Clive the Cat, Missing for a Year, Found Fat and Happy — in Pet Food Warehouse - NBC News:
Some nice pics of Clive on the link ... Norwegian Forrest Cat. We are pretty sure that our Cabbage, noted philosopher cat, has some Norwegian Forrest in his blood lines.
The nice thing about cats is that I suspect Clive wasn't all that lonely either.
'via Blog this'
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Thursday, February 04, 2016
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
Groundhog Day, Again
Groundhog Day -- A Movie for All Time
We started a new tradition tonight I hope. Watching "Ground Hog Day" on Ground Hog Day. This is always my favorite scene ... "Don't Drive Angry!".
NRO has a tradition of running the same Jonah Goldberg column every Ground Hog Day, and I think it is an excellent tradition.
I was raised Baptist, but one of the things now dear to me in the Lutheran Church is the Church Year and the various elements of the liturgy. The Bible says to not use "meaningless repetition" and somehow the Baptists applied that to the liturgy, but fortunately not to Christmas or Easter (they do those every year!).
Matt 6:7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words."
As an Elder, I will be taking Communion to a dear shut-in woman with Alzheimers in February, and one of the lovely things is that she still remembers the Communion prayers and creeds -- not perfectly, but significantly. She tends to always say "I like that the whole church says and does these things ... I don't know why, it just feels right ..." The definition of "meaningless" doesn't include Christ instructing us on how to pray -- but we never did the Lord's Prayer in church when I grew up.
My cynical summary of Baptist theology was "If the Catholics do it, we don't".
BTW, I am NOT "anti-baptist, or even anti-dentite" ... like all human religion, Baptists have flaws, Lutherans have flaws, and mooses are the sum of all flaws!
You may not think of the movie "Ground Hog Day" as a religious or philosophical movie, but I agree with Goldberg, it definitely is. Read the review, and if you get a chance, watch it ... again.
Perhaps when we "get it", then this life is taken from us -- and loving that it goes is part of loving it.
I hope you bless this Ground Hog Day!
'via Blog this'
We started a new tradition tonight I hope. Watching "Ground Hog Day" on Ground Hog Day. This is always my favorite scene ... "Don't Drive Angry!".
NRO has a tradition of running the same Jonah Goldberg column every Ground Hog Day, and I think it is an excellent tradition.
I was raised Baptist, but one of the things now dear to me in the Lutheran Church is the Church Year and the various elements of the liturgy. The Bible says to not use "meaningless repetition" and somehow the Baptists applied that to the liturgy, but fortunately not to Christmas or Easter (they do those every year!).
Matt 6:7 "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words."
As an Elder, I will be taking Communion to a dear shut-in woman with Alzheimers in February, and one of the lovely things is that she still remembers the Communion prayers and creeds -- not perfectly, but significantly. She tends to always say "I like that the whole church says and does these things ... I don't know why, it just feels right ..." The definition of "meaningless" doesn't include Christ instructing us on how to pray -- but we never did the Lord's Prayer in church when I grew up.
My cynical summary of Baptist theology was "If the Catholics do it, we don't".
BTW, I am NOT "anti-baptist, or even anti-dentite" ... like all human religion, Baptists have flaws, Lutherans have flaws, and mooses are the sum of all flaws!
You may not think of the movie "Ground Hog Day" as a religious or philosophical movie, but I agree with Goldberg, it definitely is. Read the review, and if you get a chance, watch it ... again.
Perhaps when we "get it", then this life is taken from us -- and loving that it goes is part of loving it.
“The curse is lifted when Bill Murray blesses the day he has just lived. And his reward is that the day is taken from him. Loving life includes loving the fact that it goes.”
I hope you bless this Ground Hog Day!
Air France 747, Goodbye To An Icon!
Stunning! This Is How You Say Goodbye To An Icon | All Things Aero:
A video that I enjoyed watching on the link. I used to watch the contrails from the farm as a kid, and on the rare occasions that I got to see a big city airport I always dreamed of getting on a 747.
It wasn't until my first over the pond business trip to England in late '80s that I rode one of the iconic double deckers from Minneapolis to Gatwick outside of London. The "ship of the skies" ... a slow and stately takeoff roll, a pretty level deck angle on climb. DC-10's of the era flexed and shook, with typically one or more overhead bins popping open. The 747 was solid, quiet and calm.
Sometime in the early '90s I read "Wide-body: The Triumph of the 747" a superb book. Remember, they built this beast prior to much in the way of computing power being available, and it was a REAL technological and business stretch. The book is also full of a lot of stories of the history of Boeing, including how the swept wing planes have a tendency to "Dutch Roll" which if not dampened can become violent.
On a customer acceptance flight, the customer pilot miscorrected and the roll became so violent that 3 of the 4 engines were thrown from the plane. It crash landed killing a high level Boeing exec and I believe their chief pilot -- 4 survived, largely because he was able to get the plane to the ground in a semi-controlled manner. "Bugs" in planes are often more costly than bugs in computers!
I definitely recommend the book if you have an interest in this industry changing jet.
'via Blog this'
A video that I enjoyed watching on the link. I used to watch the contrails from the farm as a kid, and on the rare occasions that I got to see a big city airport I always dreamed of getting on a 747.
It wasn't until my first over the pond business trip to England in late '80s that I rode one of the iconic double deckers from Minneapolis to Gatwick outside of London. The "ship of the skies" ... a slow and stately takeoff roll, a pretty level deck angle on climb. DC-10's of the era flexed and shook, with typically one or more overhead bins popping open. The 747 was solid, quiet and calm.
Sometime in the early '90s I read "Wide-body: The Triumph of the 747" a superb book. Remember, they built this beast prior to much in the way of computing power being available, and it was a REAL technological and business stretch. The book is also full of a lot of stories of the history of Boeing, including how the swept wing planes have a tendency to "Dutch Roll" which if not dampened can become violent.
On a customer acceptance flight, the customer pilot miscorrected and the roll became so violent that 3 of the 4 engines were thrown from the plane. It crash landed killing a high level Boeing exec and I believe their chief pilot -- 4 survived, largely because he was able to get the plane to the ground in a semi-controlled manner. "Bugs" in planes are often more costly than bugs in computers!
I definitely recommend the book if you have an interest in this industry changing jet.
'via Blog this'
Lost Girlfriends and Muslims
Minnesota leaders' full-page ad decries bigotry toward Muslims - StarTribune.com:
I usually try to make my cases in clear points and reason, but this one hits me emotionally and I know the reason.
Sometime in late February early March of '76, forty years ago, I set off on a spring break to Indiana in a snowstorm with two young ladies my age to visit some people we had met in 4-H a couple years prior. (we are supposed to get 8" of snow today)
Five years ago while driving north to snowmobile in a snowstorm with my son and wife sleeping while I drove, I finally realized that I was the most boring young man in human history! I'm a slow learner -- the mothers that allowed their daughters to go along with me knew what they were doing. I then understood a conversation with a young woman about why it didn't work out long ago. Her succinct reason -- "My parents like you better than they like me". (I'm sure they didn't, it just seemed that way to her).
I feel the same way about the full-page Muslim ad as I did about that conversation. Why do our lefty neighbors choose Muslims over Christians? Why do our elites find Muslims "stylish" and Christians to be "hicks"? (bitter clingers)
Muslims share many of the elements of what secular society finds reprehensible about Christians. They are creationists, they hold homosexuality as a grievous sin, they believe that men and women have God given roles, they pray at work or school, they hold an ancient text as more holy than modern secular pronouncements.
They of course go far further than Christians. They make women wear hijabs and blame them for rape. They will kill homosexuals or adulterers if they become a majority. Once they do reach majority, they demand that the government be an Islamic State, by force if required.
The simple answer to "why" is CHRIST. He is, was, and always will be the DIFFERENCE. Islam may be far more restrictive and infinitely more violent than Christianity, but Islam rejects Christ, so the unholy totalitarian left is able to make it's peace with Islam but not Christianity.
Emotionally though, it hurts.
Emotions are like weather -- they pass. It is good to acknowledge them from time to time, but meaning of the sort to live by is a deeper truth. I'm convinced our cats have feelings, but other than Cabbage Cat (a feline philosopher that I consult with), they don't reason much. Many "liberals" are similar ... without the soft fur and purr.
I cover some reasoning on why "liberals" love Islam but hate Christianity here. The embrace of "massive tolerance" for Islam feels somewhat the same as if the left leadership of MN put out a full page ad welcoming the Westboro Baptist Church to make their voices heard in MN. I'm not holding my breath on that ... though it would make far more rational sense than the Muslim ad.
If you want to cover a yet deeper philosophical understanding of why western secularism finds Islam preferable, it is covered in this post ... the punchline is that Islam and Leftism agree that "there is no truth".
So we Christians and believers in the exceptionalism of Western civilization have been jilted for Islam. It isn't new -- they love Communism and Fascism as well. (covered that recently here).
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.
'via Blog this'
I usually try to make my cases in clear points and reason, but this one hits me emotionally and I know the reason.
Sometime in late February early March of '76, forty years ago, I set off on a spring break to Indiana in a snowstorm with two young ladies my age to visit some people we had met in 4-H a couple years prior. (we are supposed to get 8" of snow today)
Five years ago while driving north to snowmobile in a snowstorm with my son and wife sleeping while I drove, I finally realized that I was the most boring young man in human history! I'm a slow learner -- the mothers that allowed their daughters to go along with me knew what they were doing. I then understood a conversation with a young woman about why it didn't work out long ago. Her succinct reason -- "My parents like you better than they like me". (I'm sure they didn't, it just seemed that way to her).
I feel the same way about the full-page Muslim ad as I did about that conversation. Why do our lefty neighbors choose Muslims over Christians? Why do our elites find Muslims "stylish" and Christians to be "hicks"? (bitter clingers)
Muslims share many of the elements of what secular society finds reprehensible about Christians. They are creationists, they hold homosexuality as a grievous sin, they believe that men and women have God given roles, they pray at work or school, they hold an ancient text as more holy than modern secular pronouncements.
They of course go far further than Christians. They make women wear hijabs and blame them for rape. They will kill homosexuals or adulterers if they become a majority. Once they do reach majority, they demand that the government be an Islamic State, by force if required.
The simple answer to "why" is CHRIST. He is, was, and always will be the DIFFERENCE. Islam may be far more restrictive and infinitely more violent than Christianity, but Islam rejects Christ, so the unholy totalitarian left is able to make it's peace with Islam but not Christianity.
Emotionally though, it hurts.
Emotions are like weather -- they pass. It is good to acknowledge them from time to time, but meaning of the sort to live by is a deeper truth. I'm convinced our cats have feelings, but other than Cabbage Cat (a feline philosopher that I consult with), they don't reason much. Many "liberals" are similar ... without the soft fur and purr.
I cover some reasoning on why "liberals" love Islam but hate Christianity here. The embrace of "massive tolerance" for Islam feels somewhat the same as if the left leadership of MN put out a full page ad welcoming the Westboro Baptist Church to make their voices heard in MN. I'm not holding my breath on that ... though it would make far more rational sense than the Muslim ad.
If you want to cover a yet deeper philosophical understanding of why western secularism finds Islam preferable, it is covered in this post ... the punchline is that Islam and Leftism agree that "there is no truth".
