figure out what my point is. It is about partners, specifically female partners and how they can strengthen a man or be a hindrance to success. Dr. Hill did a particularly good job of explaining it about his deceased love. She loved him as much as she loved her own flesh. That is one heck of a partner, we don't see that too much anymore and I fear that we have stopped looking for it.
By the way men, we don't see too many real men anymore either. A real man gives up all he has to care for his family. Dr. Hill's wife believed in what he was doing as much as he did and she was down for the ride. She was so committed to what he was doing that she would rather die than see his work end. She must have really trusted him, you don't do that if you think your husband is a louse unless unless to.
To truly be in union a couple must truly believe in the goal, their goal for life. Do you look for that in another or merely happiness? Do you look for a single purpose rather than two purposes that compliment one another? Union or agreement in a partner.
Bobby Darin - YouTube - If I Were a Carpenter
When the Bobby Darin song, If I were a Carpenter, came out I was in elementary school, he died not long after that song came out. I really liked the song and he was the first person whose death I really understood, I mean that it was the end here on earth of hearing or seeing again, it was when I understood what gone meant.
Well, when I got to Junior High I had a class in Music Appreciation, the teacher was a feminist and played us the song and explained how line by line the song was Chauvinistic and evil. She explained how the woman was basically a slave to the man, she didn't see working together for a common goal with each providing a different skill and ability.
Obviously, Dr. Hill's eulogy for his wife brought this up. Let me put up a question, lets say that you were married to someone who had the same goal, same purpose in life, how could you ever be separate? How could you be at odds with someone who wants the same thing as you, the same purpose, the work?
What do you ask when you are on a date? Do you ask what the other persons purpose in life is? I do. Well, I did, I am not dating currently. Still looking for what how I want to now fulfill my purpose in life, it hasn't changed but my situation has. Now I have to figure out how to get there on my own.
Perhaps another will join me on this journey that seeks the same outcome, the same purpose and the same goal. We shall see, I have my own opinion on the matter.
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