Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to the, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV)

This article was sparked out of a difference of opinion. I follow a blog, Bionic Mosquito, and comment often on the topics written about, as do others. One of these others made a statement which I took exception to.

“Man WAS made in the image of God, but lost that image when he sinned against God. Man by procreation is created in the image of man (Genesis 5:5) for now all men die.”

The Preacher

BTW, the scripture reference should be Genesis 5:3, not 5:5. I must be honest here. I had never seen nor heard that Man WAS made in God’s image, but is not now, so I wrote this reply–“I do not agree with this. Man was, and still is, made in the Image of God. That image, though tarnished and corrupted by the effects of sin, is still there and will always be evident to anyone who wants to see it.”

Here are two different, contradictory, incompatible opinions. They cannot both be right. Either Man WAS and still IS made in the image of God or he IS NOT, implying that he is made in the image of something else—himself. You can read the entire conversation here. Scroll down to the comments. See also the links below for reference. 

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/what-it-means-to-be-made-in-the-image-of-god/

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/image-of-god-meaning-imago-dei-in-the-bible.html

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-does-it-mean-to-be-made-in-gods-image

https://biologos.org/articles/what-does-image-of-god-mean

I am not interested here in defining the meaning of the term, ‘image of God’. It seems to me that this can never be completely and fully explained since we will never know exhaustively what it really means. The best we can hope for is an approximation in the same manner as the six blind men of Hindustan, who tried to explain what an elephant was, each by feeling a unique feature of the beast. The consensus was that an elephant is like a tree, a rope, a snake, a wall, a fan, or a spear. This only confirmed the truth that, while they may have been accurate from their own perspective, none had an overall view of the whole animal. Deciphering the image of God is like that. Besides, there have been innumerable other people, smarter & better educated than me, who have tried to sort this out over the centuries and still are found wanting.

Instead, I will address the question of whether sinful man has lost that image or still carries the imprint even though it is impure and imperfect. Put in simple terms, The Preacher argues that Man (humanity at the beginning, Adam and Eve) were created in the image of God, but that due to the sin of “eating the apple”, that image was removed from them. All their descendants through the ages no longer bear the “mark”, but image another entity, sinful man, who is “created” through the natural act of sex, conception, pregnancy, and birth. The foundation for this argument is seen in Genesis 5:3, which reads,

            “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.”

There are numerous definitions of the meaning of the word “image”, but for our purposes, Merriam-Webster offers this:

4a: exact likeness : SEMBLANCE

God created man in his own image—Genesis 1:27 (Revised Standard Version)

4b: a person strikingly like another person

she is the image of her mother

A person strikingly like another person. This easily corresponds to Genesis 5:3, in which it is recorded that Adam “begot a son in his own image, after his likeness,…” It does not take a great deal of imagination to see this as saying that Seth resembled his father, Adam. Semblance, according to the same source, means an actual or apparent resemblance. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semblance)

Now, I confess that I have never read the Bible through from start to finish in a determined, time-constricted manner. I have never studied it systematically nor rigorously. I have never been to seminary nor even received any formal Biblical education other than years of church attendance, beginning at a very early age, i.e., within days after my birth, and on and off over the rest of my lifetime. Therefore, when I make the following statement, it should be considered as springing out of ignorance and lack of knowledge, rather than a dogmatic, obtuse point of view. If The Preacher (or anyone else) can show me where I am wrong about this, then I will admit my mistake and change my course. Until then, I will hold to my belief.

This idea, that Man is now created in the image of Man rather than the image of God stems from the above-mentioned verse and ONLY from that verse. I will go so far as to say unequivocally from that verse alone. There is absolutely nothing else in Scripture which could be construed as implying that humanity is created in anything other than the image of God. The doctrine is drawn from one isolated verse and is simply not supported scripturally.

In my research, pitifully small as it was and quite reliant on Google, I found nothing which identified any other single verse of Scripture which expounded on the term “image of Man”. (I asked The Preacher to give me links to information which bolstered his case, but got no answer.) In fact, when I typed in the search term, “image of man”, I found, literally, nothing relating to Scripture. Oh, there are plenty of sites linked, but they are not scriptural and usually have to do with photographic images of “men”, some of which are probably pornographic in nature. I do not know because I did not click on them. However, as a means of exploring this issue scripturally and philosophically, there is an absolute silence on Google.

On the other hand, typing in the search term, ‘image of God’, immediately brings up a vast array of links, with many references to scriptures throughout the Bible which uphold the idea that Man is created in and contains the Image of God. Many of these have links to other sites and articles which proclaim the same message that Man is indeed made in God’s Image. In fact, there are so many rabbit trails one could explore that it would be easy to lose sight of the original mission.

If you are skeptical of my claim, check it out for yourself using the search terms I have given. The weight of Scriptural evidence in favor of man being created in God’s Image simply overwhelms any opposing assertion. For instance, among others, 

• “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.” — Genesis 5:1
• “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God, He made man.” — Genesis 9:6
• “With it [tongue] we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.” — James 3:9
• “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God…” – 1 Corinthians 11:7
• “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet.” – Psalms 8:4-6

It is a real stretch to assume that Man no longer bears the image of God in the light of these verses. In fact, it is impossible to read anything in them except that Man was (and is still being) created in God’s image.

I have some questions for The Preacher.

First, how does he explain Enoch? “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” (Genesis 5:24) Very clearly, this verse says, without equivocation or waffling that Enoch had a close relationship with God. Yet, in The Preacher’s comments, he says that this is impossible.

“After the fall of man (read Genesis 3), he cannot have access to the Father, his flesh will die, because the Spirit of God left him and now his soul, body and spirit are “on their own””

“The answer to eternal life is to regain that image that was lost by believing that God himself as a man came to redeem us from our sins, being a propitiation for them and that we embrace and put our faith in that truth, God will restore that image by the Holy Ghost (as the Comforter) and since “Christ is in you”, then you have eternal life.”

In other words, Enoch, who was born thousands of years before Christ, was a “dead man walking”. He was on his own. He did not have access to the Father. However, Genesis 5:24 and the Book of Enoch tell a different story entirely. I do not put much stock in the Book of Enoch (although it is interesting reading) and it is understandable why the Christian church does not recognize it as Scripture, but it vigorously opposes the idea that sinful man does not have access to God. On its own merits, Genesis 5:24 plainly puts the lie to The Preacher’s bald-faced assertion.

Second, what about Noah? “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:8, 9) Not only that, but Noah had sufficient access to God so that he received ample warning of the flood to come and was able to build a way out following God’s direction. Doesn’t sound to me like he lost connection.

Third, how does he explain the prophets? Samuel, who literally spoke with and heard from God, Elijah, who could call down fire from Heaven, or Elisha, who could show the armies of Heaven to his servant on a moment’s notice, and many others of the same ilk.

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If Man no longer bears the image of God, then why is there so much ruckus made over the abortion issue? Are unborn children human beings made in God’s image? Are they simply “products of conception” or as The Preacher might be inclined to say, “products of procreation”? If unborn children and all other unwanted people are only images of sinful man, then why should we care? Why not adopt the attitude and policy of “kill them all and let God sort them out”? In fact, why are there any restrictions on the murderous behavior of Man anywhere? Does this not play into the hands of the tyrannical, evil version of Hell on Earth (Utopia) in which many must die so that some, a few, can live well? After all, what is Man that we should be mindful of him?

Does God inject the “spark of life” into the fusion of a sperm and egg cell at conception? Who does the “creating”? Is Man now entrusted with that task himself? Has life now become a random chance event? Since The Preacher mentioned procreation as the means of creation (see the quote above), can this be taken as saying that God no longer directly is involved with it but has removed Himself from the process? This sounds suspiciously like the doctrine of Deism on an intimately personal level. God originally created Man, including the process by which Man would populate the Earth (procreation), but then removed Himself and is now allowing it to simply play out by itself automatically. God does NOT intervene in the affairs of Man anymore and is relegated to wringing His hands, waiting and hoping that Man, sovereign Man, will come to his senses eventually.

If Man creates himself and God is absent from that manufacture, then what is the use of God at all? Does He not become irrelevant to Man and, if so, can He not be safely and completely isolated and removed from the affairs of men? This recalls Nietschze’s famous quote that,

            “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/22827-god-is-dead-god-remains-dead-and-we-have-killed

Indeed! Now that Man can create himself and now that God can be shoved aside as an afterthought, Man can now become God in his own right. Because Man is worthy of it. Who can argue with that? Who would want to revert back to the “good old days” of Paradise. Practically everyone, but we want to do it on our own terms, not those of God.

If we adopt the idea that Man is created in his own image, then we must accept that there is nothing Man cannot do. Of course, the people at the Tower of Babel found out differently, but we have not yet learned that lesson. Even those who ought to know better fall prey to the temptation.

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“The imago Dei is not a quality possessed by man; it is a condition in which man lives, a condition of confrontation established and maintained by the Creator. Thus in no sense can we speak of man losing this image. “What man does not possess he can neither bequeath nor forfeit.””29 ^{— https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-image-of-god}

Man is, always has been, and always will be, created in the image of God. That image defines us. It is our condition. It cannot be lost. It is what separates us from every other part of Creation. Without it, we are no longer human.

Within the last two days, Lew Rockwell has published two articles (See Ron Unz and James Howard Kunstler.) on the controversy over the Covid-19 mRNA injections so widely pushed by the Establishment and its lapdog media, and so cravenly accepted and submitted to by a genuflecting public.

These articles are contradictory. Unz promotes the view that obesity and its deleterious effects on individual health, more than anything else including the mRNA shots, caused a spike in death rates in 2020 due to the so-called Covid-19 virus, which plucked the low-hanging fruit before the “vaxxine” came into widespread use. He cites studies which review statistics from numerous countries around the world to bolster his case. Statistical analysis, which Unz is very good at, becomes the base of his argument, which is heavily linked.

On the other hand, Kunstler takes a more populist approach. Kunstler claims, without citing a single outside source, that is indeed the mRNA product which is killing so many people unnaturally. He offers no scientific reference as proof that his statements are true and only engages the reader with rhetoric. He develops the argument that by caving in to the Covid authoritarian regime and orders, the medical establishment has lost its trust with the general public. That trust, destroyed due to the abandonment of medicine’s first principles and the surprising lack of interest in exploring the issue, will be only regained, if ever, by a long process of restoring the idea that a doctor’s first order of business is the health of his patient, not submission to a dictatorial bureaucracy.

Only one of these two can be true. Neither may be, but it is plain that both cannot be. Either the Shot Foisted Round the World is killing people or it is not.

My take on the matter is this. Ron Unz makes a very good case and his statements might be proven correct, scientifically and statistically, in the long run. However, we are not living in the long run, but in a time of emotional upheaval and turmoil in which everything about the present system is questioned and under fire. It is at moments like these that people like James Howard Kunstler can rise to the top of the froth, influencing large amounts of public thought for good or for ill.

I do not know which of these two men, if either, is correct. Certainly though, if Unz is right, then the medical establishment carries the primary burden of not working toward a healthy, disease-resistant population through teaching people to take their own health seriously, preferring instead to simply prescribe pharmaceutical solutions to the ills so many suffer as they become more obese, more sedentary, and less physically and mentally healthy. Over many decades, medicine has travelled down the road of increasing corporate profits at the expense of the general health of the patient and, in this, Kunstler is absolutely right. Because of its neglect and disinterest, the cartel of modern medicine has wrecked what used to be a sacred trust–“First do no harm” in the pursuit of profit and power.

Due to the deteriorating situation we find ourselves in, voices like Kunstler’s are going to become louder and more prevalent. People will gravitate toward demagogues rather than dry, rational arguments. When trust is lost, it does not matter how truthful or compelling an argument is. In times of intense turmoil, logic cannot compete with emotion.

In the short term, my money is on the Kunstler types. In the long term, I hope that I am still alive after what promises to be a wild ride.

Yesterday I tuned into the football game between Buffalo and New England and tuned out nearly everything else for the next three hours. It was a fine spectacle of sportsmanship, athleticism, strength, durability, and skill, as all professional games usually are. In the wake of the tragedy suffered by Damar Hamlin just a few days previously, the win by Buffalo showed that the team could perform on a high level in spite of the situation and they deserved everything they won.

Thinking about it later, I was reminded of the movie, Seabiscuit, in which the jockey, Red, was severely crippled just before the all-important match race and had to listen from a hospital bed as his horse cruised to victory under the guidance of another rider. I am sure that Damar Hamlin celebrated in his own way just as much as Red did. I wish Hamlin the very best in his recovery.

There was, however, an episode which happened just before the game started to which I took vehement exception and still fills me with distaste. In the game preview, the announcers were discussing what had happened to Hamlin and its effect on the team. During the conversation, at least four times in the first few minutes, the word “guilt” was used. It sounded as if they were saying that the rest of the team had to overcome the guilt they felt before they could play successfully. Guilt? For what? That Damar Hamlin was in hospital fighting for his life and they weren’t? That they could play and he couldn’t? In a very real way, this attitude is no different than feeling guilty because you were involved in an auto accident caused by another driver in which your wife was killed while you walked away without a scratch. Or maybe during a shooting war because one of your best friends was grievously wounded and severely crippled for the rest of his life. None of this was your fault and you could not have done anything to prevent it, yet you feel guilty because someone else was hurt and you weren’t?