So we Christians and believers in the exceptionalism of Western civilization have been jilted for Islam. It isn't new -- they love Communism and Fascism as well. (covered that recently here).
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.
'via Blog this'
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Tres Hombres Meal !
A ZZ Top Superfan Recreated the Delicious Tex-Mex Album Art From 'Tres Hombres' and Then Ate It - Maxim:
Wow ... LOVE that album and always dreamed of setting down to that meal! Sitting here in my ZZ Top T-shirt surfing and what should pop up!
'via Blog this'
Wow ... LOVE that album and always dreamed of setting down to that meal! Sitting here in my ZZ Top T-shirt surfing and what should pop up!
'via Blog this'
Thursday, January 28, 2016
January 28, 1986 -- 30 Years Since Challenger
Space shuttle Challenger's final voyage is remembered, 30 years later - CBS News:
JFK Assassination, Moon Walk, Challenger, 9-11 ... those are the days I remember for sure right where I was and what I was doing from a "national event" perspective in my life so far.
Thirty years ago today we were married less than a year. I happened to be home from IBM sick at our place in Chatfield for one of the very few times in the first 20+ years of my career. I wasn't feeling good enough to be watching TV, so got a call from a friend at work that "people were saying something happened to the Shuttle. Those were the days before Internet and there were not any TVs around the site and radios were wither prohibited or frowned upon.
Being the space buff I was, it was shocking, but technically certainly not hard to believe. I understood that the Shuttle system was flawed at best -- solid boosters and tiles for re-entry being big examples. 2.5 million parts and 400K lines of code to keep it flying. There is some detail on the mission hardware and software here. I did feel horrible for the families -- but I can still remember feeling guilty for how sad I felt for the Challenger and the engineers. The shuttles were an embodiment of a spirit and capability that may never return to this nation. It was a privilege to be alive and experience both the highs and the lows of that era.
As always, Reagan had some of the best words possible and remembrance of him certainly brings back nostalgia for that spacefaring nation of heroes that built and flew marvelous machines.
In 1986, Japan was flying high -- you can glance at one article here, but the assumption was that they were an unstoppable economic force ... better methods, harder working labor force, better social programs, you name it. We HAD to copy Japan, or they would just buy us up. Japan's economy has been essentially in a recession since '92 -- it turns out their sure fire policies that we were supposed to copy didn't pan out so wall. Starting in '06 with Democrats taking over both houses of Congress, we finally started to copy them.
I'd say the Japanese policies DO "work"! It's just that the definition of "work" isn't maybe what some had thought!
Kids were still in the future in '86, now a Grandchild is the earthy center of our universe. There was lots of IBM career ahead in '86, now it is in the rear view mirror.
Time marches on for the living. The USSR is dead ... but then, the US that we knew and loved in '86 is dead too. Now we have no space capability and hitch rides with Russia, whose leader is listed as the most powerful man in the world. (BO was third, indicating stench isn't everything!)
My tendency to pine away "for the old days" is getting stronger -- I must REALLY be getting old!
If you are feeling as nostalgic for that time as I am, I might suggest checking out the book "Riding Rockets"
'via Blog this'
JFK Assassination, Moon Walk, Challenger, 9-11 ... those are the days I remember for sure right where I was and what I was doing from a "national event" perspective in my life so far.
Thirty years ago today we were married less than a year. I happened to be home from IBM sick at our place in Chatfield for one of the very few times in the first 20+ years of my career. I wasn't feeling good enough to be watching TV, so got a call from a friend at work that "people were saying something happened to the Shuttle. Those were the days before Internet and there were not any TVs around the site and radios were wither prohibited or frowned upon.
Being the space buff I was, it was shocking, but technically certainly not hard to believe. I understood that the Shuttle system was flawed at best -- solid boosters and tiles for re-entry being big examples. 2.5 million parts and 400K lines of code to keep it flying. There is some detail on the mission hardware and software here. I did feel horrible for the families -- but I can still remember feeling guilty for how sad I felt for the Challenger and the engineers. The shuttles were an embodiment of a spirit and capability that may never return to this nation. It was a privilege to be alive and experience both the highs and the lows of that era.
As always, Reagan had some of the best words possible and remembrance of him certainly brings back nostalgia for that spacefaring nation of heroes that built and flew marvelous machines.
In 1986, Japan was flying high -- you can glance at one article here, but the assumption was that they were an unstoppable economic force ... better methods, harder working labor force, better social programs, you name it. We HAD to copy Japan, or they would just buy us up. Japan's economy has been essentially in a recession since '92 -- it turns out their sure fire policies that we were supposed to copy didn't pan out so wall. Starting in '06 with Democrats taking over both houses of Congress, we finally started to copy them.
I'd say the Japanese policies DO "work"! It's just that the definition of "work" isn't maybe what some had thought!
Kids were still in the future in '86, now a Grandchild is the earthy center of our universe. There was lots of IBM career ahead in '86, now it is in the rear view mirror.
Time marches on for the living. The USSR is dead ... but then, the US that we knew and loved in '86 is dead too. Now we have no space capability and hitch rides with Russia, whose leader is listed as the most powerful man in the world. (BO was third, indicating stench isn't everything!)
My tendency to pine away "for the old days" is getting stronger -- I must REALLY be getting old!
If you are feeling as nostalgic for that time as I am, I might suggest checking out the book "Riding Rockets"
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Parental and National Decline
I may be more morose than normal for awhile. My father is in the hospital and it it is looking like prostate and bladder cancer. Lots of things will be uncertain, likely for a few weeks at least, and I will have more 2 hour road trips for my mind to ruminate, listen to some NPR and likely (a rarity for me) some talk radio.
In the natural way of things, most of us watch our parents age, decline and die. The specifics vary -- sometimes it is sudden, often there are "scares" before the end, sometimes it is a painful long goodbye with enough pain for them and empathetically for us, so it is relatively easy to say at the end that they have gone to a better place. As a parent myself, I certainly pray that "the natural way" holds relative to our boys.
Seeing the mortality of those that gave you physical life causes reflection on our own mortality -- for some of us, that has been pretty common anyway, but being with a parent that has been part of your life from the first second increases a lot of complex emotional content. We love to deny the reality of both decline and death, but by age 59, we see it in ourselves plainly as well.
When we share faith in Christ with the parent, the dearness of that faith is made more precious. We feel there is a greater purpose and meaning to the pain and struggle, and the fact that we are all here for "but a little while" is made plain. Yet another thing that really tends to not sink in until 50 or so at least.
As I listen to the news and catch a few glimpses of the political and national landscape it is hard to not feel a parallel.
Last year I finished the last book in the Churchill trilogy and in so doing I had a front row seat for how the previous dominant world power went from it's zenith to being "one of the top 10 countries". It's decline and death as world leader was eased by the fact that it's offspring, the United States was in it's prime and took of the mantle in a bi-polar world to battle the collectivist enemy in the form of the USSR with many of the same philosophical values as Mother England.
February last, I finished Augustine "City of God" . While the blog I did on it was theologically focused, the book after the fall of the secular Roman Empire in transition to the period where the Catholic Church would be the overarching institution until the Reformation, which we will celebrate the 500th anniversary of next year.
Since 2008, I've been writing about the specific BO malignancy, but the end of the US really got it's start in at the same time the pathogen entered England. Call it socialism, collectivism, liberalism, progressivism, communism, leveling, or whatever, but it's purpose is antithetical to God and freedom. Freedom and equality of result (though not OPPORTUNITY) are completely oppositional concepts.
Equality of result is completely unnatural and can only be imposed by greater and greater application of power, thus reducing liberty. Science shows us that both the physical and the biological universe operate on DIFFERENCE and COMPETITION ... "all things being equal" is death. When your body temperature equalizes with the ambient environment, you are DEAD.
The leveling force is the death force. Evil.
The force of creation, growth, difference, uniqueness, liberty is the force of God -- GOOD.
To those that have Faith, such is so completely obvious that it seems unbelievable any would support the path to known destruction. While "greed" is certainly a sin, it doesn't appear directly in the Ten Commandments, where Envy (covetousness) is quite clear. God gives us all the same OPPORTUNITY for salvation, but Christians know for certain that not all will have the same RESULT of Eternal Life with God.
The Bible talks of different gifts and order in the Church:
1 Corinthians 12:27-31
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
Science tells us that our solar system could not support life without the very unequal sized gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, as they suck up the debris that would create too many impacts for Earth to support life. Without the tides caused by the moon, evolutionists would tell us that life could not have "sprung up". Competition and DIVERSITY as in REAL diversity with A LOT of "difference of outcome" is the cornerstone of evolution -- the dogma of the very same "socialists, levelers, "progressives", etc" that tell us that everyone in a country should have "equality of OUTCOME"!
As we and those we love, age, we are forced to face the reality of life passing and death coming. As a Christian, we are "part of something larger" -- the body of Christ, which is an eternal body.
For a lot of my life, the nation was also "something larger" that it was a blessing to be a part of. It looked like that might end in the late 1970's, but then we revived under Reagan. Now it looks MUCH darker than it did then.
A nation doesn't have to decline and die on a specific schedule like a person, but if it ignores God and reality, it dies as well.
Reagan put it best ... "If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, we will be one nation gone under"!
In the natural way of things, most of us watch our parents age, decline and die. The specifics vary -- sometimes it is sudden, often there are "scares" before the end, sometimes it is a painful long goodbye with enough pain for them and empathetically for us, so it is relatively easy to say at the end that they have gone to a better place. As a parent myself, I certainly pray that "the natural way" holds relative to our boys.
Seeing the mortality of those that gave you physical life causes reflection on our own mortality -- for some of us, that has been pretty common anyway, but being with a parent that has been part of your life from the first second increases a lot of complex emotional content. We love to deny the reality of both decline and death, but by age 59, we see it in ourselves plainly as well.
When we share faith in Christ with the parent, the dearness of that faith is made more precious. We feel there is a greater purpose and meaning to the pain and struggle, and the fact that we are all here for "but a little while" is made plain. Yet another thing that really tends to not sink in until 50 or so at least.
As I listen to the news and catch a few glimpses of the political and national landscape it is hard to not feel a parallel.
Last year I finished the last book in the Churchill trilogy and in so doing I had a front row seat for how the previous dominant world power went from it's zenith to being "one of the top 10 countries". It's decline and death as world leader was eased by the fact that it's offspring, the United States was in it's prime and took of the mantle in a bi-polar world to battle the collectivist enemy in the form of the USSR with many of the same philosophical values as Mother England.
February last, I finished Augustine "City of God" . While the blog I did on it was theologically focused, the book after the fall of the secular Roman Empire in transition to the period where the Catholic Church would be the overarching institution until the Reformation, which we will celebrate the 500th anniversary of next year.
Since 2008, I've been writing about the specific BO malignancy, but the end of the US really got it's start in at the same time the pathogen entered England. Call it socialism, collectivism, liberalism, progressivism, communism, leveling, or whatever, but it's purpose is antithetical to God and freedom. Freedom and equality of result (though not OPPORTUNITY) are completely oppositional concepts.
Equality of result is completely unnatural and can only be imposed by greater and greater application of power, thus reducing liberty. Science shows us that both the physical and the biological universe operate on DIFFERENCE and COMPETITION ... "all things being equal" is death. When your body temperature equalizes with the ambient environment, you are DEAD.
The leveling force is the death force. Evil.
