Wonderful Matters

We watched the film Margin Call last night, much because as you know if you read my blog and webzine , I am very interested in studying the massive proliferation of modern-day human sacrifice. It is fascinating how much the World System facilitates it through rigorous law enforcement (U.S. federal government and its satellites), rigid civil religious expectations (Roman Catholic ecclesia and its 501c3 subdivisions), and rabid value assessment programs (banks and finance service firms coordinated through a central bank). Margin Call was a riveting expose of the latter. [Editors note: there will be spoilers in the following post.] It presented a dramatization of a condition I've been sharing for years, one that is surely dismissed as folly but was pouring off the screen in the film. The story revolves around the discovery that a financial services firm, much like a Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, is holding a wad of "investment vehicles" that are essentially worthle...

Yesterday I directed your attention to Matt Miller's piece in the Washington Post in which he tries to explain what's going on in the world as he would if he were speaking to his young daughter. Today I noted a piece by Jeffrey Snider that is really the same thing but with all the turgid economics included. This is what you want to read if you want all the gory details of the way human sacrifice works these days. In fact, I like Jeffrey Snider's work because in virtually everything I read from him he is merely explaining the full apparatus for standard value extraction practices engendered by the World System. As I read it, all I could think about was the Black-Scholes model that everyone raved about once upon a time, that novel formula that could guarantee returns on an investment no matter what happened. Snider's piece demonstrates that the Black-Scholes seduction is still alive and well. As it should be . World inhabitants need it all to survive. Doesn'...

Another fine piece appeared in the Washington Post from Matt Miller, who likes telling us the way things really are. This one was called "Europe Made Easy," and it does indeed read like a primer. I found it quite interesting that the great and powerful men-behind-the-green-curtain felt the need to put this out there for general consumption. It seems too many just haven't a clue about what all the fussing is about. Greece and banks and bond auctions and the Euro and why on earth there are a bunch of young folk occupying things. Miller sets us straight with it all, fine work, yes, fine work indeed. Except for one not-so-minor point. Most of the all standard exposition about these things from all the uber-pundits such as Miller does get it right, pretty much, but just the same most get derailed right at the end. That's where the World keeps the full story from you and as such predictably holds you in some agitated state of consternation, rage, or even rebellion. His...

Right after the Los Angeles Times regaled us with the latest news of the day, at the top of the second page were these words, those in the title of this post. They were the words Sandy Banks used to title her piece, her remarks about the Penn State sex abuse scandal. In it are the typical laments along with all the "They had to know because..." stuff. Well, Sandy, I can answer your question. In fact, I can even share why you even ask the question, and it doesn't have anything to do with your moral excellence or superior assessment skills. You ask the question because you are a shill for the World operatives whose job it is to get people riled up about things which they provoke, foster, and encourage as a matter of practice. For you see, Sandy, if asked the question "Why does no one do anything about sodomy? Or adultery? Or promiscuity?" I'd venture to say that a progressive culturally hip individual such as yourself would say something like, "Well,...

Matt Miller had a piece in the Washington Post last week that basically said, in so many colorful words so it gets into the Post to begin with, that the world is imploding under the weight of its gargantuan lie. I wanted to include his remarks in my own latest home page piece , but the point can be weighed down a bit too much I think. The Answer is already there. Just not hard to see. Unless of course your sight has been seared by the World and you are simply too blind to see it. Or your sensibilities have been yanked by the Operatives that it sounds like the ugliest blithering. What is happening with Europe and America and any part of the world that is not already shredded by the poverty brought about by the immense value extraction practices of the most powerful exploiters is that the value claims for stuff-all-around have been being so overstated for so long that it is starting crack under the weight of the virulent deceit exercised for the required human sacrifice that it ...