Sorrow? Grief? Compassion? Yes, absolutely! I can understand that, but guilt? Why?

There is something much deeper here and everyone knows it, yet they will not talk about it. Neither Jim Nantz nor Tony Romo, both of whom appeared to me to be visibly distraught and not their usual selves, mentioned it. It is the elephant in the room which everyone tiptoes around, knowing that it is there and acting as if it is not. Due to extreme pressure from the government, the NFL, and society, most of the players and staff had been jabbed with the Covid-19 mRNA injection. Probably both Nantz and Romo, along with the support staff who make the broadcast work, were also participants in this life-and-death experiment. It is a credible assertion that at least half, probably more, of the fans in the seats had also been inoculated with the “safe and effective treatment” at least once, many on multiple occasions. This is arguably the case over the entire playing field of the NFL in America.

They know it. They will not talk about it.

Now, I am not a medical doctor, practitioner, nor expert in any way. I have nothing more than minor field experience in the most rudimentary ways about first aid or response to a medical crisis. I do not know whether Damar Hamlin took The Jab or not. I do not know what caused him to collapse on the field after he took a shot to the chest. I do not know whether he experienced a case of commotio cordis. I do not know whether it was due to some other natural unexplained cause. I do not know and will not speculate, although many others have, including virtually all establishment figures who are pushing the narrative that he did suffer from commotio cordis, even though they have not examined him and also do not know.

[Not that it matters, but I know what it means to take a serious hit to the chest. When I was about twenty years old, I was kicked by a horse squarely in the middle of my chest. It laid me on the ground for quite a few minutes, but as far as I know, I have not suffered any other adversity due to it. I did not seek any medical treatment and never told my parents. I am extremely grateful that I survived.]

This event has all the makings of a conspiracy theory approaching the level of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, although I doubt that the revelation of the truth about Hamlin will drag on anywhere near as long as that has. In fact, considering the sheer number of young, healthy, and extremely fit athletes in the prime of their lives who are dropping dead for no apparent reason, I expect that it will only be a few years before we see and hear the raw, naked truth of the matter. Did Hamlin get the shot? That can be easily proven. Did it cause his heart to fail on the playing field in Cincinnati? That is still being debated and may never be known, but the powers-that-be do not have what it takes this time around to control the narrative as they have since Kennedy was shot. There are too many people, including myself, who suspect the worst and will not be silenced. The truth will come out about this. I believe it will be soon.

They know it. They will not talk about it because they are afraid to admit that they could be next. This might explain why Tony Romo mentioned guilt so many times. However, it is not guilt that he (or anyone else) feels, but fear. Raw, naked fear.

Of this I am certain.

Just about a year ago, I posted an article in which I listed numerous predictions which I thought would (or could) occur in 2022. Looking back on those, it is plain that I was spot on with some of them (The Good: #1, The Bad: #1, 7, 8), but face-planted in the mud right out of the starting gate on others (The Good: #2, 4, 5, The Bad: #3, 9, 10). Many could show some measure of success on a sliding scale (The Good: #3, The Bad: #4, 5). All that proves is that I am no “prophet” at predicting the future and, due to that fact, no one has to be afraid of what I say.

One event which has considerable importance in the world’s economic climate actually played out very nearly to what I had stated, namely, that the Nasdaq would fall 40% from its high at the beginning of the year 2022. See here for evidence. In fact, the Nasdaq started 2022 valued at 15, 832.80 and finished the year at 10, 466.48, or a decline of 33.5%, only slightly lower than my “official” prediction. This says nothing about my ability to forecast the stock market, but does show that I can look at current events and make a lucky guess…sometimes. (Full Disclosure: I do not trade stocks in any way, shape, or form, and did not profit from the yearlong slide of the Nasdaq. Perhaps I should have.)

Nevertheless, enough of the gloating and groaning. It is time to move on. 2022 is past, 2023 is well underway, and with that introduction, here is my list of predictions for the next year. Short, snappy, and easily proven right. Or wrong. As always, these are only guesses and do not mean anything more than what I expect could happen. Use your own good judgement.

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1. The unraveling of the C.O.V.I.D. narrative which became evident in 2022, will continue. The “officially unexplainable and puzzling” deaths from “Died Suddenly” syndrome will increase dramatically and become too prevalent to ignore or cover up. Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, will become the man America loves to hate.
2. Due in part to the heavy-handed attempts to jab everyone with the mRNA witches-brew, resistance to the long-standing childhood vaccination protocol will also surge. More and more parents will question the wisdom of inoculating their young children with unknown chemicals which may be detrimental to their health and well-being. The link between multiple vaccinations and autism will become more firmly fixed in the minds of millions who have lost their trust in official incantations of medical science.
3. Home schooling will be adopted by millions of suddenly awakened American parents who decide that their children are more important than the boat in their driveway.
4. An end to the war in Ukraine will suddenly be negotiated after Clown Prince Zelensky is assassinated.
5. The “woke” movement which reached its apogee in 2022 will begin to decline precipitously (falling off a cliff?) in 2023. Corporations will fall all over themselves trying to create distance. “Get Woke, Go Broke” will manifest itself as the Mantra of the Year. Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion proves itself to be true once again, in spite of the efforts made to try to prove it false.
6. China will not invade Taiwan due to chaos at home. North Korea, following China’s lead, will not invade South Korea, but will continue provocative missile launches. Serbia will invade Kosovo, inflaming nationalist sentiments within the EU and sparking secessionist movements throughout Europe.
7. Donald Trump will suffer a debilitating stroke, causing him to withdraw from politics. His die-hard supporters will be forced to look for salvation from another direction. Ron de Santis will immediately move into the vacuum. Mitch McConnell will suffer a fatal heart attack while speaking to reporters outside the Capitol Building. Anthony Fauci will die mysteriously in his sleep, giving rise to a “conspiracy theory” that he was “Epsteined”.
8. The FED will hold the line on interest rates. Joe Biden will order FED chair Jay Powell to end quantitative tightening and return to a policy of easy money. Congress will be unable to find anything to eliminate in the Federal budget for FY 2024, declaring that “painful cuts” are just simply not possible.
9. A bill will be introduced into the Texas legislature to begin formally considering secession from the US. It will die in committee. No other states pick up the baton.
10. And last, but not least, my favorite. Against long odds, the Jacksonville Jaguars will win the Super Bowl, creating an instant tsunami of “dedicated” fans.

“My fellow Americans – I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris. In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America. With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It’s time for America to unite. And to heal. We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.”

This is from a statement made by Joe Biden, the presumptive winner of the American presidential election. Notice the last line. Notice the assertion that unity of purpose in anything means success at whatever we attempt. Compare this attitude with that of the story of a civilization long lost in the dust of antiquity and mythology–the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11. Verse 6 is the link between then and now.

“And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”

Almost literally word for word. “There’s nothing we can’t do.” “There’s nothing they won’t be able to do.”

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2020/11/08/the-tower-of-babel-american-version/

Immediately after the election of 2020, I compared Joe Biden’s statement with the Biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel. Now, two years later, John Whitehead has joined the chorus. For those who are not familiar with Whitehead, he is constantly churning out articles which detail the abuses of the burgeoning, increasingly aggressive Deep State, otherwise known as the US government.

In a recent article published at the Rutherford Institute, commentators John and Nisha Whitehead detailed a litany of grievances against the situation in which we find ourselves today, where totalitarian, aggressive government is now riding roughshod over our “rights” as free, individual Americans. They conclude that,

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“Unfortunately, we have done this to ourselves.

“We allowed ourselves to be seduced by the false siren song of politicians promising safety in exchange for relinquished freedom. We placed our trust in political saviors and failed to ask questions to hold our representatives accountable to abiding by the Constitution. We looked the other way and made excuses while the government amassed an amazing amount of power over us, and backed up that power-grab with a terrifying amount of military might and weaponry, and got the courts to sanction their actions every step of the way. We chose to let partisan politics divide us and turn us into easy targets for the government’s oppression…

“We” may have contributed to our downfall through our inaction and gullibility, but we are also the only hope for a free future.

After all, the Constitution begins with those three beautiful words, “We the people.” Those three words were intended as a reminder to future generations that there is no government without us—our sheer numbers, our muscle, our economy, our physical presence in this land…

Remember, there is power in numbers.

There are 332 million of us in this country. Imagine what we could accomplish if we actually worked together, presented a united front, and spoke with one voice?“

ibid

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Whitehead is right. We cannot blame anyone else for the situation we are in. If you want documentation of this read 1 Samuel 8. It details what happens when a people clamor for, support, endorse, and follow a tyrannical government. 

“And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in that day.” — v. 18

Did you get that? The “king” which you have chosen for yourselves. Or, in our case, the government that we have voted and lobbied for continuously without end.

Whitehead is also wrong. “We” are not the only hope for a free future. For him to make this assertion is to confess that he has just cut God out of the picture and promoted Man to that position. There is only One Hope for mankind and it is not, most definitely not, “We, the people.”

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face AND [emphasis added] turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 

2 Chronicles 7:14

The unspoken corollary is that IF we do NOT turn from our wicked ways, then America will not be healed. A word to the wise is sufficient. 

Considering that John Whitehead is adamantly vocal about the dangers of a unified, all-powerful government, it is ironic that he should write something like this.

“There are 332 million of us in this country. Imagine what we could accomplish if we actually worked together, presented a united front, and spoke with one voice?”

Yes, imagine that! While you are at it, imagine Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Utopia. Better yet, imagine the Tower of Babel where “they, the people” were unified and spoke with one voice. Even more so, try to imagine what is going to happen when the judgments of heaven are finally unleashed on this country because we have tried to build a “city” for ourselves from which we cannot be dislodged.

Instead of attempting to recreate a “Tower of Babel” situation, we would be far better off to “…humble ourselves, pray, and turn from our wicked ways…”, beginning with the false notion that only the State can offer us “…liberty and justice for all.”

Whitehead ought to know better.

Wednesday, December 07, 2022 2:29 PM

Recently a friend of mine who works for KLA-TV created a short (17 minute) interactive documentary about the history of Jeanette Rankin, Missoula, MT. Several people from the local area did the voiceovers and I was pleased to be able to participate as well, reading a quote from Harton W. Sumners, a Texas Congressman.

For those who are not familiar with Jeanette Rankin, she was the first female member of Congress, elected in 1916, partly due to her anti-war stance, and cast a “No” vote when Woodrow Wilson requested that Congress declare war on Germany in 1917. She then lost her seat for a number of years, but ran again in 1940, also on an anti-war platform and regained the office. She then made history by casting the only “No” vote on FDR’s request for approval following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 07, 1941.

Yes, you read that right. She stood alone against the entire mood of the country and made her position very clear.

This is a very well made video and raises considerable questions about America’s entry into both WW1 and WW2. My part begins at 13:42. Click on one of the links at the bottom of the page.

The other news. Free – independent – uncensored www.kla.tv Dienstag, 08. January 2019 Dear Subscribers! Today is the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, which caused America’s entry into World War 2. But did you know that one person voted against going to war on December 8th 1941? Get to know who that was and why she did it in this broadcast. (Click one of the links below) Why is this relevant today? Aren’t we in a very similar situation. A regional war that could be expanded into a world war at any time. Will we go along or ask the critical question: Qui bono? Will truth and peace prevail this time? It’s up to us.  Please watch and share this critical broadcast on this historical day, so that entries into war remain dark days in history that never repeat.  Yours sincerely, Daniel Goebel with the Kla.TV Team.  Kla.TV: www.kla.tv/24318  YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=z5jhXeM1kqc  Facebook: facebook.com//watch/?v=680163490161075  Telegram: t.me/s/KlaTV_EN/500

I write primarily for myself. I also write in the hope that someone, somewhere, will read what I have written, consider it, and make a shift in their opinion, small or large, in the direction I advocate. I am not paid nor do I write to build an audience, although that would be nice.

With that said, this argument is bound to be controversial and may cause some readers to write me off as insane, unpatriotic, un-American, dogmatic, and perhaps even unchristian. Nevertheless, as the battle lines between good and evil are becoming more sharply focused and redrawn, I have no problem throwing this out for inspection. There is no neutrality, no common ground between good and evil. God is my Judge.

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So many Christians in America today deplore the state of the country, claiming that it must be experiencing the Judgment of God a la Romans 1, beginning in verse 18. Part of this “condition” is because these people look at the blatant immorality which is widespread and increasingly openly defiant, and make the conclusion that America is under judgment for its sins. One major problem with this attitude is that God, not only is, but has always been judging this country (and the world), and will continue to do so…forever. Judgment is not something which is simply switched on or off like a light bulb. There is no time at all when God is not making assessments about behavior and issuing either positive rewards or negative punishments which are appropriate to the behavior. America’s judgment did not begin with the election of Barack Obama and it was not deferred for four years with the election of Donald Trump. In fact, it has been ongoing since the very founding of the nation and it will continue until America itself enters the dusty confines of the ashcan of history.