The force of creation, growth, difference, uniqueness, liberty is the force of God -- GOOD.
To those that have Faith, such is so completely obvious that it seems unbelievable any would support the path to known destruction. While "greed" is certainly a sin, it doesn't appear directly in the Ten Commandments, where Envy (covetousness) is quite clear. God gives us all the same OPPORTUNITY for salvation, but Christians know for certain that not all will have the same RESULT of Eternal Life with God.
The Bible talks of different gifts and order in the Church:
1 Corinthians 12:27-31
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.
Science tells us that our solar system could not support life without the very unequal sized gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, as they suck up the debris that would create too many impacts for Earth to support life. Without the tides caused by the moon, evolutionists would tell us that life could not have "sprung up". Competition and DIVERSITY as in REAL diversity with A LOT of "difference of outcome" is the cornerstone of evolution -- the dogma of the very same "socialists, levelers, "progressives", etc" that tell us that everyone in a country should have "equality of OUTCOME"!
As we and those we love, age, we are forced to face the reality of life passing and death coming. As a Christian, we are "part of something larger" -- the body of Christ, which is an eternal body.
For a lot of my life, the nation was also "something larger" that it was a blessing to be a part of. It looked like that might end in the late 1970's, but then we revived under Reagan. Now it looks MUCH darker than it did then.
A nation doesn't have to decline and die on a specific schedule like a person, but if it ignores God and reality, it dies as well.
Reagan put it best ... "If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, we will be one nation gone under"!
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Free Stuff, With Amorality, and Mandatory Political Correctness For All
A YUGE number of conservatives just shredded Donald Trump in the National Review - The Washington Post:
The WaPo link at the top is their spin on the NRO Issue "Against Trump", the NRO excellent concluding paragraph:
My observation is that for at least the last three years, we are a lost set of humanity with no shared principles, ethnicity, goals, vision, laws, religion, tradition, or culture living in the area once controlled by a great nation based on ideas asserted to be timeless, but now largely unknown to a disjoint and corrupted population and feckless leadership. For the tragic group of refugees from meaning and purpose stranded in this area of N America, there are no "self evident truths", nor "endowments by a creator", and for the small percentage of the population that even understands the concepts of freedom, equality of opportunity, rule of law, etc, we are faced to try to communicate with masses that have no "truth" and certainly not a "creator" upon which to base anything.
We have strongly declared ourselves to NOT be a "Christian Nation", to not be a "Nation of Law rather than men", and certainly not "the home of the brave". We are not a "nation" in anything save a largely unknown and heavily misappropriated "history". Strangely, there DOES seem to be an "evolving" (brewing?) consensus developing to replace "One Nation, Under God, With Liberty and Justice for All". I'd proffer "Random Godless People, With Free Stuff , Amorality and Political Correctness for ALL (meaning anyone that can schlep in over open borders).
The WaPo article is fairly forgettable, but I did like this view:
Lest any fall prey to the now commonly held view that such a sentiment is a sign of "racism" or worse (if such exists), I include this, which I happened to read in a Jefferson Biography just yesterday ... the following is from Alexander Hamilton after some time of Jefferson's presidency, "What can I do better than withdraw from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American world was not meant for me". (John Meacham, "The Art of Power", p 367)
The nation has gone through many painful changes -- but I would argue that the last seven years have seen the greatest loss of especially spiritual and cultural capital. America was an idea, but the idea is dead to a large majority of the people that occupy this spiritually desolate territory.
The ideals that I and at least what I have read of the NRO so far, believe in, no longer hold sway with an significant portion of the electorate. The NRC does not represent any coherent set of values or policy save holding the sliver of "power" they already do -- their morals are the same as "The Party" (D), with just different marketing for their corrupt lust for power. The R party is the party of "hold things to the current level of corrupt meaninglessness", TP is "stop all opposition and seize TOTAL power over all!!!". Neither believes in individual liberty, rule of law, limited government .. let alone pride in those ideals.
As I've said before, Trump is the anti-BO -- lawless, no experience in government, narcissistic, no agenda save winning and himself, race pandering (BO-black, Trump-white), "might as right" ... and onward. As the NRO seems to point out, as have I, nothing "conservative" about Trump whatsoever.
However, this is political season makes us one sure promise, as bad as Trump is, if he ends up as the nominee, he will be INFINITELY better than the TP alternatives -- a known criminal and an avowed socialist.
These days, that is what counts as a "sliver lining" I guess!
'via Blog this'
The WaPo link at the top is their spin on the NRO Issue "Against Trump", the NRO excellent concluding paragraph:
Some conservatives have made it their business to make excuses for Trump and duly get pats on the head from him. Count us out. Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot in behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the Donald himself.The entire NRO lead editorial is well worth reading, loaded with excellent points. The largest point that I would add is that the time for excessive Trump bashing is past. I would have MUCH preferred if Trump had flamed out MUCH earlier, but the current reality "is what it is" -- he may well yet be defeated, but there is at least an equal chance he will be the nominee of the Republican party. The fact that the Republican National Committee (RNC) has dropped NRO from being a debate sponsor, apparently for the anti-Trump issue, even though the RNC response to the BO SOTU speech included a swipe at the Donald, their own frontrunner, shows how lost the RNC and really anyone who thinks themselves "conservative" is!
My observation is that for at least the last three years, we are a lost set of humanity with no shared principles, ethnicity, goals, vision, laws, religion, tradition, or culture living in the area once controlled by a great nation based on ideas asserted to be timeless, but now largely unknown to a disjoint and corrupted population and feckless leadership. For the tragic group of refugees from meaning and purpose stranded in this area of N America, there are no "self evident truths", nor "endowments by a creator", and for the small percentage of the population that even understands the concepts of freedom, equality of opportunity, rule of law, etc, we are faced to try to communicate with masses that have no "truth" and certainly not a "creator" upon which to base anything.
We have strongly declared ourselves to NOT be a "Christian Nation", to not be a "Nation of Law rather than men", and certainly not "the home of the brave". We are not a "nation" in anything save a largely unknown and heavily misappropriated "history". Strangely, there DOES seem to be an "evolving" (brewing?) consensus developing to replace "One Nation, Under God, With Liberty and Justice for All". I'd proffer "Random Godless People, With Free Stuff , Amorality and Political Correctness for ALL (meaning anyone that can schlep in over open borders).
The WaPo article is fairly forgettable, but I did like this view:
So far in this presidential election cycle, the front-running Trump has proven remarkably impervious to media criticism; if anything, he has been strengthened by negative press. His backers — a coalition of the disgruntled — seem to interpret every suggestion that electing or even nominating Trump is terrible idea as proof that it's actually a great one, kind of like the way my 1-year-old thinks everything I tell her not to put in her mouth must, in fact, be a delicious treat of which I am trying to deprive her.
Do you see what I did there? I insulted Trump supporters by likening them to a small child. But I did that for a reason. This, I think, is the great flaw in most Trump critiques: They're patronizing, and the people who have fallen in love with this billionaire's cavalier campaign can sniff out condescension like ... well, maybe it's best not to try another analogy.Ah, "condescension". If BO was forced to remove the condescending "Straw Man" argument from his speeches, he would be left with only self glorification to open his yap for! Trump is a clear product of BO (condescension, raw partisanship, lawless, etc), the culture of celebrity, the loss of any shared national ethos, and the lack of any real Republican opposition to the BO disaster. The minority of people that wanted what was "America" to continue ("the bitter clingers") are of course sad, angry, disappointed, disaffected, and basically the equivalent of spiritual refugees living in the territory they once thought they were a part of in spirit as well as flesh.
Lest any fall prey to the now commonly held view that such a sentiment is a sign of "racism" or worse (if such exists), I include this, which I happened to read in a Jefferson Biography just yesterday ... the following is from Alexander Hamilton after some time of Jefferson's presidency, "What can I do better than withdraw from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American world was not meant for me". (John Meacham, "The Art of Power", p 367)
The nation has gone through many painful changes -- but I would argue that the last seven years have seen the greatest loss of especially spiritual and cultural capital. America was an idea, but the idea is dead to a large majority of the people that occupy this spiritually desolate territory.
The ideals that I and at least what I have read of the NRO so far, believe in, no longer hold sway with an significant portion of the electorate. The NRC does not represent any coherent set of values or policy save holding the sliver of "power" they already do -- their morals are the same as "The Party" (D), with just different marketing for their corrupt lust for power. The R party is the party of "hold things to the current level of corrupt meaninglessness", TP is "stop all opposition and seize TOTAL power over all!!!". Neither believes in individual liberty, rule of law, limited government .. let alone pride in those ideals.
As I've said before, Trump is the anti-BO -- lawless, no experience in government, narcissistic, no agenda save winning and himself, race pandering (BO-black, Trump-white), "might as right" ... and onward. As the NRO seems to point out, as have I, nothing "conservative" about Trump whatsoever.
However, this is political season makes us one sure promise, as bad as Trump is, if he ends up as the nominee, he will be INFINITELY better than the TP alternatives -- a known criminal and an avowed socialist.
These days, that is what counts as a "sliver lining" I guess!
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Berning Through $28T
Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Care Plan Would Increase Federal Spending By At Least $28 Trillion - Forbes:
I look at something like this and the fact we are still here and at least assured by BO and the MSM that we are "doing OK" after seven years of BO disaster makes me realize we may drop off this cliff as well. $14T in new taxes and or deficit spending, and these are the ROSY projections -- that include cuts in pay for everyone in medicine and "some rationing".
Sure our workforce participation is at historic lows, sure we are most likely actually in a recession but we have fudged the numbers, high school educated middle-aged white Americans are dying in droves and the general view forward for Americans is dismal, but really, who cares? Oh yes, I could go on a lot longer litany, but does it really matter? It isn't like the vast majority of Americans have any thoughts about doing anything but pulling more dollars out os someone else's pockets for some "free stuff".
We used to hear about "debt and deficit" all the time. Gone. Military deaths -- even those of the 12 missing Marines after the loss of the helicopter in Hawaii would have caused some soul searching about "sacrifice, loss, and the incompetence of the W military" 8 years ago. That kind of reporting would actually be REFRESHING now!
The IA governor wanting to defeat Ted Cruz, Glenn Frey dying, and Dolly Parton's 70th B-day are on top of CNN right now.
Yes, there is a really angry set of people dedicated to Trump, but as I look around, it looks to me like we have settled in to the concept that "there is PLENTY of money around"! We can print it, borrow it, take if from the "1%" or certainly SOMEBODY.
Can you REALLY see anybody that doesn't have a "D" next to their name winning this next election? The nation has "gone for the stuff" twice now, but thrown R's in the Congress and a lot of state seats in hopes that they can find SOME way to at least pay for a little of it and pass it all out with some tiny level of competence.
We have killed any idea of consistency or reason. Liberty and Equality OF RESULT are TOTALLY INCOMPATIBLE!!!! Is that not obvious to all?
The idea was EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW -- as in you could not have a "progressive" income tax because it treated people differently! **LAW** was to be applied equally. There was NO CONCEPT of "equality of result". What the hell would "equality of result" even BE? We all make the same amount of money? We all live in the same cinder block USSR style flat? We all drive the same socialist "Dumb Car"?
Out nation was NOT a nation of ethnicity nor territory, it was a nation of IDEAS.
We don't even have a CLUE as to the ideas that created the once great nation we see falling apart all around us!
