I don't know anyone who isn't addicted to distraction. In this modern age, in this advanced society it's next to impossible to live life without near continuous distraction in one form or another. From the moment we wake up in the morning until we lay our heads back down we spend most of our waking hours distracted or looking for ways to pull ourselves away from the reality of the world we live in.
As we eat our breakfast and sip our coffee we are watching the morning news on the TV or reading the paper. When behind the wheel driving in to work it isn't enough to just pay attention to the road, the traffic and weather conditions, we must also listen to the radio or CD or worse, talk or text on the mobile phone. We get to our desk and before long we find ourselves reacting to a funny e-mail or recanting stories of the past weekend or maybe surfing the Internet. Anything but do the job at hand - at least for a while.
When we get home it's distraction city - especially if there are small children in the home. Once dinner is finished the whole point is to distract oneself until bedtime so that we can get up the next morning and do it all over again. For some it's the TV. For the younger set it's straight to the computer or game console for endless hours of shoot 'em up. For many it's the newest addiction of the modern age - Facebooking.
I say all this not to admonish, hell, I'm addicted to distraction too, rather, I wonder if we are actually any the worse for it. I suspect we are, however, for many people it's the distractions that make life worth living. You know the saying - all work and no play...
Most of us have a lot of free time. In modern societies we are not spending the bulk of our time hunting and gathering. When our minds and bodies are free from the the very act of survival we have a need to fill our lives with something. The thing to ponder is who is making the decision with what to fill it with - us or someone else.
As with anything if we examine that which compels the action we can discern whether it is good, benign or dangerous. Chief among all reasons people give in to distraction is of course boredom. Nine times out of ten when I plop down in front of the TV it's because my life at that point in time is boring. I think this is entirely normal, right? There are probably a thousand reasons people succumb to distraction starting with the inability to face reality at all - and everything in between.
The question becomes then what isn't a distraction? Reading a book? Gardening? Working out? Playing guitar or piano? I guess it depends. Are we supposed to be doing something productive or meaningful 24/7?
The impetus for me to even to broach this subject is the release of Bruce Charlton's new book "Addicted to Distraction". In it Charlton specifically focuses on the mass media. There's no doubt that every one this side of Rip Van Winkel is deeply affected by the mass media. According the always insightful Charlton we ignore the power of the mass media at or own peril.
From Charlton's preview of the book...
How can I convince you that you are deluded?
Well, it won’t be easy because you are not alone; you a part of a folie a billion, a mass delusion, induced by the Mass Media.
You are, in fact, subject to the most pervasive and effective propaganda in the history of humanity; a propaganda which has people not noticing the evidence of their eyes and ignoring the evidence of their own experience.
We allow, we encourage, we demand for this to happen because we are inside the Mass Media and addicted to it; and although it destroys all that makes meaning, purpose, and relationship possible; the Mass Media then takes our alienated, adrift, self-loathing and lonely selves and offers distraction, consolation, absorption, fragments and glimmerings of pleasure and self-forgetfulness...
And yet the Mass Media has no person in-control, no group of persons, not even an interest group. The destructiveness of the Mass Media operates equally – or more – against the participants: the journalists, broadcasters, editors, hype-ers and spinners, public relation professionals and advertisers and propagandists... All are dragged-down just like everybody else by their own destructiveness.
Besides offering mere distractions so much of the entertainment media actually pollutes our minds with toxic pictures and themes about our culture and our belief systems to make us think black is white, good is evil and the demented are the righteous. They do this for no other reason than they can. In a world where everything is relative there is no guiding principle, no ultimate right or wrong. Is it any wonder things are so fouled up.
On occasion a program, a book or a movie is produced that actually enlightens, affirming the goodness of humanity far beyond any self serving agenda. If they are not panned or ridiculed in such a way they ultimately have no power, the underlying affirmation of human goodness, human decency is completely ignored. This is true of decent people too. One need only look at what the mass media did to Tim Tebow, a man, a role model who could have deserved it less. The media took extreme pleasure in building him up just to tear him down. Yet complete scumbags, sluts and thugs are repeatedly celebrated.
The mass media and it's guiding principle political correctness dictate everything in today's culture - this much we all must acknowledge. That said, what is the personal grip the power of distraction holds over us? I go back to the question - what isn't distraction? Are we talking about anything less than meaningful work and quiet self-contemplation? I'm sorry, I don't have the answer.
We need to ask ourselves why we are so afraid of solitude and self reflection? Why do so many of us choose to live vicariously through others instead of creating our own stories. Why we are terrified of being alone with ourselves?