That being said, it is easy to point fingers. Homosexuality is now mainstream and accepted as normal. Abortion is killing our future. Transgenderism is at odds with reality. Schools are teaching CRT to clueless children. Homelessness is a blight on local economies. Rampant drug use is out of control. Violent predators are targeting our neighborhoods. And on, and on, and on. Ad infinitum. The cause for all these circumstances, we are told, is because we have simply NOT elected the right leaders to enact the right laws which will usher America into its bright future. Oh, and by the way, the first step we ought to take is to restore OUR country to its former glory is to reinstate prayer back into the school curriculum from which it was ousted by a Supreme Court ruling decades ago.

Yeah, that ought to fix it.

Speaking of prayer…

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Contrast that with my own version.

“I pledge allegiance to the Cross of Jesus Christ, and to His Kingdom for which it stands, one Holy Nation, under God, incorruptible, with liberty, justice, and love for all.”

Allegiance. People all over the country recite this pledge monotonously, as a matter of course without ever thinking about what they are saying. What is allegiance, anyway? What does it mean to pledge allegiance? Why is this an issue of importance, especially to those who have also “given” their lives to Christ, promising to follow His steps and way, renouncing their “connection” with the worldly pattern? Here are a few definitions, slightly paraphrased solely for ease of reading.

The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action

The loyalty that citizens owe to their country (or subjects to their sovereign)

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/allegiance

The obligation of a feudal vassal to his liege lord

The fidelity owed by a subject or citizen to a sovereign or government

Devotion or loyalty to a person, group, or cause

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allegiance

Binding. Loyalty. Obligation. Fidelity. Devotion. Regardless as to which dictionary definition is used, these words or others like them are going to be present. Boiled down to its basic elements, allegiance is swearing to submit and adhere to any certain philosophy, action, cause, government, authority figure, and/or belief, among others. It always requires commitment and sacrifice on the part of the individual to an entity, establishment, institution, idea, or another person who is on the receiving end. It is an oath, a solemn promise, which is not lightly broken.

In the Pledge of Allegiance, this oath of commitment is given to an emblem, a symbol of the nation known as the United States of America AND to the system of power which rules the nation. Government, in other words. Call it a republic, if you wish. Or democracy. It does not matter. It is impossible to separate the flag from the form of government which holds power. It does no good to claim that one’s allegiance is given to the ideal of the founding principles of America and not to its present day form. This is a package deal. Either you buy into it or you don’t.

For those who self-consciously call themselves Christian, this is a major problem. It is a contradiction of their supposed spiritual beliefs. By virtue of voluntarily submitting their lives to the rule of Christ, they are automatically brought under and implicitly (maybe explicitly) swear allegiance to that rule. This is publicly shown in the act of baptism, in which the believer acknowledges that he has “died” to one way of life and been “reborn” into another to which he now is obligated. His allegiance is now owed to the Kingdom of Heaven and its rule is supreme over his life.

Can any person have allegiance, devotion, fidelity, or loyalty to two or more opposing, contradictory viewpoints, philosophies, or governments? Is it even possible to have TRUE allegiance to more than one at a time? My position is that it is not and that anyone who asserts they can is deluded. One or the other will reign and those who try to play both sides will find inconsistency in their position. This push/pull dichotomy is inherent to our sinful nature and will never be completely conquered this side of death. Unfortunately, many Christians refuse to acknowledge the issue and prefer to ignore the contradiction for one reason or another.

Is it any wonder that the Church of Jesus Christ today is impotent?

When an earthly government orders its citizens to do anything, anything at all, which is diametrically opposed to what the Christian faith demands, which allegiance is going to prevail? How committed are you and where do you draw the line? If you swear allegiance to the United States and that government orders you to do something which is at odds with your Christian beliefs, will you go along with it even though it causes “cognitive dissonance” within your soul? If you are a Christian, whenever evil is present in government, how can you support that evil without first abandoning your commitment to righteousness? The short answer is that you cannot. You must choose which course to follow.

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Jesus Christ, Matthew 6:24

Is it extreme to say that standing, taking one’s hat off, placing a hand over one’s heart, and reverently reciting an oath of allegiance to a flag, an emblem of a political entity, is an act of idol worship? Probably, and in the minds of many self-professing Christians is cause for disagreement. After all, they will say, I do not really worship the flag. However, is not the Gospel of Jesus the Christ also extreme in its message? And does not the Gospel demand that a person forsake everything, that is everything, for the sake of the truth? And, considering what passes for American politics these days, why should anyone cling to the flag as if it was the arbiter of truth or going to save them from their distress? Furthermore, politics divides people and turns them against each other, whereas the goal of Christianity is to unite them in purpose, truth, and love. The practice of politics is antithetical and antagonistic to Christianity and ought to be abandoned as a means of bringing peace to a troubled world.

Will this happen? En masse, not likely. It is a lonely path. Most Christians in America today have too much to lose by renouncing their slavish devotion to the political State. Remember that it was only 2-1/2 years ago that churches everywhere shuttered their doors because the State “strongly encouraged” them to do so as a result of the Corona virus appearing on the scene and frightening everyone nearly to death. How many churches would go “out of business” if their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status was revoked? How many Christians are enamored of the belief that America is “good” regardless of the evidence to the contrary and will not listen to anything else? How many are prepared to die for their country, but will not sacrifice their comfortable, middle-class life for their Sovereign?

My country, right or wrong! This is a common phrase among the true believers in national politics. Unfortunately, it is used as an excuse to condone the evil which emanates from society and its government. Those dedicated to the cause of Jesus Christ are not allowed to rest here. Instead, they are required, to root out evil within their own personal lives wherever they are, wherever they live, wherever they go, in His Name and sometimes this means that a separation from the mainstream is in order.

This is a lonely road. Do not take it lightly.

I have, like many others around the world, been watching the greatest fail we have seen in a long, long time. Referring, of course, to the very recent slow-moving train wreck known as the Red Wave Which Wasn’t, resulting in an abysmal showing for the Republican Party in the 2022 midterms.

Typically, in a mid-term election, the party which holds the White House loses seats in Congress that substantially shifts the balance of power from one party to the other. It does not always happen this way, but often enough that the pattern has been established and borne out for decades. This election, however, bucked the trend noticeably.

“Holding an election is one of the simpler tasks for a society. People show up, then prove they are who they claim to be and that they are eligible to vote. Rational societies limit the franchise to those who have a stake in society. That means criminals and lunatics are not allowed to vote. The votes are then counted and the results are posted. The winners cheer and the losers promise to do better next time…In America, our election system is on the cusp of collapse. States like Arizona and Nevada are now unable to count the votes. Fraud is so rampant that no honest person thinks the results are on the level. Pennsylvania supposedly voted for a brain-damaged hobo to be their senator. Joe Biden has severe dementia and we are supposed to believe he is the most popular man since Jesus.”

https://www.takimag.com/article/rise-of-the-spiteful-mutants/

The winners cheer. The losers promise to do better next time. In other words, our candidate won, which means that the world is now back on the right (correct) track and headed in the right (correct) direction. Praise be to the religious system known as democracy! Or, conversely, our candidate lost, which means that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and we really have all got to work harder to get more people to vote our way the next time around. Those dastardly rats have stolen the election, taken advantage of us…again!

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me again, shame on me.

Welcome to the Status Quo, the reigning belief that men and women (or more accurately, SOME men and women) can solve the problems we face if we simply give them the power they need to make the necessary changes which we are convinced need to be adopted. The major problem with this line of thinking is that everyone’s opinion of what changes are necessary is countered by another person’s opinion which is in opposition. In other words, a push-and-pull tug of war in the middle of a mudhole which results in no clear winner…except for those on the sidelines who are holding and directing the spray of water from the hose which is constantly enlarging the mudhole.

But why do we keep playing the game anyway? Is it not because we operate under a flawed mentality that the way we think is the only correct way and that we must work to impose our views on everyone else via the (time-tested and proven false) means of democracy and voting in every election? Do we not believe that if we only vote the correct way (our way) and get our man or woman into office, then our problems can be solved? Do we not believe that “right” government will correct all the evils which “wrong” government enacted and imposed on us against our will? In other words, we want someone, anyone, to ascend to the Pinnacle of Power who will force everyone else to behave themselves, that is, behave themselves according to our own personal way of thinking. Unfortunately, this never happens. Instead we are mired in a mudhole of delusion while reality stands separate and above.

“A forever expanding list of saviors that will right the wrongs and jump tall buildings in a single bound…The Deep State runs the country, so the actor that gets the official nod from the voters after getting the official nod from the political parties after getting the official nod from the Deep State, won’t change a damned thing. The last 50 years, at least, show that there will be no change of direction because the owners of the country like things as they are.” (Roatan Bill, see Comment #27)

https://www.unz.com/imercer/ron-desantis-delivers-first-principles-in-action/

Good on you, Roatan Bill. This is a very concise and accurate description of the process. But, then, who is Roatan Bill? Perhaps you prefer to hear from someone more famous, more influential.

“Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day. But a series of oppressions, pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.”

Thomas Jefferson

And this deliberately systematic reduction into slavery has been ongoing from the very beginning with the voluntary complicity of those who continually endorse it.

What is the root cause? What drives people to opt into a system which is designed to enslave them? I submit two things.

1. Greed. We know what we want and we want to have it…and more. Right now! We are never satisfied and bend every effort to gain more, even at the expense of others regardless as to whom they might be. And those others are also trying to live under the same attitude. Greed is what drove Adam and Eve to take a bite out of the apple in the Garden of Eden. They had everything they could ask for–except what they were told they could not have. More.
2. Fear. People are generally afraid of losing what they already possess and they will do virtually anything to prevent the loss of those possessions, even if it means that they support a tyrant who promises protection and safety with various means, while robbing them blind through other methods.

Out of these springs the desire for control. Not only control of ourselves and what we have, but also a desire to control everyone else around us because we want what they have AND because we are afraid that they will take what we already have. If this is correct, then it is evident that those who endorse the system and who vote to perpetuate it are not only concerned about what they can personally gain from it, but more truthfully, whether consciously or not, use it as a means of self-defense, to prevent someone from taking what they think is theirs.

Greed and fear walk hand-in-hand, but fear is the stronger of the two. Boil the whole thing down to its most basic element and what is left at the end is fear–the fear of loss in this life and the fear of death at the end of it. Tyranny and politics are overwhelmingly dependent on fear. Truth is that everything we have, think we have, is going to be taken away from us sooner or later, up to and including our lives. We have no rational basis for being afraid.

If the truth makes you uncomfortable, don’t blame the truth, blame the lie that made you comfortable. Fear is a liar. Live not by lies. Conquer the fear and live.

Like many other people, I was expecting at least a wave which was discernible. Heck, I even predicted that ten months ago.

“The 2022 mid-term elections will result in the Democrats being decimated and the Republicans securely ensconced as the majority party in Congress. Nancy Pelosi, reading the tea leaves, will not run for re-election expressing a desire to spend more time with her family. Joe Biden will become a first-term, lame-duck president. Kamala Harris will resign from the office of VP, either under duress or as the result of an erupting scandal. Her replacement will be groomed to take over the Presidency in early 2023 when “Joe” leaves office for one reason or another.” [1b]

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2022/01/10/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-my-predictions-for-2022/

Of course, this prediction was based on the historical fact that usually the party of the incumbent President loses ground in the mid-terms and the (flawed) belief that people would turn against the woke Covid machine which was strongly supported and enabled by the Democrat Party. I was wrong on both counts. Maybe we really have reached both 1984 and The End of History.

I also predicted an outcome of the Smashing Success which still stands a chance is almost certain to happen. On this, I think I am on more solid ground since the event will not be dependent on the fickle whims of the general populace, but on the proven behavior of statist politicians regardless of which side of the aisle they sit on.

“Nothing of any substantial good will come about due to the 2022 elections in which the Republicans smash the Democrats in Congress. (See 1b above.) Totalitarian government will continue to grow without any serious effort by the “newly elected” to resist it.”

https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2022/01/10/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-my-predictions-for-2022/

I was primed to post a different sort of article IF the Republicans had scored big. In it, I would have pointed out that they were now responsible to change things for the better, to make government work for the people, and to justify the faith of all those who were certain that voting for a conservative Republican would make all the difference in our political life. IF this had happened, according to the true believers, America would have made a U-turn, repented of its sins, and started down a different track which would lead to liberty and prosperity. IF this had happened, it would have greased the skids for a 2024 Trump landslide win, which would have guaranteed the Making of America Great Again.

IF this had happened, I would have returned to those people in a year with a question–“Are you better off now than you were a year ago?”

Silence. Crickets. Not the kind you eat, either.