I look at something like this and the fact we are still here and at least assured by BO and the MSM that we are "doing OK" after seven years of BO disaster makes me realize we may drop off this cliff as well. $14T in new taxes and or deficit spending, and these are the ROSY projections -- that include cuts in pay for everyone in medicine and "some rationing".
Sure our workforce participation is at historic lows, sure we are most likely actually in a recession but we have fudged the numbers, high school educated middle-aged white Americans are dying in droves and the general view forward for Americans is dismal, but really, who cares? Oh yes, I could go on a lot longer litany, but does it really matter? It isn't like the vast majority of Americans have any thoughts about doing anything but pulling more dollars out os someone else's pockets for some "free stuff".
We used to hear about "debt and deficit" all the time. Gone. Military deaths -- even those of the 12 missing Marines after the loss of the helicopter in Hawaii would have caused some soul searching about "sacrifice, loss, and the incompetence of the W military" 8 years ago. That kind of reporting would actually be REFRESHING now!
The IA governor wanting to defeat Ted Cruz, Glenn Frey dying, and Dolly Parton's 70th B-day are on top of CNN right now.
Yes, there is a really angry set of people dedicated to Trump, but as I look around, it looks to me like we have settled in to the concept that "there is PLENTY of money around"! We can print it, borrow it, take if from the "1%" or certainly SOMEBODY.
Can you REALLY see anybody that doesn't have a "D" next to their name winning this next election? The nation has "gone for the stuff" twice now, but thrown R's in the Congress and a lot of state seats in hopes that they can find SOME way to at least pay for a little of it and pass it all out with some tiny level of competence.
We have killed any idea of consistency or reason. Liberty and Equality OF RESULT are TOTALLY INCOMPATIBLE!!!! Is that not obvious to all?
The idea was EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW -- as in you could not have a "progressive" income tax because it treated people differently! **LAW** was to be applied equally. There was NO CONCEPT of "equality of result". What the hell would "equality of result" even BE? We all make the same amount of money? We all live in the same cinder block USSR style flat? We all drive the same socialist "Dumb Car"?
Out nation was NOT a nation of ethnicity nor territory, it was a nation of IDEAS.
We don't even have a CLUE as to the ideas that created the once great nation we see falling apart all around us!
Sunday, January 17, 2016
War On Carp and Sanity
Fervor in Oregon Compound and Fear Outside It - The New York Times:
"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore"! As I've noted before, we also certainly aren't in anything that would have been called "America" or USA prior to 2008 anymore. WTFistan? It was "Changed", and it seems Hopeless ... but I think I could even take THAT a little better if I could even begin to understand how I might even imagine walking a few miles in the ruling elite's moccasins -- or perhaps wearing their tinfoil hats? What is going on????
In the linked article we find that a lot of strange people are running in and out of the remote wildlife refuge that has been "occupied", including somebody dressed like a Declaration of Independence Signer, some kids, reporters and ladies baking brownies. and a horse named "Hellboy".
So WTF? The NY Times clearly cares about this "occupation", although the federal government either completely doesn't care, is totally incompetent, or ??? I mean, 3rd grade snow fort occupation management 101 would be to RESTRICT ACCESS! In the event they have ANY future plans to take the government property back ... perhaps in a hurry because the carp have maybe captured a couple of our navy craft and we want our sailors back!
Or perhaps our leadership is looking to get a bunch of people in there so they can burn it up like Waco and make a bigger "statement"? Isn't there SOME limit on how much incompetence a sane person can buy into? I know that is "black helicopter stuff", but I simply can't figure out what the Feds are up to here at ALL, and I don't think the NY Times can either.
I WILL say however that watching Facebook, one sees how quickly the left goes to VIOLENT HATRED! There can be all manner of black riots, police killings, blacks blocking freeways, Islamic beheading, rapes, planes bombed, etc, and your average lefty is "keep calm, don't stereotype, be "proportional" etc.
Let a few cranks take over a remote wayside rest and the lefties want BLOOD and they want it NOW!!! TERRORIST is a word they are no shy about using at all in THIS case!
So on to the Iranians and the boats. We are expected to buy that our navy is SO incompetent that they "drifted into Iranian waters". This makes no sense. The boats were stopped on the high seas for a great show of force over the US, especially the obviously false cover story plus BO and Kerry bowing and scraping.
Then we have the apology from the Navy Commander that is in direct violation of the code of conduct for our servicemen when captured! Huh?
I understand why Iran would like the show of force and slap in the face on the day of the SOTU and a couple days before sanctions are lifted, but why would BO and company play along? Even MORE surprising is that it seems that NOBODY is concerned at all about how completely off the wall this incident is. There are at least 10 sailors that know at least a lot of the story, and nearly certainly double, triple that or more on this side and who knows how many on the Iranian side. It would seem like the truth eventually will come out, but OTOH, the gigantic lack of curiosity is AMAZING!
Was the propaganda photo op something that Iran demanded to release the three hostages they have been holding forever? I could see BO going for something like that for sure. Oddly, although the linked WaPo headline is ; "Plane with freed Americans leaves Iran; U.S. imposes new sanctions", the sanctions are not on Iran, but on the companies that helped them prepare their ballistic missiles that they have tested in violation of the agreement that the sanctions have been lifted as a result of them agreeing to ... and violating!
Again, What???? I have no idea what is going on -- the "ship of state" seems to just be completely drifting domestically and abroad, and it seems everyone is just watching the playoffs, TV and movies and surfing the net like cud chewing cattle.
'via Blog this'
"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore"! As I've noted before, we also certainly aren't in anything that would have been called "America" or USA prior to 2008 anymore. WTFistan? It was "Changed", and it seems Hopeless ... but I think I could even take THAT a little better if I could even begin to understand how I might even imagine walking a few miles in the ruling elite's moccasins -- or perhaps wearing their tinfoil hats? What is going on????
In the linked article we find that a lot of strange people are running in and out of the remote wildlife refuge that has been "occupied", including somebody dressed like a Declaration of Independence Signer, some kids, reporters and ladies baking brownies. and a horse named "Hellboy".
Deeper inside, down an icy, tree-lined road, the group has seized about a dozen buildings, and the Bundy brothers have commandeered the cluttered office of Linda Sue Beck, a government biologist who had been leading a war on invasive carp before the occupiers took over.
The heart of the protest, however, is a quarter-mile from the biologist’s office, at a bunkhouse with bedrooms and a large kitchen where women marinate chicken, grill salmon, bake brownies and organize a stockroom that swelling with donations from around the nation. To slip in, a reporter just has to ask.I know I'm pretty concerned that the LEADER of the "war on invasive carp" has been sidetracked! Thank God we are still able to combat "Global Warming", the "challenge of our generation", as well as the other biggie "Income Inequality" ... I wasn't even aware we had declared war on carp.
So WTF? The NY Times clearly cares about this "occupation", although the federal government either completely doesn't care, is totally incompetent, or ??? I mean, 3rd grade snow fort occupation management 101 would be to RESTRICT ACCESS! In the event they have ANY future plans to take the government property back ... perhaps in a hurry because the carp have maybe captured a couple of our navy craft and we want our sailors back!
Or perhaps our leadership is looking to get a bunch of people in there so they can burn it up like Waco and make a bigger "statement"? Isn't there SOME limit on how much incompetence a sane person can buy into? I know that is "black helicopter stuff", but I simply can't figure out what the Feds are up to here at ALL, and I don't think the NY Times can either.
I WILL say however that watching Facebook, one sees how quickly the left goes to VIOLENT HATRED! There can be all manner of black riots, police killings, blacks blocking freeways, Islamic beheading, rapes, planes bombed, etc, and your average lefty is "keep calm, don't stereotype, be "proportional" etc.
Let a few cranks take over a remote wayside rest and the lefties want BLOOD and they want it NOW!!! TERRORIST is a word they are no shy about using at all in THIS case!
So on to the Iranians and the boats. We are expected to buy that our navy is SO incompetent that they "drifted into Iranian waters". This makes no sense. The boats were stopped on the high seas for a great show of force over the US, especially the obviously false cover story plus BO and Kerry bowing and scraping.
Then we have the apology from the Navy Commander that is in direct violation of the code of conduct for our servicemen when captured! Huh?
I understand why Iran would like the show of force and slap in the face on the day of the SOTU and a couple days before sanctions are lifted, but why would BO and company play along? Even MORE surprising is that it seems that NOBODY is concerned at all about how completely off the wall this incident is. There are at least 10 sailors that know at least a lot of the story, and nearly certainly double, triple that or more on this side and who knows how many on the Iranian side. It would seem like the truth eventually will come out, but OTOH, the gigantic lack of curiosity is AMAZING!
Was the propaganda photo op something that Iran demanded to release the three hostages they have been holding forever? I could see BO going for something like that for sure. Oddly, although the linked WaPo headline is ; "Plane with freed Americans leaves Iran; U.S. imposes new sanctions", the sanctions are not on Iran, but on the companies that helped them prepare their ballistic missiles that they have tested in violation of the agreement that the sanctions have been lifted as a result of them agreeing to ... and violating!
Again, What???? I have no idea what is going on -- the "ship of state" seems to just be completely drifting domestically and abroad, and it seems everyone is just watching the playoffs, TV and movies and surfing the net like cud chewing cattle.
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Everyone Gets $4.3 Million
Powerball Meme Mathematical Illiteracy Illustrates Bernie Sanders' Appeal - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
I sincerely hope that this meme was put up by somebody just having fun rather than being serious, but it is certainly going around.
Of course, everyone actually gets $4.30 ... sort of.
What is REALLY scary is that if you DID get $4 MILLION as a young person and decided to "live off the interest" from an FDIC account you would get LESS than 1% ... so < $10K per million, or a total of $40K a year -- less than the median income! Talk about "living like a millionaire"!
So most of us have a lot of money in market index funds and bonds. To the extent that the "BO economy" has done ANYTHING the past 7 years, it has pumped up those funds with a lot of freshly printed money. Take a look at China, take a look at the stock market so far this year -- or go back and look at 2009. You can do MUCH worse than a 1% return on your money!
Royal Bank of Scotland says to sell everything! Are they right?
Walter Russel Mead has some sobering coverage of what is going on in China. He believes that the reason that we see the commodity market crash is that China is already trying to do what the US did in the 1980's ... move from a manufacturing economy to a service / knowledge / financial economy.
As I've said a number of times, the "bottom bottom" line is always the same -- the MAJORITY of the population has to be involved in MAKING (building, inventing, manufacturing, writing, growing, producing, etc) something that OTHERS WANT TO BUY.
AND ... in order to continue to be prosperous, INVESTING a significant portion of the value of that production in SOMETHING THAT GOES UP IN VALUE!
Taking stuff out of some peoples pockets and putting it in other peoples pockets, printing money, giving speeches, passing laws, "regulating", having "programs", etc serve the same function as the scantily clad magicians assistant. They draw your attention so the house (government) can fleece you a bit more while the ship sinks.
The top linked article closes with the following and some of the problem is simply that "millions and billions" are just too large for the human brain to deal with ... let alone trillions and if you combine debt and unfunded entitlements, approaching 100 Trillion!
'via Blog this'
I sincerely hope that this meme was put up by somebody just having fun rather than being serious, but it is certainly going around.
Of course, everyone actually gets $4.30 ... sort of.