Timothy Wilson, University of Virginia professor of psychology and lead author of a study to determine if people would be comfortable alone with just their thoughts, was surprised by what they found. Not only did most people not enjoy solitude and quiet contemplation many of the men in the study preferred self-administered electric shock to being alone with their thoughts. Previous surveys have shown that people generally prefer not to disengage from the world, and, when they do, they do not particularly enjoy it.
In some of Wilson's experiments, participants were asked to sit alone in an unadorned room at a laboratory with no cell phone, reading materials or writing implements, and to spend six to 15 minutes – depending on the study – entertaining themselves with their thoughts. They were then to answer questions about how much they enjoyed the experience and if they had difficulty concentrating. Nearly all found it difficult to concentrate and that their minds wandered, though nothing was competing for their attention. Most of the participants did not enjoy the experience.
This confirms in a sense that it is human nature to avoid boredom. It also seems to point at the profound shallowness of people. The study periods were a mere 15 minutes. One would think anybody could quietly self reflect and even relax for 15 minutes. To be honest I'm not entirely certain that I could do it.
I think it also goes to show that people don't really know themselves, that they don't even want to. When our minds are quiet is it possible that we are not alone at all? Is it possible that in those times we are in the presence of God? Are we so frightened by the prospect that we do something, anything to avoid that meeting?
Let me sit here quietly and think about that for fifteen moments.
Ugh
Monday, July 14, 2014
Friday, July 04, 2014
Invasion: plain and simple
There is no other way to spin it. If we weren't being invaded from the south for the past 20 years we certainly are now. There are tens of thousands of illegal aliens pouring over the Texas border at unprecedented levels with no sign of abating. Many of them - if not most - are children unaccompanied but an adult. The worse part of it is, it now seems it was planned - planned by our government.
I've heard or read more than a few reports that the Obama Administration put out an RFP in January 2014 for transportation resources to move people to immigrant processing centers across the country. By May the borders were being breached by thousands of children from Central America. Now, if you knew enough to foresee the need for this transportation then you knew enough to stand in the way and prevent it. That was not the plan however.
Last year Obama unilaterally enacted the Dream Act by fiat when it failed to pass the Congress. The Republican controlled House was ready to pass the bill if a few common sense measures were added to ensure this very invasion would not happen. The Democrats said it's my way or the highway, the bill failed. This executive order might as well been an invitation to the downtrodden in parts of Central America. I personally wouldn't put it past the Obama regime to have sent emissaries to those countries with actual invitations, but that's just me and my disdain for Obama showing through. Still...
This is a crisis in more ways than one. The Obama Administration's response so far has been limited and predictable. He has called for 2 billion dollars to help facilitate the processing of these children. Where ever these immigrants land it will eventually overwhelm the community or state and exceed $2 billion in a heartbeat. The financial crisis aside the health crisis these unvaccinated, unhealthy third world children could spawn is phenomenal. If it turns out that the Administration planned this with the goal of overwhelming the system and intentionally foster a crisis someone should be criminally charged.
Even in the early days of the government response to this - while the country is just learning about it - there is talk of secrecy and cover-ups. In one processing center employees were warned about telling anyone of the condition of the kids being readied assimilation into the general public. Some had TB, some had scabies, most had head lice and almost none had any vaccinations. Medical workers were force to swear an oath and threatened with their jobs. Some simply quit. These kids are going put into our communities, schools, day cares and foster care with communicable diseases. It's against the law for health care workers not to report these conditions, yet these people we're threatened by government agents who called themselves the Brown Shirts. WTF.
How can the Obama team justify this? How can those who support this guy just go along?
There is the very real human tragedy to consider too. Most of these people are scared out there minds. How can we turn our backs on them? Well we can't. But it is the height of false compassion (it always is) to encourage and foster certain behaviors that are detrimental to human dignity and success and then swoop in to save the day. On top of that make anyone who opposes the enabling behavior akin to the devil!
The ultra compassion of the borderless "Kingdom of Heaven" churches and the various civic organizations compel us to look past the reasons these things come about and focus on the moral response. We end up supporting the compassionate response and those who advocate it rather than opposing the immoral (and unconstitutional) policies that led to the crisis. In other words the cynical progressives who foster the endless immigration invasion for votes to stay in power are never called out for their very real sins. No, only the so-called nationalism of the conservatives is derided because it comes across as uncaring and compassionless.