As it is, however, I have to change my thesis and explain that I am really quite glad that the Republicans fell flat on their collective “arses”. I couldn’t use the term “asses” because the Democrats would not sit still for copyright infringement and might decide to cancel me. Of course, with my reach, influence, and audience, that wouldn’t take a great amount of effort. One phone call to WordPress would probably do it. Maybe it would only take one text message. Nevertheless,…

Because of the dismal showing, many, many conservative Republicans all over the country are going to have to face up to the fact that their best efforts have not produced the superman who is not going to show up to save them. They are going to have to become accustomed to the idea that “politics as usual” will continue for at least another two years. They will have to console themselves until 2024 rolls around, when things will be different because Trump (or DeSantis, a kinder, gentler type of Trump) will be on the national stump and heads will roll then.

Just you wait and see. We’re playing 5G chess here.

One thing we will not see, however, is a widespread confession among Republicans that they have put their faith, hope, and trust in a man-made system which is designed to enslave them. It will not become common knowledge among them that the government (which we chose for ourselves) is a false god and ought to be abandoned in favor of the One True God, Who delivers on His promises to set us free. On the contrary, they will retreat into their caves, complaining bitterly and licking their wounds, in preparation for another sally forth in two years, with the (convinced) expectation that this time God will hear their prayers, even as they pledge allegiance to the representative idol, the flag of the false god, in pursuit of their religion, the worship of power and control over other people, even if only by proxy. They will never renounce their cherished beliefs that government is good, even as they watch it destroy them. If only the right people were elected…

Hope springs eternal. So does delusion.

Following is one of the most quoted verses in all of Christendom…and one of the least understood.

“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, AND [emphasis mine] turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14, RSV

What is the greatest sin in America today? Well, from my own low perch and observation, I would have to say that we have erected a “golden calf” to worship. We bow down to the accomplishments of man and have forgotten all about the One Who created man. We think that theft by majority vote is perfectly satisfactory in spite of the admonition, “Thou shalt not steal.” We think that it is quite right that occasionally we should pick up some “crappy little country and throw it against a wall“, just because we can. We have no problem with glorifying the law and demanding that it be followed explicitly and thoroughly, even as we neglect and ignore The Law.

Too many people, especially Christians, read the verse quoted and think that IF they just go to church once a week, get baptized, confess their sin of lust and adultery, AND vote religiously every time there is an election, THEN God will hear their prayers and heal their land. Too many people, especially Christians who are tuned into the “benefits” of state worship, will simply not hear anything at all about making an abrupt course change. Too many churches, especially Christian, which love their 501 (C) (3) tax-exempt status will never, ever voluntarily dissolve that relationship and simply trust that God, not the State, has called and endowed them to good works.

And so we will go on, staggering blindly and complacently until we fall headlong into the ditch. Or called more properly, the abyss. Then things will change.

Not necessarily for the better.

“Thou shalt not steal…except by majority vote.”

Gary North

Politics can be defined as the practice of using force, either direct or indirect, to compel or persuade people to live and act in a certain prescribed manner. It is deliberate manipulation, overt or covert, with the intention of increasing one’s power and/or wealth, always at the expense of someone else. It is using people for the benefit of other people.

“And the waitress is practicing politics as the businessmen slowly get stoned…”

Billy Joel, Piano Man

Or, as the sign below shows, an attempt to force others to be charitable, compassionate, and kind.

This sign advocates a tax (levy) on some people so that other people can be “helped”. What is the underlying message? That compassion for the less fortunate must be made mandatory? That love for those in need must be compelled under duress? That charity, which should start at home, actually begins at the ballot box, provided that a simple majority agree? That voluntary kindness toward those who need help is insufficient and must have the heavy hand of government to assist? In a nutshell, the sponsor of this sign is trying to reduce Christ-like behavior down to a formula, a tax rate. Goodness and generosity is no longer a personal virtue, but has become a matter of opening your wallet at the behest of the taxman.

The really sad thing about all this is that many will fall for it and the measure has a good chance of being enacted into law. This is a blatant example of guilt manipulation and those who believe they have a right to the wealth of others will have no problem working to make this happen. A majority vote would ostensibly take unworthy creatures and make them into virtuous human beings, all done under the force of democratic law and the threat of forceful violence.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

C. S. Lewis

Well, hey, at least I do not live in Missoula, so that will not affect me. Right? Right, until the same bad attitude wrapped in an attractive package comes to my own home town.

“A government has two duties: to ensure our security and economic prosperity. This government does not fulfill either of these duties,”…

The quote was taken from an article posted on Lew Rockwell this morning with regards to civil protests in the Czech Republic. Apparently, an unidentified speaker at a rally in Prague made the comment.

This is interesting. Not only is a government supposed to keep us safe from harm, but it is also expected to guarantee that we become more prosperous. Nothing quite like an honest statement to show where your faith lies. The speaker has literally expressed what millions, probably billions, of people around the world believe, that the primary function of governments is to keep them safe in every way and that whenever something untoward or harmful shows up, to do whatever is necessary on our behalf to negate the threat. After all, the government works for us, doesn’t it? Isn’t that why we were able to survive the “existential threat” of Covid-19 which would have been cataclysmic if not for the herculean efforts of Anthony Fauci and his cohorts?

Right! And the US dollar is still worth as much as it was in 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created and began manipulating managing the currency for their our benefit, making all of them us more secure and richer. Or, as succinctly stated in the opening paragraph of the FED’s website,

“…to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system.”

Right again!! We can all go to sleep at night knowing that our future is guaranteed, that we will wake up in the morning to the news that the stocks we own have just increased in value (again) and that the rumors circulating about the imminent demise of the dollar as the reserve currency of the world have been debunked by experts and talking heads which we trust to tell us the truth. Not only that, but the war with East Asia Russia has been nearly won and any talk about nuclear warheads and missiles flying around is really only just so much bluster and bluff. All we have to do is “stand with Ukraine” until the war against Putin is resolved to our satisfaction and the entire world comes under the umbrella of the Pax Americana policy. Or at least the modern neo-con version of it.

No need to worry. Everything is under control. Nothing to see here, move along.

Now, maybe the Czech Republic is different. Maybe its government really does care about its citizens and will do whatever it takes to keep them healthy, wealthy, and wise. Maybe unicorns really do exist and pigs fly. Hey, in a world where men can become pregnant women simply by deciding to, anything is possible.

Including the truth being known and made evident. Even if it does not look that way.

The 2022 mid-term elections are rapidly approaching–Election Day, November 08, is only seven weeks away. Everything I see and hear tells me that the politicians who want to be elected (and those who want to see them elected) are doing everything possible to draw attention to themselves (or their favorite candidate). Where else would someone spend a gazillion bucks to land a position which pays a paltry few hundred thousand? If they were in business to make a profit, they would not, but hey, since the campaign is financed by donations and otherwise free money, what the heck? If I was not so committed toward improving my own flawed character, I might even give it a try. As it is, not likely to happen.

Nevertheless, the pressure is on to Get out the Vote so that “our” candidate can win. Of course, we all know that if “our” candidate wins, then all of our troubles will be over, or at least minimized and smoothed over. That is, until the next election when “their” candidate wins and reverses all the gains made. It is a constant, never-ending, see-saw battle between “us” and “them”. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but over the long run, it works out about even. Right?

Of course, right! If you can be convinced that is true, then I want you to call me. I have a bridge for sale at a rock-bottom price.

Fact is, over the last 241+ years since the end of the War of Independence, we have been electing men and women to political office and the growth of government has been on an ever-increasing upward trajectory–gradually at first, but explosive recently. This is like Hemingway’s description of going bankrupt. –“Gradually, then suddenly.” Funny thing, though, it has not made any difference whether one party or another, one ideology or its opposite, one viewpoint or a dissenting one has been in power, the growth of government has been relentless…and we have voted religiously in every election to make sure that it continued that way.

What is voting? Why is it seen as a cure-all panacea for whatever ails society? Most people would probably view it as a means to produce “leaders” who would do what is best for the society, the common good. They would probably insist that they are not thinking selfishly when they pull the handle in the voting booth, but are concerned only with the general health of the group. Yet, deep down, if you could back them into a corner and force them to be honest with themselves, they would probably admit that they voted for a certain candidate in order to make some people, other people, those people, live and act the way that they wanted. In other words, a power grab by proxy. “If I cannot make someone else live the way I want by myself, I will get someone else who is bigger and stronger than I am to enforce my will.”

Right? You have got to be kidding! Are you actually serious?? You must be mad!!!

Voting for a candidate is an endorsement of his/her positions. If a preferred candidate wins and begins to implement policy, then everyone who voted for (endorsed) that candidate holds a percentage of the responsibility for those policies implemented by said office-holder. It does not matter if you agree with the policies or not. If you voted and your candidate won, then you are at least partly responsible for whatever happens after the Oath of Office is taken.

We all know that circuses campaigns are a matter of public record to convince the audience electorate to vote for the “lesser of two evils”. In the case where more than two are competing, this would become the “least of all the evils”. Regardless as to who wins, voting for the least evil in a crowd of evil persons is guaranteeing that an evil person will wind up sitting in the Chair of Power, at whatever level from very local all the way to the White House. We all know this, yet somehow we cannot figure out that the only way to avoid electing an evil person to office is to refuse to vote.

The only way to win the game is to not play at all.

Considering that the government we chose for ourselves is now focused on completely destroying any vestige of individual liberty in the pursuit of total control and power, condemning us to a lifetime of servitude, one thing we can do in opposition is to refuse to lend our support to the system by endorsing it with a vote of confidence. Do not vote. It encourages them.

Voting is nothing more than choosing whose hand holds the club with which you are beaten.

“When the truth is found to be lies…”

As a young man, I thrilled to the sound of Grace Slick belting out that opening line to the song, “Somebody to Love”. Of course, being a hip artist of the ’60’s, it was obvious that she was only voicing the feelings of a jilted lover, which I did not understand at the time. But the song stuck.

Today is September 11, 2022. Patriot Day. It is the 21st anniversary of The Second Day of Infamy, the first being the “sneak” attack by the Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor, December 07, 1941, which infuriated the American public and opened the door for America to enter WW2 with a vengeance. Like the first, 9/11 also galvanized public opinion to exercise retribution and punishment on those deemed to be responsible for the dastardly deed, and so we dashed off to war without too much thought about the consequences or even if the proper person(s) were being targeted. Iraq has been a disaster zone ever since with Afghanistan closely following in its wake.

“Don’t just sit there, do something.”

“Kill them all. Let God sort them out.”

“What difference does it make?”

“In the long run, we are all dead.” — John Maynard Keynes

I determined early on that the official narrative emanating from the white-washed sepulchre known as Washington, D.C. was a collection of falsehoods designed to do one thing: whip the American public into a froth of heated anger to pave the road to war. It did not matter to the general population who was attacked and destroyed, as long as someone paid the price. Unfortunately for Iraq, it became a convenient scapegoat and was duly dispatched.

“Mission accomplished!” — George W. Bush, after landing on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier to standing applause, May 01, 2003. Not actually a quote, but the slogan was prominently displayed on a banner for the whole world to see.

“We got him.” — Barack Obama, announcing the (supposed) execution of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan after years of concerted effort to track down America’s Most Wanted criminal.

America has never been the same since the events of that day, 21 years ago, which enabled the Federal government and the Deep State to grab a firm grip on the throat of the country, which has been inexorably tightening until it can now be considered a death grip, throttling the very life out of the freedoms and liberties of its citizens.

Today, September 11, 2022, is a day for remembering all the lies we have been told by our supposedly “righteous” leaders, those men and women democratically elected or appointed to “watch out for America’s national interests”. There are a slew of them, too many to recount by too many people to name, but the one who stands out as the most responsible, in my opinion, is that self-proclaimed model of “Christian” charity and love, President George W. Bush.

Of all the presidents I have known (not personally, but those within my lifetime), my most visceral anger is directed at Bush the Younger because, with a straight face, he lied to the country about Iraq and Afghanistan, killed millions of innocent people, devastated our political liberties, and created a monster of gargantuan size, yet somehow convinced multiple millions of gullible American Christians that he was the worthy successor to Lincoln and Washington, both of whom were also cold-blooded killers and tyrants in their own right.

I despise the man and I despise the pervasive mentality among the “christian right” that he deserves to be worshipped as a defender of our faith and freedom. Do you think this is going too far? I have literally seen, with my own eyes, a print of a painting which purports to show the ghosts (spirits?) of both Lincoln and Washington standing beside Bush, their hands on his shoulders, as he stands in an attitude of humble prayer. The symbolism is striking and many members of the conservative, Christian camp eat it up like hyenas lapping up blood after a kill. Even today, I know people who venerate Bush as a demi-god, who bristle at the thought that his name might be impugned, that his word would be called into question.

A copy of the painting described above, “Praying for Peace” by Ron DeCianni can be purchased from a website known as “Christ-centered mall”, signed and numbered at the current low, low price of only $1798.00. You read that right. Christ-centered Mall, which offers Christ-centered art, which idolizes murderous tyrants of American history, all in the name of the production of profit, at great savings to you. Get yours now while they last!

My blood boils.

