Tagged: faith
The Left’s Only Sound Play
Like how comedians must stick to particulars to be funny, the Left must stick to generalities to regain power.
The Left’s only sound play is to claim as a baseline, “Well, whichever Republican was elected after Biden would be perceived as doing well, comparatively.”
This is sound because it is essentially true, it concedes reality, and, importantly, it provides the currently missing foundation for the future. It also undercuts the “cult of Trump” with exacting precision, no small desire of the Left, though not essential to the cause. For readers with the ability to see nuance, it also offers a distracting element. No one is talking anymore about whether Trump is even a Republican. But the Left should want that debate to resume because any interruption of focus counts in the quest for power.
Will the Left use such sage advice? Of course not. Why not? Because they, as we all saw for four years, are not of sound mind.
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Why share such sage advice? Why spend time considering it? Because I desire the history books (which will draw heavily from this blog…) to show how even the meekest of those with common sense knew what the Left needed to do, but the Left was intrinsically weak.
Examples of Good Obituary Lines (Fiction)
He could go weeks without eating a vegetable or piece of fruit, and I don’t believe he ever ate more than two whole apples, bananas, or any other fruit in a single day for his entire life.
When she was four, she developed a habit of interrupting every member of her family—and most strangers—whenever she felt like it.
He could read the comments on YouTube for hours without ever finding motivation to give more than a thumbs up.
After graduating college and getting a job, he found it impossible to order from Subway without getting cookies.
Sometimes, when reading a book by himself, he would laugh out loud at an irrelevant idea that came to mind.
He never wore a hat in the sanctuary.
She often got irrationally angry the moment someone started talking—and sometimes just at the sight of certain people.
He could not leave a campground without uttering, “How can you tell the Boy Scouts have been here? You can’t!”
She hated being reminded of anything she ever said.
Nobody who had received a gift from her would have guessed it, but she was never taught how to wrap presents.
Not long after hearing a good idea, he routinely could be found sharing it, along with an original—and untrue—story behind how he thought of it, with others.
He started his habit of daily exercise the same week that he ended it—and was happier for it.
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Do you see? The obituaries or eulogies need to be filled with love. When you say something that is A. Untrue and B. General (like, “He loved life” or “He was loved by all”) you merely show that you didn’t even know the deceased, that you didn’t ever notice them even.
Do better. We all deserve it.
One Example of Wildly Provocative and Popular, Yet Ultimately Fully Hedged, Speechmaking
President Trump just announced, “As of today it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders—male and female.”
I cannot deny that I found that utterance by the sitting POTUS exhilarating. But I also cannot deny that the assertion is completely hedged and its opponents will not be deterred. A key feature (one that folks somehow forget) of the struggle of good and evil is evil doesn’t play by the rules. The “more than two genders” crowd doesn’t care about the US government’s current policy. They don’t abide by “rules”. They are agents of chaos—by definition.
I don’t say this to discourage or because I am cynical or a pessimist. I am an optimist and this policy is important.
I just want to call attention to the hedge that most listeners didn’t hear. Only the “Official Policy of the United States government” is acting sane at the moment—not all free peoples of the Earth. Trump’s speechwriters knew he doesn’t have power over everything. In this one instance, that is a shame.
I Like My Life
Not halfway through January and here is what I have been able to knock out.
Let me be for the first to say I read way too many comics in the last two weeks. That X-Men “Epic Collection” was 500 pages. I am over halfway finished with another, not pictured. I only started reading comics recently because of trying to completely cut movies. But I can fully admit that they are or can be a bit juvenile and unsatisfying when read at the pace I have been conquering them. If you’ve ever tried to binge watch X-Files, then you know what I am talking about.
Grant’s memoir was amazing and astounding on nearly every level. What a time to have been alive.
Einstein, as I have said, was life changing.
The Second Jungle Book was, on the whole, better than the first. I will probably read only the first Mowgli story of the First and then jump to the Second with my kids when they are a ready. (Ricki-Ticki-Tavi is in the Second.)