It is the duty of the churches to call out sin and evil where ever it is, but they fail miserably to hold the progressives who create this human misery accountable for anything. This is for all intents and purposes aiding evil. Is this what the "Kingdom of Heaven" calls for?
The raucous protest in Murrieta CA over this latest invasion is a clear sign that ordinary citizens are reaching the end of the rope. Almost no one opposes legal immigration and that's all anyone is calling for - control of the borders. The Obama Administration is fooling no one. They are manufacturing a crisis for cynical political gains. The compassion police then pound down anyone who objects. It's a great one-two punch. Perhaps the counter punch is finally going to be delivered.
Ugh
I've heard or read more than a few reports that the Obama Administration put out an RFP in January 2014 for transportation resources to move people to immigrant processing centers across the country. By May the borders were being breached by thousands of children from Central America. Now, if you knew enough to foresee the need for this transportation then you knew enough to stand in the way and prevent it. That was not the plan however.
Last year Obama unilaterally enacted the Dream Act by fiat when it failed to pass the Congress. The Republican controlled House was ready to pass the bill if a few common sense measures were added to ensure this very invasion would not happen. The Democrats said it's my way or the highway, the bill failed. This executive order might as well been an invitation to the downtrodden in parts of Central America. I personally wouldn't put it past the Obama regime to have sent emissaries to those countries with actual invitations, but that's just me and my disdain for Obama showing through. Still...
This is a crisis in more ways than one. The Obama Administration's response so far has been limited and predictable. He has called for 2 billion dollars to help facilitate the processing of these children. Where ever these immigrants land it will eventually overwhelm the community or state and exceed $2 billion in a heartbeat. The financial crisis aside the health crisis these unvaccinated, unhealthy third world children could spawn is phenomenal. If it turns out that the Administration planned this with the goal of overwhelming the system and intentionally foster a crisis someone should be criminally charged.
Even in the early days of the government response to this - while the country is just learning about it - there is talk of secrecy and cover-ups. In one processing center employees were warned about telling anyone of the condition of the kids being readied assimilation into the general public. Some had TB, some had scabies, most had head lice and almost none had any vaccinations. Medical workers were force to swear an oath and threatened with their jobs. Some simply quit. These kids are going put into our communities, schools, day cares and foster care with communicable diseases. It's against the law for health care workers not to report these conditions, yet these people we're threatened by government agents who called themselves the Brown Shirts. WTF.
How can the Obama team justify this? How can those who support this guy just go along?
There is the very real human tragedy to consider too. Most of these people are scared out there minds. How can we turn our backs on them? Well we can't. But it is the height of false compassion (it always is) to encourage and foster certain behaviors that are detrimental to human dignity and success and then swoop in to save the day. On top of that make anyone who opposes the enabling behavior akin to the devil!
The ultra compassion of the borderless "Kingdom of Heaven" churches and the various civic organizations compel us to look past the reasons these things come about and focus on the moral response. We end up supporting the compassionate response and those who advocate it rather than opposing the immoral (and unconstitutional) policies that led to the crisis. In other words the cynical progressives who foster the endless immigration invasion for votes to stay in power are never called out for their very real sins. No, only the so-called nationalism of the conservatives is derided because it comes across as uncaring and compassionless.
It is the duty of the churches to call out sin and evil where ever it is, but they fail miserably to hold the progressives who create this human misery accountable for anything. This is for all intents and purposes aiding evil. Is this what the "Kingdom of Heaven" calls for?
The raucous protest in Murrieta CA over this latest invasion is a clear sign that ordinary citizens are reaching the end of the rope. Almost no one opposes legal immigration and that's all anyone is calling for - control of the borders. The Obama Administration is fooling no one. They are manufacturing a crisis for cynical political gains. The compassion police then pound down anyone who objects. It's a great one-two punch. Perhaps the counter punch is finally going to be delivered.
Ugh
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Save the World
I've been accused of being a denier. Yes, that's right, a denier. I don't take it personally, but I think my accusers misunderstand my stance. I absolutely believe in climate change (that's what they like to call it these days. The nasty right-wingers (and the facts) have ruined their favorite scary words - global warming).
Yes climate change is very real, been going on for, oh, say, a couple billion years now. It's even possible, maybe probable, that the globe is warming. Doesn't sound denialist to you does it? Me either.
Is mankind to blame if it is true? I'm not sure, but then no one is. However, I do deny is that the insane remedies the greenies prescribe for America and Europe (basically all the majority white countries) would be in any way helpful. In fact what they want the West to do is to slit our own throats.