“Why do they hate us?”, Bush asked, and then proceeded to answer the question with another lie. “It is because we are free.” Yes, those barbaric savages who have known nothing from America except violent force for decades literally hate us because we are free. It is not that we are free and they are enslaved, rather they hate the very concept of freedom, preferring instead to live their lives in a state of extreme slavery and impoverishment–material, emotional, and spiritual. That anyone, especially supposedly Bible-believing Christians, would believe this callous statement simply astounds me, but it shows the depths of vicious, anti-Christian depravity and thought to which we have descended, from which our children and grandchildren are going to have to claw their way out.

When the truth is found to be lies…

Just because something is illegal does not necessarily mean that it is wrong and, conversely, because something is legal doesn’t mean that it is right. Legality is a question of law. Morality is a question of ethics. Sometimes they mesh, quite often they don’t.

Cue the abortion debate.

Legally speaking, women have never had so much freedom to end their pregnancies as they have right now. Laws have been (and are being) enacted which guarantee women the legal right to choose an abortion to end a pregnancy without interference from anyone else, without fear of prosecution and punishment from the law.

However, this issue has not (and will not) disappear from public view because, for every legal argument in favor of abortion, there is a moral argument against it. Society is split on this issue. Cultures are divided with one side vociferously in favor of the “right to choose” against another which vigorously promotes the “right to life”. One side of the issue sneers at the moral argument, while the other side condemns the legal point of view.

The way things stand now, it is reminiscent of trench warfare in WWI, during which millions of men fought for years without gaining any decisive advantage over the opposing side. This stalemate persisted until a new tactic was introduced (with fresh infusions of troops from the US) to overrun the status quo and end the war. The first half of the war, that is, because the Versailles Treaty only signaled a 20 year intermission between Act 1 and Act 2. WWI became WW2, which was far worse.

One major difference between the trenches in WWI and the battleground of abortion on demand is that millions of soldiers died miserable deaths defending “their” cold, wet, muddy turf. The soldiers were there by their own volition, even though they were ordered to kill or be killed. They had a say in the matter. They could “do” something to change their situation. They could have refused to participate. Today, millions of unborn innocents die miserable deaths without any chance or possibility of defending the warm, wet, natural space which they find themselves in. Unborn children are completely helpless and can do nothing to save themselves. Even the innocent civilians who did not actively participate in the destruction of WW1, but were slaughtered due to the vagaries of the conflict, could, at the very least make an attempt to get out of the line of fire. Unborn children do not have that option. They are completely helpless and can do nothing to save themselves.

What is the solution to this intractable impasse? Is there a solution? Well, of course, that depends on your own moral and political viewpoint. You might want to see unfettered access to abortion without reserve or distinction. You might want to see the complete opposite where women are forced to carry to term even if her life is in danger or the unborn infant is hideously deformed. Is there any middle ground which can be agreed upon even though we might have to hold our nose to stay there?

Maybe we can start by re-humanizing the unborn instead of relegating them to the status of ‘non-persons’. After all, they are unquestionably human.

“There are two aspects of the abortion debate we need to be concerned about in determining the definition of an unborn child: biological and political. Humanity and person-hood are two different things and we must be careful not to confuse them.” — https://make-difference.life/2019/05/19/the-political-scientific-divide-of-abortion/

“From the moment of conception, a human being exists within the womb–zygote, blastocyst, embryo, fetus—right up to the point of the delivery as a newborn baby. At every stage of development, this is a live human being. Whether he is a person or not doesn’t matter. Whether she has rights or not is irrelevant. He is a human being. She is a human being. Abortion is a procedure which literally kills a human being. Abortion has probably killed hundreds of millions of human beings in the 20th century alone.” — http://make-difference.life/2019/03/03/without-question-the-beginning-of-human-life/

Considering that many, perhaps most, of the abortions done today are in the privacy of a woman’s home via pharmaceutical means, i.e., “morning-after pill, RU486, etc., it is going to be impossible to completely eliminate the practice. Zealous interference in the marketplace to stop the manufacture, distribution, and use of these medications will only result in substantial black market dealings, much like the current situation with already illegal drugs. Besides, passing laws does not eliminate problems, it only changes the focus and the circumstances. Legal prohibition of “morning-after” ingestion will not improve the situation. It will only drive it underground.

What can be done, however, is the route many states are taking in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Health Center Supreme Court ruling which threw the issue back to the states to regulate–partial or complete banning of surgical abortions which involve a third-party who wields the scalpel or the vacuum hose, resulting in the death of the unborn human being. To my way of thinking, this is the preferred direction we should go as a community. Rather than trying to eliminate every single case of abortion (which cannot be done and is a waste of precious time and energy), we should simply shut down the killing centers (Planned Parenthood, et al) into which two people enter but only one comes out alive. Weld the doors shut, if necessary. We should start putting real teeth into laws which prosecute doctors, nurses, technicians, assistants, and associated others who operate (prey?) on the women who avail themselves of the ‘services’. There is probably no way to destroy the pharmaceutical aspect of privately individual abortion, but we certainly can shut down all the butcher shops which are open to the public in plain view of God and Man.

Recently (June 24, 2022), Poor Roger’s Almanac published an article written by one Steve Finley as a guest editorial. Read it here. He has submitted a follow-up to that article which is included below. As with the first, I do not necessarily agree with nor endorse the opinion expressed, but I am adamant about the author’s right to openly state his own viewpoint.

I am working on a personal goal of developing Poor Roger’s Almanac as a place where other non-professional authors (virtually unknown but with something to say) can contribute to the discussion at hand and allow others to counter by way of comments below the article. The technical aspects are somewhat daunting but can be overcome, given enough time and money. Please be patient. This is only a beginning.

It is my belief that the best way to get at the truth underlying any issue is to talk about it, to explore every angle, to leave nothing hidden or unexposed. If something is too sacred or too profane to talk about, then we should talk about it. If critical self-examination is good for the individual, then it is also good for the community. Therefore, this effort will not be partial to any one single viewpoint, political ideology, or religious belief. As a means of stoking the conversation and keeping it lively, opinions will be posted here which are, or may be, diametrically opposed to my own. Or yours, for that matter. In fact, the only hard, fast rule which I will vehemently uphold is that the language within the boundaries will be presentable to the general public, regardless of their age or sex.

There will be those who will claim that I have gone insane. There will be those who will state emphatically that I am on my way to Hell. Well, they can think what they want. I know the truth about myself and I am more than willing to place my future and eternity in the hands of the One Who is Truth. He is all I have to satisfy.

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Disappointing Results: Part 2

by Steve Finley

Once again, I am surprised at primary results that were recently held in which democrat candidates are beating out America-first MAGA candidates.  Have we learned nothing over the past year and a half?  Have we not had enough of a country imploding under the destructive socialist and communist policies of the Biden regime?  Has the Left not gone far enough left for us to properly react?

In Alaska’s senate primary, Lisa Murkowski beat out Kelly Tshibaka for the most votes in a top-four system.  Murkowski is an America-last, socialist, Trump-hating liberal who voted to impeach President Trump when he was no longer even in office in a sham impeachment trial on a private citizen without even having the chief justice present as required under the US Constitution.  Similarly, Democrat candidate Mary Peltola beat out America-first candidate Sarah Palin. Granted, in both cases, the defeats were only by a few percentage points, although Palin was 5% behind Peltola, possibly indicating what is to come.  However, given everything that has happened, it should have been an absolute blow-out for Tshibaka and Palin to get the most votes.  

Why are some of the most freedom-hating dems still winning in some cases?  I love the victories we are having overall in primaries across the country, but when a liberal America-hating nut like Murkowski gets the most votes in a top four primary, something is drastically wrong. It’s not over yet.  Palin and Tshibaka will still advance to the election, but the signs are potentially not in our favor, something I will never understand given the hell this country has been through ever since the Biden crime family has taken over.  Pray for victory in defeating the enemy and restoring freedom and liberty in this country, and vote like your life and country depend on it, because they do. 

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The rain falls on the just and the unjust. So do hailstones.

“Just as leaves cannot turn color and roots cannot wither without the silent knowledge of the whole tree, no government can commit centuries of unremitting wars and atrocities against other peoples and nations without the knowledge and approval of the great majority of its population. Nor can it do so without the cooperation of its corporations, its civilian infrastructure, and its educational institutions.”

https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/americans-are-criminally-insane/

I pulled the above quote out of a long (16,300 words) article to bolster my argument that most Americans today cannot claim with a straight face that they are not responsible for the deeds of American government. For those who loudly protest against being lumped in with “guilty co-conspirators” to justify their own “goodness”, let me state that America has been at war somewhere, with someone, for virtually its entire existence in one way or another…and for virtually that entire time has enjoyed the explicit and/or implicit approval of the vast majority of its population. Silence, which is nothing more than the refusal to speak out publicly, should be considered, at the very least, as a nod of approval.

Ignorance is no excuse and with the ready availability of information today, there is no excuse for ignorance.

After writing the above quote (2nd paragraph), the author, Larry Romanoff, launched into an extended litany of the crimes (sins) of the American state against the rest of the world and made the claim that,

“…since the US government, military and CIA are almost 100% controlled by, and functioning as lieutenants and enforcers for, the Khazarian Jewish mafia resident in the City of London,…”

ibid

His assertion may be true. I do not know. I did not click any links and I only read through half the article before I quit. (Full disclosure: After I had written most of this article, I did go back and skim through the rest of the post, but did not find anything else which was substantially different.) When anyone consistently blames some unique group for all the evil which crops up in the world and incites hatred of those “others”, I become more cautious as to what I read into his claims. This has nothing to do with the “Jewish question”, but is simply a personal check on my own emotions and feelings. I do not buy into the common theme that Jewry (Khazarians, Ashkenazi, state of Israel, etc.) are responsible for all the mayhem present in today’s world nor do I endorse the (just as) common idea that all Jews everywhere are victims of circumstance who ought to be bailed out, coddled, and protected from hateful rhetoric. They are people, as we all are, and they deserve to be held accountable for their own actions, as we all do.

Many of the comments following up Romanoff’s article claimed that America is NOT unique in this nor worse than any other past culture which has also been murderous and/or expansionary. This may also be true, but my contention is that this is a strawman argument. Excuses should not, must not, be made for the actions of this country simply because other societies were also criminal. Evil is evil, wherever and whenever it happens, and no one can be nor should be justified by pointing at the sins of others to deflect from their own. When we stand before God at the end of our short tenure here, we will do so as individuals and the spotlight will be on ourselves solely. We will have no opportunity to blame someone else and I daresay that God will not listen to us if we try.

Which brings me to my main point. As cognizant, knowledgeable Americans, how much responsibility do we have for the government which exercises near total rule over us and continuously seeks to subjugate and dominate the rest of the world through incessant subversive means, which sometimes erupt into open warfare? Can I be held responsible for what Washington does?

Well, no, not really, at least not in any tangible, significant way. One person out of 340 million does not pull much of the load. No average, random individual can sway the country in any particular direction. But yes, I can be held accountable, because I am part of American society. No one is completely blameless. We all play our part.

Society is built from the conglomeration and cooperation of individual people, living, working, and existing together. Every single individual has a role in the construction of his society and no one is exempt from this “assignment”. In an ant hill, every ant performs its duty to build, protect, and sustain the hill as an integral part of the “society”, but all that work is done by the base unit–the individual ant–and the hill reflects that effort. So too it is with human society, which is a sum of all the effort of every individual.

To be sure, most of us do not deliberately and blatantly steal other people’s money. We do not kill others. We do not bomb and destroy by pulling triggers or pushing computer buttons. We do not manipulate currencies nor stock markets. We do not gain power by rigging elections or passing draconian legislation. We do not accept bribes nor corrupt ourselves by selling out to the highest bidder who then demands that we dance to his tune.

Well, do we? No, of course not, but how many of us regularly and religiously vote for someone who promises to do all of the above, not in so many words, but with veiled language which any thinking person could construe as meaning all those things? “Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote?” How many of us support bloated military budgets because we, a family member, a close friend, and/or neighbor earn high salaries at a major arms manufacturer? How many applaud brutal government action against some “crappy, little country” because we like the feeling of being part of a society which is the “king of the hill”? How many justify “killing them over there so that we don’t have to kill them over here”? How many use the language of division and hatred in their everyday lives without ever stopping to think about what they are saying, never considering how it sounds or what it means simply because that is the way they have always talked? How many of us never think about such things and, if we do, we certainly never mention it to anyone else, especially if it means that saying so might upset someone who hears us?

As citizens of the United States, we enjoy the blessings, prosperities, and freedoms which this country offers. Whether we had anything at all to do with constructing those benefits does not matter, we still get to enjoy them. At the same time, we also share in the short-comings, hardships, and infringements which come our way. It does no good to claim that we did not commit any “crimes against humanity” or that we should not have to “pay for the sins” of others. We are part and parcel of the whole package and we need to come to an acceptance of this reality.

The sooner, the better, if we hope to have any chance of reaching any sort of substantial shelter before the Mother of All Hailstorms hits.