What is REALLY scary is that if you DID get $4 MILLION as a young person and decided to "live off the interest" from an FDIC account you would get LESS than 1% ... so < $10K per million, or a total of $40K a year -- less than the median income! Talk about "living like a millionaire"!
So most of us have a lot of money in market index funds and bonds. To the extent that the "BO economy" has done ANYTHING the past 7 years, it has pumped up those funds with a lot of freshly printed money. Take a look at China, take a look at the stock market so far this year -- or go back and look at 2009. You can do MUCH worse than a 1% return on your money!
Royal Bank of Scotland says to sell everything! Are they right?
Walter Russel Mead has some sobering coverage of what is going on in China. He believes that the reason that we see the commodity market crash is that China is already trying to do what the US did in the 1980's ... move from a manufacturing economy to a service / knowledge / financial economy.
As I've said a number of times, the "bottom bottom" line is always the same -- the MAJORITY of the population has to be involved in MAKING (building, inventing, manufacturing, writing, growing, producing, etc) something that OTHERS WANT TO BUY.
AND ... in order to continue to be prosperous, INVESTING a significant portion of the value of that production in SOMETHING THAT GOES UP IN VALUE!
Taking stuff out of some peoples pockets and putting it in other peoples pockets, printing money, giving speeches, passing laws, "regulating", having "programs", etc serve the same function as the scantily clad magicians assistant. They draw your attention so the house (government) can fleece you a bit more while the ship sinks.
The top linked article closes with the following and some of the problem is simply that "millions and billions" are just too large for the human brain to deal with ... let alone trillions and if you combine debt and unfunded entitlements, approaching 100 Trillion!
There's a relevant Richard Feynman quotes about big numbers. "There are 1011 stars in the galaxy," Feynman once said. "That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers." That was at least three decades ago—the annual deficit is at about a trillion now.
People have trouble conceptualizing numbers as big as a thousand, let alone a million, billion, or trillion. They listen to Bernie Sanders and come to the conclusion if only government took more money from "billionaires" it could fund everything for everyone. Appeals to reason and math are discounted as right-wing propaganda.Let's face it, any appeal to reality is "right wing propaganda" these days!
'via Blog this'
Thursday, January 07, 2016
Loss and "Closure"
Link to WSJ Article
Ran into what I found to be a fairly short description of dealing with death and loss on WSJ that seems very worth of consideration for those of us forced to deal with this topic -- which is ALL of us until we exit this mortal coil.
Every person and every loss is unique. Some may want to have some sort of "closure" (no matter what the article says) ... possibly for "always", or they may change their mind on the topic in the same night ... both directions. Emotion, grief, loss, death -- these are not topics that lend themselves to pat answers or "one size fits all" templates for how they "should" proceed.
Be there for those that have lost that are grieving and try to support them in what they are going through as best you can understand what they need -- and pray that there will be someone that does the same when it happens to you!
NEVER make statements like "You OUGHT to ..." Ought, should, so and so did, etc relative to someone dealing with loss are minefields. Just avoid walking into them.
OTOH, when it is you that is in grief, TRY to forgive those that are trying to help even if they are doing it horribly. Even perfect support can at times fail miserably because ... well, because things like logic, rules, guidelines, reason, common sense, etc really don't count for much when facing the permanent (for this life) loss of part of one's very soul.
I liked the following paragraph even though I think it as well can be wrong in some cases. The article is worth the short read.
Ran into what I found to be a fairly short description of dealing with death and loss on WSJ that seems very worth of consideration for those of us forced to deal with this topic -- which is ALL of us until we exit this mortal coil.
Every person and every loss is unique. Some may want to have some sort of "closure" (no matter what the article says) ... possibly for "always", or they may change their mind on the topic in the same night ... both directions. Emotion, grief, loss, death -- these are not topics that lend themselves to pat answers or "one size fits all" templates for how they "should" proceed.
Be there for those that have lost that are grieving and try to support them in what they are going through as best you can understand what they need -- and pray that there will be someone that does the same when it happens to you!
NEVER make statements like "You OUGHT to ..." Ought, should, so and so did, etc relative to someone dealing with loss are minefields. Just avoid walking into them.
OTOH, when it is you that is in grief, TRY to forgive those that are trying to help even if they are doing it horribly. Even perfect support can at times fail miserably because ... well, because things like logic, rules, guidelines, reason, common sense, etc really don't count for much when facing the permanent (for this life) loss of part of one's very soul.
I liked the following paragraph even though I think it as well can be wrong in some cases. The article is worth the short read.
The reality is that closure is a myth. My personal and professional experience with those who have lost friends and family, including children, has taught me that going on with life is not the same as gaining closure. The wound of loss is a part of each person’s life forever. We continue to think about those dear to us, though perhaps not every day or with the same intensity. Recollection is sometimes provoked by a date on the calendar or, less predictably, by a sight, sound, aroma, melody or place that evokes the missing person.
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
Fragility, Hope, Blame, Packers
Green Bay Packers- Is it Time to Blame Rodgers? | isportsweb:
The BIGGEST message I take from the Packers regular season is that having a top flight football team is UNBELIEVABLY hard and whenever you have one, it is FRAGILE!
The Pack had not been swept by the division at home since 1968! I was FLOORED ... we had a number of teams during the '70s and '80s that lost to St Norbert's School for Blind Girls by more than two touchdowns in exhibition games! Yes, yes, we always give thanks for the Motor City Kitties, and how hard it is for them to play when their paws are cold, but wow. 1968!
It ought to be clear by now that NOBODY has a clue as to what all went wrong with the offense, but the fact is that early in the year Rodgers was playing GREAT and he got a tremendous amount of credit for that (too much), so it is really only fair that now he is starting to get some blame:
Reason says that we lose to the Redskins somewhat pitifully -- amazingly, if you take the 2nd half of the season, Kirk Cousins is high seed QB and Rodgers is low seed!
Of course, my hope never dies, especially after the end of the Detroit game. The true optimist says. the last time we lost the NFC N, we won the Superbowl!
'via Blog this'
The BIGGEST message I take from the Packers regular season is that having a top flight football team is UNBELIEVABLY hard and whenever you have one, it is FRAGILE!
The Pack had not been swept by the division at home since 1968! I was FLOORED ... we had a number of teams during the '70s and '80s that lost to St Norbert's School for Blind Girls by more than two touchdowns in exhibition games! Yes, yes, we always give thanks for the Motor City Kitties, and how hard it is for them to play when their paws are cold, but wow. 1968!
It ought to be clear by now that NOBODY has a clue as to what all went wrong with the offense, but the fact is that early in the year Rodgers was playing GREAT and he got a tremendous amount of credit for that (too much), so it is really only fair that now he is starting to get some blame:
At the end of the day, the buck stops with the quarterback. Every game, Rodgers is missing open receivers and making plays no Packers fan expected to see this season. In Week 17, he had two opportunities to put together a drive to tie the game with his team down by 7 points in the fourth quarter. During the first possession, Rodgers called a crucial timeout because he was unable to get his offense ready to snap the ball on time. Without calling that timeout, the Packers would have had an extra 40 seconds on their last possession.
On the next play, Rodgers threw an ugly interception in the end zone when it looked like James Jones made a strong break towards the pylon and had a chance to catch the ball in the end zone. Instead the ball was thrown softly and far behind Jones, giving him no opportunity to make the catch. The final drive ended in a Hail Mary due to the wasted time out, and the Packers did not end up as lucky as they were in Detroit earlier in this season. The result: second place in the NFC North.One of my theories is that given the Packers situation now, Rodgers extreme hatred of interceptions is working against him. He's losing fumbles for TDs trying to "safely make something happen". Favre would have slung it in there come hell or high water. NOTE, I've OFTEN lamented that Favre was WAY too much over on the "sling it" side, but I'm afraid that given the tattered line and the receivers that aren't going to get the separation that Arod wants to see, he needs to err a bit more on the "gun it" side if we want to win a playoff game.
Reason says that we lose to the Redskins somewhat pitifully -- amazingly, if you take the 2nd half of the season, Kirk Cousins is high seed QB and Rodgers is low seed!
Of course, my hope never dies, especially after the end of the Detroit game. The true optimist says. the last time we lost the NFC N, we won the Superbowl!
'via Blog this'
Friday, January 01, 2016
Must Stop New Years From Coming
The time from very late Tuesday the 22nd until the 31st was the shortest and best eight days of my life as we had a wondrous holiday with our little granddaughter, her parents and our youngest son here from Denver. I knew it would be a special Christmas, but was shocked to experience one of the most rare of things in my over intellectualized, overly anxious, and tending to the darker emotions, life. I was treated to the most joyous of surprises as to just how wonderful Christmas could be. I generally dislike surprises -- and often feel concerned even when they are pleasant ones, because I feel I must not have thought adequately to realize this good thing could happen!
Oh, I still managed to "what if" some -- grandpa did a lot of the most careful driving he has ever done, however, unlike falling in love, marriage, having kids, milestones in their life, etc, the wonder and magic of a perfect little granddaughter is such an unalloyed gift that reminds me that God may always have "just one more surprise" in his plans for his children. Even for those who are very much the least deserving of all, which would be me. There are a number of times over the past seven years where I wished that my life had ended earlier because of bad things happening. I was very wrong ... I would not have been around for those completely undeserved eight days!
One of the many highlights of the time was the Baptism of our granddaughter, and so the embedded "Borning Cry" which has become dear to me since becoming a Lutheran. Baptism is a completely undeserved gift, depending on none but Christ -- as is our life, made eternal through the gift of participating in God's Grace.
It was 2008 before I understood the Lutheran phrase used at death -- "They have left this Vale of Tears". Sudden younger death holds few advantages, but one is the likely avoidance of learning the impact of what that phrase means. Grandparents, aunts or uncles, pets, etc dying are an introduction to death, but they often fit into "the circle of life" -- the "proper order". "They had a good life" ... "they are at peace now", etc. Such phrases often bring comfort, but not always ...
Life is even more precious when the "vale of tears" has been experienced. When the rest of your family gets into the car to head to the cities to fly back to Denver with your wife driving, you realize how vulnerable we all are to losses that are all the worse in that they actually are VERY imaginable.
Some people like to claim that "religion is imaginary", that there is "no evidence for it". In order to reach that conclusion they must of course not consider how unlikely our existence is, historical evidence for things like the resurrection, etc, but lets just say, OK, it's "imaginary".
We KNOW that money is all dreamed up by man. Is that real? Capitalism? Communism? Human Rights? Which parts of your important life experience aren't "all in your head"?
Well, my best Christmas ever is now "all in my head". Will it remain the best that I ever experience? Will tragedy strike and I will again fall prey to wishing it was my last? Will it be my last? Such is the essence of our lives -- poignant, ironic, capricious, indefinite, ethereal, ineffable ... I'm not about to give up my best Christmas just because it is all in my head -- in fact, it is very very dear to me there -- like my Christianity (if the doubters are right). Sure, the fact that my best Christmas was very much "shared" and is in others heads as well is critical to it being "real" ... same with my Christianity. Same with money ... take a look at times in history when people lose their shared faith in it. Confederate currency anyone?
So now life goes on with that bittersweet hole in the heart, but also much gratitude to God for allowing me to live to experience that joy. We were able to take her up to see my 89 year old father and get a four generation picture -- considering he was 30 when I was born and I was 31 when my son was born, there is a lot of grace in evidence there!