The pain and suffering that the greenies want to impose on humanity spreading outward from the West will be far more devastating than any slight warming of the planet could ever be. What they want is energy starvation. At a time when it's abundantly clear that it takes energy to create and sustain wealth and it is rising wealth that will help the most people far and wide. More than one "global warming believer" sees this as the essential truth. The biggest barrier to improving societal resilience to the vagaries of climate change is poverty. Therefore the spending of ungodly sums of money to try to alter the planet's climate will only lessen the well-being of the great bulk of humanity, and drive us all even further into poverty.
In an article posted at the The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) they say exactly that. It's poverty that is the biggest problem for human climate interaction. Read "What the world needs now is a lot less poverty". It's short and convincing.
At the Global Warming Policy Foundation Matt Ridley, hardly a denier, says essentially the same thing - the world will need more energy not less. Take a minute to read MATT RIDLEY: CLIMATE CURE WORSE THAN THOUGHT. Its real food for thought whatever side your on.
FTA:
One IPCC scenario assumes we'd be burning an astonishing 10 times as much coal as today, producing 50% of its primary energy from coal, compared with about 30% today. Indeed, because oil is assumed to have become scarce, a lot of liquid fuel would then be derived from coal. Nuclear and renewable technologies contribute little, because of a “slow pace of innovation” and hence “fossil fuel technologies continue to dominate the primary energy portfolio over the entire time horizon of the RCP8.5 scenario.” Energy efficiency has improved very little.
These are highly unlikely assumptions. With abundant natural gas displacing coal on a huge scale in the United States today, with the price of solar power plummeting, with nuclear power experiencing a revival, with gigantic methane-hydrate gas resources being discovered on the seabed, with energy efficiency rocketing upwards, and with population growth rates continuing to fall fast in virtually every country in the world, the one thing we can say about RCP8.5 is that it is very, very implausible.
Notice, however, that even so, it is not a world of catastrophic pain. The per capita income of the average human being in 2100 is three times what it is now. Poverty would be history. So it’s hardly Armageddon.
But there’s an even more startling fact. We now have many different studies of climate sensitivity based on observational data and they all converge on the conclusion that it is much lower than assumed by the IPCC in these models. It has to be, otherwise global temperatures would have risen much faster than they have over the past 50 years. As Ross McKitrick noted on this page earlier this week, temperatures have not risen at all now for more than 17 years. With these much more realistic estimates of sensitivity (known as “transient climate response”), even RCP8.5 cannot produce dangerous warming. It manages just 2.1C of warming by 2081-2100.
What I have believed all along is that warming is better than cooling. I just don't buy the doomers that claim that all hell will be unleashed if the planet warms by 1 or 2 degrees celsius. The Medieval Warming Period is case in point. Life on Earth was better for more people than the subsequent period known as the Little Ice Age. It's only common sense.
To save the world we need to encourage wealth creation and anti-poverty measures in the poorest places on Earth. It means that the rich will get richer, and the West will continue to rise, and these are good things. This means we will all need greater access to more and more energy. What is it that the greenies and their progressive buddies continuously rally against. Yep, you got it, wealth and energy.
Who is really on the side of the poor?
Ugh (denier)
Is mankind to blame if it is true? I'm not sure, but then no one is. However, I do deny is that the insane remedies the greenies prescribe for America and Europe (basically all the majority white countries) would be in any way helpful. In fact what they want the West to do is to slit our own throats.
The pain and suffering that the greenies want to impose on humanity spreading outward from the West will be far more devastating than any slight warming of the planet could ever be. What they want is energy starvation. At a time when it's abundantly clear that it takes energy to create and sustain wealth and it is rising wealth that will help the most people far and wide. More than one "global warming believer" sees this as the essential truth. The biggest barrier to improving societal resilience to the vagaries of climate change is poverty. Therefore the spending of ungodly sums of money to try to alter the planet's climate will only lessen the well-being of the great bulk of humanity, and drive us all even further into poverty.
In an article posted at the The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) they say exactly that. It's poverty that is the biggest problem for human climate interaction. Read "What the world needs now is a lot less poverty". It's short and convincing.
At the Global Warming Policy Foundation Matt Ridley, hardly a denier, says essentially the same thing - the world will need more energy not less. Take a minute to read MATT RIDLEY: CLIMATE CURE WORSE THAN THOUGHT. Its real food for thought whatever side your on.