Hiawatha can be skipped if you can call to mind any of Hollywood’s best Indian monologues from the 90s—I’m thinking specifically of the Last of the Mohicans’ “at the birth of the Sun and his brother the moon” moment when Hawkeye is wooing Cora. But it clearly was deeply influential and is therefore a must-read classic if you’ve got the time. (It’s a poem, but can basically be read as if a novel.)
Leviathon is unlike anything you have heard about it. I have to rank it tops—just clearing Einstein—as far as what you absolutely must read if you have always been interested and merely await a kick in the pants for motivation. Einstein is life changing for the reason that afterwards you will join me and an exceedingly few others in feeling good because “now you know”. But what you now know kinda reinforces the fact that you aren’t that interested in keeping up with quantum physics and beyond.
But Hobbes! Hobbes is life changing regarding its implications for your daily decisions—especially in the political part of life. I’m suggesting that, especially for Christians, a careful reading of Hobbes will more likely inspire you to pursue righteousness for the right reasons than any sermon you’ve heard or any other book you’ve read—ever.
Two Ideas For Books
Whether all experience it, or just certain personalities out of those who get the idea to write, I have learned that in the beginning of the career of unsuccessful writers there is a strong desire to not “let the cat out of the bag” too early. There is a belief that “I have a good idea and it is so good that someone else might profit if I share it before it’s for sale by me.”
But I have been blogging for over a decade now, and helped a few others with their books, and I am convinced that all that is hogwash. Life is just too complicated for a single idea, unaccompanied by the innumerable trappings of fate, to succeed.
To prove this, I share that recently I have had two ideas for books. These are prompted by a desire to somehow manifest that reading the classics has tangible results at a level somewhere below “advance of our civilization”. (Implied- civilization definitionally cannot advance if it is built on lies or ignorance of itself—so read the classics! It’s all at stake!)
Firstly, I want to write a book called “Union” that has a chapter for each, of what I have to believe would be at least twenty, type of artificial union between materials that man has developed. Knots, screws, nails, velcro, glue, epoxy etc. When I write it, the descriptions would be quick reads and informative. But the result would be the perfect contemplative admixture of “so what?” with “if we can figure out mating materials, why can’t we figure out relationships?” I have to believe—contrary to all evidence in my life—that we can figure out human relationship/union.
Secondly, I want to write a book—which may be uber short—which highlights a theme which I have seen in the bios of all the authors in my Great Books of the Western World and companion set Gateway to the Great Books. The theme being, the fact that the authors spent the entirety of their lives learning (as opposed to our deeply unreflective “go to college” mindset) coupled with often epic intellectually-based struggles well into old age. Each chapter may just be one page, often only one sentence. IE Hobbes – Forbid from publishing in his mother country from 70 yrs old to 91 yrs old when he died (don’t quote me, this is from memory and may be wrong on all points). The trick to this book is creating knockout punch sentences without getting repetitive.
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“Go to college.” Ha. What a joke.
If you want to run with this, do it. I dare ya.
Been Reading Some Einstein (and Infeld)
Until you do too, or until you read Newton himself, you just need to trust me. Any chance you get, any time you hear someone associate Newton with an apple falling from a tree, stamp it out—fiercely, ferociously if necessary, but effectively in any case. Newton should be forever tied to a David-esque slingshot. In all honesty, Newton’s influence on life on Earth is probably more profound than the “man after God’s own heart.” But however your rank order of the two concludes, they are both whirling a rock around on a rope—no apples in sight. Just stop it!
“Why Not?” (Rough Draft of a Sermon to a Black Congregation Inspired by This Morning’s Lackluster One)
The Blacks end their Sunday services with an actual, earnest invitation to follow Jesus. I have related that observation here many times. That is one of the many, many reasons why I attend their service, dragging my family in tow.
Yet, as noble and biblically sound as is the theology of Black Baptists, one thing the Blacks do not seem to understand is the “why” behind the diminishment of their congregations. I do. And yet given my irrevocable status as a white man, I am under no illusion that I will be preaching to a Black congregation anytime soon. But if I did, the below contains the flavor I’d bring.
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(Always pause for what seems like an eternity before beginning. This is a known public speaking trick. People came to see you speak; they will be more and more silent and curious the longer you do not speak.)