Oh how my mom would have loved to hold her! Gods ways are not our ways. I pray that heaven will wait 100 years at least for that meeting -- and it will be a great one!
So "New Years Eve came, just the same" (like "The Grinch") ... and now 2016 has come. 2015 was a year that started in terrible tragedy for us, but from 6/14 on contained a lot of indescribable joy, and it now slips it's way into being all in our heads (and hearts).
In childhood, the feeling of "Christmas is over" (and at that time, the INTERMINABLE amount of time until next year!) was a hollow difficult feeling. My parents said "you will grow out of it!" ... and I did, but at the price of Christmas not being as magic and dear as it once was. I was too "grown up" for such childish feelings.
As my career moved along, there was a similar feeling in going back to work after the holiday break ... that left with the end of working. Then last year was the first year with no kids able to make it home -- a different sense of the holiday that made the loss of my mother touch my heart more as well. Last year was the Christmas of the missing.
Now I've come full circle for at least one year, to have not "grown out of it" after all! My soul feels that there is a major message of life there -- to know great joy is to know great sadness, there are no peaks without valleys. To enter Heaven we must be "as a little child" -- it seems that God has given me a great lesson in understanding that truth!
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The U Shaped Curve
Yes, America's middle class has been disappearing....into higher income groups - AEI | Carpe Diem Blog » AEIdeas:
The linked article is worth reading ... yes, the middle class is shrinking, BUT it is shrinking because people are BOTH falling and rising! The bottom grew from 25 to 29% since 1971, the top grew from 14 to 21% ... so 4 points for poverty, 7 points for wealth!
We should also note that the lower middle and upper middle stayed basically constant -- so all the "middle flight" was to the extremes.
We are heading toward a classic U shaped curve -- the opposite of "the standard curve", or the "bell shaped curve" -- the "normal distribution". In the U-curve the action is at the extremes, the UNnatural curve.
I did a LITTLE research on it, and ran into Francis Galton, an interesting guy who came up with a machine that would show the normal distribution, but also came up with one of the first U shaped curves relative to "consumption" ... "wasting away", normally from cancer, but they didn't know what in those days.
One of the other references referred to the U shaped curve as "the hard math class curve" -- the one where the good mathematicians excel of course, but one that is advanced enough that the vast majority of people know not to get in the class, so the "middle" bows out -- only the foolish, those with inflated opinions of themselves, etc also enter and fail miserably. Thus the "U".
Nobody really "knows" why this is happening ... the article just focuses on the good news that more people are rising than falling, but "nature" would expect a BELL with tails at the ends and nearly 70% clustered in the middle, with tails on either end dividing the rest. Both "poor" and "rich" would hold 2.27% each, with lower middle and upper middle holding 13.59% each.
My reasoning as to possible reasons is the following:
The UNnatural curve is a sign that nature is not taking it's course -- the average are not excelling to the best of their ability while being led (and provided workplaces) by the few able to achieve at the very high level, with only a small set (the same as the upper set) falling to the bottom unable to cope with the environment. For the moment we are moving slightly toward a "J-shape" since more have moved to the top since '71, but 29% at bottom and 21% at top tells me that this hopeful trend will not likely continue. I predict the bottom is going to grow more and the top will slow down.
Were trends to continue with more rising than falling, perhaps a U-shaped curve could continue, but it seems unlikely to me. I suspect that the left is fine with a slightly tilted U (more at the bottom) as we have now, or even the reverse J with LOTS at the bottom voting for "The Party", and a tiny minority at the top "happily" paying the freight for all the "free stuff".
Interesting none the less ... not the kind of info you see much of in "The Party" controlled media!
'via Blog this'
The linked article is worth reading ... yes, the middle class is shrinking, BUT it is shrinking because people are BOTH falling and rising! The bottom grew from 25 to 29% since 1971, the top grew from 14 to 21% ... so 4 points for poverty, 7 points for wealth!
We should also note that the lower middle and upper middle stayed basically constant -- so all the "middle flight" was to the extremes.
We are heading toward a classic U shaped curve -- the opposite of "the standard curve", or the "bell shaped curve" -- the "normal distribution". In the U-curve the action is at the extremes, the UNnatural curve.
I did a LITTLE research on it, and ran into Francis Galton, an interesting guy who came up with a machine that would show the normal distribution, but also came up with one of the first U shaped curves relative to "consumption" ... "wasting away", normally from cancer, but they didn't know what in those days.
One of the other references referred to the U shaped curve as "the hard math class curve" -- the one where the good mathematicians excel of course, but one that is advanced enough that the vast majority of people know not to get in the class, so the "middle" bows out -- only the foolish, those with inflated opinions of themselves, etc also enter and fail miserably. Thus the "U".
Nobody really "knows" why this is happening ... the article just focuses on the good news that more people are rising than falling, but "nature" would expect a BELL with tails at the ends and nearly 70% clustered in the middle, with tails on either end dividing the rest. Both "poor" and "rich" would hold 2.27% each, with lower middle and upper middle holding 13.59% each.
My reasoning as to possible reasons is the following:
- Technology is leverage. Those that are able to use it excel, those who do not tend to fall -- a long way.
- Technology allows "mass everything" ... those that win, win A LOT, those that don't win fall to the bottom.
- The vast increase in government means that the lower class is subsidized, but both the middle and upper classes are penalized. Our two IBM incomes made us "upper". We are now falling to being "middle to upper middle" ... we were HEAVILY penalized for being "upper", and the penalties continue and are rising as we fall -- huge deductibles on our insurance for higher cost insurance, and always taxes, taxes, taxes.
- The previous point creates a "step function" ... if you can stay below the point at which you lose government benefits and start paying taxes, it is a big benefit. If you want to stay at the upper level, it takes A LOT of effort, income, risk taking, etc, **AND** you pay HUGE penalties for all that work! Because of the technology leverage, there are more people that CAN achieve that level, but it takes a toll, and after a certain length of time (the voice of experience speaking here), they just get tired of running the rat race and paying the penalties ... so they slide down the scale, PLUS government policy hastens their slide as it sucks away the assets / pension that they have built.
- Given the previous two points, the vast majority of the population "wises up" ... "you can't fight city hall", let alone Uncle Sam! College doesn't pay, and even learning a trade means you have to get up and go to work every day. Father a couple kids out of wedlock, live with some single mother on welfare -- move around a bit. Tomcats do it, why not people? (covered here)
The UNnatural curve is a sign that nature is not taking it's course -- the average are not excelling to the best of their ability while being led (and provided workplaces) by the few able to achieve at the very high level, with only a small set (the same as the upper set) falling to the bottom unable to cope with the environment. For the moment we are moving slightly toward a "J-shape" since more have moved to the top since '71, but 29% at bottom and 21% at top tells me that this hopeful trend will not likely continue. I predict the bottom is going to grow more and the top will slow down.
Were trends to continue with more rising than falling, perhaps a U-shaped curve could continue, but it seems unlikely to me. I suspect that the left is fine with a slightly tilted U (more at the bottom) as we have now, or even the reverse J with LOTS at the bottom voting for "The Party", and a tiny minority at the top "happily" paying the freight for all the "free stuff".
Interesting none the less ... not the kind of info you see much of in "The Party" controlled media!
'via Blog this'
Sunday, December 06, 2015
Hail Mary, Hail Christmas At Luther
Being on the positive side of a game ending like Thursday night in Detroit puts a smile on your face that tends to stay for awhile.
My smile got a big boost last night as we were privileged and blessed to be gifted with amazing seats to participate in "Christmas At Luther: Saviour of the Nations Come!". It was an experience like nothing I ever really imagined, and one which I know will stay with me the rest of my days.
Raised in a Baptist church in the day when elaborate musical programs were considered "worldly", and were done by Catholics (considered to be the "Whore of Babylon" in fundamentalist theology of the sixties at least), and Lutherans -- considered to be another of the apostate churches by that particular Baptist sect, my exposure to such worship was non-existent.
Add to this the fact that my musical talent would generously class as "minimal", and my background in any sort of classical music or understanding is woefully barren, and we have the proverbial beggar approaching the banquet. Oh, while we are at it, such a feast of spirit is properly preceded by a feast of a Norwegian buffet -- lefse, lutefisk, meatballs, brussels sprouts (which a like) and heavenly rutabaga mashed potatoes. It was definitely the best lutefisk which I have ever given a game try -- for some reason my Swedish blood apparently just can't quite get by the quiver though! We Swedes crushed the Norwegians potatoes and dumped lye on their fish, and the resourceful Norse consider them delicacies!
I'm not equipped to make intelligent comment on the program. Rapt amazement, awe and joy are the operative terms that come to me. SIX HUNDRED FIFTY young vocalists with symphony orchestra, handbell choir, heavenly organ in an incredible setting and really for the first time in my life I considered that angelic choirs and instruments praising God really could be something to look forward to in Heaven ... although I'm not giving up on shore lunch with Jesus.
I'm not sure two hours have ever passed faster! I was somewhat surprised, but very gratified to see that this was DEFINITELY an unabashed and unapologetic CHRISTIAN CHRISTMAS celebration, . It included some of the manadary modern nods to "diversity", but they were not a distraction. I did reflect a bit on "why"? The crowd and the student body were certainly conspicuously caucasian with only sprinkling of others, but we were after all in Decorah IA, deep in the midwest.
In some ways the evening was coming "full circle". It was interaction with Luther graduates at IBM that provided the example that eventually led me to the Lutheran Church. I felt as if I was privileged to glimpse a special bit of that rich spiritual heritage that eventually drew me to the Lutheran Church. (a bit on that if interested)
What a miraculous complex creation we are gifted with. A little Norwegian-American school named after "Luther", a somewhat brooding German's German. Germany, where much later a madman idolized the Valkyries and a vision of "Aryan" that looked positively Norse, yet he himself looked nothing like the ideal. Enjoying the celebration of a Jewish child born in the mideast over 2,000 years ago with many aspects of the actual holiday translated by a Roman Church from pagan winter solstice rituals -- a Roman Church that the German Luther stood up to in The Reformation, 500 years ago in 2017.
Somehow though, when the candles are lit and the strains of the "First Noel" are coursing through the night and our gathered spirits, it is all simple.
Thanks to the wonder of the internet, here it is https://vimeo.com/248192944.
My smile got a big boost last night as we were privileged and blessed to be gifted with amazing seats to participate in "Christmas At Luther: Saviour of the Nations Come!". It was an experience like nothing I ever really imagined, and one which I know will stay with me the rest of my days.
Raised in a Baptist church in the day when elaborate musical programs were considered "worldly", and were done by Catholics (considered to be the "Whore of Babylon" in fundamentalist theology of the sixties at least), and Lutherans -- considered to be another of the apostate churches by that particular Baptist sect, my exposure to such worship was non-existent.
Add to this the fact that my musical talent would generously class as "minimal", and my background in any sort of classical music or understanding is woefully barren, and we have the proverbial beggar approaching the banquet. Oh, while we are at it, such a feast of spirit is properly preceded by a feast of a Norwegian buffet -- lefse, lutefisk, meatballs, brussels sprouts (which a like) and heavenly rutabaga mashed potatoes. It was definitely the best lutefisk which I have ever given a game try -- for some reason my Swedish blood apparently just can't quite get by the quiver though! We Swedes crushed the Norwegians potatoes and dumped lye on their fish, and the resourceful Norse consider them delicacies!