FTA:
One IPCC scenario assumes we'd be burning an astonishing 10 times as much coal as today, producing 50% of its primary energy from coal, compared with about 30% today. Indeed, because oil is assumed to have become scarce, a lot of liquid fuel would then be derived from coal. Nuclear and renewable technologies contribute little, because of a “slow pace of innovation” and hence “fossil fuel technologies continue to dominate the primary energy portfolio over the entire time horizon of the RCP8.5 scenario.” Energy efficiency has improved very little.
These are highly unlikely assumptions. With abundant natural gas displacing coal on a huge scale in the United States today, with the price of solar power plummeting, with nuclear power experiencing a revival, with gigantic methane-hydrate gas resources being discovered on the seabed, with energy efficiency rocketing upwards, and with population growth rates continuing to fall fast in virtually every country in the world, the one thing we can say about RCP8.5 is that it is very, very implausible.
Notice, however, that even so, it is not a world of catastrophic pain. The per capita income of the average human being in 2100 is three times what it is now. Poverty would be history. So it’s hardly Armageddon.
But there’s an even more startling fact. We now have many different studies of climate sensitivity based on observational data and they all converge on the conclusion that it is much lower than assumed by the IPCC in these models. It has to be, otherwise global temperatures would have risen much faster than they have over the past 50 years. As Ross McKitrick noted on this page earlier this week, temperatures have not risen at all now for more than 17 years. With these much more realistic estimates of sensitivity (known as “transient climate response”), even RCP8.5 cannot produce dangerous warming. It manages just 2.1C of warming by 2081-2100.
What I have believed all along is that warming is better than cooling. I just don't buy the doomers that claim that all hell will be unleashed if the planet warms by 1 or 2 degrees celsius. The Medieval Warming Period is case in point. Life on Earth was better for more people than the subsequent period known as the Little Ice Age. It's only common sense.
To save the world we need to encourage wealth creation and anti-poverty measures in the poorest places on Earth. It means that the rich will get richer, and the West will continue to rise, and these are good things. This means we will all need greater access to more and more energy. What is it that the greenies and their progressive buddies continuously rally against. Yep, you got it, wealth and energy.
Who is really on the side of the poor?
Ugh (denier)
Friday, June 20, 2014
Outlaw Regimes - not just for the third world anymore
It's so overwhelming that we are hardly shocked anymore. The Obama Administration and its insidious ring of bureaucrats have defacto carte blanc to do whatever they want, and they exploit it at every turn.
I just need to fume over the latest crimes. Can someone tell me how the most powerful department of the Federal government can lose a year and a half of e-mails? Simple, they can't - its not possible in this day and age. The disputed IRS e-mails were deliberately scrubbed and everyone knows this. Once again the major media sweeps it under the rug. Reporting on it matter of factly as if it's no more noteworthy than a passing thunderstorm is not reporting, it's negligence.
The story of thousands of kids storming the borders in the south with an implicit promise from Obama himself of amnesty - a travesty in the making - again gets short shrift in the media. How many have heard the of Texas/ Arizona dust up perpetrated by the Feds? Illegals are being dumped across the Arizona border because the Feds can't process any more on the Texas side. Cloward-Priven anyone?
Every day we hear on the alternate media channels or read on the Internet another transgression against the constitution by this regime. No one dares to go after the President in any real or substantive way. Why? Do I really have to say it? The opposition party is soulless as well as toothless. They are content to ride out the next two years and hope Hillary is better. What a bunch of pansies. They are so afraid to be called racist that they wet their pants and hide behind their sub-committees. Do they think its any better to be called a sexist?
Obama's EPA declares a criminal war on our energy, pledging to put the coal industry out of business - the source 60% of our electricity - and the urban IPad crowd cheers. How pray tell do they think their IPads and and their coffee shops and their electric cars get power? Oh, these guys are the smart ones, college educated and everything. Electricity? Doesn't it grow on trees?
Every Federal department has been successfully transformed into a wing of the progressive socialist party. Little by little the freedom guaranteed the states and the people are eroded and 50% of the people cheer. How ignorant can they be? Fully 12% of the native workforce sit idle while companies import "talent" from overseas and 50% of unemployed voted for this guy. How self hating can they be? The economy is riding high for Wall Street, Federal bureaucrats and oil drillers in North Dakota, but completely stagnant for every one else. Still 95% of the media tells us the economy continues to recover. How naive can we be?
We the Sheeple, if we continue to bend over and take it, well, we'll deserve what we get.