In my last post I opined about a blogging pundit's remark that a good blogger must write a thousand words a day to be effective. I did agree one must blog often enough, but also made mention of extraordinarily meaningful time constraints. There are indeed other things more important. I've since thought that I must add another important facet to the blog-posting-somewhat-more-infrequently-than-every-day position. That is simply that one must take time to actually discover things about which to blog . Certainly sometimes those things require an entire day of plain discovery sans any writing at any time. I thought today I'd add some examples of the things I've been looking at over the past few days. One is an event that happened just yesterday: Rome itself has been overrun by the "Occupy Whichever Powers-That-Be Street There Is" fever. This particular revolt has resulted in some violence, I'm told, so the rebellion is stirring quite nicely it seems. ...

I saw a note from some web expert guy who says to be an effective blogger, you must write 1,000 words a day. A day . Now I'm all for writing prodigiously -- I simply won't stop sharing the things I think are most important for the Kingdom. But I have a family, a job, and a home. Attention to those three things takes up 98% of my time. Yes I have a ministry, but much of that is wrapped up in those three things. I try to squeeze what I can into  The Catholicist Nation  and Wonderful Matters  from the other 2%. I am wholly devoted, though, to this ministry. But to write 1,000 words a day? I'd have to sacrifice far too much of those other things. Can I be a successful blogger otherwise? The only reason I'd consider myself to be relates to another critical aspect of web success, and that is that there must be content. That's what I try to achieve, and I just think slapping 1,000 words on the splendor of today's dog-walking experience is just not worth it. For e...

The other night my daughter insisted I watch one of her favorite movies with her, Tangled . It is the Disney telling of Rapunzel, and it was a fun film. I was kind of taken by the lanterns thing, and thought of it as similar to what followers of Christ do in their hearts waiting for Him to return. Hey, I rarely find any truly Biblical connections from Disney stuff, and sure, this is a stretch. I'm not saying anything except how it made me feel, that's all. Another thing that got me was how much Rapunzel was convinced by her fake mom that she needed to stay in her large room at the top of the remote tower because the world out there was too dangerous, what, with all the evil people out there. All of us viewers are certainly expected to think of how rotten that woman is for convincing her of such a falsehood, but then... That's exactly the way we all behave . Wherever I go, drive, walk, bike, I always take a look at the sides of houses for the satellite dishes. The ti...

Last week a federal appeals court ruled that much of the money lost to Bernard Madoff's humongous Ponzi scheme is lost forever and ever and ever. The funny thing is their reasoning. It was never there to begin with . Seems lots of investors are straggling about clamoring to get their money back, and they are finding stark ugly reality whacking them up-side the head. The value assessments they thought were veritable were not exactly that. In other words, somebody somewhere sounding really on-the-ball about these things told them their value was one thing, and, well, it wasn't. Even funnier -- or sobering if you'd rather -- is that Jesus said something even more stunning. You're worthless . Hey, don't take my word for it. Look in the gospel of Luke, 19th chapter, 22nd verse. Jesus spoke of someone who was supposed to take the value of their God-given gift to do something valuable for someone, and they didn't. What did Jesus say to this person? Did He say...

I saw that controversial musical artist Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment. One thing that struck me about it was that she died at 27, the same age as my oldest son. I really didn't pay attention to much of what she did except that she was extradordinarily popular and she did some crazy stuff in some of her concerts. This happened as I was polishing my latest webzine feature, yet another letter to a college student . I'd already written a few letters and published them, but I just haven't been pleased so far. I'm still not fully satisfied with the latest, even though I think this one hits closest to where young adults are. But I'm feeling much like most young adults do, which relates to why so many young adults are wrecklessly careening about with their lives, which is wrapped up in one profoundly insightful declaration I heard from one: "I want to keep talking until I know what I want to say." The reason I spend so much time bloggi...