I'm not equipped to make intelligent comment on the program. Rapt amazement, awe and joy are the operative terms that come to me. SIX HUNDRED FIFTY young vocalists with symphony orchestra, handbell choir, heavenly organ in an incredible setting and really for the first time in my life I considered that angelic choirs and instruments praising God really could be something to look forward to in Heaven ... although I'm not giving up on shore lunch with Jesus.
I'm not sure two hours have ever passed faster! I was somewhat surprised, but very gratified to see that this was DEFINITELY an unabashed and unapologetic CHRISTIAN CHRISTMAS celebration, . It included some of the manadary modern nods to "diversity", but they were not a distraction. I did reflect a bit on "why"? The crowd and the student body were certainly conspicuously caucasian with only sprinkling of others, but we were after all in Decorah IA, deep in the midwest.
In some ways the evening was coming "full circle". It was interaction with Luther graduates at IBM that provided the example that eventually led me to the Lutheran Church. I felt as if I was privileged to glimpse a special bit of that rich spiritual heritage that eventually drew me to the Lutheran Church. (a bit on that if interested)
What a miraculous complex creation we are gifted with. A little Norwegian-American school named after "Luther", a somewhat brooding German's German. Germany, where much later a madman idolized the Valkyries and a vision of "Aryan" that looked positively Norse, yet he himself looked nothing like the ideal. Enjoying the celebration of a Jewish child born in the mideast over 2,000 years ago with many aspects of the actual holiday translated by a Roman Church from pagan winter solstice rituals -- a Roman Church that the German Luther stood up to in The Reformation, 500 years ago in 2017.
Somehow though, when the candles are lit and the strains of the "First Noel" are coursing through the night and our gathered spirits, it is all simple.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.Merry Christmas ... er wait, "Happy Advent" ... I'm a Lutheran now!
Thanks to the wonder of the internet, here it is https://vimeo.com/248192944.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Spying On Iowa Shed
My set of readers is small enough that I'm trying an experiment. If you go to ip address 69.66.197.8:81 and use ID "guest" and PASSWORD "xyz", you may be able to bring up something like the following. It's a Dlink DCS-5010L if that helps.
Since it is unoccupied most of the time, in general you should see nothing too interesting, but if you have the proper technical inclination, camera viewer software, or are just handy with browsers and such, you can even move the camera around. It is IR, so things show up ghostly at night. The main purpose is to be able to read the big thermometer on the wall pretty must usually "dead ahead" of the camera to make sure that the place isn't freezing up ... but I like playing with internet cameras. I have a couple around the house here as well so I can look in on my kitties, get e-mail if there is motion around my gun safe, etc.
My plan is to remember to kill the "guest" connection when we are down there as a public service -- seeing me running around in my undies would be hard to unsee!
The connection down there is DSL, so I'm pretty sure the IP will stay fixed ... I did set up a remote Dynamic DNS URL ... "lakeplace.from-ia.com", that ought to work as well, but it has failed me a couple times -- might be propogation. I'm pretty sure the IP is static on DSL anyway.
Naturally, if you see like masked men, water running across the floor, are looking in the daytime and are able to see that the thermometer is pointing "straight up or trending leftward", an email to bilber@mac.com would be really nice!
A small tech note for anyone trying to set up on at least Windstream or possibly any DSL, ** APPARENTLY ** ... my experience, and I've seen a couple posts to this effect, UNLIKE cable modem, if you try to access your internet IP from INSIDE your local modem firewall, you just get the modem / router no matter what you do! I wasted A LOT of time on that!
My inside IP for the camera was a static 192.168.254.8 using port 81, and the modem/router was 192.168.254.254 usign port 80, and NO MATTER WHAT I DID, I could not get to the camera using the outside IP adress that I listed.
FORTUNATELY I have a Verizon 4G data account, and thought "what the heck" and just gave it a try .. WALA, instant picture! ... we DON'T really want to talk about how much time I wasted trying to get at it using the Windstream DSL account at the shed ... yet another case where "the way it has always worked" on cable modems DID NOT work on at least the Windstream DSL connect.
Our speed SUCKS ... like 384K up and 1.2 Mbits down, but "it works" ... hopefully speeds will be improving. "The plan" is to get two outside cameras ... one pointing at the lake, one pointing at the road in front ... those ought to be more interesting at least sometimes. Is the lake frozen? Is the lake stormy? Is there snow? Is the farmer doing field work across the road? etc ...
Anyway, that is the future ... for now, be a spy if you like!
Monday, September 28, 2015
The Have Less Crisis
WSJ Middle Class Squeeze
An excellent but somewhat long article on the state of the malaise of the world economic system.
First, everyone knows that "morality" is a very difficult term in our current world. What do we "value"? As traditional morals of chastity, truthfulness, thrift, prudence, hard work, honor, trustworthiness, meekness, temperance, etc. have fallen from favor to become terms of derision hurled at some "hypocrites" who still "bitterly cling" to such. The very concept of "morality" has left the building -- and "money" has become a primary "value" in itself -- of both good and ill. "The Party" TP-D getting lots of funding for a campaign? GOOD ... Koch brothers providing lots of money for an R? EVIL ... Lots of money poured into TP teachers unions? GOOD ... lots of money for a CEO? EVIL ... and on it goes. "Morals" relative to your POV -- the essence of the "all things are relative" view.
So to Marx, the "bourgeoisie" were the evil -- the owners of capital. The shop, farm and factory owners -- those that hired and fired and "leeched" off from labor -- the "proletariat" who were trapped and basically slaves.
The column goes on.
I'm going to throw out a couple of generalities here, but I think the BIG deal of this article is that it does a good job of stating the core of the problem -- We have lost our moral compass and are adrift. Until we fix that, all activity is pretty much just churn! We are also very vulnerable -- to attack from without or within.
I'm working on my review of "Closing of the American Mind" -- hopefully more detail there, but I think the big point is that as the Roman Empire, and to a lesser extent, the British Empire, found "well fed ease and leisure" is not a meaningful goal for mankind. Everyone has to believe in something and really DO something in service to that belief in order to be happy! "I believe I'll have another beer" is a cynical JOKE ... but right now it is more in keeping with the "values" of Europe, America and Japan than anything else.
Conquest, exploration, saving souls, moral perfection, defeating evil, "truth, beauty and the American Way", etc ... those have been and in some cases still are worthy goals. Certainly ISIS believes that they are undertaking a "conquest for saving souls" -- their own, and the infidels they convert to what they see as the truth. They are "defeating evil" from their perspective -- but we are "the evil", and we have decided to stop resisting as much as we can. It seems the Putin also sees himself as restoring Russia to it's "rightful place". I suspect that China is also in this camp.
Real morals and values are DANGEROUS! They MEAN SOMETHING! Because they move people -- and nations, and potentially worlds. The Bible as always has pure truth on this -- "Man does not live by bread alone" -- without spiritual meaning, man dies. "Without vision the people perish" ... this article does a good job of pointing out how we are perishing --- not so much how to LIVE!
We need to figure out what is worth not perishing for, if we truly want abandon the terminally ill patient that is Western Civilization -- that is unless we just want to continue to kill ourselves.
An excellent but somewhat long article on the state of the malaise of the world economic system.
Since the financial crisis of 2007-08, which Western leader could boast of spreading ownership in any important way? In the U.S. and Britain, the percentage of citizens owning stocks or houses is well down from the late 1980s. In Britain, the average age for buying a first home is now 31 (and many more people than before depend on “the bank of Mom and Dad” to help them do so). In the mid-’80s, it was 27. My own children, who started work in London in the last two years, earn a little less, in real terms, than I did when I began in 1979, yet house prices are 15 times higher. We have become a society of “have lesses,” if not yet of “have nots.”I think the summary of the state of affairs is stated well here.
The relationship between money and morality, on which the middle-class order depends, has been seriously compromised over the past decade. Which means that the mass bourgeoisie (a phrase that Marx and Engels would have thought a contradiction in terms) start to feel like the new proletariat.I'm not sure how learned the author of the column really is, but he said a HUGE mouthful there!
First, everyone knows that "morality" is a very difficult term in our current world. What do we "value"? As traditional morals of chastity, truthfulness, thrift, prudence, hard work, honor, trustworthiness, meekness, temperance, etc. have fallen from favor to become terms of derision hurled at some "hypocrites" who still "bitterly cling" to such. The very concept of "morality" has left the building -- and "money" has become a primary "value" in itself -- of both good and ill. "The Party" TP-D getting lots of funding for a campaign? GOOD ... Koch brothers providing lots of money for an R? EVIL ... Lots of money poured into TP teachers unions? GOOD ... lots of money for a CEO? EVIL ... and on it goes. "Morals" relative to your POV -- the essence of the "all things are relative" view.
So to Marx, the "bourgeoisie" were the evil -- the owners of capital. The shop, farm and factory owners -- those that hired and fired and "leeched" off from labor -- the "proletariat" who were trapped and basically slaves.
The column goes on.
But pretty much the whole of the developed world is still in the convalescent ward, and no one is sure whether the wonder drug of quantitative easing can yet be abandoned, or even whether it does no more than suppress the symptoms of disease. Despite years of supposed austerity, debt is still strikingly high. It remains possible that banks, or even whole countries in the eurozone, could collapse. And who knows whether or not China’s big banks are bust?
There is clearly an unmet need for a politics that goes beyond mere grievance-peddling to develop a new way of thinking about what makes a society free and secure at the same time. If this were easy, we would have heard more of it by now, and I won’t pretend to have the answers. But certain basic principles seem like the proper foundation.He is brilliant up to here, but then goes on to pretty standard ideas, that while good in general, don't really make one feel "he's got it" -- get markets working better, get stock ownership to be more responsible, get a better balance between globalization and nationalism ... not wrong, but not really a clear marching order.
I'm going to throw out a couple of generalities here, but I think the BIG deal of this article is that it does a good job of stating the core of the problem -- We have lost our moral compass and are adrift. Until we fix that, all activity is pretty much just churn! We are also very vulnerable -- to attack from without or within.
I'm working on my review of "Closing of the American Mind" -- hopefully more detail there, but I think the big point is that as the Roman Empire, and to a lesser extent, the British Empire, found "well fed ease and leisure" is not a meaningful goal for mankind. Everyone has to believe in something and really DO something in service to that belief in order to be happy! "I believe I'll have another beer" is a cynical JOKE ... but right now it is more in keeping with the "values" of Europe, America and Japan than anything else.
Conquest, exploration, saving souls, moral perfection, defeating evil, "truth, beauty and the American Way", etc ... those have been and in some cases still are worthy goals. Certainly ISIS believes that they are undertaking a "conquest for saving souls" -- their own, and the infidels they convert to what they see as the truth. They are "defeating evil" from their perspective -- but we are "the evil", and we have decided to stop resisting as much as we can. It seems the Putin also sees himself as restoring Russia to it's "rightful place". I suspect that China is also in this camp.
Real morals and values are DANGEROUS! They MEAN SOMETHING! Because they move people -- and nations, and potentially worlds. The Bible as always has pure truth on this -- "Man does not live by bread alone" -- without spiritual meaning, man dies. "Without vision the people perish" ... this article does a good job of pointing out how we are perishing --- not so much how to LIVE!