Ugh
The story of thousands of kids storming the borders in the south with an implicit promise from Obama himself of amnesty - a travesty in the making - again gets short shrift in the media. How many have heard the of Texas/ Arizona dust up perpetrated by the Feds? Illegals are being dumped across the Arizona border because the Feds can't process any more on the Texas side. Cloward-Priven anyone?
Every day we hear on the alternate media channels or read on the Internet another transgression against the constitution by this regime. No one dares to go after the President in any real or substantive way. Why? Do I really have to say it? The opposition party is soulless as well as toothless. They are content to ride out the next two years and hope Hillary is better. What a bunch of pansies. They are so afraid to be called racist that they wet their pants and hide behind their sub-committees. Do they think its any better to be called a sexist?
Obama's EPA declares a criminal war on our energy, pledging to put the coal industry out of business - the source 60% of our electricity - and the urban IPad crowd cheers. How pray tell do they think their IPads and and their coffee shops and their electric cars get power? Oh, these guys are the smart ones, college educated and everything. Electricity? Doesn't it grow on trees?
Every Federal department has been successfully transformed into a wing of the progressive socialist party. Little by little the freedom guaranteed the states and the people are eroded and 50% of the people cheer. How ignorant can they be? Fully 12% of the native workforce sit idle while companies import "talent" from overseas and 50% of unemployed voted for this guy. How self hating can they be? The economy is riding high for Wall Street, Federal bureaucrats and oil drillers in North Dakota, but completely stagnant for every one else. Still 95% of the media tells us the economy continues to recover. How naive can we be?
We the Sheeple, if we continue to bend over and take it, well, we'll deserve what we get.
Ugh
Friday, June 13, 2014
The Battle For the Human Soul
There are those Christians - me being one of them - who believe there is a cosmic battle being waged between the forces of light and dark, good and evil, God and satan if you will. They call it the Warfare Worldview. There have been many scholarly books written on the subject and obviously plenty of the entertainment variety books and movies dished up for our pleasure. Clearly the concept is familiar to all of us.
Given the state of the world and the perpetual inability of science and reason to explain the problem of evil it must at least cross your mind from time to time. Some things are so vile that there is no rational explanation for the depravity we see in mankind other than evil itself. This is not a rejection of science at all, rather it's an admission that there are some things that can't be explained mathematically or molecular-ly. In my view it was when the intellectuals dismissed evil as a phenomenon made-up by "religious nuts" that the world came off it's tracks. Science is great and all, it just doesn't tie up everything into a nice knowable bow for us.
I don't advocate for "religion" either. Religion is more often itself a vessel for evil in the name of good. The difference maker is love. Not romantic love, or even brotherly love, but agape love. The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. It is the exact opposite of evil. When you hear the answer God is love to the question of what is God think of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sin, all sin - that's love, agape love. God is love.
So, you don't buy all that he died for your sins business, okay, that's your prerogative. Sometimes I think Jesus is for those who need him. I'm one of them, you may not be, your love may be strong and unshakable. But please don't dismiss agape love out of hand. If you have children, you have given over to agape love... Yes, you do understand...
In the battle for the human soul you have the two conduits that feed into it. One is the spirit the other the body, one ethereal and one earthly. What comes into the soul is projected out into the world through your thoughts, words and deeds. The innate part of you that knows what's good and right, fair and just comes from your spirit. Your lusts and base desires, like greed, gluttony, envy and violence is fed by your body. Uncontrolled this conduit is ripe for the invasion of evil.
Only practicing agape love and controlling your body's desires keep us from falling into perpetual darkness. Study this simple graphic to lock this concept into your psyche. It may be the difference in the war of light vs dark.
[click on the picture to enlarge]
Given the state of the world and the perpetual inability of science and reason to explain the problem of evil it must at least cross your mind from time to time. Some things are so vile that there is no rational explanation for the depravity we see in mankind other than evil itself. This is not a rejection of science at all, rather it's an admission that there are some things that can't be explained mathematically or molecular-ly. In my view it was when the intellectuals dismissed evil as a phenomenon made-up by "religious nuts" that the world came off it's tracks. Science is great and all, it just doesn't tie up everything into a nice knowable bow for us.
I don't advocate for "religion" either. Religion is more often itself a vessel for evil in the name of good. The difference maker is love. Not romantic love, or even brotherly love, but agape love. The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. It is the exact opposite of evil. When you hear the answer God is love to the question of what is God think of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sin, all sin - that's love, agape love. God is love.