Today's Los Angeles Times featured an opinion piece from a Jesuit professor and community organizer who made the case that one of the best ways to douse the raging federal budget conflagration is to tax charities. As it is non-profits may register with the federal government to acquire a measure of legitimacy, and in return they are afforded tax-exempt status. The author of the piece makes his case, and closes by simply stating that everyone needs to make sacrifices, and he is willing to be the first to step up and lay on the altar. In the brief author bio at the end of the piece is a statement that rarely shows up: "The views expressed here are his own." I have a feeling these words were added in this instance because of the volatile nature of his argument. "Tax a non-profit?! That's just wrong ." And I further surmise that one reason it is considered so wrong is that the religious institutional infrastructure of this country would be the most viol...

A week ago on this day, two notable individuals departed. No, they didn't "depart" as in the metaphor for dying. They just departed their place of note and went somewhere else. Both have some extraordinarily profound similarities. The first departure was that of Whitey Bulger, the notorious organized crime figure and FBI's most wanted, found holed up in an apartment in Santa Monica after 18 years on the lam. On this day, he was put on a plane and taken to Boston for prosecution. The funny thing is that apparently he was the individual upon which the 2006 Oscar-winning film The Departed was based. The other departure was that of Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She was stepping down, and on this day she gave her departure speech prominently containing some choice "what's-what" words for the banks. During her tenure she oversaw the -- well, I guess you'd call it "reorganization" of hundreds of banks thr...

Today I caught a terrific hour-long interview with a prosecutor regarding the merits of a new book by Vincent Bugliosi that proports to blow the lid off of Christianity. He claims he brings up ideas that had never before been introduced, from the perspective of a prosecutor looking for the concrete evidence to see if a thing is true or not. The interview was broadcast on a pretty solid apologetics show, Stand to Reason , and filling in for the regular host Greg Koukl was J. Warner Wallace who himself is a police investigator, and the prosecutor he interviewed was Al Serrato. If you remember, Bugliosi is the famous prosecutor who put Charles Manson away, but he also wrote books on O.J. Simpson and recently on the assassination of John Kennedy (he supports the lone-gunman story, by the way). Bugliosi's book about which J. Warner and Al conversed is called Divinity of Doubt . According to Bugliosi, it is the settled case that no one can know. The prosecution has got to have iron-...

Found this photograph in the home page of a major news outlet. It is an image similar to others that profoundly illuminate the state of the Catholicist Nation, which appears to be very healthy. It seems a bazillion people in Spain have violated the rule about being up past midnight the day before an election. I imagine Spain wants things to be decided at the ballot box and not in the streets. It does seem that people are bit disappointed with the ways of proper enfranchisement, beings they're pounding the pavement so enthusiastically. Upset with high unemployment and certainly other abuses of all sorts, they've taken to let their exploiters have the what's-what. Stop exploiting us so much. Many in the throng even taped their mouths to "make the statement" that their marginalization is unacceptable. I guess they want their exploiters to notice them a bit more so they can... So they can do what ? A few days ago the Roman Catholic Church came clean about the...

Today in the news I happened to catch a couple of stories that highlight the pathetic nature of following someone other than Christ. Hundreds of millions do, you know. No matter how pathetically pathetic, they still do. There is the lead story everywhere about this French guy, the head of the International Monetary Fund no less -- oh, I hadn't heard of him before this -- Dominque Strauss-Kahn, who was caught with his pants down. Everyone was so startled that the euro dropped a bit. I thought, hmm, this guy must be a pretty major leader-guy -- you know, lots of people following him and his moral guidance -- for the entire currency to take a hit, however mild it will ultimately be. I also wondered, why all the shouting about his sexual exploits? People in power do this kind of thing all the time. Was he just that stupid to let himself get snagged in such a foolish way? Sorry, but this is just too stupid. Please don't misunderstand me. Any sexual assault is demonically repre...

I wish I could blog nonstop here. I wish many more people would read what I would be writing here if I could write more. I wish I wasn't so tired all the time from all my regular commitments, simply because there is so much I see out there that confirm the brutal realities that exist in a very oppressive World in such striking contrast to a vibrantly liberating Kingdom. I'd keep writing and writing and writing until perhaps at least someone would also see those confirmations. To be honest I wouldn't even be writing now but for the fact that one of the more elucidating of those really quite common revelations was made this week in a standard piece of financial punditry. I just have to remark about it, if only for a brief blog post. Check out Frank Partnoy's "The real insider tip from the Galleon verdict." He addresses the very common concern of all who are paying attention that insider trading just isn't really anything defined, much less something th...