We need to figure out what is worth not perishing for, if we truly want abandon the terminally ill patient that is Western Civilization -- that is unless we just want to continue to kill ourselves.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Throw Out Baby Jesus, Keep the Bathwater
Atheism starts its megachurch: Is it a religion now? - Salon.com:
The Atheists are working on a church -- here is what they have against the "Unitarian Universalist Community Church" :
The atheist looks at a universe impossibly built for his existence and declares it a matter of pure random chance against all odds. He then realizes that he has a "soul hole" -- something is missing, his life lacks meaning. So he postulates that against all odds, on top of his impossibly random universe, random selection has put a "God shaped hole" into his consciousness -- meaningless and randomness has most strangely selected to imprint a drive for him to seek some sort of "meaning" for his life in this universe that he has decreed to be meaningless and random.
So he grabs his bootstraps and pulls. The futility brings tears to my eyes ... and I'm sure to Christ's as well.
'via Blog this'
"“The church model has worked really well for a couple of thousand years,” Dodd muses. “What we’re trying to do is hold on to the bath water while throwing out the baby Jesus.”"For ages, man has uttered the aphorism "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" ... man has finally become so lost that rather than keeping the baby -- the center, the sacred, the important, the motto is changed to purposely keeping that which is unclean, unuseable, and defiled.
The Atheists are working on a church -- here is what they have against the "Unitarian Universalist Community Church" :
“The Unitarian Church has this idea of ‘radical tolerance.’ It respects everything. It’s all good. Well that’s fine on one level, but at some point it becomes a little diluted.” Dodd was looking for a more robust secularism.This is pretty much all the information one can get out of the article. Their problem with the Unitarians as stated in the quote was not enough "robust secularism" ... but it seems that the direction the "Sunday Assembly" is going is toward avoiding in your face atheism.
As the atheist church becomes more church-like, however, it seems to be deliberately downplaying its atheism. Where the Assembly once stridently rejected theism (at April’s Assembly, Jones poked fun at the crucifixion), it is now far more equivocal. “How atheist should our Assembly be?”, Jones wrote in a recent blog post. “The short answer to that is: not very.”Hard to define yourself purely by what you are against. Certainly those that "poke fun" at those who think differently from themselves are widely respected in secular culture depending on what it is they poke fun at -- the Bruce Jenner Halloween costume was so open mindedly received!
Either way, Sanderson Jones is confident that the model will spread. “We have the most natural human urge to do this,” he insists: to organize ourselves around institutions of meaning. I am inclined to agree that “Live Better, Help Often, and Wonder More” is a lovely motto to build around.We live in a "Goldilocks Universe" tuned precisely to our existence ... to unimaginable numbers like 10 to the minus 128 needing to be "right on" for us to be here. Amazingly, on top of that we have this common urge to "organize ourselves around institutions of meaning" -- or, as we did for thousands of years, worship God.
The atheist looks at a universe impossibly built for his existence and declares it a matter of pure random chance against all odds. He then realizes that he has a "soul hole" -- something is missing, his life lacks meaning. So he postulates that against all odds, on top of his impossibly random universe, random selection has put a "God shaped hole" into his consciousness -- meaningless and randomness has most strangely selected to imprint a drive for him to seek some sort of "meaning" for his life in this universe that he has decreed to be meaningless and random.
So he grabs his bootstraps and pulls. The futility brings tears to my eyes ... and I'm sure to Christ's as well.
'via Blog this'
Wednesday, September 09, 2015
Not Working -- American Style
Labor force participation rate falls faster in U.S. than elsewhere - Fortune:
The linked article gives some interesting facts that we don't see in the news much -- you can go look at them and it is worth it, but I'll summarize here.
I'll give you my theory.
First, the personal case -- no doubt shared by a few million people that many would call "lucky". Add a pension to wife's income and realize that any supplementing to that is taxed at roughly 50% counting Federal and State. I can pull money out of what was saved over 34 years and if very careful, hold the tax rate to "low 40%" -- MN 10% tax on top of Feds (no FICA). 60% of your savings is a lot lower number ... it gives one a LOT of "pause".
As long as I was working and the massive taxes were being pulled out all the time, it was "just numbers". I was a VERY good tax bossie cow for the government. Had I not been fired, I would have no doubt continued to work 60+ hours a week, pour money into the TDSP tax trap, and pay out gigantic tax payments in the same stupid boiling frog manner as I did for 34 years. We have a few millions of people in this boat -- in what counts for a country these days, this is the "Happy Boat" -- but also the "patsy boat". (if you go to a poker game and don't know who the patsy is, it's you!)
Then there is the starting out, struggling, broken (homes, addiction, criminal record, etc), low education / capability, boat. The $15 an hour minimum wage and under set -- $15 x 40 x 52 = $31,200 a year. Here is that bastion of conservatism, WaPO on welfare benefits for a single mom with two kids. Going through the whole article is a strain, but they end up giving a REPUBLICAN only 2 Pinocchios on their rating which is incredible -- they usually give the words of Jesus 3, and only Karl Marx is completely truthful from their POV!
As a single mother with two kids, you can either:
(A). Stay at home and get from $20 - $35K a year
(B). Go to work 40 hours every week with no vacations and take in MAYBE $31,200.
Does this strike you as a "tough choice"?
Stay at home and you can maybe take in a few other kids for cash daycare. If there is a guy that isn't a total deadbeat and doesn't beat your kids, he can shack up and hopefully add at least some part-time work to the kitty. Hell, if you can find a stand up guy that actually brings in that $31Kish number and you can manage to move to one of the over $30K welfare states ... say #14, Minnesota at $31,603, you are looking at $62K a year "family" income with one parent working! A hard working trucker in the US pulls down something in the $50K range.
So it isn't hard to understand at all why the bottom of the ladder isn't that into working anymore -- incentives to NOT work, DISincentives to work. Stupid is as stupid does!
In between we have a hodge podge -- the median income and most families are clustered around $50K a year, so it is easy to see that welfare type disbursements have a HUGE effect on OVER HALF of the "families" in the US. In fact, 40% of Americans get over half their income from the government!
Destruction of morality and families is critical to the "progressive" agenda to destroy America. Gay "marriage" is important since it further reduces any latent sense of morality, but heterosexual marriage and ESPECIALLY the idea that men flitting in and out of a mother's bed is somehow "immoral / wrong / socially bad / etc" is CRITICAL. Once the figure of God has been removed, the earthy embodiment in a human "Father" being removed is the next important step to destroy culture. For over half of the children in the US, we are already there.
The definition of "family" used to be mom taking care of kids and dad working. Now there is no definition of family -- but for roughly half of the "families" with children in the nation, the "economic father" is the government, and whoever happens to be in mom's bed is "some guy". He may or may not work -- if she is a "good and discerning woman" (by modern standards), he may work quite a bit and even hang around for awhile. The "family" may even be quite comfortable ... lots of "stuff", entertainment, etc. Isn't that what the "progressive family" is all about?
We have been doing this for a generation and we now find that a lot less people are working and those that are are less productive.
Oh, and "nobody knows why"!
'via Blog this'
The linked article gives some interesting facts that we don't see in the news much -- you can go look at them and it is worth it, but I'll summarize here.
- Nearly a third of Americans are not working -- lowest participation since 1977
- The US is the ONLY nation in the top 8 developed nations where this is happening -- even Japan, where the aging demographics problem is worse than here is not seeing it.
- Productivity is ALSO dropping -- at worst levels since '93.
I'll give you my theory.
First, the personal case -- no doubt shared by a few million people that many would call "lucky". Add a pension to wife's income and realize that any supplementing to that is taxed at roughly 50% counting Federal and State. I can pull money out of what was saved over 34 years and if very careful, hold the tax rate to "low 40%" -- MN 10% tax on top of Feds (no FICA). 60% of your savings is a lot lower number ... it gives one a LOT of "pause".
As long as I was working and the massive taxes were being pulled out all the time, it was "just numbers". I was a VERY good tax bossie cow for the government. Had I not been fired, I would have no doubt continued to work 60+ hours a week, pour money into the TDSP tax trap, and pay out gigantic tax payments in the same stupid boiling frog manner as I did for 34 years. We have a few millions of people in this boat -- in what counts for a country these days, this is the "Happy Boat" -- but also the "patsy boat". (if you go to a poker game and don't know who the patsy is, it's you!)
Then there is the starting out, struggling, broken (homes, addiction, criminal record, etc), low education / capability, boat. The $15 an hour minimum wage and under set -- $15 x 40 x 52 = $31,200 a year. Here is that bastion of conservatism, WaPO on welfare benefits for a single mom with two kids. Going through the whole article is a strain, but they end up giving a REPUBLICAN only 2 Pinocchios on their rating which is incredible -- they usually give the words of Jesus 3, and only Karl Marx is completely truthful from their POV!
It’s correct that a single parent can receive $35,000 in benefits, if he or she lives in one of the 10 states listed in the Cato report, or Washington, D.C. But the median welfare package, which would have been the relevant number to use, is about $28,800 — lower than Grothman’s figure.If you go look at the Cato report, you have to get to the 41st from the top least state in benefits to dip below $20K ... Maine and $19,871. My belief is that people at the bottom of the income ladder react to incentives and disincentives exactly like those at the middle and the top. They aren't "lazy", nor are they stupid -- they are rational!
As a single mother with two kids, you can either:
(A). Stay at home and get from $20 - $35K a year
(B). Go to work 40 hours every week with no vacations and take in MAYBE $31,200.
Does this strike you as a "tough choice"?
Stay at home and you can maybe take in a few other kids for cash daycare. If there is a guy that isn't a total deadbeat and doesn't beat your kids, he can shack up and hopefully add at least some part-time work to the kitty. Hell, if you can find a stand up guy that actually brings in that $31Kish number and you can manage to move to one of the over $30K welfare states ... say #14, Minnesota at $31,603, you are looking at $62K a year "family" income with one parent working! A hard working trucker in the US pulls down something in the $50K range.
So it isn't hard to understand at all why the bottom of the ladder isn't that into working anymore -- incentives to NOT work, DISincentives to work. Stupid is as stupid does!
In between we have a hodge podge -- the median income and most families are clustered around $50K a year, so it is easy to see that welfare type disbursements have a HUGE effect on OVER HALF of the "families" in the US. In fact, 40% of Americans get over half their income from the government!
Destruction of morality and families is critical to the "progressive" agenda to destroy America. Gay "marriage" is important since it further reduces any latent sense of morality, but heterosexual marriage and ESPECIALLY the idea that men flitting in and out of a mother's bed is somehow "immoral / wrong / socially bad / etc" is CRITICAL. Once the figure of God has been removed, the earthy embodiment in a human "Father" being removed is the next important step to destroy culture. For over half of the children in the US, we are already there.
The definition of "family" used to be mom taking care of kids and dad working. Now there is no definition of family -- but for roughly half of the "families" with children in the nation, the "economic father" is the government, and whoever happens to be in mom's bed is "some guy". He may or may not work -- if she is a "good and discerning woman" (by modern standards), he may work quite a bit and even hang around for awhile. The "family" may even be quite comfortable ... lots of "stuff", entertainment, etc. Isn't that what the "progressive family" is all about?
We have been doing this for a generation and we now find that a lot less people are working and those that are are less productive.
Oh, and "nobody knows why"!
'via Blog this'
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