“In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” — Judges 21: 25

“…Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” — 1 Samuel 8: 5

“…We have no king but Caesar!” — John 19: 15

“Sadly, the American dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again.”

Donald Trump, 2015

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Trump Must Run in 2024 to Save America

David Keltz, from an article posted by The American Spectator

“…our country desperately needs him,…”

ibid

This article, written a year ago, consists of a litany of the problems which America faces and concludes that only, singularly, Donald Trump is up to the task of solving them properly. Nobody else can do it. Captain Warp Speed to the rescue! Even so come, Lord Donald!!

The title alone is enough to condemn the author of blasphemy and idol worship because it elevates the person of Donald Trump, a sinful human being, to the position of savior. Nowhere in the article does it mention the name of Jesus Christ nor the need for individual Americans to recognize Him as Supreme Authority. Nowhere does it call on individual Americans to confess their sin of belief in a centralized government. Nowhere does it recommend a national repentance and turning away from this bastardization of faith. Instead, it is only the same old, same old narrative we have heard from the very beginning: “If we can just get the right people in to act as leaders, our problems will be solved.” And untold millions of Americans are waltzing down this primrose path, just hoping that they will have one more chance to vote in favor of the Golden Calf of partisan politics. Golden Calf, that is, from their perspective.

Whether Trump will run again is debatable. Whether he can win if he does run is uncertain. The Left/Democrats/Deep State are terrified that he will and they are doing everything they can, legally or illegally, to stop him before he starts and they will pull out all the stops to defeat him if he begins. Assassination is not out of the question. (BTW, raiding Mar-A-Lago was a pin-prick compared to what will happen if Trump is assassinated. If the powers-that-be really wanted to start a civil war in this country, that would do it.)

There is one thing which is certain, however.

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them [false idols or gods], nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”

Exodus 20:5

Of them that hate me! Is this not America? Has this not been America’s bent for at least 100 years? Have we not put our faith and trust in our own democratically built, modern version of the Golden Calf? In progressivism? In our own philosophies? Do we not fervently believe in government to right every wrong, to lead us into green pastures, to save us from ourselves? Of course, we do, and the greatest culprits in all this are those people who ought to know better, those who espouse salvation in Jesus Christ, yet run to the State as soon as something needs to be rectified–especially it it concerns money and the personal benefits which accrue from it.

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

Galatians 6:7, ESV

David Keltz should be more careful with his words. American Christians should be more careful what they wish for. The damage is visibly piling up.

“In mob dynamics one might distinguish five roles. First there are the instigators, loudly pointing at the victim, egging on the rest of the crowd, and defining who shall be the sacrificial victim. Second are the enthusiastic accomplices, who happily act on the instigators’ accusations. Third, there are the people who just go along with it, assuming that what everyone seems to be doing must be right. Fourth are those who are skeptical, but seeing that no one speaks up think that either they themselves are mistaken, or that it is futile or dangerous to do anything. Fifth are those who do speak up or otherwise oppose the will of the mob. If they are few, they become the next victims, confirming the fears of the fourth group.”

“This is the social pattern that fascists and despots ride to power. It can be broken only when enough people are brave enough to defy the mob.”

—Charles Eisenstein

Or perhaps, as in the case of Nazi Germany, when enough forceful, violent power is brought to bear from the outside so as to completely destroy the society.

Eisenstein has laid this out fairly well, but I take issue with point #3.

There are those who do go along with the crowd, but the assumption that they do so because they think that the mob mentality is right is, in my opinion, a faulty argument. They may, probably do, understand that the narrative is wrong, but because they have no moral strength in themselves to resist, they simply cooperate. It is easier to drift with the current than it is to swim against it. Even if they know that a catastrophe awaits ahead, they will do nothing at all to avert it. This group makes up the greatest part of any society and it is this group which the Instigators must capture to win their own battle. The deed is done by striking fear into them via the use of Enthusiastic Accomplices, those who will gladly do anything they are told (or allowed) to, no matter how vile it is.

The only thing which will (might) bring these people out of their self-imposed torpor is the smash-up at the end of the run. I am not even sure, however, that this is the case. It is entirely possible that they will only shift their support from one narrative, one Dear Leader, one Messiah, to another in the hope that they can continue to survive without developing any strong character or resolve. They are, after all, only faces within a mob, terrified to be seen as different.

It takes an incredibly strong person to stand against the tide of public opinion. Most people never achieve such power, but will take the easy way out by blending in with the crowd. It is easy to “do the right thing” when you are in agreement with the people you associate with. When you advocate for something which goes against the grain of the society or culture, though, it is much more difficult. If you do, the crowd will turn on you. Cancel culture is nothing new. It has been this way throughout the ages.

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their peers, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.”

–Robert F. Kennedy

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Perhaps Jesus Christ was referring to this aspect of society when He spoke these words, only paraphrased slightly,

“…Broad is the super-highway that leads to destruction and many there be who travel on it.”

–Matthew 7:13

It was bound to happen.

“At least one sport has had enough of the transgender charade, wherein biological men have been routinely decimating biological women in their sports. Across the pond the Rugby Football Union and Rugby Football League has announced a new policy that bans transgender women – also known as biological males – from playing female rugby, according to Sky Sports. Last week the RFU Council and RFL Board approved the policy, with the RFU Council voting in favor of the new gender participation policy for rugby union in England, beginning in the 2022/23 season, by a vote of 33 to 26. Two people abstained.”

I recently wrote that, in my opinion, the leftward, progressive swing of the pendulum has reached its zenith and has now started to move back in the opposite direction. American society, in general, has had enough of abortion on demand, repeated attempts at gun control, corporate ownership of government, economy, and narrative, and constantly expanding avenues of “wokeness”. The RFL ruling in Great Britain is only one more example that people are starting to wake up and wipe the shit out of their eyes, to see clearly for the first time in decades that certain courses of direction are disastrous, especially for the weaker among us. In the highlighted case, those weaker persons would be female. (This statement is, of course, blasphemous to the “morally superior” crowd and should elicit condemnation and cancellation, except that I am not well-known publicly. Therefore I probably will not suffer any substantial adverse reaction. If any.)

Let’s face it, folks. Women, (the smaller and physically weaker sex), are simply not capable of going head-to-head with full-grown men (the larger and physically stronger sex) in a rugby scrum. Neither can they hold their own in the line-up of a football team, pro-wrestling, or swimming when they are competing directly against men. Common sense knows this. Unfortunately, common sense has been thrown out the window when it comes to the ludicrous notion that there are no innate differences between the sexes (there are only two). Progressivism would have us believe that we only have to pass legislation and force people to accept “change” in order to completely override and destroy age-old customs which have survived the test of thousands of years…and proven worthy.

Men are men and women are women and never the twain shall merge. Or diversify, to be truthful.

I find it amusing that, for at least a century, women have argued vigorously, vehemently, and sometimes violently, that they were equal to men AND that they could do anything which men do, equally well and quite possibly even better. They are now discovering, in so many ways, that they have been wrong and their efforts misguided. Women certainly cannot play rugby in the same capacity as men. In this, (and many other areas cropping up), they are now demanding that they be protected from men and in many situations, that protection must come as the result of men taking action on their behalf. It is ironic that the efforts of the last century are now starting to bear the poisoned fruit of countless lies–told and believed, beginning with this one.

Horrors, I know, but reality bites.

In the physical scrum of rugby, when women are competing on the same field as men, “Go Woke, Get Broke” (slightly paraphrased) is going to apply to many of them. Fortunately, attitudes are beginning to revert back to more accepted norms.

I have resisted the urge to write about the Supreme Court decision overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling and returning the issue of regulating abortions back to the states, but a recent article on the Unz Review by Ted Rall convinced me to put in my two cents. Rall occasionally writes something which borders on common sense (which proves that even progressive shills can be right sometimes), but this article is shot through with hysterical shrieking about the number of women who are going to die due to onerous regulations imposed outlawing and prohibiting the sordid, murderous practice known as abortion on demand. He is not alone.

Even Planned Parenthood knows ectopic pregnancy treatment isn’t abortion

Outrageous Pro-Abortion Lies Falsely Claim Abortion Bans Will Kill Women

In his unhinged rant, Rall repeats many of the same lies and distortions of the rabid abortionist agenda without any attempt at rationality, such as,

“Some abortion bans are so sweeping that the procedure isn’t permitted even in case of a miscarriage, which can lead to fatal sepsis unless the fetus is removed.”

Right! Show me the law in any state which forbids the removal of the remains of a miscarried fetus which is already dead. Fact: there are none and there never will be.

“Women are going to have to die hard, ugly, public deaths.”

Unlike the unborn children who die hard, ugly, private deaths until the news becomes public.

“Cops routinely murder Black men on video yet the police remain woefully undefunded. Women’s deaths may be like that, piling up with nary a “thought and prayer” for a generation or more until the United States rejoins the developed world and restores Roe.”

You would think that after the last two years of cities defunding police departments to mollify hard-left activists and woke “journalists”, even someone as committed as Ted Rall would see the light about the cause of most black deaths, i.e., self-imposed street killings by undisciplined young men in their own neighborhoods. Well, I would think that, but then I am not a senseless liberal progressive who makes excuses for bad behavior.

On the other hand,

“We the people won’t act, either. Now that Roe is no more, look at what has happened in the streets: nothing, unless you count a few sporadic, easily ignored, low-attendance protest demonstrations. Abortion-rights groups like NARAL are still fundraising, not mass-mobilizing.”

Ahhh! The light dawns. Welcome to the real world, Mr. Rall. This is a done deal and all that the pro-abortion lobby is doing to amend the situation is to raise more money, much of which will go into someone’s own personal pocket. The reality is that abortion on demand, like BLM, trans-genderism, and homosexual approval, has always gone against the grain of a huge swath of American citizens who are finally beginning to exercise control over these issues and many others like them. Just beginning, mind you, but when the building tsunami of common decency, moral character, and righteous indignation breaks on the shore of public opinion, all these will be swept away without mercy, allowing a new social mentality to take over and influence the world in a much better way. You can only push people so far.

Every extreme position, bar none, will eventually meet more resistance than it can overcome. When it does, there is nothing left to do except to face reality and accept that you have lost. Of course, you can waste your time, energy, and resources trying to regain the initiative and the day. In the case of abortion on demand for any reason, Ted Rall and his ilk are left with no recourse except to live within the boundaries of reality or to spend the rest of their lives complaining bitterly and waging a losing battle.

Pendulums only swing so far before they reverse direction.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” — 1 Samuel 8: 4-7 (NKJV)

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Eggs will be $12/dozen. Meat shortages coming this August. Well, maybe. Some variation of these predictions will undoubtedly play out, but I want to point out that people who make declarative statements about something happening in the future are often wrong and we should not be too quick to believe what they say…because they could be wrong.

That being said, we cannot entirely discount the warning either, ignoring it to our peril. Pooh-poohing the idea that the situation on the ground is fraught with danger, and refusing to do anything to alleviate what MIGHT come would be as stupid as buying wholesale into the entire gloom and doom mindset.

The times, they are a’changing. With respect to that, there is no question. The halcyon life of the “good, old days” has gone and will not be restored any time soon, maybe never. History does not repeat itself, at least not exactly, and what we knew (became accustomed to and believed to be “normal”) will continue to recede into the dusty past of our rear-view mirror. The future is definitely going to be different and I have no qualms about making such a declarative statement. You can ignore that if you want to. It’s your problem, not mine.

“For some years, I have closely observed food supplies not just in groceries and farmer‘s markets, but also in local commodity distribution (the government buys from large farmers and gives these commodities to schools for their heavily subsidized breakfast/lunch programs, senior citizen centers, and others on government assistance); private, church, and government food pantries, and other government and private assistance programs in my county.”

“The news is grim. The government is now giving back less to the citizens.”

— Southern Catholic Mom

The word, government, shows up five times in the space of these two paragraphs. Perhaps without meaning to (although it may be intended), the author has zeroed in on the reason why we are in our current situation and decries what is happening without ever getting to the root cause of the problem and laying out the solution for getting out of the mess we find ourselves in.

That phrase, “The government is now giving back less to the citizens“, can be taken in at least two ways. The government is not giving back as much as it used to. The government is now taking more from the citizens than they are giving back. It doesn’t matter which, if either, is correct. The good citizens who trusted the government to make their lives better are now on the short end of the stick and their situation is not likely to change any time soon.

Who is to blame? This question must be answered if there is to be any chance of improvement. Of course, virtually everyone will have their own favorite “whipping boy”, someone or some group to point at and ascribe blame to. Democrats. Republicans. Progressives. Liberals. Conservatives. Socialists. Nazis. Transgenders. Trans-national corporations. Whites. Blacks. Russians. Immigrants. Welfare bums. Abortionists. Donald Trump. Bill Gates. And on, and on, and on, and on, and…well, you get the point. Or ought to.

In the end, though, there is only one person to blame for the mess we are in and it is not Joe Biden or Vlad the Putin. No, the culprit lives a little closer to home and you see him (or her) in the mirror every single morning. That’s right. You are to blame. I am to blame. We are to blame. There is no getting around it and the best thing to do is to admit it, change the way we think about government, and get on with the business of living life the way it was meant to be lived–freely and responsibly.