Just putting in a blog post to announce my latest home page piece . It is on a subject that I truly believe hits at the core of life's meaning and one's eternal destiny. You'd think that little is said about value and what it really is, but there is actually an amazing amount of information out there. It is just most of it is vomited up by a World System that can only do value disassessment in its duty to sustain rich, vibrant human sacrifice. Recently the widely celebrated and declared supergenius of economics, Joseph Stiglitz, joined with a number of other economists to officialy propose that Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund would suffice as a means of keeping the World's value assignments stable, you know, beings there've been a few financial crises recently. Just so you know if you don't already, SDR's are merely specially authorized value assignments as a way to measure assets and thus facilitate financial transacti...

Last night I attended a Passover seder demonstration, and while I'd been to one before, I was still blown away at how everything God does points to Jesus Christ. Anyone who even slightly contemplates the meaning of Passover can't miss it: God loves us so much that He sent His Son to be the very sacrificial lamb for our sins, simply so He could have deep, abiding fellowship with us forever. It is just as the Elijah whom Jews seek every year once said, as he gazed into the eyes of the One Savior, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." It is only through Christ that one may have freedom. He's the One. That's it.  He's it. Any other kind of freedom is not a freedom at all, but merely a way to keep people slightly happy while still enslaved to their sin and the head-cracking hegemony that only goes so far to rein it in. He is the "liberation from bondage" as the seder presenter said is the theme of the Passover commemorat...

If you pay even the slightest attention to current events, you may have caught sight of an unprecedented incident. It was announced on a Friday afternoon, a time notorious for rapt inattention when most are speeding out of the office to hook up the trailer and head to the river. Even if you did catch it you'll see that any significant meaning will be seriously muted by the divinely ordained power of the order. It always is for such occurrences. The ho-hum story was the Jesuits' record payout of some $100+ million in a settlement over sexual abuse claims made in the Pacific Northwest. You'd think something like this would thoroughly discredit the Roman Catholic Church, but sadly, most will rationalize it away with casuistry having to do with their respectability in at least paying those seduced into their convenient prostitution. There's always a good reason, and the Jesuits are best at coming up with good reasons. They run the World System and are experts at all fo...

This is kind of an addendum to my last blog post, "Everything is Window Rebuilding."  I took issue with Caroline Baum's remark that earthquake's are bad for an economy, not because they aren't, but because everything that anyone does is about repairing something. The Jewish mystics even had a term for it, tikkun , and it is a certain truth that the world around us is broken, battered, beaten, and in dire need of an expert handy man. The problem with the concept of  tikkun is simply that there are two types of handy men in the Yellow Pages. One is sitting in a modest throne room in some presently little known location processing all the information the World System gathers to better manage the sin of the inhabitants he is charged with constraining. This often requires extraordinary deceit and calculated murder, and it always involves grand acts of provocation for the most proficient implementation. And it can never be anything other than human sacrifice. ...

I've been so consumed with and subsequently exhausted from work and home and family running-around-with that I just haven't been able to post much here recently. But sometimes I see something that just cries for me to say something about. Since I'm still pretty tired I can slip it in here quickly. Today I caught Caroline Baum's blog-like piece about the "benefits" of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami disaster. She initially makes a great point about how things like earthquakes are actually bad for economies in spite of Keynesian minded pontificators blapping about how helpful they are -- you know, providing jobs to get the rebuilding going and all that. She quotes Bastiat, and it seems anyone who channels Bastiat is worshipped as a prophet with the most sublime wisdom of some sort. The oft-quoted truthism she references is the one about broken windows. If you remember, it is his refutation of those who say broken windows are good because they provide window...