“Why not?”
The gospels oftentimes connect the events of Jesus’ life with the word “immediately”.
In the original Koine Greek, the word translated means, “immediately”.
A few verses are in order.
“And immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded.” Mark 5:42 LSB
“And immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” Matthew 4:20 LSB
“And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” Mark 1:42 LSB
“And immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.” Matthew 26:49 LSB
(The Blacks love when a preacher drives a point home. There is almost an emotional roller-coaster feel to this technique. Just when you think the preacher is losing the group, he’ll insist on lengthening the list and the congregation will vocalize that they are not only picking up what he is laying down, but that they don’t want him to ever stop. So I’d continue.)
“And immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.” Mark 1:28 LSB.
“Immediately the boy’s father cried out and was saying, “I do believe; help my unbelief.””Mark 9:24 LSB
“came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.” Luke 8:44 LSB
“And immediately he rose up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.” Luke 5:25 LSB
(Now I’d have to be shouting over the whipped-up-to-a-frenzy congregants)
And in Luke Part 2, commonly known as Acts, we find,
“and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”” Acts 9:20 LSB
(Still loud, but signalling that the moment is passing, I’d belabor the word.)
Eeeee-mediately.
Immediately.
Immediately.
(Here I will share with the reader that Booker Taliaferro Washington in Up From Slavery has a chapter on public speaking and says the following. “If in an audience of a thousand people there is one person who is not in sympathy with my views, or is inclined to be doubtful, cold, or critical, I can pick him out. When I have found him I usually go straight at him, and it is great satisfaction to watch the process of his thawing out.” So here in the sermon I will search him out and pause until I find him or her. Then, looking at them, I will utter once and again…)
Immediately.
(Another long pause.)
Our problem is that we do not believe in immediately. It’s okay to admit it. We do not believe in immediately.
We are a culture with a great tradition of developing expertise. You know I am right, but to begin my defense of my claim, I offer for your consideration that a very popular book a decade ago made its claim easy to comprehend. The author said that all the best spent 10,000 hours on their particular skill or talent, before rewards came pouring in.
But we don’t need an expert who wrote a book to tell us anything.
We believe our kids should go to school for 17 years, add pre-k and it’s 18. And sometimes we encourage them to go for another 11 (“they’re called doctors”); that’s 29 years before we consider that they are ready to officially have a job.
I can tell you from experience that an Air Force pilot takes about 200 flight hours until they get their wings, but don’t be fooled, that process often takes 2 years of total time. And we don’t officially get the keys to the aircraft often for around 4 more years.
Immediately. Where is it? Not in us.
That’s why I say our problem is we do not believe in immediately.
Our problem is we do not believe immediately.
Indulge me as I give more examples.
True love…?
Waits.
Thank you. Please call them out as you are able.
A good thing takes…?
Time.
What’s the…?
Rush.
Don’t go too…?
Fast.
Tadpoles don’t turn into frogs…?
Overnight.
Only fools…?
Rush in.
Life’s not about the destination, life’s about the…?
Journey.
I don’t want to confuse anyone, but I know there are some biblical scholars here. So here’s one for ya’ll.
“Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart…”
“Wait, I say, on the LORD.”
Back to our culture.
Good things come to those who…?
Wait.
I believe my claim stands.
We do not believe in immediately.
The reason we do not believe in immediately and the reason we follow our culture is two-fold. Firstly, we have bought—hook, line, and sinker—the man-made philosophy that the only things that exist are the material things. Worse, we raise are children under the assumption that the best teachers are those who know the most about the material world.
Secondly, we do not think when we read the Bible. And we do not read enough of the Bible. And we do not push the Bible’s claims far enough when we do read them.
Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
What are the heavens? What do you picture?
What is the earth? What do you picture?
Moreover, does anyone in this body of believers honestly think that their answers would match anyone else’s here?
All I you need to know for today is the heavens are immaterial. They cannot be calculated, measured, or weighed.
The heavens is from where the Word of God emanates. “Let there be light.” Where was God when he said that? The heavens. But where are the heavens?