1 Samuel 8 tells the story of how the people of ancient Israel clamored for a king to rule them so that they could be like the neighboring countries. Apparently, they did not appreciate the freedom they already had and decided they would rather place themselves into bondage to a government, all for the purpose of “keeping up with the Joneses”, so to speak.

The prophet, Samuel, did not mince any words about what the king would do to them, but he was flogging a dead horse. They had already made up their minds and nothing he could say would dissuade them, so he gave them a king who proceeded to do everything to the people which they had been warned about. By the time they recognized it and wanted relief, however, it was too late.

“And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” — 1 Samuel 8:18

Your king. The one you chose for yourselves. The one you begged to have. The one who promised to give you everything you wanted so you voted for him. Or her.

We, the People, live in a society in which nearly everything has been brought under the control of government. We are nearly completely dependent on this “king” for our protection, our sustenance, our health, even our very lives. The worst part of it is that the system we have built is the one we have built. Our king, which we chose for ourselves. Exactly the way we wanted it.

And there is no relief. God, no matter how many prayers we utter in anguish and heartache, is not going to hear us because we have not learned yet what it means to worship a false god. We are not likely to until we have been wrung out so there is nothing left to turn to — except God, Who has been there all the time, patiently waiting until we get our heads out of our collective ass and significantly change our ways.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” — 1 John 1:9 (KJV)

If. If we confess our sins. If we do not, then the forgiveness and cleansing will not happen.

How high will the price of eggs have to go before we learn?

There’s No Such Thing As Congestion. There’s Just Government.

This article by Walter Block posted on Lew Rockwell caught my attention this morning, so I wrote a short companion piece to it which is shown below. After you read it, think about the instances of long lines you are aware of or have been a part of and imagine if they would exist without government “assistance”. Probably not.

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One of the hallmarks of communist societies is long lines. It is said that, in the Soviet bloc, if someone saw a queue anywhere, he would get in it because he assumed that there was something of value to be had at the end. He would line up even if he had no comprehension of what was being offered or whether the good or service was valuable to him or not.

The DMV in America today produces long lines of people just waiting, patiently or impatiently, to purchase the “service” DMV mandates. Hordes of bored bureaucrats function as gatekeepers to keep you in line, making sure that all of the protocols are followed and all of the paperwork is completed–before you are allowed to exit the queue and go about your own business. Maybe you’ve wasted a few hours of your valuable time. Who cares? That is the cost of “doing business” with the government.

After all, as everyone knows, freedom isn’t free.

There are a number of things which have recently happened which make me believe that the power and authority of the US government has reached its peak and can advance no further without resorting to drastic authoritarian measures, up to and including blatant, brutal martial law. (Which we may get and which will NOT help the cause of the would-be controllers and may hasten their demise.) Coincident with this is the understanding that the radical, progressive left has also reached its zenith and is in danger of becoming irrelevant. The mood has shifted. The pendulum has reached its leftward extreme in socio-political life and is now swinging back the other way.

Think about it.

1. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vs. Walt Disney Corporation. Five years ago, Disney would have scored an easy win. Today, they have lost their most-favored status, a truck load of financial worth due to stock devaluations, and the loss of many, many customers who are (and will continue) to boycott the company because of a polarizing stance which directly opposed the wishes and wills of a huge number of common, everyday people. People who only want what is best for themselves AND their progeny. Meanwhile, DeSantis is riding the wave of new-found popularity, which might actually carry him into the White House. We shall see.
2. Roe v. Wade. A profound shift of direction from the Federal government toward the individual states. Unless Congress and Joe Biden can summon up what it takes to codify abortion on demand into law, this so-called “constitutional right” is dead at the federal level. From here on out, the states will have the say-so on this issue.
3. The slapping down of a New York State gun control law in favor of the individual right to carry without having to justify a need for the permission. Despite the Congress and Biden, gun-control in this country is a mirage and, as the situation on the ground deteriorates, will become even harder to put into effect.
4. The recall of San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin in a massively, lopsided vote. Turns out that the “woke” population of the city actually woke up and decided they needed a change of direction–that is, at least as far as criminal prosecutions and homelessness were concerned.

This list is far from comprehensive and maybe I am reading too much into it, but coupled with the Covid fraud, the inglorious departure from Afghanistan, the debacle unfolding in Ukraine, skyrocketing food and fuel prices, rapidly upward-adjusting inflation, and many more items, it is not hard to imagine that average Americans have had enough from their government.

Written below the separator is an actual comment I made in response to a posted article by Ted Rall on the Unz Review. You can see it here. Everything above the separator is introduction.

Rall attempts to make the case that the $40 billion appropriated by Congress to “support” Ukraine against Russia could be better spent domestically. He lists numerous items which could be paid for if only we spent that money at home instead of sending it abroad. However, nowhere does he question why Congress (or anyone else for that matter) should be able to simply grab that money and spend it. It is simply assumed that our Dear Leaders have the right and authority to do so.

I push back on that mentality and assert that no one, absolutely no one, individual or collective, can legitimately take what lawfully belongs to someone else and use it for their own purposes. This is a real problem in our modern world, but it is not unique to the present. Instead, it has been the M.O. for all of human history and it has always resulted in catastrophe for those who practice it.

I fully expect to receive blowback and negative responses. I do not care. When they arrive, I will respond to them in the best way I know how. In this, I am in full agreement with Gary Barnett’s declaration.

If my comments here seem disagreeable, or offend in any way, just remember, I don’t give a damn. I do not mean this disrespectfully, it is just that your thoughts are yours, and mine are mine. I have no time to waste worrying about what other’s think about me, what I believe, what I know, or what I write. If I were to spend my days wringing my hands over such nonsense, my entire life would consist only of worry over things of which I have no power to change; not that I would anyway. It is not that I do not have curiosity, compassion, or even agreement with some of the thoughts and ideas of others you see, it is simply that it makes no difference what you or I think about each other’s opinions, only that we are honest with ourselves.

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$40 billion wish list! Make sure you get your own request in soon while there is still money left because the Gravy Train has almost run its course.

Considering that the only true function of government (if there is one) is to protect its citizenry from aggression, either foreign or domestic, there is nothing on that list which can be considered a legitimate expenditure. As nice as it sounds to promote the idea that our cats should be fed or that college students should be subsidized by the government, this is nothing more than the socialistic mindset that all of us should be forced to pay so that someone else can benefit from our own hard work. Whether we want to or not is irrelevant. Open your wallet, boy, so we can stick our hand into it. Oh, and by the way, we know exactly how much you should pay and who will benefit!

All of this, every bit of it, is predicated on one thing–that someone has the right to take what lawfully belongs to someone else and use it as they see fit. This can be boiled down to one word–theft. Most people participate in the system of Grand Theft willingly because they believe, deep down, that they really do have a right to the property of others and that it is only correct and proper that government redistributes that property so that “justice” is practiced. As long as I get what I deserve, who cares about the suffering of others who might be harmed by it?

Everyone wants their own piece of the pie and is actively engaged in making sure they get it by any means, fair or foul, regardless of who has to pay. Unfortunately, everyone has to pay and the bill keeps getting larger, resulting in ever louder screams for more government intervention to “right” the perceived wrong, which does nothing at all to improve the situation but only makes it worse. It is a constant downward spiral which eventually will end in disaster for the entire world in a very real way, and a new system will arise out of the rubble.

If there is anything or anyone left to come out of it.

Out of all the characters in the Old Testament, my favorite is the prophet Elijah, probably because I can identify with him in so many ways.

Elijah came out of nowhere–Tishbi. Today, this would be like saying he came from Wisdom, MT, just another wide spot in the road where a few buildings cling to a precarious existence. One day he showed up at the seat of government, marched right into the throne room of the palace, and told Ahab, the king, in no uncertain terms— “There will be no more rain in this land until I say so.” Then turning around, he walked out and disappeared. Apparently, the king’s security detail was out to lunch because they never laid a hand on him.

Imagine if a wild-eyed, bushy beard from Wisdom, dressed in his ragged, dirty coveralls entered the Oval Office of the White House and spoke to Joe Biden that way. Wow, what a ruckus! Heads would explode. Or roll. But it would get attention, probably splayed all over the news as a photographic example of what the people in “flyover country” look like.

Anyway, one year without rain. Two years. Three. Extreme drought everywhere. Widespread famine and starvation. Then, all at once, Elijah showed up again, this time with a challenge to the king and the people: “How long are you going to waver and dither between the truth and a lie? Make up your mind!” You know the story. 1 Kings, chapter 18. Confrontation with the prophets of Baal. Calling down fire from Heaven. Praying up the “mother of all rainstorms” to end the drought. Wow! What a guy!

You would think that after all of that, he would have been invincible, but when Jezebel, the queen, 105 pounds soaking wet, threatened him, he turned and ran like a terrified rabbit with a hungry fox right on its tail. Ran so fast even God couldn’t catch him…until he found a place he could crawl into and pull the rocks over his head. But when he quit running, God caught up with him and began a very interesting conversation with a question. “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

Now, maybe I am reading this badly, but I can imagine Elijah pouring it all out, clueing God in on just how bad the situation was, as if God didn’t already know. And at the end of his tirade, “Oh, BTW, I am the only one left that you can count on, and my life is over if that woman catches me.” Jezebel, that is, not Hillary, and I say that only to eliminate any confusion.

And I can imagine God’s answer to Elijah. “Why you little, miserable, arrogant pipsqueak! Who do you think you are anyway? I have thousands of people all over Israel that you have never heard of and don’t know anything about, so get over yourself, get out of here, and get back to work!”

How does this relate to us?

We’re in a bad situation today, just as Elijah was then. People everywhere are straddling the fence between freedom and slavery, unable to decide which is the better way. We need people who are not afraid to speak truth to power. To stand up against injustice and evil. To smack down the false prophets of Statism. To persuade the common everyday person to make up his mind about what is true. To perform even when the odds are overwhelmingly against you, even when it seems that you are struggling all by yourself.

The most important thing about this whole story is the last thing God told Elijah before he was sent back into the battle— you are not alone. We are not alone! Only God knows how many Americans there are, scattered all over this country who are preaching, believing, and living the same message we are. Millions, I am sure. Probably tens of millions, all of them simply doing the work they were sent to do. I am not alone. You are not alone. We are not alone. They are not alone. This fact should give us hope for the future and good reason to double down in our efforts to breathe free, to extend that principle of ‘…liberty and justice for all’, until it becomes true for everyone.

Face your freedom. Embrace life. Live without fear. Know the truth about yourself. Change the way you think and the way you act. Be free to speak the truth boldly and fearlessly. America and the world are waiting for you to get over yourself, get out of your own pity party, and get to work.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Lusitania. Pearl Harbor. Tonkin Gulf. Iraq, Saddam Hussein, mushroom clouds over American cities. 9/11 and Osama bin Laden. Covid

All of these have been used over the last century (107 years, actually) to manipulate and steer the American people into a war-fever, ready to take on the nation’s newest, latest, and greatest enemy, willing to die if need be for the cause of victory over evil enemies. Except for Covid, that is, and in that blunderful pitched battle, the people proved to do whatever they were ordered so that they wouldn’t die. Sad to say, many of them did and there is no telling how many more will succumb to “wounds suffered in the heat of battle’ (read, hypodermic shots) over the next few years. The fact remains, however, that the narrative of Covid was generated under false pretenses and only collapsed when the weight of lies became too much to hold up.

Now, we are struggling mightily to “stand with Ukraine” while the Fuhrer, er, President Zelensky fends off the evil Putin. If Zelensky can hold out for just a little bit more time, some of that $40 billion which Nancy Pelosi and crew are determined to throw his way (and which you are going to pay for) might actually find its way into his pockets. Some of it, that is, not a great amount, perhaps a few hundred million. The rest will be divvied up among other worthies including, but not limited to, arms manufacturers (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc.), NGO’s who thrive on slush funds, foreign officials who keep the ball rolling in return for the payola, CIA, Pentagon bigshots, Israel, etc. Damned little of it will ever reach down the ladder as far as the schmucks who are on the front line, “…kicking and gouging in the mud, the blood, and the vodka.”

My sincere apologies to Johnny Cash for whom I have a great deal of respect. He would approve.

If you get your information from other than the “official” mouthpiece of the State, the MSM, then you might understand that Russia is grinding out a victory on the ground, one Azov battalion at a time, and looks to completely neutralize and destroy Ukraine’s ability to engage in aggressive actions for a long, long time. If that is true, then it might be time to bring out the biggest false-flag of them all so far…a suitcase sized nuclear device detonated in some mid-sized, no-name Ukrainian city, with the blame immediately cast on you-know-who. After all, when you are in a virtual state of war with someone as dastardly as Vlad Putin, nothing should be kept off the table, especially if you can use the occasion to whip the West and the rest of the world into a hysterical outrage seeking revenge. What difference does it make if the warheads start flying, creating real mushroom clouds over mega-cities world-wide? At least, we will be able to get rid of that “thorn in our side”, and depopulate the world of a few billion people at the same time.