So, you don't buy all that he died for your sins business, okay, that's your prerogative. Sometimes I think Jesus is for those who need him. I'm one of them, you may not be, your love may be strong and unshakable. But please don't dismiss agape love out of hand. If you have children, you have given over to agape love... Yes, you do understand...
In the battle for the human soul you have the two conduits that feed into it. One is the spirit the other the body, one ethereal and one earthly. What comes into the soul is projected out into the world through your thoughts, words and deeds. The innate part of you that knows what's good and right, fair and just comes from your spirit. Your lusts and base desires, like greed, gluttony, envy and violence is fed by your body. Uncontrolled this conduit is ripe for the invasion of evil.
Only practicing agape love and controlling your body's desires keep us from falling into perpetual darkness. Study this simple graphic to lock this concept into your psyche. It may be the difference in the war of light vs dark.
[click on the picture to enlarge]
Ugh
Thursday, June 12, 2014
It Cantor End Well
A quick thought on Eric Cantor's primary defeat. Good.
With that said...
This man made my skin crawl. He is a greasy slime-ball that never ever once answered the question he was asked. Despite the amount of air time this guy got being the Majority Leader in Congress he never said one thing that was enlightening or in the least bit interesting.
These thoughts are admittedly based on emotion. I would venture that if examined closely I would agree with Cantor more often than not. But a national leader has got to be more than that. He has to communicate effectively, has to actually say something important and has to attract, not repel.
Is there a politician who fits this bill ( on the GOP side)? I used to be so impressed with Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. He was one of the only politicians I ever heard that answered the questions he was asked. He was sharp and able to defend his statements effectively while not being off-putting or greasy - like oh, say, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D - NY). Unfortunately for Ryan being chosen as Romney's running mate against the royal one, Barack Obama, put him behind the eight-ball in more ways than one. He was purposely toned down by the Romney team and then of course made to be the devil's spawn by Obama's team. He's faded into the woodwork after the 2012 election.
Obviously, I was not the only one who was turned off by Cantor. My dislike had little to do with his stand on immigration. His immigration stance was probably the least offensive thing about him. However the Democrats and their media lapdogs will play that up while they cynically move to destroy what's left of the "European" culture this country was founded on for some shithole backwater culture they import from the south. They don't give a damn about poor immigrants just trying to create a better life. It's just another sub group they can exploit so they can rile them up for votes. If our country played up the melting pot culture that we lived until the 1970's instead of the victim culture it would be impossible for progressives to sell their brand of crap. But if the progressives can divide the culture up by some offense or another and prod the "victims" into rage against the majority it means votes.
They never intend to solve any problem, they more often than not make things much, much worse. It's all a cynical and frankly destructive agenda to stay in power - forever. Made all that much easier by having greasy slime-balls on the GOP side. How utterly sad this is. They will purposefully destroy our culture, our way of life to cling to power. If you oppose this destruction in any way - you are a racist, a homophobe, evil or heartless.
Eric Cantor and those like him on the opposition side, with all the cards stacked against them have got to offer a better way and it won't happen with the flim flam man approach.
Ugh
With that said...
This man made my skin crawl. He is a greasy slime-ball that never ever once answered the question he was asked. Despite the amount of air time this guy got being the Majority Leader in Congress he never said one thing that was enlightening or in the least bit interesting.
These thoughts are admittedly based on emotion. I would venture that if examined closely I would agree with Cantor more often than not. But a national leader has got to be more than that. He has to communicate effectively, has to actually say something important and has to attract, not repel.
Is there a politician who fits this bill ( on the GOP side)? I used to be so impressed with Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. He was one of the only politicians I ever heard that answered the questions he was asked. He was sharp and able to defend his statements effectively while not being off-putting or greasy - like oh, say, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D - NY). Unfortunately for Ryan being chosen as Romney's running mate against the royal one, Barack Obama, put him behind the eight-ball in more ways than one. He was purposely toned down by the Romney team and then of course made to be the devil's spawn by Obama's team. He's faded into the woodwork after the 2012 election.
Obviously, I was not the only one who was turned off by Cantor. My dislike had little to do with his stand on immigration. His immigration stance was probably the least offensive thing about him. However the Democrats and their media lapdogs will play that up while they cynically move to destroy what's left of the "European" culture this country was founded on for some shithole backwater culture they import from the south. They don't give a damn about poor immigrants just trying to create a better life. It's just another sub group they can exploit so they can rile them up for votes. If our country played up the melting pot culture that we lived until the 1970's instead of the victim culture it would be impossible for progressives to sell their brand of crap. But if the progressives can divide the culture up by some offense or another and prod the "victims" into rage against the majority it means votes.