We look towards the stars to see the heavens, as if the heavens lie beyond the material world. This is theologically unsound.
I need to be clear.
(The pacing of this next point is beloved by the Blacks.)
There is no telescope big enough; there could never be built a telescope large enough…
You hearing me people?
…you could fill an entire hemisphere of the planet earth with a telescope;
Anyone here understand yet?
…I am telling you, you can take half of all of the known universe and convert it into a telescope with the clearest lenses to see as far as possible and you still will not see the heavens.
(Slow way down here.)
We do not believe in immediately.
We don’t.
Why not?
Why not?
Why not?
“And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it happened, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.” Numbers 21:9 LSB
Immediately. Implied.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” John 3:14-15 LSB
Immediately. Implied.
Why not believe in the god who created the heavens and the earth? Why not believe in the most powerful, the all-powerful living god?
I know why you are hesitant. Every believer sitting next to you, in front of you, behind you, across the aisle from you, up in the choir loft, every believer here was also hesitant for the same reason. The reason is always the same. You’re hesitant because you think you know a thing or two about this god you’ve been hearing about. The trouble is you have limited him to the god of earth. Or maybe you’re some kind of uppity and have some method of imagining he is the god of the known universe. Well, I am here to tell you that you need to go bigger, and you need to start thinking biblically. God is the god of the earth and the heavens. The material and the immaterial. He is concerned with you and it takes no time for him to work. You might say he can start work on you, say it with me, immediately.
And on the immaterial side of life, love, faith, hope, and others, forgiveness, patience, compassion, he specializes in immediately.
So why not believe that Jesus can save you immediately? His call is irresistible. You know it, and I know it. His yoke is light, and his burden is easy. In fact, you’re doing the hard labor right now as you battle what you know to be right. You’re probably sweating. Am I wrong? Heart racing. Come on down, son. Jesus is calling.
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Again, it’s a draft. For fun. And I would probably go a bit more orthodox Baptist somehow at the end. “Early, Early!, Sunday morning, he got up!” and all. But I felt like recording this idea anyhow and why have a blog if you only post stuff you’re comfortable with posting?
On the Obvious
I want to start with, “Well, I’ve officially learned…” But the information is so patently obvious that it is more like, “Well, I have to admit you were right.”
Two cultures just cannot mix.
Don’t hear me say that a man and woman can’t fall in love and decide to marry etc. But don’t for a second let that man already have a child and that woman already have a child. Or, more pointedly, don’t let the non-dominant culture’s representative bring in a child. Does this sound mean? Or even tough? It’s not. Or maybe it is. But that assessment puts it squarely in the realm of truth. Truth, it seems, by popular definition is painful.
Truth is painful. Just look at what people don’t want to say. Just list a few things people don’t want to believe. Here’s maybe the deepest, darkest secret we keep in our land of self-delusion: “My kid is a moron.”
Nobody wants to concede this one. And when it becomes known to the parent(s), they do some magic act of retreating socially and investing their time otherwise. “My hands are clean.” “What can I do?”
But when the kids turn out to be contributing members of society, it’s all rainbows and unicorns. Everyone wants to know all about it in as precise detail as possible and the parents beam, “This was all Bobby (or Susie). At most we pointed them in the right direction. Ha. We. It was their mother, I was hardly around truth be told. We are truly blessed.”
So what are my demands? What do I want out of this life?
Agreement from the adult population of earth that lying is wrong. Notice I am not asking for everyone to stop lying. I couldn’t even comply with that demand. I just want everyone of age to agree that lying is wrong.
All my life I have thought it was obvious. (Thanks, mom and dad.) It is not.
An anecdote for your consideration.
I was in line at the grocery store in the small town where I work. Long story, short, I informed my bro-looking adult male line-mate that I had a wife who did not instinctively believe lying was wrong*. In a perfect display of active listening he stopped in his tracks and paused until responding, “How would you even communicate?” I said, “That is exactly the point. Thank you.”
How would you even communicate?
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*How can someone believe lying is not wrong? It’s shockingly simple. They insert some other moral good which trumps it. Like “I just want peace.” But it could be many other ideas. That’s just the one I hear and see on the regular.