Two birds with one stone, right? Now, that’s efficiency!

All right, then. Go ahead and call it a conspiracy theory. The problem with that head-in-the-sand attitude is that something like this might actually happen. It is not far-fetched to consider the possibility nor to imagine the consequences. We should be working to make sure that it doesn’t. One thing is certain: if the nuclear-tipped missiles really do start flying, all bets are off and life on Earth will never be the same.

That is, if life on Earth can survive at all.

How many times have you heard that expression or even spoken it yourself? Invariably, every time someone uses it is because someone else has done something which the speaker disapproves of and would like to see legislated against, outlawed, prohibited, and punished.

I want to take a few minutes and engage you in a little introspective exercise. There is only one rule: Be honest with yourself. Absolutely, truthfully honest.

How many of you believe that you, personally, need government to control and order your life? I’m not talking about government controlling anyone else, only you. Do you need government to tell you how to live your daily life, while you are interacting with those around you, while you are conducting business? Do you need government to tell you to do what is right? If you do, then I would ask you to raise your hand high so that everyone else can see it. Do not raise your hand if you are able to govern yourself, but only if someone else must do it for you. Come on, now, let’s see those hands.

Hmmmm! That didn’t work so well.

OK, then, let me rephrase the question. What about the person next to you? Do you think he or she needs government to force them to do the right thing, to keep their emotions and actions in check? Please raise your hand. If the person next to you is your spouse, then you are excused from answering. We don’t need WWIII to erupt because you are being absolutely, truthfully honest. Discretion is the better part of valor.

OK, then, what about somebody on the far side of the crowd that you don’t like. Or maybe someone on the other side of the county who identifies with a political affiliation you don’t approve of? What about someone who lives in California? Mexico? Russia? Anywhere in the world? Do you think that they need to be governed, controlled, regulated, restricted, taxed, identified, harassed, jailed, or killed? Please, raise your hand. Put it right up there. You’re being honest now, aren’t you? Show everyone where you stand.

The fact of the matter is, that if I was to ask anyone, anywhere, these questions, they would respond in the same way. I, personally, do not need government. I, personally, do not need to be controlled. I can live my life responsibly in the way I should without outside interference or directive. But they do and I will do whatever I can to make sure that they get the government they need AND deserve.

One rule for me and another one for thee.

This, my friends, is hypocrisy. It is arrogant, proud, self-serving. It is visiting evil on others who have done no harm to you. It is an attitude which transcends borders. It is ubiquitous. It causes conflicts. It creates divisions. It must stop and it must begin with us.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” — Gandhi

We are all flawed human beings and are no different than anybody else in that respect. If we can govern ourselves, then we should be willing to admit that everyone else can govern themselves. Furthermore, if we love our neighbor as we love ourselves, then we ought to allow them the freedom and opportunity to govern themselves without any interference on our part.

Now, I will say that there are those who DO NOT control themselves and must be punished because they act aggressively toward others. However, it does not follow that because someone in south Detroit, Chicago, or Timbuktu shoots and kills someone else, that you must give up your gun rights. Does it? Instead, the proper response to this would be to charge the offender with murder and remove him from society in some way while leaving you alone to manage your own affairs. Right?

If this is true, then why shouldn’t this principle be applied across the board, to fit every situation in life? It could be if enough people were willing to live that way, but deep down inside all of us is the craving and desire to control others. If we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that and then take the steps to overcome that evil within us. It would be a matter of simply adhering to that one-sentence bit of wisdom spoken 2000 years ago: “Take the beam out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of mine.”

In fact, I am certain that one of the earliest recorded effects of sin, as a negative consequence of Adam and Eve eating the apple in the Garden of Eden, is that all of us have a deep-seated wish, a craving, a longing, to control everyone around us. Whether we admit it or not, each of us is guilty.

“To the woman, He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’” (Genesis 3:16)

Now, everyone has their own peculiar method of interpretation, so this could mean that she simply wants to be near him, either physically or emotionally, or both. It could mean that she wets her panties whenever she thinks about him. It could mean any number of things, but the best explanation I have ever seen is that she wants to control him and is unable to. Perpetual frustration. Ooooh! That man!! Instead, within their relationship, he has the responsibility to keep her in check, difficult as that is at times. If this is true, then the result of taking one bite of an apple has been unceasing conflict between men and women ever since, both trying to rule and control the other, both trying to gain the upper hand.

According to the New Testament and the Christian religion, Jesus the Christ restores us to the ideal of Eden, definitively at salvation, progressively throughout our life, and finally at our graduation into His presence at death. If this is true, then one of the things which are restored is that desire to control others. The attempt to control, to rule, to order stems from a flawed, twisted nature which is corrected through Christ. Man’s selfish nature sets up governments everywhere, not to control himself, but to control others. Jesus sets us free to control ourselves and, paradoxically, the closer we come to the truth of this matter, the less we have need to control others.

Elon Musk takes over Twitter and the entire universe explodes–either in agony or in ecstasy. Wait just a minute now, though, and think this thing through. There are a few things to consider.

1. Musk wins his gamble and turns Twitter into a huge soapbox of utterly uncontrolled free speech. Everyone benefits except those who want to control the narrative by controlling everyone else. He is seen as a savior by those who support him and as a devil by those who don’t.
2. Musk loses his gamble and has to admit defeat publicly. The enormous forces who do not want free speech are arrayed against him in a unified effort to block him from bringing back the soapbox. He is seen as a failure by those who defeat him and a victim by those who desperately wanted him to succeed.
3. Musk is only play-acting and the whole venture is just another scripted scene in the ‘divide and conquer’ strategy of the super-elite Ubermenschen to subjugate the entire world to their rule. He is seen as a fraud.

Savior. Failure. Fraud. Have I left anything out?

Color me skeptical.

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent take on this. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, he explains why the odds are stacked against Musk and why we should not rush to judgement one way or the other. The fact is that Musk has always been a part of the immensely wealthy world and he has never shown any consistent dedication to the cause of human liberty and free speech. Why now? Has he, like some religious zealot who has just ‘found Jesus’, suddenly converted to a different, more exciting, belief system about which he cannot keep quiet? Or is there something else which we are not being told?

Color me skeptical.

I can imagine the possibility that this is nothing more than a carefully scripted act in the ongoing drama which is rapidly approaching the ‘final curtain’. Of course, the same thing could be said about Putin and the war in Ukraine, which erupted seemingly out of nowhere even though the lines were written and played out meticulously long before the first shots were fired.

Remember how, just two years ago, virtually every government rushed to trot out and enact the party line about C.O.V.I.D., with only a few isolated small-time exceptions (Was Sweden a bit actor in the play?), proving that it was possible to manipulate public opinion from one single vantage point? Remember how quickly the scam (scandal, scheme, shit-show) was scrapped overnight and the world’s attention was diverted by the invasion of Ukraine two months ago? Is it so hard to rationalize that the Western powers-that-be have taken action to create another sensational headliner to distract the masses now that Putin seems to have gained the upper hand and has Europe by the throat (pay for your natural gas in roubles or go without and freeze to death)?

In my opinion, C.O.V.I.D. happened because the ‘dear leaders’ saw an opportunity to consolidate extreme power over their own populations and advance the cause of total control. In this, they acted in concert. However, these people, wealthy, powerful, knowledgeable, influential, are still flawed human beings and, as such, are susceptible to the same conditions as everyone else. They are greedy, proud, arrogant. They make mistakes. They wage war, not only against the peons and plebeians, but also against each other. This last may be the most important thing to keep in mind. They wage war against each other! Their intense desire to be the top dog, the King of the Hill, is their Achille’s Heel, the one thing which will always and forever be their weakness by which they can be defeated. Which may or may not explain Ukraine and Putin’s gamble.

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In the end, they all work for and are subject to the unseen king of the dirt pile–Satan, the ultimate power-hungry, attention-craving, insanely jealous madman, who is willing to destroy everything, including himself, in order to get his way. As such, they appear to be successful, but in the end, like their ‘dear leader’, they will fail as well.

“I will build My Church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” –Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18)

Whether Elon Musk wins, loses, or is exposed is trivial to this.

When I was growing up, in a more innocent time, I often heard Janis Joplin reminiscing in her own peculiar way about Bobby McGee. Can you hear it? “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose…” In other words, after you have lost everything else, probably including your life, then you are free. Well, what would you expect from a person who worked for Big Brother and the Holding Company?

As much as I love that song, I have to say that Joplin’s philosophy was wrong. Freedom does not come about through the loss of everything. Instead, everything that you have, everything that you are, everything that you can be comes through the doorway of freedom. Freedom is the beginning, not the end. Everyone is born free, with all the capabilities, capacity, and potential that God infused into them at the very beginning of life, nine months earlier. No one is born a slave. Freedom is given to us by God as an inherent part of human life and cannot be dislodged from its position. 

From the moment of birth onward, however, freedom is degraded, assaulted, and infringed on by others. “Do as I say. Don’t do that. It’s the law. Submit. Comply! I have a gun and you’re the target. I’m from the government and I’m here to help you. Society says!” And on and on and on.  Throughout life, we are constantly bombarded with messages that we do not own ourselves, but that someone else has a claim over one aspect or another of our health, wealth, and happiness. This is not freedom. It is bondage and we revel and glory in it because we compare ourselves with others around the world who are also in bondage, deluding ourselves into thinking that because we are allowed to live a certain way, we are free. Relatively speaking, we might be, but the fact remains that we still live in a state of bondage…to someone, in some way. America might be the freest country on Earth, as some assert, but that does not mean we are free.

We need to rise above this and change the way we think!

Most people believe that governments main reason for being, raison d’etre, is the protection of its citizens. Look at America today, though. Would you say that OUR government is protecting us? Compare our situation with that of America in 1782, immediately after the colonies broke free from Great Britain. How did those people survive and prosper without a huge, intrusive, overbearing, oppressive government telling them every move to make and “keeping them safe”? They were orders of magnitude freer than we are today, and they throve on the opportunity to reach for their potential, building a civilization and society that was the envy of the rest of the world…until it wasn’t. Today, America is viscerally hated in many parts of the world and, contrary to George W. Bush and his warmongering hordes of “christian” worshippers, it is not because we are free!

What, then, is freedom? More than anything else, freedom is potential and the liberty to become what we were created to be. Freedom is the ability to live the way we wish, the way we see fit, without interference from others, with only one qualification—we cannot use our freedom to control or restrict someone else in their own quest to reach their potential. We cannot use our freedom to unilaterally harm others. We cannot initiate aggression against someone else.

This concept takes the idea of freedom out of the legal realm into one of morality. It is a moral concept, dating back to the very beginning of humanity. “Thou shalt not steal!” thunders the eighth commandment and this prohibition is not restricted to physical properties but can be extended to every area of life. Anything taken from someone by force, fraud, or violence is an act of theft which transgresses against another’s freedom and is strictly prohibited.

Even more so, freedom is a spiritual issue. As spoken by Jesus Christ, “you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” What is truth? Five things, certainly not exhaustive.

1. We are all created in the Image of God, Who is the very definition of freedom.
2. We have the capacity and responsibility to control ourselves. Self-control is inherently part of man’s nature, and we are expected to adhere to it.
3. We can take the beam out of our own eyes, so that we can see clearly to remove the speck out of another’s. This requires honest, consistent, and willing self-examination.
4. We can love our neighbor as we do ourselves—if we want to.  
5. We can give and receive freely. The principle is that whatever we give to others eventually comes back to us, with interest, in good measure, pressed down, and running over—whether good or evil.

This is instructive. IF we love our neighbor as we do ourselves, then we will not attempt to control his actions or lifestyle BECAUSE we do not want our neighbor to control our actions and lifestyle. Neighbor, of course, means anyone in the world, not just those who live across the street or the person beside you. The problem with this is that we tend to believe that I do not need government to tell me how to live, but that my neighbor does. And, I’ll bet, that if I asked your neighbor whether he or you needed government, he would quickly say that he does not, but that you do. Repeated ad infinitum around the world. I do not need to be regulated, controlled, nor governed, but everyone else does, especially those I do not agree with or those I dislike. I control myself properly, but no one else does, therefore government must control them. Not me, them, and I know just the way it ought to be done. To paraphrase a popular saying, “I’m righteous and I vote.”

“Be the change you want to see in the world”, Gandhi is reputed to have said, and that advice holds true in this argument. We cannot lift other people up if we are constantly beating them down. We cannot love our neighbor as we should if we are constantly trying to control his behavior and actions. We cannot be free in our own lives if we refuse to allow others to be free.

Freedom is not free. There is a cost. That cost, which grates on and irritates so many people, is that we must give up all claims to control, regulate, govern, punish, or destroy those who want to live their own lives peacefully. Freedom does not originate from a set of rules. It is not granted by government. It begins, instead, with each individual person living out what is right and true in a spirit of love for all mankind.

The choice is ours to make. Think about it.