They never intend to solve any problem, they more often than not make things much, much worse. It's all a cynical and frankly destructive agenda to stay in power - forever. Made all that much easier by having greasy slime-balls on the GOP side. How utterly sad this is. They will purposefully destroy our culture, our way of life to cling to power. If you oppose this destruction in any way - you are a racist, a homophobe, evil or heartless.
Eric Cantor and those like him on the opposition side, with all the cards stacked against them have got to offer a better way and it won't happen with the flim flam man approach.
Ugh
Friday, June 06, 2014
Alternative Energy and other Insanities
This is being written the day after President Obama formalized the lethal injection that will kill the American Experiment for once and for all. The new EPA emission rules will have zero effect on "Climate Change" and everyone knows it, the EPA even admits it. If China and India don't follow suit - and they won't - then anything America does to lessen the amount of C02 emitted into the atmosphere will be for naught. So what is the "real" purpose behind this insanity?
Good intentions aren't enough. Idealism isn't enough. I have my theories... Population control and the deconstruction of America as we know it are among them.
I understand, I really do. The dream of clean and reliable non-polluting energy is righteous. God Bless those technical pioneers and policy makers for all the effort. It is (probably, eventually) going to pan out, I hope. I'm guessing some technological breakthrough we aren't even considering will make this dream come true. But it isn't here yet. So, why are we willing to tie our hands behind our backs as a nation, as a society? Why are we willing to go broke for this? Why do we - the people - sit by and do nothing as our wealth and future prospects are being stripped away?
Think back to the days when automobiles started showing up on the roadways. Can you imagine if policy makers decided because horse manure and the flies were such a health problem that they passed laws forcing everything about horses and by extension everything that relied on them to become more and more expensive. This was a time when there were very few roads that were even passable by car. The demand for transportation of all kinds was growing and trains couldn't go everywhere. Cars were great, no doubt the wave of the future, but it would be decades before horse and carriage were obsolete.
Well, they didn't do that because that would have been insane. Yet that's is exactly what today's policy makers are doing with this alternative energy charade. They are forcing energy costs to rise, which they freely admit. They, the greens and their benefactors, want us all to pretend that the available clean energy solutions are just waiting, ready to provide for us, but are just being suppressed by the evil capitalist cabal bent on choking the air and water with pollution.
The truth is none of the energy solutions trotted out even come close to providing what we need. They know this. The point isn't to replace what we have - or could have - it is to create scarcity by putting the cost of energy out of reach - and for no good reason. The country is in an energy boom right now due to enhancements in extraction of fossil fuels. Natural gas is replacing coal as a fuel for power plants and a decent clip. Natural gas produces far less CO2 than coal, in fact most of he reduction in CO2 emissions is directly related to this fact. So why are the greens not celebrating? Simple. It's still fossil fuel. It still raises living standards and worst of all it's getting cheaper.
Despite what the current regime might say they've had little to do with the boom in natural gas and oil extraction in the lower 48. Believe me when I tell you they hate it. They focus on wind and solar power precisely because it will never be up to the task. It may be a nice supplement, but that's all it will ever be. In order for wind and solar to supply electric power consistently 24/7 storage is the key. As it sits today every lithium battery in existence hooked up to the "grid" could power just the United States alone for about 5 minutes. In this sense we are so far off from the day when these darling technologies could make even the slightest dent in demand that its laughable to push this as alternative energy, simply laughable.
It's the same mentality that is shoving light rail and other trains at us these days. They know trains will never do for us what cars and roads will. But the point is not to actually provide useful transportation or adequate energy - it about control. The progressives, liberals or whatever you want to call them simply must control everyone's lives. Apparently freedom and making your own decisions is bad...
It's seems obvious that burning coal for electricity in the long run isn't necessarily wise. Currently the use of coal is decreasing through attrition anyway, in part due to environmentalist activities - three cheers. The issue is that the powerful interests fighting on both sides make doing the intelligent things so difficult. The slow transition from one power source to another and the adoption of emerging technological enhancements is the least disruptive course. For activists and their policy maker friends this isn't acceptable. They are willing to plunge us into economic chaos and untold hardship for millions for their dreams. Some if not most of their goals are laudable. It's their methods - which borders on cruelty - that should alarm us all.
I liken the wacko environmental activist crowd and their benefactors as insane in their practices, but who really are the insane ones? Them or the rest of us who sit by and let them have their way time after time.
Ugh
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