(Please keep in mind that even this peace is not defined as the only real peace that comes with virtue and morality. What these people really mean is obvious. “I just want to remain a neglected child.”)
On Culture
I used to think that culture was “you use chopsticks, I use silverware,” and a myriad of other inconsequential and oftentimes interesting differences. And in this thinking, the important, unifying fact was that the food still made it to the mouth.
This is not culture.
By analogy, culture is, “We made it one trillion years on this planet before seeing silverware! Don’t lecture me on Henry Ford or freedom!”
In short, if the people from two supposedly different cultures aren’t engaged in contentious pride fighting, they aren’t from two different cultures.
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Why does this matter to me? Because I get tired of people who have only engaged with other people from the same culture acting like they have any idea which way is up. These uni-culture people may prove the smartest on Earth, but that doesn’t mean they know which way is up.
Teachers Receive Stricter Judgment
Do not, many of you, become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment.
For all the experimentally-derived information not found in the books of the Bible, it sure does contain many easily deduced sentiments.
For my part, I have been elbow deep in Natural Science essays of late, essays whose subject matter has ranged from stars to candles, from chalk to mountains, and from monkeys to conservation of energy. Essays, I say. Maybe 20 total. About 450 pages worth. And these by the actual discoverers of the subject. I have not been reading a textbook written by some no-account hack with bought-and-paid-for letters after their name, just essays written by the men whose genius advanced material life on this planet so rapidly in the last 400+ years.
After the last two essays which covered such basic topics as the “law of periodicity” and the “law of conservation of force”, of which such simple words like “period” and “foot-pound” were defined—words which none of you (or I) could define upon request, but which we employ at our leisure—I started to get angry.
I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself—I am certain that I have now read more than most ever have or will on from the field of Natural Science. And that thrills me. Instead, I was thinking of my kids and all other kids. They are sitting in schools right now, staring at the periodic table and completely unaware why it is so-named. They are, if lucky, in an auto-tech class turning wrenches, and applying torque, without being able to define what it means that the limit for that bolt is 120 foot-pounds—or from where the expended 120 foot-pounds of energy get replenished.
Before you get all “Well, Pete, you’re forgetting that not everyone…” on me, I want to re-iterate these are kids who are in school! What else are they doing if not learning? And, keep in mind I have already suggested a mere 500 pages would advance their knowledge to within reach of the current peaks of human knowledge of natural science.
Also to be clear, I am suggesting these essays would be the course. Have a teacher lead the kids through them and then see what the kids want to do. I cannot be persuaded that they would choose to stop there. It is a sure bet that their curiosity would be piqued and each would willingly follow the most interesting path they saw available to continue down.
As it stands, “hydrogen will bond with…” inspires hardly anyone and we act little different than the uneducated nations and “emerging” cultures which leave a child to himself as we declare, “Oh look at that! He’s gonna be a football player for sure!”
Since obtaining a step-son from another culture, worlds away, I have seen nothing but the distribution of participation trophies which the adults and kids assign as symbolic displays of new expertise in subjects of which they both are ignorant and of abilities of which they are both wanting.
My step-son’s skin is dark, so this was to be expected as the whites in education are utterly brainwashed into thinking BIPOC folks are genetically inferior.
But I have unfortunately watched this occur all across the spectrum. The entire field of education is one big gold star for trying. The underlying sentiment has become, “You are too stupid to understand the hard stuff, so let’s just stay in the shallow end.” The obvious trouble with this idea is the people doing the hard stuff disagree.
Education, hear me clearly, is directly opposed to the priesthood. If you believe there is some special class of human that children cannot generally achieve, you cannot also believe in education. You might as well burn books. This is no different than how you cannot believe both in a geocentric and heliocentric model of the universe, or girls can become boys and boys can become girls.
In the end, in all my “this is wrong”, I found myself reminded of the scripture I opened with. Most Christians would limit James’ warning to spiritual matters. I disagree. Teachers will be more strictly judged. Teachers are being judged. We are all being judged by their failure.
Captain’s Log 